CaptainU ? Anyone?

At some point my daughter signed up for a free CaptainU account, (I think over winter break before a showcase tournament?) and I've been getting bombarded by daily notes from CaptainU about college coaches having "added" her to their recruiting lists or having "found" her in a search. They displayed info on the first school & coach the first time it happened, but since then the site always tells you to sign up for a paid account to access the info of who has "added" her. That kind of thing reeks of 'scam' to me, so I just ignore it. But I was wondering if anyone here has had good or bad experiences with using CaptainU. Please share if so. I have gleaned from prior discussions that the bulk of the work to get recruited falls on the player and parents in terms of reaching out to schools vs. being "discovered" so I understand these things are supplemental at best, but was curious if there is value there.
 
Its a decent place to post a profile and aggregate video if you have it but don't count on it being a place where coaches look for players.
 
At some point my daughter signed up for a free CaptainU account, (I think over winter break before a showcase tournament?) and I've been getting bombarded by daily notes from CaptainU about college coaches having "added" her to their recruiting lists or having "found" her in a search. They displayed info on the first school & coach the first time it happened, but since then the site always tells you to sign up for a paid account to access the info of who has "added" her. That kind of thing reeks of 'scam' to me, so I just ignore it. But I was wondering if anyone here has had good or bad experiences with using CaptainU. Please share if so. I have gleaned from prior discussions that the bulk of the work to get recruited falls on the player and parents in terms of reaching out to schools vs. being "discovered" so I understand these things are supplemental at best, but was curious if there is value there.


Its a decent place to post a profile and aggregate video if you have it but don't count on it being a place where coaches look for players.

MTrain- GK summed it well. We, along with several families we know have used it as their initial method, but then progressed to more effective, proactive approach.

During my dd's unofficial visits to several D1-D3 schools, most coaches said they don't use CaptU. One coach in particular (who's team made it to this years final 4, better known for producing top-tier lawyers than soccer players) said "that's a waste of your time". He specially said rather than using a site like that, players should contact the coach/assistants directly, get added to the schools mailing list (in their data base), stay in touch/keep them informed of her games/showcases etc etc.

If your kid is a YNT pool/rostered player - the subject line is moot.
 
MTrain- GK summed it well. We, along with several families we know have used it as their initial method, but then progressed to more effective, proactive approach.

During my dd's unofficial visits to several D1-D3 schools, most coaches said they don't use CaptU. One coach in particular (who's team made it to this years final 4, better known for producing top-tier lawyers than soccer players) said "that's a waste of your time". He specially said rather than using a site like that, players should contact the coach/assistants directly, get added to the schools mailing list (in their data base), stay in touch/keep them informed of her games/showcases etc etc.

If your kid is a YNT pool/rostered player - the subject line is moot.
Imagine if an email came in to a college coaches inbox looking like this!


Email address: First & Last Name USYNTplayer@gmail.com
Subject: This is Mallory Pugh or Ashley Sanchez

The college coaches would triple and quadruple clicking to open the email. :eek:
 
Imagine if an email came in to a college coaches inbox looking like this!

Email address: First & Last Name USYNTplayer@gmail.com
Subject: This is Mallory Pugh or Ashley Sanchez

The college coaches would triple and quadruple clicking to open the email. :eek:

Agreed. I think TMZ Snapped a shot of one of UCLA's assistance when they received that email (when Pugh/Sanchez were in 5th or 6th grade)

Ah yes....found it (a picture is worth a thousand words) :)

IMG_1660.JPG
 
Thanks for the info fellas. Suffice to say, my daughter is not in the YNT pool. Although she is in the ODP for binge watching Gilmore Girls and Vapire Diaries on her iPhone, so I got that going for me. Which is nice.
 
We used the CaptainU pay version for about eight months beginning September of her Junior year and had good results. My DD was not an ECNL player and played CSL Premier her last two years of club which did not provide the same level of exposure as ECNL. It does require some work on the part of the parent and player. We would get a message saying that a coach viewed my DD profile and videos. We would logon and see what College looked at her profile. Do some research on the college. CaptainU had some good info and links to the colleges. If the college met my DD criteria, we would send the coach an email. Long story short DD ended up with five really good scholarship offers and another six offers from D1 to NAIA. 9 of the 11 coach contacts initially came through CaptainU.
 
Our experience was similar to that of Surfref. We started using CaptainU in the spring of our DD's junior year. She played CSL Premier for 5 years, starting with U-14. Our exposure to colleges at that time was minimal, so we decided to become a bit more proactive. We started with a list of about 50 schools and based on their responses, the list got narrowed down to about 25 active contacts. This portal allowed easy and direct contact with both the head and assistant coaches of the teams our DD was interested in. Typically, the schools that were interested asked for copies of showcase tournament schedules, CSL schedules, videos and other basic information.

Once contact was established, the CaptainU e-mails were followed up by the assistant or head coach texting or calling our DD directly. Surfref was 100% correct in saying that this portal requires a fair amount of time and follow up by our DD, but it is a very cost effective way of getting your DD some exposure. The net result for our DD was that she applied to 6 schools in both California and the Midwest. She was accepted to all 6 and also received generous offers from each school.

She recently committed to a local D-3 school and she received a very good financial aid package mostly based on academics. She'll be able to get a great education and also fulfill her dream of playing soccer at the college level. Overall, Captain U proved to be a big help to us and was a better alternative that the recruiting companies that were asking for anywhere from between $2000-$4000 for their services.
 
Our experience was similar to that of Surfref. We started using CaptainU in the spring of our DD's junior year. She played CSL Premier for 5 years, starting with U-14. Our exposure to colleges at that time was minimal, so we decided to become a bit more proactive. We started with a list of about 50 schools and based on their responses, the list got narrowed down to about 25 active contacts. This portal allowed easy and direct contact with both the head and assistant coaches of the teams our DD was interested in. Typically, the schools that were interested asked for copies of showcase tournament schedules, CSL schedules, videos and other basic information.

Once contact was established, the CaptainU e-mails were followed up by the assistant or head coach texting or calling our DD directly. Surfref was 100% correct in saying that this portal requires a fair amount of time and follow up by our DD, but it is a very cost effective way of getting your DD some exposure. The net result for our DD was that she applied to 6 schools in both California and the Midwest. She was accepted to all 6 and also received generous offers from each school.

She recently committed to a local D-3 school and she received a very good financial aid package mostly based on academics. She'll be able to get a great education and also fulfill her dream of playing soccer at the college level. Overall, Captain U proved to be a big help to us and was a better alternative that the recruiting companies that were asking for anywhere from between $2000-$4000 for their services.

What kind of a "generous offer" could she get from a D3 school?
 
bcdad2, congrats on your daughter! As I understand it, D3 schools want to populate their sports teams. Thus, soccer may be a way for a student-athlete to distinguish herself from a very talented applicant pool. Your daughter will get a fine education while playing a game she loves. Way to go!
 
She recently committed to a local D-3 school and she received a very good financial aid package mostly based on academics. She'll be able to get a great education and also fulfill her dream of playing soccer at the college level. Overall, Captain U proved to be a big help to us and was a better alternative that the recruiting companies that were asking for anywhere from between $2000-$4000 for their services.

D3's are wildly under-rated......MIT/NYU/Chicago/Johns Hopkins/Carnegie/Pomona-Pitzer/Cal-Tech (2017 inaugural season) and many many more. Ya don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out which student-athlete will have the competitive advantage when life gets real.

Lets see, your kid's internship/job interviews will probably go something like this:

Candidate A) "So....I see that you play(ed) D1 soccer at YouNameIt-Butt-knuckle State."
OR
Candidate B) "Welcome to the team"

Congrats to you/your DD BCdad - Congrats!!!
 
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