The best way to start is by watching collegiate soccer matches in person! Being 5 yards from the action lets you see the pace of play, types of players, and team skill level much better than if you were to watch on TV or stream the game. 

There are several collegiate soccer teams in Division 1 through Division 3 in the central Texas area. You can start by attending their games to see what level of play would be best suited for your skill and commitment levels for the next step in your soccer journey. 

Division 1:

• UT Austin (women's)
• Texas State (women's)
• Incarnate World (men's and women's)

Division 2:

• St. Edwards (women's)
• St. Mary's (men's and women's)

Division 3:

• Southwestern (men's and women's)
• Concordia (men's and women's)
• And more!

Start by attending our College Info Night in the fall, or watch the video below from a previous College Info Night. This event covers how to research schools and programs, when to contact coaches, what information to include when you contact them, etc.

To simplify it: 

• Contact coaches to let them know you're interested in their program
• Find a way to get in front of those coaches
• Show them what you can do
• Find out if they're interested in you

It can be difficult, but we're here to help you through the process!

Unless you are a top NCAA Division 1 prospect, sophomore or early junior year is a good time to get started. Most coaches start trying to watch players when they are juniors or maybe second semester sophomores. Contacting them sooner is great because it can get you “on their radar”.  College coaches at all levels receive hundreds of emails from players and can struggle to get to all those players. If they see your name for the fourth or fifth time, your name may start to stand out as someone with genuine interest. You don’t want to be a pest, but being persistent is important.

Now if you’re a senior or about to be – it’s not too late, but get going now! Most division 1 teams are done recruiting your class, but lots of division 2 and 3 schools are still looking.

Yes, you should absolutely send video if you have it. For those teams who use Trace or Hudl, you can pull video clips from those and send them to coaches. If your team doesn’t use either of these, then have a parent video your games and put together clips from that.

The ideal video to send to coaches should have 4-5 minutes of game highlights followed by 20 minutes or so of continuous game tape. If a coach likes the highlights, then they’ll watch the game tape to see how you move off the ball, your speed compared to other players, how hard you work etc.Always start with the highlights because most coaches will only want to watch continuous game footage if they’re already interested from seeing the highlights.

The highlights should include a variety of clips with you mostly on attack but some defending as well (more if you’re a defender).  For goalkeepers it can be good to have footage of keeper drills included in the highlights.