Want to get recruited for college varsity soccer?

Think youʼve done everything you can on the field but still looking for an edge? Attack those schoolbooks! Rack up those grades! Go, scholar, go!

Academic success is a vital part of the process, and in far more ways than most players realize! First and most obvious, the soccer athlete has to get through the admissions process. The varsity coach can help at the more stringent schools, as long as the player is at least academically “on the bubble”.

What does “on the bubble” mean? Once Admissions decides which applicants are academically unquestionable, and which are academically impossible, it is left with a large middle group of applicants that are academically viable if admitted. However, that number usually exceeds the remaining spots available in the entering class.

An additional push from some direction can get the player in. A varsity coach can usually provide that push. But players have to show the grades and test scores that land them on the bubble to begin with. The better the grades, the less capital the coach has to spend on a player with his admissions liaison (and save some for a more difficult case). Even better are players that require no prodding at all from a coach to get through the admissions process academically!

Getting in is one thing, staying in school is another. Coaches usually get minimal value from most freshmen, and are investing a roster spot based on a four-year projection. It is very annoying to find a player academically ineligible after just one year! Again, coaches study academic performance in making decisions, as much as they look at the skills on the field. Solid grades, good work habits, a display of maturity — all go a long way in convincing a coach he should bring a player on-board.

One NCAA D1 coach from a mid-level academic school indicated he preferred to see a student who had an uninterrupted string of ʻC+ʼs on his report card, rather than one with nothing but ʻAʼs and ʻDʼs, even if they averaged out to the same overall grade. For him, the C+ student was a “plugger”, a student who steadily plugged away at his grades and made sure he/she got his work done. The student with big highs and lows was suspect, someone with the ability but not the discipline. Put into a college environment where students have to be ever more self-motivated, the student could easily become an early burn-out. In short, academic consistency is a virtue onto itself, regardless of the level. Another concern is funding a college education. Few students can afford college today if required to pay the full costs without financial assistance. Athletic scholarship money only goes so far on a roster, if available at the school at all. But there are other possibilities.

Another NCAA D1 coach advised that he could find academic scholarship funds for his players if they entered with at least a ʻBʼ average and maintained it through college.