How to Assess a College Soccer Program
Many factors are important to look at when choosing the right college or university for you. Here, we are going to take a more direct look at the soccer side of assessing a program.
First, Assess the Coach and Staff of a College Soccer Program
Each coach has their own way of doing things, both on and off the field. From communication and mentorship to their playing style and how they manage their training sessions. Typically, the biggest thing to look out for is to see if they are an ‘old school coach’ who shows more tough love versus a more modern style coach in terms of approach to communication and handling situations.
Of course, neither is right or wrong and both can be effective – for you, it’s just important to know which you gravitate towards with respect to motivation, learning, and growth and which direction the coach leans to. College ID camps can be an effective way to learn this (as well as speaking with current players).
Then, Look at Their Style of Play
Watch a few of their games – your goal is to find a program that fits your strengths.
Over the years, we’ve seen many players who get frustrated during their freshman year because they’re used to playing a certain style with their club team and now their college team plays completely different. For example, your club team plays out of the back using possession to try and move the ball up the field and now your college team prefers to play longer and collect second balls higher up the field. The coach yells at you to play it long even though your instincts are saying to pass short.
In addition to the style of play is looking at your preferred position and how it fits into their setup. Do you play winger, but the program you are looking at mostly plays in a 3-5-2? Either be ready to adapt to wing back or striker or keep looking at other programs (note: it’s not uncommon for programs to change formations but there are some who mostly stick to a certain one year after year).
Next, Look at their Current Roster and the Team Environment
What you want to see is the culture and attitude around the program – is there a lot of positive energy, even from the guys that don’t play? This is hard to deduce from afar, but we recommend looking at a few factors to get a ballpark:
How many players have transferred out over the last couple of years?
How many older players have transferred in over the last couple of years?
What year are the players who play your position?
Are they top performers?
When we answer those four questions (along with the coach’s style), we can begin to see what the culture looks like and the team’s environment.
Then, we want to see how many openings they’ll have on the roster in your freshman year. Is the starter in your position graduating the year before your freshman year? That will play a big factor in whether there is an open competition for playing time or not.
Consider The Program’s Past Performances
If your goal is to turn pro, do some research and find out how many professional players the program produced in the last five years? This is not a be-all-end-all to your decision-making process, but it is an indicator that you should consider when looking at programs.
Next, consider how many NCAA tournament appearances or conference titles have they won recently?
If you’re focused on receiving a good education, then look into the team’s average GPA. This will tell you how important academics is to the coaching staff.
Take Financial Aid into Account
This plays a big role for most. Knowing how many scholarships are available for the team is important. Programs are now allowed up to 28 total scholarships. Some programs will offer 8-10, others will offer the max of 28. Most programs will fall somewhere in between.
Many of these questions can be answered by watching games, either live or on TV (ESPN+ carries a TON of college soccer), talking to current players, going to an ID Camp, or simply contacting the staff.
Have questions about your college pathway? We have answers.
We’ve have both self-paced and guided pathways to help high school aged athletes find the right program and get to the next level.
