Simple Steps to Recruiting Success

If college recruiting had a motto, it would be this: “What the [insert expletive of choice] am I supposed to be doing?” It’s a perfectly reasonable question to ask. Most players and their parents have never been through the process. Or maybe they bumped and scraped their way through it with an older sibling. The pressure mounts as they realize each player only has one chance to get it right.
The response to the question above is an emphatic, “Don’t leave it to chance!” The odds don’t work in your favor. At least five competitive youth players are vying for each college roster spot. You can roll the dice and hope the right coaches contact you, or you can grab the bull by the horns and make recruiting work in your favor.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t require that much effort. A couple of hours a week is all it takes to do a really good job. Which brings us back to the original question of what on earth you should actually do.

Let’s focus on high school juniors for the moment. By the winter of your junior year, you should be recruiting in earnest. (This strategy can also be applied to elite sophomores or seniors who haven’t nailed down a spot. Just expand or abbreviate the timeframe.)

The first thing is to sit down with a cup of hot chocolate and take a deep breath. Don’t panic; everything is going to be okay. Pull out a 2008 calendar and map out your strategy. Here are the most important activities to put on the calendar:

1. Build a list of schools – Winter 2008, – Find 5-10 colleges that have the right blend of academics, social life, and soccer. To build this list, schedule an appointment with your college counselor, talk with your friends and family, ask your soccer coaches what they think, and use college selection resources on the web like Destination-U and Cappex.

2. Initiate contact – Winter/Spring 2008 – Introduce yourself to the coaches at the colleges you identified. Start with a soccer resume that contains your club and high school soccer info, academic info, and pictures.

3. Convince them that you’re serious – Spring 2008 – Communicate with each coach at least once a month. Update them on your latest exploits and let them know that you’re really interested in playing for them. Don’t fret, you aren’t bothering them. In fact, you’re making their job easier.

4. Get seen – Spring/Summer 2008 – Let the coaches know where you’re going to be playing. If they’re going to the same tournaments and you’ve convinced them that you’re serious about playing for them, they’ll probably make an effort to see you play. If your tournament plans don’t overlap, go to one of their summer camps, which are a great way to get a ton of exposure.

5. Have the tough conversations – Summer/Fall 2008 – Once a coach has seen you play, ask for his honest opinion. Is there a place for you on his team? You may not always get the response you’re hoping for, but at least it allows you to narrow your focus to the teams that are interested in you.

If you want recruiting to work in your favor, it takes a little effort. Fortunately, the emphasis is on “little.” A small time investment to get organized, put together a strategy, and actually follow it will go a long way. 

Mass Collaboration on the Web… To Buy a Professional Soccer Team

I was driving up to Evanston today and heard an update on a great story that I’ve been tracking for a while. The website MyFootballClub.com has been accepting contributions to buy a professional English soccer team. The team will be owned and run over the web by everyone who has contributed.

The news today: MyFootballClub.com has struck a deal to buy Ebbsfleet United.

This is an amazing use of the web and a brilliant marketing scheme. Not only will Ebbsfleet United have the built-in fan base of its tens of thousands of owners around the world, it will also continue to draw the attention of people who want to see how this experiment works out. (Here’s a case in point: the club’s website was down today after being overwhelmed by traffic. They may have to buy some new servers, but we should all be so unlucky!)

Interestingly, the people overseeing this effort seem to have already defied the will of the masses. Lowly (but once mighty) Leeds United was the team most preferred by fans as the acquisition target. Ebbsfleet was second.

By the way, if you’re interested, you can still buy a piece of the team for 35 pounds.

Chowed by the Nike Juggernaut: Is Umbro Finished?

An interesting business story caught my eye this morning that Nike is going to acquire Umbro for $582 million. My guess was that they would slowly unwind the Umbro brand and fold it into the Nike monolith. Before long, I figured, a swoosh would show up on England’s jersey. But I was wrong. Nike says it intends to maintain the Umbro brand as it has done with Converse and Cole Haan. And the FA seems pretty happy.

Business week reported in a very thorough article a few years back that in ‘94, Nike’s soccer revenue was $45 million. Ten years later it was twenty times that at over $1 billion.

When Nike started pushing hard in soccer, I was idealistic and protective of the sport. My attitude was something like, “How dare they think they can just come in and buy soccer!” They bought the sponsorship rights for the US National Team, and then Brazil for $100 million. I refused to buy anything Nike for a few years, but then caved in and bought a pair of Tiempo Premiers. On the fourth wear they ripped wide open from heel to toe. I figured, “Ha, this’ll never last.”

But I was wrong. Nike has lasted and has been a tremendously positive force. Before Nike entered the fray, adidas was king. The top selling shoe was the Copa Mundial, which hadn’t changed in years and the market in general had become stale, uninteresting, and complacent. Nike’s entrance literally added color to the market — shoes got high tech, audacious, and colorful and the rate of development across the market, including adidas, became utterly frenetic.

So Umbro will probably last as a boutique brand, much as Nike runs Converse as a retro brand. This is good news for Umbro because who knows what would have happened were it not for this acquisition. One can only imagine the sort of scary cash that Nike and adidas would offer the English FA when its sponsorship deal with Umbro expired.

Oh, and by the way, I currently have two pairs of Nike boots in my closet.

Blog! Why Every College Team Should Have One

I was just talking to a computer geek friend of mine (let’s see how he responds to that moniker!) and we were discussing the power of blogs. Blogs are an incredibly inexpensive, simple way to reach people. For those of you who aren’t tech savvy, fear not! Writing a blog is essentially as simple as navigating a website and writing a word document. Then you click “Post” and the magic begins: you can share your thoughts, pictures, results, and analysis with the entire world — or in this case, fans, alumni, parents of your players, and recruits.

There are a number of simple blogging tools. Blogger and WordPress (which I use for this blog) come to mind. (1) Sign up, it’s real easy; (2) write your first post and include a sweet team photo; then (3) send an email out to your fans, alumni, parents, and recruits to share the good news that you are now a blogger!!

Let me know when you’re up and running!

Debacle 2007: Reflecting on the WWC

I’ve been trying to make sense of the US women’s World Cup debacle for the last few days. US Soccer would have us all believe that it was a well earned third place finish. But make no mistake, it was messy.

Naturally, much of the ink spilled has focused on the Hope Solo-Greg Ryan fallout. But what about the US’s shockingly indifferent play throughout the tournament? FIFA’s decision to hold the tournament in September, when the soccer world’s attention is turned elsewhere? Nike’s insulting and defeatist “Greatest Team You’ve Never Heard Of” marketing campaign? American’s utter lack of interest until it became tabloid fodder?

On all levels, the Women’s World Cup was a failure. That is such a sad commentary following the outpouring of enthusiasm back in 1999. From a full Rose Bowl and massive television audiences, FIFA has allowed the WWC to regress into the nether regions of international soccer.

…Regarding the scintillating Hope Solo story, Greg Ryan’s decision to sit her because of a premonition that Briana Scurry was better equipped to deal with Brazil’s “tricks,” is a rather ridiculous and classic case of over-coaching. It rocked the boat badly and the already jittery US played like it had a nasty case of seasickness.