r/CollegeSoccer

Do centerbacks ever get recruited? Whether it’s to an MLS academy team, or Div 1 college, or pro level? Or do scouts look only at the top performers regardless of position and mold those top Performers into centerbacks at that next level? Can you make it to the highest levels playing only centerback (and being really good at it) or do you need to be a top performer at other positions to ultimately get recruited? I hope this question makes sense.

Edit/add:

For example Tim Ream or Chris Richard’s are really good CB’s but I assume through their youth soccer career they were dominate anywhere on the field? Or not and they always focused on CB?

Hi everyone,

I'm 21 years old and I'm looking for a soccer academy or development program in the United States that accepts players my age. Most academies seem to focus on younger players, so I'm wondering if there are any serious programs, clubs, or academies that work with players under 24 and offer a pathway to a higher level of competition.

I'm willing to relocate and I'm open to any state. If anyone has recommendations or personal experience with academies, semi-professional clubs, or tryout-based programs, I'd really appreciate your advice.

Thanks in advance! ⚽️🙏

https://alliant.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cAwoLIqdXRqzd9s

I am trying to complete my dissertation and I need your help! My study is with

- current and retired college athletes
- college/graduate students
- Non-college students

Would you be able to take this study and send it to all your friends who are athletes (any sport, gender, division level, retired, etc). Thank you so much!!

hello,

I have played JPL and men’s Sunday league in the uk, is there a huge gap for me to get into the us second division, is this standard good?

Hi - hoping to get guidance from folks that have gone through the process. My kid has a couple of pre read requests from high academic schools. Some of them are google forms and pretty straight forward. Others are somewhat involved. One of the requests is asking for a resume (eg, EC, work history, volunteer history, family responsibilities, etc…).

Is the school looking for a actual resume?

Also, the schools SAT ranges for students is in the ~94% range / 1450+, my kid’s SAT is in the 84-87%. Is it worth including the SAT even though it’s below the range, is it worth asking the coach? She has a 3.9 u/w gpa and 4.1 w gpa and has taken a decent amount of AP classes.

Thanks for the guidance

To start, I’m a prospective graduate student (23M) who was looking to apply to Canadian universities (like UBC or McGill) for the Fall 2027 cycle, in MA/PhD programs.

One of my desired pursuits was the recreational sports they had to offer. But I had a question about the intramurals there, specifically for soccer (one of my desired sports alongside rock climbing, cycling, and possibly quadball).

With complete honesty:
I’ve never truly had a proper foundation for sports in my life. In my childhood, I was sheltered a lot by my parents and wasn’t really encouraged much to play sports of any kind. In school, I couldn’t play soccer because of this due to my complete lack of understanding or skill for the game and, well, my classmates weren’t really the best peers ever. They were people who asserted dominance through sports and gave me crap for not being a proper player.

Sadly, I was benched or sidelined in every single match throughout school, and my PE coaches also weren’t the best, which eventually conditioned me to abandon sports entirely (essentially without ever having played it at all) just to avoid humiliation.

Hence, I have zero experience in mainstream sports like soccer besides just knowing the rules.

However, I still wanted to learn how to play it and be able to enjoy the game purely for fun and to build a great social life. Obviously, I don’t want to join the Varsity or Tier 1 teams, nor do I want to officially go pro (even if it wasn’t impossible for an adult beginner, I still wouldn’t), but I do want to reclaim my body and childhood by finally allowing myself to play soccer and just enjoy it instead of wanting to go pro or something like that. I wanted to play it right without having to worry about scrutiny, penalties, or competition; something I couldn’t do before. I figured that via the intramurals and drop-ins, I could finally learn soccer and play it with friends, hence why recreation is one of my pursuits as I apply for my graduate program soon.

So, my questions are:
- Are the lowest tiers (such as the ‘Just for Fun’ tier at UBC’s soccer intramurals) really just for fun? Will I have a problem if I join without any prior experience whatsoever?
- Can I get what I want from these programs, or is it not recommended for me?
- Any other advice you’d like to give me?

Would really love to hear it from the students themselves. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!

I am from Mongolia. I will be applying this admission cycle to USA universities/colleges and attending there in fall 27’. My intended majors are Electrical and Computer Engineering or Material Science. I would really love to play for high acedemic D3 schools such as MIT, UChicago or D1 like Northwestern. I have great ECs but not that insane awards. What should I do???

I’m surprised this hasn’t come up yet. With all the recent changes in college sports, the new 5+5 proposal seems like a massive deal. Personally, I think this is going to be huge for the growth of the game. It should open up way more doors for younger players and domestic American talent to get into the college system.

What’s everyone’s take on this? Are we looking at a major shift for the better, or am I being too optimistic about the impact?

I’m an incoming freshmen in college this fall but I am not playing soccer and I regret it. I had a lot of offers to play at schools but ultimately I decided to go to SEC D1 school to study engineering (and not play soccer) due to the fact that I was majoring in engineering and the school I was planning to attend was out of my price range. Since high school and club ended I realized I made a big mistake and I want to continue playing soccer. Should I try and transfer after my first semester? Is that even an option not playing for a season? I am a goalkeeper and I had lots of offers (20+ including top D2 schools) but I don’t know what to do now

Press Release

I started thinking about this because I have one son in the recruiting process and another younger son just starting to see how strange the whole thing can be.

Unless you are deep into the USMNT or MLS, you may not know the name Max Arfsten.

He is an American on the World Cup roster, and I think his backstory is worth knowing.

As a teenager, Arfsten was not really on anyone’s radar outside of Fresno, CA. He played high school soccer at San Joaquin Memorial and club for California Odyssey, a regional NPL program out of the Central Valley. Not exactly the academy name most soccer parents associate with the national-team pipeline.

And he was not coming through the U.S. youth national-team pipeline either.

His first call-up to any U.S. national team, youth or senior, came in January 2025, when he was 24. He never played for the U-17s, U-20s, or U-23s.

From everything I’ve read, nearby UC Davis was basically the one school that really came for him. And even there, he arrived as a walk-on.

That is what makes the story interesting.

He was not some kid doing nothing.

At San Joaquin Memorial, he put up 50 goals and 20 assists as a senior. At California Odyssey, he was one of the top scorers in his NPL league. He was clearly a serious player.

But the recruiting world did not treat him like a sure thing.

UC Davis gave him a chance, and he made the chance bigger.

He played right away. He was Big West All-Freshman. His sophomore season got wiped out by COVID. He came back, became Big West Offensive Player of the Year, left early, played for San Jose Earthquakes II, got drafted by Columbus, won an MLS Cup, and eventually worked his way into the national team.

This does not mean every overlooked kid is secretly Max Arfsten. Most are definitely not.

The point is that his path was not clean or obvious or stamped in advance by the youth soccer system.

A lot of families spend years chasing the most impressive logo. Arfsten’s story is a reminder that the better question is where a player will actually grow, get trusted, and get on the field.

Be excellent where you are. Make good video. Keep your grades strong. Reach out yourself. Stay open-minded about the level and the badge. And when you pick a school, go where the coaches believe in you and where you have a real chance to get minutes.

Then, when somebody gives you a real opportunity, do not act like it is beneath you.

As of this writing, I don’t believe Arfsten has played a minute in the World Cup yet.

If his chance comes, that would fit the whole story: he has spent his career proving he knows what to do with one.

Has anyone had experience with elite 100 ID camps ? Our son registered for a camp today in Kansas City. After traveling to KC a person texted us yesterday evening saying the camp today was cancelled due to « unforeseen circumstances ». No explanation. No response to follow up questions from parents. No email. Any experience?

In the comments under the Max Arfsten walk-on post, someone mentioned that Matt Turner had a story worth looking up.

They were right.

A lot of this comes from The Ringer's excellent profile, "Matt Turner Isn't Done Proving Himself." What stood out was how familiar the early part of the story feels.

Turner was not an academy-made star. He was a baseball and basketball kid from Park Ridge, New Jersey, who went to St. Joseph Regional High School.

Soccer was not his first sport. He picked it up around age 14, partly because he was too small for football and wanted something to do in the fall.

Goalkeeper was not part of a plan either. He realized quickly that he did not have the foot skills to play in the field, borrowed his sister's gloves, and ended up in goal.

A lot of his early development came from raw athleticism, trial and error, and YouTube goalkeeper drills he started watching after the 2010 World Cup.

By high school, Turner was improving, but he still was not a real recruit. His family put together video, posted clips to recruiting sites, and emailed coaches at every level, from D1 to D3. They contacted hundreds of schools and got very little back.

One email mattered.

Turner emailed Fairfield to say he would be playing in a Thanksgiving tournament on Long Island. Fairfield's goalkeeper coach, Javier Decima, was already going to scout another player. He ended up watching Turner's game.

What he saw was not polish. It was size, athleticism, competitiveness, and upside.

That led to a one-day ID camp, and eventually to a chance at Fairfield essentially as a walk-on.

Even then it was rough. Turner was raw enough that teammates reportedly avoided passing back to him. He was behind other goalkeepers. He had real doubts about whether he belonged.

Then came his first real college chance. A shot hit the crossbar and bounced straight up. Turner waited for it to drop, the ball slipped through his hands, smashed him in the face, and went into his own net.

It put him at No. 1 on SportsCenter's "Not Top 10."

Turner considered whether Fairfield was really the right place for him. He was hard on himself and not sure he could just laugh it off.

The next summer, he tried to find a team in the PDL, now USL League Two. Nobody really wanted him. Eventually, Fairfield's coaches helped get him a look with Jersey Express.

Their coach, Jeff Matteo, already had two strong goalkeepers, but gave Turner a chance. He did not ignore the Fairfield own goal. He brought it up directly and told Turner that people would eventually forget one bad moment.

Turner came in as the third-string keeper. The backup to the backup.

Then injuries opened the door. Under Matteo and former MLS goalkeeper Bill Gaudette, Turner started improving quickly. His feet and crosses still needed work, but his shot-stopping was real. His confidence came back.

By the end of the summer, Jersey Express had reached the PDL national semifinals. Turner later said they were the first people to really tell him he was good enough to play in MLS.

He went back to Fairfield, won the job, and in 2014 posted 13 shutouts and led the nation in save percentage.

The rest still came slowly. He went undrafted, got into MLS through a preseason trial with New England, and worked from third-string to starter. In 2021 he was MLS Goalkeeper of the Year. In 2022 he kept two clean sheets at the World Cup. Then came Arsenal.

For parents and players, the takeaway is that the process matters even when it feels like nothing is happening. The tape, the emails, the camps, the ignored messages, the awkward chances, the third-string seasons: none of it guarantees anything. But sometimes it puts a player in position for the right coach to see the right thing at the right time.