Is It Important to Have a Recruiting Highlight Video?
The short answer is YES; a recruiting highlight video is extremely important.
Think back to last year's soccer season, especially if you were in the early stages of the recruiting process. You most likely attended 2 to 3 National events, and if you were being proactive, another 3 to 4 ID camps during the summer months. Assuming that at each national event and ID Camp, you played a total of 3 full games, that is the equivalent of roughly 1,440 minutes. 1,440 minutes of getting opportunities to play directly in front of college coaches. That sounds great, right?! Let’s put those 1,440 minutes into perspective. If you play a full calendar year of soccer (Fall and Spring seasons), you will play a total of roughly 40 games outside of those national events and ID camps, and that is lowballing. 40 full games a year is the equivalence of 3,200 minutes.
Between national events, ID camps, and regular season games, you are looking at 4,640 minutes of footy. Out of that time only approximately 30% of your games have college exposure. Add another 20% for the random club games coaches attend, and you are only looking at 50% of the games you play with a college coach attending. A college coach being at 50% of your club soccer games is extremely generous for some teams and clubs.
Ideally, those games that you play in front of college coaches showcase you at your best, but that’s not always the case. That means 50% of your games have a chance to never be seen by a college coach. Who’s to say within those 50% of games you aren’t showcasing you at your highest level?! Having a recruiting highlight video is a great way to capture some of your best moments and make sure they are seen by college coaches. Highlight videos guarantee that your are showing college coaches at your best as you can pick and choose the moments to add.
A highlight video should be seen similarly to a job resume. It most likely won't get you a spot on the team, but if it is eye-catching, it will give you an increased chance of receiving an email response, a visit to your next showcase game, or a personal invite to an upcoming ID camp. According to NCSA, “online recruiting profiles that include a highlight video receive more than 10 times as much traffic as those without one.” (ncsasports.org) would imagine that statistic applies not only to a recruiting profile but also to emails that you are sending out to coaches.
A top-level video that showcases you at your best can bolster your chances of landing at your school of choice. Imagine going through the entire recruiting process without being able to showcase yourself at your absolute best to the schools you are looking at. You want to give yourself the best chance of landing at your dream school, and a recruiting highlight video is just one of the pieces that can increase your chances.
If you have a ton of game film and have no idea where to start, reach out to media@tekkerssoccer.com for some additional tips, or visit the rest of our webpage on how we may be able to help you create a recruiting highlight video that is guaranteed to raise some eyebrows!