# College Recruiting

Why You Need a Soccer Highlight Video for College Recruiting

Why the college soccer recruiting process has become so virtual and why highlight videos are more than important than ever.
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Well-done soccer highlight videos give coaches a way to evaluate an athlete and give the college soccer coach the impetus to reach out to the player to learn more.

In past years, many processes have changed in regards to college recruiting. College sports recruiting have more limited resources and have been adopting virtual recruiting methods more and more.

Key reasons you need a soccer highlight video for recruiting:

Program Budget Cuts Means Coaches Travel Less

During Covid, collegiate sports came to a standstill. Less ticket and merchandise sales severely hurt budgets, forcing individual programs to cut back on spending. Cuts happened everywhere, from team equipment to recruiting budgets. This changed the recruiting process for all coaches and resulted in less travel and in-person visits. In other words, soccer highlight videos became much more important. Coaches continue to rely heavily on virtual video-based assessments and video to make decisions in building their rosters.

Soccer Highlight Video Helps Athletes Reach Remote Colleges

Athletes in rural areas know this problem very well. It can be costly to travel to ID camps or colleges for school visits. But even for students in cities, travel can be a significant hurdle if the athlete aspires to attend a college or university across the country. Soccer highlight videos level the playing video and allow any exceptional athlete to get noticed by a college thousands of miles away.

Coaches Have Limited Time

It’s not feasible for college coaches to thoroughly assess every athlete in person. College coaches need to see players in-game situations where athletes are under pressure. Even at showcases and ID camps, seeing every player is challenging. With video, you can curate your best moments from your most competitive games and give that directly to the coach. With Trace iD, coaches can also navigate to the full game footage for even more moments to gather context on your performance.

Coaches Do Not Easily Discover Talent at Live Events

College coaches often attend live events with a specific list of recruits in hand. They evaluate the performance of specific players (likely for the second or third time). This means that you may not get noticed even if you have a stellar performance on that particular day. With a highlight video, a coach can spend 3 or 4 minutes watching your performance and focusing on you as a player. This is a make-or-break factor in college soccer recruiting for players.

Coaches Are More Likely to Remember if They Have a Highlight Video

College coaches may evaluate hundreds of high school athletes, so you must strategize to stand out from the pack. Highlight videos showcase your best moments on the soccer field and allow coaches to see you develop your skills over time. With Trace iD, players save and sort their best moments, and college coaches can use the same link to view players throughout the course of a season.

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Video from Multiple Games Gives More Perspective to Coaches

Your goal with a soccer highlight video is to exemplify to coaches what kind of player you really are. Live evaluations mean coaches cannot get the full spectrum of your talents. They might even catch you on a bad day. Highlight videos exponentially increase your chances of impressing a coach and getting them excited about bridging you into their program.

Our goal at Trace is to capture every moment for athletes, and subscriptions for Trace come with tools specifically designed for players going through the college recruiting process. After every game, Trace delivers all highlights to every player, sorted by which player is involved in the action. All you have to do is save your best moments to your Trace iD, and at the end of each season, you’ll have a full assortment of highlights for college coaches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7EbPD0oL10

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