Sam Morgan is a senior soccer player at West Virginia University. Sam is from Charlestown, West Virginia and represents his state by playing for their flagship university. Although he went to a local school, Sam still had an interesting recruiting journey and his hard work and effort, as well as getting in front of the coaches early helped him get recruited. WVU was Sam's choice because the coaches and the players on the team helped him feel comfortable, but there is a lot more that goes into a decision as big as where you want to play in college. Sam shares his recruitment story and gives an insight to some important recruiting tips.

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First, Sam was able to get recruited because of the hard work and training he did to get the coaches attention. “So they definitely want to set themselves apart from other players and their position,” he advises recruits, regardless of the sport they play. “You can do this in soccer by being really proactive with the coach. I always showed up to the Showcase event that they wanted me to go to, and just making it a point to always let them know where you're playing in tournaments, follow up with, you know, just treating [the recruiting process] as, you know, a business”

In both business and recruiting, communication is important. Good communication shows coaches maturity and an interest in the school. Coaches also want to see players in person so Sam says athletes should attend showcases with coaches and show off their skills.

“I would make it a point to sign up for like two to three showcases,” Sam recalls. “Some that I went to were hosted in Philadelphia–one of them was called The Future 500 Adidas showcase. The other one was called the Nike ID showcase, and both of these had over 100 college coaches there and each in each division. They had about 500 participants, and there were a ton of coaches there. It's really good exposure.” 

However, going to a showcase in and of itself isn't enough. Smart recruits show up, perform well, then follow up and (hopefully) do it all again later. “What usually happens is, those [showcases] are at the beginning of the summer,” Sam said. “So you'll go to those and then hopefully turn a few heads from these coaches, talk to them, gain interest from them, and then they will probably ask you, ‘Hey, we'd love [to see you later] in the summer, why don't you come to our showcase, or our camp at the end of the summer in July?'”

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Sam added that these camps are really important for recruits looking to look for opportunities to play. They offer coaches the chance to evaluate prospects and look for people to recruit. So if an athlete comes ready to compete, they will likely turn some heads. An invite to a camp held by a single team means they are interested in you and want to see your workout in front of them more–especially in a smaller setting. 

But recruiting doesn't only happen in the summer or at camps–the recruiting process is always ongoing until you commit and requires a lot from recruits. “If you're really serious about making it to the next level, you're going to have to do all those things, you're going to have to perform well for your high school team, your club team, and you want to sign up for extra showcases, like during the summer months of the year,” Sam advises, and emphases that the recruiting process is a year-round commitment. “I would play with my high school team in the fall. And I would play for the club team in the spring. I'd then play for a summer league team, usually, and then I would just train on my own,” he recalls.

Camps offer recruits great opportunities to perform for an interested audience, and for Sam, this process started young. “I was probably 13 years old, pretty young,” Sam said of his first experience at a college camp. “It was a few years after I started taking this sport seriously. My mom didn't know what to do with me in the summer, because my parents both work full time jobs. She would just try to book up my summer with camps as much as possible. She saw the  WVU soccer camp,so she sent me and both of my brothers. So as a 13 year old, I really impressed the coaching staff and the counselors.”

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Sam remained in contact with the coaches as he entered high school and their relationship grew over that time and he was communicating with the coaches pretty frequently. Perhaps most importantly, Sam continued to attend the WVU camps. “They emailed me when I was going into high school,” Sam said of his current coaches. “They said that they'd love to have me back to one of our showcases, whether it be the winter showcase or the summer, and then I went back freshman year, and impressed them again,” Sam recalled, adding that when his coaches gave him an offer on the spot, he immediately accepted.

Around this time in Sam Morgan's recruitment process, there were some other schools in contention, but he always wanted to represent his home state and stay in West Virginia. “I had already weighed out some other schools at this point,” he said. “I had some big name interests like Syracuse, Clemson, Villanova, and WVU are my top four. Ultimately, I went with WVU.”

Sam Morgan's journey is not unlike many other recruits. Sam worked hard to develop his skill and showcased those skills to the coaches, communicated with the coaches well, and was responsive to their interest. This effort culminated in an offer and although his journey hasn't been perfectly smooth, Sam is pleased with the result today.

“I'm definitely happy with my decision,” he said. “Obviously, I've had a unique experience here, given the fact that COVID happened and we changed head coaches. I [had a] redshirt freshman year due to a chronic knee injury. Yeah, so it's been crazy–like a roller coaster of events. But I definitely don't regret my decision. I've had some incredible memories here.”

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Image Credit: WVU Athletics

* Originally published on April 6, 2023, by Ryan Wiley