<p>We also encouraged our son to look at club soccer teams at the schools he was interested in, but he was determined to play at a higher level. Club teams at many schools are extremely competitive, and often include players who could potentially play at a varsity level but choose not to for many reasons. Fortunately, he was picked up by his D2 dream school and is loving every minute of it. His particular school does not do much recruiting until after their season is over in December, for the next year, so it makes it hard to plan. My son did not do any ED’s because he was willing to take a chance on this school, but it was pretty risky. However, even after it finally all worked out for him, he still was given opportunities by several D3 schools to submit a late application and play soccer for those schools, so even if he had not been picked up by his current school, he could have potentially moved on to other programs.</p>
<p>As far as the OP’s original question, just keep sending out emails and the making follow-up calls. Be sure to include specific info in your emails regarding GPA’s, test scores and times. Cc all emails to both coaches and all assistant coaches, as often the coach designates an assistant to do the preliminary recruiting. Don’t be shy about following up with a phone call, and if they don’t answer, keep calling rather than leaving a message, or if you leave a message, give a specific time that you will call back. Some coaches get dozens of emails each week so make your message short and concise with all of the information you can pack in. Always try to include a picture of your self (face shot) so they can connect a name with a face. There will be coaches who will never call you back, but just be sure to be persitent and don’t give up. After a while, you will have refined your list down and can concentrate on those schools which you are most interested in, and where you have a shot at running.</p>