The best thing to do after a big showcase tournament is to go home and wait for college coaches to contact you. Wrong.

Actually, really wrong. Too many players think that once they've been to a showcase, their work is done. They think that they'll be contacted if coaches saw them play and liked what they saw. This is a recipe for failure.

When it comes to learning how to get recruited for a tournament like the Pepsi Showdown, for example, there are three key components:

1. Telling the coach you're going to be there


2. Playing in the tournament


3. Finding out if the coach saw you play

Not following through with the third step is like buying ice cream, bringing it home, and then letting it melt on the counter. What a waste!

So here's what you should do when you get home from the Pepsi Showdown. Email each of the coaches on your list and ask them if they were able to see you play. Include a quick synopsis of how you played and how your team did in case they didn't see you. It should take no more than an hour. There are three possible outcomes:

1. The coach saw you play and loves you


2. The coach didn't see you play, but appreciates the update


3. The coach saw you play and feels like it's not a great fit

Oh, the last one. It can sting a little bit. But actually, it's a good thing, because it allows you to focus your recruiting on the colleges responded positively.

The Pepsi Showdown is a great opportunity to get seen by college coaches and convince them that you deserve a spot on their team. But here's the rub: there are a lot of players who are going to be there. This is how to get recruited at any tournament you play in this spring, you have to stand out.

There are two ways to do this. The first, obviously, is to play well. The second is less obvious, but probably more important: you have to get them to see you play in the first place. You can't just hope that they'll randomly show up on the sidelines of your game. Here are three simple steps you should take to convince coaches to come watch you play at a tournament:

1. Find out which college coaches will be present. Email them and ask if they'll be there. Ask your coaches if they know which college coaches will be in attendance. Look at various websites for lists.


2. Make sure you have an up-to-date profile that college coaches can easily access. Include photos, grades, test scores, and your soccer history. Make sure that your information makes it into the event's player profile book.


3. Email the coaches with dates, times, and locations of your games. Tell them that you would really like it if they can see you play and name specific reasons why you think that school is such a good fit.

This should take you no more than an hour. It's amazing how a small, but concerted effort on the right recruiting activities can make a major difference.

Last weekend was a recruiting bonanza. President's Day is always that way. Everyone, college coaches included, is looking for an excuse to go somewhere warm.

The conventional wisdom goes something like this, "I go to a tournament and college coaches watch me play. If they like me, they'll contact me." Don't listen to that line. The silence after a tournament can be deafening, and often demoralizing.

The thing is, the lack of contact is really more about college coaches than it is about you. It's a huge headache for coaches to digest all the information from a tournament, which can take weeks to process. Inevitably, players the coach liked get lost in the shuffle.

All this points towards one thing that you have to do after a tournament: email coaches and ask if they saw you play and what they thought.

This can feel like a tough requirement. A lot of players wonder, "Who am I to demand a college coach's opinion?" The thing is, you have the right to know.

After seeing you play, college coaches owe you an honest opinion on where you stand. They may need to see you play again, but at the very least, they should let you know if things are moving in the right direction, or if you should look elsewhere.

Either bit of info is really helpful. If they think you're the right kind of player, that's a huge step in the right direction. If they don't, you can focus your recruiting on other coaches who are interested.

There are 5 steps you have to take to win in the college recruiting process. Taking these simple steps is how you make a college sports team.

The fourth step is all about getting noticed. To get onto a college team, you have to find a way to get the coach to see you play. This is perhaps the most important step in the college recruiting process.

(Learn the other steps: Previous: Build relationships with coaches; Next: Make a college team)

Here's a simple, five-step plan to get a coach to watch you play:

1. Figure out what college recruiting camps the coach plans to attend.
2. Find a way to be in action at one of those events.
3. Don’t stress out when you know a coach is watching you.
4. Just be yourself on the field; you don't have to do something spectacular.
5. Send him/her an honest assessment of your play afterwards.

All the steps taken before now don't matter much if a college coach never sees you play. If you aren't going to the same showcase tournaments or events as a coach, you need to find a place where the coach can evaluate you. We can help you do this. The college recruiting process cannot be completed unless coaches are given an honest chance to evaluate you.

by Avi - 1 response from a college coach for every 10 emails sent?! No contact for weeks after a big tournament?! Phone calls and snail mail that go unreturned?! Are college coaches the most inconsiderate people around? What's going on here? On the Radio Show this week, we talk about why college coaches are often so unresponsive. Click below to listen:

Don't be afraid to lobby a coach to come see you play at a specific tournament. Convince him that this is a tournament he should really come watch.

Email him little teasers like: “We have a very competitive schedule at the Prometheus Invitational. Based on past experiences, I think this will be a fantastic tournament to watch. It would be great if you could come.”

Tournaments provide an excellent opportunity for coaches to get a glimpse of you in a competitive, college athlete recruiting environment. Though coaches' exposure to you may not be as intensive and thorough as in a college recruiting camp environment, perceptive coaches can get a sense of your ability pretty quickly.

To get a coach to see you at a tournament, provide him with a schedule. As soon as you know your team's general tournament plans, let coaches know. For example, “We're going to Wanderer's Cup in January and The Explorer Invitational in March.”

If a coach you've contacted is in attendance at a tournament, don't freak out thinking that you have to hog the ball and score seven goals to make your case. Relax and play as you normally would. In fact, you probably won't know when exactly the coach is watching.

Concern yourself with playing the game, not with scanning the crowd for a guy wearing Bananaville University yellow.

The opening whistle blows. The ball gets dropped back to you. Your first touch isn't so good and the ball slips away. You scramble to it just before a defender gets there, but you hit it awkwardly and it bends out of bounds. Uh oh.

You look over at the sideline where the ball went out and see the coach from Northeast Southwest University. You gasp in disbelief, "I didn't realize he was here." Your mind is racing for the rest of the game: "What did he think of that touch? Did he see the shot I just took? Why does he only seem to be watching when I mess up?"

To be successful at a tournament, you have to ignore the college coaches on the sideline. Worry about college athletic recruiting before the tournament begins and then focus on playing while you're there.

Why is it so important to focus on recruiting before a tournament even begins? Let's do some quick math. The average tournament has 16 teams in each age group. There are three age groups from which college coaches recruit. And there are 15 players on each team. That means that there are 720 players at the tournament. For any given player, the odds of randomly "getting seen" are impossibly low - about .1 percent.

How then to beat the odds? College coaches typically go to tournaments with a list of players they want to see play. The list may include five names or it may have 50. Either way, the college coach is focusing his attention on a fraction of the total number of players at the tournament. Simply put: You need to get on that list.

Fortunately, it's not that difficult. Once you've figured out which colleges you like and started communicating with them, email the coaches your tournament schedule. A week before the tournament begins, send the coach a quick email saying something along the lines of:

Hi Coach Smith,

I'm excited about playing next week at the Southside Invitational. Are you planning to be there? If so, I would really appreciate it if you'd take the time to see me play. My schedule is as follows:

- Saturday, 9 am, Field 9.

- Sunday, 11 am, Field 2.

I'm very interested in playing for you and I hope that after seeing me play, you'll be convinced that I'm a good fit for your team. Thanks so much for your time. I hope to see you there next week!

Ralph K. Smithsonia

An email like this is surprisingly simple, but it shows a coach that you're interested in playing for him and that you're doing everything you can to get him to see you play. This makes a big difference to college coaches, who otherwise have to spend an absurd amount of time chasing players down to see if they're interested. Simply showing that you're interested and asking a coach to watch you play can dramatically advance your cause.

OK, so you've emailed coaches your schedule and at long last you get to the tournament. You're pumped and ready to play, if a bit nervous. Inevitably you look over to the sideline and there he is, sitting in his lawn chair, pen and paper in hand, school logo emblazoned on his shirt.

The best thing you can do is play the way you normally play. Don't start dribbling all over the place in an effort to impress him. Most importantly, don't dwell on your mistakes; college coaches know that everyone makes them. In fact, the way you respond to mistakes is something that coaches often watch. Most importantly, enjoy the game and embrace the opportunity to play. If you do that, you'll be able to sideline your concerns about learning how to get recruited.