February College Recruiting Newsletter 2025

Welcome to the Kings Hammer February College Recruiting Newsletter! The club is excited to work with you to accomplish all of your player’s goals for this upcoming soccer year, on and off of the soccer field. Each month, we will be providing this resource to help you navigate the craziness that is the college recruiting process. We hope you find value in this newsletter and we are excited to assist in this exciting process for your family!

In this month’s newsletter we will explore some of the initial steps that need to be considered when beginning the college recruiting process and determining your core values.

Creating a List of Schools

Over the last few weeks we have seen announcements from many of our Kings Hammer players who have reached the pinnacle of their college search/recruiting journey…committing to the school of their choice to continue their academic and athletic pursuits. More will be following over the next two months, as the college signing cycle ramps up. Many of you though are still in the opening stages of this process. Hopefully the signing announcements, for all levels of play, will inspire you to continue your recruiting journey. Or perhaps you will be encourage to get it started!

What To Consider

Whether you are just beginning your college search or have some experience under your belt, it is important to be intentional about what is important to you when selecting your future home. Before thinking about specific schools that you want to add to your list, it is critical to think about what factors may be important to you in your future home. Just as each college’s soccer program is unique; each campus, each environment, and each location of the colleges will provide different individuals with different experiences. Below are five factors to consider when creating your list of schools.

Location

Colleges and Universities of all divisions can be found in the biggest cities and the smallest towns. What type of environment will you be comfortable in; urban, rural, suburban…maybe each. Are grocery stores, restaurants, entertainment, and other activities available close, or farther away? These and other environment factors should be thought about when creating your list of schools.

Campus Size

Are you looking for a school with thousands of students, or hundreds? Are you looking for a campus where you take a bus to get from one side of campus to the other, or a campus that you can walk to your classes in 5 minutes? It is important to think about campus size and what you envision your college experience looking like before deciding which schools fit your desired size demands.

Degrees of Study

Do you have a dream career path after college soccer? While pursuing dreams of becoming a professional soccer player are great, it is important to think about life without soccer as well. When thinking about potential career options and majors that may interest you, find out if the schools you are researching offer majors and areas of study that match your academic interests.

Cost of Attendance

When creating your list of schools in most situations, it is important to consider the cost of the schools you may be looking into. Depending on where you are in your search, you may have no idea if the schools you are targeting will end up supporting you with athletic financial aid. However, by looking at each institution’s website, you are able to get a better understanding on tuition, housing, books, and other costs that are associated with the school.

Distance from Home

When leaving the comfort and safety of your parent’s home, do you want to have accessibility to returning when you are having a bad day? Or are you ready to open up your wings and fly to a faraway location? When creating a list of school, think about the maximum distance you are willing to be from your hometown (or for some of you, it might be the minimum distance you want to be close to home!) This will help you to narrow your list to realistic opportunities for you.

Hopefully you were able to pick up on the theme of the above factors: None of these involve soccer! While the soccer program and your success at the next level on the field will play a massive role in your college experience, the reality is a large majority of your time will be spent off of the soccer field in college! It is just as, if not more important to make sure the schools you are looking into and adding to your list fit you not only from a soccer perspective, but from a holistic perspective as well. By creating a list of what is important for you and what is non-negotiable in your search and your future home, this will help you to alleviate some of the stress of narrowing down what seems to be unlimited options for your college experience.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Here is a link to a webinar from Sports Recruits that talks about finding the “Right Fit” in a college.

Building Your Target List of Schools – SportsRecruits

Personal Development – Identifying Core Values

When thinking about what is important to you, it is critical to understand what are the things, traits, and qualities that you find to matter the most. This can be related to how you want to be perceived from others, who you want to surround yourself with, as well as the things that you find to be most important to being the best version of you. Having core values allow you to be your authentic self while maintaining guiding principles and qualities that help you in times of internal conflict. Below are some examples of core values that one may identify or relate to:

Acceptance
Achievement
Adventure
Autonomy
Beauty
Challenge
Collaboration
Communication
Commitment
Competence
Competition
Compassion
Cooperation
Courage
Creativity
Curiosity
Courtesy
Decisiveness
Dependability
Discipline
Diversity
Effectiveness
Empathy
Empowering

Equality
Excitement
Family
Forgiveness
Fitness
Flexibility
Friendship
Freedom
Fun
Generosity
Growth
Helpfulness
Happiness
Harmony
Health
Honesty/Integrity
Hope
Humor
Independence
Innovation
Impact/Difference
Justice
Knowledge
Love/Affection

Loyalty
Manners
Mindfulness
Open-mindedness
Patience
Power
Prosperity
Purpose
Quality
Recognition
Respect
Responsibility
Risk taking
Security
Service
Simplicity
Spirituality/Faith
Strength
Self-Acceptance
Self-Esteem
SelfControl
Teamwork
Tolerance
Trust

Take 20-30 minutes and reflect on these words. What do they mean to you? Which are the most important? After doing so, try to narrow your list your personal core values (this will be harder than you think). Create a list of your five core values and describe what they mean to you and why they are important. Use the link below for a printable version of this exercise. Keep this list somewhere accessible to you and use it as a resource when needed.

Indentifying Core Values Worksheet

This list can change throughout your life, but understanding who you are and what is important to you will help you to lead a value-driven life and ultimately have peace of mind in the decisions and choices you make!

More Resources for Identifying Core Values

UPCOMING SPORTSRECRUITS WEBINARS

RECENT COLLEGE COMMITMENTS

Congratulations to the most recent Kings Hammer soccer players to make college commitment decisions! Remember to post your commitment to your Sports Recruits account, send a commitment photo to info@kingshammer.com, and include or tag your club’s local Kings Hammer page on any social media posts so that we can be recognize you for your achievements!