MEN’S SOCCER PROSPECTIVE STUDENT-ATHLETES
Contact us: Click on the link above to fill out our recruit questionnaire – be sure to include any highlight videos that you have, as well as your academic information (GPA, test scores, etc.). Then email our assistant coach Chad Jones at cjones2@iwu.edu, and cc head coach Kyle Schauls at kschauls@iwu.edu.
Summer Camps:
More details and registration info can be found at: www.titansocceracademy.com
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Illinois Wesleyan has a lot to offer in terms of academic standards, career potential, and student-athlete experience. Check out the information below, and then fill out our
online recruiting form if you are interested in being a Titan!
The Program - More than Soccer: At Illinois Wesleyan, we value every member of our team equally, and everyone is held to the same standard. We always make sure that our priorities are in order with our team values: 1. Family 2. Academics 3. Soccer 4. Social Life. We understand that soccer is a passion for all of us involved in the program, but we always keep things in perspective when it comes to life and future careers. College is an opportunity to experience many things that will help shape you into the person that you will become, and while we believe that our soccer program plays a positive role in that development, it is not the only contributing factor to your growth.
The Recruiting Process:
Communicate! Contact us! We don’t know if you are interested in Illinois Wesleyan unless you tell us. Email is best, because we can save it/file it. Fill out our recruiting questionnaire so that we can learn more about you through your athletic, academic, and personal information. It also allows us to keep you and our other recruits updated with regular emails about what the Titan soccer team is currently doing, whether that is in-season game articles or off-season activities.
Evaluation
Come to camp. Our College Prep Camp in June is the best way for you to learn more about us and allow us to see you compete in our college training environment. We also offer a 1-day ID camp in early March and another 1-day ID camp in early August. Over 90% of the players on our roster attended one of our camps, and the majority were offered a spot based on how they performed at the camp. More information and online registration can be found on the camp website:
www.titansocceracademy.com.
Send us Tournament Schedules: If you will be attending one of the tournaments in the box to the right, then send us your team’s schedule. Be sure to include kickoff time, field, jersey #, your team/club name, and opponent.
Send us Highlights: We don’t usually offer roster spots after only getting to view a player’s highlights, but it is a great tool for us to get a feel for you as a player, especially if you live far away from campus (out of state or out of region). Highlight clips are also useful in that they allow us to get updates on your development through different points of the year.
See IWU
Visit Campus: You can participate in an admissions presentation, take a tour of campus, spend some time with current players, and meet with the coaching staff. Contact our admissions office at 309-556-3031 or
iwuadmit@iwu.edu to set up the visit, and be sure to let them know you would like to meet with the soccer coaches.
Come to a Game: This is the best way for you to get a feel for how we play and what the environment is like on campus for a game day.
Timing:
We utilize the fall, spring, and summer of a player’s junior year to evaluate and identify prospects that we think will be a good fit for our team and campus community. We do our homework on every top recruit to find out more about their character, athletic ability, and academic performance. By the time we start preseason in mid-August, the identification period of our recruiting cycle is complete, and we begin character checks. Once we have completed a recruit’s character check, then we will make a decision on whether to offer them a roster spot or not. We will also invite all of our top recruits to visit campus for an overnight stay with a player on the team. This can take place in conjunction with one of our games during the fall season or on one of our recruit visit days during the offseason. We also encourage all of our top recruits to apply Early Action (November 15 deadline), so that they can find out about admission and financial aid by mid-January. Our recruiting class is generally completed by the end of February. While this is the typical timeline, we do not set an expiration date when we offer a roster spot to a recruit. We understand that there are a lot of factors that go into making a decision on which college to attend, and we do not want to rush anyone to make a decision before they are ready.
Making the Team:
We have three levels of recruits for the Illinois Wesleyan Men’s Soccer Team.
Roster Spot: The highest level that we offer a recruit is a roster spot. This means that we have had the opportunity to see you play (usually on more than one occasion) and we expect that you will make a positive contribution to the performance of our team, you have visited campus, we expect you to be admitted based on your academic statistics, and we have spoken with at least one of your coaches/teachers to do a character check.
Preseason Invitation: The next level that we offer is an invite to come to preseason. This is essentially a two-week tryout. Similar to the roster spot, we have seen you play and done a character check, although we may have only seen you play once, or we have only seen highlight clips. We see something in your potential, but we have questions about how much you are able to contribute to the team on the field. Generally, about half of preseason invites end up making the team.
Walk-on Tryout: The final level that we offer is a walk-on tryout. This is a 2-day tryout that takes place at the beginning of freshmen orientation. Recruits that are offered to walk-on usually receive this offer because we haven’t seen them play at all or very much, or because we have not seen enough in our evaluations to warrant a higher offer.
FAQs
Q: What do you look for in a player in order to recruit them?
We look for players that make an impact on every game and training session that they are involved in. Regardless of the position that you play, find a way to put your stamp on every match/session.
Q: What formation do you play?
A: We do not play a particular formation. We base our formation around our current personnel, and we always try to go 2-deep at each position. Regardless of our formation, we always implement our defensive and offensive principles.
Q: What is your style of play?
Come to a game or watch a live stream and find out! We like to push the pace of the game by pressing high up the field defensively, and we pride ourselves in being versatile offensively.
Q: How do your players balance the demands of school and soccer?
The same way you do right now with high school and club! The rigors of the classes and the expectations for soccer are both more demanding, but the most important thing about adjusting to life as a collegiate student-athlete is time management.
