Podcast: Steve Gans discusses his new book to help navigate the recruiting process

Steve Gans playing soccer with his oldest son, Noah, when he was a little boy. (Courtesy photo)

The latest guest on New England Soccer Journal’s “The Goal” podcast is Boston-area author Steve Gans, whose new book is titled “Win the College Soccer Recruiting Game: The Guide for Parents and Players.”

Gans, who resides in Newton, Mass., writes about the college soccer recruiting process and how it is often mysterious, mercurial and frustrating. He aims to provide parents with a roadmap and game plan for navigating the process from youth club soccer to recruitment to a college program, and dives into his own personal experiences as a player and a parent of two highly-recruited players, who played their club soccer for the Boston Bolts.

Gans is also a partner at the Boston law firm Prince Lobel and was a lawyer on the successful Boston World Cup 1994 bid to become a host playing site. He has extensive experience as a soccer attorney, executive and advisor, and as a coach. Gans says he is donating a good portion of the book’s profits to scholarship programs at youth clubs, who serve under-served players.  

He joined host Matt Langone to discuss his new book and his motivation for writing it.

The full podcast can be accessed below and is available on all major platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review.

Here are some highlights from our discussion with Gans:

On his original thought process behind writing the book:

Gans: “I guess what I would say is this is a pay-it-forward exercise. I want to help parents and players of the next generation and current generation. My kids — I have one still in college and one who graduated —  and the motivation is that I have a deep, deep background in soccer, very comprehensive at all levels. I think I know the sport really well.”

On an overarching theme in the book:

Gans: “I think one thing you need to know going into it is because soccer is a non-revenue sport, compared to like football and basketball, that 95% of players need to do proactive things in order to get recruited. Maybe more than 95%. My older son was a DA player, highly recruited by a lot of schools — over 30 schools — and yet there were steps that had to be taken. This is not, as I put in the book, John Calipari, from the University of Kentucky, saying ‘I heard about a kid in Brookline, Mass., and I’m going to get on a private plane and go see them.”

On using his own personal experiences in the book:

Gans: “It starts out, necessarily, by telling the personal stories of my sons’ recruiting experience. Because by telling that, a pretty full story, not every detail, but a pretty full story, it shows sort of the evolution as players, how the recruiting process worked, how it seemed to work, what we did right, what we did wrong, and then what went wrong at the end, and how it was remedied when neither of them wound up at the school — the main school — that recruited them, and where they wound up.”

On how long it took to write the book:

Gans: “I essentially wrote this over four years. I started writing it in the aftermath of these experiences. I wrote maybe 40 pages a year and completed it this past fall to make sure everything was updated properly, and it is currently good information. It’s not that hard to write 40 pages a year, so it didn’t consume me, but I wanted to get this done. I want to help people. This is something I do normally anyway, for, like, 20 friends or acquaintances, or people who ask me to do it. I’m always asked to consult on club questions when parents and kids are at a crossroads with their club and/or with their recruiting.”

The Goal” podcast is brought to you by the New England Revolution and Soccerheads New England.

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