Alex Horwath had always dreamed of playing Division 1 soccer, a goal shared by many of the 18 million kids who play soccer in the United States. Horwath was one of the few who saw that dream become a reality.

“That was my goal from when I was 12,” the UW goalkeeper said.

Soccer recruiting differs from recruiting in other sports in a number of ways and offers unique challenges to both the coaches and prospective players. For instance, while high school success is the only means to judge a prospective football player, it is largely ignored by soccer scouts.

“High school doesn’t mean anything really,” Horwath said. “The recruiting is done mostly at tournaments with your club team.”

Essentially elite traveling teams and club teams can gather the top players from an area, something high schools cannot do. As a result, the level of competition in high school soccer is much lower than that in club team Premier leagues. Head coach Jeff Rohrman agrees that club team success is a large factor in recruiting.

“Over the course of a calendar year, we’re probably at eight to 10 club tournaments, regionally and nationally,” Rohrman said. “We also do the ODP (Olympic Development Program), which has been affected a bit by the U.S. Soccer Federation’s development academy, so that’s become a primary means of trying to identify top kids because those kids are playing against the top teams in the country.”

In addition to the differences in getting exposure, NCAA soccer is handcuffed by the amount of scholarship money each school can offer.

“The biggest difference is that we only have 9.9 scholarships, so we can’t even get full scholarships to all our starting players,” Horwath said. “You can be on the football team and never see the field in four years, and still get a full scholarship.”

Despite the obvious downside, the limitations on scholarships also has a potentially beneficial effect in that it levels the playing field.

“I obviously would love to give everyone a full scholarship,” Rohrman said. “[However] I think it provides a lot of parity across the board. If you look at men’s soccer’s top 50 or 60 programs, I think any of those teams could beat each other.”

Another side effect of limited scholarships is that coaches tend to choose their recruits carefully to fill needs. Conversely, players will base their school choice on whether or not there’s an opening for them to get playing time. Horwath faced the problem of being a goalkeeper, making playing time even harder to find.

“The thing with keeper is, it’s one position,” Horwath said. “As a field player … you can put them in 10 other spots. For us, it’s just one spot. That’s the worst part.”

Matching needs and timeliness is often tricky. A player and school may like each other, but if that player is going to be on the bench for two years, he’s probably going to look elsewhere. Coaching staffs have to sort the players who fit their needs in the immediate future from the pool of players they’re interested in.

“Correspondence with players, a lot of the time, is dictated by how old that player is,” Rohrman admitted.

Also unique to soccer is the presence of foreign players, an aspect to recruiting not present in many other team sports. UW’s roster features three overseas players, senior forward Victor Diaz being among them. Born and raised in Spain, soccer was always a huge part of Diaz’s life. When it came time to decide whether to pursue a professional career or not, he was influenced by a friend who had played collegiately in the United States. While most American kids are just looking to continue playing at the next level, Diaz was looking for an education as well.

“It was definitely a tough decision,” Diaz said. “With professional [leagues], you have to work your way up. Who knows what’s going to happen? You get injured, you’re done, then you have nothing to fall back on.”

Rohrman likes what his foreign players bring to the team, but increasing the level of recruiting overseas isn’t in his future plans.

“I don’t think we’re at the stage where that’s our primary focus,” Rohrman said. “The core of our team is going to be mostly American kids, and the core of that will be mostly Midwest kids. It’s a matter of familiarity; we get to see them more.”

Regardless of where the players come from, or even the sport, all recruits face the same pressure.

“It depends on the person,” Horwath said. “Some people fold. I had a teammate who started hyperventilating and couldn’t play, and this coach had come just to see him.”

While expectations and reality don’t always meet, the recruiting process in and of itself can be as exciting as the game.

“As much pressure as it is, for a kid going through it, they have to enjoy it. You have these coaches, their jobs depend on you, they want you, they’re catering to you,” Horwath said. “You just have to enjoy it and roll with the punches.”