Rhode Island Surf College Advisor

Jim McGirr Rhode Island Surf

College Advisor

Our players benefit from Coach McGirr’s experience as a former college coach through his relationships and in-depth knowledge of the recruiting process, while also being familiar with the college admissions process.

His role as the College Advisor is to assist our Surf student-athletes to identify good academic & athletic fits. He will make sure to guide the student-athlete to find the best academic fit by reviewing their current High School academic course load (General, Honors, AP/IP), their standardized testing scores (PSAT’s, SAT’s/ACT’s), interested focus of study/majors and class size.

With the assistance of the student-athlete’s Surf coach, they will work together to assess and identify the best athletic fit, level of play (DI, DII, DIII), level of competition, positional needs, etc.

Through this guidance, the student-athlete will develop a list of college choices to develop a relationship with, coordinate campus visits and/or attend camp & clinics to be evaluated. This is an ongoing fluid process that Coach McGirr continues until the student-athlete has made their final decision with their hopeful commitment.

Jim's Playing / Coaching

Experience

Coached DI Women’s Soccer

for 20 years:

  • Lafayette (Men’s) 
  • Rutgers (Women’s) 
  • Loyola (MD)
  • Villanova
  • Providence College
Club Experience
  • Player Development Academy (PDA) 
  • Baltimore Bays 
  • FC DELCO (Director of Coaching) 
  • NEFC 
  • RI Surf
Coached/Trained

USWNT Players:

  • Heather O’Reilly
  • Carli Lloyd
  • Tobin Heath
  • Jill Loyden
Placed Players at Every

Level of College Soccer:

  • DI
  • DII
  • DIII
  • NAIA

Start with what is traditionally the initial search criteria:

  • Academics
    • Current HS courses (General, Honors, AP/IP)
    • Interested Majors
  • Campus/Location 
    • Small or Big school?
    • Class Size?
    • Type of campus (City, suburban, rural?)
    • Where? Local, regional or national
  •  Athletics
    • Level (DI, DII, DIII or NAIA)?
    •  Team
    • Success of the program.
    • Research the team for your positional needs (players graduating for your year).
  • Coaching Staff
    • E-Mail coaches (Head & Assistants) about your interest. 
    • Include your upcoming schedule (HS, Club, upcoming tournament/showcase)
    • Sign-Up for camps or clinics

The NAIA Eligibility Center is something that every future collegiate student-athlete needs to register for in order to play collegiate sports at the NAIA level. Much like the NCAA Eligibility Center, your high school transcripts, SAT scores, ACT scores will all need to be filed with the NAIA Eligibility Center.

The SAT is one of two exams (ACT being the other) that you can take to be eligible to attend college.  Every student-athlete must achieve a certain score on the SAT in order to be eligible to play collegiate athletics.  Through the collegeboard website, you can register for an upcoming SAT exam, have your scores sent to the college of your choice, and even take practice exams to get prepare for the real one!

The SAT is a more widely used test when it comes to college athletics, but not the only option. Visit the CollegeBoard website to answer any other questions about the SAT you may have.

The ACT is the second of two exams that you can take to be eligible to attend college. Every student-athlete must achieve a certain score on the ACT in order to be eligible to play collegiate athletics.

Through the ACT website, you can register for an upcoming ACT exam, have your scores sent to the college of your choice, and even take practice exams to get prepare for the real one! Visit the ACT website to answer any other questions you may have.

Free Application for Federal Student Aid.  This is the application for college-bound students to potentially receive Federal and State grant money to attend a public or private college.  The FAFSA awards are mainly based on financial need and merit of the student.   Not only does the FAFSA open up opportunities from the Federal and State governments, but it also highlights specific awards at different collegiate institutions.

Every potential college bound student should file the FAFSA for scholarship opportunities for college.  Visit the FAFSA website today!

FastWeb is a search engine dedicated to finding scholarships for college-bound students and current college students.

There are a wide variety of scholarships out there, and FastWeb helps to locate them.  It is a great resource to use so visit it today!

The CSU Mentor website is where you can apply to the CSU of your choice.  CSU stands for California State University and the CSU system consists of various universities throughout California.  The following institutions are part of the CSU System and can be applied to through the CSU Mentor website: Cal Maritime, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CSU Bakersfield, CSU Channel Islands, CSU Chico, CSU Dominguez Hills, CSU East Bay, CSU Fresno, CSU Fullerton, CSU Long Beach, CSU Los Angeles, CSU Monterey Bay, CSU Northridge, CSU Sacramento, CSU San Bernardino, CSU San Marcos, CSU Stanislaus, Humboldt State, San Diego State, San Francisco State, San Jose State, and Sonoma State.

The UC website is where you can apply to the UC of your choice.  UC stands for University of California and the UC system consists of various universities throughout California.  The following institutions are part of the UC System and can be applied to through the UC website: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, and UC Santa Cruz.

The listed college recruitment services work to help in the placement of future collegiate student-athletes:
ScoutingZone

*These are outside groups and have no direct affiliation with San Diego Surf Soccer Club

For further assistance with your College Recruitment Process please contact Jim McGirr at: jim@rhodeislandsurfsoccer.com

Contact Our

Team

Please enter your name.
Please enter a message.