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Everyone focuses on the scholarship going into the US college system. The athletes who get the most out of the experience understand that the network is the real return on investment. Here is what three former US college athletes learned about building and using that network.
Miguel had no formal certifications when he walked into his first job interview back in Australia.
No PT qualifications. No strength and conditioning accreditations. Just a degree from Webber International University in Florida, four years of experience across multiple US college programs, a summer league career that put him in front of thousands of fans per game, and a network he had spent four years quietly building across the country.
He got the job.
Not because of what was on his resume. Because of what four years in the US college system had built around him.
That is the part of the US college pathway that almost nobody talks about before athletes and families commit to it. The scholarship gets the attention. The academics get discussed. The sport gets analysed. But the network, the alumni connections, the international teammates, the professors, the classmates, the LinkedIn posts, the summer internships, the relationships maintained and the bridges not burned, those are the things that shape the decade after graduation.
In a recent Platform Sports webinar, Miguel, now a recruitment specialist at Platform's Gold Coast office, sat down with Jay, a former Division 1 tennis player at Seattle University, and Bianca, a former Division 1 and Division 2 soccer player now based in the Auckland office, to talk through what they actually walked away from the US college experience with.
Here is what they said.
The Ticket In vs The Return on Investment
The way Miguel frames it is simple. Your academics and your sport are your ticket into the US college system. They get you access to a scholarship, a place on a program, and four years of high-level competition combined with a quality degree.
The return on investment is something else entirely.
It is the alumni who hire you because you both wore the same logo. The Belgian teammate who is now playing professional football and still picks up the phone when you call. The professor who connects you to a graduate program in Miami because he liked how you showed up to class. The classmate who vouches for you in a job interview because she watched how hard you worked in the seat next to hers for three years.
Most athletes go over focused entirely on the four years in front of them. The ones who come back with the most understood what else they were building at the same time.
Alumni Networks Work Differently in the US
In New Zealand and Australia, university identity tends to be quiet. You graduate, you move on, and you rarely think much about the institution again.
In the US, it is completely different.
Jay played Division 1 tennis at Seattle University and describes the community there as unlike anything he had experienced at home. Alumni come back to games in their eighties with season passes. They fund programs. They hire graduates. They approach strangers in airports because they spotted the same logo on a shirt.
"The moment I stepped foot on Seattle University campus as a Red Hawk, that is what you are for life," Jay said. "If I am wearing that shirt walking through a random airport in the world and someone else went to Seattle University, they will approach me. That community is so strong."
That community does not expire at graduation. It compounds.
Your International Teammates Become a Global Network
Most athletes assume they will be surrounded by Americans when they arrive in the US. The reality, particularly in soccer, is the opposite.
Programs are heavily international. Every year brings a new intake of athletes from across the world. By the time you graduate, your network does not just span a campus. It spans continents.
Bianca's closest friends are now scattered across Colorado, Germany, Spain, and Italy. She has places to stay in multiple countries because of relationships built in college dormitories and training sessions thousands of kilometres from home.
Miguel played alongside a Belgian teammate at junior college who has since been drafted to FC Dallas and is now playing for North Texas SC in MLS Next Pro. Jay had tennis teammates who have gone on to the pro circuit, into finance, and into roles with major league sports organisations.
"At the time you don't really think about it," Bianca said. "Then once you're away from it you think, wow, I actually have friends all over the world."
The Professors You Cannot Predict
One of the most consistent themes across all three athletes is the role that professors played in shaping what came next, often in ways none of them could have anticipated.
Miguel's professor at Webber International turned out to be a former NFL athlete who had since built a mentorship program and a rehabilitation facility. By the end of the semester, he was connecting Miguel to a graduate program in Miami and opening doors to a professional network that had nothing to do with the course content.
Jay sat in a global business class at Seattle University where the structure was simple: a new established business professional every single week. The CEO of Xbox. Microsoft executives. Boeing leadership. Jay stayed behind after every session, asked questions, and connected with every speaker on LinkedIn.
Bianca's professor recommended her to speak in front of hundreds of people at an event focused on mental health for student athletes. An opportunity that came not from a job board or a formal application, but from a professor who had watched her show up consistently and wanted to put her name forward.
You cannot predict which professor will change your trajectory. That is exactly why you talk to all of them.
The Summer Is Not Downtime
Between seasons, US college athletes have roughly three months. Most go home. Some use that time very differently.
Miguel spent his first three summers playing in US summer leagues, getting in front of coaches, scouts, and agents at a level well above his college program. One team, the Lubbock Matadors, averaged 7,000 people per game. The exposure and the connections built across those summers were a different kind of network entirely.
Jay worked his way up from coach to director at a Nike tennis summer camp hosted on the Seattle University campus across three years. Bianca connected with a club near her school in Connecticut through coaching and ended up being housed by a host family for an entire summer, a relationship that began with someone knowing someone who knew someone.
The summer is three months of unstructured time with access to one of the most connected environments in the world. The athletes who understand that come home with more.
LinkedIn Is the Platform That Matters After Sport
All three athletes give the same piece of advice to athletes going into the US college system now.
Get on LinkedIn early. Earlier than feels necessary.
Most athletes do not touch it until a third year business class forces them to build a profile. By then they have already left two years of relationship building on the table.
Post about making the Dean's List. Post about a conversation that shifted your thinking. Connect with every guest speaker, every professor, every professional you meet on campus. Stay active. Update it when things happen.
"Get explosive on LinkedIn early," Jay said. "Build those connections. What Instagram is to you before college, LinkedIn is when you walk out. That is where you can meet everyone and anyone."
Bianca still receives messages on LinkedIn from people she met years ago, asking what she is doing now, looking to connect, looking to hire. The platform keeps working long after the relationship was first made.
Do Not Burn Bridges
Miguel's final piece of advice is the one he learned the hard way.
After a strong first year at junior college, he chose to transfer. The process was abrupt. Communication with his coach broke down. The transfer stalled. He missed the first preseason games at his next program. The start of that year never fully recovered.
The coach from that first program is now coaching professional football in the US.
"If I had handled things differently, he could have taken me with him throughout that career," Miguel said. "I don't regret it because it made me who I am. But don't burn bridges. You never know what that person is going to mean to you down the line."
The advice applies to teammates you did not like. To professors who were not accommodating. To coaches you disagreed with. Maintain healthy relationships wherever possible. The people you dismiss on the way through are sometimes the ones standing at the door you need to walk through years later.
What the Pathway Actually Gives You
A former Platform Sports athlete named Patrick went to Hofstra University in New York studying finance. He is now three years into a role at Deutsche Bank, based in Manhattan, with a London posting likely next. A kid from Wellington who played decent tennis is on a trajectory that will allow him to walk into virtually any financial role he wants when he eventually comes home.
That is what the pathway actually gives you, if you approach it with your eyes open.
Four years of high-level sport and a quality degree are the foundation. But the alumni networks, the international connections, the professors, the internships, the relationships maintained carefully over years, those are what shape the decade after graduation.
The scholarship gets you in. The network is what you take home.
Key Insights
If you’re a student-athlete (or a parent of one) and want to explore similar opportunities through the U.S. college system, let’s talk.
