How do I become a soccer player?

You're going to need a LOT more time, skill; and potentially other things.

One of my better friends in college was among the best in our conference (we were even ranked within the top 25 D1 teams last year - 2019 season) & he's not even playing MLS.

Move to England for a start. More chances of actually going professional. England has over 100 fully professional teams spread across 6 levels. 10 levels that will actually pay you to play (you'll get match fees even as low as level 10). University teams can get you a good start. Luke Hannant played for Northumbria Universities team and now plays for Cambridge. Or get a trial at somewhere like Dulwich Hamlet. If you are good, you will be spotted and signed by a pro team

Playing HS soccer does little for your college chances.  Most look at club teams anyway.  A good HS coach should be able to guide you though.  Unless you're getting calls from colleges, then you're looking at being a walk-on.  So then it comes down to what school you want to go to for academic reasons and then see if you can try out once you're there.  

Likewise, you can look at various lower division regional teams (USL or lower type) and find out when they have open tryouts.

If you want to play at a college level you probably need to be looking at smaller schools unless you were really good. The alternative is to play on an intramural team at your school.

Well you just have to score a lot of goals