Colorado College Women’s Soccer – Coach Keri Sanchez
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Keri Sanchez from the Colorado College Women’s Program. We talk about her school’s unique block scheduling. She describes the school’s legacy in college women’s soccer. Lastly, we discuss how they have a great variety of staff and other resources for their team. Learn more about Colorado College Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Keri Sanchez from Colorado college. Welcome coach.
Coach: Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today.
Matt: Ah, thank you for being here, especially kind of, as in the early parts of the season, I know you’re busy, so I do appreciate that time.
Um, and I’m gonna phrase this question, first question here a little differently, just cuz I get it from folks, you know, now that it’s you and I are talking in September, um, you know, you’re in the thick of your season, so. How much recruiting are you and, or your staff really doing right now as opposed to December and beyond?
Coach: Yeah. So this part of our recruiting is basically trying to keep in touch with, uh, athletes that we’ve identified over the spring and summer. Uh, we’re not out watching games as much right now. We may get out to a few local games here and there. As seasons get rolling, but, uh, yeah, you’re correct. The recruiting is a little bit different when [00:01:00] we’re in the thick of it, especially September, October, uh, where again, a lot of it’s more email, uh, phone calls and we actually just had an ID clinic this weekend.
Oh. So that was one way that we could still reach out and get to see some of the players that might be interested.
Matt: Okay. And when you say keeping in contact with players, is that, uh, juniors and seniors, or mostly seniors or, or mostly juniors, or how does that work?
Coach: Yeah, so at this point, mostly juniors.
Okay. Uh, our 23 classes mostly filled, but not all the way. Uh, so it’s a handful of 20 threes and a whole bunch of 20 fours.
Matt: So, and that leads me to my next question. So you’re locking in a good deal of a class. By the end of when those folks would be juniors. Right. Kind of in that summer timeframe is my guess.
Coach: Yeah. So usually, yeah, you’re, you’re finishing up your class usually about a year ahead of when they’ll actually attend
Matt: okay. Yeah. Well, and it’s interesting, you know, it’s just, cuz I’ve, now I’ve talked to over 80 coaches, right. All levels [00:02:00] men’s and women’s, and, and everybody’s just slightly different, but, but yeah, that from a D one women’s perspective that tends to be where.
Where we hear it, but I always like to make sure folks understand that, you know, that’s not the case for an AIA school perhaps, or right. Obviously junior college is definitely different. So, um, what is a D one school, how, how many inbound contacts would you say you get, you know, in a typical month of, of new people reaching out, interested in the program,
Coach: Yeah, so that fluctuates a little bit, but probably prior to a tournament on those heavy, heavy times, we’re probably hearing from maybe 50 to a hundred new people.
Okay. Potentially. Yeah. Uh, which then like the, at the beginning of a recruit cycle that goes down. Sure. Uh, this is my first go around at Colorado college, but for my previous schools I’ve been at, you’ll get anywhere from a database of maybe 400 to 600 athletes, uh, in a given year.
Matt: Okay. Per class.
Per class. Okay. Wow. That’s a big [00:03:00] number. Well, when it comes to, okay, you, you let’s say you get, you know, 400 emails, uh, you know, how do you sift through ’em? Where are you focusing your efforts in terms of, uh, of your recruiting time, whether that’s tournaments, uh, you know, what, what are some of those hot tournaments?
You gotta make sure you’re kind of, where’s your focus?
Coach: Yeah, so we try to respond to everybody. Cause I think that’s one of the hardest parts with the recruiting process for, from the player standpoint, is that they just don’t get any response back. They don’t really know. Right. Uh, so we do try to respond to players as much as we can.
Uh, but B and D one, obviously EC L has probably the highest percentage of players that move on to that highest level of college soccer. Uh, but we also are looking at the GA and some of those other leagues when we can, uh, it’s just, as you know, it gets a little bit crazy tournament time season, and you can only be so many places, but, uh, so we do focus probably a little bit more on the C L little bit GA.
Um, but now that the new E 64 is gonna kick off, we’re gonna have to keep an eye on that, [00:04:00] uh, because I think there’s good, good players at all of those different levels. It’s just kind of, uh, where can you spend your time and find them. Get post bang for your bunk, like basically, which is why you see so many coaches at the C events.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, and you mentioned ID camps, so I’m guessing ID, camp’s a pretty big part of your recruiting portfolio as well. How many of those do you do? Are they fairly big, fairly small? How do you like to run your camps? And, and do you guys do other, other camps of other schools or, or some of the for-profit camps at all?
Coach: Yeah, so we, I do, I really enjoy the ID. Uh, cuz that obviously shows that that player is committed and really interested in your school cuz they can only pick so many ID camps to go to. So they’ve made that initial investment to come to you. I like to keep ’em small cuz I wanna get to know the players that are here that have made that, uh, effort to get here.
Right? It’s time, it’s money. Uh, and they’re spending a ton of money outta the places. So, uh, we try to keep 30 ish players or less. Uh, so like I said, When they leave [00:05:00] there, I know their name and I know who they are. And I can remember a player too, or something about them when they were here. So, um, yeah, and then we do have, do we occasionally work a handful of other camps, depending on, you know, where we might have coaching colleagues or friends or whatnot.
But, uh, typically, the tournaments that we go to or the events plus our ID camps are where we probably recruit the most.
Matt: Okay. Uh, in terms of whether it’s at, at a camp or, or watching a showcase or something, kind of what’s your, your hierarchy of things that you’re looking for in a player that, that, you know, whether it’s on the field attributes or off the field stuff, kind of what, what checks the boxes for you in your recruiting?
Coach: Yeah. So we’re at a high academic school. So the work rate is one. Uh, so that’s on the field, obviously they’re mobile, they’re wanting the ball. Uh, they’re playing both sides of the ball, offense and defense. They seem connected and, and engaged for the whole game. Uh, and then [00:06:00] off the field, what does that look like?
Right. They’re in a challenging course. Courses in their high school and they’re getting decent grades in those classes, uh, because that shows they can manage time, manage obviously a busy soccer with, with hard level classes. That means they’ll be fairly successful at our school. Uh, the other things on the field, right?
We’re looking, they have to have a certain athleticism and a certain technical base in order to compete at, at the division one level. So they have to, uh, basically be able to do the basics. Can they play with both? Uh, first touch is fairly consistent. We’re not looking for per perfection, but they’ve gotta be consistent.
Uh, and then there’s gotta be an athletic quality to them. They don’t have to be the fastest player on the field, but maybe if they’re not as fast or quick, they’re agile. Uh, they’re really good on the ball or their soccer IQ helps speed up their play. Uh, because I think that’s the biggest thing. I’d try to tell club players when they’re jumping from club to the college level if it’s the speed applied and the physicality right?
Speed play incorporates just. Team runs faster physically, but then they move the ball [00:07:00] faster. Right. And they’re just bigger kids, especially if you’ve only grown up playing in your age group. So say you’re an oh six. You’re now gonna play with oh, twos. Mm-hmm that might be the fifth year. Oh, trees. Oh, fours.
Oh, fives. And of all you’ve ever seen is the oh six and you show up and now you’re playing against this oh two who’s five years older than you. Uh you’re like. Wow. This is a whole other level.
Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, well, you know, in terms of having a recruit, come, come visit everything. How, how for you specifically at your school, do you work your unofficial, unofficial visits?
Are there, do you do a lot of official visits or mostly unofficial? How does that work for players? Yeah. So
Coach: that’s depending, depending on the player. Right? So we target a few players that we’re gonna offer official visits to. We don’t have a budget to offer official visits to everyone. Uh, so that is definitely, uh, right.
You earn based on us getting to see you play two or three times and thinking that you are kind of being targeted as a kind [00:08:00] of an impact player for us. Um, but we do unofficial visits. Sue, we’ve had several of those. Especially again, cuz we got here a little bit late, so we were still trying to secure a 22 and a 23 class pretty late in the process.
And so we had a lot of unofficial visits that we did with players that were still looking for homes. Right.
Matt: Yeah. And then last question I’ve got for you on just again on the recruiting front is H how often are you talking to club coaches, high school coaches, other college coaches to really kind of fill in the gaps on, on certain players or, or get or learn about new players and that sort of.
Coach: Well, and that goes back to when that previous question, when you asked off the field, right? Yeah. Uh, some of those things we look for is how they treat their parents after a game. Uh, how do they treat their coaches or coaches trying to give ’em some advice on the field? You know, I’ve seen a player throw up arms and talk back to a coach and you can see how all the coaches on the side that name off, uh, Also what happens when their teammate does something great.
What happens when their teammate doesn’t do something great? How do they support that [00:09:00] teammate or encourage that teammate? Uh, and I always like to watch goal scores, right? And then if, if you are the one scored or one, your teammate scored, how do you, how do you behave? How do you act? Are you that positive force on your team?
Yeah. Uh, so, uh, yeah, we look at a lot of those different elements, the kind of those. Character type things. Right? Cause we’re looking for kids that are gonna fit into our cultures. So that’s where the club coaches and high school coaches, uh, and college coaches that may know that individual, cuz maybe they’re from that region or that state, uh, that will get to talk to somebody.
So they’ve seen cuz sometimes you don’t get to see the player in all the different environments. Cuz I would tell ’em, I’d love to see them winning a game. Love to see him losing a game and having to come back. I’d love to see a tight game. I’d love to see, uh, all those different things, but you don’t necessarily get that, uh, on.
One day you happen to be there watching them play. So that’s why you use those other people that are seeing them on a daily basis. Do they show up to practice on time? If they can’t be there, do they let you know, do they do outside work on their own? Uh, those are [00:10:00] some of those things that you can get from the club coaches perspective.
Matt: Okay, well, let’s shift gears. Talk a little bit more about Colorado college. Um, now I’ve been lucky enough to visit Colorado Springs. So, uh, so I know of Colorado college, but other folks may, may get it confused with, with, you know, the university of, or, or, or other things out there in Colorado. So besides just, uh, what I can learn on the website, you know, I know you’re fairly new to the school, but kind of give me.
Give me some inside scoop. What are some of the awesome things you’ve seen so far about Colorado college that maybe I won’t find just by checking the website.
Coach: So obviously the location is great. There’s, uh, uh, we’re right at the base of Pikes peak. So if you’re a mountain type person, you really love the trails and the outdoor activities that you can do.
Uh, but, and we’re a smaller school. So if you like that, where you’re in classes that, uh, you know, your teacher to student ratio is really small. So you’re sitting in class with, you know, 11 to 15 people. Uh, so the type of learning you get in that versus being in a big lecture hall, I think is [00:11:00] special for us, but we also sit in a big city, right?
So we. 500 and it’s growing. I think we might, even somebody said we were maybe even up to 700,000, we’re actually the biggest city in Colorado. So Denver’s probably the most well known, but Denver has a suburb and is way spread out Colorado Springs, actually the biggest city. Um, so you get that small school, but in a city, so you have everything you could possibly need in terms of that.
And we’re also conveniently located in Denver. Uh, if you wanna do some things. Uh, I think so, for our academic side, we’re also on a block schedule, which is super unique because very few schools do it. Uh, so it’s based on a semester system, but they, instead of taking four classes at once, they take one class at a time and those classes are called blocks.
So blocks are three and a half weeks. Then you get a four and a half week, uh, break four and a half day break. And so if you talk to a lot of our student athletes, they love their four and a half day, uh, block breaks. And obviously if you’re in season, the student athletes, miss those block breaks, but again, being a fall [00:12:00] sport, we are the shortest playing season of the collegiate.
Different seasons. And so, uh, our student athletes get to take advantage of most of the block breaks. Um, and so they definitely love that. The other thing that’s unique about us because we’re on that block system is they can’t study abroad, uh, and still be around. So spring season I know can get hectic, but they could study abroad, block fly, or block eight, uh, and still be available for all of our spring games.
And so that’s also unique if you have some, somebody that wants to do that. Um, and then I. From a college soccer side of things. Uh, we’re pretty historical. Uh, this is the 40th anniversary of Vince NCAA. Women’s soccer started back in 1982. Uh, prior to that, I sponsored some things, uh, Colorado college had their first varsity soccer team in 1978 on the women’s side.
Uh, we hosted the first national championship. We didn’t actually qualify, but we actually hosted the first one ever for collegiate women’s soccer prior to the NCAA. And then in the first 10 years of our existence, we were in the final four or five times in the [00:13:00] final game twice. Um, so we have a huge legacy that we’re trying to live up to.
Uh, and then obviously as it’s gotten tons, more programs have been, uh, uh, Okay. Think of the word that has been added. So now we’re, you know, back in the, I think the early days it was 75 to 80 ish teams, and now we’re up to 375 plus teams in division one. It’s obviously become a lot more competitive, but I’m hoping to come in here and see if we can get us back to the kind of success that we had in our early years.
Matt: Oh, that’s great. Well, I know it’s a challenging academic environment at Colorado college as well. So how specifically do your student athletes really balance their studies, uh, with their sport commitments? You know, what kind of support systems are there in place? And I guess how does the block scheduling all fit into that as well?
Coach: So I think again, the students that choose our school really do like that block system where you’re just having to focus on one thing at a time versus balancing maybe four or five classes. So [00:14:00] I think that’s one, I do like the timeframe of the school. So most classes run from nine to noon. Uh, so you know where everybody is at one time and then noon to three is kind of seen as, uh, the collaborative time.
So professors, office hours typically are in that block, um, time. You know, work with your other classmates, if you need to, tutors are available at the writing center, all those kinds of, uh, support systems that you need. Um, and then there’s like an activity period that starts after three, and then typically everything winds up.
So they have dinner and their evenings kind of free to do work as well. Uh, so I think the block system has been set up in a way to help them time manage and help them kind of, um, be successful students in a, in a hard academic environment. Uh, we do also have an, an additional advisor that the athletes get to try to help them, uh, making sure they’re picking the right courses to have during, especially our competitive season where there’s some travel and you’re gonna miss some class times making sure you’re not in a class that’s gonna be too hard for you to miss.
Matt: [00:15:00] So, and that kind of leads me right into my next question. So it sounds like you’re in terms of a, a typical schedule during the season, that practice times after three o’clock. Is that, is that, would that be right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
Coach: typical day, they wake up in the morning, uh, get some breakfast. They’re in class nine at noon.
They got some free time, 12 to three to either get work done, see a professor, see a tutor or whatever it might be. Training is usually three to 5, 5 30 ish. If we do some video or scout or things like that. And then their evenings back free again as well. Okay.
Matt: Now in terms of, uh, travel, you know, you guys are in the mountain west, like, you know, there’s a little bit spread out.
How does that work in terms of your typical cadence in games and missing? Well, does that really require missing classes in that block schedule that early morning? Or how does that
Coach: work? So, yes, well now the mountain west is also gone on Thursday, Sunday, which a lot of conferences have gone to. So that does, um, bring in an additional mixed, missed class day.
But we try to. [00:16:00] So if we have a Thursday game on the road, we’re gonna leave Wednesday after classes. Uh, Then Thursday, we’ll set aside time for them to get their course work done. Or maybe that’s where COVID has helped athletes a little bit. Because now a lot of professors have lectures that are already pre-recorded or they’re really good at the technical side.
So they’ll let somebody zoom into class. Um, so I think that’s gonna help us a lot compared to maybe when I was back in school and you just had to rely on a friend taking some good notes and, and whether or not they were legible. So, uh, I do think that the zooming and pre-recorded lectures are really gonna help us when we have to miss an extra class.
Matt: Okay, well, let’s shift gears a little bit. Talk about the team, the soccer side of things. So, uh, is there a typical or an ideal roster size that you’re trying to hit each. So I usually
Coach: like 25 to 27, I think is a good roster. You know, you wanna be able to compete 11, B, 11 in training, a lot of collars rosters you’ll carry a third goalkeeper.
Um, uh, and then you, you know, you always have somebody with an injury or a knock or a [00:17:00] pole or something where they might be out. So to give you a few extra bodies in there, just, and then you have, you know, you have a small group that are still developing and it gives you a little bit of time to develop those, those student athletes.
So. So I like to try to keep it 25 to 27.
Matt: Okay. And then what about, uh, your staff? How big is your staff? What role does everybody play? Uh, what kind of other athletic department support staff are there that play a role with the team?
Coach: Right? So we have full-time coaches. We have myself as a head coach.
We have two full-time assistant coaches. Uh, one of those, yeah. One of those also trains the goalkeepers. Uh, right now we don’t have a volunteer coach, but we could add in a volunteer coach and we also. Director of ops, um, part-time director of ops that can help us kind of arrange travel and do some of those administrative things, take some workload off of the coaching staff, which is awesome.
Uh, then as a continued support staff, we have a full-time trainer assigned to soccer. Um, and she’s great. She’s new to us this year, but came from duke football and, uh, [00:18:00] she’s been a tremendous addition as well as we have cam Davidson that does our strength and conditioning. Uh, and then, um, So, those are kind of our two main ones that are added to us.
And then we have a PT. That also works with our student athletes. So again, we don’t have to like to ship them off to a PT place. If they’re needing PT tab stuff, we have somebody in house that can work with them. And he’s done a tremendous job, especially with a couple bars that have come back from ACLS. So we actually have some great support systems.
And then, um, we outsource, we have a sports psychologist that the team works with, uh, a team kind of consultant that helps with the freshmen as they’re, uh, kind of trying. Make that transition from high school and club to college and all, all that, all of what that entails. Uh, we have somebody that’s, um, helping with that transition with them, just another person for them to reach out to if they’re struggling, without having to necessarily let the coaches know.
Um, but just another resource for ’em. No,
Matt: That’s excellent. Um, well in [00:19:00] terms of resources, do, are there. Kind of the best way I can put this. What kinds of technology are you guys using in terms of whether that’s in game or in practice? What, what kind of, how does that kind of mix and everything? Yeah.
Coach: Our student athletes, whether GPS units.
So we can kind of track, which for us, the main things we like to get out of that is just total volume that they’ve maybe run that day and also change of direction. Deceleration is usually what causes the most fatigue and soreness. So you can see if somebody’s maybe on the high end of those. Uh, and then a lot of things with data take time.
So freshman year it’s just kind of learning their bodies. And then by the time they’re seniors, you can kind of know if somebody’s on the verge or maybe you can red flag them that, Hey, they’ve had a lot of volume for so many days in a row or so a week or so. And then you can pull ’em back a little bit, trying to help injury prevention is the main reason we’re wearing those kinds of stuff.
Uh, we feel like we have video cameras. So every training’s recorded, every game’s recorded, the student athletes have immediate access to all of that information. So if they [00:20:00] wanna go back and see, uh, some drill in practice or something that happened, uh, or come. Talk to the coaching staff about that. They have access to all the practice and games.
Uh, then we also use NSTA, which helps break down our video for us. So again, within 24 hours, the players can see all their touches from their previous game. Um, the stats, which I always tell them are probably about 75 to 80%, maybe accurate, but. Again, you can see trends over time. So that’s why we’re six games into the season.
And so that was my job as today, as I’m going through the trends, who’s trending up, who’s trending down, um, in, in different keys, key parts of the stats that we think are important indicators of whether or not we’re gonna be successful. Okay.
Matt: Um, in terms of kind of. Your style of coaching team style of play.
How would you describe that? Uh, and kind of just the overall culture of the team as you’re kind of getting kicked off in your yeah. In this first full season for you.
Coach: So first for team culture, uh, uh, we kind of had a culture building meeting, [00:21:00] and that was one of the things we wanted to reestablish what are the main values that mattered to us both on and off the field.
And I thought the team did great choosing those and, and also defining them. But we are grit, trust, love, and. So those are the big things. So again, when we’re doing it. Film or anything. We always have a values part of that film so that they can see how those values live out on the field for us. Uh, and then style of play.
I’m an attack minded coach, even though I was a defender by trade a little bit, uh, I love attacking soccer. I’m an American soccer coach for sure. Cause I’d rather it be eight seven, then zero, zero. uh, as long as we’re winning, not that I really wanna give up seven goals, but I think it’s just more fun for the fans.
Right? So an attractive style that makes the fans wanna come out and watch you. So move the ball on the ground, move it quickly. Change sides, isolate somebody, one, the one show, some creative flair in the final third, um, put balls in the back of the net. And then I say from a defensive standpoint, we want the other team to start counting, cuz they think we have an extra person on the field because we’re [00:22:00] just that hard to break down.
And it seems like we have so many people around the ball and how can we do that? So which comes back to our original, main core value of work rate, work rate, and.
Matt: No love it. Love it. Well, coach, I, you know, we’ve kind of covered a whole lot of ground here and I do appreciate your time. I don’t wanna keep you too long, but I always like to end these on the same note and that’s what we didn’t talk about?
Uh, what did we miss? What else do you wanna let people know whether it’s about recruiting the school, the team, the soccer side, or, or anything else in general? Uh, the floor is yours.
Coach: I think from just the recruiting standpoint, right. I think that can be a very stressful process for, uh, young players and they don’t get a phone call on that June 15th or thinking nobody wants some, but just that it’s, uh, Really a self-driven process.
And the more effort you put into it, the better, better, uh, the better outcome you’re going to have. And you’re gonna find that place that’s the right fit for you. If you really have that, um, uh, desire to wanna play at that next level, you gotta put some effort [00:23:00] in and, and sell yourself a little bit.
There’s a lot of good players out there, but if you find some schools that are really the right fit for you, just continue to keep reaching out and being in touch and, um, Kind of find a way to enjoy that process and try not to be too stressed out about it.
Matt: Absolutely. Well, wise words. Thank you, coach, I really appreciate the time.
Wish you the best of luck, uh, with the rest of this season. And, uh, hopefully you’ll be standing at the top of the podium there, uh, at the end of the mountain west tournament and we’ll see it in the NCAAs. All right.
Coach: We appreciate it. Thank you very
Matt: much. All right. Thank you.
