Baldwin Wallace University Women’s Soccer – Coach Jim Wojtkun

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Jim Wojtkun from the Baldwin Wallace Women’s Program in Ohio. We talk about how he wants players who have a passion for the game. He describes how everyone gets to dress and travel to games. Lastly, we discuss how they like to play with pace and break lines. Learn more about Baldwin Wallace University Women’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Jim Wojtkun from Baldwin Wallace. Welcome coach. Welcome.

Coach: I appreciate it, thank you.

Matt: thank you. Yeah, thanks for being here. And, and as we’re saying, I loving your roster cuz uh, you got a girl from my hometown. You got a girl from the school system my mom worked at.

And so being a, being an Ohio guy, it’s nice to talk to a, to an Ohio school. Um, but, but let’s talk about, uh, things. You just wrapped up your season, so I’m sure you’re hot and heavy into the recruiting side of things. Um, so. , when is it that you’re really starting to, to talk to players? What year in school are you?

I’m guessing you’re, you’re hitting the 20 threes. 

Coach: We’re trying right now. We’re trying, we’re trying to take full advantage of what the NCAA allows us since the, the big guys can’t start until June had the, of the junior year. But we try to get ahold of them before, so we’re trying to be at least six months to expose ourselves to.

So this year we’ll start working with the 2020 fives, just to introduce ’em to who BW is, to create the opportunity for them to get to know us. So when they have the opportunity to talk to the scholarship programs, uh, on their June beginning date, they at least have an understanding of who we are and what a Division three mindset represents and what a division three opportunity represents.

Uh, we won’t close at near the pace. Um, you know, I can’t see a scholarship school having any opportunities for 2020 threes available, and yet we’ll still add a, a few 2020 threes to our recruiting class, uh, and to our commit list over the next, you know, six, eight weeks, uh, to make that happen. So we start early, but we run late.

So for us, our recruiting [00:01:30] calendar is pretty big in that regard. . Yeah. 

Matt: Well, in terms of, of looking at, at players and, and seeing in places, are there kind of the tournaments that are the, the must hit list for you? 

Coach: Well, for us, there are several. I mean, we, and we run the gamut. Um, we’ll look at, uh, an E C N L and an E C N L Regional League event.

Uh, we’ll definitely go to, uh, to a GA regional or National League. We’ll look at National League, national League 64. Uh, they’ll be, um, interesting to us. But then we’re also going to try to get to the local clubs, um, that we’ve been able to be blessed with over the time. You know, so we don’t always get an E C N L player on our roster or GA player on our rosters, and we welcome them when they do.

Uh, but we’ll talk to the local clubs that might play, uh, in a regional league. We’ll talk to the local clubs that are probably playing in a US club. Soccer, um, local, regional event. We’ll catch some of the clubs when they’re hosting, um, weekends for, um, various elements or various league games. So we’re gonna be really active across the board with the, the major national entities, but we’re never going to turn our back on some of the smaller local clubs that have helped us build our program over the years.

Okay. 

Matt: Well what about camps? Do you guys do your own, do you, does you and your staff work other camps? How do they. 

Coach: We’d love to have more of our own, uh, but, you know, facility limited, uh, situation and we have better facilities than a lot of Division II programs, but we don’t have an indoor facility, so that kind of limits what we do in the winter.

So we’ll try to work, uh, some major [00:03:00] camps. Uh, we have great relationships with some of the, the D one and D two programs around us that have some indoor facilities, so we’ll be at their places. Um, We’ll be, we’ll do our own camps. We’ll try to do one in the spring, one in the summer. Um, we’re always successful at the summer camp.

Uh, sometimes we’re successful at the spring camp, depending on if we can find a weekend that corresponds to what’s happening with the Easton l or the GA or, or some of the State Cup, uh, opportunities that exist. We love to work, uh, like I said, with our friends at, uh, at maybe Kent State or Cleveland State, uh, university of Akron, uh, that they’ll invite us in to, to observe or coach or do a session.

And we love those opportunities. Uh, we never turn our back. . 

Matt: Okay. Well, whether it’s at one of those camps or, or tournament games or anything else, kind of what’s your hierarchy of what you’re looking for in a player, whether that’s on the field stuff or off the field stuff?

Coach: Oh, it starts with passion, uh, for us.

Do they love the game? Um, let’s be perfectly honest, at any level, division 1, 2 3 N a I, juco, uh, if you’re not passionate about it, it gets old real. You know, we’re talking about a six day a week grind, 12 month a year grind. And, and our grind might not be as bad as say, a power five, but they’ve got a grind in the winter.

So we want passion first. Um, that makes a, a huge difference to us. We wanna talk to them and make sure, um, that they’re a great teammate. , you know, we talk about our culture. In our culture, we call you with me and the premise of that, and a lot of people have it, you know, we, before me, uh, can I make my teammates better?

Can hold ’em accountable. So we want them to have that energy level and the commitment to their teammates, uh, to matter. And then you look at technical skills, and to be perfectly [00:04:30] honest, you have to have a first touch before anything matters. You, you can’t teach if you can’t , if you can’t bring the ball down, you played.

If you can’t bring the ball down, you can’t teach the next step. You know? And we like to look at our, we like to look at first touch in, in terms of what we call our 3d. , can you bring it down? Can you make it directionally can be deceptive? So we’re looking at all those three things when we look at a player in a camp environment, a game environment, uh, or whatever.

Um, so, um, but we want, uh, a good teammate. We want a teammate that, um, that comes from a good family. We want them to bring the energy to bear and we want them to enjoy our passion for the sport. Um, it’s, you know what, it’s the world’s game for a reason and we. 

Matt: That’s great. Well, in terms of, of recruiting, do you guys look at international players at all at their transfer portal at all?

Do those things factor in?

Coach: Uh, I would love to look at international players, uh, not because I wanna pepper my roster with them, just because I think from a human growth perspective, it would give our players, uh, ample opportunity to, to learn about different cultures and different. We at BW are limited.

I’ll have to be perfectly honest, we have very limited money for international students, given the fact that we provide academic and financial aid. But the financial aid portion of our model that works for our domestic student doesn’t necessarily work with our international students. So we’ve gotta find international student that has some economic wherewithal in addition, uh, to being intellectually or academically sound.

So that’s why we limit are that, uh, the transfer reporter is a blessing and a curse. Uh, I love to look at the 200 players [00:06:00] that go in on an everyday level now. . Um, but it’s a very difficult, uh, process, um, because a division one player has division one aspirations. Now they, they’ve received money, they’ve been in that.

So it’s difficult to say, am I taking a step back? We’re at the D three level. No, you’re not taking any step back. Our measure of competitiveness, how we play, how we teach, what our expectations are, the desire to win no different than from us, from, uh, the power five. Um, it’s just a different balance, but it’s hard sometimes to explain that balance.

So that’s why I think the portal is both a blessing and a curses for. Yeah. 

Matt: Well, and talk about internationals. You kind of mentioned the academic aid and that kind of thing. Can you just gimme a rough overview of, of what kind of it looks like to attend Boulder Wallace in terms of what scholarships are available?

Sure. What, what, uh, what kind of that financial aid packages look like.

Coach: I think from a, from a pure academic opportunity standpoint, BW is a very generous institution. Um, right now, this year, we’re probably hovering around the 49,000 total cost room board tuition. Probably be slightly over 50 and 23, 24. Uh, that being said, um, our top academic package runs at 21, uh, which is a, which is a great model.

Uh, we also have instituted, uh, in year one, what we call our visit scholarship. So if a player were to visit us, um, they’d get access to an additional $2,000. Uh, and then we have other opportunities for out-of-state residents. They have the opportunity to earn, uh, what we call, uh, the, the Cleveland [00:07:30] Residency.

Uh, so it’s, it’s applicable to those in, uh, outside the state of Ohio that’s worth up to another $5,000. So we can cover well over 50% for, um, for a student that brings in a three nine or better G p a, uh, and has meets the other, uh, other various criteria. . So I’m saying, you know, from a 50% standpoint, if I told you I can give you 50% to play soccer, you’re gonna look at me and say, whoa.

So I’m saying I can give you 50% to come to a great academic institution and play soccer. I wanna Whoa too, you know, . 

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Um, and, and, and I think that’s, . It’s one thing we try to stress to a lot of folks is that, uh, you gotta look at that academics first. Cuz, cuz that’s gonna get you recruited quicker than anything else.

Coach: Well, we like to, we like to actually look at that when we call our four and 40 principle is that can I give you a great soccer experience for four years, make you a better soccer player? Uh, really give you the enjoyment and the passion of the game. But the most important criteria for making a decision is what we call the 40 year.

Can I create the foundation that you’re gonna be successful in your career for 40 years? Nothing against the N W S L. I think it does a great job. But you look at the teams and the amount of players they draft every year, they’re maybe domestic or international, and you’re probably looking at 40 or 42 women a year over, Hmm.

1100 schools that play women’s soccer and you’re looking at 40 women. So to be perfectly honest, you need that. You need that foundation to see what your career’s going. 

Matt: Well, and, and that’s a great segue. Let’s, let’s talk a little bit about the school. Uh, obviously there’s some [00:09:00] folks out there that probably aren’t familiar with Bald Wallace.

Uh, so can you gimme some of the, the insights, the, the stuff about the school that’s awesome, that maybe I’m just not gonna find by clicking around the website.

Coach: Um, I think the hardest thing that to recognize is there are so many quality institutions out there in which we’re one of ’em that have great opportunities.

Um, we do tremendous in the sciences. You know, our pre-professional programs say pre-med, uh, pre physicians assisting, um, things in those nature pre um, , uh, sports medicine or any kind of opportunity like that in athletic training? Uh, we do great. Right now I probably have 15 scientists on the team between nursing, um, physical therapy, physicians assisting, and then we probably have one of the top five neuroscience programs in the country, um, as by the whole neuroscience foundations that, that look at that.

So, uh, there’s an opportunity. We have a tremendous speech pathology program that lends, you know, we call it communication disorders as an undergraduate major that leads into a speech path, master’s degree, or, uh, doctor of audiology. So again, from those science perspectives, we do good. We probably are, uh, Teaching the lion share of academics, teachers that end up, uh, in, in, in and around Ohio.

So our teaching program, uh, our business program and our sports management program now, uh, are incredible. I think one of the interesting things for anybody who wants to come to us for a sports management degree that you can’t find in an independent research is the fact that we give them field experiences from even before they come onto campus.

I have a player sophomore year [00:10:30] before she even came onto campus for pre-season, she had worked an event, uh, the um, Yeah, the Hall of Fame game for the N F L in Canton. and, um, as an incoming freshman, she was invited to do that, to get field experience. And those are the kinds of things that we provide.

This year. We’re sending players, uh, on our team, uh, that are in the sports management program to work, uh, the college Football National Championship game, the Super Bowl. Um, we, uh, group going to the master’s degree to work there for the entire week, uh, of the master’s. Uh, no master’s degree of the Master’s golf tournament.

I, I should learn how to speak. Um, but to create the opportunity for them now in that environment. Those are some things you can’t find in the research, but that exists here, um, because of what we’ve been able to do. 

Matt: Oh, that’s, that’s fantastic. Especially as a, as a sport management grad. Uh, I did, I did my grad work at Ohio University, so, so love to see that. 

Coach: Ah, again, one of my best friends was the director of that program for a long time. Do you know Jim Kahler? Oh yeah, yeah. Yep, yep. I know you and you and I go way back. We went to high school together. 

Matt: Oh wow. That’s amazing. Well, is up back and back your way at Cleveland State now. Yep. Um, well, great. Well let, let’s talk about, you know, we, we talked a little bit about academics, but let’s talk a little bit more so, you know, how do your student athletes in particular really balance the, the academic rigors and the athletic demands that, that are put on?

Coach: One of the things we try to do from a, from a team stand, Actually, what I asked my assistant to do from a team standpoint is get our players’ academic load after registration and then she’ll build a [00:12:00] spreadsheet. So we try. Create the environment where we’ll build training times around our players academic times, not always a hundred percent successful.

So we might have conflicts like there might be a Tuesday night training where one or two players can’t make it cause of a class in their major. Well, you know what? Academics always takes priority for us. So they’re not missing class for practice, they’re missing practice for class, but they’ll work with us and find out what they need to accomplish in that space.

So because we have a training, uh, a training pitch, and a game pitch, we have the flexibility to have. Additional training time. So we’re not locked into saying, oh my God, we have to train at eight. Cause that’s the only available time. We’ll build a training time based on our player’s academic load, which helps us, uh, in that regard.

So that’s one of the balance things we do. Um, we create the opportunity that if a player has a major test or they need it and they need to step away for training for a day, we’re gonna give ’em that flexibility. You know, we’re gonna ask ’em to make it up, uh, because it’s not a free day. Um, but we’re gonna create the opportunity for them, uh, to, to take away some.

Burden, some stress of finals or, or classwork or midterms that they might need to do. And again, our players don’t often ask for that, but we’re gonna give ’em the opportunity to do that, uh, to make that. And we tell them that if there’s are a conflict between academics and athletics, in our world, there’s no conflict because academics takes precedent.

And granted, we’ve gotta miss some class days when we travel and when we play, uh, we’ll give ’em the tools to work with their professors that, uh, they’re not being held, uh, to a different standard than the rest of the class. But we’re going to give ’em the tools they need to succeed in the classroom and be perfect, honest, really happy where we’re at, team G P A right now, Harvard’s right around 3.55.

[00:13:30] Um, and, uh, and I can’t argue, you know, I got a couple students that, uh, still haven’t gotten their first college B, so we kind of like that too. 

Matt: That’s what you like to see. That’s what you like to see. Well, let, let’s switch gears. Talk a little bit more about the, the soccer side of things. Um, you, you know, as we talked about recruiting, is there, is there a roster size that’s kind of your target that you’re going for each year?

Coach: Well, we carried 34 last year, which is a little bigger than we’d like. Uh, we think 32 is a great number with four goalkeepers, and we weather some injuries and have the capacity to play 11 aside. Um, the university asked us to, to be around a certain number, but they, they’re not focused on us having a recruiting quota, you know, so we’re not like, oh goodness.

I know there’s some schools out there with 50, 60, 70 women on a roster. I’m thinking, holy cow. Um, we don’t have to keep a developmental team. And we keep everyone engaged. We’re lucky, um, with our resources that we dress and travel everyone when we play. So we keep the team engaged in that regard. So I don’t have a travel roster, so for us, uh, it allows us to build that, that team chemistry, that team camaraderie, that, that sense of bonding, that really helps.

Um, and we’re very, very fortunate that the university supports us in that, that endeavor. 

Matt: Oh, that’s tremendous. Uh, what about your staff? How big is your staff? What role does everybody, buddy, uh, does everybody play there?

Coach: Sure. Um, I have a couple student assistants. I have, um, one assistant, uh, Lex Manoa. Uh, Lex was a, a great college player herself.

Uh, and um, and she’s on staff. I have a, um, [00:15:00] another assistant, a part-time assistant, Tyler, uh, that does a great job for us. And then we have two student assistants. Um, So, uh, we’re covered off on what we need to do. Um, what I like to be, you know, I, I think we all want more people, . I think that’s human beings, but I think where we’re at right now gives us the ability to interact with our women.

Uh, I’m really, really pleased with the fact that, um, my number one assistant, Lex, um, brings both, uh, the female perspective to bear as well as the female college player perspective to bear. So she’s built some. Important in integral relationships with our women that allow them to grow not only as players, but as people.

We also have a tremendous medical staff. Our, our lead athletic trainer, uh, Christine, uh, has built. An incredible rapport with the athletes. So both from a physical ability and, and health standpoint, from physically, she’s also been able to engage them from a mental health perspective. So we really wanna make sure that our athletes are fully cared for physically and mentally.

You know, COVID brought out an incredible strain, um, in the athletic world and we’ve been able to address that, um, real positively. Uh, and I think that’s a testament to. To Christine as well as to our testament, to our affiliation, um, as a program, as an institution with the Cleveland Clinic. So that gives us world-class medical care here on campus.

Matt: Yeah. That, that is amazing. 

Well, on term in terms of on the field stuff, can you give, gimme a good description of, of your style of coaching, the team style of play?

Coach: Sure. Um, you know, um, I think it’s a [00:16:30] hybrid of how people talk, you know? Uh, are we capable of possessing the ball? Yes. Do we like to kick it around?

Just to kick it around? No. Um, you know, we wanna break lines relatively quickly. We wanna get in behind, we wanna score goals. Um, So we tried to play the game at a pace that allows us to do that. You know, how can we quickly get forward? Can we win the ball? Uh, can we disconnect the other team? Can we break a line and get in behind?

Um, you know, we, we’ve traditionally shaped in a, in a 4 33, uh, with a goalkeeper 1, 4 33. . Uh, but we’re fluid enough and, and I think soccer IQ savvy enough, uh, to switch, you know, there’s teams in our conference that the man we play in different formations and we do, um, and our women are, are capable of doing that.

Um, what we look for from our perspective is, can you, um, Can you receive a ball, like we said, with a purpose, our three Ds? Uh, can you be able to skip a layer if you can? Uh, so if I’m a, if I’m a center back and I find a nine, if it’s on, um, and are we smart enough to play off each other? So we wanna make sure that we’re continually moving.

We call about, we talk our in, in our ling we call resetting angles. Can we play a ball on that? How do I find the next angle to make myself dangerous? So we look to do that. Um, we look to find women that could, can hit a ball. That are, are, you know, comfortable in the box and we look to make sure that we get, we can play and defend one v1.

Um, because when it comes down to it, you still gotta be able to, to win the individual battles, to win the, the big game. Um, but from a, from a peer perspective standpoint, are we good enough on the ball, uh, to break layers and are we good enough on the ball to get in behind and get the goal this as quickly [00:18:00] as we possibly can?

Matt: Okay. Well, as we mentioned, you know, you’ve just wrapped up your season, so now you got, uh, To, I gotta fill all that time between now and next August. Right. So what, what will your off season program look like for the, for the team between now and then? 

Coach: Well, from the end of our season, uh, till the end of finals, which, oh shoot, that’s next week,

Oh. Um, we were in, we’re still in the weight room two days a week like we do in season. So in the SE in during our season, we’re in the wait room twice a week, Monday, Thursday for us. And then now, uh, we’ll send them home, uh, with a, with a link to their app. We have a, um, app with our, uh, with our strength and conditioning people that will give them some work to do over the holiday season.

We’ll come back in early January. They report January 9th. So January 10th. We’ll be in the weight room, uh, three days a week in, in, um, January and February. As well as we’ll do some speed, agility, quickness with, with them, uh, in the interim. And then, uh, per the ncaa, uh, we’ll get our five week window. We’ll start that after our spring break in March.

And we’ll take full advantage of our, our 15 training days and our one play date, uh, in March. Uh, excited to see what the presidents might do NCAA presidents might do to see if we get the 114 days back. Yeah. Uh, if we get the hundred 14 days back, um, you’ll see a lot of division three coaches smiling and dancing.

I’m sure because we’ll get, we’ll get more 10 with it, you know, uh, I heard somebody explain it before that, um, the division three athlete has changed and they’re no longer looking for that separation. No. They don’t want the, um, soccer first mindset of a maybe a [00:19:30] power five, but they don’t wanna lose touch with their sport in the off season.

So, , if we’re fortunate enough to get the 114 days back from the ncaa, we’ll have access to, to train a little deeper. And I think our players will be significantly happier. You know, for me that’s part of the experience, you know, the student experience for an athlete is, can I play my game? We just wanna give ’em the opportunity to play their game.

For sure. 

Matt: Absolutely. I, I remember. Especially with international players who, who aren’t used to restrictions, they just play all the time and you tell ’em they, you can’t do anything and they look at you like your cross eye. But, uh, anyway. Um, well coach, this has been great. We’ve covered a lot of ground, uh, but I always like to end these the same way and that’s what didn’t we talk about.

Is there anything more you want to let us know about, whether it’s recruiting the school, the team, or anything else? I give you the last word.

Coach: Well, I think one of the most important things to realize for us, uh, and I think for a lot of programs at the Division 3 level is the ability for us to engage our students, not just as athletes, but as people.

And I think our growth model is, can I make you a better soccer player? But can I, can I contribute to the fact of your growth, uh, as a professional? So when you leave our institution, are you prepared for the next stages of life? and, and, and that same thing, we also want them to realize that as family, uh, it’s a forever family.

You know, we want them to come back and we want them to, to participate. And we’ve been very fortunate, you know, our alums come back on a regular basis and our alums stay engaged. And I think one of the most important parts, and one of the reasons I love the D three model is the ability to work in that environment with these women, uh, as students, as athletes, as people.

And to build that [00:21:00] cohesive relationship that transcends the four years they spend. 

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Well, uh, I’m looking forward to, to seeing this weekend’s NCAA Division three final four results. You got your rival, uh, locally case Western there? Uh, 

Coach: well we played them tough this year. Yeah, we played them.

Yeah, absolutely. We had our chances to beat the, one of the final four teams. Ah, it’s, 

Matt: it’s always good. Well, coach, wish you the best of luck next season then. Uh, if you’re in Philly at all for the coaches convention, please swing by and say hello at the Discover College Soccer booth and, uh, wish you. 

Coach: Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Thank you.