Grand Valley State University Women’s Soccer – Coach Sam Tracey
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Sam from the Grand Valley Women’s Program in Michigan. We talk about recruiting as a new coaching staff. She describes the resources available to players to help with academics. Lastly, we discuss their ideal roster size to ensure their players feel respected. Learn more about Grand Valley State University Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. I am lucky enough today to be joined by Coach Sam Tracey from Grand Valley State. Welcome coach.
Coach: Thanks so much for having me. I’m super excited to be here.
Matt: Yeah, thank you. It’s a fun time here in Philadelphia at the, at the United Soccer Coach’s Convention.
You, have you seen anything in enjoyable yet?
Coach: Yeah. I mean, obviously there’s just a huge networking opportunity here. So many coaches of such high caliber in the same building. It’s been, it’s been incredible so far. It’s my. My first one as a coach, so I’m super excited.
Matt: Yeah, I’ve, uh, it’s the first one I’ve been to probably in the last five or six years.
Uh, but it’s always good to come to these cuz you get to see a lot of people that you haven’t seen in a while and, and meet, meet people who will be lifelong friends and, uh, yeah, it’s, it, it really is a great event. Well, well, let’s talk about Grand Valley a bit. You, uh, new, new coaching staff arrived this summer, right?
Coach: Yeah, absolutely. Um, we were coming into a program, they had just won a national championship last year, so, um, and obviously Grand Valley State has a tradition of winning championships, tradition of excellence in every sport, not just women’s soccer. Um, but ultimately we came in super excited, um, and the girls were excited too.
Super hungry. Team. So yeah, we, we really, really enjoyed our first fall and now looking ahead, um, at the developmental period for this team. Just, just, again, super excited to, to finish our full first year, uh, together.
Matt: Yeah, it’s, uh, it al always, uh, nerves a bit coming in, uh, as a new, new coaching staff, especially when you’re [00:01:30] held to a, to a high bar, uh, like you are at Grand Valley.
So, let, let’s talk a little bit about the recruiting side. You know, it. Showcase season, uh, everywhere. As, as I think a ton of people flew directly from the EC and L Florida event. They were on my flight from Tampa, uh, into Philly for this thing. But, um, are, have you guys closed up your 23 class or you moved on to 20 fours?
What does that look like for you guys?
Coach: Yeah, so I think the, the fun thing about recruiting is it’s never really done. It’s never really wrapped. Um, but yes, we, we’ve pretty much buttoned up our 20 threes. Um, but obviously, like I said, you know, there’s always the stray one or two that you get at the end, right.
Um, but definitely working on our 2024 class, we had our, uh, other assistant coach Mario was in Florida, um, working that event. Um, Katie was at a field in Brighton a couple days ago. The recruiting side is just never really done. Um, it’s always, always a good grind to have and just trying to be present on the field with the girls, uh, has been always really fun for us.
Matt: Now you mentioned ECNL down in Florida. Are there other kind of must hit events for you guys, the ones that you need to make sure that you’re at every year? Um, and, and is it more regional? Is it more national? Mm-hmm. , what does it look like for you guys?
Coach: Yeah, I mean, obviously. , any ECNL or GA event that we can get to is huge.
But for us, we, we do like to look local as well. There’s different combines for different clubs that are always excellent, right? You have the Hawks Combine, you have different Jags events. You have different [00:03:00] Midwest, United as right in our backyard. Um, we often go there. So I think we try to have a mix of those regional events, but also the super common, uh, ga ecnl type event.
Matt: Uh, what about camps? Uh, do you guys have your own camps? Do you and the rest of your staff work, you know, other camps? What do, what do camps look like for your recruiting?
Coach: Oh, absolutely. We are, we take our ID camps super seriously. We have, uh, so, so many camps. We also have tournaments for different local teams if they wanna come into the area and.
We’ll watch those as well. But yeah, we, we, we go out into different camps. I know I spent last summer around the state, around, um, going to different legends camps, different Jags camps. So yeah, we we’re super invested in the camp side and it’s good to get, you know, get a face to a name of the different recruits that we’re talking to
Matt: now, whether it’s at a camp or at a tournament or, or anything else.
What kind of makes up the, the hierarchy of things that you guys are looking for in a player that, you know, I. Again, you’re, you guys are a national championship caliber program. What, what is it that, that makes somebody stand out as to somebody that you guys want to bring to Michigan?
Coach: Sure. Like I think ultimately you’re always looking for a player and a person, right?
Um, and you can really tell right away when you talk with players or see them with their team, um, the kind of person and the leader that they are. Uh, ultimately when you bring a player into a championship program, you’re looking for the whole package of someone who can compete at the highest level. But also obviously, you know, somebody that stands out on the field that, um, [00:04:30] is a good communicator, that has good field awareness, um, and speed of play is always huge.
Obviously the biggest step from the high school to college game is that speed of play. So if they have it right away, that sticks out for us for sure.
Matt: Absolutely. That, that is a, a drum I’ve beaten for years and years. The biggest difference, uh, each level just is, is speed of play. Um, well, it. In terms of, uh, you know, since you guys are division two school and, and official visits versus unofficial visits, it’s a big question we always get, kind of, what’s that look like to you?
Do you guys do a lot of official visits for recruits or is most things unofficial or what does that look like at Grand Valley?
Coach: Yeah, I think, you know, you have to. Meet, meet the players’ needs as well. Obviously different official and unofficial visits. They only have a certain number of those, so we try to cater to what the player needs.
Ultimately, we do a, we do a really fair mix of, of both types of visits and just having girls on campus. Uh, obviously it’s super important to get them there just to see it and feel it, um, because it’s just an environment that you. See, you know, you have to see in person. So. Yeah.
Matt: Well, one of the big things to, to happen to college soccer recently is the transfer portal.
Um, so is that something you guys look at at all during your recruiting? Uh, or, or not so much?
Coach: Yeah, definitely. I mean, uh, I think you’d be silly not to at least give it a look. Um, there’s obviously really good players in there. Uh, but, [00:06:00] but yeah, we, we definitely look there, but we also look at the players that are incoming.
Um, I think it’s just you gotta give those players in the portal a fair shot as well.
Matt: now, division two on the men’s side tends to be fairly heavy international. Yeah. Um, does that come into play for you guys at all on the international stage?
Coach: I haven’t seen it yet, so I, my background playing is in the naia, um, where there’s so many international players on the women’s side and on the men’s side.
Um, but from my experience in D two, so far I haven’t seen it as much. But that’s not to say that it doesn’t exist. Obviously I’ve only been in division two for six months-ish. Um, but yeah, definitely you can see it on the men’s side a ton. Especially in the top talent. Yeah.
Matt: Well, on, on the specific to Grand Valley side of things, you know, as a parent, uh, with, with a, with a player in a few years, headed to college, One of the big question marks is always around, okay, what’s this gonna cost me?
So now I’m not gonna hold you to any hard numbers here, but can you just give me a rough overview of, you know, what does it look like to attend Grand Valley from a financial standpoint? You know, what is the average maybe mix of athletic money and academic money? And do you guys. Stack And what, what does that hall kind of look like at Grand Valley?
Coach: Yeah. Well, especially coming from my NAIA background, I think a lot of those, like smaller Christian schools are more expensive from what I can tell. Um, for us, it’s, it’s really not that bad. We have a good mix of the academic and athletic that usually makes it [00:07:30] fairly reasonable. Um, but definitely Grand Valley’s one of the places where, um, it has a very diverse student body just because it is not that expensive to go there.
So I would say, um, you know, you’re, you’re looking in the ballpark of something very reasonable. Um, when Grand Grand Valley, when you talk about that. Um, obviously though that’s coming from my background of visiting. I’m a, I’m a five one goalkeeper, so I only visited schools that were 60 K and more, you know what I mean?
Because that’s just how those small Christian schools go at.
Matt: Yeah, yeah, we, there, there’s definitely a certain mix of, of, of small schools, whether they’re naia, division three, that, that have maybe, uh, higher price tags than most. But, um, well, you’ve been there six months now, so, you know, give me the, the things that you’ve found out about Grand Valley that, that are surprising or things that are awesome that, that you really like, that you didn’t know and that folks maybe not learn.
Uh, just by visiting the website.
Coach: Yeah, for sure. I mean, the, what people might not know is the campus is gorgeous. Um, the, the buildings that we have, and it’s just a really good environment. Um, walking, I don’t know, between classes, I see students all the time that are just kind of all mingling about by the clock tower.
Um, it’s just a really good, good environment and a good place. And I think something that they might not know, um, until you get there is the environment around the. Is just so good. Um, the school really supports its athletic programs. Um, the field spaces that we have are [00:09:00] amazing just for a women’s soccer program, to have that access to multiple turf fields, multiple grass fields.
And then, you know, obviously we have an amazing football program. Our volleyball team’s good. Our basketball teams are good. So it’s just like, it’s something that you almost have to feel when you get on campus, just like the air of athletic, you know, driven. People. So it’s really, I mean, just the environment, the people that are there, it just makes it fun to be around.
Matt: Oh, that’s awesome. Well, you know, un unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, you know, going to college is not just playing soccer. So on the academic side, how do your student athletes really balance those commitments between the sport and and school? And what kind of support mechanisms does Grand Valley offer?
Coach: The players with that? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I’ve heard our players, uh, talk a lot about the connections between the athletic programs and the academic programs, and there’s so many resources that they have. They go to their study tables, but they also have someone of one staff member completely dedicated to making sure that they are.
Getting everything they need out of their education. And I think that that’s unique to the athletic programs at Grand Valley. Not every student has that. So, um, our, the lady that does our, our work Maisha, she’s amazing. She’s so connected with the team. She comes to the events in pre-season when school’s, not even in session.
Um, but they’re super, they have somebody super dedicated, uh, to making sure that they can get through their coursework and balance it all. [00:10:30] But yeah, our, our student athletes are super dedicated to their education. They just had a team gpa. 3.4. So they, they, they had a great semester this year, so looking forward to seeing them grow in, in that area.
They love it. No, that’s great.
Matt: Well, can you walk me through what a typical week during the season would look like for your players in terms of, you know, when are the meals, when are classes, practice, if you’re traveling for games, kind of what your game games, what, what does a normal week look like?
Coach: Sure. So, uh, Mondays are off. Uh, so then we’ll, we’ll get back on Tuesday right at it. Um, we have the same practice slot every day, start at one 30. Um, but reentry day usually is simple. We just play, um, and that’s Tuesdays, Wednesday is our teaching day, so we’ll somewhat address what our next opponent will look like, um, and what we want to do against them.
Um, and that’s Wednesday. So that’s a meaty practice that usually ends up taking a lot of time. Um, and then Weds, sorry, Thursday is the game day minus one. So we’re often preparing for the next opponent, but ultimately just getting jazzed and ready to go. Um, and then we play Friday and Sunday, so we end up usually practicing Saturday morning after our Friday night games.
um, just again, another day where we’re just kind of playing some of the players that didn’t get a lot of minutes, get a lot of time to kick the ball around, so, um, but yeah, we have a really good rhythm. Uh, in the fall. It ends up being really nice for the players cuz they end up getting a whole, whole day away from us , um, which they need.
But yeah, it’s, it, it’s good. It was, it was a really good first [00:12:00] fall for me, especially coming from a completely different playing back.
Matt: Okay. Well let’s, let’s talk more about the team itself then. Is there, you know, in this recruiting cycle that you’re in right now, is there a specific target roster size that you guys are trying to hit or that you guys find as ideal?
Coach: Yeah. Well, we definitely wanna respect our players and respect their time. Um, if they commit to coming to Grand Valley, we wanna give them a roster size that’s reasonable to make sure that they have a good experience. We’re super committed to that, to the point where we are getting a brand new locker room and only getting a certain amount of lockers because, Refuse to get our roster size over that we’re, we’re aiming towards around 30, so 30, 31, 32 at the very most.
But yeah, like I said, we’re building a brand new locker room and refuse to get any more lockers than that just to respect the players that are incoming and the players that are there.
Matt: No, I think that’s awesome. Um, now obviously you are the goalkeeper coach for, for the program, so, so there is staff, you know, sometimes us.
the smaller division twos, it’s might only be the head coach. At least that’s what the way it was when I was, when I was coaching. But what does the overall staff look like, uh, at Grand Valley?
Coach: Yeah, so our, our staff specifically has, Katie Holte is the head coach. She was the associate head coach at Michigan for many years and then came over to us.
Um, so she’s super, brings a breadth of experience. Um, and then we have Mario Zuniga Gill, he’s our full-time assistant coach. He, he. A, again, so knowledgeable. [00:13:30] I mean, he brings, uh, his UEFA a license experience. I mean, he’s just, he’s such a brilliant guy. And then I’m the assistant coach, uh, for goalkeeper, so the goalkeeper coach.
And then we have a director of operations, Taylor Timko, she’s from Michigan as well. She did the director of ops stuff for them as well. And she, she works a ton on the team culture aspect and making sure that we get from point A to point B. Without her, the program wouldn’t run. So she’s, she’s an integral part of our staff, but there’s really four of us that we, we get after it.
We also have a volunteer assistant who’s around sometimes Annette Stromberg, who was on staff last year. So she kind of bridges that gap for us between the team in the past years and the team now, so that she’s a huge resource for us in that way. Oh, that’s awesome.
Matt: Well, how would you describe kind of your, your staff style of coaching and, and the team style of.
Coach: Yeah, I think our philosophy is, uh, very much so building from the back, um, possession based. But ultimately we wanna score goals. We wanna score a lot of goals. So, uh, that’s kind of our focus attacking wise, defensive wise, just forcing them around us, not through us. Um, being super stingy, we wanna be a stingy team.
Um, definitely that’s one of our goals in the spring is just to become. Stingy defensively, making it really hard for the team to get down our throat down, up the middle of the field. But ultimately, that’s kind of our philosophy. Um, coaching-wise, just making sure the players feel valued and accepted, because at the end of the day, you can teach them all the technical and tactical skills that you want, but if they’re not [00:15:00] valued and appreciated, then they’re not gonna be at their best.
So our philosophy is way more culture-based right now than.
Matt: No, I think it’s a great way to look at it. Well, you know, we’re here in January, so, uh, it’s officially off season. So what is your spring and, and the off season gonna look like for your players?
Coach: Yeah, we’re gonna, we’re gonna hit the ground running next week.
We, we have MLK day on Monday, and then Tuesday we’re right after it. Um, the girls are really, really excited to attack the spring and really grow and develop as a group. Um, I think the fall went well, but it, we, we know we’re hungry for more, um, as a coaching staff and as a group. So we’re gonna be going really, really after it right away.
We have sessions three days, a. Um, really good, uh, heavy lifting that we’re gonna do as well, just to get the girls strong and, um, hopefully prevent any injuries that we might incur in the fall. But yeah, the, the girls are really, really excited and pumped to, to get into it, um, next week, so we’re really excited.
Awesome.
Matt: Well, here at the convention, if, if you’ve walked the exhibit floor like I did last night, uh, it seems like half the. Are about some sort of technology, whether that’s cameras, GPS trackers, uh, analytics platforms, whatever the case may be. Do you guys, uh, use any of that kind of stuff? Uh, and if so, how?
Coach: Yeah. I think, uh, in this day and age, in the modern games, something that you have to have. Yeah. We, um, we use, uh, beyond Pulse trackers, uh, to, to track data [00:16:30] of the, the load on our players. We don’t wanna overload or overload. We’ll track, you know, if a player cramps in a game, did we overload her or overload her this week?
Um, and how did that work? We meet with sports psychologists on, on campus all the time to discuss those types of things as well. But anyway, we all have, obviously all the video systems, vo huddle assist, all of those things that really benefit us, um, in analyzing the game. We’re super interested in statistics because we want the data to back up our pH.
So ultimately if the data’s not backing up your philosophy, then something’s wrong. So we, we heavily utilize statistics and the, the video to back up what we’re saying to our players because if we can’t have video to back it up, then what we’re saying might not be true. Okay. All right.
Matt: It’s a good way to look at it.
Well, you know, I always like to end these, uh, interviews the same way. Uh, we’ve covered a lot of ground, we’ve talked about a lot of things, but what didn’t we talk about? What is it that you may want folks to know, whether it’s about the college recruiting process, the school itself, college soccer in general, uh, the floor is yours.
Coach: Yeah, I mean, I think when it comes to the recruiting process, um, I, what I tell recruits all the time is that you want to pick a program where you know you’re gonna love it, regardless of if you play. Regardless of if you get injured and you can’t play anymore, you wanna pick that school and pick that program that’s invested in you as a human being rather than just a soccer player.
Um, and I know your, you said your daughters is getting into that process, but that’s what I always [00:18:00] tell recruits. Um, ultimately, You know, in your process, do you wanna pick a school that has that family that surround you? Um, and, and not just saying it, but they have to mean it. So the, the players are the ultimate truth tellers when you get them, um, by themselves.
I would ask them, um, to be frank with you, because you’re picking the place that’s gonna be your new home and you’re picking the people that are gonna invest in you and change your life. So that’s what I tell recruits all the time. And so if there’s any recruits or parents listen, Definitely lean into the visits that you have and lean into those players because they’ll tell you how it really is, um, and give you the best advice.
Matt: Couldn’t agree more. Couldn’t have said it better. Uh, Sam, thank you so much. Happy to have you here. Enjoy the rest of the convention and best of luck with the off season and next fall.
Coach: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you.
