University of Minnesota Crookston Women’s Soccer – Coach Neil Mancktelow
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Neil from the Minnesota Crookston Women’s Program. We talk about how he likes to focus on regional recruiting. He describes the benefits of the University of Minnesota system. Lastly, we discuss how his coaching style tends to evolve. Learn more about the University of Minnesota Crookston Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Neil Mancktelow from the University of Minnesota Crookston. Welcome coach.
Coach: Hi, Matt. Thank you very much for having me on.
Matt: Really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for being here. Uh, you are up in, I guess that would be considered Northwestern, Minnesota.
That’s right. Yeah, it’ll definitely Western, but uh, it’s Northwestern. I think it’s pretty north as well. Yeah. Yeah, that’s for sure. Well, you’re probably having a little bit different weather than we are here in Florida today, but,
Coach: uh, yes, definitely.
Matt: But, um, Is Division two women’s program. You’ve, uh, that’s right.
You, you’re, you haven’t even been there a year yet, so I, I guess this’ll, this’ll be a fun conversation just to see how things have been going, but, um, I’m guessing you’re hot and heavy finalizing your 23 class. Uh, or, or is it already wrapped up? What’s that look like for you guys?
Coach: Right now, we, we are 94 per 94, 95% of The way there. We still have maybe one or two, uh, recruits we’re trying to bring in for that class, but we are pretty much done with it. And then we are gonna be focusing on the 2020 fours as soon as we can.
Matt: Okay. And for folks, we’re talking here at the end of April. I, you know, don’t wanna mislead folks as to, to when that is, but you still have one or two spots, even though it’s the end of April.
And so I, I, again, I know this is kind of your first recruiting class, but mm-hmm. Do you feel like, uh, you know, you’ve had some good experience in the past. Do you feel like that’s kind of normal though? You, you, you kind of get, when do you kind of wrap up a class or have most of it [00:01:30] wrapped up versus when you move on to the next one?
Coach: I’ve had to quite a different range of experiences in my coaching career so far, and I say that because I always keep the door open right up until the last minute. You never know who’s gonna fall, fall in your lap sometimes or other recruits, they might go try and go somewhere else, doesn’t work out for them.
They wanna come see where you are at. So, I never say it’s completely done, but I always like to have things done before we go into the summer if possible. But I always keep that door open just in case. Cause you never know. Yeah. So, yeah, normally and in the future here, going forward, I’d like to have things that were done by the end of the school year, end of the semester.
So over the summer we can focus on getting the players paperwork done, getting ’em ready to come in pre-season, and then just getting them ready to go on a learning journey with us and the program in the form. Okay.
Matt: Well, in terms of your recruiting, where is it that you are, are spending your most time, kind of what’s your, your must hit list in terms of events and things where you’re gonna go see players?
Coach: Yeah. In terms of events, we, we have me and my staff here, we have a list of experiences that we’ve done in the past. So I know where I want to go. For example, we’re at the Rail cup in Colorado. We, we go to that or we’re planning on going to that, uh, obviously Surf Cup in San Diego. It’s another big one.
And then we’re down in the Twin Cities a lot, so obviously we’re at the National School Center in Blaine, that kind of situation. Um, and then some of the smaller showcases, some of the ones, for example, sca, Iowa, you know, is another one every year that comes up. And as I said, I’ve been in the Midwest for quite a while now, so I kind of know where the big ones are, where the small ones are, where I can go.
But obviously as we’re part of the [00:03:00] University of Minnesota system, we want a lot of Minnesota students on the roster. That’s what we’re looking for. Um, and obviously then combining that with some out-of-state kids and maybe even internationally in the future.
Matt: Okay. Well do, do you guys do any ID camps or does you or your staff work external camps, how much do they factor into your recruiting process?
Coach: Yeah, so we, we are looking to do our first ID camp this year on campus here. Um, and we are looking to keep that fairly small and fairly specific to us. So inviting the kids to that, that are gonna be coming in with us in the fall, hopefully. And then obviously beyond that, so, you know, maybe some of our 20 threes might come in and be a camp counselor or just be around the, be around the day, you know, and participate within the NCAA rules as they’re allowed to.
Um, and then obviously the, the 20 fours and maybe even younger than that, we’ve had a couple of, um, Uh, players or student athletes reach out to us that are a little bit younger. So we are, we’re starting to get some of that now, which is good. The good thing is about the project we’re working on right now is we can build it how we want to build it.
And so we want an ID camp every year and then we want to go and work at other places. I’ve been offered the opportunity to go and work at several local other ID camps here in the area. We just, with more schools that have got more established program than we do, um, I’ve got fairly good connections locally, so, um, I’m fortunate to be invited to some of those things, so I plan to use that to my advantage as.
Matt: For sure, for sure. That makes sense. Well, in terms of, uh, the folks that are interested in your, your program, I mean, how many inbound contacts do you think are you getting on, on an average week? I know there’s no such thing as an average week, but, uh, yeah, but, but [00:04:30] what does the, the pool of candidates, if you’re, if you’re getting ready to focus on 20 fours, what mm-hmm.
What does that look like right now?
Coach: Now, right now, in terms of numbers? Yeah. Numbers. We, I’m probably getting. I would say between 15 and 20 emails a week from players that are in the 24 class and beyond. And that’s from local students all the way from down to Florida. Where you are at at the moment and, and internationally.
You know, being in a former international student myself, I get a lot of, uh, emails from agents and things like that, uh, promoting their players to us. And it’s definitely something I want to do in the future. But again, just where the program is right now, we, we may need to keep things more local and domestic in terms of the US anyway for a little bit.
And then once we get a bit more established and figure out what rosters size we want and that kind of thing, then we can maybe add some internationals that are the right fit. Cause obviously there’s a lot of variables in that equation. Sure. Um, I’d say it’s probably 15 to 20. Um, before when I’ve been at other institutions, it’s been more, sometimes it’s been less, but right now we’re, we are probably around 20 a week with kids reaching out to us and.
It’s difficult because obviously you can’t, you can’t offer everybody an opportunity and the environment we’re trying to create here doesn’t suit everyone. And also the university and collegiate setting isn’t it for everybody academically as well. So we’ve gotta try and figure out who the right fit is first and then talk about the soccer piece of it.
Yeah.
Matt: Well one of the questions I always get is, How important is the, the Alphabet Soup [00:06:00] league that you’re playing in? So are you guys focused on, you know, E C L, ga, N P L, EEDP, you know, all the different things that, do any of those really matter? Or how do you approach that?
Coach: We actually have been sort of funneling down our recruiting strategy recently because of obviously the changes in the staff here and everything else.
We’re kind of figuring out how we wanna do stuff. And we’ve kind of put plan together for over the next few years to sort of work up the up and down the, the, uh, different leagues, as you said there in the next sort of two to three years. So for right now, we’re trying to look to build a roster of some established local talent from the cities, from Minnesota, from, you know, South Dakota and North Dakota, that kind of thing.
And we can do that mostly from, not mostly from, but the NPL would be perfect for that. Uh, obviously then as we look to grow as a program and, and do better in the N S I C. We’re then gonna need to attract some bigger talents, some bigger players, and we may then start to look into the ecnl and the DA and other things.
Um, but the biggest thing for me is just because players have been at that level doesn’t mean they’re gonna produce at college. And that’s something that I like to tell all the recruits. You know, if you’ve been in a good environment at the DA level or ECN L level, that’s fine. But I’ve had players in the past at different institutions that have come from that level with the supposed pedigree and they, you know, they haven’t been able to produce at the college level, which is.
Which says a bit about the recruiting process of where I was at the time, but also a little bit about maybe them as a student and an athlete. And that’s something that, again, finding the right people first is important [00:07:30] and then making sure that they’ve got a good soccer background and also the want to, to do this.
Cuz again, it’s not, it’s not for everybody. Um, For example, you might have some students come in that have maybe played at a smaller MPL club, but they fit this the way we’re trying to play and the game model we’re trying to use. So we’ll take anybody that can fit that. Uh, and also we wanna give players as many opportunities as possible.
Cause player pathways here for us is huge. For example, we have, um, several players in our current roster that are gonna be playing the W PSL this summer, the different teams across the country. So, It doesn’t matter where they come from, as far as I’m concerned. It matters what their attitude is, how they wanna work, and why they’re coming to university.
That’s a huge thing for me
Matt: Now, being a new, uh, coach, are you, are you looking at the transfer portal? Does that fit into your recruiting at all?
Coach: Yes. Yeah, we have, uh, I transferred as a student athlete actually after my sophomore year. So I have a, a soft spot in my heart for transfers. We, we want to make sure again, we bring the right people in.
Um, four to four transfers can be quite difficult at this level in terms of matching up academics and, and things of that nature. We don’t want to bring kids in that have to maybe stay an extra year or they’ve gone down a certain pathway academically, so. At the moment just for where the program is, I’ll be honest, I, I’m focusing a bit more on the junior college transfers just because it’s a little bit easier for us to make that step with them.
Uh, plus also they’ve been there for two years. They’re hungry to go on somewhere else. They want to four to four transfers a little bit more difficult. Um, again, we’ve made some contacts. We’ve tried to use it to best of our abilities. Um, where I was [00:09:00] previously, before I came to Crookston, the transfer portal wasn’t an option for me.
So this is a new experience for me, so I’m just trying to navigate it and figure out, sticking through to my message, how I wanna coach the team and how I want to work with the student athletes. So I’m, I’m still trying to figure that out a little bit. But yeah, it’s definitely something that I wanna use going forward, for sure.
Okay.
Matt: Well let, let’s switch gears. Talk a little bit more about the school itself. I’m sure there’s folks out there who aren’t familiar. Um, I guess give me a little bit more details around the whole, uh, Part of the University of Minnesota system and, and what that means and, and and how does that whole thing work?
Coach: Yeah, there are, there are five campuses as part of the system. Uh, so we’re one of five each, each campus has its own unique aspects, if you will, but the wonderful thing about all of them is that the facilities are great. Uh, they all look aesthetically very pleasing on the eye. So when you come onto campus, it’s okay.
Like, okay, wow, this is a nice place to be at and. The good thing about it is, is that all the programs being linked together, you could have somebody that goes to say, for example, with Crookston or, uh, canvas at Morris, and they can, you know, transfer those credits around if they need to move on to things, or if they wanna go into higher education on the backend.
There’s some accelerated programs that we offer and things like that. So it’s the system that not only can help students with their undergraduate work, but also as they go through that process, what the next steps are for them. And I think that’s really beneficial because some people wanna go on a real long journey for their academics.
Maybe they wanna be a vet, or they wanna be a doctor [00:10:30] and they wanna go to med school, that kind of thing. Uh, so there’s a streamlined process for whatever you need it to be. Um, and the good thing about the smaller satellite campuses, I, where we are, is that, you know, like I said, it’s a little bit smaller.
So for those students that want a University of Minnesota degree but don’t necessarily wanna be in the cities, they have those opportunities to come out to counties like us or, uh, and get a bit of a different experience. And that’s something I really noticed when I first came onto campus as part of my interview process.
You know, just there was everything here that a student needed to be successful when you drove onto campus. You could literally see, okay, they’re gonna need this, this, and this, and it’s all right there for ’em, which I think is huge.
Matt: Well, which brings me to my next question. You know, obviously the academic part is something that high school students have to get used to when they, uh, make the jump and, and really balancing their studies with their athletic pursuits.
So how. How specifically at your school do your student athletes kind of make sure they have that balance and are successful on both fronts?
Coach: That’s something that go, I’m gonna link you back to the recruiting part and then go to that question, if you don’t mind, because what my, my point is, is that I want to bring students here that want to go to university.
You know, they have to have a why behind it if they, if they’re just coming into. Sort of get a little bit of experience to kind of pick and choose what they might wanna do. I would argue that the four year environment at the start is not for them. I would argue that maybe going to a community college and having that experimentation there cuz they can still have that soccer experience.
Um, but I would also, uh, like I said, say that with the four year [00:12:00] degree, if people are coming to do that, they need to realize it’s a marathon, not a sprint. There’s a lot of steps to take. Uh, and the beautiful thing about Crookston is we, we don’t necessarily wait to get students into their major. Classes or be degree specific courses for that junior senior year.
We might get them in earlier if they’re ready for it, which I think is huge because then that way if students are figuring out, okay, this might not be for me, they haven’t had to wait for two years to figure that out and they can then make the right choices because something I’m really passionate about is.
He’s making sure that the students come in with a plan to graduate on time or earlier if possible now. Cuz again, some everyone’s got different financial pictures, you know, and if people need longer, that’s totally fine. But one thing I do like about the American system is you can go at the speed you want to go at as long as it suits you.
That makes sense?
Matt: Yeah, no, that ma makes a lot of sense. Well, Can you walk, walk me through what a typical in-season week looks like. Uh, you know, you just, you just finished up your season this past fall, so in terms of practice times, class, times games, all that kind of stuff, just gimme what a, what maybe an average week looks like.
Coach: Yeah, of course. So the N S I C, the, the conference that we play in, uh, we play games on a Friday and a Sunday. So we’re usually, if we are at home, we can practice, you know, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Mondays we usually have as an off day recovery day. And then Saturdays in between games. If we’re at home, that might just be sort of a more regeneration kind of day or an individual development day.
For example, if players have not played a lot of minutes on the Friday, we might put them through a pace a little bit more on the Saturday than those that [00:13:30] have played a full 90 minutes. We try and make the development plan for each player really specific if we can, so we can then monitor how many minutes they’re playing and, and get them up to where they should be in terms of classes and, and how that works with it.
Obviously every university has a similar struggle in terms of class times, professors teaching and things of that nature. So usually most of our athletes are available, um, with their class schedule. They’re usually done by between two and three o’clock in the afternoon. So we can then start to set up soccer activities for between three and four, and then we might practice from say, four till five 30 or till six o’clock, obviously, depending on, um, if players are doing individual work with me, which I think is super important.
And also obviously the goalkeepers, they always need a bit extra time, so we, we usually factor that in as well when we can, but that’s usually how it goes. Obviously for this fall coming up, um, we might make a few changes cuz again, with the different staff we might do things slightly differently, but that’s usually how we would do things.
And I think that the routine and the structure, um, helps, especially with the lady side of things. Uh, just giving them the times ahead of time so they can figure that stuff out. Um, and I’m one of these people where I always give the girls flexibility because if I say right, I’ve set the schedule out. And if there’s a change or anything like that, that’s completely on me and it’s nothing to do with you guys.
So, uh, I believe that that creativity piece of it can come from that structure. And we wanna make sure the team is interdependent enough where if, for example, st does change, there’s no, you know, there’s no massive, um, uproar or anything like that. We can just carry on going in the way we want to go. So, [00:15:00] That’s kind of how we’re gonna do things in the fall.
Um, and obviously last week was a little bit different cause it’s different stuff. So as I said, can take the good bits from that and the things I wanna maybe, uh, edit and change slightly and we can do it again, uh, this fall with the new staff and the new set of players we’ve got coming in.
Matt: Okay. Well. The last question I wanted to ask about the school is because, you know, as a parent, I always wanna know, okay, what’s this gonna cost me?
Right? So, and I’m not holding you to hard numbers here, but if you can just gimme a little bit, uh, overview of what the cost of attendance is, like, what the scholarships are from a average perspective, both athletic, academic, what’s available, that kind of thing.
Coach: Absolutely. Well, as, as far as I understand it, as part of the, the university system, you know, we’re an in an, in-state school, if you will.
So that’s always a, a plus side of things. I’ve worked at in-state schools and private schools in the past, so I’ve seen both sides of haddock and work. Um, with where we are now, it’s, I would say for an American student, the total cost of attendance is around $23,000 a year. Uh, ballpark kind of figure. Um, we.
We’ve got some academic packages that are sort of ranging between a thousand and $4,000 per student, depending on grades. Um, I do factor that into my recruiting because obviously, like I said, we can, if a student’s got a higher gpa, we know that certain academic money will be available to them and then we can package that together with the athletic piece, which is part of your question as well.
So we can do that at this level. Um, With soccer being an equivalency sport, you know, it’s not headcount like football or basketball at that top level. So we can, uh, have a [00:16:30] sliding scale of scholarships. So what I like to do is I like to make sure that the financial aid package works for the whole family.
So, for example, we don’t wanna just offer an athlete, an athlete, a thousand dollars because they can go and work at Walmart and come here and be a student and get paid more than that. So we need to make sure that the soccer program is helping them achieve what they’re trying to achieve, which is complete their degree.
So, We, we like to give a reasonable scholarship to students. We obviously wanna make sure they have some skin in the game as well. Cuz I believe if they’re helping, um, financially contribute towards their education, then I’m not saying they’re more likely to take it seriously, but experience tells me that that might be the case.
Um, and so we, we definitely factor that in. We, we want to make sure that the students realize that when they add value, they can be rewarded. Um, I like to tell them that they’re all on commission, if that makes sense. You know, their money comes from work. So you come in, you work hard and, and hopefully you’ll be rewarded on the back end of things.
But at the same time, I’ve seen it in the past where some coaches will say, oh, if you come in year one, we’ll give you this year two, we’ll give you this. I like to make sure that we don’t have that mentality because I wanna make sure they’re adding value. Um, and that that doesn’t just come from on the field as well.
That’s one of our elite behaviors here that we talk about is being a team player, and that’s the first thing we talk about. Um, it’s a team sport so we need to make sure everyone’s buying in and doing what’s best for the program. And something we say around here as well is we, not me, so we wanna make sure that the whole group is included in that.
So I dunno if that answers your question specifically. I’m happy to go into more detail on it, but, um, biggest [00:18:00] thing for me is that, that the financial aid package that we give as a whole helps the family out and that the family can understand it. And so if it didn’t change for the whole four years, that that’s not gonna be a problem for them because.
If there’s money problems and money stress, that can leak into every other area of the student’s life. And again, experience has told me that that’s, that needs to be taken seriously. So, like I said at the start of this, as much as we wanna give everyone an opportunity there, we can’t for everybody. But, um, we will, obviously, when we get the program, the numbers a little bit higher with roster numbers and stuff.
We may have some walk-ons, we may have some transfers, we may have some other things. But just where the program is right now, we wanna make sure that. Everybody’s got the right package for them so they can be here and be sustainable and then focus on their development from there.
Matt: No, it makes perfect sense.
Well, you just mentioned roster, so Yep. Is there a roster size that, that you feel is ideal that, that you’re trying to hit each year?
Coach: Yes, absolutely. Uh, we’ve kind of got a a three year plan for that in place at the moment, and obviously going into this first year, we’re looking to have a roster of, or squad size, 24, 25.
Um, last year we had 19, or, you know, 19, 20 players around there, so a couple of injuries and you are down to, you know, 14, 15 players, which at the level we play at is not sustainable long term at all. So I, I want to have a reasonable size squad, you know, so hopefully the future will look for maybe 28, um, maybe with a couple of walk-ons to make it 30.
But without a JV team, that’s hard to give everyone the playing time that they, that they need to [00:19:30] develop. And we can’t send players out on loan, unfortunately. Um, So we can’t just do that, which is a shame, but that’s just how it is. And we need to make sure that everyone’s getting some sort of plan time when, when they’ve earned it.
Obviously we, we like to say with the recruiting piece of it, we are giving you the opportunity to come in and train and practice with the team, but it’s not club. That doesn’t mean because you are paying to be here or put some money on table to be here, that you’re gonna play automatically. You have to earn that.
And we, we definitely like to, to think that in the future when we get the right people in the door, we could maybe have a smaller squad, maybe 25, 26, and if we’ve got. 25, 26, you know, top student athletes all working together, pushing the same direction with me and my staff leading the way, then we can achieve some big things here.
But, um, you know, I’ve been a part of programs in the past where we’ve had a roster of, you know, 30, 35 people and there’s always whole team sitting on the bench and they’re not playing every week. And I feel that they just go backwards in their development, their confidence, and I, I would argue that’s not the best for them, which is what I always try and do, give what’s best for the player, what’s best for the student, but given them what they need.
Rather than what they want. Cause what they need and what they want are two different things. So, you know, we’ve had that conversation here with, with some of the older players that, you know, when a freshman comes in, there might be a game where yes, you might have earned to play 90 minutes, but that younger player needs to get some minutes to keep their confidence up and to learn from you.
So it might be, yeah, we might take you off the last 10 minutes and give that freshman a chance to run out and just get the experience of playing. You may not have found anything wrong, but we have to think about long term when you’re not gonna be here. So, um, Hopefully that answers your question there.
I’m not sure it did really, [00:21:00] but Yeah. Um, I tend to tell a bit of a story with my answers sometimes, so there you go.
Matt: That’s all right. But no, I, I think you answered it just fine. What you mentioned staff, uh, a few times since we’ve been chatting. So what does your staff look like? What role does everybody play there?
Coach: Yeah, we’ve got me as a head coach and then we have, uh, a young lady called Morgan, who’s just joined us as an assistant coach. She’s also gonna be with the goalkeepers specifically. And then we have a couple of senior players. That are gonna be around cause they have an extra semester on the back end to graduate.
So they’re gonna be involved. Um, in some capacity as a student assistant or volunteer, we don’t know exactly yet, but there’s gonna be two or three of us hopefully, which then can break the ratios down. So we can maybe have one member of staff to maybe five or six players rather than just one to 24, which is, again, you can’t get round to everybody.
Um, and obviously each person’s leadership style works differently with different players, so it might be nice for them to have a different voice to listen to. Or for example, if we have, um, Let’s say if I’m focusing on the in possession side of the game, and, and more than focusing on the outer possession side of things, players can go to different coaches with different questions and then that way you can give them the learning information that they need to process it all, which I think will help in the long run.
Matt: Yeah, no, that, that makes sense. Well, between you and your coaches, but I guess more specifically, you as the head coach, how would you describe your style of coaching and, and the style of play that you’re trying to employ there at the team?
Coach: That’s, uh, that’s a great question because if you’d asked me this five years ago, would’ve been different answer if you’d asked me this at my previous [00:22:30] job.
Different answer. Um, style of play. I’ll start with that first and then we’ll go backwards to coaching style. So the style of play I want, even though I as a player was always quite defensively organized, defensively minded, I actually like really open, free flowing, attacking football or soccer or whatever you wanna call it.
Um, so. It’s one of those things people say, oh, you know, you, you sort of coach how you were coached back in the day. I’m the complete opposite. I, I want more goals, I want more shots, I want more, you know, players running, the players with the ball, dribbling, that kind of thing. So we wanna open attacking soccer, but with the back end of that, we do have to be organized as a team to make that happen.
And I do believe I said earlier that creativity comes from structure. So if the players have a plan and they understand it, then they can be creative. So with that, Going back to my personal coaching style, we want players that can receive the ball top to bottom, left to right. The more tools they have in their toolbox and more jobs they can do.
How I tell them what I do with that stuff so bit. Hands off these days. When I was younger, I used to be really in and stop it all the time and do this, do that. Uh, I’m not Superman, so I try and delegate a little bit more these days if I can. But what I’m really trying to do is create a team where they’re interdependent on each other.
So rather than just upskilling the players that can already do the stuff, it’s how can I get the players that maybe can’t do things to improve individually? Um, and obviously the more I learn about the learning process and how different people learn, I’m definitely trying to bring that in. So, for example, We might spend a certain amount of time on a [00:24:00] drill or a practice exercise and we break it down into blocks and we say, okay, success for us in this first part is gonna be just committing to your decisions and really going for this particular thing.
We don’t mind if you can’t execute at the moment, but you have to commit to all your choices. Once we go back into it again, it’s gonna be okay. Right now you’re committing to your choices, now you’re adding a bit of quality. And then the third time we go back into it is, commit to your choice. Use a bit of quality match base.
It’s kinda the three things we talk about. So, It’s gonna be a long journey with the program in terms of where we wanna get to. But I think the good thing is that some of the older players have said to me now, they, they like what we see, they’re seeing, they wanna come back for a fifth year, which for me is a huge compliment because if they didn’t like it, they would leave and go somewhere else.
So I’m, I’m excited to see that going forward.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, coach, we’ve, we’ve covered a lot of ground and, and I really do appreciate your time. I just have one last question that I’d like to end on, and that is if there was one thing that you would love. Recruits, parents of recruits to know about the college recruiting process and to make sure that that, that there was just that one nugget.
What would that be?
Coach: Think back to my own recruiting experience when I think about this question, because the experience you, and I’ll say, this is my plan a little bit for this. The experience you want is out there. You can find a, a private school, you can find a public school, you can find a religious theme school, a non-religious, whatever you want.
You can find it. You just have to be real clear on what it is you want and then go after that and the coaching staff that you’ll [00:25:30] speak to or the coaches can help you along the way. Um, I would also say that don’t be afraid to tell coaches that contact you, you are not what they’re looking for. I think young people especially, they struggle with that sometimes.
And, um, I think if they’re really clear on what they want, they should go out and get it. Um, but I also think, obviously listen to some people that have been, been through the process, bit older than you perhaps. Um, listen or trust the gray hairs is the expression I’ve heard in the past. And as I get a bit older, I’m getting a few of those now.
So maybe I’m shifting from the listener to the person giving. So, but I would just say the experience you want is out there. And if you’re passionate about playing the game and passionate about pursuing a degree, you can do all that. Just gotta go find it. Yep. Absolutely.
Matt: Well, I love a coach. I wish you the best of luck, uh, finishing up this class and having that full year under your belt, so hopefully we’ll, we’ll, we’ll see some progress there.
And, uh, if you do ever get down to Florida for any of the recruiting events down here, gimme a shout and we’ll try to get together. All
Coach: right. Oh, absolutely. We’d love to. Yes. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. Thank you.
