Ave Maria University Women’s Soccer – Coach Tyler Rosser

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Rosser from the Ave Maria Women’s Program in Florida. We talk about wanting to provide opportunities to the whole roster. He describes their school’s faithful, Catholic environment. Lastly, we discuss how works to help his players grow in self-awareness. Learn more about Ave Maria University Women’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I am lucky enough to be joined by Coach Tyler from Ave Maria University here in Florida. Welcome coach.

Coach: Hey, thanks Matt. Appreciate it.

Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. Uh, we were just saying I’ve driven, I. I 75 South enough to know where Ave Maria is from a, uh, freeway perspective, but have not had the opportunity to be on campus.

So I’m excited to talk to you and hear more about it. Um, well, we’re talking here, it’s the end of June, so it’s smack dab, uh, in the crazy recruiting season, at least for those folks. Looking at, you know, the next class, I’m guessing. So just outta curiosity, as an n a i women’s program. What does your recruiting calendar kinda look like?

So are you, are you solely focused on 20 fours right now, or is that already done and you’re already on to 20 fives or what? What does it really look like for you guys during your recruiting? 

Coach: Sure. Well, as an NAIA school, thankfully we’re able to talk to any student athlete regardless of their age if they’re in high school.

And so we’re not confined by any NCAA rules in that regard. So, With us, it’s kind of an open-ended recruiting at all times, uh, because of that. And so we have a very specific thing that we’re looking for here at Ave Maria in terms of the student athlete and the student for that matter. Um, and so when we find those types of women, we’re more than willing to talk to.

For instance, right now, obviously [00:01:30] 2020 fours, but also 2025 and even 2026. And just to start that relationship, which I think gives NAIA schools sometimes a little bit of an advantage over NCAA schools ’cause they can have a longer relationship. So right now we, we, you know, we went to significant amount of showcases over the fall and the spring semester.

And so now we’re either staying in, in contact with. Those young ladies who are 20 fours, 25 to 20 sixes, um, or even still kind of trying to make initial contact with them. So, um, that’s kind of what we’re doing. A lot of phone calls, um, not traveling too much this summer to any showcases. We do the bulk of that in the spring semester.

Matt: Okay. Well, are, is there kind of a must see list in terms of events that you try to try to get to?

Coach: Certainly. So we are anything close to home, obviously, we’ll, we’ll do our best to be at. We have a wonderful coaching staff, uh, myself and then our assistant coach, Talia Meza, our assistant coach, Eddie Al, our assistant coach, Rachel Ley.

And so we kind of divvy up the tournaments, if you will, um, in the state of Florida and beyond. Uh, and so we will go to anything from the C D L showcase in Tampa, anything at Disney, uh, and then we try to kind of expand the horizon and go to EC and l showcases, because typically that’s the high level of soccer.

So this past year we went to E C N L, Houston, E C N L, Phoenix. Um, where else do we go? Anything In Florida, there’s two big couple [00:03:00] showcases in Florida. So those are the big, um, tournaments that we hit. And for us, um, we kind of have a scale, kind of a rubric of what we’re looking for, but I think the biggest thing for us is the cultural fit.

’cause we’re a faithful Catholic university and so we want women who can thrive here, obviously in desire to grow in their faith. Uh, and so that I think is a big piece of what we look for, uh, and obviously talent. Um, and then the third thing is, is that Ave Maria. It’s a really strong academic institution, and so we obviously look for people who can succeed academically here, um, as well.

Uh, so yeah, but those are the tournaments that we typically go to when we kind of divvy ’em up throughout the year. 

Matt: Now, if you can kind of gimme an idea of, let’s say you’re in an event, let’s say you’re, you’re up the road at E C N L Florida here in Bradenton, right? At at at Premier, yep. And when you or any of your staff get there, what, what, what is the.

Mix of players that you’re going to see because they’ve reached out and, and you know about ’em, versus, I’m plopping down to watch this game and I’m hoping that there’s a fit. What, how, how does that work when you’re at an event looking at, looking at players?

Coach: So I think we do some groundwork before the tournament, obviously, and, and, um, in, in the ideal world, um, and sometimes it, it kind of creeps up a little too close to the tournament.

I still do it, but, um, we’ll reach out to, um, so first and foremost we’ll sign up for the tournament. Women will reach out to us. Based [00:04:30] on their interest in us, which is always a good thing. And then we will take a look at the schedule and we’ll say, okay, who, who, who is this team that this woman is on, this young lady’s on?

And then who are they playing? And then from there we’ll develop a schedule and then I’ll reach out to the DO Cs at those clubs. And I’ll say, Hey, here’s, here’s Ave Maria University. Here’s what we look for in a student athlete. Do you have anyone? On these specific teams we’re gonna be watching or anybody else at the tournament who you think may fit this criteria.

And then from there we’ll continue to build out the schedule. Um, and so we’ll go and, you know, we’ll, we’ll go and we’ll see. Significant amount of games each day and our schedule will be packed basically for morning until the last game. And sometimes we’ll have to leave a game at halftime and go see another game based on all of that.

Um, now it was interesting ’cause I ran into a Florida State assistant coach at E C N L Houston and his process is, A lot more elaborate than mine. He’s talking to national team coaches and, and all these things. He is looking at people in the national team pool and he is whittling it down to people who can actually play at Florida State.

For us, it’s a little bit different. I think that, you know, we’re obviously looking for high level talent, but also we’re looking for that, that, that fit of a, and you don’t have to be Catholic to come here, but someone who can thrive in this environment, in a faithful Catholic environment. And then also when we get the brochures, we’ll sit down and we’ll say, okay, who’s.

Who goes to a Catholic school, who goes to a Christian school who may be interested, we’ll talk to the parents who hand us the brochures. Hey, do you know of anybody on the team who may want a faithful Catholic [00:06:00] environment like ours? So that’s kind of what it looks like. It’s fun. We really enjoy it. Um, it’s not, you know, what a, what a gift that our job consists of getting lawn chairs and going to watch soccer all day, um, at these tournaments and usually in, in pretty, pretty nice weather too.

So that’s kinda what it looks like. 

Matt: Although, although I heard the New Jersey weather wasn’t the best last week for, for some GA stuff, but hey, that’s, 

Coach: yeah, that’s alright. Um, 

Matt: well what about camps? Do you guys do ID camps? Do you or your staff work? External camps Does. Do camps fit in at all? 

Coach: Yeah, we do external camps primarily, and what we want to do in terms, we don’t have ID camps as much.

What we wanna do is when we find a good fit for us, we would just want to just go after that person with a lot of energy and investment. And so we really try to personalize the visit and make the visit like the best that can be. And I think we kind of, um, learned that from Messiah College up in, um, Pennsylvania.

Just, you know, they’re, they’re kind of a. Uh, the blueprint for creating like a faithful Christian excellent soccer program. So kind of like that. We wanna make it the best recruiting visit ever when we find a fit. Um, and then we’ll also spread out among the state, like at St. Thomas, um, Southeastern, we’ll go to their ID camps and things like that.

So, okay. Well International players or international recruiting, uh, or the transfer portal, do [00:07:30] they affect you guys? Do you look at those at all? 

Coach: Yeah, we, we look, the transfer portal we have access to through a company called Verified Athlete, uh, which is great. Uh, unfortunately, uh, we don’t have a list of everyone in the transfer portal ’cause NAIA coaches don’t have access to that.

That directly, but anybody who fills out a questionnaire for verified athlete we can see, uh, which is really nice. And so I’m reviewing that pretty much daily, um, just to see, you know, where are they from? Are they from the state of Florida? Do they have this specific position and we’re looking for, do they go to a Catholic school?

That sort of thing. Um, internationally, I think that, um, our co our assistant coach Eddie Villa, he’s kind of our assistant. He’s kind of in charge of the international recruiting, so he’s been overseas. He went to a showcase in Germany. He’s been to other showcases too, so we definitely keep our eyes out internationally too.

The majority of our recruiting though, does happen domestically. Okay. Well let’s, 

Matt: I guess last question I have on the recruiting. Yeah. Just ’cause you mentioned rosters. Is there a roster size that you find is ideal that you’re trying to hit? 

Coach: Yeah, good question. So we have a fairly large roster, and the reason we did that is because we were getting more interest in the university.

Uh, and so we wanted to provide each woman who is a good soccer player, who’s a good cultural fit, who can succeed academically at VE Maria, we wanna provide them with an opportunity to come here and play soccer with at least a little bit of a scholarship, if not a larger [00:09:00] one. But towards that end, we also recognize that if we did that, Then it wouldn’t necessarily be fair to carry a roster of between 40 and 50 and only play 16, 17 deep a game.

’cause people would say, well, what am I doing? And so we have a first and a second team and everyone’s signs to the roster. But during preseason, we split the team into first and second team. The second team plays upwards of 13 or 14 games this season and is coached by one of our assistant coaches. The first team plays obviously the max.

At least trying to get to the max 17 or 18 games a season. Um, and then I’m, I’m with both teams and overseeing both teams. Um, so we’ve been doing that for the last, um, three years, I believe. And our retention is always very high. It’s always between 80 and a hundred percent. And so I think that I. What that shows is that people are coming to Ave Maria for the right reasons.

And even if they don’t make first team, while of course there’s a level of disappointment there, they can make it throughout the season. If they are performing well, it is fluid, um, and they always have a chance to move up the next year too. But I think Ave Maria is a very integrated university that focuses on the spiritual wellbeing of the student athletes, the mental wellbeing of the student athletes, the academic et.

So I think when someone signs here, they’re coming for the comprehensive experience and not just the soccer experience. Ah, I 

Matt: love that. I love that. Mm-hmm. Well, let’s talk about the experience at the school. Yeah. And I mean, I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there not familiar with Ave. Maria, you have a unique perspective as as having, uh, if I’m not [00:10:30] mistaken, you, you were there as a student athlete.

Yep. Uh, and also did some time on the men’s side of things. Yes. Do me a favor, give us an idea of what are some great things about VE Maria? Some things maybe we wouldn’t know just by going through the website. 

Coach: Oh, certainly. So I think thankfully the website does do a good job of, of, of, of explaining everything.

But I think from an overall student’s experience, number one, I think that if you’re looking for a faithful Catholic university, you’re gonna find it here. I think that’s the number one thing where you can. Pray on a regular basis in, in different chapels. Nothing, there’s nothing mandatory students have to do spiritually, but it’s just kind of ingrained in the identity of the university, obviously in southwest Florida.

And so, um, It’s a, it’s a beautiful place to be. The campus is beautiful and so every day you’re gonna see students outside, you know, playing spike ball, throwing the Frisbee on the quad, doing things like that just ’cause the weather is so nice. The students are all home now, of course. Um, when the hottest part of the part of the year.

Um, and so I think those two things are, are, are beautiful things and academically, you know, Matt, um, I think Ave Maria, because it is a relatively new university. In fact we’ve only been on this specific campus since 2007. I think it, it doesn’t get the credit it deserves from an academic standpoint, um, because it is a very, very strong academic institution.

Um, and so faithful Catholic, beautiful weather most of the time. Um, Um, [00:12:00] very strong academically and also very affordable. I mean, tuition is increasing across the nation, but we’re trying to keep it as low as we possibly can each year. Um, and I think there was a survey done, not a survey, but a study done probably about three or four years ago where, um, our tuition and cost of attendance was 40% below the national average when you look at small Catholic schools like us.

So trying to do that. So yeah, I think from an overall student perspective, it’s a very happy, joyful, rigorously academic place. 

Matt: Well, speaking of the academics, you know, for new people coming into college, figuring out that balance between their studies and playing a sport can be hard. And yeah. And how, so how do your student athletes really balance the demands of both, and what kind of support systems does a school offer to help ’em with that?

Coach: Yeah, definitely. So I think number one, It kind of goes back to, well, it does go back to recruiting, right? And that third pillar of what we look for people who can succeed academically here. So when someone signs here, we have faith that they’ll be able to succeed and, and it’ll be a relatively simple transition.

And so I think that, that, that plays into our recruiting and making sure that people can succeed here. We had, uh, what was our team, g p A this past? Year, I think it was 3.45. So I think our team, g p a, is very strong, but it is still a transition in the list. You’re right. And so, um, there are several different layers of support, uh, at Ave Maria.

The first layer of support, um, I think [00:13:30] is the faculty. So the student faculty ratio is 15 to one. And what that means is that, um, the faculty’s very hands-on with the students and they’re very readily available for office hours. Um, Very regularly throughout the week. And so we encourage our students if they don’t understand anything, to go to office hours.

The other thing too is that they are inevitably gonna have to miss some class for games. And so what do you do right when you get back or even before you gotta go to office hours to make sure that you’re getting what you missed? Um, we have tutoring in every academic discipline, and there’s a tutoring schedule online that’s run by, um, a wonderful, wonderful man.

Um, so we have office hours, we have tutoring, tutoring. There’s a writing center, um, that’s available to edit papers. And then for us as a coaching staff, we’re going through every week, um, grades, attendance, um, missing assignments and things like that. If there’s anything that kind of is like a yellow flag, like this doesn’t look right, we’ll have a one-on-one conversation.

Um, and lastly, there’s also student athlete support. Um, there are two staff members on campus. Who handle the student athlete, um, academic advising. Uh, and so not only if something’s off from my perspective, will I encourage them, um, to come talk to us so we can get a plan. I’ll also ensure that they go and talk to, um, our student athlete, academic advisor to kind of get back on track.

So there’s definitely different layers of support, um, but we have really wonderful group of women on the team. Just joyful, happy, hardworking. And that’s on and off the field too. So the academic piece, [00:15:00] You know, people do start struggle sometimes, but it hasn’t necessarily been something that has been a huge issue for us.

Okay. 

Matt: Well fast forward a couple months and, and yeah, put us in October. Heart of the season. What does a normal week look like for a player in terms of when is practice classes, kind of the game cadence, all that kind of stuff.

Coach: Yeah. Yep. So, uh, lemme see where to start with this. So we train. Every day for about an hour and a half to two hours, except for game days and Sundays.

Um, and on top of that training, uh, we’re obviously, we’re, we’re attacking the principles of the game during preseason, and then after every competition, obviously we’ll break down the film and then, and go from there. Based on the next training session, we’ll also have individual film sessions with players, if there’s a specific, um, if there’s something that is like, um, A trend becoming a trend, both for good and, and maybe an area of improvement.

We’ll bring ’em in and say, Hey, this was great. Let’s keep doing this. Or Hey, let’s take a look at this clip and let’s go through this together. So if individual film sessions, we’ll have team film sessions probably twice a week. We have strength and conditioning in season twice a week, and that’s mostly flexibility, agility, maintenance, things like this.

Um, not a lot of heavy lifting In season, we’ll do recovery days after games, and that usually consists of soccer, tennis, or something fun like that. [00:16:30] We also do team fun, team bonding every other week during the season, but the women on the team are also very close. I. We have a large roster. So not everyone is the best friend, but everyone has their place on the team, which I think is beautiful.

And so they’re spending a lot of time together. We also do a preseason retreat, um, where the women can kind of learn how they can integrate their faith into the game of soccer. Uh, and usually we have an outside speaker come in for that. Um, and yeah, and, and obviously doing their own PT as necessary, whether it’s, um, an injury or just going and doing prehab, things like that.

Uh, and then in terms of the classes, they’re usually in class in the morning and early afternoon, and then the rest of the day can be devoted to training or film or whatever it is. So first and second team do train separately. Um, and we’ll train separately this upcoming fall. So first team will be early in the morning.

Second team will be a little bit later in the evening. And the reason we do that, Have it kind of at the bookends of the day is because in August, September and October, as you know, Matt, in Florida, the lightning is just inevitable. So there have been times where we have trained at four 30, let’s say, and it’s just not, not gonna happen.

Right. So No, you didn’t. Yeah. Yeah. So in fact, there have been, there have been seasons since I’ve been here and I can remember even last year we, we tried to train in the afternoon and there have been seasons where we would. Have a Wednesday game or a Thursday game, and we maybe got one training session in before the game, which isn’t ideal.

Right. So we, we, we, we split it up this year and I think it’ll be a lot more [00:18:00] fruitful for us. Yeah. 

Matt: It’s, uh, for those of you who aren’t aware down here, it’s another level of, uh, yep. Of, of storms and lightning in the afternoons. But anyway, well let, let’s talk a little bit more about, about the team and, and the soccer side of things.

Yeah. So, You mentioned your staff. Uh, it’s, it’s a great size staff for, for an AI school, to be honest, from what I’ve seen. So, um, how would you describe kind of your style of coaching and the team style play and kind of the roles the staff plays to help with that?

Coach: Certainly. So we put a big emphasis on.

Self-awareness and helping not only the players, but the staff grow in self-awareness and knowing their strengths. And so we, we always do a temperament assessment, which is like a personality assessment for the coaches and the players. Uh, we do, um, strengths finder tests for the coaches and the players.

Um, we do Myers-Brigg. Test for the coaches and the players. And there’s another there, I won’t go into it, but there’s another assessment that’s relatively new called Working Genius. And we do that for the coach. Well, for the coaches it’s kind of expensive if we did it for the players. And so what we do is we, we just look and we say like, who’s gonna be best?

Where, in terms of the staff? Which player, based on their personality, is going to receive coaching from my coach and his natural or her natural style of coaching. And then we try to go about and kind of mix and match that way. It’s kind of a puzzle, but I think just doing our best to do that is better than not doing it at all.

Okay. So for me, for instance, um, my personality, I’m an introvert. And I’m pretty [00:19:30] calm. I’m pretty calm during training, and I’m pretty calm during the game. I like to sit back, I like to observe and in water breaks, and I’ll freeze the game from time to time or training, but in water breaks, I’ll pull someone aside and that’s where I’ll have a conversation.

And then I’ll kind of go back to observing Coach Lea, assistant coach. She’s an extrovert. She’s a lot more vocal, so she’s gonna be a lot more direct. She’s gonna be a lot more firm. Um, so on and so forth. And then, The players. I mean, there are some, some women on the team who respond really, really well to very direct, constructive feedback.

You did this wrong, do this better. And then there are other women who you kind of have to come and you kind of have to. Either way is fine. It’s based on their personality, a little more empathy, just a little bit more kind of, kind of like that. And that’s kind of my role. I think just the empathy side of things.

Um, and then there are others who are like, I don’t care about the empathy. Just gimme what I need to do and I’ll go do it. Um, so we’d kind of do our best to, to, to do that. And I think, um, yeah, doing your best and just focusing on that is I think half the battle. And then it kind of all works out from here.

We’re not obviously perfect at it. And. But yeah, we put a big, a big, um, emphasis on the self-awareness piece from a coaching staff perspective and a player perspective. No, that’s very neat. 

Matt: Yeah, that’s, uh, I haven’t heard of a coach using those kind of personality tests in that way, both for Yeah. Players and staff.

So I think that’s a, that’s, that’s something cool. Nice. Um, do you guys use any other kind of technology or anything in terms of like [00:21:00] film or the g p s stuff and any of that kind of thing, or. 

Coach: We don’t use any of the g p s stuff. Uh, unfortunately it’s a little bit expensive. Uh, and we raise funds for other needs mm-hmm.

Of the program. We use huddle for our film breakdowns and uh, like other, other programs, you send it off to them and they’ll break it down. With all the stats you need to kind of go through it very, very minutia, things that can help us. So we use huddle for that. Um, and uh, maybe in the future we’ll do the g p s thing.

Uh, but we haven’t got quite gotten there yet. No, I get it. 

Matt: Um, well, you know, we’ve, we’ve covered a lot of different bases here and I always kinda like to finish these off with, if there was, if there was one thing, one nugget piece of advice, information that you wish all parents, players, prospects, that are going through this recruiting process new, what would that be?

Coach: Yeah. I think that the whole purpose of our program is to help each woman understand and live her identity as a daughter of God through collegiate soccer. That’s the overall purpose of the program, and so I think that the core to that, Matt, is that we, we hope that by the time they graduate or even coming in, it doesn’t matter that at some point they recognize that their identity is not found in being a soccer player.

Their identity is found in being a person who plays soccer and their soccer career will end, and when that soccer career ends, They can look back and say, that was great memories. But those memories and those experiences both positive and negative, they don’t define me because I’m already loved by God.

I’m already loved by my coaching staff. And, and that’s the most important thing. And at the same time, [00:22:30] we’re not a youth group. Our, our assistant coach likes to say that we’re not a youth group, right? And so we are a collegiate soccer program. And so we’re striving to live that identity as daughters of God and understand that even if someone doesn’t come in and they’re like, I don’t even know what that means, they’re at least open to it.

We’re doing it through the lens of a professional detail-oriented collegiate soccer program, right? That that is doing its best to be excellent in everything we do. Um, and strive for that. So I think that’s the key. So if someone’s kind of looking to grow in their faith, live their identities, play great soccer, I think Ave Maria’s gonna be the place for them.

Matt: Awesome. Well, coach, wish you the best of luck, uh, here in the fall. I think I’m gonna make sure, uh, to try to. Try to get to one of your games. Uh, thanks Matt. Yep. Hopefully, depending on, on the scheduling, uh, with our own games, but, uh, but if not, if you come up to Bradenton, any of your recruiting stuff, make sure to gimme a shout.

Coach: We’ll get together. All right, Matt, thank you so much. I appreciate it. I appreciate the time today. 

Matt: No, thank you.