Catawba College Men’s Soccer – Coach Nat Hubert
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Nat from the Catawba Men’s Program in North Carolina. We talk about their mix of domestic and international recruiting. He describes their stunning fields and other facilities. Lastly, we discuss their use of analytics and testing in mental, physical and technical areas. Learn more about Catawba College Men’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Nat from Catawba in North Carolina. Welcome coach.
Coach: So much. Happy to be here.
Matt: Yeah. Good to have you. I drove, drove near your school, uh, earlier this, uh, summer on my Northern adventures. Um, But, uh, but really curious to, to hear more about it, but, but let’s start talking about the recruiting side.
Cause you and I are talking middle of November. You guys just wrapped up a solid season, but you know, a lot of the questions I get around this time are our coaches really recruiting in the fall because it’s the middle of their season. And should I wait to talk to them until after kind of how much recruiting are you doing doing during, you know, that meat of the season?
Coach: Very little. Um, typically what I say to guys is, um, kind of circle back around, around now. Um, so these last two weeks have been as busy for me as, as preseason are, because every single recruit that I’ve been even remotely interested in is, is reached back out, um, kind of middle of November. So, um, if there’s a profile we see that is, um, different, let’s say, um, we’ll, we’ll still, um, do that within the season, um, specifically.
Guys that, uh, typically we, we may not normally get, um, profiles that are just, are different specific, you know, certainly ones that potentially are coming in, in January, that sort of thing. Um, [00:01:30] but, but very rarely do we do that. And typically it takes a backseat to everything we’re doing and we’re already doing 70 hour weeks anyway.
So, um, November, middle of November hits and then it’s all guns blazing until around about March.
Matt: Okay, well, I’m assuming you’re you’re hot and heavy on the class of 24 right now. Um, when, when do you hope to wrap up that that class and and really focus on the next class and also. In, in this timeframe, since you’re allowed to talk to the 25s, how much of your recruiting is dedicated to them versus the 24th?
Coach: Yeah, there’s a, there’s a difference between hope and expectation. Um, the, the hope is that we’re, we’re fully done by the end of January. Um, that’s, that’s the hope. Um, that’s obviously, I think most colleges, um, ideas. So you can kind of start looking ahead. Now, the reality is that just doesn’t, it just doesn’t work that way.
Um, so. The last 2 years, uh, we were still actually signing guys in the summer for the, for the upcoming fall. Um, so literally a 6 week turnaround between the end of recruiting and the start of the 4th season. Um, so plan would be in the January, but I would say for for anyone looking, um, colleges are still looking into into April and into May.
Um, in regards to 2025s, um, division 2s, I’d say are a lot different than, than division 1s, um, strictly because, um, [00:03:00] Most of the guys that are playing are international these days, right? So with internationals, you’re typically looking at one of two level two types of players. The first players are guys that are playing non league or or or men’s football.
Um, so you don’t know about those until The spring anyway, um, and then the academy guys, you don’t know whether they’re going to get cut until March or April time. Anyway. So when you’re looking ahead for, for 2025, um, there is quite literally zero people on my recruiting board right now. Um, haven’t even given it an inkling of thought.
Um, especially with the covid stuff, um, and not knowing who’s coming back for their fifth year and all of that stuff. Um, recruits coming in should be grateful that this year coming up is the last year. I think in regards to recruiting, it will go a lot more normally now. Um, for the last four years, it’s.
Wait and see what those guys are going to do and come back before making any decisions on anyone else. Um, so kind of typically have five classes of people with those covert seniors as well as freshmen. But now that that’s going to be ended come next fall. I think people can start looking more ahead within the division two landscape and try and targeting those sorts of guys.
Matt: Okay. Well, you mentioned internationals. You, uh, it doesn’t sound like a North Carolina accent that I hear, uh, from you, but, uh, your roster is a good mix though of, of international [00:04:30] and domestic kind of what’s the thought process behind how you create that mix and, and what kind of, you know, what are you doing to recruit internationals?
Where are you going to recruit domestically? How does that all come together?
Coach: Yeah, great question. Um, we love North Carolina. Obviously, North Carolina is a, it’s a fantastic state for youth soccer. Um, a lot of the college cups are hosted here. So. The Charlotte area in the North Carolina area is, is such a recruiting hotbed that if we can recruit local, obviously we will, um, where we are kind of recruiting budget wise, everything we use financially goes to our international trips.
So, essentially, whether it’s right or wrong if you if you’re an American guy you got to come to campus, and we have stunning facilities and grass fields and a really good academic program so. We always tell guys you got to come to the ID caps. We only host typically two a year. Um, we normally sign about four guys from each one.
Um, and I’d say about 90 percent of our, of our Americans who, who, who play here come from our ID caps. Um, so instead of it being a. A typical ID camp that, uh, a lot of schools put on where there’s 300 kids in there and you basically get, it’s just kind of a moneymaker, um, we typically only have about 30 to 40 guys, um, that, that come to ours.
Most of them are kind of on, on an invite only, um, basis. Uh, we actually play, um, our entire squad during those events as well. So they’re part of the sessions. [00:06:00] So you get to kind of see if anyone can stand up with playing with our guys and the tempo that they play at. And then obviously against them, are they going to get torn apart?
If they’re a defender, are they actually going to do anything on the offensive side of the ball? Just to see whether they’re, they have the potential to be at that level. Um, in regards to recruiting outside of the States, Um, Obviously with my, my accent and being in England, um, I’m pretty well connected.
Um, so do a lot of our recruiting kind of in Europe, um, just means I get to see my family and then kind of go off and do those sorts of things. And then we’ve got a really big South American presence. I was actually in Argentina last December when they won the world cup, which was a pretty amazing experience.
Um, got an affiliation with a. Phenomenal, uh, professional academy over there is where Messi came from his academy called Nor’s old boy. So we have kind of connections all over. And, um, obviously those are the, the, the elite players that the program changes, as I call them. Um, and then the, the, the American part of it, which is about half of our roster at this point.
Um, we do have guys outside of North Carolina as well, um, that we do target, um, for sure, um, just from. Really word of mouth. Um, it’s not really tape. It’s not really video or anything like that. It’s, it’s strictly guys coming in and, and, and showing out. Um, it’s, it’s, it’s such a difficult landscape for, for those guys.
Um, solely because again, you’re deciding between which ID camps to go to [00:07:30] kind of other coaches, real in there. In their interest. Is it like a spam email that’s sent out, which is sent out to hundreds of people? Um, what are they kind of looking for? And. I just encourage people to, to, to know whether you’ve got a personal email or a relationship with a coach before making those, those trips.
Um, look at the ID comes to look at how many people were signed from those ID counts. Are they. Are they actually targeting people or are they just trying to, um, make money and make money for the coaches? So, um, it’s a difficult one. Um, but we’ll go to maybe 1 or 2 showcases at most in a year. I’ll be in Raleigh this weekend for the, for the big NCFC showcase and do some recruiting there.
But even there, if I see somebody I like, my recruiting pitch will be, hey, we need to see you on campus. Um, so that’s kind of where we’re at.
Matt: Okay. Do you guys, do you work any other, do you or your staff work any other camps, whether that’s different schools or the exact or future 500, that kind of thing? Do you dabble in that at all?
Coach: Yeah, a little bit. Um, especially when they’re in Charlotte and they’ll see it’s close to us, we’ll do that. I love working with the kind of the big D1 camps as well. Um, so I’m going to High Point in UNCG and Wake Forest and kind of all the, all the camps that were within kind of an hour of Catawba. Um, we, we go to, um, obviously for personal relationships with those, those programs and those coaches as well.
And also, um, [00:09:00] For example, something like Bobby Moose, who’s a phenomenal coach, head coach of Wake Forest. If he really likes a guy, but he’s not quite at the wake level, which most people aren’t, let’s just be kind of blunt about that. Um, he may kind of text me and say, Hey, you know, we’ve got a guy we think is really interesting, but he’s, he’s more interesting for your program than he is ours.
Why don’t you reach out to him and kind of see if he’s interested in going your route. So. Yes, we do that, um, as much as we can. Charlotte’s another program we work with quite often, um, in, in those senses. Um, and there’s scores we play in the spring as well. Um, we typically play D1 scores most of the spring and that allows us, um, to kind of see the level, but also.
Proof to their recruits. We’ve got bringing in that we’re at the same level as they are. Um, we’ve played for division one schools in the last nine months and beaten through it. Um, so it kind of allows people when we, when we talk to them to realize that guitar is a. Is a D2 school, but with a D1 level of players, um, and that’s, that’s helpful for us when we go after guys who, who think they’re D1 guys, um, but they come to campus and, and see the players that we have here and then they kind of take a step back and are like, Oh, okay, this is, this is the level of a D2 school.
Maybe I need to reevaluate. And where I’m at with my recruitment.
Matt: Yeah, no, that definitely makes sense. Well, the, the, you know, recently the, uh, the portal opened up for its first window. Do you guys look at the portal at all? Does that affect your recruiting? [00:10:30] Has that changed anything in the way you, you recruit?
Coach: A hundred percent. Um, portal has been a complete game changer for every single program. And if, if a program is not deep diving into the portal, I think they’re doing it wrong. Um, it’s again, uh, A really difficult one for for incoming freshmen, because the reality of it is obviously the guys that are in the portal have college tape instead of high school tape, which doesn’t really carry much value at all.
Um, so, yeah, we look at the portal first, um, you know, especially guys that are coming out of the D1 programs. Um. Again, having that experience of being in those programs is such a key to us culturally, but also ability wise as well. Um, we signed two guys last year, uh, who played four years at D1 as grad students, one out of Duquesne and one out of Canisius.
Um, Both come in and have been very helpful for the guys off the field in regards to building a mindset and a mentality that is needed to compete at that level. Um, so we’re always looking for those guys, grad students, um, especially, but D1 guys who are, who are itching to play, um, and may not have, you know, be getting the, the experience that they wanted to, uh, we’ve actually got a guy coming on a visit next Monday from Marquette.
So we’ve got. We get those guys all the time. Um, because they, they come here, you know, I always say kind of a little bit on their D1 high horse, um, where they, they think they’ll kind of walk in and it’s hard to D2 and all just kind of waltz in and [00:12:00] be the guy. And then they realize very quickly that there’s, there’s 15 guys here that are better than them.
Um, and then again, do you, do you think, or do you swim in that moment? Do you, do you rise to the challenge or do you be like, ah, you know, if this is going to be the same thing as D1, I might as well stay. Um, so we get a lot of those guys and it’s, it’s such a big recruiting tool. Um, obviously as you can imagine, it’s, it’s a little bit of a crapshoot.
Um, there’s so many people in it now. The, the nature of, of people going into the portal has changed drastically compared to where it was five years ago. Now, somebody may just be looking for something a little bit better instead of a really, really negative experience with a college or a coach or finances.
Now it’s just, let’s try my luck and, and see if, if there’s anything better out there. And if not, I’ll just, I’ll just stay where we’re at. Um, we do things quite uniquely where if you decide to go into the portal, that’s fine, but that’s just scholarship nut. Um, where we’ll take you and then find someone who definitely wants to be there.
So that’s kind of where we’re at.
Matt: Okay. Well, let’s talk more about the school. I’m sure there’s folks out there, you know, not familiar. You’ve been there a couple of years now, I think, uh, so what are some of the things you find that are really exceptional about the school? Some things that you find are cool.
Maybe that we wouldn’t even know by going through the website.
Coach: Yeah. Um, I would say three things that kind of jump out to me straight away. Um, number one is facilities. Um, we have four absolutely breathtaking grass fields I played in the [00:13:30] academies and play professionally in England and these fields are on par if not better than the most of the ones in England.
Um, they’re Bermuda and just. They’re, they’re stunning and, and they, they feel like a carpet when you play on them and, and a lot of guys who, you know, are from areas that have been, they’ve been playing on turf and they’re just, just dying to play on grass again. We are, we’re so proud of the fact that we have those facilities and.
The international guys that come in, especially that’s one of our biggest recruiting pitches for them. Um, the Americans that we get as well are, are amazed compared to kind of schools in the area and other schools that they’re looking at about how, how stunning our facilities are. Um, 2nd thing, and I think is a big thing for us is, is the academics.
Um, we’re a private school normally about 12 to 1 class ratio size. We’ve got obviously a lot of connections within the local area. Um, we’re ranked number 3 right now in the whole of the Southeast in regards to academics. So, a lot of guys who come here. You’re not an athlete student, you’re a student athlete.
Um, and I think that’s always worth kind of mentioning to people is you’re, you’re a student as much as you are an athlete and, and the classroom work you do and the, the level of the degree that you get is, is valuable and, and crucial, um, for most of the guys that are graduating from Catawba. So, The guys that come here get a fantastic degree.
They get professors that work with them, um, get them internships, get them jobs in in the local areas after school. Um, and that’s a really, really [00:15:00] big selling point for especially highly academic guys and people that value that part of it as well as just simply kind of. Coming to play. Um, and then the last thing is, is how, how much we do with, with analytics.
Um, we got a video scoreboard that does action replay. Um, we have, um, things that we, we test in regards to sprint count and sprint distance and heat maps. And, and we do all of that. Um, and then the last part is we, we develop football manager profiles. I don’t know how familiar you are with football manager, but we actually test people on, on every single aspect of.
Of their performance, their, their technical ability. We test them on every single attribute. We, we test them on the physical attributes. So jumping, natural fitness, stamina, speed, acceleration, strength, all that sort of thing. And then we grade them on the, uh, the mental aspects of the game as well. When essentially build them a profile.
So every single spring, um, there’ll be retested just to see kind of where they’re improving, where they’re, um, getting worse, and then we, we essentially. Show them, um, based on kind of our, our analytics, what we’re looking for in each position. So, for example, a center back, we’re looking at the mental characteristics.
It’s, it’s positioning, it’s leadership, it’s, um, anticipation, those sorts of things. So the technical attributes, it’s. heading, it’s tackling, it’s marking, it’s that sort of thing. And then obviously the physical attributes, it’s, it’s strength and acceleration because you’ve got to be good after over 10 yards.
So we build those [00:16:30] profiles and we kind of give them to the players so they can see where they’re at compared to the rest of the squad, which is obviously motivational. Um, but it also shows us where they’re at and what we need to do recruiting wise as well. Um, it’s, it’s so detailed now that. Obviously, when you’re looking for a, for example, a center back partnership, you, what you might, you don’t want to get two ball playing center backs with each other in regards to what they want to do role wise.
You want to, again, these are football manager terms. You want a ball playing center back partner with a, a no nonsense center back that just loves to defend, right? Um, if you play with an inverted left back, you need a left winger that wants to be isolated on the wing instead of kind of inverted, um, which wouldn’t suit with, with an inverted fullback.
So. When you’re recruiting, it’s not just finding a guy that plays the position, it’s finding a guy that plays the role that fits the system that you want to play. Um, and we do a very good job of, of the analytical side of the game, um, in regards to, to targeting specific players instead of just targeting players.
Matt: Awesome. That’s I love it. That’s a, that’s, that’s a new answer for me. I love it. When I get to hear somebody say something different than, than, than other schools. So that’s really cool. Um, let’s talk a little bit more, uh, about the team and the soccer side of things. I mean, you obviously mentioned, uh, you.
You know, the analytics side, which is awesome. So what kind of staff do you have that, that, that the, the team has that maybe some support staff, the department offers to [00:18:00] really help, you know, manage everything that you guys do on a, on a daily basis.
Coach: Yeah. So, uh, three of us coaches. Um, head coach, assistant coach and goalkeeping coach.
Uh, and then, uh, we work very strictly with, with two, two programs. One is the, the exercise science program. Um, they do all of the testing in regards to the physical attributes. Obviously they have all the metrics and all of the. The, the detailed stuff that they do within their, their department that allows us to do that.
Um, that’s, that’s a massive help for us. They do a lot of work with us in regards to rehabilitation as well. They have kind of zero gravity running machines and bikes that allow people to get back from injury quicker and prehab and stuff like that. And then it’s working with the guys in the weight room as well to, to, to manage programs.
For example, if there’s a guy who’s great speed, but horrendous balance, um, kind of tapering there. Their programs in the strength programs in the weight room to to get those sorts of things kind of equipped. So we essentially have specific things that we need guys to work on in in those different areas.
Um, and we we force, uh, you know, those departments to kind of to look at those things. Um, and if they’re their mental departments, I typically take care of that in regards to the psychology of the game, which obviously, as you know, the mental part of the game is so key. Um, and then the technical parts of the game, we do something called ID piece, which are individual development plans is what we call them phrase them.
Um, [00:19:30] we do them actually during the day. So outside of practice. Um, and we, we set up sessions for them to be able to do by themselves. So if there’s a center back that really needs to work on, I don’t know, the, the heading part of the game, um, they’ll go out there with, with their, with their group, with their positional group, um, with a session that we’ve set up for them.
Um, and we don’t even, we don’t even typically run it. We just kind of sit on the sideline and then kind of drag them to the side. If we need to show them something really, really specific in, in those ways. Um, but that way. As you know, as well in the fall season, it’s, it’s near on impossible to practice, right?
Your, it’s recovery, it’s preparing, and then it’s another game. There’s no actual getting better development wise, which is a really, really difficult part of what we do. Um, so instead, we, we, we use those things to, to aid those development. Obviously the guys that aren’t playing as much, if they’re kind of new, new freshmen and those sorts of things, it’s a really key part to them to.
To be tested, to be graded, um, to kind of see where they’re at and then do sessions during the season when they may not be, you know, getting on the field and, and growing that way, um, to actually find ways to continue to develop during the season instead of just going, well, I’m just not going to plan. I’m just going to wait till the spring and then I’m going to figure it out.
Um, actually forcing them to do things in the season as well. So that’s kind of how we, we do things.
Matt: Okay. Awesome. Well, Hey, you’ve been super generous with your time. We covered a lot of ground, but I always like to end these the same way. And that’s if you had [00:21:00] one nugget, one piece of advice you wish every parent player family going through this process knew what would that be?
Coach: Just to not put all your eggs in one basket. Uh, it, it, it drives me nuts when players are like, Oh, I’m only going to go D one or, uh, parents are like, you know, my son wants to become a professional, uh, and those sorts of things. I always tell the same. The same story. And that is, uh, this thing is think of it as, as a major business where you have to climb the ladder, you know, climb the ladder.
You don’t just become the CEO straight away. You’ve got to, you’ve got to make those, those gaps. Um, the first question I’d ask if you, if you want to be a D one and you want to be a professional is, uh, are you the best player at your club? If yes, are you the best player within your region? Are you the best player within your state?
Are you an all region player? Are you an all American? Then can you get on the college roster? Then can you get minutes on a college roster? Then can you be in the rotation? Then can you start? Then can you start regularly? Then can you be in all conference? Then you can be in all region, all American, and then maybe somebody will look at you from a professional standpoint.
So there’s so many things that you can do up to that point that the focus for for a lot of players is instead of you. Looking towards this big, shiny, dreamy goal is… Getting better in the day to day and, and not turning your, your eye away from, from programs that may be the best fit for you. Um, we have so many guys here.
Uh, we had a guy, um, that actually played with us and is now playing at the Charlotte independence, a professional team here who, who [00:22:30] came to get up. There, there are, there are ways to play professional through, through going to division two, division Juko, there was a. A guy that, um, I know very well. We played NAIA at Lindsay Wilson, which is an NAI school in Kentucky, and then went to Syracuse, won a national championship last year, and now is, is playing for Leicester in, in, in the championship.
So D one is not the be all and end all, and, uh, the, the second people realize that it’s about fit, it’s not about division. Um, I think it changes the dynamic of, of who they are and, and what their recruitment goes to. So. If you think you’re better than a teacher of school, okay, we’ll go to an ID, come and prove it.
Um, you may be rudely awakened to, to what the level is here. Um, so that would be my, my little bit of tidbit, a little bit of nuggets for, uh, for the guys that are doing the recruiting process.
Matt: Couldn’t agree more. Well, I love a coach. Well, Hey, congrats on a great season. Wish you the best of luck in this recruiting time and gearing up for next year.
And if you get down to any, I know you’re not traveling to Florida a lot, but if you get down here for any of the events in Lakewood ranch, let me know. All right. Awesome. Thank you, man. All right. Thank you.
