Evangel University Men’s Soccer – Coach Kyle Beard

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Kyle from the Evangel Men’s Program in Missouri. We talk about he likes to recruit kids who fall in love with the university. He describes the great location with lots of soccer in the city. Lastly, we discuss how he likes to focus on fun and development in the offseason. Learn more about Evangel University Men’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Kyle from Evangel University in Missouri. Welcome coach.

Coach: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Matt: Yeah. Thanks for being here. You guys are, uh, men’s AI program there, uh, in Missouri. And, uh, you know, you and I are talking here end of February.

It’s kind of the height of the college showcase season. Um, so. Talk to me about for you guys specifically, you’re, you’re kind of recruiting calendar. Where are things right now in terms of, are you, are you done with 24s and looking at 25s? You still looking for more 24s? What, what, what is your normal calendar kind of look like?

Coach: Yeah, yeah, no, great. I’m glad you’re, you’re asking that. So, um, I’m sure you hear this from everyone you talk to, but you know, we kind of never stop recruiting. It’s just, it does take different formats. Um, right now, maybe the hottest time for us. Um, we right now is that kind of moment where. And this doesn’t need to sound bad, but like some of the even the seniors who didn’t quite get the, the offer they wanted, um, then that’s primarily what we’re looking at.

They may have even gotten an offer, but just not what they wanted. Um, or, you know, a lot of kids that are very talented, just don’t get recruited. Um, and this is kind of that moment where, especially in the men’s side, um, we have a really good opportunity, um, to evaluate kids and a lot of that. And some of this comes out of COVID.

Yeah. Um, we went to a lot of video recruiting, [00:01:30] um, but I think that’s actually enhanced because of all that. And so we get to, we jump on, um, not, not to jump, jump the gun on some of your questions in the future, but we, we have a lot of opportunity with transfers that have not gotten recruited. Um, and, and, you know, of course, international kids, but I would say even domestically, like I said, a lot of kids that either didn’t get what they wanted or are looking for something even better than, than maybe a certain school that they, they’re getting offered to, but they want a different scenario.

So, um, right now is the, is the hot moment. Um, the last couple of months, um, you know, there has been some signings and there has been some of that, some of those initial, uh, guys that we were going after, but now the guys, like I said, that need something else, we’re going after pretty hard, hot and heavy.

Matt: Okay, great. Well, when it comes to, to finding players, you know, are there, are there tournaments that are kind of on your must hit list each year? Where do you find yourself going to mostly these days? 

Coach: Yeah. Um, you know, I’m in Springfield, Missouri, so it’s, it’s actually a really good location in between Kansas city and St.

Louis. So there are some tournaments that we hit up, but. We try to be very open, you know, and so if I get an invite, um, I’m always going to consider that. Um, and there’s some that are even quite, quite a far along the ways away from us that we, we make sure we get on video. A lot of tournaments are doing that where they’re filming the entire, uh, game scenario or even training session.

So. Um, you know, we don’t want to be limited, but I’m in a good location and we can even hit down and go down to a little rock and a lot of talent coming out of there. [00:03:00] Um, so those are the areas that are definitely our domestic hotspots. Um, and then, of course, we’re going to the, to the. Juco tournaments, you know, like a couple of the States, Mississippi does a really good one where of an MVP tournament, we try to hit up.

So those are our traditional spots. If that’s answering your question. Yeah, absolutely. 

Matt: Well, and these days, a lot of people are doing ID camps. Do you guys do any ID camps? Do you or your staff work others? How does that fit in? 

Coach: Yeah, uh, all of the above. So ID camps, I’m glad you brought that up because those may be the most effective way to, to showcase talent.

Um, I, I tell lots and lots of parents, some of them were looking for me. Some of them are kids that, you know, how do I get to go to the school I want and I tell them just that you need to make sure you’re going to that ID camp because most of the coaches I know. Um, they’re bringing in other coaches. So it’s not just, let’s say, uh, right now, I actually went to Missouri state.

So big division one, I went to their ID camp, they invited me, um, and they can’t recruit everybody and they’re not going to, they’re only looking maybe for one or two positions. And so they want to provide an opportunity for their coaches and the kids. Uh, to have more opportunities. So there was multiple universities there.

I went down to Alabama, they had a Southern showcase down there with a, with an old UAB coach, which was amazing. We had over 150 kids and about 15 different college programs from various levels. So yes, ID camps are crucial. Uh, we’re actually doing an ID camp this coming weekend and I’m doing another one in May.

And, um, [00:04:30] I definitely want to stay in touch with you. I’ll send you some dates. Um, cause those are, those are vital for, for, I would say if you’re a freshman and up. ID camps are a great way to get yourself showcased. 

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I’m glad to see you could get with my buddy coach Seabolt there at Missouri state.

Uh, yeah, great, great, great guy. We had him on the pod and I’ve known him for years, but, uh, in when it comes to all of that stuff, right. The ID camps, the showcases, everything kind of, kind of what makes up that hierarchy of things that you’re looking for in a player that’s going to make you want to want to give them an offer, whether that’s on the field stuff or off the field stuff.

Coach: Man. That’s a great question. And that. It’s going to go back to the players a little bit. I mean, I am looking for, of course, we’re all looking for talent, but I think it needs to be a good fit. And whether you’re at a big state school, whether you’re at a small private school, they need different things.

And we all want talent, right? But you still have to have the right fit. And I would say within a program, and I’ll be very generic, but each program is going to have its own culture. Um, and so even when I’m 1 on 1 with a recruit, I’ll tell him for me, you need to be in love with our university. And again, that could be very generic, but I want you to know the university and know what it’s about, uh, what its mission is, I guess, um, and make sure the major that you want is there.

You don’t want to jump in because the offer is amazing, but you don’t have a single, you know, major that you like, or, you know what I’m saying? Like, that’s, that’s the thing. I tell parents that a lot. And so when we’re looking at a player, we want to make sure [00:06:00] those are the first boxes we need to check. Do you like this, this university?

Um, and do you like the city it’s in? We’re very fortunate to be in Springfield where it’s a, it’s a great city to come live in, lots of opportunity. Um, and so we can sell it that way. But, um, yeah, I mean, those are the boxes that we’re looking at, which is, you know, a lot of kids. It’s not just about, yeah.

Lots and lots of money for scholarship. It’s about, does this fit for me? Cause the chances are I’m going to be needing to get a good education for what’s after the chances are, it’s not going to be professional soccer, right? So, uh, you want to make sure that you fit as a student and as coaches, we’re doing that for sure.

We’re making sure that all those boxes are checked. Yeah, absolutely. 

Matt: Couldn’t agree more. Well, you mentioned it a little bit earlier, but, uh, I’ll call it the quote unquote non traditional recruiting. Although I think it’s more and more traditional these days, especially at the NAI level. And that’s, you know, whether it’s internationals, transfers or JUCOs.

Um, Looks like your roster has, has a good bit of, of international flavor to it. So, so how does, how do you do all that? How does that all fit in and how do you complete the, put, putting together all those pieces of the puzzle?

Coach: Yeah. Um, we do, I coached overseas, so I enjoy that aspect of the game. Um, and I do have a lot of contacts there, but, but I don’t live and die by any, any location I don’t live and die by.

Um, you know, whether we have internationals or not, we, we, we look for the right personnel that’s going to fit to what we need. [00:07:30] Um, this year, for instance, we had for goals against, we had the number one defense in the conference and we had three of our backline or from Missouri, not just America, but from Missouri, they’re outstanding players.

Um, and so. We were able to get those kids and get them to come here and they were fit. And so, but next year we, you know, it could be international. So we’re looking for the right kid and they need to fit in culturally and they need to fit in, you know, what we just chatted about. Uh, they need to want to be at the university, get the major and all that.

And when that happens, yeah, you actually have to be very broad. I think in nowadays, and I enjoy that, but it’s something that you can look here and you may not find it. So you have to go look somewhere else. You gotta be open to that as a coach. So the wonderful thing about our game is is it’s played very high levels all over the world.

Um, and you know, we’re looking for an individual. So his nation doesn’t necessarily have to be a soccer nation. Um, like we are other center back. It was all conference players from New Zealand, not not a traditional soccer nation, but we’re open and we got him out of junior college local. So he’s in Missouri Junior College transfer right here next to us.

Um, and so we had to be very open to all those possibilities. 

Matt: Yeah, no, it makes sense. Well, let’s shift gears, talk a little bit about the school itself. I’m sure there’s people maybe not familiar with it. So you’ve been there a couple of years, uh, at this point, right? So kind of give me, give me some of the things that you’ve found stick out that are awesome about the school.

Maybe [00:09:00] some things we wouldn’t know even by going through the website

Coach:. Oh man. Great. Yeah. Um, you know, one of the cool things, you know, we’re in the NEI and if you’re looking at that level, um, the NEIs. Usually they’re in small towns and Springfield’s not. So that’s a big benefit. A lot of kids want to have things to do.

And we’re actually in a town where there’s four universities that play soccer. So there’s things right there. We have a semi pro team that gives kids opportunity to play at the next level. Um, and then, and of course, there’s two arenas for indoors. They can keep, you know, in off season, they can do a lot of things and have fun.

And then of course, all the fun stuff. Um, that’s definitely an aspect of our university, but within the university evangel. I mean, I came here because I really loved evangelist mission. It’s a private Christian school. You get, I’ve been in a big state school. I came from a big state school. Um, and, you know, definitely, there’s benefits to that, but the side is, you don’t always get that 1 on 1 evangel is excellent about that.

So, uh, you know, student coming to evangel, you’re going to be with your actual professor and probably you’re going to be taught by the chair of your department. Um, which is really, really nice for us for students to learn. Um, but then also we have really good. For for athletes and regular student body. We have great tutoring programs.

Um, and we watch very close within our athletic department. We actually have an assistant athletic director that’s watching and maintaining, uh, you know, if they’re turning in work, if they’re missing classes and that’s that’s huge. I mean, that that allows us to. [00:10:30] To really know where our students are, and we’re able to be kind of hands on with them.

So, you know, our students love it. They love that they’re cared about. They love that we’re going to do everything we can to graduate them. And you know who else likes it, which is important is our parents. The parents know we care. They’re not just a number. Um, and so for me, that’s really, really crucial.

My son is actually, he transferred to be here. Um, he was a collegiate player and loves the environment, loves the culture and he’ll be graduating this May. So it’s, it’s, it’s nice. It’s very different. It’s nice. Awesome. 

Matt: Well, you mentioned the academics piece kind of walk me through what a, what a typical day during the season.

Let’s go back to maybe your conference schedule. What’s that typical day look like in terms of, you know, balance in the school stuff and the sports stuff, winter classes, meals, practice times, game cadence, all that kind of jazz. 

Coach: Yeah. Yeah. Good question. Um, yeah. So what we try to do is not have conflict with scheduling for classes.

Yeah. And so, you know, we’re very cautious with that, especially in season. So our conference games are Wednesdays and Saturdays, almost always. Um, and so Monday is really crucial practice for Monday. Um, and that’s all the hard stuff, a little bit more fitness, a little more physicality. Um, and then Tuesday we’re going into more maybe tactical, um, but definitely important practice.

And then like I said, Wednesday’s game, if we’re traveling, that’s going to affect Thursday. So if we’re on the road a Thursday, it would be what, what happened the night before, right? So, you know, there will definitely be a training, but it’ll [00:12:00] be, let’s fix these mistakes or, Hey, here’s what we did, right. We needed to make sure we’re accessing that in the next game.

And then Friday, we’re It’s typically, uh, a walkthrough where we’re working on set pieces, working on the little things that, um, You know, or we can slow walk through and make sure we perfect. Um, and very quickly, you know, that is a traditional week we play on Saturday. So, um, the other accent of that is the cool thing about new technology is we don’t have to have designated team film times.

Uh, we do sometimes, but a lot of times I can just grab a clip of film. And send it to individuals and kind of say, Hey, you ran too far here. Uh, you didn’t step in the gap, et cetera. Um, and so they get that there is some time that I feel like I need to do team, but we don’t have to do as much of that. So, and we don’t want to conflict with schedule.

Um, and the only other add on to that is we have probably during season once a week, we’re going to have a fitness time, maybe early in the morning. And a lot of that’s teaching. So we’ll get our fitness and strength coach. To come in and say, here’s the techniques, here’s how you do it. And then we, what we call it is we do a battle buddy for the next day.

Um, activity. Um, and so they’re having two designated fitness times just to keep their bodies. Most of it’s just maintenance, you know? Um, and again, we’re doing all that to not conflict with scheduling. So we, we try to fit it around. Our typical training time is two o’clock, um, almost every day. And so they’re getting all their classes in the morning.

Matt: You mentioned, uh, Kind of the, the, the staff and, and, and the folks that they help out [00:13:30] with it. So, so give me a little bit more details, how many staff, how many, maybe other folks in the athletic department that help out with the team? What is everybody’s role? What does that look like? 

Coach: Yeah, we’re very fortunate.

Um, we, we’re trying to do things the best that we can at evangel to really equip the students and give them the things they need. So. Um, we have a compliance director, of course, who helps them maintain their class hours, the things they need to stay eligible. Um, and then we have a great athletic training staff and our athletic training staff, of course, does the typical things on field rehabilitation.

Um, and then we also have been fortunate to have part of that, that does strength training. Um, and then one of our coaches also does a lot of nutrition and fitness for him and some of it’s generic, but some of it can be specific. We have, uh, one guy who’s in rehab and we’re trying to watch his diet and help him, um, with that.

So we try to jump into that and make sure we have staff for that. Um, and then the other, we have a designated strength coach as well that can train them in the weight room. And as far as soccer wise, obviously, there’s me and I’ve been coaching for about 15 years. And so I’m working on the big, big stuff, the strategy, the tactics, uh, the sessions, and then our assistance.

We have everything from filming and assessing film, uh, recruiting, and then our main assistance does all the other operations, um, whether it just be making sure they have the right equipment ready, um, which can be minute, but you know, very, very, very important that the players don’t have to worry about it.

I do have a very, uh, players approach where we try to get them to be active in it as well. So when they [00:15:00] come to practice, you know, they’re making sure their locker room is where it needs to be tidy and fit. And then when they get the feel, they do a lot of that as well. So, um, But the school does provide adequate staff to give them things they need.

Okay. 

Matt: Awesome. Well, in terms of, of the, the team itself, is there a roster size that you find as ideal that you’re trying to hit each season?

Coach: I mean, ideal and what we have, no, it’s a, that’s a joke, but, um, the crazy thing is you think you want less and you’re always like, ah, there’s going to be an injury, there is an injury.

Um, for me, I’m, I’m kind of getting to about the 30, the 32 mark and. And that’s kind of where we’re at here. Uh, we don’t want to carry too many because, you know, we want to make sure not, not only are they developing, but that they have adequate opportunity. You know, if you have too many people in front of you, that’s, that nearly becomes impossible to see everybody.

So I’ve kind of found, um, evangelism very. Open with allowing me to, they want people to graduate. They want people to stay here and love it. So they’re very open to suggestion on it, but I think around the 30 to 32 markets are good, um, because we want depth for competition and we also want depth because things happen.

And so, um, that’s kind of where we’re at right now. Okay. 

Matt: Well, we talked about the roster. We talked about the staff, but we got to talk about you specifically. So how would you describe your coaching style, the style of play you’re looking to implement and just the overall culture of the team? 

Coach: Oh, man, that’s, that may be the hardest question of the day.

So, um, [00:16:30] I’ve been coaching long enough where I don’t live and die by any system. Um, I try to communicate that to recruits as well, uh, mainly because, um, I mean, believe it. I mean, you know, this, cause you’re, you, you talked to so many coaches. The AI is very high level, very competitive, very international. Um, and so if you have one system, you’re going to get beat.

Um, and so we, we teach them at least this year, we had two transitional systems. Because we face so many different styles. And so we have to be on the fly and we have to be able to learn that way. Um, and then we also just find out our personnel. Because, you know, you recruit your personnel and the guy, there’s always one guy gets injured, one guy that can’t come in.

Um, so you don’t want to live and die just by them. So we have something that we’re running, but we have, we have to be adaptable. And, um, but of course I’ve been coached for 20 years and that’s the way it’s always been. If, if you live by a system, you will die by it because some team will figure you out.

So, uh, right now we have kind of sat into the 4 3 3 with a central defensive middle. But we have that right personnel. I’ve got a great CDM to attacking meds that are some of the best in the conference, um, and we run a flat back in the four, but I’ve run wingbacks before. So, you know, it depends on who you can get and who’s working, who’s not injured.

So, um, right now we’re running about a four, three, three, and we like to counter. So that’s, that’s our big, um, our, our go to our forte, but we did transition into a kind of a four, four, two as well. And we will continue to learn that. 

Matt: Well, you and I are talking [00:18:00] here in February. So it’s the off season or, or, or, you know, second season, whatever you want to call it.

Um, so specifically for you guys being at an AI program, kind of, what is your off season look like? How, what, what are the, what should players expect? 

Coach: Um, yeah, off season, you don’t want to say it’s more important, but it’s really, really crucial to development in more ways than the fall is. The fall is you’ve already got to be there, right?

You gotta, you gotta come in ready. And so for me, for your internal team, because you don’t have the new recruits primarily, um, it’s so crucial and fun to be honest. I enjoy it as a coach because there’s a lot less pressure for them and it’s just about development. We start, we start at, uh, fitness. So when they come in, we’re not quite ready to get them back into the game.

Um, so we start out really serious, two days a week fitness. And then what we do is we bring them actually in the foot style first. So foot style is, uh, you know, small sided, I don’t coach them a lot. I’ll let them just get their feet back on the ball and have a, have the, bring that aspect of fun, right? We got to have fun in this game.

Um, and so we do a little, just in internal, uh, intramural kind of foot style league for them to do for a couple of weeks and train together and just have a lot of fun. And then we build up, uh, we’re actually doing a 77 tournament, um, And so we, we build up, build up, build up. And then the week after that, we’re going to start talking about system play.

But what we, what we want in the off season is individual development. That’s more [00:19:30] important than system all the way every day. And so we really, we push them a little bit harder in the fitness. We just had a weight session at six 30 this morning. It was really good, but you know, we’re, we’re pushing them.

We’re not going to push them the false maintenance here. We’re like, Hey, here’s the standards. This is where we got to get to, because we want you to be stronger to prevent injury. We want you to be a little bit faster, um, and we’re challenging them, them with that. And then we’re also letting the team leaders form and formulate their, their ideals of what they want in the coming season.

We do not allow a generic, like we’re going to have this generic team goal. We want individuals coming up and saying, here’s what we did and here’s what we need to do better. And here’s why. And here’s where it’s going to get us. And so we talked through that with our team leadership. And really get a realistic goal on what we can achieve.

Um, then of course, in the spring season, we’re allowed right now, it’s going to advance, but we’re allowed three play dates. And so we try to schedule the hardest teams that we’re going to play. Uh, we’re fortunate cause we’re in a town, uh, with a division one school and a jury right down the road, which is a really well coached division two team.

And we we’ve been able to play it in the last couple of years. And, and it really is fun, but it also. really teaches you. And I try to get the guys to see that in the offseason. You need to learn from these moments what you’re doing wrong. Um, and we try to put in a situation where you could fail really easily because you’re playing against excellent opponents.

So our offseason so important and we do have a lot of fun and we have a lot of team activities, but um, we’re learning and learning and learning some more. So offseason is [00:21:00] crucial. All right. Awesome. 

Matt: Well, you’ve been generous with your time. I got to ask you one last question and that’s if, if, if you could just give me one tidbit, one nugget that you think all parents, players, anybody going through this college recruiting process should know, what would that be?

Coach: Oh, man, I wasn’t ready for that question. Um, one tidbit. There’s so many things, but if I could round it out, which is what you’re asking, I would say really, uh, find the place that you’re going to be a good fit and that you want to be, and maybe be realistic with not only your talent level, um, but also like you’re going to be pre med, you know, You need to be, I’ve told parents, you need to be at a university that’s going to compliment that, respect that if you will, because it’s a very hard major.

If you’re going in and you’re an excellent player and you have a degree that is not as, as heavy, and I’m not, I’m not insulting you to decree, but there’s some degrees that are less heavy. Um, then you have a little more opportunity for a higher level to be honest. So you need to find a find a university that’s gonna be a good fit for you.

And and there’s there’s 100 different ways from division three to junior college to to any I all all different aspects of it. So find a university that fits for you and maybe even fits with your budget because not all of them work. I’ve gotten so many high level division one caliber players to come play for me because Um, they just could not afford the division one or division two offer they’re getting and we’ve had everything else they [00:22:30] wanted.

So, um, I would say shop, I’m giving you way more than you asked for, but I would say shop, uh, open up your mind and be realistic with where you can be, that it’s going to be a healthy, long term place for you to fit in and enjoy your experience. Awesome. Well, 

Matt: thank you, Kyle. Appreciate it. Wish you the best of luck and, uh, hope we’ll talk again soon.

All right. Coach: Yeah. Anytime. Thank you, man, for having me. I appreciate it. Take care.