Concordia University St. Paul Women’s Soccer – Coach Steve Bellis

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Steve Bellis from the Concordia University St. Paul Women’s Program in Minnesota. We talk about how their ID camps help prospects get a feel for the program. He tells us about the school’s great location and new facilities. Lastly, we discuss his staff and their roles with helping to lead the team. Learn more about Concordia here.

[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer. I’m excited to be joined by coach Steve Bellis coach. Welcome.

[00:00:08] Coach: Thank you. Thanks for having us. I, uh, much appreciate it.

[00:00:11] Matt: Yeah, you are at Concordia university St. Paul up in Minnesota. Uh, an NCAA division two program. If I’m not mistaken.

[00:00:19] Coach: that’s us. We are, uh, we’re right in the twin cities.

[00:00:25] Uh, we’re a small ish. Private school. Yeah. I compete at the NCAA division 2 level. Awesome.

[00:00:32] Matt: Well, let’s, let’s talk about, uh, we’ll start by talking about your recruiting. So when did, when do you usually start looking at players and start hearing from players that are interested in your program? What year in high school do you guys focus to that start process?

[00:00:46] Coach: I think historically, um, we would start looking at sophomores and juniors. However, over the last five, six years, the recruiting process seems to be shifting in a few different directions. So we’re going now, we’re getting emails from freshmen, um, which is a little early for me personally, but then we’re also, I think COVID has obviously made a big dent in this, but we’re also still getting emails from, from seniors who haven’t quite figured out what they want to do or what the process should look like.

[00:01:20] But in general, I will recruit in, focuses on sophomores and juniors in high school.

[00:01:28] Matt: How many inbound contacts would you say you get in a, in a normal week?

[00:01:34] Coach: Um, obviously it varies on the time of year, um, anywhere from 10 to 70. Wow.

[00:01:44] Matt: Okay. And what are some of the things you’d like to see in that first communication from a prospect?

[00:01:51] Coach: I, you know, I, I like the personal side of things. Um, so if I get an email from a potential player that has some interest in the school, so they know a little bit about the school. So they put that in the email, they know a little bit about our location. Uh, and you can tell that they, they know what level we play at.

[00:02:10] Um, those things will probably lead me to actually read it. Um, I’m not a big lover in the, you know, the generic. Coach emails if they don’t put my name in there. That usually is a, is a red flag that, Hey, this is a mass email and they really don’t care about our school. Um, and then the other ones that are generally don’t open are the, the ones that come from recruiting companies that are just massive.

[00:02:40] Right. So the ones that will catch our attention are ones that are specific to our program, our school, and then anything. That’s got a little bit of the shows that the kids got a little bit of character. Um, you know, they know a little bit about the school and a little bit about the program, but then they tell us something interesting about themselves.

[00:03:04] Um, whether that be about soccer or not, sometimes it doesn’t matter. It’s just. Somebody needs to poke my interest some days. Yeah. Well, I mean,

[00:03:13] Matt: it’s all right. You got a lot to sift through that. That makes sense. Well, when you are, well, I guess before I ask this, what about communications from club coaches?

[00:03:24] Is that something that you like to see? Do you get a lot of contacts from club coaches? Do you reach out to club coaches? I think

[00:03:33] Coach: they’ve been the lifeblood of the recruiting process. Um, for a long time. Um, and it’s good to form a good relationship with club coaches. We work with, you know, clubs from all over the Midwest, um, and also on the west coast as well.

[00:03:50] So once I get that relationship going and I understand that they know exactly what we’re looking for and the. Soccer should look like. Um, yeah, that’s, that’s really helpful. We worked with a couple in town. Um, that’ll send me notes about players or events that are coming up, and that’s really a good way for us to kind of start the process and go see the play.

[00:04:15] And get things rolling on that side of things.

[00:04:17] Matt: Okay. Well, when, when you are out and about recruiting, what are some of the key tournaments that, that you attend you? Do you ever check out high school games? Like what, what do you do when you’re out and about?

[00:04:29] Coach: Um, and I, and I think this has changed a little bit as the soccer horizon has changed.

[00:04:35] Um, I think there was like five or six key tournaments that we would go to 10 years ago. Um, particularly in the Midwest. But I think with the introduction of GA ACNL all the other different levels. I think it’s important for us to kind of expand our horizon and get out and see a few of these different levels for sure.

[00:05:00] High school soccer is in a fall in Minnesota, so that makes it extremely different. How’s it’s the same time as our college season to get out and watch high school games. So that’s probably on the lower end of our spectrum is going on watching high school stuff and it’s club soccer. That’s still the, the lifeblood for us.

[00:05:20] So I’m in Phoenix this weekend, um, for the president’s day event, uh, been a silver lakes this year. We’ve been to Disney. We’ve seen ACNL games, we’ve seen GA games. Um, I don’t, I don’t, you know, we’re not at that point now where our, our pool of players is actually quite good in terms of the amount of recruits that we’re talking to, that we probably wouldn’t need a new event, but we’re always open to a new event as long as it’s got the quality that we need.

[00:05:51] And obviously sometimes the quantity too. Sure.

[00:05:55] Matt: What about how to camps fit into your you’re recruiting? Hosts ID camps. Do you and your staff like to go coach at other camps to look at players? How does that work for you guys?

[00:06:08] Coach: Yeah, a little bit of both. It also will run two ID camps. We do a winter one in December, and then we do a summer one in July.

[00:06:16] Um, we invite our recruits to that. Obviously we get anywhere between 50 and 60 players. Uh, and those when they’re on our campus, I think it’s beneficial to ways. Obviously the players get to see the school, they can talk campus, they can meet up missions. We do a little college prep talk as well. Um, so that’s good for them to see, to see ours, but the, the better part is that we get to coach them.

[00:06:46] We get to kind of see what they’re like as a player, as a person, we get a better feel for personalities. Um, it’s a really good, efficient way. Of recruiting, um, both sides of the coin, you know, for the players and also for the staff. The one thing that we do with our ID cancer’s we invite all the colleges.

[00:07:08] So all the detours or the , um, or calm and they’ll observe our camp. And after the camp, they have the players have an opportunity to chat with other schools as well. Which I think is good. I think, you know, ultimately we have 50 kids on a camp we’re not going to take, but I’m going to take many of those.

[00:07:29] So I want to make sure that they get a good experience and also an opportunity to kind of showcase their abilities for, for other schools as well. Yeah. Camps have been productive for us over the last.

[00:07:43] Matt: Awesome. So, you know, you mentioned getting to see players get to know them a little bit. So what, what are those key characteristics that you’re looking for in a player, both on and off the field that kind of, you know, your hierarchy?

[00:07:57] I need to make sure I check these boxes. I

[00:08:01] Coach: think, uh, work rate is. Katie wants to be. There wants to work hard. Who wants to put in the effort who has the grit and determination to do some of the mundane stuff that you do in practice? Sometimes I think that’s good. That takes a box straight away for me.

[00:08:21] The kids are coachable. So when we’re, when they’re on camp, if we give them some coaching points, if they can take that on board and actually put it into practice. There’s another, there’s another box that’s checked. Um, those are things for sure that would go a long way. Then obviously we’re looking for a good athletic ability and then ultimately a good game understanding and technical ability as well.

[00:08:47] So those things will all come out, uh, on a, on a two to three hour camp, you know, you’ll be able to figure that out pretty quickly. So we want athletic players, but also we need technical players that will understand. How we play our game at Concordia.

[00:09:04] Matt: Do you, do you have a set number of players you try to bring in every year?

[00:09:08] Does it just kind of vary?

[00:09:11] Coach: I think COVID Kevin made a, a big shift in, uh, I think, you know, again, historically we bring in six to 10 players every year, uh, dependent upon our, our senior rotation, obviously, uh, with the COVID year, that’s made it a little bit more difficult to treat. A lot of our seniors have taken the extended year that they can take, um, some of them haven’t, but a lot of them did.

[00:09:39] Um, so obviously our, our class sizes have been a little bit smaller than the last couple of years, and I don’t think that’ll change. To too quickly, maybe another two cycles where we, before we get back to the no, I’m off. All right. We’re going to bring in six to 10 players every year. Yeah.

[00:09:58] Matt: So you guys are division two.

[00:10:00] So you have some athletic money to give out. What is the overall kind of scholarship picture at your school? Both on the athletic side, as well as the academic scholarship side. What most players come in, you know, looking at.

[00:10:14] Coach: If I was a recruit, I would focus on the academic side of things because ultimately that’s where you’re going to get the larger piece of that.

[00:10:23] The scholarship, um, just rough numbers. Concordia is about 33,000, including room and board. Uh, so we’re on the lower end for a private school in terms of tuition and costs. Uh, academic scholarships range from 2000 to 11,000. So obviously I want, you know, I want smart soccer. So they’re going to get the 11,000 chunk, which obviously helps, um, helps pay for, uh, for a private school.

[00:10:51] And then the socket side of thing really varies upon ability. Uh, we don’t, you know, there isn’t a set number. Um, it’ll, it’ll vary between year to year ability and then sometimes on what we need, you know, if we need, uh, if we need an attack, Centerback, uh, we may have to spend a little bit more money to get to that point.

[00:11:13] So it really does vary. I don’t want to put a

[00:11:16] Matt: oh yeah, no, I just, I always like to, to ask that, to give people an idea of what they need to be looking at and what a particular school might be doing. So I appreciate that. Um, So I noticed a couple, uh, international players on your roster this season. Um, how, how heavy, uh, is your kind of international recruiting, uh, for your squad?

[00:11:43] Coach: Um, no, not to Abbey. It’s not our focus. It’s, um, I like international students, you know, I think they’ll bring a flavor. And again, understanding that sometimes you don’t get in an American high schooler. Um, but it’s, it’s a, it’s a longer process for us. It’s a more challenging process because you know, sometimes physically you can’t see them play at all.

[00:12:12] Um, so you relied on video and coaches references and so on. So we haven’t really relied on that. We’ve got a handful of kids. You know, that have ended up on our doorstep, uh, international students, but it hasn’t been a primary focus for us and it probably will never be.

[00:12:31] Matt: So last question on recruiting side, then what about transfers junior college players and walk on?

[00:12:37] It’s kind of that mix.

[00:12:40] Coach: Um, we’re open to those, you know, I think that’s, I don’t think there are guaranteed, so I don’t think when we’re looking for six kids that would go into it and say, all right, two will be transferring. To be walk-ons. Um, I think there’s more of a natural attrition. Um, we’re in a, we’re in the twin cities where there’s a lot of soccer played, so we’ll get transfers just because a lot of kids will come back to the twin cities after a year or two away.

[00:13:09] You know, division one school generally, and they’ll transfer to us because they want to be closer to home. Um, that’s kind of how things have gone historically. Um, walk-ons we are open to walk on, however, uh, that that’s, you know, generally that’s, that’s a tough, tough way to find yourself on a college sockets.

[00:13:34] By knocking on the coach’s door and saying, Hey, I want it. I want to try out. Um, we usually recruit every player that comes onto the team. So what guns? Uh, uh, far not many, to be honest. So over my 11 years here, maybe we’ve had three walk-ons that have been successful. Yeah. Okay.

[00:13:52] Matt: Well, let’s talk about the school a little bit.

[00:13:54] Um, What, you know, we can click around the website and learn a bunch of things. So you’ve been there a number of years. Give me some of the things that are, they’re awesome about your school, that I’m not going to find on the website, but give me some, uh, some, some, you know, super secret nuggets that, uh, only, only you’re going to

[00:14:13] Coach: know here.

[00:14:14] Um, the location. Is it just speaks volumes for an outstanding location in terms of what’s going on in our, in our locale. Um, we are a five minute walk to Minnesota United stadium. So we have an MLS professional team on our doorstep. Uh, You know, a lot of the players go to the games, we’ve done some stuff with those guys where, where we’ve helped out at games.

[00:14:41] We take our players to the games I’ve got season tickets, you know, it’s, it’s right on the doorstep, uh, a little bit further, you know, that direction takes you to downtown Minneapolis. We’ve got all the sports teams here in the twin cities. Um, it’s just the location here for us is good. You’ve come. The shops and the stores, but you’re also on a campus that feels like.

[00:15:08] It’s a campus feel it’s quite pretty, uh, you know, even in the winter, it’s quite pretty, you know, the winters can be harsh here in Minnesota. Um, but our school does a really nice job of, of Oak Cape and, uh, making sure that you feel like you’re in a campus port within five minutes, you can be downtown Minneapolis, downtown Sanford.

[00:15:29] The airports in, you know, spitting distance, the mall of America or whatever it may be. Um, the, the location for us is a huge selling point. Um, I mean the other, the other nuggets of, of beauty, uh, our facilities are outstanding. Um, as we just talked about, you know, it snows here. So our field is a turf field, uh, but for three months of the year is covered with an inflatable heated.

[00:15:58] Um, which may be a foreign concept to a lots of states in America, but, um, it’s, it’s, it’s a really good way to. Train and play on the same field that you’ll play on in the fall. Um, we have a brand new weight room that’s tailored just for athletes. It’s got a really cool little turf area where we play foot sole as well.

[00:16:21] Um, brand new, uh, running track. Uh, the facilities here, the sports facilities here are fantastic. Um, obviously those are the kind of things that you think about as you’re going through. Recruiting processes, location and facilities will be high on, on my map. Uh, and then the other, the other glowing piece would be academics, uh, Concordia as multiple majors, multiple minors that are all pretty well recognized, regionally and nationally.

[00:16:55] Um, so some excellent programs that that players can, can go into and graduate from. Um, Oh,

[00:17:02] Matt: that’s great. Well, you know, you mentioned that the majors and the academic piece, so how do your student athletes balance the academic side and the sports side?

[00:17:16] Coach: Honestly, um, some of that is just based on the, on the kind of recruit that we go after.

[00:17:23] We want kids that are academic. So we look at players GPA’s we look at their act scores, our sat scores. We’re probably not going to recruit kids that are going to struggle in our environment, academic environment, because ultimately that’s just going to be a, you know, it’s going to be a challenge. So we want kids, we go GPA’s, um, We, we D we do study tables and the first and second year, um, so two nights a week, our students will be with a tutor in a classroom.

[00:17:53] Just making sure that the transition from high school to college is going well. And obviously they’re doing well academically. So our tutor will help. Uh, we’ve got small class sizes here. So professors all know your name. They’ll know you’re a soccer player. If you’re not doing well, pick up the phone and we kind of fix our problems.

[00:18:13] The balance just seems to come pretty naturally after a semester or two. Uh, I think they do a decent job. Our team GPA is outstanding. Uh, we have a 3.78 a team GPA right now. Um, we’re quite proud of that. You know, we, we flown that against the other teams and, uh, that’s something that we really promote.

[00:18:38] I’d also like to think that our players get a social life. I think when you live in the twin cities and you’ve got so many outside opportunities to, to have fun and be a student, it’s a shame to neglect that. So the balance is academics, athletics, and then a social life. Um, and we want to make sure that we, we, we give our students a well-rounded experience.

[00:19:01] Matt: Well, so in that experience, what, what would a typical non-game day look like for a player during the season in terms of what they’re doing from, from wake up to going to bed?

[00:19:14] Coach: Yeah, I think in a fall season, obviously that’s our, that’s our busiest time in terms of games, practices, training, lifting, um, and on an average day, you know, a student or go in or don’t go see the tray.

[00:19:30] They’ll go to lift. Now, lifting in the fall is very much a speed and agility works from ACL prevention stuffs from cost of, so we’re not on the big whites and stuff in a, in a fall season. So they’ll lift once or twice a week. And then obviously we’ll practice. Um, we practice two to two to two and a half hours, depending on where we’re at in the week where we’re at in the season.

[00:19:55] And then a couple of nights a week, we’ll do film and video and individual matrix. Um, so the fall, you know, you visit, you know, you’re busy with soccer, so that’s when it’s really important to make sure you get the balance right. With your academics as well. So, um, we make sure we have good contact with all the professors.

[00:20:13] They know what our schedule looks like. They know what’s expected from the player soccer wise, so that we can balance that with the professors to make sure that it’s, uh, it’s not. Yeah, Paul things cannot taper off a little bit. Uh, and that’s where we spend a little bit more time in a weight room. So we go to a winter program or a winter season, we call it where the balance becomes half, half the time you lift in half the time you’re doing soccer, it ends up being about eight hours a week.

[00:20:44] So it’s a little bit lighter than the fall. And again, you know, we want to make sure that our, our focus on academics. It’s still prevalent. And then we have a spring season as a division two program. You get five dates, uh, where you can play division one teams, division two teams, club teams. So this spring, we’ve got a couple of day, one games, couple of D two games and corporate club games as well.

[00:21:11] So, uh, and then that’s kinda, you know, the end of the season in the spring is late April. The smell’s gone in Minnesota, hopefully by then. And, uh, we, we send them, we send them home for the summer or we send them somewhere where they can do the workouts that we give them for the summer as well.

[00:21:31] Matt: Okay. We, you know, you.

[00:21:35] You talked about a non non game situation or non game days and all those kinds of stuff in terms of game days and your, your conference, uh, has a pretty big geographic swath. Um, so what, what’s a typical travel time. What’s your, what’s your travel look like during the season?

[00:21:56] Coach: I think geographically and again, for recruits, it’s important to think about.

[00:22:02] Geographically, we’re not in a bad situation. Most of our trips are two to three hours with the exception of, you know, a couple, we go to North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska. Those trips are a little bit, a little bit longer. Um, our schedule rotates every other year. So, so we don’t always travel, you know, the year after they’ll come to us.

[00:22:27] Um, If we travel, we’ll travel after class on a Thursday. Again, we’re pretty cognizant that we don’t miss class. And we, we worked with professors, so they know that we’ll travel after class on a Thursday. Uh, we’ll get to our venue on Friday on Thursday night, we’ll train Friday morning. We’ll play Friday afternoon or Friday evening.

[00:22:48] And, uh, we jump on a bus and we drive to the next school. And then we, uh, we play on a Sunday afternoon and we’re back. So we have travel partners in our league, so that maintains that every weekend you’ll get two games. So we’re not driving to North Dakota for one game. We’ll get two gaps.

[00:23:08] Matt: Makes sense. Um, well, let’s talk a little bit more specifically about the team and playing and stuff.

[00:23:16] So, um, you know, how, how big a roster do you usually carry are freshmen challenging for playing time? When they first come in? Um, do you have a reserve team or anything like that?

[00:23:30] Coach: So, um, our current roster is about 32. Um, that includes three keepers. Um, so we’re not feel players, uh, where we can obviously play 11 V 11 every day.

[00:23:42] Um, and it’s varied a little bit over the years, but not too much. So anywhere from 28 to about 32 is our roster. Um, You know, obviously you’re going to pick up one or two injuries. Hopefully fingers crossed those injuries are not lengthy injuries, but there will be moments where you’ve got players set in.

[00:24:04] Um, and we train 11 V 11, most days we’ll have games where we, you know, so you need, you need about that number. It seems to work, um, in regards playing as a freshmen. Yeah. Um, we freshmen play here. Uh, I play my best 11. It doesn’t really matter what class you’re in, to be honest. Um, however, realistically, the freshmen need to put in an awful lot of work to, to be able to compete that summer before they go to college.

[00:24:37] It’s really key that they’re in the weight room that they’re doing all the physical side of things. And then obviously maintaining a high level of soccer, whether the play in at the highest level. Um, cause, you know, if you think about it, they’re coming in as a 17 or 18 year old, but we’re asking them to compete with 2122 year olds, uh, that have been in the weight room for the last four years on are ridiculous that competitive.

[00:25:05] And they don’t want to give up the spot to a 17 year old. So, uh, if you come at it and if you go to. Uh, you’ll apply. Uh, however, you’ve got to be prepared to put the work in to get to that point. For sure.

[00:25:19] Matt: What about your soccer staff? How, how many other staff do you have? What role does each person play?

[00:25:28] Coach: Um, so currently we have a gratis system, so, uh, she’s in the office with us three days a week. She’s doing a master’s degree. She’s coaching on the field with us out recruiting. Um, she’s busy. Uh, so, uh, she and I work kind of hand in hand on a day-to-day basis and do most of the, you know, the daily activities that are required to make the program tick.

[00:25:54] And then we have a goalie coach who’s part-time uh, so he’ll come in three days a week, and then we have a part-time assistant who will, uh, he’ll be at every training session. It’ll help recruit, uh, put it’s very much a part-time position. Um, so there’s two full-timers, two part-timers and then we have a strength and conditioning coach who’s who’s hired by the school.

[00:26:18] So he’ll work with our program and also one other program. And then we have a trainer, uh, we’re quite lucky here. Our trainer works with soccer specifically. So any injuries or sickness or COVID test or whatever it may be, you always see the same trainer. So that’s nice. Um, so that’s our staff currently.

[00:26:38] Um, my hope is that we add a full-time assistant and we’re kind of working through that process right now. Um, so hopefully sometime in the fall, we’ll, we’ll add one other full-time member, which would make, make my job a little easier. All

[00:26:53] Matt: right. Well, let’s talk about your job specifically. How would you describe your style of coaching and your team’s style of play?

[00:27:03] Coach: Again? This question a lot. Um, and I think. It really varies a little bit dependent upon the team that we’ve got, the team that we’re playing against. And then also what kind of rhythm we’re in? What kind of, what kind of state are we in? Are we winning games? Are we, are we competitive? So I think that my style wasn’t changed dramatically.

[00:27:27] Um, but there will be moments when you see a different Steve, um, I think that it’s important to enjoy soccer. I think it’s important to have fun. I think it’s important to be competitive. Uh, but I also think it’s important to develop and continually get better. So I think all those things, you know, it’s a fine line between enjoyment having fun, but also Brooklyn down and getting better and developing.

[00:27:55] So we try and hit that fine. So in every practice, every opportunity we’ll, we’ll try to give you a little hints of all that. A little bit of enjoyment, a little bit of fun, a little bit of development, um, but continually becoming a better player and a best student athlete coaching style wise, I would think that we do most of our work in practice and that common game.

[00:28:22] My role is a little bit limited in that. We’ll give you some instruction, try and give you as much encouragement as possible. We’ll point you in the right direction. But none of us are cheerleaders. We’re not, that’s not our staff. Um, we’ve got good senior leadership. We’ve got great captains. We’ve got good leaders on the field.

[00:28:43] Um, they, they pick up the role of coach, um, during the game, which is nice. I feel that that gives them a really good, strong responsibility, a little bit of ownership of the team. So from a coaching standpoint, I think most of my work is done in practice. It’s done in the office with the recruits. Um, then come game day, I try and sit back and relax and have a coffee and then a Twix and, um, and see what happens.

[00:29:14] Matt: Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, you know, we’ve, we’ve talked about a lot of different things here. And so this will just be my last question for is, is what, what haven’t we talked about? What is it that you would like anybody to know about your school, your program, or anything else that we haven’t covered?

[00:29:31] Coach: I think from a recruiting standpoint, um, we’ve got some good characters on staff. Uh, I think the recruits need to know whether they would be a good fit with that culture or not. Um, and I, and I think they can only figure that out by prolonged discussion and a campus visit and an opportunity to ask players specific questions.

[00:30:01] So when you do a tour with. You’ve got an hour there to kind of really all right. What Steve Lee, what said like what’s the, what’s the program really? Like, what’s it like being a player deal, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And I think once you get those answers, that’s, that’s half the battle. Don. I think you want to, you want to enjoy college soccer and you want to put yourself in a position.

[00:30:25] You know, you think you can compete. Um, but you want to, you want to make sure that you’re in a, in a good situation, uh, from the get, go and recruit sometimes forget about that and, you know, focus on the, the level or the school or whatever it may be, but it’s, there’s a lot goes into it and it’s kind of a, it’s a long process, but if you do it properly, you’ll end up at the right spot.

[00:30:49] Matt: For sure for sure. Well, coach I appreciate the time and, uh, and wish you the best of luck in the fall season. And hopefully we’ll, we’ll get a chance to check back in with you, see how you do, and hopefully you got a couple, couple of new recruits. Who’ve seen this video as well.

[00:31:05] Coach: All right. Thanks coach.