Guilford College Women’s Soccer – Coach Justin Maullin

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Justin Maullin from the Guilford College Women’s Program in North Carolina. We talk about the conversations he has with club coaches about players. We cover the beauty of his campus and their new facilities. Lastly, we discuss how he likes to press forward with his team when he can. Learn more about Guilford College.

[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer. I’m excited today to be joined by coach Justin. Maullin from Guilford college in Greensboro, North Carolina. Welcome

[00:00:08] Coach: coach. Thank you. Thanks for having me, Matt. Well, let’s just

[00:00:12] Matt: jump right into it. Uh, you know, one of the things. Players always want to know is, is, you know, how a particular coach does their recruiting.

[00:00:20] So when do you start looking at players? Um, in terms like, you know, what, what year in high school are they, when are you hearing from players generally?

[00:00:30] Coach: Yeah, I think it’s, um, it’s not an exact science. Um, but you know, for example, we have an ID camp, uh, this past Sunday on campus and was. Goalkeeper. That’s a 2024, you know, so she’s definitely on our radar now, you know, if I went out to a tournament, uh, would I be looking for a 2024?

[00:00:52] Um, so again, not an exact science, I mean the girls, um, a little bit ahead of the boys, they typically start contacting us, uh, in the junior year. Uh, very few in sophomore. Uh, I know as you go up in the levels, it would probably change. Uh, but for us, we get in juniors and seniors. Okay.

[00:01:10] Matt: You, you, you mentioned ID camps.

[00:01:11] So what, you know, how, how do camps factor into your, your whole recruitment process? Whether that’s your own ID, camps or camps you go and work

[00:01:20] Coach: at at other schools? Sure. I’m in for us, uh, at division three, again, um, you know, the, our recruiting budget isn’t as, as lucrative as, as some other schools. So hosting our own ID camp is certainly one avenue where we can get girls on campus and kind of put them through, you know, our system, our drills, uh, and then yeah.

[00:01:40] Uh, going to other, um, other ID camps certainly helps. I went to. Uh, last week, Sunday, Charlotte soccer academy, they had 140 kids with schools from Michigan, Florida, state, Georgia down to down to Guilford and everywhere in between. So, um, so yeah, um, the, the, the ID campus, certainly a very good avenue, whether it’s another schools or ours, uh, and, uh, certainly cost-effective and then, uh, you know, you getting players from

[00:02:07] We had a girl flying from Connecticut for the. Empathy is a full and once Guilford for the creative writing. And it would, it just seems like a perfect fit. So, so, yeah,

[00:02:20] Matt: that’s great. Um, what about tournaments? You’re, you’re lucky and that you’re kind of in the heart of it all there in North Carolina, but you know, what are the main tournaments you like to get to, to, to look at players throughout.

[00:02:34] Coach: Yeah, they would obviously be kind of Southeast based tournament’s um, you know, the visit Raleigh showcases is certainly a very big one for us, just an hour up the road, uh, that one’s been going for years. Um, the Southern soccer showcase just happened right now, uh, ingredient. And as you mentioned, we’re right around the corner from major complex called Bryan Park, uh, which hosts regionals, um, state cup events.

[00:02:59] So that’s, that’s a great one for us. Uh, we went up to wags, uh, in early October. Uh, that was an excellent one for us. That was just four hours. Uh, and they will venture down south a little bit to Disney showcase. Um, and then, um, some ECL ECRs tournaments that are regional. Um, and then just some, some one-off games that are more local, you know, within an hour, hour and a half radius.

[00:03:23] There’s actually a very good, uh, high school tournament in town today, um, where you’ve got 16 high schools. So I’ll, I’ll go and recruit today. And that’s also another great opportunity.

[00:03:33] Matt: That’s fantastic. Cool. And how, how many contacts from inbound inbound contacts from recruits? Do you think you get in a typical week?

[00:03:44] Coach: Um, I would say, uh, probably looking at, um, 8- 10 in a typical week. Two a day? Yeah.

[00:03:58] Matt: Okay. Yep. And then what do you like to see in those first communications from.

[00:04:04] Coach: I’d like to see a little bit more, um, uh, individualism. So just not a generic email, uh, something that I’ve, I’ve dived into your school a little bit, or dive into your background as a coach a little bit, you know, they, they, they knew your record.

[00:04:18] They, um, they know something specific about the school that, that kind of jumps out and says, okay. That they really are interested in Guilford as opposed to just the generic email. Um, a bio helps, you know, just with some, some quick pointers, it doesn’t have. Extremely detailed grad, your GPA, a team coach, a soccer world’s very small.

[00:04:39] We almost know everyone. Um, and then if they’ve got a video, great, um, nothing too long, you know, two, three minutes. And then that just sparks a little bit of interest. So those are kind of the main bullet points.

[00:04:53] Matt: Now, uh, you know, you, you get a first contact, you’ve got that info. You go to a tournament or a camp or see somebody play, you know, what, what is it that you’re looking for the, you know, in terms of your, your hierarchy of, of, uh, values and attributes, whether they’re on the field or off the field that really kind of help solidify a recruit for you?

[00:05:16] Coach: Yeah, I think the end of the day, um, each coach has a certain system that they, that they want to be. So I think first and foremost, can some of those players sit in. Your tactical system, you know, with the

[00:05:34] winners, whether you like to get your left and right back forward, you know, that that’s going to dictate how fit your left and right. Backs need to need to be, or do you want ballplayers center back? So, so again, I think that’s going to change, um, you know, for us, we’re very pressing teams, so I’m going to watch do the forest press.

[00:05:48] Um, that’s what the pinch of salt, because they club coach might not want to. Um, so yeah, you’ve got that. I think athleticism is certainly key, you know, uh, how athletic is the player and if they’re not as athletic, what other attributes can they bring to the table? Right. Or they’re very technical over the other, very soccer savvy, um, you know, those sorts of attributes, but, um, you know, specifically first, how can we fit certain players into our system?

[00:06:14] And then after that, just try and get the best players we can get regardless of position. Um, and then also kind of looking outside the box. Perhaps looking at a striker that is maybe left footed. Um, you know, could we, could we convert her, uh, into an attacking left back in our system? Uh, you know, thinking outside the box as well.

[00:06:33] Matt: No, that that makes sense. Um, you know, you mentioned it is, it is a small, small world in the coaching ranks in the soccer community. So are you often talking to a players club, coach or high school coach as well to get, to get input? Are you being contacted very often by club coaches saying, Hey, come, come take a look at this player or that player?

[00:06:54] Coach: Absolutely. I meant to answer the first question. That’s that’s all I do. Um, you know, as soon as I get. Chances are, I’d say 80% of the time, you’re going to know either that coach or someone in that club, uh, or someone that’s played against that club. That’s an extremely small soccer world. So a hundred percent while I do that, just get their, their viewpoints, their thoughts.

[00:07:16] Um, and then, yeah, we are contacted way more by club coaches than high school. Uh, although there are some hard work in high school coaches out there that’ll reach out and really be professional and sends you rosters and breakdowns of seniors and, and really make your job easy. Um, so yeah, I for sure spend a lot of time, even with transfers and the transfer portal, I’m calling coaches.

[00:07:38] I want to know what’s happened. I think that’s very important. You

[00:07:42] Matt: mentioned transfer. So I guess my last question on the recruiting side of thing is, is kind of a catchall, uh, you know, how, how much do transfers fit into your recruiting walk-ons and then, you know, uh, obviously your accent, isn’t a typical North Carolina and accent.

[00:07:59] Uh, so I’m guessing, you know, You may have a little bit of international recruiting perhaps, uh, at your school as well. So how do all those things kind of round out your, your recruiting process?

[00:08:11] Coach: Yeah, I think that the transfer of polar certainly changed, um, college soccer or college athletics in general.

[00:08:18] Um, I don’t think it’s changed it for the good, but it is. Um, so, you know, we, we certainly will look at the transcript. Um, we will try and remain kind of landlocked. You know, if it’s someone that’s transferring from west coast school with w w unlikely to look at that, um, if it’s anyone in the south east I’ll first, you know, obviously click on, on the website, see where they from.

[00:08:43] Um, we found a lot of girls from North Carolina that have gone out of state, um, that want to come back home, you know, so those are the ones that we may target, certainly within a two, three hour radius. Um, and we reach out to them, you know, some don’t get back, some do, uh, and then we start, we start a dialogue, you know, why are you, why are you transferring?

[00:09:01] Um, is it, uh, is it a playing Tommy’s too? Is it a, is it a cost issue? Is it a dynamic coach issue? And I want to know what that reason is, you know, we don’t want that baggage coming into our program. Um, so. Um, it has definitely changed the game a lot. Um, you certainly don’t wanna rely just on a transfer portal and we don’t.

[00:09:24] Um, but you know, if you can pick up one, that’s a good fit for your program, um, in terms of international trading, um, that was a very, very big deal when I was on the division one ranks. Um, and, uh, and that’s coaching at the NAI level. Um, we were heavily, um, uh, Um, not really by want or design. Uh, when I was the head coach at UNC Greensboro, uh, we had rural and Nash, um, you know, the best American players are getting taken by, you know, your ACC and some of the biggest schools.

[00:09:56] So, so that was a very, very big, um, uh, avenue for us. I would go internationally all the time on trips here at Guilford, uh, because we division three and there’s only merit based scholarships. Um, it’s significantly. Uh, although you do find some internationals that want good academics and have high budgets, um, you know, with a can pay 15 or 20,000 a year.

[00:10:18] Um, so it’s not something we don’t look at. We keep dabbling, um, keep talking to, um, uh, international recruiting agencies. What do you have about. Um, certainly cover those bases too, but it’s, it’s much less here at the division three level than it was at division one. Yeah.

[00:10:35] Matt: So you mentioned scholarships, obviously division three, you don’t have athletic money, but, but how is the academic and merit based money at your school specifically?

[00:10:44] Is it

[00:10:44] Coach: a, I think when, when, um, student athletes look at private schools, um, I think they get an initial shock at the sticker price. Um, but really when it’s all said and done, we’re every bit as competitive as a state school. So for example, our sticker price is 54,000. And again, you got girls going well, coaches know ways I can afford that, but I mean, immediately off the bat, you know, good grades 3 0 3, 5, 4.

[00:11:10] Oh, they’re getting anywhere between 15 to $30,000. So on average, I would tell you, every girl on my roster is paying around 18 some last 15 to $20,000. When you look at it as a, at a state school or UNCG, I mean, it’s, we’re, we’re competitive with that. So what you’re getting the, the merit awards are, are very, very competitive.

[00:11:33] Oh, that’s, that’s

[00:11:34] Matt: good information. So let’s talk more about the school specifically, you know, folks, I think, uh, may know Greensboro, UNC Greensboro that you mentioned earlier, but may not be familiar. With familiar with Guilford. So, you know, besides me clicking around the website and seeing what’s there, you know, give me the inside scoop.

[00:11:52] What’s something that’s really cool. Uh, and, and awesome about Guilford that I might not know about, uh, just by, by looking at the website.

[00:12:02] Coach: Yeah. So it’s a, um, Gilford sits on, on a fantastic part of Greensboro, uh, which Greensboro is part of the triad, which is Winston Salem. Uh, and Greensboro. So, you know, some, some good mid-size cities.

[00:12:15] Greensboro is the third largest city in the state of North Carolina behind Raleigh and Charlotte. So, so it is a good size city. Um, the school, a small private school as most of division three schools are, um, we have 1200 students on campus. Uh, so class sizes are small, so it’s gotta be, it’s gotta be something that, uh, the student athlete wants in terms of a small.

[00:12:39] Um, just like any school, we have degrees that we are very good at. Um, exercise sports science is an extremely, um, strong major here, creative writing music. Uh, we’ve got, um, education business. Uh, so, you know, you’ve got your, you’ve got your, uh, business schools, your schools rather that, um, that are very strong.

[00:12:59] So, um, it’s a very beautiful, quaint campus. Buildings are absolutely. Um, brand new residence halls, brand new dining halls. We have a multi-million dollar soccer stadium. Um, so it’s, uh, it’s it’s the, the facilities are every bit as good as division one facilities. Uh, but we simply carry a division three tag.

[00:13:21] That’s

[00:13:21] Matt: fantastic. So, you know, we’re talking about academics and, and you know, it is student than athlete, uh, especially at the division three level. So how do your students or student athletes really balance the day-to-day between, you know, playing soccer and the academic side of things. Do you, does your school have good support systems in place to help them with that?

[00:13:44] And how does that work at

[00:13:45] Coach: your school? Just like any school we do, you know, we’ve got all sorts of academic support. From study hall, if we needed to advising to peer reviews to paper, help, it’s all there. Um, we, we, it’s very interesting at this school mat, um, as opposed to other schools I’ve had, I actually don’t use study hall right now.

[00:14:08] The student athletes we get are extremely academically driven. Um, our team GPA was a 3.69 cumulative team GPA. So we’ve got some outstanding students. Um, if I need an Institute study hole, we certainly can. But like I said, I mean the average GPA of our incoming class with the 15 girls coming in is probably around a 3.9.

[00:14:32] Uh, I alluded to one of our 2020 threes that was at our ID camp. She’s a 4.96 GPA. Uh, she’s already published two books and she wants to come to Guilford because of our creative writing. So, so those are some of the student. Um, so if they want academic support, they have it, but a lot of them really don’t need it.

[00:14:54] They’re just so driven. Um, in the fall, it is extremely time-consuming because it’s a division one schedule. Uh, you’re traveling a lot. You’re training. Uh, you’ve got weightlifting, you’ve got to get in the, uh, in the athletic training room. You’ve got classes. So it is a lot. Um, but if you got good time management skills that certainly have.

[00:15:16] And then just like the division three model in the spring, we only allowed five weeks to train with them. So it’s an extremely shortened screen. And that’s what the division three athletes want because they’re spending time in the spring doing internships or getting hours for, um, you know, dental school or medical school, uh, at a division one level that’s very hard to do so.

[00:15:37] So that’s why they come here, uh, to, to Gilford. And I think the vision. Uh, is to have a good balance, you know? Yes, you’re you, you’re a student athlete in the fall. You, you get to play competitive level and the spring you really get to focus on. On your academics.

[00:15:54] Matt: Yeah, for sure. For sure. And, and let’s talk a little bit, let’s, let’s go back.

[00:15:59] You mentioned the, that, that kind of program in the fall. So if during the fall, what would a typical day look like for one of your players from, from kind of waking up to

[00:16:09] Coach: go into bed? Yeah. So some days we’ll be a lot more busy than others for them, depending on which days they have a heavy load, a light load or no load, you know, some girls that have no class on certain days, some girls on class from eight until four.

[00:16:23] So, um, but typically they’ll wake up on Mondays and Wednesdays. We lift weights from seven to 8:00 AM. Um, so that kind of gets them going. They’re up at six 30, a quick bite to eat, uh, lift weights. Then I might go eat breakfast and then classes. Um, and then we trained in the afternoons from three to five.

[00:16:41] So they’ll block of classes between those times. Some girls have evening classes, uh, but for the most part they’re done after training, they go eat dinner, uh, and then they’re, you know, uh, getting on with their social life and their dorm studying whatever they need to do. So, so it is a jam packed day. We train, um, six days out of seven.

[00:17:00] Uh, so again, there is a, there is a big time commitment, I would say on an average, uh, Uh, activities probably take up anywhere between 14 and 18 hours of their week. Uh, so, you know, if you average it out, probably got, uh, you know, anywhere between an hour and a half to two hours a day. Okay.

[00:17:21] Matt: Um, you guys are, are in a it’s the ODAC, right?

[00:17:26] That you’re in. I’m pretty sure. Yeah. So you’re kind of, I guess, on the more Southern side of that conference. Um, so in terms of travel, what’s your, what is your kind of average travel that you have for both in conference and out of conference games and how does that kind of fit into the academic

[00:17:43] Coach: side of things?

[00:17:44] Yeah. Great question, Matt. So yeah, I mean, again, we, uh, uh, can schedule anyone we want out of conference. Um, and obviously in conference, the ODAC, uh, makes. That schedule, uh, there’s only two teams that would really be, uh, overnight trips, if you will. Uh, you’re right. We’re the only school in the ODAC that is in North Carolina.

[00:18:04] Every other school is in Virginia. So we right up, right up, right up through the Virginia seaboard. Um, and again, only two of those trips were on the road. So, um, I think that’s great because you’re missing less class time. Uh, the girls do get stressed when you miss two, three days of school. So, so that, that really doesn’t happen here.

[00:18:23] Like I said, only two overnight trips all year. Uh, the rest of our non-conference games, uh, all within two to three hours radius.

[00:18:35] Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about games and the team and all that kind of stuff. Um, you know what, what’s a typical roster size that you like to carry, ideally. And if I’m a freshmen, am I, am I fighting for playing time right away? Or

[00:18:47] Coach: how’s that gonna work? Yeah, it’s interesting. When I first got here this past August, I had a roster of 15.

[00:18:53] That was all I had. Uh, it was extremely small, extremely difficult. Uh,

[00:19:04] I will have a normal health, a roster. I’ve got 50 girls coming in. Uh, so I would like to go probably wouldn’t want to go lower than 26, depending on how many goalkeepers you carry. If you carry two, three or four. So if you’re carrying a roster 28 and you’re carrying four goalkeepers, you’ve got 24 field players.

[00:19:22] And just with college athletics, you’ve always got one or two injuries. So it becomes a challenge to play 11, 11 inches. Uh, this past year, I didn’t have that luxury at all because we didn’t have that many players. So, so I think anywhere between 26 and 30 is, is a healthy roster. Um, in terms of playing time, I think, you know, any coach would probably agree.

[00:19:42] Um, I don’t really care if it’s, if it’s a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, really, you know, whoever’s playing the best and putting the effort in those are the ones that will. Um, you know, we don’t necessarily go out there and go, well, let’s, you know, what, what lineup can we choose to lose this game today?

[00:19:57] You know, w we’re going to choose, I’m gonna choose the best, um, best 11 that we can. Um, and then, uh, the game will dictate, um, you know, how many, how many players we play. And ideally, I’d like to play all my players in every game, but unfortunately, college soccer with the parity. I mean, sometimes you only go in too deep.

[00:20:16] Sometimes you may give a 70, uh, but that also boils down to the coach’s philosophy. Some coaches play every player, every game. Uh, but like I said, I mean, healthy roster, 28, I would say probably about 17, 18 deep. So you’ve got 10 players that consistently are not playing.

[00:20:34] Matt: Okay. Well, um, besides yourself, how, how big is your soccer staff or, or, you know, support staff, even in the athletic department level and, and what role does everybody play to help support the.

[00:20:48] Coach: Yeah. Again, at different levels, you’ve got different levels of staff, you know, I, um, I do have one paid assistant, uh, so it’s me and that assistant. And then I’ve got, um, two volunteers that want to be involved in the program. So, you know, if someone’s good and wants to be involved in the program, I don’t, I don’t turn them away.

[00:21:06] So we have a volunteer goalkeeper coach, uh, and then a second volunteer and then my paid assistant. So right now there’s four. Um, at the division three level, you don’t have, um, a certified, uh, well, some, some do some don’t, but you typically don’t have the nutritionist and a strength coach that falls under us.

[00:21:25] Um, so one of us is certified in strength training so we can train the girls. Um, you know, uh, so yeah, I’m in there’s, there’s four of us. They have different roles. Like I said, we have one, that’s a, that’s a strictly a go keep. A coach has no office time just comes and trains goalkeepers there’s one that’s, uh, their strength is, you know, Google docs and Excel spreadsheets and that type of thing.

[00:21:47] There’s one that will upload video, uh, do travel and equipment. So we all have our own responsibilities. Okay. Now

[00:21:56] Matt: you mentioned, you know, you only have a five week off season in the spring, which is, you know, you and I are talking here springtime. So what does that off-season program look like for your.

[00:22:07] Coach: Well, again, I think I alluded to, you know, um, at the division three level, if you’re certified in strength training, you’re allowed to go out of that five week schedule. So, so really it’s not allowed to be, um, mandatory, uh, but really I could start in January and go till may and just have voluntary, uh, strength training.

[00:22:25] So the girls can come and go as they want. So that’s, that’s outside of your five week and then within your five week, you’ve got 15 days. So we go Monday, Wednesday. And it’s just, again, an emphasis on try to build a better technical base, trying to build a better tactical base. And then as best we can try to, to get them as, as strong and fit as we can, obviously that’s very difficult to do in a five week window.

[00:22:47] So ultimately it’s what the players are going to do in the summer. Leading up to the fall. That’s really going to dictate their own individual success and the team’s success. Yeah, for sure.

[00:22:56] Matt: Well, How would you describe your style of coaching, your team’s style of play and how you, how, you know, you talked about high press and maybe getting the wings up.

[00:23:07] So what is it that you, how you guys like to play in how to use specifically, uh, like.

[00:23:13] Coach: Yeah, how I like to play and how we played this past year, different things. Uh, again, you know, uh, what players do you have at your disposal injuries? But, but yeah, it, how I like to play is, is a very high pressing game where everybody has to defend no one’s immune to defending.

[00:23:28] Uh, so defending is absolutely critical for me, every player. Um, and then in possession, uh, we like to play a very forward-thinking game. I’m not gonna say I’m not gonna use the word direct. Um, but it is how quickly can we get the bull to a high target or in behind as quickly as I, as, as we can. Um, so with that, we’d like to score a lot of goals.

[00:23:50] Um, I inherited a team that had won one game the year before and scored one goal. Um, this year we won 11 games and scored 38 goals. Uh, with the same players. Um, but having said that we played some good teams, the Lynchburg, Washington, and Lee, where we played completely different to how I want to play. And we played two banks of four set up two strikers in, uh, we’re very stingy with space, hard to break down.

[00:24:16] Didn’t come out much, played a very, uh, counterattacking system. So, so while, while I do like to press and do those things, my players are certainly, uh, coached on how to play different system. Um, not only against different opponents or perhaps within a game, so we might say right, we’re going to press and perhaps they too good.

[00:24:35] They break the press. Okay, well, let’s sit in. So, so I think it’s very important that the girls understand two or three different tactical systems to, so

[00:24:45] Matt: does Lynchburg still have that field right there? Right next to the dorms where all the. Students come out and I mean, it’s right on top of that, that was a fun place to play.

[00:24:55] Coach: We played them in the quarter finals and we lost in double overtime. It was a heartbreaker, but they were a very good team. And I think next year will be a very good team too. Yeah. Yeah. I

[00:25:07] Matt: hope I hope you smack them around. I, uh, I always say I got my, my career was made playing Lynchburg. I was, I was a defender, but I had, I think four collegiate goals and three of them were against Lynchburg over the course of my career.

[00:25:20] So I was loved playing Lynchburg.

[00:25:25] Coach: Good times

[00:25:25] Matt: anyway, we’ll coach. Um,

[00:25:31] Coach: I’ll be difficult because the coach

[00:25:37] was talking to, uh, non-biased people, uh, who understand the game and know coaches. I think that’s important.

[00:25:44] Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Well, coach, I appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck, uh, in this season with, with all of your, your, your. Your new commits and, and getting a, a strong roster. And hopefully you can build on that 11 wind season, gets some more and, uh, and get into that national tournament.

[00:26:00] So we wish you the best of luck.

[00:26:02] Coach: Great. Thanks, Matt. Really appreciate it.