Nyack College Men’s Program – Coach Alex Schmidt
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Alex Schmidt from the Nyack College Men’s Program in New York City. We talk about the heavy international influence his team has. He tells us about how his school is ideally located to minimize missing class time for games. Lastly, we discuss how their team likes to play the 4 phases of the game. Learn more about the Nyack Men’s Program.
[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer. I’m excited today to be joined by the Nyack men’s soccer coach, Alex Schmidt, Alex. Welcome. Welcome everyone. Uh, well let’s just jump right into it. Um, in terms of recruiting, uh, you know, actually I’m going to start by saying I was clicking around the website and I was.
[00:00:21] It was especially taken aback by the fact that your recruiting page had actually a lot of information on it. A lot of times, you know, you click on the recruit page of a website and it just, you know, it just goes straight to the, the, the questionnaire and that’s really it. But I mean, you actually talked about what you’re looking for for the season and, um, you know, there’s a lot of good information on there, so kudos, kudos to you on that coach.
[00:00:45] Um, so w w you know, but when, when you’re recruiting. When do you start looking at players? What, how old are they when you’re start? Really focusing on recruiting.
[00:00:56] Coach: So I think really serious. We get right around there junior year in high school, we’ll start looking at them and just, you know, kind of like picking different positions that we know we’re needing for the next year or two years.
[00:01:08] And just kind of go from there, have kind of created a database of players that we’re looking at, that we feel like could fit into what we’re wanting to do here. And then just kinda, um, you know, Starting to make the first contact, get some information out there, just introducing ourselves and then really going from there.
[00:01:25] And, uh, seeing if there’s something, you know, if that would be a good fit or not, obviously there’s a lot more steps, but that’s usually when we start there’s once in a while, you know, like a sophomore, freshman, but obviously we can really make contact with them yet at this point. Um, but we’ll note it down.
[00:01:39] We’ll keep an eye on them and just kind of like see how they develop or next will be years, but very serious as.
[00:01:44] Matt: Okay. How, how many inbound contacts would you say you’re getting in a, in a typical week?
[00:01:51] Coach: A lot. My, my email inbox, I think, especially right now, because of COVID and a lot of athletes having that extra year kind of tightens up and makes the pool bigger, makes it harder to find spots.
[00:02:04] Um, so I think, I mean, I get on a daily basis. 50 to a hundred emails from recruits that, you know, reach out saying they want to look in, you get the agencies. Uh, I mean, sometimes the agencies show you not just one bland issue. You have five, six players. So there’s, there’s a lot, a lot of players out there at the moment.
[00:02:24] So
[00:02:26] Matt: obviously. Going through a whole bunch of emails. So how do you, how do you prioritize, how do you filter, what do you like to see in a first communication from a prospect that’s going to, you know, kind of peak your interest.
[00:02:40] Coach: Um, Did some research on us and that’s, that’s kinda like the biggest thing. Um, if I feel like we’re just part of a mass email and, uh, you know, you get so many emails where it says, uh, I’m, I’m super interested in, uh, your program in your school, uh, because you have this major and we don’t even have to major, or, uh, I’m very interested.
[00:03:02] Like my first year that I took over, we started as a struggling program. We had a two 14 and two record and people were saying, oh, I’m really interested in your successful soccer program. I’m like we had a two 14. We’re not successful. I’m sorry. We want to get there, but we’re not quite there. So it’s like, you know that you’ve done your research.
[00:03:19] You kind of looked into it. You really looked at us and be like, that could be a school that I’m interested in. And then. Tell me. Why? Like, why, why, like, why do you feel like we could be a good fit for you, but why also, why can you be a good fit for us? Um, that usually picks my interest when I realize, okay, there’s a player that really had put some thought into this recruiting process and, and us as a, as an option.
[00:03:40] Uh, let’s explore that further. And then we’ll go, obviously from like video footage always helps us that’s attached, uh, just to kind of get immediately an idea. Is this a play of quality that would have a chance to our program will not always help.
[00:03:53] Matt: Yeah, no, that makes sense. What, um, where do you like to go to, to see players?
[00:03:59] I mean, you, you, on that recruiting page, you mentioned a couple of tournaments that you go to, but, um, those seem like those are out, those are summer tournaments. Are you doing any spring tournaments? What are kind of the hot hotspots for you to go to.
[00:04:12] Coach: So we’re trying to hit some of the major tournaments.
[00:04:15] Uh, so for us coming up to the next big ones at Jefferson cup, it seems to be one where always a lot of talent is coming together. Um, I went out to the surf cup, this, this summer out in California. That was a pretty good, um, I think pool of players to, as it were, try to have at least one coaching member at some of the bigger tournaments, like you have the, uh, the, uh, Las Vegas.
[00:04:37] May a cup that that always is pretty big. You have the, the Disney cup around the end of the year that usually happens some of the bigger ones. And then based on the players that we’re recruiting, we might go to some of the smaller regional tournaments, but also high school games. So it kind of depends if we can get, you know, to a high school game where there’s three or four guys that we have currently look at, uh, we’ll try to make it out to that and then get a look in person.
[00:05:02] Matt: That makes a lot of sense. Now, you also mentioned the, you guys do ID camps. Um, how important is that to your recruiting process?
[00:05:10] Coach: Um, it has been in the past, we’re kind of in a, in a transition of this whole, uh, moved down here to Jersey city Manhattan. Uh, so when we were up at Niagara at our own facility, so things were a lot easier to organize and set up ID cams right now.
[00:05:25] Uh, we’re mainly venting out fields from, uh, the, the Jersey us city city department. Um, so it’s not as easy to set those up. So we’ve been, uh, We’ve we haven’t done any in the last two years, but it’s definitely a goal for me to set that back up and make that part of our recruiting presence. Just because you sometimes find that diamond in the rough right there, that you may have overlooked because maybe they didn’t play at a club or they, they only played high school.
[00:05:52] They didn’t have the financial resources to. I go to all these showcases tournaments. We want to make sure that we can find those players too, because we do believe, especially in the area where we are, the New York city Metro area. There’s tons of talent that you might not see those of. Thanks a
[00:06:07] Matt: lot of sense.
[00:06:07] So when you’re out and about recruiting and looking at players, what is your hierarchy of, um, attributes that you’re looking for in, in players, whether that’s on the field or off the field? What, what, what sticks out to you that, you know, I gotta have this or this,
[00:06:25] Coach: so I have, uh, Detailed description for each position, uh, in, in the system that door and the plain style that we prefer what we need from a player in a certain position.
[00:06:36] So like, and, uh, that my coaching staff has that. So they know if I say, Hey, we need to send them back. They know exactly what to look at. Like, what height are we looking at? You know, like, what are attributes, physical attributes? Are we looking at? Part one that’s kind of gets you to foot in the door. I would say if you fulfill those requirements, now we’re interested.
[00:06:55] Um, the biggest part, however, for me, is character. Um, it comes down to character, um, you know, getting to know you do, do I feel like I’m, um, um, building a connection with you. Do I feel like your character or your persona or your strengths could be a good addition to our program?
[00:07:11] Matt: It makes sense. Um, now.
[00:07:15] Looking at your roster, it seems to have a heavy lean towards the international front. So, uh, you know, how does that come into play? How are you, how are you getting those players in and, and seeing them, or what are you looking to to keep it that way? Are you looking more domestic? What, what, how does that all work
[00:07:34] Coach: out?
[00:07:35] Yeah, uh, I think there’s a couple of reasons for that. Prior to me taking over a program, it was a very, uh, international, uh, leaning program. Um, I think part of it is also me being international. So I was, I was born, raised in Germany, came over, play, uh, here in the U S and then switched over into coaching.
[00:07:55] Uh, Part of the job. Um, so I think it was like something, it was an avenue that was established for us. Like there’s a lot of connections that I have overseas, uh, know friends of mine, people that I’ve known that cross paths with us, uh, that we work with dirty. There’s a different trust level that we built where, you know, with.
[00:08:13] Offer me a at I know exactly what I’m looking for. Um, but I also know what I’m getting when I work with, with those guys. Um, however, we do want to establish a more domestic presence. That was one of the goals that I had when I took the program over. Um, but it takes a little bit more time, uh, just because we have to, uh, you know, those, those connections that we have overseas, we have to establish them within, uh, DUS and just build connections with different high schools, block club programs whatsoever.
[00:08:40] Uh, but there’s definitely. The desire and the goal to bring more, uh, domestic talent onto the team. I just think soccer’s developing phenomenally in, in the U S it’s. I think it’s on the rise. I mean, we see it with all the international talent, uh, or the us talent that now plays internationally at some of the biggest clubs in the world’s.
[00:08:59] I definitely think there’s plenty of. Of of, uh, talent out there. And I think what makes the us unique is we have so many different cultures that are coming together, right? And most our, most of our cultures, um, like if you take south America European, there’s a certain set of players to kind of like.
[00:09:15] Except for some, uh, you know, exceptions there’s, it’s, it’s mostly the same kind of player. Um, we’re in the U S I feel like, you know, we have so many different to, uh, immigration and cultures coming together from all kinds of different backgrounds from Asian, south Americans wide African-Americans there, there’s so many different backgrounds, so many different, uh, attributes and talents that are coming together where I feel like that’s just, uh, in the coming years, it’s like the, the sky’s the limit, as in gift to us can figure out how to.
[00:09:44] Form the talent and then targeted towards the national team and then put a structure into the whole, um, player development and really setting, uh, a plan, a path for player you went to to be a professional. Um, so that’s, that’s the goal for us. Um, finding more domestic players, uh, making them part of our program.
[00:10:05] I think you have to find a good, a good mix. Um, especially at the D two level. If you look at some of the more successful programs, do you, they usually have a good mix between domestic and internationals. Yeah,
[00:10:15] Matt: for sure. Um, Being division two, you have athletic scholarships. Um, and, and not being a private school.
[00:10:22] And, you know, I’m sure scholarships in general and financial aid come into play for a lot of players. Um, so how does, how does that work at your school in terms of the mix of academic and athletic money and, and that sort of.
[00:10:34] Coach: So we usually give offers in total packages. So we look at what you would qualify for from academic perspective, uh, is, uh, other grants, international Koreans, uh, service grants whatsoever.
[00:10:46] And then we top it off with athletic money and, and offer a total package at the end of the day that we give out to the recruits.
[00:10:55] Matt: Have you found that. That, that that’s been able to satisfy a lot of the, for lack of a better term, the needs of, of recruits who are interested or, you know, are you guys able to.
[00:11:08] Kinda meet what, I guess the expectations or the needs of players when they come and especially the international players who, who aren’t used to, you know, that kind of thing. Cause they’re used to playing for a club that pays for everything.
[00:11:20] Coach: Yeah. It’s definitely challenging. I think we’re, we’re in the same boat.
[00:11:23] We have a lot of smaller private schools where I know budget restraints and whatsoever. Um, so for us, for example, the, uh, the minimum that every athlete’s paced coming into. Uh, next year is $18,000 a year. So it definitely, you know, limits a little bit, the pool of athletes that you can reach because for some that’s just financially not, uh, feasible.
[00:11:43] Um, but there’s still, I think a lot of players out there. Cool can afford that. And then I think, um, we’re not the fact that we’re not the only school that, that deals with those struggles, I think makes it still manageable focus, but it definitely limits the pool at times. Sure. Well,
[00:12:02] Matt: let’s talk about the school a little bit.
[00:12:04] You mentioned the, the, the Jersey city Manhattan kind of structure you guys got there. So, you know, I can click around the website and learn about Nyack, but, but. The good thing is you were also a, an alumnus, right. You played and went to school there, so you probably have better perspective than most. So what makes Nyack, Nyack cool?
[00:12:24] What, what, what’s the awesome things about it that most people aren’t going to know?
[00:12:29] Coach: I would have said to people, um, I think, especially in our transition, right? There’s a lot of, um, alumni who. You know, we’re critical towards the move of, you know, because like now I got at the Rockland canvas, it’s such a big history, like for how long the canvas has been there.
[00:12:44] So now they’re kind of like give this up and move down to Jersey city slash Manhattan. Um, where for me, it was never necessarily about. The building or the memories that come with it, but it was about the people I get nag. If I’ve met, uh, you know, met my wife. I met people that walk alongside my, my journey now my best friend, uh, by mentor who married me and my wife.
[00:13:06] So there’s, there’s a lot of, a lot of people that I crossed paths with that have influenced me professors. Right. They don’t just act some of my professors, um, that I still stay in touch with to this day. We would go on missions trip, we build relationships. So you’re not just another number in the classroom that I really felt like they were genuinely interested in me as a person.
[00:13:26] Um, so that I think is, is the one thing that you probably won’t find on the website, but it’s just the people for me that make night, not necessarily do location or buildings or where we’re at, but really the people that you get to do life together with. That’s
[00:13:40] Matt: great. Um, well, you know, You kinda mentioned, you know, there’s, there’s the academic stuff is in Manhattan.
[00:13:47] The athletic stuff right now is in Jersey city. So they got to students kind of have to balance, uh, back and forth between, uh, between those two spaces. But you know, how else do your student athletes balance the whole. Wait of academics and athletics just in terms of, of, of their day-to-day activities.
[00:14:08] Coach: Yeah. Uh, I think it’s definitely a lot easier during season because we’re a lot busier during seasons. So it limits the time that you have, and I think it automatically forces our athletes to be more organized because. I have limited time it during that period, the biggest challenge that we see is during your spring, just because now you have more time, you got the city right across the hub, so there’s always time to, you know, go explore.
[00:14:32] Um, so we, we put different measures in place from, from the coaching staff’s perspective, like study hall, et cetera, individual meetings. Great. Check-ins stuff like that. Just to kind of like make sure. The guys in an hour, uh, example, work on their grades because at the end of the day, you are a student first athlete.
[00:14:51] Second. Um, most of our guys aren’t going to go on and play professional soccer afterwards. They’re going to go into professional career. So we want to make sure that as part of their journey is not at night. Uh, prepared as best as they can academically to have a successful career afterwards. Um, so just, I think us helping them, um, being organized, uh, learning how to time manage.
[00:15:14] And I think that’s something that’s, I mean, even for afterwards, um, with. Put your career’s important. And I think that’s one of the neat things or unique things about our commute. If you want to say, so the whole, you know, taken the past subway over to Manhattan, uh, it’s a commute that a lot of professionals do on a daily basis to get to work.
[00:15:33] And I think it kinda prepares our students in college are ready to take that responsibility at that time management. And then kind of see what it’s like once college.
[00:15:45] Matt: I did. That would be a good experience. Um, so w w what, what a typical day during the season look like in terms of, uh, you know, uh, I’m a student athlete, soccer player, you know, what am I doing from the time I get up to the time I go to bed, uh, during this.
[00:16:01] Coach: Yeah. So we, uh, we practice early in the morning, eight to 10 as the first thing you do is play soccer. Um, and then, uh, if, if we have a normal practice day, uh, you know, you would then go on to your classes, uh, in the city. Um, and, uh, Come back from the city and do homework, uh, pretty much, um, depending if we have a game the next day, that might be a meeting at nights.
[00:16:25] What we like to do before game days is kind of like a game prep meeting. We would just kind of go over to your opponent, some of the strengths, weaknesses, uh, but also going a while. Metro plan for the games and we’re all on the same page. Um, yeah. And then hopefully you would go to bed. So you’re well rested for the next day to, to get going.
[00:16:41] Um, right. And on, on game day, it seems similar just that, uh, we wouldn’t practice in the morning. We’ll just, uh, eventually get ready to, uh, head over to the games.
[00:16:51] Matt: So for your games, um, what, what is your kind of travel radius look like? How does that, uh, work into the schedule and, and, you know, are they missing a lot of classes or not?
[00:17:02] And that whole.
[00:17:04] Coach: Uh, I think again, all location is a second. Uh, suburb there. Um, we are in the central Atlantic collegiate conference, uh, CAC, and, uh, they actually made it one of the requirements in order to join our conference as a, as a college, you have to be within a three hour distance. Uh, so the furthest we ever drive is three hours.
[00:17:22] Um, and with our move, actually two hours down to Delaware and, uh, or to Connecticut. Um, so most of the games we played with them. Two to one hour a distance. So a limited time that the guys really miss, uh, in the classroom, um, when we look at the non-conference schedule, it’s a similar district because we have three, our conferences or the ECC that’s fairly close.
[00:17:46] Uh, but then even to any 10 is not super far away. So there’s a lot of options for us to play against teams in the, uh, New York city Metro area. So again, limits the time that we have to spend on the world to get to two games. And then. Usually the first two games of the season, we do a little bit bigger trip.
[00:18:04] Like this year, we, uh, we went up to a New Hampshire. Um, we stayed in a camp up there, kind of used it as a, as a team retreat, uh, thing, but then also play two games up in New Hampshire and then headed back down to the city. That’s great.
[00:18:18] Matt: Um, well just in terms of, of playing, uh, and let’s talk about the team and the soccer side of things a bit, you know, how big a roster is to like to keep what’s your ideal size.
[00:18:30] Coach: So I think we have to differentiate between what is my ideal size and what would the institution like? I think that’s a dilemma. Uh, a lot of coaches have to deal with these days just because a lot of being asked to carry bigger rosters. Um, luckily for me it, my number and the number the institution gives me.
[00:18:51] They’re not too far apart. Um, so, uh, uh, Rio right now, we’re at somewhere between like 25 to 30 people. That’s kind of like the, uh, the number that we have. Um, and then that’s, I think that’s, that’s a number I can. Working with anything beyond 30, I would see critical. Um, but I think kind of like that, that number is manageable.
[00:19:12] Yeah.
[00:19:13] Matt: What about, uh, your soccer staff? How, how big a staff do you have and what is each person’s role within the squad?
[00:19:20] Coach: Yes. So this year, this year I got lucky. I got a lot of help. Um, so I have a assistant coach who’s from the area, uh, who I I’ve found and he’s been phenomenal, kind of being a good, uh, addition to, to myself, very personal, um, and.
[00:19:37] It takes the guys off on the side, one-on-one within practice and just kind of like takes that part where I can oversee more, the bigger picture. Um, and then I have, uh, one of our strikers actually became a grad assistant this year. And he’s been phenomenal so far, especially in the recruiting process as if you’re a recruit you might hear from him, uh, at some point, uh, just because he’d been taking a lot of dead over reaching out, having zoom calls, calls.
[00:19:59] With a prospective student athletes. Um, so he’s been great and we have a goalkeeper graduate assistant coach who is responsible for both the men’s and the women’s program. Um, and then I have a volunteer assistant coach who lives like an hour away, but he tries to make it to as many practices city can, but he’s also.
[00:20:17] Connection piece for us within what we said earlier, the domestic market. Um, one of the reasons why we brought him on staff is because he’s very knowledgeable, uh, when it comes to clubs and, and schools within the central Jersey, south Jersey area. Um, so we brought him on with the idea that we can start building that network within, um, that we, um, have, uh, New Jersey and open that market up for us to possibly bring recruits.
[00:20:43] And from, from that.
[00:20:45] Matt: Okay. Um, we’re currently talking here in March. Uh, so it’s the off season. So what does your typical off season program.
[00:20:56] Coach: So we are in the last week before spring break. So right now we are in our eight hours a week. Uh, so the four hours with ball four hours without, um, so we have strength, strength and conditioning, um, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then we practice on Tuesday and Thursday at the moment.
[00:21:13] Uh, we do, we have a leadership, uh, session on Saturdays where we, uh, Talk through our identities, uh, identities as, as players, but also identities as a team just to create, uh, increased level of ownership, uh, which I think is important, right? It’s it’s not just my program. It’s, it’s the guys program. I’m just a part of it.
[00:21:35] Um, so we want to make sure that we can create an identity shared values, um, you know, stuff like that, that the guys can identify with that comes from. Player driven is not coaches driven. So that’s something that we’re working through at the moment. Just, you know, we, we did, for example, um, we have at the guys go do a strength finders, uh, kind of figuring out what are their individual strengths.
[00:21:56] Uh, how does that, you know, play into the identities on an individual level, and then how is each individual, you know, playing into the identity of the whole team. Um, and then based on that chemo, What’s your role in the team? How does your team see your role in the team? Um, just to kind of get this perspective on a personal, but also, uh, external, uh, and then I would currently work in on share team values.
[00:22:21] So we came up with values and now we’re kind of like on a weekly basis, digging a little bit deeper into those values and what it means, uh, for example, to have discipline, if that’s one of the values, what does that look like? What’s discipline look like on and off the field. What’s this look like in the dorm room, different things like that.
[00:22:36] So that’s, that’s what we’re currently doing. So, um, the guys are going on spring break next week. And then once we come back, we start our non championship segment. Um, and we practice, uh, Tuesday to Friday and then we, uh, also have four scrimmages set up at the moment for, for this great. That’s
[00:22:55] Matt: fantastic. I love that, uh, that team value, uh, and, and strength stuff.
[00:23:00] That’s. That’s awesome. Um, so how would you describe your style of coaching and your team’s style of play?
[00:23:08] Coach: Um, I would say re personable. Um, but also with the edge of a winning mentality, I can, I can, I think I can get, uh, I can get loud at times when things don’t go the way. Uh, I would like them to be not so much, you know, like I always say to guys, like mistakes are normal.
[00:23:30] We want to, like, I almost want to, it sounds weird, but I want to encourage mistakes because that’s when you learn them, when you grow, um, As long as the effort is, right. I think that’s the best way to describe it, right? As long as you can walk up the field at the end of the day and say, I gave a hundred percent of my best today and may have not been everything may have not worked out the way I wanted it, but I gave it a hundred percent.
[00:23:50] I will never criticize you for it. But if I feel like you’re not bringing that standard, um, you know, excellence and making sure that I give my hundred percent best today. Um, that’s when we have a problem. And that’s when I get frustrated at times with the guys and where we just need. Increased the level, but besides that, you know, we’re all human, we make mistakes.
[00:24:09] So we want to, we want to continue to grow, continue to learn. Sometimes I push them maybe a little bit too hard. Um, but in, in, in general, um, that’s, that’s the biggest thing I want to make the guys better. Um, and I, I try to, um, you know, find a fine line between being personal, but also being there, their coach.
[00:24:31] Reality is allowed. These guys are international, so their families are thousands of miles away from where we are. So, um, in, in most cases, um, the first, uh, adults, uh, supervision, uh, guardian, whatever you want to call it, uh, that they have access to. Right. So I want to make sure that they feel comfortable coming to me and talking about things like, um, that’s, I think that’s kind of like the unique part of being a college coach, because you get to be around your players 24 7.
[00:24:56] Um, so. Kind of like finding good bounds of being, um, you know, their personal mentor in a sense, but also their coach and helping them to come better on a, on a daily level. Um, and I think when we talk about coaching style is you just have to, you have to get to know the players. Um, just no two players all like, uh, they, they have different studies.
[00:25:21] Are so different in how they put together their strengths, how they receive criticism, that one guy might, you know, he might need you to yell at him that that gets them going. The other guy might need more like the personal conversation where you take them to the side and just kind of go from there. Uh, so just realizing what your players are like, what they need to really become better, I think is the big thing at the end of the day, I’m there, uh, to, to help.
[00:25:44] May have become better players. And that’s what, when, when someone struggles to my team, the first question I usually, how can I help you? Like, that’s, that’s my, that’s my question. How can I, what do you need from me? How can I help you? Cause, uh, I think oftentimes as an, a coaching, it’s easy to just kind of form to this pit where you just look at them and items that help you, you know, win games, but there’s real individuals out, down the field, right?
[00:26:07] Tough days, they have good days. Um, but how can we come alongside them and help them become better people, better players, better students? Um, I think that’s the biggest thing in terms of plain style. The easiest way to sum it up is very proactive. Um, so I’m not a big fan of teams that just kind of sit back and see what happens.
[00:26:27] I want to force our style upon the opponent. Um, so if we talk in the four phases of the game where often Stevens transitions from either to. Um, offensively, we’re looking for very flexible fluid style, lots of rotations, interchanges, um, not really position specific, but really working with the space. Uh, where’s the space, how can we move the opponent to create space?
[00:26:50] How can we exploit that space? Um, and then defensively, uh, uh, we, we try to press high. We, one to force turnovers early up in the opponents have just because if you win the ball high up to field, you close the, to the opponent’s goal. Hopefully then of those turnovers, you can create more chances to be, create more changes to school, more goals.
[00:27:08] Um, and then the transition pieces, uh, it’s kind of like fall into, if we talk about offensive defense transition, we want to bring the ball back as quick as we can. Um, so usually within the first five seconds of the turnover, we try to, uh, have to guys hunt up the ball again, just because dope. Unorganized, uh, right.
[00:27:25] Might not really have figured out yet. Where’s my next passing option, et cetera. A lot of energy, stuff like that. So there’s a bigger chance of winning the ball by bag. And then when we talk about transition from defense to offense is really, we want to get forward quick. Right? So I always say our first look is forward.
[00:27:40] We might not always play that ball, but our first look was always forward. How can we get down the field as quickly as possible? Um, that kind of sums it up. There’s obviously a lot more detail that goes into it, but that gives you a little bit of a synopsis of what we look at. Oh, that’s great.
[00:27:53] Matt: Um, well, we’ve, we’ve talked about a lot of different things here.
[00:27:57] Uh, so I’ll, I’ll wrap it up with one, one last kind of catch all question here. You know, what else is there that we didn’t talk about that you want the prospects or families or anybody to know about your school, your team, or anything
[00:28:10] Coach: else? Um, I think the one thing that always leave recruits do this is your journey, right?
[00:28:18] Is, is. You have to make the decision that you feel is best for you. Um, as, as, as coaches, sometimes it can get frustrating. What if you spend hours and hours with a recruit on the phone and then at the end day, uh, decide to go to a different school. Um, but I think we need to remind ourselves again, it’s individuals that we’re dealing with in this debt journey.
[00:28:38] It’s, you know, at the end of the day, part of being a college coach is also, um, being part of. Women and men’s journeys along the line of growing up and becoming the next generation. Um, so I think the biggest, the biggest advice or the biggest thing that I want you to take away is like, you know, picked a school where you can yourself be, feel at home for the next four years, because that’s what it is.
[00:28:58] It’s your home for the next four years. Um, so pick a school, then you can identify with the chairs similar values, right? Where you have a good connection with the team, with the coaching staff, um, read the overall package, just, you know, This is the right place for me, because if you’re not happy with one thing, eventually down the line, it’s going to add up and you know, you’re going to be miserable and started looking to transfer and whatsoever.
[00:29:19] So find, find a school like don’t, don’t the chase do it at surge of college, just because the pressure comes, but like make sure that you really find a school that’s the right fit for you.
[00:29:29] Matt: Absolutely. Great advice. Well, coach, I appreciate the time. We wish you the best of luck next season. And uh, and if I get up to Manhattan, I’ll have to swing by and check out the Jersey city digs as
[00:29:40] Coach: well.
[00:29:44] It’s been fun. All right. Thanks coach.
[00:29:46] Matt: We’ll talk soon.
