Quincy University Women’s Soccer – Coach Mackenzie Schissel

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Mackenzie from the Quincy Women’s Program in Illinois. We talk about recruiting timelines and how she likes the 4 year player. She describes how they look to set realistic and achievable team goals. Lastly, we discuss their roster size and how they manage their travel roster. Learn more about Quincy University Women’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach McKenzie from Quincy university in Illinois. Welcome coach. 

Coach: Thanks for having me. 

Matt: Yeah. Thanks for being here. Excited to talk to you today. Um, well, I don’t know if you were in North Carolina for the ECNL event.

Uh, this past weekend, we’re talking here early June and it seems like every. Women’s coach under the sun might have been there, but, uh, how I’m assuming. Your 24s are done and dusted, and you were really focused on, on 25s, maybe even 26s, uh, right now. What’s your recruiting timeline generally look like right now?

Coach: Yeah, so we’re, we’re wrapping up, we’ve wrapped up our 24s. We have a couple visits, uh, this week. Just some, you know, last minutes that kind of popped up. Some, uh, transfers, which is always nice to add. Um, you know, working hard on our 2025, we have a few visits lined up this summer, um, camp at the end of the summer as well, try and get some 2026 is interested, but that’s kind of what our, our, uh, recruiting timelines looking like right now.

So 

Matt: it’s funny. I had actually one of the girls on my daughter’s team asked me this yesterday and it, it, it Does it seem like the timeline has what I would call slowed down a little bit so that you’re not so far ahead as maybe you were a couple years ago. And I don’t know if that’s a result of, of COVID, of the transfer portal or [00:01:30] probably more broadly.

Then likely the FAFSA changes and that kind of thing. So would you would you agree with that? Are you are things moving maybe a little slower than they have in years past? Do you think? 

Coach: Yeah, I’m finding that 24 is kind of seem to take their sweet time a little bit. 25 seem to be a little bit quicker. Now.

I’ve. Felt like it kind of dropped off a bit. Um, 26 is we’re kind of early for the party, I think. Um, but I think they’re quick to get their name out there, get everything on Twitter, all that kind of stuff. And then after that, it’s a little bit slower. So, um, you know, our 2025s have been visiting a lot later than I think they have previously.

Um, you know, I think with just the traction you get on Twitter nowadays and. And all of those kind of, you know, new recruiting services that haven’t been there. Um, they get a lot of interest really fast. Um, and then it’s kind of weeding out, you know, what you want, what you don’t want, that kind of stuff.

So, um, you know, it’s been kind of hit or miss for us. You know, like I said, the 24s, it felt like forever trying to finish that class. But the 25s, we have some, some really good, uh, prospects that are, um, you know, visiting, having conversations with. And then I’m excited to get to chat with some 2026s here in a couple of weeks.

Matt: Actually, let’s talk about that. I know, uh, you’re starting to see it on Twitter a lot, right? That, you know, everybody pumped for that June 15th date. So if you don’t mind peel [00:03:00] back the curtain, what’s, what goes into, you know, your thought process focus should, you know, how many kids are you looking to contact, how are you looking to contact them?

What if kids don’t get contacted that kind of stuff? What does it look like specifically for you guys? 

Coach: So I think it’s very, um, it’s different for every program and for us, we’re, we’re never going to get a 26 on June 15th. It’s just not the case for us. Um, we’re still be talking 25. So, um, I think for a lot of 2026 recruits coming up for June 15th, it is a lot of hype.

And I think the outside pressure of, Getting a phone call or which coach can contact me? What am I going to get in the mail? That kind of stuff is, it adds a lot of pressure, I think, to that recruit. And then to coaches as well. You’re like, okay, here’s my list of 26s. Can I get that phone call in on June 15th, whatever, but what’s the difference between June 15th and June 16th, you know, it just opens up a window.

Um, but I think for us, it’s kind of. You know, taking them as they come, we’re really focused on our 25s right now. We have some interest from some 2026 is some really good local kids as well. So, um, I think that kind of gives us the edge on those, those kinds of players. But, um, you know, I, I do think that the pressure of that, that date is getting a little bit more significant every year.

Um, and I feel for those girls that are, you know, super excited for that date. And then they don’t get a phone [00:04:30] call right on June 15th. Um, but you know. Brand new recruit watching this. Um, it’s going to come that day is just a start of your process. It’s going to take a long time. So, um, kind of opens the door for a lot of opportunity.

Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, in terms of just your overall recruiting kind of Where do you like to go to, to see players, what tournaments are kind of on your must hit list and, and where’s your focus usually with regards to how you build that recruiting database? 

Coach: Yeah. So, uh, traditionally, uh, we’ve had a big pool from St.

Louis. Um, Great soccer scene down there. Um, I think, you know, just in the conference, we’re in the GLVC, it’s centralized around the St. Louis area. So it’s a, it’s a big pool of players to pull from. Um, now for me, we’re kind of running into that same old, same old, it seems just with our conference, some girls that Played with players since they were kids.

Um, it’s kind of getting to be, you know, the same type of player from the same type of club, same type of high school. I think the, you know, handful of players that we do get from St. Louis are awesome. Um, I’m really trying hard to kind of expand, not even, you know, From anywhere in the country, but a little bit farther in the Midwest.

So we don’t typically get players from, um, central Illinois area, normal Champaign, um, even Chicago, we don’t pull a lot from there. Um, so getting up to the show, inter, [00:06:00] uh, inter showcase, even the ECNL RL, um, playoffs coming up in a couple of weeks down there, big opportunity for us. Um, you know, the high school state cup was this past weekend.

There’s some really good Kansas city teams. Um, so just kind of broadening our region a little bit, um, in the Midwest, but then also, you know, pulling from different areas of the country and internationally as well. Um, but I mean, we’re in a really good location, two hours from St. Louis, three and a half from Kansas City, and four and a half from Chicago.

So, Uh, we have a really good, you know, soccer scene to pull from in those three, three cities specifically. 

Matt: Yeah, well, earlier you mentioned the transfer portal. How much are you looking at that? How much has that changed kind of your overall recruiting strategy, if at all? 

Coach: So I, I’m a coach that wants to bring in a freshman and see that freshman out and develop that full player.

I think that’s really important. Um, so we’re always going to start with those freshmen first in our recruiting class. Um, I think, you know, even now, just our 2024 class, we’re, we’re on to our, you know, transfers, junior college transfers, transfer portal kits as well. Um, but trying to get those freshmen in, um, is important for, for me and our program.

Um, but, um, you know, now with the transfer portal, the way it is, um, I think junior college transfers are getting overlooked a little bit with that as well. Um, so that’s kind of a hotbed for us to, um, you know, looking to add in those final pieces of the puzzle [00:07:30] with those types of players, um, you know, in addition to a freshman class.

Matt: Okay. ID camps, uh, are, are all the rage, right? So are they a big part of your recruiting process? Do you have your own, do you or your staff work others? How important are they for you all? 

Coach: Yeah, so we usually have one in the summer. Um, we were gonna have one in June, didn’t really pan out, but we do have one in August.

Um, it kind of lines up with our pre season camp, so we’ll have players back to help, uh, work it, interact with, uh, you know, participants at the camp, which is awesome. We usually get a good turnout. Um, but working other ID camps or just going and watching is, is a great one for us, for us to, um, the Lindenwood camp is always a good one.

Um, Iowa isn’t too far. There’s a great pool of Iowa kids that go there. Iowa, you know, Wisconsin, Minnesota. Um, uh, my assistant’s going to the SLU camps. He’s working some CCSC camps as well. Um, so being able to attend those that, um, invite other colleges to either work or recruit. Is fantastic. You’re hitting, you know, so many birds with one stone there.

Um, so I think that’s a big pool for us because we do kind of get to interact with those players a little bit more than just watching their game. 

Matt: Well, whether it’s, you know, at a tournament or somewhere you’re watching or ID camps or whatever the case may be, kind of what makes up the hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player, what makes somebody stand out or [00:09:00] makes you want to offer them up a spot?

Coach: Um, character first is a big one for me, and I know that’s hard to gauge, you know, just watching them play, um, but obviously other than that, you know, talent, are they going to be impactful right away? What kind of potential are you looking at? Um, and positionally as well. We’ve been a team that has struggled, um, in depth in some areas.

Um, so being able to bring players in that can either be impactful right away or come off the bench and be impactful is important. Um, I think. That’s been an adjustment, I think, in our conference, for sure, is having that depth off the bench, um, and being able to, you know, come in and maintain a level or elevate it as well.

Um, so those are kind of 2 areas that I look for, um, big time. Um, academics is a big one too. You know, if you’re not eligible, you can’t, you can’t play. So point blank period. But, um, what kind of student are they? Um, what kind of family are they coming from? Um, getting, getting players on campus first is a big one.

Um, we, we struggle a little bit when we’re trying to pull from, you know, Zoom calls, um, girls not being able to get on campus, that kind of stuff. Um, I think when you step foot on campus, you know, within the first. 10 minutes, whether that’s going to be home for you or not. So, um, that’s another big area as well.

But, um, you know, planning out classes kind of changes a lot just with, you know, turnover you see in graduating classes, you know, girls figuring out if [00:10:30] it’s for them or not. Um, you might think you have it down pat for the next recruiting cycle and then something changes and you’re like, oh my gosh, back to the drawing board.

But, you know, it, it never ends and never changes, but it’s an exciting process to go through as a coach too. 

Matt: Well, let’s, let’s talk more about the school. Um, you know, you, you’ve been there a few years as an assistant and now, and now the head coach. So, you know, what are some of the things you’ve discovered about the school that you really enjoy?

Some of the awesome things maybe we wouldn’t even know just by going through the website. 

Coach: Right. Absolutely. I think, um, the community aspect is a big thing for Quincy university, but the city as well. Um, Quincy is a soccer and a basketball town. Um, if you come to any of our games, you know, Basketball, soccer, football, whatever, you know, we have a great fan base, but.

Our bleachers are always full. If you go to the basketball arena, it’s always full. So we have a really good, uh, community outreach just within the town, um, which is awesome for us. I think it’s exciting for the girls as well. Um, but the community support within the university as well. We have a really, really great program, um, the student success center with student, um, success coaches as well.

You’re assigned a success coach as soon as you get here and they kind of see your way out or see you through your college experience kind of giving you that. different look than just being a student athlete. Like, what are you doing? Who do you want to be? How are we going to get you there? Kind of a step by step game plan to ensure that you are successful.

Um, I think it’s an [00:12:00] awesome resource. I push it really hard with our girls, um, and they get to meet with their success coaches whenever they want. We get to chat with them as well, um, but I think it gives them a really good direction to, you know, be as successful as they can throughout their time here at QU, but, um, after they graduate and move on as well.

Matt: Okay. Well, in terms of, I mean, you, you kind of mentioned that, that success component, um, That’s tends to be a tough thing for for new players, especially kind of making the transition and balancing academics and athletics. So what else besides what you just mentioned? What else do you guys do? What else helps ensure that the players are successful both in the classroom and on the field?

Coach: Right? Absolutely. So, um, a big thing for us is making sure we do find that balance between being a student and being an athlete. Kind of combining those two, but, um, ensuring that we are gonna, you know, be as successful as we can in both. So, um, you know, our, our success coaches and our academic resources have that down pat.

You know, I’ll get involved if I need to, but. You know, my realm of college classes and college studies is depleting. So, um, I’m a little bit far removed from that one, but, um, soccer side of things. Um, we want to develop players, um, to their potential or beyond it. Um, so making sure that we are on the same page as our players is important as well.

Um, you know, this year we’re going to kind of move [00:13:30] into a more specific structure of that. Touch a lot more on film, um, in practice and in games, um, kind of finding a baseline of where we want our players are players to be at and where we think they’re at and where we think they can go, um, and how we can kind of get there.

So making sure we do have a good developmental plan in place is going to be super big for us moving forward. Um, I think we have a lot of good players returning and coming in that haven’t quite cracked their potential, their ceilings a little bit higher than maybe they think. I think it is. Um, so kind of instilling, you know, those foundations, um, so we can, you know, build them up and make sure we are hitting their potential.

So, um, it’s gonna, it’s gonna look different positionally, um, kind of class wise as well. Um, but spring is usually a huge, a huge time frame for us to kind of hit hard on those soccer specific things. Um, and then also individually and team aspect as well, setting goals, but making sure they’re realistic. Um, you know, every year we ask the team, what’s your goal?

And they’re like, Oh, we want to win a conference championship. I’m like, all right, well, we got to win game one to get there. So making sure that our, our goals are attainable, um, is big for us. I think we, we all want that big. Shining spotlight, but how are we going to get there? And is it a realistic plan on how we’re going to achieve that goal?

Matt: Okay. Well, take me back to October. You know, it’s the heart of the [00:15:00] season, uh, conference time. What, what’s a typical week going to look like for a player in terms of winter practices, classes, meals, game cadence, all that kind of stuff. 

Coach: Yep. So we play Friday, Sunday. Um, we take Mondays off. Um, and then we reset Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are training days.

So our usual training times are between, start time between 3. 30 Get an hour and a half, two hours in. Um, you know, we do have some girls that’ll show up five minutes late or have to leave five minutes early because of class. Um, it’s hard to work around sometimes, um, but we do our best. Um, Tuesdays are usually our, our toughest practice of the week just because it’s farther up from games.

Wednesday, Thursday, you’re kind of reeling it in, looking at game plan, strategy, the opponent, that kind of stuff. If we are traveling, Thursdays are usually our travel days if we’re staying an entire weekend. If not, if we have an evening game at 5 p. m on a Friday, we’ll leave Friday morning. So that’s kind of our practice game schedule.

We do lift in season. We do two lifts a week. Um, first one is kind of maintaining. Um, our strength throughout the season. The second one is more mobility, recovery, um, stretching, that kind of stuff. So try to keep it fairly light on that second day, but, you know, strength is an ever changing thing and it’s getting more important in the college game as we go on.

So that’s kind of what a week looks like for us. You know, some girls might have two classes a day, one class, no class. I had a couple freshmen that never had [00:16:30] classes on Fridays. I don’t know how freshmen get that lucky these days, but, um, kind of depends on, on what you’re taking and, and how many classes you want to take on.

Matt: Okay. Well, let’s, let’s shift gears. Talk. A little bit more on the soccer side of things. Um, you guys don’t have a JV reserve team, do you? Or do you, I don’t know. 

Coach: No, we don’t, but we do have a couple extra scrimmages added into, um, our season against local Juco. Um, any I schools just for girls that maybe aren’t getting as many minutes as they’d like, but for us to get to see them in a game, um, it’s not a true reserve team or schedule.

We all train at the same time. Um, but you know, not everybody’s going to get to play. Um, so it’s, it’s a good experience for them to get minutes in, um, get that game fitness up because that’s something that you lose pretty quick. Um, so that’s been a really good tool for us as well. 

Matt: So what is your kind of ideal roster size that you’re, you’re looking at to hit and maintain throughout the year?

Coach: Usually between 30, 32 or so with, uh, three goalkeepers in there kind of gives our roster space, um, some time. And some, you know, numbers to fluctuate. Injuries are going to happen. You don’t know when they are or how long they’re going to be for. Um, but we even saw it, you know, last season. Um, we had quite a few injuries at the beginning of our season.

Um, right after preseason and our roster shortened pretty quick just with that recovery time coming back in. [00:18:00] Um, so I’d like to keep it around. That number gives a good competition number weekly. Um, we do have a travel roster, um, of 24. Um, two of those are goalkeepers. So, um, it was really positive for us last year.

It changed every weekend, which was awesome. Um, kind of saw that competition, um, every week in training. Um, so I think we’ll continue to do that as well. 

Matt: Besides a player roster, you have a staff roster there. So besides yourself, who else makes up the staff and what other maybe support staff or in the athletic department that help out with the team as well?

Coach: Yeah. So it’s myself and then, uh, my assistant, uh, Micae Barletta, he, uh, was a goalkeeper here on the men’s team. Um, a few years ago, grad transferred out and came back to coach. Um, so he’s awesome. Works with our goalkeepers a lot. Um, he’s a great soccer mind. Awesome with the tactics, um, film breakdown, recruiting.

He’s awesome. Um, we’re going to look at another, uh, a GA, um, in the spring of 25. So looking in January, um, and then support staff, here’s awesome. Our, you know, athletic directors. Great. He played baseball here for a long time or for a short time, went to the big leagues for a bit, came back and coached baseball for many years and is the AD now.

So it’s great having that. Coaches perspective and, and, uh, in administration. So that’s been awesome. 

Matt: Yeah. Great. Well, in terms of yourself, how would you describe kind of your style of coaching and the style of play that you’re looking to [00:19:30] implement there? 

Coach: Um, so for, for me, you know, you know, I’ll go back to my playing days.

I was a midfielder. I like to keep the ball. I like to distribute the ball, um, get into forward areas. So that’s kind of what we’ve been really hitting hard, especially this last spring, but in the fall as well. Um, utilizing, um, you know, that transitional area of the midfield a little bit more. Um, we did really well to build out and maintain possession, um, you know, from our back line.

Um, we struggled with that confidence either from our center backs or our midfield or midfield receiving from center backs of that ball to play in to get out again. Um, but we, we kind of figured it out by the end of the season and into the spring. Um, you know, bypassing breaking lines. Um, Maintaining possession is a big one for us.

The more you have the ball, uh, the more you can move the opposition around, find those gaps to play in. Uh, you know, previous to last season, a lot of our goals were scored on set pieces, which is crazy and rare in women’s soccer. Um, but PKs, free kicks, corner kicks, this last season, more of our goals were scored through the run and play.

So it’s really positive for us as well. Um, so that’s kind of the style that we’re looking to continue. Um, I’m a pretty hands on coach as well. Um, I want to make sure that as a visual learner myself, I know that a lot of my players are visual learners too. So how are we best coaching them to make sure that they’re understanding everything we’re saying, um, on the [00:21:00] field and then in film as well.

Matt: Well, we really appreciate all the insights you’ve given us, but I’m going to ask you one last question. And that is for any college recruit any, you know, player that’s watching this. What is one piece of advice that you really want them to know as they’re going through this recruiting journey? 

Coach: Take your time.

Don’t rush into it. I think there’s a lot of pressure going on with recruiting. Um, don’t sacrifice the things that you need, um, whether it’s class size, uh, the coach, the location, um, for things that you think you might want. I think there’s a lot of things out there that are bright and shiny, um, but don’t sacrifice the things that you absolutely need to be successful, um, as a college athlete, but more importantly, a college student.

Matt: Absolutely. Well, coach, really appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck as, as you get ready for the fall season. And, uh, if you get down to any of the recruiting events down here, liquid ranch, uh, Florida, give me a shout. We’ll, we’ll get together. Right. 

Coach: Absolutely. I appreciate it. Thanks so much. Matt: Thank you.