Lynn University Women’s Soccer – Coach John Markey

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach John Markey from the Lynn University Women’s Program in Florida. We talk about what he is looking for when evaluating players. He tells us about his school’s innovative approach to scheduling classes. Lastly, we discuss how they like to play having possession with a purpose. Learn more about Lynn soccer.

[00:00:00] Coach: Hi, everybody.

[00:00:00] Matt: Welcome to discover college soccer. I am lucky enough today to be joined by coach John from Lynn university women’s program. Coach. Welcome.

[00:00:09] Coach: Thank you.

[00:00:10] Matt: Oh, thanks for being here. So, uh, let’s just jump right in. What, uh, you know, you guys are division two program, uh, here in Florida. Um, When, when do you start looking at players?

[00:00:22] What year in high school? When do you start hearing from players? Uh, when they’re reaching out to you?

[00:00:28] Coach: Yeah, I think, um, Different everybody’s process is different. Um, we get emails from, you know, eighth graders and we get emails from girls that, you know, send an introductory email and may go of their senior year.

[00:00:43] So everything in between. So, um, everybody’s a little, uh, process, a little different and, um, for us, we just kind of file them away. And, um, you know, we have this, this time class. It’s always moving and we have to decide, you know, certain points, okay, what are our true needs for a certain class? And then we go revisit, you know, maybe emails from that class.

[00:01:07] And, um, every year is different. Um, the transfer portal is really changed a lot. Uh, we’ve had to be really adaptable with that. There’s been a lot more interest from, um, international students, which are usually later, um, You know, they usually don’t figure it out until the year before they want to go. But, um, for us, we generally try to start speaking to kids and getting them on campus or junior year in high school.

[00:01:33] Um, I think that’s where they’re at the maturity level, that, that the decision in the way that the decision where they’re going to go really, really sits well with them. And, and we’re able to kind of get to know that the character of the player, as much as, as a soccer. Oh, that’s great.

[00:01:50] Matt: What, so how many inbound contacts would you say you get in an average week?

[00:01:55] I know it ebbs and flows and, and, you know,

[00:01:58] Coach: but I would say on a, on a normal week, probably 50 to 80, I would say a week prior to an event we’re looking at probably two to 300. Yeah. I mean, it’s from, and it’s from everywhere. There’s, there’s some great agencies out there that help international kids.

[00:02:16] There’s some great agencies that help, um, American players and, and, um, you know, sort of, if we count those, then my numbers are accurate because they’re constantly sending us a player profile or things like that. Um, you know, it’s very hard to decipher through all of them because, um, you know, everybody, even, even at our level, everybody, everybody wants to have a home.

[00:02:38] And once. One and I guess to be the right way to say.

[00:02:42] Matt: Sure, sure. Absolutely. Well, you mentioned internationals, you mentioned the transfer portal. So, you know, I look at your roster, you’ve got a nice sprinkle of, uh, of international students on there as most division two programs tend to have these days. Uh, how does the transfer portal and looking internationally figure into your overall process?

[00:03:03] How are you, uh, kind of mixing that.

[00:03:07] Coach: We’re, um, we’re kind of learning as we go with this because it’s all really new. Um, you know, for our level, we get a lot of transfers because, um, you know, big division one school will take a chance on a kid. Um, you know, maybe they pan out, uh, if it’s a state school then cost the kid a lot of money to go and try to either walk on or be on a small scholarship at a, at a big program.

[00:03:33] And they, when it doesn’t work out. You know, they just spent a whole year not touching the field really. And so now they’re looking to really fall back in love with the game and want to, you know, play more of a, a prominent role in a program. And so we get a lot of those, those type of kids and, um, especially with COVID and you know, I’m not speaking for other programs.

[00:03:55] I saw kind of a trend where, where there were bigger rosters, uh, you know, division one school, they’re taking more players because they didn’t want to miss out on somebody. And now the fallout of that is, is a lot of these kids in the transfer portal and things like that. And so, um, but for us, we’re, you know, and I’m not saying we’re doing it the right way.

[00:04:13] This is how we kind of do it. We try to keep a good balance. Oh, I think it’s important to have kids that come into your program as freshmen and grow through the program. I think it’s important to all. Inject some maturity, you know, some older players into, into it every year. Um, you know, your team culture is going to change every year.

[00:04:31] She might as well embrace that by, by on some loud, you know, personalities and stuff and, and McCalla letting the chips fall where we’re supposed to. And then I think the other piece is the, um, the international kids bring just a different color. To your team. And so we try to keep a balance between that and say those three, those three areas, older graduate kids may be because a lot of kids are getting that year back because of, because of the pandemic.

[00:04:58] Um, they’re able to go in and play another year into grad school. So, um, but we try to keep a balance. We’re not trying to put all our chips in one area.

[00:05:08] Matt: So when you are. Looking at the domestic side of things and, and looking at those incoming freshmen and, or, you know, soon to be freshmen. Where, where do you like to go recruiting in terms of, of tournaments?

[00:05:22] What are kind of the ones you, you definitely are on your, your checklist each year to go see

[00:05:27] Coach: players? Yeah. I’m um, I’m involved with an ECL clubs. Sorry. Out of line. If I didn’t say it would go to all these events. Um, but, and again, ACL’s done a phenomenal job, uh, build a platform where all the best players predominantly are in one area.

[00:05:42] So it’s great for college coaches who don’t have huge budgets to go and kind of get the most bang for your buck. And that’s just, that’s just the truth of it. Um, but we go, we go all over. Um, me, me and my assistant, Eric are really big on, uh, relationship. With clubs. And I mean, Eric goes out to Seattle every year because he’s, he’s got a close friend out there that he’s met through to the soccer world.

[00:06:05] And, um, you know, we’re hoping to get a player up out of there. We have good contacts in Georgia. Um, you know, I’m from my family’s from Kansas city and, and I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. So I have contacts in both those areas. Um, and then one of the big ones we, we, uh, we actually use a lot is, is our players, our players, former clubs and things like that.

[00:06:28] Um, you know, if we have a good environment here and are the kids happy, then we call and that club and, you know, um, or they give it, they give a good review to younger players. So, uh, we have a lot of kids from the New Jersey, Connecticut area, that new England region. Um, and we try to try to touch on that.

[00:06:45] So we’re really, we don’t discriminate against anybody if, uh, if they’re in, shouldn’t come into, you know, Boca, Raton, Florida, and, and a good enough, we’re going to talk.

[00:06:55] Matt: No. That’s great. Um, what about camps? How do the, how do those fit into your recruiting? Whether it’s your own own camps or being your staff being in other people’s camps, how, how much has that kind of weigh into how you see players?

[00:07:11] Coach: I would say that’s the specialty from the domestic players. That’s a big. Um, we do, when I say Eric goes out to Seattle or, or Georgia or something, he’s going out there and doing, doing an ID camp. Um, we’re big on recruiting, especially for domestic kids. You know, it’s when you come in as 18 years old in college and, um, you know, it’s a big change.

[00:07:33] And so it’s important that we’re recruiting character kids that, that are going to come in and. It’d be here for the right reasons and things like that. And those ID camps, where you get to spend hours, just joke with getting them the sideline and, and, and really getting to know the personality in a training session.

[00:07:50] Um, I think, I think there, they’re probably some of the best pieces you can do. Um, we, we go out, I always work some of the bigger colleges like UCF, um, you know, camp every, every summer and, and, um, you know, we, we always find something. And an ID camp somewhere, um, that just, you know, maybe fell under the radar or, or, or they’re young.

[00:08:13] And we’re like, okay, this is a relationship we want to continue to have as, as we get closer to them being a recruitable age or something like that. But I think there are really, really important part. It’s good for the, the youth kid too, because you know what you want to get to know your coach. And so for us, we were trying to start some ID camps.

[00:08:34] You know, the, um, the pandemic kind of set us back. Our school didn’t allow us to do it, but now we are. And so we’re trying to get those back going, hopefully starting the summer. Um, for us, it’s a opportunity for them to, again, just do what I said, come in and meet us, um, meet some of the players that work the camp to the campus, things like that.

[00:08:55] And, um, you know, really get to vet us just as much as spending them.

[00:09:01] Matt: Makes sense? What, what do you like to see in that first communication from a player in terms of what information? What, what, you know, what they’re reaching out? What, what stands out?

[00:09:12] Coach: Yeah. Like an email. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that the simpler, the better, I always make this joke.

[00:09:18] When I give college talks to youth kids, Okay. We don’t care that you started soccer at four years old, like who did it? You know, and we don’t care about your whole life story or how many goals you scored when you’re 12. Like we need to know your number. We need to know what, what events you’re going to be at.

[00:09:34] Um, we need to know you, you’re actually interested in. With some kind of little personal something like, Hey, I’m really interested in your business program. You know, if you go, Hey, I’m really interested in your amazing nursing school at land. Well, we don’t have a nursing school, so we clearly didn’t send that to the right, the right school.

[00:09:51] Um, you know, so, so something personal, um, name, you know, number of club, team and events. And, um, that’s really it because we get so many of them. I mean, I always, I always say. The more information you can put in the subject line, probably the better, because we’re going to look at the subject and if we can learn everything about you in one subject, you go into this file and we contact you, you know, like this timer or this way or whatever.

[00:10:20] So

[00:10:21] Matt: that makes sense. Um, so if you’re, you know, you, you’ve got an email from a kid you’re going to go to this, uh, ECL event probably, uh, down the street from me here at premier. Uh, and. You’re watching players. What is your, your hierarchy of things you’re looking at? You know, what, what are the on the field off the field, uh, attributes that you gotta make sure a player ticks off for you to want to continue talking to them?

[00:10:51] Coach: Yeah, I think, um, for me, like, uh, uh, work rate’s really important. Like you can’t, you can’t teach kids to work hard. They either do it, or they don’t by that level. And, um, You know, I think the defending side of the game is really important. No matter what position you play, um, at the college level, you don’t get put on the field.

[00:11:13] If there’s a possibility you’re going to be, you know, liability defensively, whether you’re, you know, a gold score or a center back, um, or anything in between. So that I think that’s a big part of it. And then, um, just the way you interact with your teammates and their referees, I think that matters. Um, you know, you’re at an event, you know, that you’re being uprooted and you’re, and you’re seen by college coaches and you’re still kind of Melvin off to the referee, like, who are you?

[00:11:39] And no one is looking at this kind of the question we ask and if that’s who you are, when people are looking, then that worries us a little bit, um, from a character standpoint. Um, but yeah, and then the other part, we do a lot of like comparing to what we have currently. So, um, if we’re looking at a winger.

[00:11:57] Are you as good or better than, than what we already have, you know, currently on our roster. And, um, if you are great, we’ll continue to pursue you as a recruit. And if, if not, or maybe you have the potential to get there, um, you know, then that’s something we also look at, but that’s from the pure soccer side and that’s probably the last piece we really want.

[00:12:18] Matt: Yeah. Okay. Um, well you guys are division two, so you’ve got some athletic money, uh, and I’m sure a lot of your, your recruits are probably on some sort of academic money or other scholarships grants as well. So, so what is the overall scholarship picture look like for a typical, uh, Lin soccer player?

[00:12:39] Coach: Um, yeah, I mean, our, our kids are on different.

[00:12:43] So my scholarships, uh, depending on it’s really bait need base for us, um, you know, a fully funded division two program is 9.9 scholarships. Um, you know, so that’s not even a full starting lineup. Um, so a lot of academic money, um, You know, I, I, I strongly encourage, you know, in Florida we have what’s called bright futures where it’s just like community service.

[00:13:12] These kids can get, you know, a chunk of five to $7,000. I think something like that, um, towards their tuition, uh, grades are important because we give out merit scholarships that we can stack athletic money on there. And so that’s kind of the last conversation we have with kids. Um, You know, we want them to fall in love with the school and our program and our staff, and we want to fall in love with them.

[00:13:37] And then at the end it’s like, okay, what’s a number of ways we can really make this work, you know, honestly. And that’s kinda how we, we, we tackle scholarships. Um, sometimes kids come in and they’re like, look, I need, I need everything paid for. And then it’s like, all right, we’re going to evaluate, you’re capable of being, being that to us.

[00:13:56] And if not, we’ll we’ll move. Um, so like I said, every process and every conversation is different for each kid. It’s, it’s always unique. So, but that’s kinda kind of how it works. It’s not, it’s not like a, we just give out big, big scholarships and hope the players. Good enough when they get here.

[00:14:15] Matt: Yeah. It’s not, it’s not division one football, right?

[00:14:20] Uh, well, let’s, let’s talk about the school. Some, uh, you know, you mentioned lens and in Boca, um, but you know, if you’re outside of Florida, maybe you haven’t heard of Lynn. Um, so, you know, I can go to the website, find out all kinds of stuff. Um, you know, like, like you don’t have a nursing program, but what are some of the cool, awesome things about Lynn that I’m not going to learn about?

[00:14:41] Just, just being on the web.

[00:14:43] Yeah,

[00:14:43] Coach: we, um, we’re really innovative school. Um, the kids get an iPad when they come here as a freshmen. Um, there’s no books, it’s all done on the iPad or, or, um, you know, through their, through their learning portals. Um, let’s see. I mean, we’re 10 minutes from the beach, I think is really cool.

[00:15:05] Uh, you know, we’re, the school is constantly growing or building a new dorm right now. Um, we’re building a new wellness center, but we’re going to have a nutritionist. We’re going to have sports psychologists, things like that to really help our student athletes, but also our student, our student body as well.

[00:15:21] Um, what I love about Lynne is the, um, they do such a great job of helping kids get to that next piece of their life. Um, the are, you know, finding careers and things like that. Uh, you know, we have so many companies and things like Netflix and Amazon prime, we have great relationships with companies like that, where we help kids find entry level jobs after they, after they graduate your degrees in soften.

[00:15:52] I think w I mean, I don’t know compared to who, but I haven’t been in a university that does such an amazing job of helping kids find them. And we have, I kind of look at it like this international kids that come here. It’s really hard for them to not find something, to be able to stay in the United States and get a job and sponsorship for the sun, things like that.

[00:16:14] So our school does a phenomenal job of that piece. Um, and then, I mean, I haven’t heard anybody talk bad about our cafeteria. It’s, it’s probably one of the best I’ve ever seen. So they do a phenomenal job there and they cater, I mean, they do so well. We get them to cater meals for our team and stuff. Uh,

[00:16:33] Matt: that’s, that’s pretty good.

[00:16:34] That’s pretty good for sure. Um, we, you know, you mentioned the, just the, the academics piece and that kind of thing. So how, how specifically at Lynn do the students really balance that soccer and school kind of thing? What support systems are there in place at the school to help them on their academics?

[00:16:55] Coach: Yeah. So we, um, we, and again, I use the word innovative. Um, our school is very innovative when, when COVID hit, um, they adopted what’s called block scheduling, uh, block scheduling is where, um, you take a class for four weeks, so there’s block a, B, C, and D. And so you’ll take a class for four weeks and then you’re done with that class.

[00:17:16] And so, um, whereas. Instead of taking five or six classes throughout a semester where you could have a week where all your exams pile up. Um, if you’re a student athlete, you got soccer, you got one or two glasses that you really focus on, you know, and that’s it in terms of, you know, responsibilities and time management.

[00:17:37] Um, so it really allows the kids to focus on, on the class they’re on. Um, you know, and then when that one’s done, they get to move on to the next one. And it also helps. Track progress throughout the semester. And so if a kid doesn’t do very well in block a and they have a big load and block B, okay. Let’s not, let’s not take as big a load there and let’s maybe add a class here where blocked the, you didn’t have a lot.

[00:18:00] And, um, it allows us to check up on him because, uh, you know, periodically throughout it. But we also get, you know, we have, um, academic advisors, we have two free tutoring. Um, all that kind of stuff for, for our student athletes. Uh, you know, it’s, it’s hard to, to not be successful here at Lynn because of the support that you have.

[00:18:23] Um, you know, I get weekly emails with attendance. Um, you know, we’re really big. Our program is really big on study hall if you need it. Um, but we’re working. We’re kind of more, we lean more towards the accountability part. Like if you’re good in the classroom and we predominantly recruit good students.

[00:18:44] And, um, if you’re doing the right things in the classroom and you’re studying the right ways and you’re getting the grades, like we’re not going to bother you, you can continue to do the, the thing, whatever your habits are working. So who am I to tell you how to study? Um, but at the same time we have all these other things and when a kid is struggling, we would get them to study.

[00:19:04] Get them with tutors and things like that to help. But, um, I like to brag about the block scheduling because it really is a, a different way to do it. Um, I think it’s really relative to, you know, a job in the real world. You know, you get a project, you got to work through that project when that’s done the next one’s in the next one’s on, instead of working on seven different things at the same time.

[00:19:24] And I think, you know, the way things are now, it’s, it’s, it’s harder for kids to focus on on five, six different things that. Instead of getting, getting a task done and then move into the next one. Um, and that was, that was something they, they came up with because of COVID in the idea or the premise originally was that they didn’t want students interacting with four or five different groups of other students throughout the week.

[00:19:50] They want them just interacting with one or two. So, so you can take one or two classes, um, a block depending on what they want, but it’s pretty cool. They don’t have classes on Fridays. It’s just for like, Or, or just time to catch up by our bosses. And so when it gets a really cool, um, indifferent way that we do academics here.

[00:20:11] Matt: Absolutely. So let’s talk about that more in the. Guys in a soccer season. So what does a typical week look like for a soccer player with that block scheduling from kind of the time they wake up to the time they go to bed with games and practices? Uh, intermixed.

[00:20:29] Coach: Yeah. So there’s different blocks in the day where, um, uh, so like eight to 10 30 is a class time.

[00:20:37] And then there’s a break between 10 30 and noon for like lunch or whatever. And so we kind of steal that, steal that. Um, and do our practice. So what we do is usually we’ll start training around nine 30. We end around 11, it still gives them enough time. And then we just encourage the girls not to take 8:00 AM classes.

[00:20:57] And so a typical day for a women’s soccer player would be, get up, get your breakfast, um, you know, get the training room. If you need training trains about 11, grab some lunch, and then most of them will have a class that starts at noon to about 1230. Okay. Noon to about two 30. So glasses are in blocks of two and a half hours.

[00:21:18] Most of them don’t run that long. Professors don’t want to be in there that long either. But, um, a lot of it is done online as well. Um, and then if you take a second class, there’s two other blocks later. So it just depends on what your class schedule is, but most of them will have training. Then they’ll have one class and then we’re done for the day.

[00:21:38] Matt: So you guys are. I think you’re in the sunshine state conference, right? Yup. Yeah. So mostly Florida, uh, if not all Florida conference teams there. Yeah. So, but Florida is a big state. Most people don’t, especially when you’re down in Boca. So besides your Florida games and your non-conference games, what’s your typical kind of travel radius.

[00:22:01] How does traveling fit into the academics and all that kind of thing?

[00:22:05] Coach: Yeah. Good question. No, our schools, our schools, professors are great. Um, they’re super supportive of our, our athletics. Um, you know, a lot of, a lot of the people that work in Lynn higher up in the administrative roles were athletes Atlanta at one point, which is really cool.

[00:22:25] Um, so they support a lot of that kind of stuff. If they’re missing exams to make it up, um, if we’re going to the national tournament or gone for, you know, Uh, they’ll allow somebody on our staff to Proctor test. Um, but, but with the Inno innovative ways, Lynn does things. Most of it that can be done online.

[00:22:46] The kids just need an hour of silence somewhere to do it. Um, you know, we haven’t had a problem with, with the travel or anything like that, but our, our conference is all in Florida. So most of it’s a day travel. Um, occasionally if we go over to like Tampa, we’ll go over and stay the night before. Um, but they don’t miss a lot of school in terms of in conference travel.

[00:23:08] Uh it’s post season stuff and non-conference travel, which is probably a sum of maybe three or four weeks, um, in total that, that they would miss a day or two the year we’re there. So, yeah.

[00:23:22] Matt: Okay. Well, let’s talk about the team and the soccer side of things a bit. Um, you know, how, how many players do you.

[00:23:29] Keep on your roster, what’s kind of your ideal size and, and, you know, do, are you big enough where you got a JV reserve side or you just get the one or how

[00:23:38] Coach: does that work? Uh, we don’t, we don’t have a JV or reserve side or anything like that. Um, you know, at our level it’s, I mean, it’s very, very equatable to a division one program.

[00:23:50] Um, in terms of resources, in terms of the training, you know, um, in terms of the. Uh, commitment to time-wise to, to the program and things like that. Um, roster size, we try to stay between 26 and 30, um, because of some of our seniors that have, and to come back for another year. Um, you know, we’ve gotten a little bigger.

[00:24:14] I think we’re at, we were at 34 last year. We’ll probably be around 31 at 32 this year. Um, so big. Uh, it’s tough because two thirds have teams sitting on the bench at any moment. Um, but that’s why we put a big, a big emphasis on team culture and things like that. And understanding that whatever your role is that you’re asked to play on a day that you do with the best of your ability and, and, um, you know, be a good teammate through it.

[00:24:45] Yeah,

[00:24:45] Matt: definitely. Well, what about, uh, your staff? You mentioned Eric. H how big is your overall staff? What role does everybody play? Are there other support staff in the athletic department that contribute? How does that look?

[00:24:58] Coach: Yeah, we have, um, we have myself and my sister and Eric, and then we have a wobble goalkeeper coach.

[00:25:04] Um, we had one last year. Um, we’re currently looking to, to find a new one cause she’s unavailable. Um, we’re looking at a volunteer assistant as well, um, with a couple people in mind. So usually we have a staff of four soccer coaches. Um, then we have our athletic trainer, um, that we have our strength and conditioning coach and instead of thing, so those six, six people, um, usually usually our strength coach won’t travel with us.

[00:25:36] Um, he’ll be at our home games, but, um, Just cause he has, he has to deal with other sports too. He doesn’t just do women’s soccer, but, um, but if we can post these and things like that, he’ll travel with us. So that’s good.

[00:25:50] Matt: Um, well, how would you describe your style of coaching, your team style of play?

[00:25:58] Coach: Yeah, that’s a great question.

[00:26:00] I’m trying to answer that right now. I’d say. Adaptive in the word we use a lot. Um, you know, we, our conference is really tough. There’s a lot of different styles in our conference. Um, there’s a lot of very good coaches in our conference and some phenomenal players. And so I think it’s, it’s a lot of fun because every year is a little different and whatever kind of plan we have.

[00:26:29] Um, usually never is the plan that we ended up going with going into a season. But, um, for us, we’re trying to really put in some principles, um, of play that that are non-negotiables is what we call them. And so, um, defensively, we want to be a team that works really hard. Um, we want to be somebody that.

[00:26:50] Plays kind of in your face soccer and not, not allowing you to kind of do the things you want to do as, as an opponent. Um, and then when we have the ball, we talk a lot about valuing the ball and, and possession with a purpose. Um, you know, we, we want to be a team. That develops attacks, not just wait for a mistake from the other team and kind of be a little more self-sustainable.

[00:27:16] So we’ve only had me and Eric have only been here for one fall, uh, which was last fall, um, due to the pandemic. But, um, I’m going into my third year here and I’ve done coach one season, but the, um, you know, last year we really learned that it’s tough to be. Uh, you know, it’s tough to, to not be somebody that can control the tempo of the game.

[00:27:38] And so we’re working really hard this spring, um, on, on growing up part of our game. Uh, so I would say very possession oriented team, but we talk a lot about having a purpose with possession and, um, we use, we use buzzwords, like, you know, being brave with your passes. Like don’t, don’t just be the girl trying not to make mistake, be the player.

[00:28:01] That’s okay. With a mistake and you’ve taken chances. And then. When the mistakes are made. Who are you in that, in that next moment? We talk a lot about that. Define yourself by the person right after the state. No, I love

[00:28:13] Matt: that. Well, you mentioned spring, you know, it’s off season time. So what is your typical off season look like?

[00:28:19] Coach: Oh man, I, um, we love to play tough games, so we just play the university of Miami. Um, that was, that was a lot of fun. Um, I do it again. So we have. And we had some, some freshmen out there that maybe maybe got 90 minutes all season starting against an ACC power house. And so it was a lot of fun though. The girls had a good experience.

[00:28:43] Um, we played well, um, got beat up on a little bit, but, but those kinds of games, I mean, I feel bad for Miami. Cause I think we got a lot more out of it than they did, but, um, Uh, but we, we like to play games like that. We’ll go play FIU. So a couple of division one teams, um, we’ll play some teams in our conference.

[00:29:03] I think it’s important that some of our younger kids in the spring that didn’t get minutes in the fall, get to experience it. You know what it is like the play against the Nova play against the Ford attack. Um, things like that. And then, um, we try and squeeze in one of the game. I think we would play St.

[00:29:19] Thomas, which is. Good in AI school down here. So we have a lots of options down here. In terms of spring games. We try not to travel too far because it doesn’t make any sense. You know, FAA FAU, a great division one program right across the street always plays this usually. And when they’re literally their campus is a mile away from ours and, um, So, so we try to get a lot of those games and just get our girls in situations where we can challenge those things.

[00:29:46] Um, for us, a spring is not very result oriented. It’s a, it’s a lot about development and growth. And, you know, at our level we have a lot of players that are here for, you know, uh, it didn’t work out at a division one level or, you know, they didn’t get an opportunity to maybe go to their dream school. Um, and then Lyn became their dream school.

[00:30:07] Right. That’s that’s how we say it, but, um, the, uh, So it’s a, it’s a lot of fun to in the spring to kind of say, Hey, look, this is part of your game. That, that if you just really work on it, um, you can go from being, you know, this, this, you know, barely coming off the bench player to maybe, maybe a, you know, an impact player.

[00:30:27] So we dive into our players individually a lot in spring. Um, they enjoy that because, because a lot of the ones that we, we get to dive into, maybe weren’t getting that kind of attention in, in the fall season. So we, we value that a lot. And I always, I always tell this story. I love, I love the story of the kid where next fall, one of the other coaches comes up means like, who’s that?

[00:30:49] I’m like, yeah, she was on my bench all last year. We should’ve seen her in the spring. Now. I like tell him that. Rather than like, look at this monster we’ve, we’ve recruited from this amazing school. So, um, so we really, we, uh, our staff really values developing those kinds of kids and stuff. And, um, we, we say we will always use the, uh, the phrase, trust the process, you know, everyone has their own process.

[00:31:11] And, um, just because you’re not a starter as a freshman, doesn’t mean you can’t be me when I was a sophomore and, you know, but, but it, it, it takes what it takes. I think sometimes.

[00:31:24] Yeah.

[00:31:25] Matt: Well, we, we, you know, we’ve talked a little lot covered a lot of ground here, lot. Last question for you is my catch all here. What, what didn’t we talk about? What else would you like prospects, parents, uh, anybody to know about your team, your school or anything else that we didn’t, we didn’t cover?

[00:31:42] Coach: Yeah, I would just, I would just say, um, you know, own your own process in the, in the recruiting part of it. Yeah. Um, you only get to play college soccer once. And so, you know, really kind of have a good conversation with yourself and understand that, um, your experiences, your experience, it’s not, you know, your, your club teammates.

[00:32:08] It’s not your high school teammates. It’s not your parents. It’s your club coaches. It’s your experience. And, um, I always tell, tell recruits, like you gotta figure out what you want out of it. Okay. And then go figure out where that is and how you can get it. Um, you know, we have some kids. I mean, if we, it could be anything.

[00:32:29] If, if kids want to go professional league, they go professional from division two all the time. Um, you know, if, if a kid wants to go and have a great experience, And, and doesn’t really mind whether they play or not, but they want that status of division one. You know, there’s probably a division one team out there.

[00:32:47] That’ll put you on the roster, you know, like, so it’s, it’s all about figuring out what you want out of the experience. And then, and then, you know, draw on the path to get to it and using the resources and the people you have around you to help you. But, um, you know, I would say don’t, don’t look at division two schools as the.

[00:33:06] Tier and, you know, we play, we play and beat division one teams all the time. And, um, you know, so it’s, it’s important that you find what kind of experience you want. If you want a big school, we’re not a big school. If you want something that if you want a place that someone’s going to take care of you and, and, you know, if you get behind in classes, the professor already knows your name.

[00:33:26] You’re not in a class of 200 people. You know, that kind of experience is, is great. And sometimes that’s what people need or want. And, um, And don’t be afraid to, to look at the smaller schools and stuff like that. But I think it’s really just about owning your own process and understanding what you need to do to get what you want out of it and being, being truthful with yourself for that fix important.

[00:33:50] Absolutely.

[00:33:50] Matt: Absolutely. Well coach appreciate the time, uh, wishes the best of luck in the fall. And, uh, you know, if you, if you’re at Eckerd, I might have to drive up and check out that game since it’s just down the street from us, but, uh, good luck. And thanks for being.

[00:34:05] Coach: All right. Thanks Matt. Take care. Bye.