Troy University Women’s Soccer – Coach Stuart Gore

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Gore from the Troy Women’s Program in Alabama. We talk about the benefits of ID camps in recruiting. He describes the gorgeous campus with rolling hills. Lastly, we discuss how some players benefit from enrolling early. Learn more about Troy 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 Gore at Troy university in Alabama. Welcome coach. 

Coach: Welcome. Thanks, Matt. Appreciate you having me on. 

Matt: Yeah. Thanks for being here. I got the pleasure of, of, of driving through your campus. Not too long ago. You got a gorgeous school there in Alabama.

Um, you know, it was really, really nice to see some, some nice people showed us around your, your, your really cool fitness center in there with the pool, you know, that’s pretty, 

Coach: Las Vegas pool. That’s what I call it. 

Matt: That’s right. Well, you know, we’re, we’re talking here. It’s July 2nd, you’re getting ready for preseason, whatever, but I want to rewind it a couple of weeks to that famed June 15th date that, that, you know, People, people have class of 26, uh, folks are, you know, are always worried about.

So how, how much, how many calls did you, did you make a, for, for class of 26 is in just in terms of timeline really, 

Coach: um, over the next, 

Matt: what’s 

Coach: that? I think we made something like nine, probably nine. I think we made nine calls. Um, You know, um, we’re very, uh, picky about who, who we, who we look at and what we look at.

Um, I think that’s a, it’s not worth going and bombarding these kids with so much, you know, and then, or talking to a kid where you’re like, yeah, I think that’d be all right. And then you talk to them and you get them all angst up and then you’re like, then you want to drop them. So, [00:01:30] you know, it’s a very, very methodical.

So, so what is then, 

Matt: talk to me about your timeline then. So how much over the, how much. 2025 recruiting are you doing right now versus 2026 in terms of two years out and kind of what do you see as your normal timeline? The 

Coach: 25 we’re like we’re probably maybe one spot away from being done and um and then 26 is Um, we’re not big believes in big recruiting classes.

Um, I think, you know, it becomes problematic, you know, um, you know, so it’s, and again, it’s about the right person more than just a person, you know? And, um, you know, so for us that the initial phone calls, you know, um, and we’re like super transparent, we’ll like, we’ll tell you the cheat codes, questions to ask coaches, uh, questions that coaches don’t like.

Um, I was a psych major in school. So, um, I know how to catch somebody in a lie and how to ask a question in a lie and then do things like that. Um, you know, so we’re super transparent. I think that I will say we’re, we’re all used car sales person. You were a used car sales person at one point. Some of those are honest used car sales people.

And some people will try and sell you a rust bucket and make you believe it’s a Ferrari. And it’s up to you to sift through all of that and see who’s, who’s honest. 

Matt: Yeah, that’s a, that’s a, that’s a good way to put it. Um, hopefully more honest than, than, [00:03:00] than the cheeky ones, but, uh, but you never know everybody’s different what they try to do, what you mentioned, having small recruiting classes in terms of, you know, Not surprisingly, a division one roster.

You got a few, few international players in there. Um, and I think most people could tell you’re, you’re not from Alabama with, with, with your accent. So, uh, how much international recruiting are you doing? How much is, is transfer portal? Is it hard to plan? Like how many kids are going to leave and why you got to replace them?

And what’s your thoughts on that? 

Coach: I think, you know, for me, um, You know, I, I, in all my stops, I think my recruiting methodology changes. You know, I was at an NAI school in northwestern Ohio, built the program from scratch. I think my first year with the only team in the country that didn’t have one American on it.

Everybody was foreign. Um, and then eventually over my six years there, we only had two. Two Americans on the team, you know, but was a, you know, a final 14 for four years straight, you know, went to two finals, won it. Thank God. Otherwise I’d still be there trying to chase that, you know, white horse. Um, you know, but then again, it’s, it depends on what, you know, where you’re at.

And, and, you know, I think that the, probably the biggest trouble for Troy and having big international recruiting classes would be the location of it. You know, Cause yeah, you can say you’re an hour and a half from the beach, two hours. But if you [00:04:30] don’t have a car, you might as well be 10 hours from the beach.

So it doesn’t matter, you know? So, and that’s where a lot of people go into new jobs and go, right. I’ll just do whatever worked at me at my last school. I’d do it here. And that doesn’t always work. 

Matt: No, it makes sense. Well, in terms of. Recruiting and finding players on the domestic side. Um, I’m assuming your focus is a lot on ECNL and GA.

Are there, I mean, or where do you like to go to look at players? What tournaments do you like to see? What does that look like for you guys? 

Coach: You know, it’s going, it’s going to all places really. And looking at it and, and, you know, again, finding the right, the right fit, you know, as you can go watch ECNL and, um, You can have players that have been on the team since they were eight years old and, and today they’re a paying customer.

So just because they play on a really good ECNL team doesn’t make them a really good player. You know, there’s, you know, they’re a paying customer on an 18 player roster. And, and as you know, with, with your daughter, the, the older they get, those rosters become smaller and smaller and smaller because people leave, people get fed up with it, you know, so then you need.

You need some furniture pieces if somebody’s willing to play and pay the money. 

Matt: Yeah. Well, what, what about camps? Do you guys do your own ID camps? 

Coach: We do ID camps, you know, um, you know, again, for me, you know, the, [00:06:00] we barely, we probably break around 15 or 20, which I like. And I’m not again, if I wanted to make money, I’d definitely not be in this industry because it doesn’t, it’s like, you know, uh, I don’t know how people go to ID camps where there’s a hundred, 150 kids.

Uh, I can tell you straight off the bat, you’re not getting looked at. Like if, especially if you’re in, in, uh, kind of a mid major level player or division two player, you know, those, you know, camps that the bigger schools have put on for the one or two kids that they, you know, really want to be able to be able to talk to, you know, um, you know, so, you know, we got ID camp at the end of this month, uh, the 27th, 28th of July.

And I think right now we’re sitting at like kind of 15 for both of them, which again is great, you know, for, it gets us to really look at, you know, some of the players we had, um, a player that we signed. Uh, for this class, Sophia Sasson, she came to, she was from, played at Alabama FC, she came to RID camp and, you know, within the first hour, the players said to me, like, we need to sign this girl, you know, and I’m like, okay, why though?

Cause I don’t want to play against her, you know? I’m like, okay. But again, you know, it could easily get lost in the shuffle, you know, because again, sometimes you, you know, you can, uh, it’s hard to see the forest through the trees. 

Matt: Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. Well, besides, uh, having your players tell you they don’t want to play against a player, uh, [00:07:30] what, what are you looking for in a player?

Kind of what makes up that hierarchy of on the field and off the field attributes? 

Coach: I think for me, you know, the, the, the first thing we look at is, is your work rate, you know, you blue collar player with, you know, somebody else a blue collar conference, you know, you need depth, you need everybody to work.

Um, obviously then, you know, the intangibles, how, you know, Are you athletic? You know, if you’re not that athletic, you know, are you a really good soccer player? Can you, can you, you know, think the game, you know, um, you know, um, I’m a, I’m a big believer in, you know, you know, anybody can run, not everybody can move, you know, because movement takes thought process, you know, um, You know, so are you great at moving off the ball because that will make you look quicker because you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re trying to see the game ahead of, ahead of itself, um, you know, and again, your attitude, how you deal with things, how, you know, if, um, do you pout, you know, do you like bark back at your teammates in a very snappy way when you get subbed off, what’s your body language, you know, when you’re getting subbed back on, how are you, you know, things like that, you know, for me are the intangible things.

Matt: Well, let’s talk more about the school. Um, you know, I think there’s probably folks who don’t even realize Troy’s in Alabama, uh, so, uh, you guys are in the Sunbelt, but talk to me about, you know, what do you find as kind of the awesome things about the school, the things you enjoy the most, maybe some things we wouldn’t even know through the website.

Coach: Um, the, [00:09:00] the, the thing I always tell people is, um, So the AD called me to interview, um, a day after we lost in the semifinal of our conference, where it was one of those games where we batted the other team and we, they used the headwind better than we did. So I wasn’t in the mood to interview anybody. I was still very salty.

And he’s like, just come and look at it. And when I come to campus, I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. But how then how bad the team was, it made no sense. Um, but it is, it’s, you know, for me, you don’t know it’s here because it isn’t just off the interstate or anything like that. Um, but it gives you, it’s a walkable campus.

It’s still a good walk. It’s not an easy, not a two building walk by any stretch, but it’s so pretty. It’s no, no matter where you go on campus, it’s pretty, you know, the rolling hills of it, the, the golf course down, but it’s, it’s, um, it’s definitely blows you away. And the, the, and that comes from our, our, our president and his wife.

Um, aesthetically, um, I always think, you know, the, if you look at Auburn or Troy’s a smaller version of Auburn architecturally, it very, very, looks very similar to me. 

Matt: Yeah, I can, uh, I can attest. That’s very true. Very, very gorgeous. Campus kind of that small College town vibe, but, but, but, but not too small, right?

Exactly. I think it’s not, yeah, it’s not where 

Coach: you’re going to go to one building for four years for the rest of your [00:10:30] life, you know? Um, but then again, I will say to kids that, you know, they want to, I want to go to school with 30, 000 people. I’m like, great. But your junior year, you’re going to go to one building to three classrooms, to four professors, like that’s it, you know, and that will be your group, you know, um, But, you know, it’s, the good thing is you don’t have to, there is a, we have a little bus system, but you only, you need it if you’re, if you’re really, if you’re running really late, you know, but, um, but again, it’s a nice walk.

It’s not, um, it’s not an awful. humongous where you have to get across campus in 15 minutes, which is going to be impossible. 

Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, let’s talk about the academic side of things. You know, that can be sometimes a struggle for, for new student athletes coming into the college environment, balancing the demands of a division one soccer program and their academic side.

So what kind of support systems does the school have in place to make sure that the kids are successful, both in the classroom and on the field? 

Coach: So what I like about Troy is that pretty much, um, there’s a building, uh, right next to the football stadium, which is like 150 yards from from our facility, where it’s a one stop shop.

So we have the Olympic weightlifting room at the bottom, the athletic training second and then the third is the academic center. Um, so again, you haven’t got to run all over campus to go from one place to another. Um, so. Every, every, every student has their own academic advisor, but an athlete, you get your athletic academic advisor, you [00:12:00] get two people really, um, you know, R1 just basically blocks off the time when we practice, um, They schedule you with, uh, student athlete friendly professors.

We sadly we know that’s a thing. Um, you know, but also, you know, it helps in terms of like, we have a mandatory 6 hours for freshmen for study hall for the year. Um, and then you get a 3. 0 and you can get yourself out of study hall jail, you know, any player. upperclassmen drops below a 3 0, you’re going back into study hall jail, so, um, for the year.

Um, but again, it’s like, the great, the thing I like about our, our academic center is, um, for, for the kids out there that doesn’t want to know what a NARP is, a non athletic regular person, Um, if you add a group project, you can take them up there so you don’t have to fight with the library for space or one of those conference rooms at the library.

You can take them up there behind the, you know, behind the curtain kind of thing. And, um, you know, there’s, we always tell the kids there’s free print and there’s free wifi. Free printing is a big thing in any school, you know, because you’re gonna have to turn in papers and no one like, you know, wants you to, you know, buy paper.

Yeah, 

Matt: that’s good. Well, let’s, let’s fast forward, uh, to October. Harder your conference season, kind of talk to me about what, what’s a normal schedule going to look like for a player in terms of classes, meals, practices, game cadence, all that kind of stuff. [00:13:30] 

Coach: Oh, it’s, it’s, it’s full go, you know, at that point, you’re, you’re just trying to, you know, bandage yourself back up, um, you know, Mondays are normally our off day, always our official off day, you know, Tuesday’s probably the hardest practice we can have because we play Thursday, Sundays.

And with the Sunbelt. We don’t ever play real home and home. It’s your home or away or away and home. So you’ve, you’ve got to travel in there. Everybody’s got to travel in there every week. Um, you know, so really Tuesdays is, is, is really, you know, our hardest practice Wednesday’s prep for game, Thursday’s game, Friday’s either off or recovery, Friday, Saturday’s prep for game, Sunday’s game, you know?

Um, I think most, most schools don’t matter whether you’re, you know, You’re Brian Penske at Florida State or you’re, you know, a different conference at that point, you’re just trying to hide your weaknesses and push your strengths at that point. 

Matt: Yeah. So what, when do you guys train afternoon mornings? What do you like to do?

We 

Coach: train in the mornings. Cause as you know, in, in the South, there’s going to be a thunderstorm. It’s going to be in the afternoon. I think our football team had Something like over 30 practices last year cancelled because of thunderstorms. So they’re building a brand new indoor, outdoor roof, um, here shortly on one of the football practice fields.

Um, you know, so for us, it gets you up in the morning, it gets you going. No professors ruined your day just yet or no classes has kicked your [00:15:00] butt yet or an exam. Um, you know, so for the, like for the freshmen incoming freshmen, they’re probably going to start their day at like 11 or 12 be done by three or four.

It then allows you to, if you want to do a one on one with one of the coaching staff, like you get to do that in the afternoon, you get to come, you want to do some film, you could do that. When I got here, we practiced in the afternoon and, and I always felt some of the girls would be like, Hey, I want to stay and do some extra, but I got to go home.

I got to eat. I got to shower. I got to study. I want to have a bit of a social life. So if I do that, next thing you know, it’s going to be 6. 30, 7. 30 by the time I finish here. And then it’s like, I can’t do it. So it’s moving into the morning. I think just, um, Does make does make life balance a bit easier for them is getting harder and harder for them, you know, with with their work life balance and stuff like that.

And, um, I will say that for me, it’s a. Their life balance is a fluctuating bar chart. When you’re in soccer, soccer goes up, everything comes down. When you’re in school, school goes up and everything comes down. The only thing that probably doesn’t move as much as you want it to is your social life. That never really moves that much.

Yeah. Well, 

Matt: let’s talk a little bit more about the team. I know, um. In the coming months, there may be some changes to, uh, to soccer rosters and other sports rosters. But for now, I don’t know what, uh, what kind of roster [00:16:30] size do you like to see that, that you’re trying to hit each year? 

Coach: So we have 26 lockers.

So I want one buck per locker, uh, bigger, the roster, bigger the problems. I think a lot of coaches will tell you with what’s possibly coming down the pipeline, I think a lot of people will like it. Um, it, but for me, when you have a roster of, um, Of 30, 32, 36, you know, We’ve got girls that are transferred from rosters of 42, you know, you, it’s impossible to keep everybody happy, you know, and, and, and then misery loves company, you know, and, um, it, and it’s difficult and it, and also we live in a day and age now where being honest is being negative and, you know, and, um, Everybody thinks their kid is a superstar, you know, um, but it’s not always the case and sometimes it’s not always the fit is the, you know, it’s Phil Foden’s best player in England right now and struggling in international football.

So even it happens to the best players in the world that sometimes it’s the fit of the dynamic of the way the team plays. Just doesn’t fit you, you know? So, you know, it’s trying to find that balance. 

Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, besides the roster of players, you got a staff roster. So talk to me about your staff.

What role does everybody play? Maybe what other support staff are in the athletic department that help out with the team? [00:18:00] 

Coach: So obviously, um, we have, you know, Eric, uh, Eric’s my associate coach. He’s our goalkeeper coach. He’s not mine. He’s ours. I also hate the word my, cause I don’t own them. They’re not people.

I don’t, they’re people. Um, but Eric’s, Eric’s our, uh, head recruiting coordinator. Um, you know, he’s the ying to the yang of me. Um, Eric worked in the private sector for a long time. So he, he, he ran a multimillion dollar company. So he’s, uh, he’s. Very knowledgeable on, on how to things run. Um, but also, uh, what I like about Eric is.

With one of my best friends, but he also will sit in the office and go at me with things or, you know, um, I don’t want to be the dumbest smart person in the room. I really don’t. I want people to have an opinion. Um, but Eric’s great, that great recruiter, obviously his daughter is a 2026. So she’s going through this process right now.

So, um, that’s, that’s great to see. And, you know, and then obviously with, with Kayla, Kayla’s a very high level player. She plays in practice now. She’s still the best player. Kayla Sager, um, you know, great, great soccer mind knows the game inside and out. Um, you know, great working with our forwards. Um, the girls really respect her cause of, again, she played, she recruited NC State, went to West Virginia, finished at Binghamton.

Um, you know, but she, you know, she’s one that, She coaches within the coaching sessions. She’s a micro, she [00:19:30] does the micromanaging of coaching that, that way. Um, but she’s, you know, I think the girls are more scared of Kayla than they are me. That’s for sure. Well, that’s all 

Matt: right. Um, 

Coach: well, what about 

Matt: you? 

Coach: So me, um, I, for me, I’m, um, I think I have to, Change to whatever suits the team at that time.

You know, uh, I tell you, I tell recruits all the time. Um, me on the field and me off the field are two different people. Me on the field. I hate losing more than I love winning. Uh, off the field. I’m very stereotypically British. I’m very sarcastic. You can make fun of me. I’ll make fun of you. Um, You know, uh, if you come into the office, I’ll, I’ll talk to make your ears bleed because I want to get to know the person.

It’s not about just a soccer player. It’s about the person, um, on the field. Um, very like guided discovery, ask questions probe, you know, um, You know, the way I don’t talk half as much as I do in the office, I do on the field, which I think the girls are happy for, because then I don’t stop the session all the time.

Um, I don’t really want to hear myself talk. I want to get in and out in 45 seconds when I coach. 

Matt: Well, we just wrapped up kind of the spring season or non traditional season, whatever you want to call it. So what does your guys spring typically look like? 

Coach: Um, obviously coming here and taking over a program that, you know, [00:21:00] Was it in great shape at all and having to change that and move that on the last 2 springs have been difficult numbers wise.

Um, but then again, you get to work individually and technically on on things. So we’re coming out of that. Um, You know, this coming spring will be interesting because we’ve got 725 and five of them are gonna come early, which is great. I would recommend that to anybody. I know your high school senior year spring is the greatest thing ever to you in the grand scheme of your life.

It won’t mean anything. Um, but it gets you a head start. You know, it gets you to learn. I think it gets you learned all the cheat codes to the coaches. You get to play in spring games without the pressure of like, if I don’t perform, I might not be, I might be out of the team, you know, so, um, I will say to recruits like, If your first ever college game is against Florida State, the best team in the country, how are you going to feel?

They’re like, I’m going to feel really nervous, you know, but if it’s in spring, you’re not going to feel, you’re going to feel nervous. Yes, but it’s not do or die. It’s not the end of the world. If you have a nightmare, you know, um, you know, so for us, spring is, is trying to look at things, what we need to implement, what we need to slowly change.

I think, um, I think a lot of coaches, especially in new programs go in and try and change too much. And implement their style straight away instead of like [00:22:30] going, what do we have? You know, and then slowly transitioning it to what you want. 

Matt: Okay. Well, coach, I appreciate your time. Got one last question for you.

Uh, you talk about, uh, coach Eric’s daughter, my daughter, these class of 26 folks, these, any prospective student athlete that’s out there, kind of what advice would you have for those folks that are going through this process? 

Coach: Oh, it’s, it’s a, it’s a marathon. It’s not a sprint there. You know, no, the, the pace that it doesn’t always, you know, win the race in a lot of times they don’t, um, you know, for me, you know, don’t get enamored by, you know, the lure of power five, if you’re going to play.

Um, honestly, you know, your, your scholarship offer will determine how much the coach sees you playing. You know, if you get a book scholarship at power five, in my personal opinion, I’m co power five coaches would disagree with me. You’re going to be a really good practice player. You know, and, and, you know, and ultimately you want to play, you know, if you want to win, if you happy to go be a player on a roster and really be a great cheerleader and great teammate, then, then by all means, um, the people make the place, the place will never make the place, you know, you can go to the beach.

And if you don’t like your coaches, don’t like your teammates, you’re going to leave, you know, um, you know, I was at a school in Northwest Ohio, NAI [00:24:00] school. I have players that now still play. I have a girl who’s the Czech Republic national team captain. She plays for SIA. She would not have left because she would turn around to you and go, I can’t leave my teammates.

I love my teammates. You know, I mean, she should play on a top 25 school in the country in division one. She You know, um, but it’s the people that make it for me, you know, and I think that’s the, the thing when you go on your visits, like get around the team. Like, be around the team, you know, figure them out, figure that they’re your type of people, whether you want them, how do they, um, associate themselves with the freshmen, you know, um, are they very standoffish with them?

Does the freshman talk to the upperclassmen? That will show you what you’re probably going to go into, because normally what happens is the freshmen that don’t get spoken to, you know, when they become softballs and juniors, they just do the same thing. You know, they were like, well, it was done to me. So I do to do to others, you know, um, and again, are you going to want to be with these people?

People will say like, Oh, could you if soccer finished? Could you see yourself being at that school? I always think that’s a bit of a. You know, a two headed, two headed snake, because normally you would then just go, if you’re out of state, you would just go back home to a state school, and it would cost your parents a lot less money to go to school.

So, if for me, it’s about the people, can you be with these people every day, you know, [00:25:30] outside of the school itself, you know, and outside of the name of the school, do you like these people? Do you want it? Are some of these people going to go to your wedding? Do you want them to go to your wedding? You know, you know, and that’s the, the crux of it for me.

It’s, it’s most play I’ve won national championships. And I, if I sat with my players and ask them questions about that season, they tell me all this fun stuff that happened off the field, not actually about that game or the run into that game. You know, it’s about the friends they made, the stories they have and all those things.

Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, coach, I really appreciate it. Wish you the best of luck this fall season. And, uh, I think I’m looking forward to coming up and checking out, uh, at least your first exhibition game. 

Coach: Three dimensionally. Yeah. Yeah. 

Matt: Fantastic. All right. Thanks coach. 

Coach: I appreciate it, 

mate.