Ohio University Women’s Soccer – Coach Aaron Rodgers

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Rodgers from the Ohio Women’s Program in Athens. We talk about how he recruits a lot from the pool of players who reach out first. He describes the Ohio community and the supportive environment it provides. Lastly, we discuss his new FT assistant and Grad Assistant that helps complete their great staff. Learn more about Ohio 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 Rogers from my alma mater, Ohio university. Welcome coach. 

Coach: Thanks for having me. 

Matt: Yeah. Thanks for being here. Now. You know, I, I went to OU for grad school, unfortunately, no men’s team there. But, uh, but I did play, you know, when I was done with my undergrad, four years of NCAA, I still got to play a year, a club, uh, when I was there, we practiced against the women a couple of times.

So that was fun, but, uh, but nice to have you on Mac champions last year. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Bringing the banner to Athens. So, um, let’s talk a little bit about the recruiting side of things. We’re talking here early July, uh, the June 15th date, you’re a few weeks past it. So how. How busy were you on June 15th?

How important is that kind of June 15th starting the 26th recruiting cycle off? Are you still focused on 25s? Kind of what’s your timeline? 

Coach: Well, I mean, I think it’s an interesting world we live in now. And, and June 15th is, is just a day. And I think that everybody’s, Everybody’s process is different and, and yes, did we talk to people on June 15th?

Yeah, did I text people on June 15th? Yes, but as I told them, even in the calls and the text messages, this is just the time to begin the process. Like, I’m not, I’m not. I won’t offer [00:01:30] anybody as many good players are out there, and I would love to be in our program. I wouldn’t offer anybody until they were able to come on our campus.

And, you know, and I think August 1st is when they can start coming on the campus, or we can start having direct. Recruiting face to face recruiting conversations. And, you know, I know people go to camps and things like that, but it’s just not the same. And so we, we would definitely want people to come on campus.

And so we’ve had some good conversations, you know, and I think it’s just a, it’s just a good, good period of time to kind of slowly go into that, um, building that recruiting relationship and, um, it’s been busy. I mean, for us, our 2026 class will be on the larger side. I say that now. Um, not knowing what the future holds for, uh, college roster sizes and, you know, and I think we’ll probably know something about that in the next, I don’t even know, six months to a year.

I, who knows? And, um, but if we’re still on the old model, I think this will be a larger recruiting class for us. So we, Myself and and our and our two assistant coaches have been really, um, hitting the phones and text messages and, you know, emails and just trying to trying to get in touch with these, these, these prospective student athletes.

And we’re still actively recruiting in the 2025 class. We have, we have 1 specific need, um, that we are looking for. And then we [00:03:00] again, we have a roster spot that we can that we want to fill. Given the old model, who knows what the new model will be like.

Matt: Yeah, that’s, that’s a, I think I’m gonna have to do a whole entire podcast just on that.

But yeah, well, in terms of these 26 is that you started texting, just help me and anybody listening, understand. How did they make that list? How did they get on your radar? Was it through them reaching out to you? Was it you stumbling upon them playing at a tournament somewhere? What, how did, how did that step happen?

Coach: I think that’s a really good question. And I think it’s a really complex question and a complex answer. Um, I, I think we all, all the above really, you know, we have a pretty solid recruiting philosophy. Um, you know, we. We tend to recruit more regionally. Um, that doesn’t mean we don’t have players or we don’t.

We actually have a player coming from California this fall. Um, or for this, I said this fall, they’ll be here in like three weeks and, uh, Um, so, but she had very strong connections to the state of Ohio. Her parents are from Ohio. Her, all of her grandparents live in Ohio. And so, you know, that’s really important to us, um, having a strong connection with the Midwest and, and, and I have that.

Can I, can I [00:04:30] go on long? 

Matt: Go right ahead, man. We’ll talk as long as you want. 

Coach: Yeah. Cause I mean, this is, this is something that we’ve developed over, you know, this will be starting year 12 for us. And so we’ve kind of for me, and then year 6 for Courtney, our associate head coach. And, um, you know, we’ve developed this kind of recruiting philosophy and it’s, and it’s worked and it’s created a really strong culture.

I think in our program is that we. Because we’re recruiting with people with strong connections to this area, they feel really comfortable being here, you know, and, and, and I know you hear that comment all the time or the phrase be comfortable being uncomfortable. Well, that’s a pretty. Binary comment, because I think there is a lot of being a student athlete that you need to be comfortable because you are so uncomfortable in so many areas of your life that there has to be some level of comfort.

And for us, being close to connected. Being close to your connections makes you comfortable. Are you going to be uncomfortable training hard and being in an intense environment and working at hard at school? You know? Yeah, of course you are. So why can’t you be comfortable knowing that? Hey, if I need to go home or my parents need to come see me or my grandparents or aunt and uncle or whatever can be here in three hours.

That’s a huge that is a huge advantage. And so, so that’s where we kind of focus. And like I said, [00:06:00] not we don’t, we don’t eliminate anybody outside of this Midwest, but it’s we have to be very cognizant of that. And I think it’s worked very well for everybody. For us. Um, and then so beyond that, yes, people reach out to us.

Um, we love that because obviously they have, they understand what Oh, use all about. Um, they’ve reached out to us. And a lot of times, a lot of times young people will say, well, I will, I think max a good level for us. So they probably emailed every max school. Fine. That’s no problem. Um, but at least they know what.

They are looking for and so and we may fit that bill. Um, and then beyond that, obviously, we are evaluating all the time players and and in in our philosophy. And so then we will reach out to specific players. Um, uh, through through those channels, you know, through our connections with. With club coaches or high school coaches or, or recruiting coordinators or whatever you want to call people these days.

Um, you know, and so that’s philosophically how, how we approach the recruiting. 

Matt: Okay. Well, in terms of where you find these players, are there specific tournaments you like to go to? What does the alphabet soup of leagues mean, anything to you guys and in your assessments? 

Coach: You know, it’s fun. Um, It’s it’s an interesting endeavor looking on social media at how people [00:07:30] comment and about the alphabet soup of this and and I think we look everywhere we can within our footprint.

Um, when we do spend money at larger showcases, it just makes sense to go to events and and I but we have players from all over. Every, every league we have players from, we have, you know, players, we have GA players, we have NPL players. We have every, every level. Um, but when we’re saying, okay, where’s the chance that we can see the largest collection of talented players?

It’s typically at the ECNL events, you know, and I’ve been to ECNL events, I’ve been to GA events, um, I’ve been to like local showcases where they have all the range of, of, uh, of teams. Um, and so, so basically that’s, that’s kind of where we go, but yeah, national events. And we stay pretty, we stay pretty East Coast based.

We don’t, we didn’t go to Seattle, we didn’t go to California, you know, for a number of, financially for that reason. It’s a very expensive trip and gosh, I feel bad for the families that have to pay to do that. Cause I have, I have two, my son’s a 25 and, and you know, he plays and I got to pay for that. And my daughter’s a 27 and, and so I, I get it, a feel for families.

Matt: Well, and, and I guess, so you’ve kind of mentioned both, right? The, the people who reach out to you and go into events to see people. And I think [00:09:00] that’s what I try to tell people is really, do you have to be at ECNL to be seen or whatever? And it’s really just about the showcases. That’s the only real difference.

But, and, and I’m obviously not holding, you know, hard numbers here, but give me, give me an idea of, of the, of a recruiting class. Uh, or or even at the start of the recruiting classic 26 is how much of it would be people who have reached out to you saying, hey, here’s my highlights. I’m interested to know you versus.

Hey, I, I stumbled upon you at this, you know, Florida event. 

Coach: So, here’s my. My initial list, I’m looking at it right now. So Courtney and I have split up our, our initial 26 lists, right? Um, reached out, reached out and came to camp, reached out, reached out, came to camp, reached out, came to camp, reached out. Did not, did not reach, did not come to camp, did not reached out, did not reached out, reached out.

So that’s my initial list. And I would say that Courtney’s would be probably fairly consistent with that. 

Matt: So it’s like two thirds to 75 percent of those made the initial contact with you guys first. Okay. That’s, and honestly, that’s what I figured it was. And I think that’s generally the consensus I’ve heard from a lot of coaches is it’s, it’s more.

On that front and then not, which, which makes a lot of sense. When you mentioned camp, like how important [00:10:30] are ID camps for you guys, whether they’re your own or your staff working outside camps. 

Coach: So I take ID camps very seriously in a different, in a, in a, in a different manner of ways, I think. If you want to come to our ID camp, it’s because you are interested in Ohio University.

I don’t have other coaches come. I, I, and I don’t, and if other camps do that, that’s great. That’s their method. I’m not, this is not right or wrong. This is my philosophy is if you’re spending the money to come, you are interested in us. So it’s, it’s just me and my staff and our players that work it. Um, I limit the roster.

I limit the, the enrollment, the registration. We don’t have. Anything really more than 48 campers. Um, because I want to see every person. I want them to be able to see me, talk to me and our staff and our players. Um, and we do. We, we, our, our Mac, the Mac tournament MVP for the fall. I first saw her at one of our camps.

And, and that’s a great story where she came, we had no idea who she was. She’s from Chicago. Her parents are from Ohio. They both went to Mac schools. They didn’t go to OU, but they went to other Mac schools. And I guess she thought, okay, Mac is my level. So she went to a number of Mac ID cams. It came here and we, we were like, Oh man, [00:12:00] who’s this?

You know, you get that, you go through that process and she can’t, you know, come in here. And she was the MAG Chairman MVP. And, you know, that’s a great success story from a camp, um, that, that we, that we are happy about. And I think if we had a much, a much bigger, uh, registration, we might not have recognized her.

We might not have seen her as much. She might not get as many touches on the ball when we’re around. Um, and so I think. I think that’s, that’s my philosophy on, on ID Camps. 

Matt: All right. Well, let’s talk more about OU. I mean, I could, uh, spout on about it from my, my two years there, 20 years ago, but, but I was back in May, you know, it looks a little different on campus than it did a long time ago.

But you said before you’ve been there 12 years now, kind of what is it that you love about Athens, Ohio university? Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know by going through the website. 

Coach: I think. I think number one, and you can appreciate this more than anybody or as many as much people that went to school here is the community.

Um, and it’s the sense of community. It’s not just the noun community, but more the adverb or the adjective community where you feel that sense of community because Athens is a small town. It’s it’s it’s completely driven by this university. So, you know, you’re here. Everybody here. 90 percent of the people here are connected with this university.

So you have no other choice than to embrace [00:13:30] it and and be really, um, really tighten it with the community. And so I think that’s the, that’s the greatest thing, because as you know, nobody lives in Athens, you come to Athens to go to university. There are a few people that live here, obviously, that work at the university, or the connected.

Industries. Um, but everybody has romantic memories of being here. They, I mean, just you coming back and you go, man, I remember this and what an awesome time. And you just, it’s kinda, it’s just this environment that people loved being in and they go off and they move out, move away and they do their life.

And then they think, Oh gosh, I want to go back to Athens. I want to go back to Athens. And so that’s what we love about it. Um, from a family side of the things, it’s, it’s just a, it’s a safe community. It’s um, it’s easy to raise kids, it’s easy to get around, um, and so that, that’s why we love it, I think, and, and it’s, you know, we’ve had, and this is, I feel very proud of this, in my 11 seasons, we’ve only had about 5 players transfer out to play somewhere else.

And because people love it here and people want to be here. And so I think you, you don’t, you don’t know until you come or you don’t know until you talk to somebody that went here. And I do get a lot of, we do get a lot of interest because they saw my, my, my mom’s coworker. [00:15:00] Went to OU, my dad’s coworker or my aunt or uncle or whatever.

And they absolutely loved it. And they said, you got to check it out. And so we get a lot of interest simply because of that. Um, and so that’s what we love about it because it’s, it’s an easy place to, to. Be in love with and I’m a very transparent human. And so if I didn’t think it was a good place to be, it would be hard for me to sell that to somebody as a, as opposed to now it’s easy.

Cause I know I can, I can honestly tell you transparently. It is a great place to be for sure.

Matt: Couldn’t agree more. Well, one of the things that can be challenging, uh, when you make the jump to college soccer is balancing all the needs, uh, in the classroom, plus all the needs of, of your coach and your sport.

So, What support systems are there to help student athletes be successful both in the classroom as well as on the field? 

Coach: I think, you know, we have specific support structure, given it like hardware, I mean, we have a student athlete, Academic center. We have academic advisors. We have tutors. We have all of those resources that that are there.

Um, but I think I think more importantly is is the relationship and how we interact with our players. And I think the, the support and care that we give them [00:16:30] as humans before anything else. Um, helps them to feel supported in in their academic endeavors. And I think we have a wonder. We’ve had a history of fantastic students.

Um, I, I think our team cumulative GPA on the rolling scale is like a 3. 0. Five, eight or something like that, and which is unbelievable because I didn’t get anywhere close to that by myself, let alone 30 student athletes to get that. And and so, um, I think that I think that’s the most important thing is, is that the environment that we create as a staff to holistically support.

Our, our, our student athletes, um, that helps them to feel, uh, supported in their, in their academic endeavors. 

Matt: Okay. Well, let’s fast forward a couple of months, uh, till October. You’re in the heart of that max schedule. What walk me through what’s a typical week going to look like for a player in terms of when our classes meals, practice times, game cadence, all that kind of thing.

Coach: So we, we train in the morning. Um, I, I, I don’t feel, I feel like it’s the absolute best thing to do. Um, because it kind of, it starts your day off with soccer. Um, and then after we’re done, you’re off to school. And you’re off to study and you’re off to do small groups and whatever you have [00:18:00] academically, you’re off and you don’t have to worry about, Oh, I got to go to practice now or I got to go to weights now or I got to do whatever, that’s how we operate.

So, typically we, we start the players start arriving at the locker room around 715 or so am, and then we’re done by 11am. And, and we. And now, obviously, if somebody wants to do film later or individual session later, lift on their own later, whatever. Yeah, they can do it. And we’re there. It’s supportive of them.

But if they, they know that if the required activities. Are done roughly around 11. Sometimes a little later, sometimes a little earlier. It depends on their class schedule. And then we’ll, so, so we try and then, and then obviously we play Thursday, Sunday in the Mac. Um, we, this is the first season this fall that we actually have two single game weekends.

Um, we used to have this Thursday, Sunday, all the way through. Um, we’ve adjusted where we’ll have some single game weekends where we’ll either play out on. Thursday or a Sunday, so you could, you could play Sunday and then not again until the next Sunday, or you could play, um, Sunday and then Thursday and then nothing over the weekend.

Um, and so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. And we, we moved to split weekends, um, a couple of years ago where we’re traveling every week. Um. Meaning that we’re away one game. We’re home one game [00:19:30] on the Thursday, Sunday. Um, and so now we’ll have this, this single game weekend. And so it’ll be interesting to see how that, that goes, plays into our rest and recovery and preparation.

Um, but, you know, we’ll, we’re, our typical off day is, is, is Monday. Um, we, we give. The opportunity for players to go and do, uh, strength and conditioning and recovery on Monday. We have the times blocked out. Obviously, they don’t have to. They don’t have to do it. They don’t have to. We don’t know if they go or not.

Um, uh, and I truly I don’t I don’t know. I don’t want to know. I just know that a lot do because they get in a routine and they love their routines. And, um, and then we train Tuesday, Wednesday, play Thursday, do a session Friday, Saturday, play Sunday. And so obviously we, we periodize and we tailor the sessions to get the most out of, uh, the players for their recovery and their performance.

Are they prepared to perform on game day? So however many minutes they play, et cetera, is how we, we. We do, uh, design our sessions. 

Matt: Okay. Well, I know we talked earlier about obviously some most likely potential upcoming changes to roster sizes and things like that, but this year, or, or as you went into this year, is there a roster size that you find as ideal that you’d like to have?

Coach: I mean, we’re, we hover around 30, um, give or [00:21:00] take a few. So, um, it will be, this is why, um, I’ve actually increased to 31 this year. Um, we, we, We’re trying to balance out opportunities for females that owe you because, oh, you has a lot of females as a general enrollment. So we’re trying to balance it out. So we’ve, we’ve increased up to 31.

um, I am a very, um. Inclusive person in the sense that I love to travel as many people as I can. Um, so I don’t really like having travel rosters, um, because I like as many people to take part as they can. Um, and so how we manage 31 this year will be. Um, we’ll be yet to be seen and, but I can tell you that every season, regardless of the amount of rostered players we have, there are multiple trips that we take every player and we, we do that beforehand.

We say this trip, everyone’s going on this trip. Everyone’s going. Um, and it’s always at least at least one overnight as well. Um, if we can do multiple overnights with everyone going, we definitely do that. But, but again, it’s, it’s. Everybody is a very integral part of our program and all the student athletes.

And so we want to make sure that they all feel every bit of it. 

Matt: That’s awesome. [00:22:30] Well, you mentioned your staff earlier, kind of who all’s on your staff. What role does everybody play? Maybe what other support staff are in the athletic department that help out with the team as well? 

Coach: So we, um, so we have me and then obviously we have, um, Courtney Weisler, who’s our associate head coach.

She’s starting year six with us. Um, and then we actually just hired a, a 2nd full time assistant. We’ve never had a 2nd full time assistant in my 11 years here. Um, and obviously, because, you know, you can have four paid coaches now in college soccer. Um, we’ve only had two, um, until now. And so we just hired Courtney O’Malley.

She played at UNC Asheville, and she’s from the Atlanta metro area. And played at UNC Asheville. She’s a goalkeeper. She then went on to grad school and was coaching as a GA for a couple years. Um, and so we just brought her on. And so obviously she’ll be doing the goalkeeping and, and some administrative logistical work that we all had done in our careers and really enjoyed every minute of it and couldn’t wait to pass it along to somebody else.

And, uh, and, and then we also have a, so we had a GA, so we had, Two full time coaches. Courtney and me. And then we had a GA. Well, um, when we added the third full time coach, we, we maintained the GA position, which is awesome. Um, and so we have, uh, Lucy Brazil who [00:24:00] is in that GA role for us. Um, and so she’ll be doing, she’ll be her and Courtney O’Malley will be kind of working together on logistics and social media and, you know, things like that outside of their coaching duties as well.

Matt: Okay. Well, what about you? What, uh, what’s, uh, your coaching style like, what kind of style of play are you looking to play and that sort of thing? 

Coach: You know, I, I was, I’m very pragmatic in how we approach the game and, and so many people and I’ve, and I’ve, as all coaches were like, you know, I’m a pretty down to earth person as it comes to soccer and you know, there’s a lot of ways to do things and, you know, over the years you go, Oh, you got to play this way.

And, and it’s. And if you don’t pass the ball around, if you don’t build from the back or you don’t break lines, or if you, if you’re direct and you don’t know how to coach or whatever, and all these years I’ve been like, no, I’m pretty pragmatic. Like sometimes we are direct, but sometimes we build, sometimes we do this.

And then watching all these, all these Euro games. They’re everybody, all the pundits are like, Oh, that team’s pragmatic. They can build, but they can also go direct. And I’m like, Oh, finally I can’t, I don’t have to be embarrassed saying because they talk about Spain and they’re like, well, Spain, you know, over the years, they’re like Tiki Taka or whatever, you know?

And now they’re like, well, Spain goes direct a lot. And I’m like, Okay, because that’s what the opponents giving them like they don’t have to be married to this one specific style [00:25:30] I mean look at Man City like Man City lumps the ball for along all the time They have a goalkeeper that kicks the ball 300 yards.

I mean they use it, you know, so So we’re very pragmatic. I think, you know, we, we build and, and we wanna be able to keep possession of the ball. Um, but we also need to put the opponent under pressure when we can, and if that’s bypassing the midfield, um, then we’ll do that. Of course, we’re not just lumping the ball aimlessly down the field, but there’s, there’s a, there’s a, um, a rhythm to it, but.

But we will be that way. And, um, and I think, but for me, and if you looked at our game model and I’m actually, I’m actually finishing, I created a game model or recreated a game model three years ago, um, and I’ve updated it. This summer, and I’m with new film, new clips, things like that, that the players can maybe recognize a little bit better.

Um, but the number one focus in our game model is transition moments. And, and I think because college soccer, women’s college soccer, college soccer in general is transition. So in transition intense, and how are we, when we lose it, how are we, when we win it in, in the different phases. And, and I think that for us is critical.

Um, and so we really focus on that early and most intensely. Um, but then we work towards the other phases [00:27:00] of when we have the ball, okay, what are we doing when we don’t have the ball? What are we doing? But the interim, the intermediate of when we lose it, when we win it, how do we respond and how do we react?

And that’s the most important thing. Critical part of our game model, um, for, for our philosophy, for my personal philosophy, as I relay it to the team. 

Matt: I, I, having watched a lot of, uh, women’s college soccer last season, you know, on ESPN and whatnot, uh, I agree completely on the transition stuff. I could, yeah, for sure.

Well, coach, you’ve been generous with the time. It’s got one last question for you. Uh, you mentioned you’ve got, you know, A 25 and a 27. I’ve got a 26. So for, for our kids who are going through all of this, if you had one, one piece of advice for, for anybody going through the college recruiting process, what would that be?

Coach: Stay consistent. Um, you’re not, you’re not bugging coaches with emails. I tell my son that he’s a 25 and you know, boys are a little bit later than girls and, and my son’s a little bit of a late bloomer. Um, because the goalkeeper, he grew really fast. He grew really fast, but late. And so he went from like five 11 to six, four, and there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of, uh, dexterity things that you have to learn.

And so we’re in that midst of that process right now is stay consistent with emails, stay consistent. Even if you don’t hear back, keep going because you never know when a need might arise. And you never know when, uh, a [00:28:30] coach may be going to somewhere on the, at the last minute that you will be playing at.

And I think, and, and recognize that everybody’s journey, everyone’s journey is different. And you, you don’t compare yourself to, I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of other coaches say that, but don’t, because it’s, it’s true. It’s bedrock truth. Like don’t compare your journey to somebody else. And I think, I think Mike Krzyzewski, um, uh, had a story years ago that.

He was talking about, um, oh my gosh, I’ve drawn a blank on the players. It was Carlos Boozer and. Oh, another Duke player. And basically the story was they were both freshmen at the same time. And, and, and the one, the one, no, it was Elton brand, I think. And the one was like an amazing freshman got drafted and went to the NBA after the freshman year.

And the other guy was like, why is he doing that? I’m not. He ended up playing three or four years at Duke, still goes to the NBA, and is just as successful in the NBA, but there, he was comparing his journey to the other guys. And you can’t do that, because you know, you just got to keep your, your end goal in focus, and, and the process is what’s most important.

And, and you know, we, we ultimately hear. That, that’s the, that’s philosophically what we do. You know, we want to win a championship and we were fortunate enough to win one last season, but we don’t, we don’t look at that in gold because the steps are so varied in between that we have to just focus on each other and focus on the [00:30:00] moment.

And then hopefully that championship will come if we’re doing the right things. And, you know, I think it ultimately paid off for us and it’s been a long journey, but, um, our players. They they persevered through through it and and staying true to what what our philosophy is. So, so don’t focus on don’t focus on the end result.

Don’t compare yourself to others and stay consistent with colleges and keep your keep your, um, the, the, the schools that you’re looking at. Keep it wide open because division 1, 2, 3, and I, whatever, if you want to play soccer, there’s an opportunity for you. So keep it, keep it open. 

Matt: Yeah, love it. Thanks, coach.

Well, I really appreciate your time. Want to wish you the best of luck, uh, getting that next Mac championship. And if you get down to the ECNL Florida event here in Lakewood Ranch, uh, make sure you give me a shout. All right. 

Coach: Yeah. Yeah. I’ll be there. I was there last year. Played a lot of good pickleball down there.

So, yeah. Well, 

Matt: and they’re redoing those courts. I bet that you played on, so we’ll have to get out there together. All right. 

Coach: Fantastic. 

Matt: Sounds good, coach. Thanks. 

Coach: Thank you.