Lincoln Memorial University Men’s Soccer – Coach Tom Gillette
In today’s episode, I speak with Coach Gillette from the Lincoln Memorial Men’s Program in Tennessee. We talk about how they are moving to a model with two teams. Coach also shares about the picturesque campus in the Appalachian Mountains. Plus, we discuss his journey into coaching. Learn more about Lincoln Memorial University Men’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I am lucky enough to be joined by Coach Tom over at Lincoln Memorial on the men’s side. Welcome coach.
Coach: Thank you. Excited to be here.
Matt: Yeah. Excited to talk to you. I, I’ve been to Lincoln Memorial. Granted it was 21 years ago when I was coaching, uh, men’s division two ball.
We played over there, so, uh, nice, nice campus. Right on that Tennessee, Kentucky line, if I’m not mistaken.
Coach: Yep. Beautiful, beautiful scenic place. Lots to do there. I encourage everyone to, to go and visit.
Matt: Awesome. Well, let’s, uh, let’s dive in. Uh, June 30th. We’re talking here. It’s a, it’s a big day in the division one landscape just because all the schools are supposed to, uh.
Opt in or opt out of the NCAA settlement, the with roster limits, uh, possibly being imposed on schools that opt in. So have you seen any [00:01:00] effects as a division two men’s program from all of the craziness that is what’s going on in the NCAA division one landscape?
Coach: Not, I don’t think there’s been a big impact on how we recruit.
I think maybe there are some, some sort of less discernible things that, that you start to feel a little bit. I think, um, a lot of division one schools, especially the top schools, are now looking at transfers more than perhaps they were three, four years ago. The reason for that, or the reason that I’ve heard when I speak to division one coaches is because of.
The risk of taking a freshman, whereas a transfer has already proven themselves somewhere in the college landscape. And so there’s less risk in investing in, in this player if, if they see the player [00:02:00] as a player that should contribute immediately.
Matt: Yeah. Are, have you seen any of your players or people that you’re recruiting looking at now?
Division two. Not as a final destination, but now as a stepping stone because of that, that, hey, maybe I can, I’ll start here and I’ll prove myself and just ball out, and then I’ll go to the next level. Right? For sure.
Coach: Yeah, definitely. IE even in recruiting calls with, with some student athletes, they mention it and I think it’s, it’s a hundred percent on the radar of, of guys that are perhaps, you know, good college players not getting.
Division one offers and thinking about Yeah, year two, year three. And, and a lot of these guys ultimately want to be pros and they see division one as, as the best place to, to, uh, to be in that spotlight. [00:03:00] And I mean, that’s true. Division one, the top, the top end of division one is the best place to, to, um, showcase yourself if you want to play in, in the MLS or the USL.
And, uh, so yeah, it’s definitely something that, that, um, we come into contact with.
Matt: Now, uh, if, if I’m not mistaken, that’s not a Tennessee accent, uh, I, I, I hear on your voice. So, uh, international recruiting on the men’s side, especially in division two is, is fairly, you know, fairly active. So how about you guys?
What is your, how does Lincoln Memorial look at domestic versus international recruiting and, and that sort of thing?
Coach: So we, we are moving to a two team model. This year we’ll have a first team and a reserve team. This will be the first year that we have had a distinct split between the two teams. So the two teams will train separately, play a separate schedule.
In past years, we [00:04:00] started to. Filter the idea in by playing a couple of additional games on top of our regular NCAA schedule to give games and minutes to the players that weren’t playing much in our NCAA games. So we, we have a much bigger roster this year than we’ve had in previous years. We’ve gone from 38 or 39 last year to, we have actually haven’t finished.
Our recruiting class, but we will be around 55 players across the two teams this year. So what we’re striving for is, is a first team roster and training environment of 25 to 28, and then a reserve team development team. I think both are are acceptable terms with a similar size roster. We, we have last year, if we used last year as an example, we had about a 50 [00:05:00] 50 split between international players and uh, American players.
We actually had a couple of guys from different states. Um, some states that are typically not states that we recruit from this past year, California pxi, but the bulk of our recruiting is, is more local. So Kentucky, Tennessee, Atlanta has been a really good spot for us to recruit regionally, um, a little bit of North Carolina and South Carolina.
A couple of Florida guys as well. That’s sort of our American footprint when it comes to recruiting.
Matt: So where, where do you like to go typically to find your American players? In terms like what, what leagues, tournaments, like where are you seeing, uh, the players that you’re bringing in?
Coach: So it’s, it’s, uh, I think it’s challenging, you know, as, as a division two program, we have a limited budget.
We have, um, a limited recruiting budget, a limited ability. [00:06:00] Travel and attend different events, and even when you do attend events, you are almost overwhelmed by the number of games creating a schedule. We’ll go to this game for 25 minutes, then we’ll watch the second half of. The first half of this other game where we, where we have a player that’s interested, then we’ll go to the next game for the second half.
And it’s, I, I find it challenging, difficult, not, not overly, um, exciting to be honest, to watch like tons and tons of games that I’m not personally invested in. So I, I like ID camps, you know, that’s, that’s, that’s an area where I’m able to interact with. With players able to coach them, um, able to interact with their parents, get to know their character.
Often at showcases you’ll watch a player, but then he’ll be off with his team. Within, within 10 minutes, the coach will speak and there might be an opportunity to chat to the individual, but it’s not gonna be the same. [00:07:00] Um, that’s typically not the same level of intimacy and relaxedness relaxedness in the conversation that you’ll get when you spend a day with someone.
An ID camp.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, whether it’s at an ID camp or at a showcase, or whether it’s even your international players through video and Zoom calls, uh, what is it that makes up the hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player both on and off the field? Sorry,
Coach: the, the hierarchy. Can
Matt: you
Coach: Yeah.
Like what, what is what you
Matt: mean? What is the most important? You know, levels of things you’re looking for in a player, both in terms of the soccer aspects and the non soccer aspects.
Coach: Okay. So what, what qualities do we look for in, in a, in an incoming player? Okay, so soccer aside mentality is, is massive. I think mentality is, is um, is probably the [00:08:00] most important trait you can have as.
Soccer player, but also as an individual. So encapsulated in that is, is grit, resilience, um, the ability to work effectively within a team, um, and to help make others better, to be able to take criticism constructively. Um, to have some kind of self-awareness, I think is, is um, is a really key skill that maybe isn’t talked about.
A huge amount to recognize when, you know, you’re sort of losing control of your emotions and to be able to regulate that. Um, from a soccer, from a soccer sort of on field tactical standpoint, we play. A start of a start of play where we wanna control games through possession, um, through having the ability to play through pressurized situations, to to, um, [00:09:00] yeah, to kind of be able to dictate what the opponent does defensively through our actions offensively.
And, uh, so players that we bring in need to have a level of comfort. In possession, they need to have a, a toolkit that allows them to, to, um, receive the ball under pressure and, and, um, and trust their abilities. And then again, to go back to that collaborative piece, they need to be able to trust their teammates and, and kind of realize that we’re building something here.
This isn’t, you know, Rome wasn’t built in a day, it’s not gonna happen overnight, but we’re building something. And to do that. You need to, um, push what you’re comfortable with, both in trusting yourself and trusting your teammates.
Matt: Yeah. Love that. All right, well, let’s talk a little bit more a about the school.
Um, you, you’ve been there, uh, a bit now. So kind of what have you found to, to be the, the awesome things about the school? What stands out? Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know by going through the website.
Coach: [00:10:00] Okay, so it’s, it’s, um, LMU is in the Appalachian Mountains. It is an hour, hour and 15 minutes north of Knoxville, Tennessee.
That’s, that’s the closest biggest city to us. We’re about two hours south of Lexington. So you, you are, you’re surrounded in, in kind of an open mountainous environment. It, it genuinely is. I’m, I’m more of an urban sort of city dweller type person, but it genuinely is a, um, like a really scenic environment.
And sometimes I look out after we’ve set the training field up and we’re waiting for the players to arrive and you know, you look out and it’s a beautiful, clear day. You’ve got the mountains in the background. It, there is something special there. Um, I was joking earlier when I said, you know, it’s, it’s, there’s tons to do there.
There is stuff to do there, but there’s not tons to do. It’s not, it’s not Miami, it’s not New York City. It’s, it’s in the Appalachian Mountains. And, um, so, you know, [00:11:00] if, if you’re looking for a big city feel, it’s not gonna be the right place for you. But what you do have is you have, um, resources, you have, um, people around you that will support you.
And because of. Because of, um, there being fewer distractions. What we find is that our team get really close and have a really close bond with each other. They spend a huge amount of time with each other. And I think when you spend that amount of time, it’s difficult to not either, um, you know, really sort of learn to understand the people you are with and have a, a level of depth in your relationship.
Um, and obviously that’s a positive way. And then, then obviously, you know, some, there’d probably be some people you don’t get on with. Well then you spend a lot of time with them, so you have to deal with that too.
Matt: For sure. Well, one of the toughest things about becoming a college athlete is making that transition between the demands of both the academic side of college and being a collegiate athlete.
What [00:12:00] are some of the support systems that LMU has there to help student athletes be successful both on and off the field?
Coach: So we have, we have a small. Class size to teacher ratio. I feel like every player that comes through the men’s soccer program will, um, have relationships with their professors. And if they’re struggling in classes, they’ll have the ability to go and set up appointments quite easily with their professor.
Talk things through. Um, I mean, we have, we have some really good personalities that. Within the, um, student athlete wider, um, sort of point of contacts. Um, so we have a, uh, the far, which I think is the faculty athlete representative, something like that, but base basically a connection point between student athletes and the faculty at the school.
And, [00:13:00] um, he’s an incredible person and, and, and is kind of like an extremely outgoing, former, um. Theater guy that was involved with the theater and he, he really, um, breaks the ice with student athletes early and, and, and makes them feel comfortable being themselves. Um, I think as a, as a soccer star, you know, we, we do a, we, we work hard on trying to create good relationships with, with the student athletes.
Trust is the foundation of any good coach player relationship, and, um. And part of that is, is, you know, investing time in getting to know them and um, and getting to know our players and, and, um, and making an effort to really understand them, not just kind of, um, seeing them on a surface level.
Matt: Yeah. That’s good.
Well, let’s rewind back to October. You’re in the heart of that conference season. Walk me through what does a typical, typical week look like for a player in terms of winner [00:14:00] classes, practices, meals, game cadence, all that kind of stuff.
Coach: Okay, so this, this year we’re actually, because we’re moving to this two team model this year will be a little bit different from last year.
Okay. So I’ll, what I’ll do is I’ll explain how we’ll fast forward
Matt: instead of rewind,
Coach: we, we’ll, this will be good for me so I can forecast. Um, so, you know, all, all of our guys live on campus and most of them live in one of two places and they’ll live with other soccer student athletes. So they’ll wake up in.
Dorms or apartments go to breakfast. Um, all meals at, uh, every student athlete at LMU has a meal plan in the, in the school cafeteria. And so our guys will, will eat together basically every day, sometimes multiple times a day. Um, then classes in the morning, lunch, um, we have our reserve [00:15:00] team. Um, training from three until five.
We have our first team training from seven until nine. Uh, and then there’s the ability to get meals, um, between four o’clock and, and then we’ll, we’ll also set something up for after, after our first team finished training. Um, it’s, there’s, there’s more than that. ’cause we also will have strength and conditioning sessions.
Twice a week. Um, the nature of those sessions will be dictated by the moment in the season and, and, and what the student athletes need in that moment. And guys will have different needs because some guys will have played close to 90 minutes. Some guys will, will have not played in games. Um, and then we also do a lot of, uh, or, or a good amount of video work.
We have a, a cinema room at LMU, which is something that I love to have as a resource. I haven’t had it at other universities that I’ve been [00:16:00] at. And we’ll typically do, um, a performance review after our previous game and we’ll do an opponent preview slash match strategy presentation as well. Um, so when we’re playing re games in a week, that’s a lot of presentations.
You know, we. We always try and keep the presentations interactive. Sure. You know, strive to stick under 15 minutes, doesn’t always happen, but that’s what we strive for. Um, so yeah, it, it ends up being, uh, it’s, it’s definitely a busy schedule in the fall.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, let’s talk about the, the, the teams we talked roster sizes.
So what does that mean for your staff? How big is your staff? What role does everybody play? What’s your staff situation look like?
Coach: So we have, we have, uh, I have one assistant coach, one graduate assistant coach, that graduate assistant coach is, is [00:17:00] in essence an assistant coach. They are very involved in, in, uh, all different parts of the program.
And, and they’re a skilled person. They’re not, you know, just a, a recent graduate. Um. We may get, because we’re increasing our roster size, I’m working with our athletic department trying to see if that increase in roster size could also lead to an additional star position. At the moment, we haven’t got the green light, um, but I’m hopeful in the next kind of month or so that the conversations will continue, continue to develop.
Um, so yeah, I mean, three people with 55. That’s what we’re planning for. Hoping for an extra planning for three, three staff. And that’s, um, that’s a lot of people to manage. You know, and it’s, it’s a challenge. So really we have to be as prepared as we possibly can be, as organized as, as, um, systemized and, and having like clear frameworks for how we make decisions, how we operate.
Um, you know, something that’s been [00:18:00] important for me recently is building standard operating procedure documents, um, that make it clear so there’s less kind of hesitation, less unnecessary, um. Confusion between the staff about different areas of the program that we have to manage. Um, I think it’s probably underestimated at times, sort of how diverse your role is as a, as a soccer coach and that you are, you are, you’re basically touching on lots of different areas at all times.
And, and then you’re also working with and trying to develop a, a very large group of, of individuals. Um, so I dunno if I answered your question completely there, but hopefully I gave you an idea of how a, yeah.
Matt: For sure. Um, well then what about you get, talk to me. You talked a little bit about your playing style earlier, but talk to me about your coaching style.
Coach: So I, I’ve had a bit of a, an unusual path to, to being a college soccer, um, head coach. I [00:19:00] played rugby between the ages of 14 and 21 and had two. Short operations when I was, uh, 19 and 20 and or 20 and 21, and after the second operation, the surgeon advised me to stop playing, uh, rugby. This was the same time as the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
You know, you say World Cup fever sweeps, England, it’s impossible not to get wrapped up in it. I’d been sort of quite an obsessive soccer player until I was 14. And, uh, I made a decision to, to basically leave rugby in the, in the rear view mirror and to, to start playing soccer again. And, um, I was always very obsessive about whatever sport I was playing, so I worked hard to, to try and, um, yeah, be the best soccer player that I could be.
Ended up coming to a, a college in South Carolina called Francis Marion and doing a master’s degree there and, and playing a [00:20:00] couple of seasons and, um. And then, yeah, and then, uh, started on my journey, my coaching journey. So it was kind of an unusual route where I ended up learning a lot of things as a player a lot later and perhaps more consciously than someone that developed those skills when they were 14 or 15 would’ve.
Um, so yeah, and as a, as a player, I was kind of a, a guy that really liked creative players. I think when I, when I first started. So like, Iniesta would’ve been kind of. The style of player that I would’ve, um, built my vision of what I wanted to be like. And, um, so that bled into my, into my coaching philosophy.
Always really liked creative players and, um, guys that have a skill set that where they can do unpredictable things. Um, and then, you know, with time and um, and with opportunities to coach, I think. I, um, I started to really enjoy the intensity side of coaching, so I would describe [00:21:00] myself as very communicative, um, you know, both positive and negative.
Try and give a, when I say negative, I mean constructive criticism. Try and give a lot of really clear, direct feedback all times. Um, which I, I, I think as long as it’s honest. And, um, sincere, respectful. Sometimes within a game that’s difficult because in a game you have, you only have a split second to give feedback sometimes.
Um, yeah, I think, I think most, most players respond, respond well to it.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well. You’ve given us a lot of info. Uh, I’m gonna leave you just with one last question, and that is, if you had advice for, you know, a player right now going through the college recruiting process, what would that be?
Coach: [00:22:00] I, I think, do things that. This is very generic, so I’ll try and delve a little bit deeper into it. But do things that make you a little bit uncomfortable. Push, push your boundaries. Um, so when you get opportunities to, to speak to college coaches, um, and you have, you know, like real information that you want to get from them, ask those questions, ask the, you know, the more difficult questions.
Um, I think. I think being persistent can be, can be a good quality if there’s an existing, some kind of preexisting relationship. Um, sometimes I get emails from the same individuals that I’ve never interacted with before on like a really regular basis. If I don’t, if I don’t personally have a relationship with them, I sort of feel like it’s spam.
I don’t think it’s, um, yeah, personally it doesn’t necessarily endear me to the individual that’s just [00:23:00] sending me these sometimes. Um. Sometimes it’s clear the email has gone out to, you know, like 300 coaches. So I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that. Um, I think getting, getting good information is really important.
And, and again, you know, ID camp, sometimes there is a perception that, that there are money grab, but, but it’s an opportunity to. To interact, ask questions, gain real information, not generic information, but real information that is, is probably more authentic than information that you’ll find in, you know, in the general, if you’re a youth player or the parents are chatting or something, they’re all gonna have an opinion.
But how much of that opinion is actually, you know, based in reality is, is a different subject. Um. So, yeah, I, I’m not sure I’ve fully answered your question there. I’m, I’m trying to think of some actual actionable steps, but although, although
Matt: you, you, you made me think of another question that I wish I would’ve asked.
So I’m gonna go do it, do it now. ’cause I can, [00:24:00] as a division two coach, you have the unique opportunity to allow players to quote unquote try out. Right? Is that something you take advantage of? Do you bring recruits in? Do you do it in the fall and the spring? Or just the spring? Is it something you take advantage of?
How many of your recruits usually come and do the tryout besides an id, you know, separate than an ID camp?
Coach: Good catch. I wish. Yeah, I wish I’D that had come to me when I was talking earlier. Yes, we do have a lot, a lot of guys that train with us in the fall and the spring. The spring we. We probably have more in the spring.
Um, that is our recruiting season. We don’t recruit at all in the fall. I think some schools always keep the recruiting ticker moving in the fall, we are fully focused on being the best that we can be on the field, and we put all our [00:25:00] resources into. Into our performance in that moment. Um, we do, we do actually still have some guys that, that come in the fall because of, you know, connections and stuff that make it easy.
If they’re local guys from Knoxville or Chattanooga or Nashville and we already have a preexisting relationship with them, we’ll we’ll talk to them often before the fall and say, Hey, on these couple of dates, these would be good days where you could come and train with us. Um, and that is the best way to.
It’s challenging, I think for the individuals, ’cause they always come, they all, they’re always a little bit nervous when they show up. They don’t know, um, the start of play necessarily in a distinct way before they show up, but they don’t know the other players and their playing styles. So I think it’s a challenging environment to come into, but it’s a really, it’s really good, rich information.
Um, for them because they can actually talk to our players. Do they do do to our players? What’s the culture within the group within a training session? Do our players have good [00:26:00] things or bad things to say about the program? Um, how does the coach actually interact with the players when they’re, when they’re trying to push the level of, the level of a training session?
So they, they get really rich information when, when that happens, and for us, it’s great. Uh, we don’t necessarily expect them to be superstars, um, within our training environment because we recognize that it is really challenging. But it’s, it’s, um. It is, it is still really valuable information for us to see how they perform in that environment.
And again, it’s, it’s an intimate environment where we’ll have, you know, um, a meeting with them that will last, uh, you know, probably sort of 25 minutes and, and get to know them and they can get to know us.
Matt: Awesome. Well coach, I really appreciate it. Uh, wish you nothing but the best of luck this year and hopefully you can be hanging that, uh, that conference banner when it’s all said and done.
Coach: Thank you. I appreciate it.
