Florida Memorial University Women’s Soccer – Coach Eric Belcher

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Eric Belcher from the Florida Memorial University Women’s Program. We talk about what it’s like at an NAIA HBCU. He describes how their school is a true financial bargain. Lastly, we discuss how he employs a style that best fits the players they have. Learn more about FMU Women’s Soccer.

[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Eric Belcher from the Florida Memorial university women’s program. Welcome to.

[00:00:09] Coach: Yeah, thanks for having me excited to be here and have a good chat with

[00:00:12] Matt: you. Yeah. Excited to have you too. I always love getting a fellow Florida schools on here.

[00:00:17] Uh, and, and you’re, you’re fairly new to, to Florida here having just joined the Florida Memorial program. So we’ll talk a little bit about that. Um, so let’s start off kind of with, with your recruiting, uh, because like you say, Kind of got the job here a couple months ago and need to probably do a whole lot of recruiting right now, here in the spring.

[00:00:41] Um, so, you know, I know you’re coming from, from, from other of another program and, and you’ve got a nice long coaching history, but, uh, so let’s talk about it more from. You know, in your ideal scenario rather than the one you’re walking into right now. But, uh, you know, when, when do you start recruiting players?

[00:00:59] When do you start hearing from players in terms of what, you know, what year in high school, you know? Cause I know it’s sometimes different on the women’s side than the guy side.

[00:01:07] Coach: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh, it’s getting a little, little crazy now because of COVID I think, uh, kids are starting to reach out extremely early.

[00:01:14] You know, I’ve had some 20 fives and 26. Goodness gracious. Like you need to just go have fun with your life. Don’t worry about college debt. It’s a bit early, but normally around the junior year, we start hearing from kids and then we start kind of compiling a little, a little database of who we like and you know, who can do what we need them to do and where we need to go to kind of find kids.

[00:01:35] Um, for me personally, I’m huge on growth. Um, and I think, you know, even at the start of your junior year, you still have a lot of growth to do. And I think as a coach, sometimes it can be a little unfair to the base of kids, you know, uh, four years on their junior year when they set up a whole year to, to physically grow mentally grow.

[00:01:53] Um, you know, so although we do have some that reach out, I like to, I like to kind of get to them, um, you know, at the beginning of their senior year, when the, when the, you know, have had another year to actually grow physically and. Oh, that

[00:02:06] Matt: makes sense. So, um, you know, I know you’re coming, you’re coming from West Virginia, so where you used to recruit might be different from where you go now.

[00:02:17] Um, but you know, are there, are there specific tournaments or events that, that are kind of on your, your must-see list or places you’d like.

[00:02:26] Coach: Yeah. Uh, so, so back in West Virginia, where we were recruiting, uh, you know, the, the area is really remote. Um, and there’s not many big soccer tournament that happened in there other than, uh, the, um, the state cup and the regionals.

[00:02:40] Now they’ve got a few that are jumping off around the, around the Charleston area, but. Um, normally we have to go outside the state. So the big one tends to be like Jefferson cup. That’s pretty close to us. Um, you know, but here down in Florida, there’s so much soccer that goes on year round that it’s kinda made it, um, you know, plentiful for me to, to, to, to go to places, you know, uh, two weeks after I got hired, I was in Tampa at a tournament.

[00:03:04] Um, which, you know, if I was in West Virginia, that’s a longer drive, you know, I’m in another state. Um, you know, so with, with what Florida being so open in terms of great weather and then the amount of soccer that comes here, um, you know, we kind of have, uh, an array of places to go. Um, you know, especially what do you see now coming down here as well?

[00:03:24] Um, you know, in the GA and everything like that. Um, but me personally, I’m huge on, on, on junior college kids. Um, and the. The nationals is how down to this area for the women’s as well. So that makes things a little bit easier. Um, obviously a little bit late to the recruiting, uh, trail with, with, with this program.

[00:03:42] So, you know, we’re looking in a different, different area. We’re flipping over every stone we can, um, you know, and you know, I, our whole month of June will be filled with, with just being at places. Uh, rather that’s here in Florida or up in Georgia. Or maybe in South Carolina, you know, we’ve got a lot of stones.

[00:04:00] That’s a flip to get to where we need to be.

[00:04:05] Matt: Are you, are you hitting 20 twos heavy right now as well still? Or are you looking at 23? Yes.

[00:04:11] Coach: Yes. So actually I’m only doing 20 twos right now. I’ve had maybe about 15 to 2020 threes reach out. Um, and I simply just have to let them know, like, Hey, I’m new, I’m still trying to get our base built with, with, with our 20 twos going into the fall.

[00:04:27] Um, you know, so once we kind of get that settled and we feel comfortable, then we’ll, we’ll move on to the 20 threes. Um, hopefully I want to start hitting them around July. Um, that way, you know, I I’ve got our fall ready to go and we’re not still trying to put together some of the pieces to this puzzle, um, per se, you know, but, uh, we do have some 20 threes that we have reached out to that we want to make sure that we, we, we get on the radar.

[00:04:54] Um, but 20 twos is where we’re at right now, considering what we’ve picked up at, with, with this program. Um, you know, in the fall, I guess they had about 20 to 23 players, um, you know, and between the fall and when I got. Um, I would say about five or six left, uh, and then we graduate one or two. So, you know, we got a lot of holes to fill.

[00:05:15] Um, and you know that that’s gotta be done by the 20 twos. Uh,

[00:05:20] Matt: you, you mentioned junior college players, so is that, um, are you looking more, more heavily Juco this year? Just because you, you mentioned the gaps you got to fill and try to even things out, or is that something you like to do? Uh,

[00:05:37] Coach: Yeah, that’s, that’s kinda my base of my recruiting, um, with a junior college junior college player.

[00:05:43] You get a veteran student, you know, and, and for me, I’m huge on a little things. And I’ve noticed over the years that if a kid struggles in school, they struggle on the field. Um, you know, so, uh, and getting a junior college kid, you know, right away that, that their schooling is at the right point. Right.

[00:05:59] Cause obviously you’ve got to do a lot of things to become eligible. Um, and you can’t be, you know, struggling in school and be eligible as. Uh, to a four-year school. So we kind of get a mature student, um, which makes the soccer a lot easier. Uh, you know, in terms of our team right now, I’ve signed 10 players already heading into the fall since I’ve got here.

[00:06:19] Um, and you know, I would say three or four year transfers, uh, then we have, I want to say maybe four, four or five that are junior college transfers. Um, and then a couple of freshmen, um, you know, we’re not opposed to freshmen, it’s just, you know, uh, kids don’t realize the level of the college game. Um, you know, not many go to college games, not many watch it on TV.

[00:06:45] Um, you know, and, and essentially it’s, it’s a big jump. It can be a big jump. Um, you know, so we try to find the kids that are ready for that. Um, and then even with our freshmen that are coming in, you know, my, my philosophy. After maybe probably three or four games, then they’ll be ready to go. Um, but until then we got to find someone to fill that void.

[00:07:06] So

[00:07:08] Matt: yeah, it makes perfect sense. And, and hopefully, uh, you know, that plugging those holes is going to work for you. Um, so you got floor morals, the first, uh, HBCU we’ve we’ve talked to, um, and I want. I want to help people understand the HBCU world. Right. Cause, cause a lot, I think a lot of folks out there don’t know.

[00:07:32] Right. Um, so I mean, if you go on your website right now and look at the team picture from last season, It looks like any other college soccer roster you’d see across the country. So, you know, just talk to me a little bit about being an HBCU and, and ho and how that affects your recruiting about how the effects the team and what students might be, you know, maybe are misconceptions about

[00:08:00] Coach: that.

[00:08:00] Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so yeah, this is, this is actually the first HBCU that I’ve worked. In my years of coaching soccer, you know, and, and most people know in America, soccer is not really an African-American sport on the, on the women’s side. I would say men, we play that a lot, but on the women’s side, the number is very, very small, uh, of African-American women that play soccer.

[00:08:20] Um, you know, and with that small number, uh, comes a great amount of, of schools that are going after that small number. Um, you know, so for us here, Um, you know, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Miami gardens or, or Miami in general, but it’s a heavily, uh, Spanish speaking populated area. Um, you know, so, uh, by default, you know, most of the high schools in the area, most of the locals are Spanish speaking, um, folks, which, which the team has, has kind of evolved.

[00:08:49] Um, but in terms of HBCU aspect, you know, that is, uh, uh, uh, uh, you know, uh, a route that we are, we are trying to explore. Um, you know, and in terms of the school, I think what people don’t realize about an HBCU, uh, although, you know, it is a minority African-American based community. Um, there is opportunity for.

[00:09:11] Um, you know, uh, the thing that I I’ve learned the most since I’ve been here is how much fun an HBCU is in terms of just being around the, the, the environment. Um, you know, I think my first three weeks there was a basketball. Uh, the band rolled into the basketball game and had that place jumping. I was like, what is going on here?

[00:09:32] Never experienced that. You know, normally we’ll get the drum line or something, but we had a whole band in there. Um, you know, at all, our events are extremely fun and just the people we’ll be around and fun. And it’s, it’s just an opportunity. You know, our sport, you know, folks tend to tend to forget that we play it.

[00:09:49] Uh, and, uh, we’re trying to just, you know, build an opportunity for those that, that, that kind of look like me and everyone else to enjoy our culture. Um, you know, coolest things we have around here. Also, we get food trucks that are on campus every now and then, uh, which are free to stop. Um, based on our health and wellness events.

[00:10:08] Right? So, uh, the stuff you get at other schools you do get here, um, it’s just exuberated a lot, uh, due to the fact that we love to have fun. Um, I will say probably a month ago we had, we had a concert on campus. Uh, Rick Ross. I’m not sure if you

[00:10:24] Matt: I’m that old.

[00:10:27] Coach: Yeah. He showed up on campus and I’m like, what is going on?

[00:10:30] What is going on here like this, this is legit, right? So, uh, a lot of fun things that, that, that, you know, the campus loves to do for the students, um, which I encourage folks to get involved with at HBCU. It’s, it’s a different animal, different environment, but a very fun, fun place to be. Um, in terms of our team, you know, obviously, uh, the question I tend to ask a lot of my players that I’ve recruited is have you ever had an African-American coach?

[00:10:55] Uh, and the question is the answer is. No. And, you know, even teacher-wise in school, it may be like, oh, I have like one, I never had, you know, two or three teachers. So, uh, it is something that I think folks are looking forward to in that. Hopefully we can get our community more involved in. Um, but I also think that, you know, for our situation, in terms of, uh, female soccer, not a lot of us play, uh, and those of us that do play, um, they have a lot of offers, uh, from, from, from other universities that are very hard for them.

[00:11:28] Yeah to compete with at the moment. Um, now in a couple of years, that’s going to change. Uh, but, but at the moment, you know, if you, if you ask one of us, if you’d like to go to, you know, uh, uh, four years who AA school that made the tournament, you know, on a 90% scholarship, they’re going to take that, you know, and I don’t blame them.

[00:11:48] I think, you know, that’s just part of the growth in our community, which I’m excited to. Um, but I would love to see you come play, play for us here, down in, uh, down in south Florida. Um, you know, nah,

[00:11:58] Matt: that’s great. So, you know, you and I, before we jumped on, we’re talking a little bit about the financial aid aspect of things, you know, you guys are in NAI school, so you do, uh, you, you do have some athletic money.

[00:12:10] Uh, but you know, one of the, one of the questions folks always have are okay, you know, what does. What’s it going to cost, right? How much? So, can you just give me, give me a broad outlook on the overall financial aid picture at FMU, both from an athletic money and academic money grant money, that kind of thing.

[00:12:30] And what would you say most players are going to be? What kind of situation are they going to

[00:12:33] Coach: be walking into? Yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s the second question I asked recruits when I, when I recruit them and I guess not question, but kind of. Thing we bring up, um, you know, the first one is always, uh, what’s your major, you know, we don’t have your major.

[00:12:46] There’s no point in you coming to our school, the rest continue to conversation, right? Like not, you know, not trying to, you know, but if we don’t have your major, there’s no point in talking. But then the next one is always financial, you know, what can you afford? And what do we look like in terms of the financial aspect?

[00:13:04] Um, you know, so the thing about us is we are the cheapest school in south Florida. I think it is one of the cheapest in the state. Uh, we run about 24,000 a year. Um, that’s before any aid is added, um, and a cool thing about us, which, you know, most schools they don’t really tell you about is, is that number includes, uh, your dorm room, your meal plan.

[00:13:27] Uh, any of those random fees that they, they kinda hit you with that, you know, afterwards that you don’t really, you know, know about. Um, books, books are included in health insurance and then your tuition. So we package a great package, uh, around 24,000. Wow. And that’s, I think that’s, that’s pretty decent compared to what I’ve been at.

[00:13:48] Um, you know, and, uh, in terms of an individual person, uh, depending on where you’re from, you know, if you’re, if you’re an American, uh, you know, obviously you can add your FAFSA money to that if you want it to. And, um, any other grants you may get from the government, um, and then in state kids, uh, we have two different types of in-state scholarships that you can get for just being in state.

[00:14:09] Um, you know, so that kind of helps the kid as. Um, a Florida kid tends to pay. I want to say anywhere between, from what I’ve learned the past three months, maybe three K to maybe six K, depending on where you live, you know, what you want to do. And if you qualify for. Um, you know, uh, which is good, which is good for us.

[00:14:31] Um, yeah, that’s a great deal. Yeah. I think the biggest thing we struggle with is the Florida 40 kids don’t know we’re here. Um, you know, so I will give credit to our, our, our missions team. They’re doing a great job now and expanding who we are, um, and getting our brand out of. Um, you know, and, and as well as athletics, that’s something that, you know, is put on my plate to do.

[00:14:53] Um, and you know, I, I’m excited to, to keep that journey going. Um, but financially we have a great situation for Florida kids. You know, if you check all the boxes, um, overall we’re at one price point, you know, I had a kid yesterday asked me like, you know, what’s your cost for international students. Uh, and I said, Hey, it’s the.

[00:15:12] You know, and, uh, an American. Yeah. And they’re like, oh shoot. Well, that’s, that’s actually better news, you know? Um, which is why you see our team from last year is very international, heavy. Um, cause the price point is, is the same. So, but yeah, overall, you know, pretty, pretty, pretty, you know, easy going financial situation.

[00:15:34] If you’re, if you. Um, you know, and then, uh, if you don’t, you know, me personally, I don’t like to see, you know, families go through that struggle. Uh, so I try to balance it as much as I can, you know, whether that be with academics or any outside scholarships, but, you know, we’d like to see our kids comfortably, uh, able to afford at least half.

[00:15:56] And then we try to supplement that number if we can. Um,

[00:16:01] Matt: Okay. Well, you know, one thing you just mentioned is that, you know, your, your admissions team, everybody’s trying to kind of get the name out there because people don’t know, know you’re around even, even here in Florida. Right. Um, so, you know, I know you’ve only been there three months, but, uh, you know, you mentioned a few of the awesome things that you’ve seen so far in your time, but, you know, I can go to the website, click around and, and learn a little bit, but, you know, besides what you mentioned before, you know, what are some of the awesome things about Florida Memorial that you would want people to know?

[00:16:31] Coach: Um, the biggest thing is the cafeteria. That’s, that’s one of the things, when you get college recruited people, don’t tell you about, um, you know, as an athlete, you, your, your nutrition, I guess you say your fuel is what they, what they call it as the most important thing to you. Um, and our cafeteria here is, is extremely, extremely, um, high compared to everyone else.

[00:16:53] Um, you know, I, I tell, I tell my recruits at the schools I’ve been at, I probably eat the cafeteria. You know, here I can eat there every day and not have any issues. Um, a lot of our coaches go eat lunch over there, which tells you the food is good because normally, you know, we have options to go off campus.

[00:17:09] We go to the cafeteria. Um, you know, so that’s, that’s huge for us here at Fordham. Um, another thing that people, everyone is extremely nice and they want to see you grow and graduate. That’s, that’s two big things here. And I think, you know, as cliche as it sounds, you, you won’t find a place where everyone is just on that same page, like they aren’t here.

[00:17:32] Um, and, and then just the experience again in HBCU is something, you know, I hope everyone gets to experience at least once, you know, even if you don’t choose to come to us, go to a football. Uh, go to a soccer game, go to a basketball game that is at an HBCU. Um, you know, Deion Sanders is a huge, a huge, you know, person who is, is, is kind of pushing the HBCU is not that, you know, little brother, we’re not the little brother anymore.

[00:17:57] Um, you know, uh, so I, I encourage folks to get in touch, you know, uh, come for a visit. Um, you’ll be very shocked at what we do have, um, hell you, you, you come on campus. And the first thing you see is Palm trees on the, on the runway. Um, you know, uh, there’s a lot we got going on and, and again, if it’s something that interests, you know, recruit, I always tell them, let’s get you on campus.

[00:18:23] Um, you know, we had one, one girl that came one day and it happened to be a baseball game, uh, and like four food trucks that day. Um, yeah. A great day to be on campus. Right. Um, so yeah, those are, those are kinds of things I kind of roll with around here. And I think, you know, we have a lot more to offer.

[00:18:43] It’s just a matter of getting here to see it.

[00:18:45] Matt: Yeah, no, absolutely. You know, helped me, um, understand, you know, whether it’s been your previous institutions or, or more specifically here. Now I know it’s kind of tough cause you haven’t had a season yet, but you know, How, how do you see students balancing academics and athletics and, and, you know, does Fordham Memorial have some good support systems to help students succeed both in the classroom as well on as well

[00:19:13] Coach: as the field?

[00:19:14] Yeah. I mean, may have huge on it. You know, it’s part of our culture. Um, part of our structure, uh, you know, I told the kids, you know, obviously I came in a little bit late, so when it came to just, you know, You know, picking classes for the spring. I wasn’t involved in that process. Um, you know, as well as just getting, getting prepared for us.

[00:19:33] Um, you know, so for me, I try to make it so student, uh, their day is pretty much planned in terms of you got class, then you got practice, uh, and you don’t have to worry about much. Um, you know, so something that our culture is going to be brought into, you know, at my previous school, we, we, we had a good system set up where the kids were able to take classes all day.

[00:19:52] Uh, and then when they got done classes at about four, uh, we started training at about five and it worked out perfectly, you know, I’m huge on time management. Um, you know, the, the less time you spend, you know, on the field messing about, um, the more time you can spend being a good student, which translates into a good player, right?

[00:20:12] If you don’t have to worry about your grades, you’re going to be better on the soccer field. So here at Florida Memorial, you know, going into the fall, uh, we’ll kind of get our, our, our culture set, uh, academically back to where I want it to be. Um, but they do have a great system here called the car center, um, ton of academic support with, with our advisors over there.

[00:20:32] We’ll put you on the right path. Uh, you know, we have a couple of kids that were struggling a bit, um, and it turns out, you know, after stopping through. Um, you know, one girl has raised her GPA, I think, uh, almost a whole number just by, just by stopping through there and talking some things out with the folks in there.

[00:20:51] Um, and for me, you know, I make that a point of stoppage for, for us. Campus tours. Um, you know, and I always say, Hey, you got to ask them wanting to hear one question. You know what I mean? And they love it because now they get to interact more with the students and, and, you know, get them on the right path from the start.

[00:21:08] Um, you know, uh, so for me, it’s pretty much, uh, let’s, let’s get you set up to where you can’t fail academically. Right? So soccer is not an excuse because you know, we’re going to make soccer, not, not interfere with that. Um, but yeah, good people over there that. Directly to where you need to be in life. Um, and that center is located, I would say probably a hundred yards away from the, uh, the athletic facilities.

[00:21:37] Uh, you know, so we got a great little, little situation happened.

[00:21:41] Matt: That’s awesome. Uh, well, let’s talk more about, about the soccer side of things a little bit. Um, you know, you mentioned your, you got 10 coming in your maybe 15 ish returning. So do you have an ideal roster size that you’re trying to hit every year?

[00:21:57] Coach: Yeah. I mean, I’ve learned in college, you need to have about 30, uh, and our game. Um, you know, and, and I tell recruits that, and they look at you like, oh my God, that’s a lot of people. And it’s like, yeah, but it’s it’s college. You don’t understand how physically demanding, uh, college soccer isn’t for you get involved in it.

[00:22:13] Right. Like, you know, and then you think out of those 30, you probably have four that are goalies, you know? And then there’s, there’s always the kid that gets homesick, that, that goes home early. Um, there’s always a kid that can’t afford. You know, and there’s always a kid that gets that one bad injury, uh, that, you know, you hope no one gets, but it, it tends to happen.

[00:22:31] Um, and then just the injuries throughout the season, you know, college soccer doesn’t do the athlete, any justice by playing, you know, two games within 72 hours. Uh, and the heat. So a large number of players do help rotate the squad a lot, you know, um, uh, at my previous school, in the fall, we ran into an issue where we had low numbers.

[00:22:52] We had, uh, we had 16 players on the, on that, on that squad. Um, you know, at one point we had 12 available and one was the backup golden, uh, I will say for two games, we started our backup Golia. Um, you know, uh, God, God blessed it. That girl, she almost score two goals, bang one off the post. I’m like, oh my gosh.

[00:23:13] You know? Um, but we did all that in route to, to win a championship going 13 and oh, in the conference, you know, most people don’t, don’t really grab the fact that, you know, we, we showed up to some games with 13 people, you know what I mean? And that’s it, it’s a Testament to them to, to win two trophies with, with 16 players.

[00:23:32] Uh, you know, we had an ACL, uh, we had a broken hand. Uh, and then we had, uh, uh, sprain knee, um, you know, so at one point we had three major injuries, um, which is part of the college game, you know, uh, you know, so 30 is a good number for me. I say, if you get 30, you tend to fall around 20, 20 to 20. Um, you know, uh, I prefer not to be sitting at 16 again, going into this season.

[00:23:59] Um, you know, knowing that we play in such a tough conference and it is Florida where it’s 300 degrees every day. Um, you know, so we’re shooting for 30 we’re shooting.

[00:24:10] Matt: Okay. Um, what about staff? You know, obviously you’re, you’re, you’re new, uh, you’re the new head coach, but, you know, do you have any other soccer staff at this point or plan on having staff in the fall?

[00:24:21] Coach: Yeah. Uh, so we’re working with, with our administration team on that. Um, you know, we’re still trying to determine whether we want that to be a GA position or, or stipend position and how we want to work with that. Um, you know, for me, I’ve done. I’ve done it by myself at a couple of different schools. Uh, it’s not fun.

[00:24:39] Uh, that’s how I lost all my hair, you know, and we, we want to make sure that we do, you know, can get someone into, to help us in those everyday moments. Um, you know, uh, I appreciate my boss, you know, the first school that I actually had a, a full time assistant app. Um, obviously she was a GA um, we win the championship, you know, um, I was able to be a better.

[00:25:02] Uh, because I had more hands to help with, with, with a lot of the everyday day-to-day stuff. Um, you know, and, and for me, I’m very organized in terms of my training and, and, you know, having another hand to help that organization go a little better, um, is something that we are gonna going to be, you know, looking at over the next few weeks as school winds down.

[00:25:20] And we start looking at our funds a little bit more and, and our programs that we could possibly, we can work out, um, with a masters.

[00:25:30] Matt: Okay, that makes sense. Um, so how would you describe your style of coaching? How do you want your team to play, uh, as you go into this first full season?

[00:25:41] Coach: Yeah. Uh, so for me, um, you know, I tell folks I love to play how I players can.

[00:25:48] Um, you know, I’ve learned my lesson in my years. You can’t put a, you know, a, a round object in a square hole. Um, you know, if you try to force that in it, it’s, it’s more detrimental than it is helpful. Um, you know, so our team will be based around a lot of, a lot of philosophies in terms of, you know, possession and, and just believe in each other.

[00:26:11] And. Um, but I’m very offensive, heavy. I was an attacker and college scored a lot of goals. And, you know, when I got to the pro ranks and did trials in that era, they move me to defense, which was, which was okay. Um, but I do love to see goals go in. Um, so we are very, an attack minded, minded, uh, program, uh, which is based on, on possession.

[00:26:34] Um, you know, uh, I tell folks again, I always refer to my previous school cause that’s kind of the last time we got to play. Our whole team. I think we had, we have one player that was a defender that played defense. Uh, everybody else was an attacker. Um, you know, uh, we took the left-winger from the year before we moved to the left back.

[00:26:54] She made defensive player. Um, we took the right way, never made her center back. She made first team all conference. Um, you know, so we do love attacking, uh, you know, we’ll try to outscore you kinda like real Madrid did the other day where they just put on a bunch of attacking players. Um, you know, and, and having a good soccer IQ is another main thing that I love to focus on.

[00:27:16] And I think, you know, we’re headed in that direction with the team. We, we got it. We kind of have coming in and the returners we have. So, um, a lot of possession and a lot of. Uh, and then, then if you don’t score it’s okay. Uh, just.

[00:27:29] Matt: All right. Well, you know, we’ve been chatting for a while. I don’t want to keep you, you’ve been very generous with your time.

[00:27:34] So, uh, I’ll leave you with one last question, which is, you know, what, what didn’t we cover? What else do you want to say about, uh, either, either the team, the school, uh, your philosophies or anything else?

[00:27:46] Coach: Yeah, no, I think we hit the nail for everything. I think, you know, was a good conversation. You got some good questions and I think, you know, we cover the basis of, of what, you know, We are as a soccer coaches.

[00:27:57] Um, you know, uh, I guess one thing we love to do here is just, we always have a lot of superstitious superstitions. Um, you know, uh, one is we have a team handshake after every game. Uh, if we lose, we change it after every practice, if we lose, we change it. Um, you know, and, and one of the main things for me is, is, uh, whenever we play, you got to remember lucky number seven.

[00:28:21] Uh, you know, those are two things that if you, if you can remember with me, uh, it’ll get your boat at sea, it’ll get your team, the ball first and the scrimmages. It’ll get your team to ball first and the drills and, and, um, you know, we’ll enjoy our practice from that.

[00:28:36] Matt: I’m a spurs man. So I won’t hold it against you, but that’s

[00:28:39] Coach: big game, big gains for you this weekend.

[00:28:41] A little

[00:28:41] Matt: bit, little bit. Yeah.

[00:28:43] Coach: Well, we might make it a Europe.

[00:28:45] Matt: We’re hoping. We’re hoping. Well, coach, I appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck. I’m sure. Uh, my I’m sure are my car will be in Miami at some point, uh, this next year and we’ll try to swing by it and see the facilities and, and say hi.

[00:29:01] Coach: Yep.

[00:29:01] Cool. Cool. Appreciate it. Thanks again for having me. Thank you. Yep.