Southern Wesleyan University Women’s Soccer – Coach Al Meneses

In today’s episode, I speak with Coach Meneses from the Southern Wesleyan Women’s Program in South Carolina. We talk about how he tries to look 2 years ahead in recruiting. Coach also shares about the school’s beautiful location near Clemson. Plus, we discuss how they have a great staff throughout the department for a small D2 program. Learn more about Southern Wesleyan University Women’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I am lucky enough to be joined by Coach Alex Southern Wesleyan University in South Carolina. Welcome coach. 

Coach: Welcome. Thank you for having me. 

Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. Uh, excited to talk to you. Um. So we’re, we’re, we’re chatting here, it’s, uh, mid-February.

I know, uh, the, the ECNL Texas event is, is kicking off this weekend. I don’t know if you’re going all the way out to Texas for it or not, but, uh, what, where, where do you like to go to, to, to look at players in this, you know, this time of year when it’s, you know, tournament season? 

Coach: Yes. OB obviously, uh, uh, I’m not going on the Texas showcase unfortunately this year, but, um.

But we do throughout the year, obviously, uh, they’re difficult during the season in the fall, but right after the season, November, December kicks in January, uh, we are hitting certain places. Um, uh, we going to, uh, North Carolina, you know, the, uh, the big shock is up there. That, but the, uh. Uh, they used to be called Castle nowadays, uh, the North Carolina cho, is it [00:01:00] Raleigh?

Yeah, it’s a Raleigh. Yeah. It’s got changed names over the years. Right. Uh, and then, you know, the Jefferson Cop and you got the, uh, IMG showcases in Florida. Uh, I’ve been, uh, this past year I went to Tampa a couple of times, uh, showcases there and, uh, and you know, we are always looking of course on online, working with agencies as well, looking at video, uh, heading to Canada in May, uh, this, this spring to look at players.

So we do. Some trips like that as well. 

Matt: Okay, awesome. Well, this time of year, how locked and loaded is your class of 26, are you still looking for a few? Is it not? When do you usually kind of wrap up that class for the following fall? 

Coach: Yeah, it’s a, it’s a great question ’cause every program’s a little bit different, right.

Uh, we are a division two NCAA program, so we are pretty much locked up for 2026. Right. We try to work two years in advance. I mean, we’re already committing players for 2027, looking at 2028. Obviously we cannot communicate with those players yet, the 28. Right. But [00:02:00] we are looking at them. Um, now if I was to find, or we were to find a player that’s an impactful player that hasn’t been able to find a home for 26, yes, of course we’re looking to.

To look at, at, at a player like that. Of course. 

Matt: Okay. Well, what about ID camps? Those seem to be real, real popular, uh, at most schools these days. Do you guys run your own, do you and your staff work external camps? Are they a part of your process at all? 

Coach: Uh, not really part of our process, to be quite honest.

We, uh, we do camps, but uh, we do invite teams sometimes to join our camps, but not specifically calling them IT camps. Uh, that being said, though, I do go to other IT camps where I get to work as a coach. At the camp and then, you know, assign a team or two or whatever and, uh, kind of go that route a little bit with some of the bigger schools that run bigger IT camps that we can, we can do that with.

Uh, so there’s a little bit of cooperation there with, with other schools. 

Matt: Okay. Now one of the, I guess. To me, in my opinion, one of the big benefits of division two is the [00:03:00] fact that you can have players come in and train with the team in the spring, or even in the fall as, as, you know, quote unquote try out, uh, the, the, the, do you guys offer that, uh, uh, uh, to, to kids when they’re coming out and visiting and stuff?

Coach: Yes, we do. Uh, as a matter of fact, just before our call, I, I send the paperwork in through compliance for a player that’s coming on Monday. Okay. Right. Uh, there’s a player coming from New York to train with us and quote unquote tryout type of thing. Uh, prospect, uh, she’s actually at 20 26, 1 of the last minute type of recruits that we’re bringing in.

So, yes, it’s a good opportunity, obviously. Uh, uh, and, you know, and the rules allow us to do that, uh, when they’re not in their high school season. Right? 

Matt: Right. 

Coach: So if, if their high school season is on, then they cannot train with us. But if their high school seasons off, then they can definitely do that and join us if, if they want to do that.

Matt: Okay. That’s awesome. Well, whether it’s at a showcase, at an ID camp, wherever, kind of when you’re looking at players, what [00:04:00] makes up that hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player, both on and off the field? 

Coach: So there’s a lot of factors that take, uh, into, take into consideration. Right? So obviously we will start with, uh, who’s graduating from our program.

That’s number one. So now we start looking at. Specific positions that we, we need for, for, for the next year or for the next couple of years, right? Um, who’s graduating? What, what positions do we need? Um, uh, are these players that we’re looking at, can they play multiple positions? Those are, uh, obviously all, uh, good questions to, or good things to look at when we’re looking at players.

Um, you know, I, and then we get into more details with individuals, right? What major do you wanna study? Uh, uh, what size school are you looking for, location, all these little parameters that they, they’re more concerning to them. But as far as us, we typically start with positions. Uh, what do we, what, what do we need to complete, uh, our team for next year or the year after that?

And that’s our first, I think, I think initial step. 

Matt: Okay. Well, in terms of. [00:05:00] You’re, you’re ru building your roster. Is, is there a size, a roster size that you look to hit each, each season? 

Coach: Well, the rules have been changing, right. As you know. So it’s kind of like a little crazy, right. Uh, we have not been affected by that.

Uh, obviously that’s more of a D one issue at the moment, you know, with the two eight men, two eight men roster, but to eight women, uh, roster. Right. Uh, we don’t cap it. Uh, I like to have a minimum, you know, of 26, 27 players, but. Last year I had 29 can, I could go to 30, 31 depending on, um, you know, the players that we’re bringing in or the type of players that are interested in our, in our program.

So there really is no minimal or maximum, but I would say this year, 2026, we’ll end up around 27, 28, which I think is a, a pretty good number. 

Matt: Okay. Now you mentioned going to Canada, uh, to see some players. I know that especially on the men’s side. D one, D two level internationals is a, is a big recruiting thing.

Are you guys looking at [00:06:00] internationals at all and, and do you look at, say, the community college, the two year programs, or are you looking at the portal at all? Are those kind of non-traditional recruiting methods part of what you do each year? 

Coach: Yeah, it’s, it’s changed over the years as well, right? I mean, coaching many years now, obviously the transporter is a big thing right now, but.

We do bring internationals in. Right now we have players from Canada, we have players from Spain. In our team, uh, we are pretty close to committing pro, possibly a player from England. Uh, a JUCO transfer to your attitude, to your question. That is, we do look at some junior college players that will contact us or coaches contact us.

So we look at that. Uh, so we’re definitely open to internationals. We do not really my. Philosophy has always been not to really go to the transfer portal too much. I always try to build a program from the bottom up. Um, now if I get contacted by somebody that’s is in the transfer portal, I would take a look of course to see if the players the right [00:07:00] fit.

But I don’t particularly go myself looking for players unless. Somebody reach reaches out to me, if that makes sense. 

Matt: Yeah, yeah. You’re not, you’re not shopping the portal as, as, as folks will say. 

Coach: Exactly. That’s right. 

Matt: It makes perfect sense. Well, let’s, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. Some folks may not even be familiar with Southern Wesleyan.

You’ve been there for a few now, few years now. What, what is it about the school that you like, that you find is amazing? Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know by going through the website. 

Coach: Oh, now you’re gonna get me talking ’cause I, I absolutely love our school. Um, so we’re in South Carolina, right? Uh, it’s where people aren’t familiar with the, the area a little bit.

We’re in Central South Carolina, which is the name of the city, but we’re literally 10 minutes away from Clemson. Clemson, which is more, more familiar with people, right? Uh, so being 10 minutes away from Clemson, we are a smaller Christian type Christian school. Uh, and then we have the big. Clemson University next to us.

So, uh, the area’s just beautiful. [00:08:00] You know, there’s, they’re surrounded by three lakes in the area. We’re 25, 30 minutes away from the Blue Ridge Mountains, so the girls go hiking sometimes they could do that. We’re about 30 minutes in the opposite direction from Greenville, South Carolina, which is a very famous or popular city, one of the best main street areas in, in the country, every year voted top 10.

And again, being next to Clemson, uh, the girls get to go downtown or the students get to experience the big school, the football games. They, I mean, soccer of course is huge in Clemson as well, right? National Champions Tour of the last five years. The men’s program. Right. And the women’s program was in the final four, two years ago.

So they get to go see those sports and downtown Clemson restaurants and things like that. So it’s a unique area. Um. To be living in and to go to school at, uh, and as a small Christian school, our community is very united in that sense. Uh, I think that one of the best parts of our team and our, our community is, uh, how we do life together, how we get along together and, uh, eh, [00:09:00] especially, uh, building teams and building programs.

Uh, it just adds to what we’re trying to, uh, encompass us as a community, you know, uh, the Christian aspect of it. Uh, so it’s been awesome. I mean, I moved here from New York. Four years ago, and I could tell you it’s a lot different. I’m being in New York. 

Matt: That’s for sure. Uh, that is having been to South Carolina many times in New York, many times, very different.

Coach: Yes. It’s, 

Matt: well, you know, one of the, the, the more difficult parts of making the transition from being a high school athlete to a college athlete is really balancing the demands of both the academic side of things and the athletic side of things. So how does your school help? Student athletes manage both and be successful in both.

And kind of what support systems are there in place for them? 

Coach: Uh, for us, it actually begins through the recruiting process, right? So try to teach, uh, young high school players really, that are gonna be coming into our program. Hey, this is something you could be doing to [00:10:00] help yourself already, even before you become a student at our school.

You know, uh, not only obviously, uh, academically to try to get the best grades because you’re gonna get hit with a lot of, uh, hard courses in college, but. Physically too as a soccer player, you know, there’s things that they could be doing before they get here to, uh, help themselves on the field. You know, strength training, speed, agility, all these kinds of things that, uh, sometimes that are self shocking moment for incoming freshmen that, oh boy, this got really physical really quickly and really fast.

So, uh, those are things important that we, we instill in them at the beginning. Then once you’re here, of course we have tutoring programs for, uh, our athletes. Uh, if anybody needs a tutor for any subject, uh, we are a school that, uh, don’t, do not require study hall for freshmen. Uh, a lot of schools do require that we don’t because our GPA and uh, academic setting is pretty good.

Uh, the average GPAI could tell you for our, my team. Last year we had 29 girls. I [00:11:00] think it was between 3.5 and 3.6. So that’s very good. Right. So if, if somebody falls below 3.0, I have a tendency sending them to study hall or getting a tutor to help ’em because I wanna keep a certain standard. Right. Uh, we have an academic liaison person of course, that, uh, handles or, or works with all our athletes.

So if anybody’s falling behind or struggling in a class, they will let us know and we have these meetings to, to try to help them out. Uh, very supportive academic environment at our school. So, uh, because it is a small school, 14, 15 students per class, they have a really good relationship with their professors.

Uh, and if there’s a conflict with a game or something like that, they usually worked out where, uh, they’ll do the test a different day or finish a lab in a different session or things like that. Highly supportive of, uh, of our athletes academically at Southern Wesley. 

Matt: Okay. No, that’s fantastic. Well, let’s rewind back to October.

You’re in the heart of that [00:12:00] conference, Carolina season. Walk me through what does a typical week look like for a player in terms of winter practices, meals, classes, the game cadence, all those kinds of things. 

Coach: Yeah, obviously that’s the, the busiest part of our season, right? Uh, you know, we, we begin, uh, in, in August, you know, with scrimmages and non-conference games that as you, as you said, October is when okay, now you gotta really get into the conference games.

So it is very, uh, very busy time of, of year. Uh, typically, obviously we we’re still, we do weight training in the mornings. Uh, during the season we just do maintenance type of work, so maybe twice a week, uh, 7:00 AM type of stuff. Uh, we’re bringing them with our strength and conditioning coach. To the weight room just to maintain what they’ve been doing throughout the year, because we cannot push ’em hard away training because there’s so many games going on, right?

So many training sessions and two games a week. Uh, then we are training in the afternoons, um, you know, four to six. Sometimes we, we going by a little bit later, maybe five to seven 30, something like that, and two games a [00:13:00] week. So Tuesdays and Saturdays or Wednesdays and Saturdays is when we’re playing. CA rules say that we have to have a day off.

So for our school, the days off are usually on Monday, on Sunday, sorry. So Sundays are our day off. Uh, so very busy. Of course. It’s, and I always tell the girls that it’s about managing injuries and managing times, uh, and, and our, the way we’re feeling in the middle of a, of, uh, of October, as you mentioned.

Um, were either ready, getting ready for a game. We’re rehabbing from the game the day before. So it’s that kind of set up, constant, constant motion. So injury prevention and rotating players a little bit to, uh, manage their minutes. It’s, it’s super important that time of year, uh, especially as they get, like you said at the, to the end, what now we’re looking for playoff positioning, right.

Matt: Absolutely. Yeah. Well, let’s talk a little bit more a about the team. I know we talked about roster size, but let’s talk about the rest of the roster. Talk to me about your staff. Who, who’s there, what role does everybody play? Maybe [00:14:00] what other support staff in the athletic department are helping out with the team?

Coach: Okay. Um, yeah, obviously, like I said earlier, rosters composed from different players from, from all over the place, right? We got, uh, international students and, uh, even in the states, we got players from Colorado, from New York, from. Florida, even though we’re maybe a couple hours away from Florida here, but we operate from Florida that are 15 hours away.

You know, that’s how big the states are, right? So, um, so we, uh, in the four years that I’ve been here, we’ve been able to build a, a team that is, uh, uh, I guess as some same mindset. Uh, we are very highly possessive oriented type of team, so we try to play the possession type of soccer. You know, my philosophy, uh, being Spanish in nature, you know, born in another country myself, right.

Uh, I always been about the skills, about possession, about the flare of the game. So we’ve been able to bring players that fit that mold, that we we’re a highly possessive type of team. I would say we control most games, 60 40, so that’s kind of like our culture, and it’s [00:15:00] almost like the pep barola method, like Barcelona type of stuff, you know?

Uh, and in, in that we’re bringing a place that could fit our mold. Uh, and regarding our staff, we have staff that also kind of. Helps, helps us with that, right? Uh, two assistant coaches. Uh, one of the coaches is uh, uh, obviously, uh, also works with our goalkeepers as well. Uh, uh, um, you know, getting a separate training.

Uh, my wife is also on staff as well. She played Division one soccer, uh, uh, in, up in the University of Hartford. So, uh, she helps a little bit during game day. Then we have team managers. Uh, we have, uh, think three right now. We have three team managers. We have a social media manager. Who happens to be my daughter.

So we kind of have a family situation going on here. Uh, then we have our regular team manager who, uh, all the meal planning and travel, you know, plans and all that kind of stuff. Uh, we have a certain conditioning coach that works with us throughout the year. We have a nutritionist also as [00:16:00] well for, uh, small D two program.

It’s, uh, amazing that we have all these things in place, right? Uh, she, uh, puts out the program. Even through the summer before school starts preseason and throughout the year we’re, we’re working with her. She could do individual plans for the athletes. So we have a really good situation there. Um, so I’ve always, uh, I want the, uh, opinion and you, you know, I wanna have a Division one program here, down here in the south, even though we’re division two, right?

So I want to be the best division two program that the place people can go to down here in the south. And, uh, we, I treat it as a division one program. And, uh, with everything that we give them and the support that we give them, and, uh, for sure it kind of has that kind of feeling to be honest. 

Matt: Yeah. Okay.

That’s great. 

Coach: Yeah. 

Matt: Well, as I mentioned, we’re talking here in February. It’s the off season. Kind of talk to me about what, what does this off season look like for your players? When are you doing stuff? What are you doing? What’s that look like? [00:17:00] 

Coach: Just like division one and division two kind of have very similar rules.

Uh, we are allowed to do weight training and, uh, soccer of course, uh, January and February, all the way through the end of the spring. Uh, the times kind of change a little bit. Right now we’re in the, uh, non-competitive segment, right? They call it, uh, we’re, we’re getting four hours of soccer a week and four hours of strength condition in a week.

With that, we have to split it. So we’re doing three hour, three days of strength training in the mornings, seven to eight, three days a week. And then we’re doing three hours of soccer. We do food solo one night. It’s kinda like a fun thing up over the winter. And then the other two days, we’re going an hour and a half outside and training, uh, outside.

Then towards the end of February we’ll start getting, uh, more hours. So at that point we move to 15 hours a week and we are allowed to obviously train five days a week. Then we play games. We, as a division two program, we’re allowed to play five games in the spring. Uh, in those five games, we [00:18:00] could play anybody a division one, two, or three.

We could play at juco. Uh, this year we’re playing two club teams as well. So those are kind of like, uh, good games for us to have. The whole purpose of the winter and spring is to get the team fit. So we do a lot of conditioning, a lot of, uh. Getting fitter and fitter, uh, playing faster in possession. We really push them hard, uh, so we can get the team ready for the fall season.

So it, it’s a big push, uh, for fitness for sure in the spring season. 

Matt: Okay. Well coach, really appreciate the time. I’m gonna leave you with one last question, and that is, if you had one piece of advice for, for anybody going through this college recruiting process right now, what would that be? 

Coach: Yes. Uh, it, it’s never too, uh, too soon to start.

I, I think, uh, you know, it’s getting more and more where we’re getting, uh, messages from ninth graders all the way up, right? Sometimes eighth graders. Yeah. We cannot communicate, obviously with the ninth and 10th graders. Uh, we begin the process at the 11th grade level, but, uh, for. [00:19:00] Kids in that situation, start early, start emailing coaches.

I think the best way to communicate with a coach is through email. Put a nice profile together and the profile will include everything, right? Your GPA, where you’re from, your likes, dislikes, and obviously a little highlight reel, right? Uh, and the hugger reel will be two to five minutes. Uh, and this is as I think the most important part.

If you want to get noticed by a coach, make the highlight reel very dynamic from the beginning. Right. Catch the coach’s attention immediately. What, what The coach wants to continue watching the reel and says to himself or herself, I gotta go see this player, play in person. Okay. So that’s, those are things important and don’t be shy and email them, you know, coaches, uh, starting, I said early enough and, uh, once every three months, uh, as you get into your sophomore year, and then junior year, once every month.

And then as you get closer now, getting the coaches faces all the time. They, they become, they do become familiar with your name. They do put you on a, on a database. [00:20:00] Uh, and then as they progress into the, okay, now we can start talking to them, uh, you’ll be reached out by coaches. So clear communication, uh, it’s super important.

And, uh, approaching coaches in that, in that respect, I think puts ’em ahead over the people. 

Matt: Awesome. Well, coach, really appreciate it. Thank you for the time. Wish you the best of luck. And, uh, if you get to any of the, the recruiting events down here in Bradenton, uh, IMG or Premier, gimme a shout. Yes, we’ll, we’ll go grab a drink.

All right. 

Coach: That sounds good to me. We’ll get a cup of coffee or something. 

Matt: Sounds good. All right. Take care. 

Coach: Terrific. Thank you. 

Matt: Yep. 

Coach: Bye.