Hofstra University Men’s Soccer – Coach Richard Nuttall
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Richard Nuttall from the Hofstra Men’s Soccer program on Long Island, New York. We talk about his 37 years leading the Pride and how recruiting has evolved, especially with the growth of international players and the importance of finding the right personalities and culture fits. Coach Nuttall shares what makes Hofstra special, from its people and facilities to its location near New York City and the beaches of Long Island. Lastly, we discuss the team’s recent NCAA Tournament success, his approach to building mentally tough players, and his advice for recruits to challenge themselves by getting out of their comfort zones. Learn more about Hofstra University Men’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today, I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Richard over at Hofstra. Welcome, Coach.
Coach: Thank you, Matt. How’s it going?
Matt: Doing well. Can’t complain, you know, just another beautiful day here in sunny Florida, so.
Coach: What part of Florida are you in, Matt?
Matt: I, I’m in Bradenton, actually.
Uh- Oh … I, I, I was looking at your roster. I see a couple IMG kids there. That’s what brought me down to Bradenton. I, uh, I, I worked there for, for a few years, so.
Coach: Yeah. I love that area. I’m doing a little bit of work, you know, in my own time in Naples. Okay. And, uh, so we’ll see. Yeah. I love Florida.
Matt: Yeah, yeah.
It’s
Coach: good stuff. Bit wet and horrible and windy here today.
Matt: Oh, boy. Well, there’s not much you can do, right? It’s, uh- No … the, that’s the, you know, I, I love the, the Hofstra website there, the Pride of Long Island, right? Uh, you know, so you, you, you gotta do, deal with Long Island. Yeah. Whatever it brings you, right?
Coach: Yeah. Usually lawyers, traffic, and- … uh, the [00:01:00] seasons, which is a good thing.
Matt: There you go. Well, Coach, uh, I know, just to let people know, come, uh, just the start of this year, you’ve, you’ve moved on, uh, into athletic department, not the head coach anymore. I think, did they give you the, the emeritus title? ‘Cause how many years were you the head coach there?
Coach: I was the head coach for 37 years, which, you know, I’m proud of. I think I was the longest-serving coach in the country eventually. Um, maybe- Oh, my- … not the one of all time.
Matt: Yeah, yeah. And I think, uh- Yeah … well, that’s good, ’cause now, ’cause I’ve, I, I interviewed Jay at Ohio Wesleyan before he, uh, stepped aside.
So, so I’ve had- Yeah … some, some of the longer, longer tenured coaches on the pod, so it’s good to see that. Well-
Coach: I’m sorry. The form of the wrestling coach has got a b- a loud mouth.
Matt: He’s
Coach: talking
Matt: in
Coach: the background. Hopefully you can hear.
Matt: No worries. No worries. Well, Coach, let’s, uh, I, well, I wanted to kinda talk about, um, you know, s- some of the things you did while you were there and, and give some good information here to folks listening.
Um, and normally, you know, when I’m talking to, to [00:02:00] coaches, we start off by recruiting, and one of the things I notice, uh, you know, when you look at the, the roster that I’m, I’m assuming you had a pretty good hand in, uh, in creating there, uh- Yeah … online is, is there, there’s quite a bit of international talent there, and judging from your accent, you don’t seem like you’re from Long Island.
So, uh- No … so, so what is it about kinda the, the, how is, how is the- Really, the game changed right now in terms of recruiting, especially from the international side, on the men’s, men’s side specifically.
Coach: Yeah, it’s a whole different ballgame, Matt, and i- it’s a, a ballgame once a, a different ballgame once they’re here again.
And from my point of view, you know, look, I think the first thing I wanna say is that I learnt every year. I was here 37 years, and I was still learning. And, and my two assistant coaches are incredible, or were incredible a- as assistants, and now they deserve to be head coaches. And they were better than me with the old video analysis and the X’s and O’s and things, and then I brought my parts to that.
But i- in terms of, uh, [00:03:00] recruiting, you know, I, between being an ex-player and a, a teacher, uh, in England and, uh, uh, developing a network, I, I never thought I burned too many bridges with most of the recruits we brought in, e- even in the earlier days, you know, when we didn’t have as much scholarship money and, uh, you know, we weren’t as good a soccer team.
But I think everybody, um… Oh, I can… You can never say everybody, actually. Most people had a great experience at Hofstra, so that, that, that helps you a lot. I- if most people have had a great experience, it helps you a lot with recurring recruiting. And, you know, I think most people, even the ones that didn’t play much or thought, or thought they wanted more time or didn’t get enough scholarship, I always thought one day, you know, after a little time of leaving Hofstra, they’ll thought, “Well, maybe he was fair to me.
He’s real and honest.” I went a period of 11 years where I didn’t have one transfer out of the program. But that, I should have had transfers out, ’cause a, a few were there and it wasn’t the [00:04:00] right place, and I should have moved them on. But y- y- you’re a bit… You know, you learn. You live and learn. So I think the, one of the biggest tools I had was, was, was the reputation, uh, of, of the program for being fair, honest, and real, and then, and for recurring recruiting.
The people who’ve been in the program pass on great things to the, uh, possible new recruits. And I think the humanistic side, I, I, I’m pretty good. Um, my mother always says that if, if I was one of the pioneers coming to the country, I would’ve been smoking the peace pipe with the Indians, and my brother would’ve been hunting them down, you know?
So that’s my nature. I’m a bit of a softie at times, until I go on the field, then I was an animal. But, you know, a, a, a combination of a, a very, very good school, well-balanced school, honesty and integrity from, from, from the coaching staff a- a- and, and the extreme focus on who they are as people. And, uh, Matt, uh, my [00:05:00] assistants will laugh.
I always consider myself a human engineer, and I got that from a great man called Paul Le Sueur, who you might know from the past in this area. But we are human engineers, and, and I was involved in, um, the life at Hofstra, the academics. Before we had academic plans, I had an academic advisor. I had Professor Dr.
Weiner help me way before there were, was any academic advice, so that was good, too. And I was, I got very involved in post-Hofstra with getting out there in the real world with the career pathways. So I’m tr- uh, what I’m trying to say is I generally feel as though I gave them a great start on life. I was real and honest with them how they should be a, a, as, uh, people, extreme manners, hardworking, and just a, a great all-around person, and I helped them get out there in the real world as well.
So that, that, that’s like a snowball gathering momentum, and there were not many people, I believe, that won’t, uh, [00:06:00] recruits who played for me that won’t answer the phone now. Now, there’s a few, but there’s not many, so I’m proud of that, Matt.
Matt: Yeah, a- as you should be. Well, Coach, when it comes to this kind of new state of affairs in college soccer, um, w- how did you go about your, your recruiting?
How did, how did you find players? What, what was kind of your process? Where were some of the places you like to go to see players play, and that sort of
Coach: thing? It’s all network and, and what you, where have you been before. And then y- you know, you try and broaden your horizons, and, and you, you go to who, who you feel good with or who have given you good references in the past.
And generally speaking, the recruiting group out there that, that the, uh, recruiting agencies, that they, they know what you want and what you need, and they’re generally pretty good at, at helping you. But then you’ve got all your, your contacts, you know, all your ex-players, all your ex-players you played with in, in Europe, and it’s just a large network, and it, it, [00:07:00] it’s a big job.
Uh, but you’ve got to sift through it, and once you’ve sifted through it, you know, obviously you look at the videos. Now, we didn’t have a massive budget to go traveling, so we’d re- we’d rely a lot on, uh, videos. And, um, my wife’s just walked in.
Matt: Hello.
Coach: Hello.
Matt: Hello. How are you? Good. Nice to meet you. You’ve
Coach: never been on- All right.
It’s on my desk. I took her car keys to work in my pocket. What do you think of that? Oops. So, uh, you know, videos, then leads, and then if… We, we’d try and see most players, but sometimes you can’t, and sometimes you just know the player. So it’s very rare w- that if we could see them, that we didn’t go and see them.
And then a- again, you’re not gonna make the, uh, right decision all the time. But, uh, once, once they’re here, they’d have at least a year to prove themselves, and, uh, hopefully they’re the right fit. But again, nobody gets it right all the time.
Matt: Yeah, [00:08:00] that’s true. Well, when it comes to, you know, obviously y- you’re looking at a lot of video and the…
But- Besides the video, kinda give me a breakdown of what you were looking for in a recruit in, in both on-the-field aspects and off the field.
Coach: All right. To be honest, off the field was just as important as on the field. And, and we’d bring a good player with a great personality above a great player w- we had a little, uh, you know, maybe some red flags about.
So our, when we interviewed them in person, if the… For example, th- this is a normal one. You’re sat there and the parent’s saying, you ask the player a question and the parents answer it. That’s just about a no-no. That would be the end of that person usually. And then the other thing is if, if the parents have written us an email or, or a, a text, that’s a no-no.
So there, lots of little recruiting rules that you do, so, um, hold on a second. Sorry. All the way to the end of the corridor. [00:09:00] Keep going. All the way. Sorry, Matt. That’s
Matt: okay.
Coach: When the wife’s calling, you gotta answer. That’s
Matt: right. Absolutely.
Coach: Right.
Matt: So y- you’re talking about the, the no-nos that, uh, um-
Coach: Oh, yeah.
Lots of no-nos … there
Matt: might be red flags. But, but- Yeah … w- what are the green flags? What are the things you love to see, uh, in a player?
Coach: How, how a kid warms up, how he talks to his players, h- how he affects the people. Look, I don’t, you don’t care about the level too much. You don’t care about the result of the game.
The score is ir- irrelevant. You, you go, you see him warm up. How does he warm? Does he have intent? Is he talking? On the field, does he move the ball quickly? Does he affect the people, you know, north, east, south, west of him? When, when the game’s tough is a massive one. When the- y- you know, their team’s struggling, how does he react and what does he do?
Of course, you’re looking at grit and determination, which I believe we were famous for our grit and determination. So, um, I mean, to get [00:10:00] through our practices here, you gotta be gritty and determined. They’re such a, a difficult, uh, pr- proposal to the players. So, and, um, you know, w- looking at, have they a bit of…
I’m a bit of a flair man. I’m a, a believer in wingers, you know, having some flair on the outside, and, uh, can they go past people? H- how do they hold the people around them accountable? And, uh, it’s ju- there’s many factors, and sometimes you just get a little bit of a feel, if that makes sense. So, uh, it’s, it’s just sometimes a gut feeling.
Matt: Yeah.
Coach: Okay.
Matt: All right. Well, let’s talk a little bit about the, about the school, Hofstra. You know, I, I’ve ac- I’ve been to Long Island, but never been, uh, over to the school. You’ve been there a number of years. I- in all your time, kind of what are some awesome things about Hofstra? Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know by going through the website.
Coach: Well, it, it, it is the most awesome thing, right? The people that work here are incredible, fr- from the custodians [00:11:00] all the way across to the president. And the… I’ll- I’ve loved coming to work every day, Matt, for 37 years. There was one day I lost the van keys, and my boss, uh, was a bit annoyed, but other than that, I’ve enjoyed coming to work.
So the number one thing about Hofstra is the people, and I absolutely love coming to work and seeing these people and interacting and, uh, talking with them and sharing a, a laugh, a laugh and a giggle. So that’s the number one thing. The second thing, I’ve got to say the board of trustees have been tremendous in building the school slowly, and I mean that physically.
You know, with, with the facilities, I’ve seen them grow and grow and grow every single year. I’ve seen the quality of the, the acade- uh, academics, the professors really growing. They’ve, they’ve added the medical school. They’ve got better in all aspects of schooling, and it’s just a growing school. A- and the w- what I, what I say, Matt, about this school, all right, w- we might not be a Harvard or, [00:12:00] or, or a, a Yale or a Princeton or an MIT, but w- we’re damn good academic and got some brilliant, uh, degrees here.
W- we might not be, you know, Ohio State with facilities, but the… we’ve got some beauty facilities. And, and then our number one thing from my point of view is the location. You’re, you’re close to New York City, but you’re not, you’re you’re not in the heavy, heavy New York City, but you can be there on a 35-minute train ride.
You’ve got the beaches 15 minutes away, and you’ve got Eastern Long Island. You’ve got skiing an hour and a quarter away in the winters. The location, it’s hard to beat. And so if, if you, if you, if you score all these factors out to 10, I believe you, you, you’d score them quite well. And if you added, added them all up, you know, for example, Columbia, in- incredible school, but it’s in, in the center of Manhattan.
It doesn’t have our fields and grass and all that. So the, the, there’s pluses and minuses, but generally speaking, I think if you add all our scores up, it’ll be as good as [00:13:00] anybody because, uh, we’re good in, in most things.
Matt: Okay. Yeah, it sounds like it. Well, re- rewind us back to, let’s say, October, right?
You’re in the heart of that conference season. Uh, the bo- the boys are, are getting after it. What does a typical week look like for a player at Hofstra in terms of when is training and classes and games and meals and all that kind of stuff?
Coach: Yeah, I mean, the second half of the season training is definitely, uh, a bit different to the first half.
I’m always conscious of, of fatigue, mental and physical. I used to fight with my two assistants for time off and ti- downtime, but they, they eventually let my, uh, uh, opinions grow ’cause of, of so, so much success. So I’ll, the second half of the season in October, we’d be very mindful of downtime and understanding that they need to be, when they do train, they’ve got to train very, very well.
But when, when we can rest, and we’re going to, and, you know, the- we look at the minutes very carefully. Um, but a typical day is, you [00:14:00] know, get up and go to class, do your stuff. Uh, we, we trained every day at 4:15. It, it worked for us. You know, the other programs train at different times. Uh, we, we trained at 4:15.
Uh, my, my, uh, assistants, Stephen and Sean, were told not to go too long whatsoever, but make sure it’s, let’s say an hour and a quarter, it’s got to get in that hour and a quar- uh, quarter enough activity and high tempo stuff as you would maybe in a two-hour s- slower, more sedate session. And, uh, get in, get out, get it done.
Um, it may, uh, during the day a lot of the fellas with, with Sean and Stephen would go out on the field and do some, not, not inducing fatigue, but a lot of repetition on skills that are needed, purposeful practice. You know, they’d alway- all the guys, a lot of the guys want to go out. We had to stop them going out a lot of the time.
And I, Matt, that, the fact that we did that, that I really think gave it, it [00:15:00] gave us another 1 or 2% on the field, you know, the extra work that the boys put in. Uh, and just on repetition of skill, again, purposeful practice. And then, you know, do, uh, do the training session, get some treatment after, and then maybe, uh, do the homework and relax.
And, but the, the guys were given the option of morning classes, you know, or, or some, some would like night classes as well. But I’m not a big fan of getting students up early, ’cause students, they don’t go to bed till 1:00 or 2:00 or 3:00 most times, and then you’re getting them up at 5:00 or 6:00. Not for me.
And I, I, and I, you know, I t- I did try it one year and I just felt the lack of interest and fatigue in the morning, even though you got the day off to a good start. And I believe a lot of the kids, if you do morning practices, they go straight back to bed and don’t go to class.
Matt: Yeah. Yeah.
Coach: So that, that was my philosophy there.
Matt: Yeah, I, I was, I was never a big fan of the early morning practices. And, [00:16:00] and- No … and I, I’ve never played a, uh, I never played a match that started at 7:00 AM, so I don’t think- Right … I needed to practice that. Yeah. But, well- And let’s talk a little bit more, I guess, about, about the team, uh, and, and what you guys have done there.
Congrats on a phenomenal fall. I mean, you guys made it to what, the third round of the tournament? You, you’ve had- Yeah … a lot of success, and, and just wanna let you go ahead and, and, and talk about that.
Coach: Yeah, I mean, I think we went like s- before we lost to Stony Brook this year in the semifinal, we’d gone like 18 CAA playoff games without losing in regulation, and we’d been in the final seven out of eight years or something like that.
And, uh, we’d only lost on penalties three times, and that was to the same team, JMU. That was a bit of a sticking point, three years in a row, or three- Wow … out of four years. So but then we’d won it four in a row. We were going for our fifth, and, uh, you know, a, a little bit of a, a, you know… Sometimes it just happens and you don’t win the game, and, uh, that’s all right.
But we were lucky to get a bid. And, uh, [00:17:00] uh, to w- our first task, we thought we should have had a home game. We were the only team in the top 30 RPI who didn’t get a home game, so we’re a little bit annoyed at that, which I love in a way. We go away with the team. You go to Syracuse, and you get to ki- you would get, uh, some good things about going away.
You, you’ve got like a, you, you’ve got an audience that can’t go away from you. You can control it with your players, the eating, the sleeping, and all that. So we went to Syracuse, and Ian McIntyre there is a good friend of mine, a great coach, and, uh, a great game against them. Beat them 2-nil. And then we went up to Vermont, number one seed in the country.
It’s probably one of my, uh, favorite moments while I’ve been here, and, uh, we beat them in, uh, overtime 3-2 to knock the number one seed out. And then we had an incredible game against Furman. You know, they were the better team in the first half, where it was a bit of a slip appeal for us, and, uh, we got it back into the game.
Then they went 3-1 up, then we got to 3-3, and then we lost on penalties. So [00:18:00] we’ve lost… In the last five years, we’ve lost twice on penalties in the sweet 16, which is hard to take as well. But I just feel as though the last five years, Matt, we had a team that could have won a national championship, and that I’m very, very proud of.
You’ve got to have a little bit of luck, and you know, so you, you… things have got to go your way. But the fact is it, that me gut feeling’s that, that those teams could have won it.
Matt: Yeah.
Coach: Um, for various reasons you don’t. But the fact that we’re in the mix and we’re little old Hofstra in many ways, it, it’s, it, it’s a beautiful feeling that you’ve achieved something.
And, um, before the season this year, I said, “Look, uh, I know we’re gonna have a good season. We’ve got a good group. I’m gonna, I’m gonna finish here, and then I wanna move on to different things in my life.” I’ve still got a load of energy, and, uh, we’ll see what I want to do. I, I am missing it though, Matt, but, uh We’ll see what happens.
I, I’m working in the athletic department with great people and, uh, doing fundraising, so that, that’s, that’s pretty [00:19:00] cool too. But, uh, what a brilliant season. Again, the feeling, uh… Laurie Goddard scored the winner in overtime, and then they rushed over to our 50 fans, and 5,000 fans went silent. Hmm. It’s just one of the greatest feelings, so.
And one of the kids, if you look on the video, scoring the goal, he ripped his shirt off, a, a, a young man, and ran over to his mother. It was the greatest thing I’ve seen for a while, so all those moments. But there’s been 37 years. I’ve, I’ve had many incredible moments, and, um, I just feel lucky. Who, who else wants to come to work every day?
I have, so very fortunate.
Matt: No, that, that’s great. And- And- And I’m gonna leave you with one last question, Coach. Uh, you, you, like, thanks for sharing all this with us, but if you had one piece of advice for, you know, a high school student right now trying to w- navigate this world of wanting to play soccer in college, what, what, what piece of advice would you give them?
Coach: Well, I, I’m gonna pr- predicate that with the thoughts here. We’re [00:20:00] not doing the right thing. The system’s wrong, right? And, and, and my… The, the level, it, it… The, the teams are designed to try and win championships, and state cups, and things like that, where it shouldn’t be. The rest of the world, any good players move upwards and onwards to the better team and out of the comfort zone.
So my advice is never be the best player on the team. If you’re in the top three, or four, or five, you’re on the wrong team. Go and play in an older team or a men’s team. Get out your comfort zone and learn. And the biggest learning years for me was 15 to 18, and I was playing men’s soccer then. No coach ever gave me much instruction that made me a better player.
The environment made me a better player. Get out your comfort zone. Get where you’re, you’re one of the worst players on the team, and that will help you solidify your mental toughness, and it’ll, it’ll get you much better than playing on a team where you’re just, you’re in your comfort zone. So get out your comfort [00:21:00] zone.
Get in a rigorous s- situation, and let… and, and test your mentality. And if you… As I say, y- you play with the men if you can. I, I… It’s a little bit difficult, difficult in this country with the rules on, on, on s- on personal safety and child safety, but that’s my biggest advice. Challenge yourself. Don’t be the best player on the team.
Matt: Well, I think it’s good advice. Well, Coach, I really appreciate the time. Uh, thank you and, and congrats on all your successes and, and, and the new gig. Uh, and hopefully w- you’ll, you can, uh, have the same, same amount of success in the fundraising area- Yeah … as you did on the soccer field.
Coach: What, what I’m doing, Matt, just so you know, I, in the next one or two years I’m gonna be going full time to Portugal.
I’ve got an academy there with an incredible man. And, uh, I’ll tell you now, it’s rigorous, it’s discipline, and it’s tough. And we have a farm system where we farm all the 15 to 19-year-olds out to all the men’s team. We’ve got 55 men’s teams in our [00:22:00] city that we farm them out. You’ll go there a, a, a, a young man, you’ll come back a, a real man.
So if anybody’s interested, uh, it’s called PFA. Down the line it’s gonna be my full-time gig. All right? All
Matt: right. All right. Well, then, uh, next time I’ll, uh, I’ll have to call you up in a couple years and, uh, and, and, and interview you in Portugal instead, face-to-face probably.
Coach: It’s the most beautiful place and safe, Matt.
Yeah. So hopefully we’ll see you there one day.
Matt: Sounds like a plan. All right. Thank you, Coach. Take care.
Coach: Cheers.
