Dominican University of California Women’s Soccer – Coach Kellis Johnson
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Johnson from the Dominican Women’s Program in San Rafael, California. We talk about how they recruit a mix of freshmen and transfers and what they look for in players both on and off the field. She describes Dominican’s beautiful campus, small class sizes, and supportive community. Lastly, we discuss their growing staff and a style of play that adapts to best fit their personnel.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today, I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Johnson from Dominican University in California. Welcome, Coach.
Coach: Hi. Glad to be here.
Matt: Happy to have you. Uh, w- w- you and I are talking here August 5th. It’s the opening day for Division I preseason games, so I know there’s a lotta, a lotta stuff going on.
Uh, but you guys are Division II, if I’m not mistaken.
Coach: Yep.
Matt: So-
Coach: And our report date is this weekend. That-
Matt: So, it’s like we’re- … that was my question. When, when were you guys getting ready to start? So how, how long do you guys have between the start of preseason and game, match day one that counts?
Coach: Okay. Um- About three weeks-
Matt: Okay
Coach: I would say. But it’s an abnormal year. It’s called a festival year, uh, in the Pac West specifically, and w- what it means is that they have all of the championships in the same place, so we get an extra year of pre-season. [00:01:00] S- or not extra year, extra week. Ah. Not extra year, extra week of pre-season. So typically we have, like, somewhere between seven and nine days of pre-season- Oh, wow
technically. This year we get two weeks. Okay. So.
Matt: All right.
Coach: Um, and it happens every four years.
Matt: Oh, interesting. All
Coach: right. And it, yeah, has to do with the- where they host the championships. Hmm. Interesting. So of all the sports, not just, like, ours.
Matt: Oh, it’s all, oh, it’s all… Okay, it’s a conference thing. Okay.
Interesting.
Coach: Yeah, yeah.
Matt: All right. Well, it being August, uh, and I know you’re gearing up for, for the season, how, how much of your time, you know, right now and in the coming weeks is gonna be spent on recruiting versus focus on the season, right? ‘Cause all the, you know, June 15th’s come and gone, but all the people are all, especially the class of ’28s and a lot of ’27s still sending emails trying to figure out where they’re gonna be and, and how much time are you guys spending on that?
Coach: Absolutely. I would say [00:02:00] the time spent is not necessarily going to watch, but locking in who we’re gonna have come visit. And so we’ve spent a lot of time in June and July at all the tournaments that we normally go to. We like to go to ECNL, Surf Cup. We pretty much stay on the West Coast ’cause of budget, you know.
Um, but all of our travel for recruiting is done, and now we’re taking all our notes and getting the kids to campus. So even though we’re getting ready for season, we’re also getting ready for what it looks like to bring PSAs on campus.
Matt: Okay. All right. I like that. Well, did you guys do any ID camps over the summer, whether at Dominican or you guys, or staff work any?
Is that a thing that you
Coach: do? Yeah. Uh, we do. Uh, shout out to the Colorado Storm. I go there every year. Uh, I went to college in Colorado, so I always like going back to visit. Really great camp. Uh, we also [00:03:00] did the Davis Legacy ID camp. We did, um… It kind of changes, but those two are always locked in. Uh, NorCal Soccer has an ID camp, I think, but it really depends how it fits in our schedule.
We used to host our own ID camps, but because we’re small, it just sometimes didn’t make sense with the numbers we were getting. It made more sense for us to, like, go to them, but…
Matt: Okay. Well- I think we’re- … whether it’s, whether it’s at, uh-
Coach: Are we still there?
Matt: Yep. I still got you Well, although now I don’t have you
Well, whether it’s, you know, at an ECNL event or Surf Cup or an ID camp or, or anything, kind of what, what makes up that hierarchy of things [00:04:00] you’re looking for in a player both on and off the field?
Coach: Sure. I think we- I mean, every coach is looking out for someone who stands out. I think for us, uh, some of the other things are how you’re acting with your teammates on and off the field, uh, how the coach is giving you feedback, and how you’re responding.
Um, I think you look for different things for different parts of the field. Uh, I do a lot with the goalkeepers here, so I’m constantly looking for goalkeepers. The best goalkeepers that we’ve recruited, I’ve actually been on other fields, heard them yelling, and like communicating with their team from other fields, and was so drawn, I went over to see how they were playing.
And usually how confident they were as a goalkeeper, um, that lured me in to see like what’s going on, uh, matched their talent and skill set. Uh, it… Like, to me, it really it’s actually, um, can [00:05:00] be very indicative of their, their skill set on the field. Uh, if we’re in the defense, looking for organization, ability to connect.
Like, how often are you turning it over? We want, we want be able to connect and not lose the ball in defense. Uh, in the midfield, are you a playmaker? Are you silky? Do you got some touches? Do you, do you see through balls? Kind of how it like that midfielder has to be able to read the game on an- the offense and defensive side.
And then on the forwards, you know, something special. You know, speed’s always special, ’cause you can’t teach speed. Uh, you know, moves, but also are you composed, I think is up there. So, you know, it’s a long list. It’s not cut and paste. And, um, you know, it opens the door to the conversation, and then once we get them here, we wanna know are you the right fit for Dominican.
Matt: Okay. All right. Well, [00:06:00] besides the, the traditional ECNL recruitment route, are you guys looking at w- well, what I’ll call the nontraditional, right? So that could be junior college, other… You know, the transfer portal, international. What, what… How do those three kind of fit in?
Coach: Absolutely. Uh, we’re a mixed bag, like a big mixed bag.
Except internationals. They… We kind of struggle with them. We don’t have the budget to go there. It’s hard to get them here. Um, we don’t have a lot of funding for them either, whereas our funding for, if you would say domestic players, uh, there’s academic, athletic grants that all come into play that makes it more s- more sense for people who live in the US to play for us.
But, uh, we have an incoming class of 12. Six of them are freshmen. All the others are transfers. There’s a mix of D2 and JC transfers. We kind of switched to, [00:07:00] I would say it was shortly after COVID, we switched to, uh, leaning into more JC and D2 transfer… Could be D1. We’ve had a couple D1 transfers here and there, but transfer portal kids versus JC kids.
Uh, it’s all a mix, and I think we’ve had the most success when our freshman class is over four kids, like when we have six so they can have a solid group, and, um, when our JC kids are, you know, more than two. So when there’s, like, numbers of relatability when you’re coming into a new space, um, as well as bringing us help at the depth in our roster that we need, so.
Okay. But we are… We canvas all of it, it feels like. So, uh, and we are definitely not a fully ECNL recruited team. I would say of the players that aren’t coming from the transfer JC [00:08:00] world, from the ones that we’re bringing from club, yes, we’re, you know, spend a lot of time with ECNL players. But especially locally, w- we’re able to get to the non-ECNLs.
Surf Cup has been a huge help finding those clubs that maybe they just don’t have 10 age groups to go into ECNL, but they have one studly team at the highest level. Um, and we’re not opposed to it. We, we wanna find the best players for our team, whoever will help us compete and whoever will help us have success, and thrive at Dominican academically as well.
Matt: Okay. Well, i- is there a roster, you know, roster size you guys are, are trying to hit each year that you feel
Coach: is ideal? Ooh. Uh, well, last year we had 38. This year we’re gonna have 38. It’s much larger than we want. We usually like being around the 30, 32 [00:09:00] round area. Um, I think we have had, the last two years, four or five kids that have just had really big injuries that we had to account that we wouldn’t have them the whole year.
So I think that definitely has- Mm, motivated the larger roster size a little. But ultimately, we’re a small school. There’s not a lot of sections of classes. We wanna make sure that at every single practice we have bare minimum 22 players out there so that we can get to 11s most days at the end of practice.
And we gotta account for kids missing class, and kids that will get injured, and the ebbs and flows of kind of the college atmosphere these days, and that’s why our roster gets a little larger than 30, 32. But it seems to work for us, and there’s a lot of women to manage. It’s a lot [00:10:00] of women to manage. Um, but yeah, like come Saturday when everyone reports, we have a- Uh, injured list of six already.
So, well, we have 32 healthy players to start, and of those six, four of them will be out the entire season. So-
Matt: Oh, wow. Brutal.
Coach: Yeah.
Matt: Okay.
Coach: Yeah.
Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. You’ve been there, what, alm- almost a decade? Yes. Excuse me, almost a decade now, right?
Coach: This fall will be my 10th season.
Matt: Okay.
Coach: Officially, officially hitting the double digits, ’cause my first season was 2017. And, um, I d- yeah, I did the math. It’s 10. It’s officially 10, and that’s crazy to me. Um, so fun fact, Dominican is actually in my hometown. I went to kids camps when I was a child here. They were not D2 when I went into playing.
They were NAIA. The field [00:11:00] was a eucalyptus grove, and, uh, now we have a nice turf field. But completely different environment, but I have a ton of childhood memories here. So I’m, I am full circle rooted in the hometown, working for my hometown club as well. But, um, yeah, I’ve been here a long time.
Matt: So, so give us, give us those insights.
What are maybe some, some neat things about Dominican, maybe some stuff we wouldn’t even know by going through the website?
Coach: Absolutely. Well, first of all, Dominican’s located in San Rafael, California. People ask me where it is, and, um, it, it’s the unfamous side of the Golden Gate Bridge. So we’re on the other side of San Francisco.
Um, and it’s, it is just stunning. The campus is beautiful. It’s this hidden pocket of, you know… There’s so much character in all our buildings. The grounds crew m- make sure that all of the trees and plants and everything is [00:12:00] immaculate. And so, like, when you arrive, you just kind of feel like you’re in a fairytale land to start.
But then I think really what makes Dominican so special is they call it the Dominican experience, and that is small class sizes. You cannot get lost. You cannot get lost in the shuffle of academia, athletics. If you’re struggling, someone is gonna be like, “Hey, Betty, what’s going on?” Like, we’re not gonna allow you to fail.
We’re, we’re not gonna pass you to pass you. There’s still rigorous work. But we’re gonna find, do you need a tutor? Do you need a therapist? Do you need a hug? Do you need, like, do you need a friend? Do I need to find you a social group? Um, how’s your living situation? How can we help you? Like, just the, the experience of support and community.
You’re not just coming- To school to get lost, you’re gonna come join a family. And that’s for our whole campus, athletics or not. But then [00:13:00] within athletics, the athletic department is a giant family of support, not only within teams, but like team to team. And so I think that’s something that not … You don’t know until you come here.
Uh, and then I think what I’m really proud of the academic side a lot of integrated learning. So if you’re in school, you have internships embedded into your business degree so that, like, your resume is being built as you go through college. If you’re in the nursing program, you’re doing your clinicals and everything along the lines there, that they’re sending you wherever you need to go.
Uh, if you’re in the psych, they have you going through rotations. It- they’ve just … They’re … The way they look at education is from so many perspectives, and makes me proud, you know, to, to work here. In fact, [00:14:00] I, back my seventh or eighth year, I ended up deciding to get my master’s, my MBA here. So, um, my undergrad was gone, but I was able to get
I was able to do schooling here too while coaching, which was amazing, and it was really great to see the other side and be able to relate to our players. Uh, Kelly, our head coach, also got a master’s here. I think his was in education, though. So we’re able to relate to them, knowing what the academic side looks like, but, um, also the athletic side is great.
I think, what else? Um, the whole campus is one mile long, so it’s easy. Yeah.
Matt: Yeah. That’s, uh … Sounds great. Um-
Coach: Yeah …
Matt: well, let’s fast-forward to October, okay? Yeah. You guys are in the heart of that s- conference season. Yeah. Walk me through what’s a typical week schedule gonna look like in terms of practices, meals, games, all classes, all that stuff.[00:15:00]
Coach: Sure. This October or last October?
Matt: Well, let- let’s look at what-
Coach: Uh …
Matt: what do you think it’s gonna look like, yeah.
Coach: Yeah. Well, hopefully if we’re getting to mid-October, we’re ramping up to go on our nine-day trip to Hawaii, or playing the three Hawaii Pac West schools, and clinching a spot to playoffs. Uh, but if we’re not doing that, um, we practice on
I’m trying to think what we decided this year. Monday, Wednesdays we do midday practices are 12:30 to 2:30. Tuesday, Thursday, Fridays are 7:00 to 9:00. The game schedule kind of pops around. It doesn’t, it’s not solidified like Thursday, Saturday, or Friday, Sundays for us. There’s two pieces to that. One, we have some religious schools in our conference that do not play on Sundays, so that, like, kind of changes if it’s a Saturday or Sunday game.
Uh, and then the weekday games, the conference [00:16:00] office actually mandates that they don’t all land on the same day so that it doesn’t, uh, impact the same classes consistently. So, you know, we have our practice schedule, but if there’s- Um, a game day which moves around. We… That practice leaves the schedule. Uh, there’s usually a film session in there, and there’s usually weights, and those, they just change week to week.
That being said, we are Google Calendar people. On August 9th, on Sunday, the team will have the schedule of what’s happening every single week to a T for the whole season. It’s not determined week by week. It’s determined way, way ahead, and if anything’s changing, we’re given big-time notice because we’ve just experienced that the anxiety of the unknown is just not the jam for us.
So, um, usually if there’s two games, we got three practices [00:17:00] and a day off, right? Is that…? Yeah. It’s, that’s… Trying to do the math real quick. Mm-hmm. But, um, and the day before a game is usually gonna be a more walk-through, strategic, tactical practice. The day after a game, we’re gonna see recovery. Although, with a large roster, we do a little bit of 50/50.
If you played, you’re doing recovery. If you didn’t play, you’re training and getting some, some more touches and higher pace reps in so that you can maintain fitness. And, you know, if your name is called and you’re ready to go in, you gotta be ready, so, um.
Matt: Okay.
Coach: And then as far as academics, it’s, it’s different for all the girls.
It really depends what programing you’re, you’re in. But, um, most of them, uh, figure that out way ahead of time. I think it’s only if you’re in the nursing school is there nuance, nuances that are super impactful
Matt: Okay. All [00:18:00] right. Well, we talked about, uh, how many were on the roster. Mm-hmm. Talk to me about the other side of the roster.
W- talk, you know, who, who all is on the staff? Who, what are some maybe- Yeah … support folks in the department that help out with the team? What’s that kinda look like?
Coach: Absolutely. Uh, this will be the largest staff that we have this year. Uh, Kelly is the head coach. I’m the assistant coach. We have two kind of part-time assistant coaches, Ralph Montes and Isaiah Sherwin, who, uh
Ralph, fun fact, coached me my freshman year of high school, but he also was one of the original coaches back in the day to start the Dominican program, and is a Dominican alum, as well as his wife, who’s a Dominican alum, that won a championship with, uh, the NAIA back in those years. So got a lot of Dominican love.
Um, Isaiah’s also a Dominican alum, although he did not play here. So a lot of Dominican ties among staff. Uh, Isaiah’s [00:19:00] like the king of analysis, helps us with film, does a lot of clipping. Ralph does a lot of our trainings when we’re on the, um … Kelly and I will travel with the team. Ralph will stay back and train whoever’s not traveling.
If you’re not traveling, you’re training in place of, um, and you’re not just getting a weekend off ever. Like, you’re, there’s commitment to the team. In addition, we have two volunteer coaches, like volunteer- Whenever they can come, Jenna and Meg, who were actually players for us that graduated last year.
Meg was the, uh, player of the year for the conference. Her, you know, desire is to get into sports statistics, so she’s gonna help us with a lot of that. And hopefully using our data trackers better, because while data trackers are really helpful, you need bandwidth from coaches, [00:20:00] and that’s, that’s a whole thing.
We have an applied sports science program at Dominican, and they’re going to provide us… Her name is Cindy. Uh, she’s gonna get clinical hours being our mental strength coach, which is really exciting to have, uh, another female in the fold that is, um, kind of older and just will provide that, like, nurturing touch, whereas Jenna and Meg will be able to t- be, like, relatable to previous captains.
Um, those three roles we’ve never had in the past. So we’ve just doubled our staff luckily somehow this season. We also have a strength and conditioning coach, Matt Alarnia, who, he works with multiple teams on campus. And I think that’s it for staff. But like I said, it’s the largest staff we’ve ever had.
It’s usually Kelly and I and one volunteer coach. And we’ve just been able to grow because [00:21:00] honestly, the absolute charity of everyone on staff willing to give a lot of their time for free, so.
Matt: Yeah. That’s great. Well, how would you guys kind of describe, you know- Coach Kelly’s coaching style and the style of play you guys look to play there.
Coach: Sure. Uh, well we’ve been playing a three-five-two. Uh, I mean over the last 10 years we’ve also played a four-three-three. There’s been… We’ve gone through many systems is what I would say, uh, and formations. Ultimately at the beginning of the season, and we just had this meeting yesterday, we sit down, we talk about the players we have and what formation fits the personnel that we have.
We’re not stuck into we must play three-five-two because it did really well last season. If we don’t, you know, like we graduated some players, so we’ve been talking about are we gonna change that, you know? So that it, [00:22:00] uh, fits what we have, you know, and usu- utilizes what we have the best. So I, I think it starts there.
Um, after that we love to play the beautiful game, play out the back, connect the ball. But, you know, we asked the girls last year how they want to be known, and they were like, “As fighters. Be scrappy.” And so sometimes you have to be able to deviate and be flexible. And so it- there’s been a lot of that that has adapted.
Um, Kelly’s philosophy is pretty straightforward. I can’t probably speak for him directly, but indirectly I would say most of the time he’s a really transparent coach. I think we both try to have a lot of empathy. You know, we’re all humans at, at the end of the day. Yes, college soccer is a priority, but life is a priority too.
Your family is a priority, your health is a priority. Uh, and so we try to [00:23:00] create a really safe atmosphere for all of that. Um, and try… Did I miss anything in there I guess? No, I don’t think. You
Matt: covered
Coach: a lot,
Matt: you covered a lot of ground there.
Coach: Covered a lot of ground there, yeah. Um, yeah, a lot. We try to, to lead with a lot of transparency as much as possible.
But also there’s just pieces that you don’t know what you don’t know. So sometimes it’s a waiting game. Yeah.
Matt: Sure. All right. Well, Coach, you, you have given us a lot of info, and, uh- Yeah … gonna leave you with one last question, and that is if you had- Yeah … one piece of advice for, you know, anybody going through this college recruiting process, what would that be?
Coach: Yeah. Oh, I have many pieces of advice actually. But, um, I think don’t underestimate reaching directly to coaches. You know, you’re gonna send a lot of blanket emails, but some of the best recruits is when I gave my phone number and they reached out and asked me how I was and, [00:24:00] like, tried to make a human connection with me.
I made a human connection with them. It, it motivated me to get them on campus faster. Um, so that piece. Also, that being aware of kinda what part of season coach is in, and not letting it get to your head. Like, yeah, you sent me an email at the first two weeks of August ’cause your season’s starting, but my season’s also starting, so if I don’t respond to you, don’t take it personally, just email me again.
Email me 10 times. The more you email me, the more I read your name, the more familiar it gets. So there’s nothing wrong with continuing to comment and that kind of stuff. And I think the other one is don’t underestimate your club coaches relationships and network. Um, I think club coaches do a lot of thankless work getting their players where they need to get, and, yes, you as a player can do it without them if you don’t like them, but if you like them, you need to be leaning hard [00:25:00] into them.
And networking is key. You know, talent, talent’s important, and that’s what will land it, but you gotta get in the door, you gotta have some networks, and you can do it a lot of ways is, um, I think one of the piece. And it will work out. You know, I think recruiting creates a lot of self-doubt. Going through the recruiting process, you, you doubt yourself a lot.
You gotta keep your confidence high, make sure that you find that support system, and champion your teammates. You know, if they’re getting recruited, that, that’s good for you. You know, it means you’re surrounded by good people.
Matt: Yeah.
Coach: So.
Matt: For sure. For sure. Yeah. Well, Coach, really appreciate it. Uh-
Coach: Absolutely
Matt: wish you the best of luck this upcoming season, and, uh-
Coach: Yeah. Thank you …
Matt: hopefully, you, you, you will be in Hawaii, uh, trying to win that- Yeah … conference title out there.
Coach: Yeah. Well, we go to Hawaii end of season for a conference, and if we’re going to the playoffs, we come home for five days and then the playoffs are back in Hawaii, so.[00:26:00]
Matt: There’s worse places to be.
Coach: Hopefully we’re hitting Hawaii twice this year is the hope, so.
Matt: Absolutely. But- Well, well, best of luck to you. Thanks for
Coach: coming on. Yeah. Matt, thank you so much for hosting. Really appreciate and, um, admire what you’re doing for, for all these colleges and these players, educating them, so.
Matt: Yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. All right.
Coach: Take
Matt: care.
Coach: All right. See ya.
