Dakota Wesleyan University Women’s Soccer – Coach John Hakari
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Hakari from the Dakota Wesleyan Women’s Program in Mitchell, South Dakota. We talk about how he looks for players who are confident on the ball, competitive, and fit the team culture. He describes the school’s strong academic programs, impressive athletic facilities, and the close-knit community surrounding the university. Lastly, we discuss his possession-focused coaching style and why he believes players should view mistakes as opportunities to learn.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today, I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach John over at Dakota Wesleyan. Welcome, coach.
Coach: Hello. Thank you.
Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. We’re talking August 12th. It’s match day one for NCAA Division One. I don’t know, so when, when do you… Have you, have your kids arrived and preseason started yet?
Coach: Yeah, we moved in July 31st. Practice started August 3rd.
Matt: Okay. And then match day one is when?
Coach: So we have our, we have a reserve team game this Friday, and then top team game this Saturday.
Matt: Okay. All right. So we’re right around the corner, huh?
Coach: Yep.
Matt: And then when do classes start?
Coach: Classes start August 22nd.
Matt: Okay. Yeah, that’s, uh-
Well, 24th probably. The 22nd- Yeah, 24th. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I’m
Coach: sorry. Yeah,
Matt: yeah. 22nd you probably have a game. Correct. No, that’s- Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Coach: Monday the 24th. You’re right.
Matt: Yeah.
Coach: Yep.
Matt: No, it’s, uh … I only know because my daughter’s a freshman in college, and that’s when she starts, so.
Coach: Yep.
Matt: Um- That makes sense.
Yeah, craziness. Well, good [00:01:00] stuff. And, uh, you know, you, you got ’em in. You’re working hard. So the r- one of the questions that I get from Mark is, well, okay, well, he’s focused on the team and the season at hand. Should I email him about, you know, if I’m a class of ’27 person or ’28, should I be emailing, uh, Coach John over at Dakota Wesleyan?
Does he even answer my emails right now? Like, what, how much time are you guys spending on kind of the recruiting side versus obviously what you gotta do for the season?
Coach: Yeah, yeah. I mean, recruiting never ends. I think, you know, and that’s, um, that’s true from the, from, you know, from any level all the way to the highest level is every coach is pretty much always recruiting.
Um, yes, my focus right now is on the girls and on the season, but we have a recruit on campus today. Uh, and so, you know, it’s, it’s definitely, the answer to that question is definitely email the coach. Um, it, especially in the women’s game, um, recruiting happened so much earlier that, uh, you know, it, [00:02:00] there’s…
All coaches should be recruiting during season, and I definitely am.
Matt: Yeah. No, that makes sense. Um, a- and how has kinda this… I, I, I mean, the NAIA hasn’t adopted the five years of eligibility yet, to my knowledge, but I’m guessing you’re probably hearing rumblings that it’s coming, or how is that gonna-
Coach: Yeah,
Matt: everything’s- Or do you know?
I mean…
Coach: Everything’s rumor, of course. Um- Yeah … you know, we get o- we get official emails from the NAIA that say a lot of nothing, but, um, you know, there, there’s lots of rumors, and I think it’s, if I were a betting man, I’d bet it’s coming down.
Matt: Yeah, yeah. That’s kinda what I’m guessing as well. But, uh, you know, y- you never know.
NAIA likes- Right … to do things differently sometimes. Right, right. But, uh, I think that would put them at a disadvantage, which generally they’re, they’re good about making rules that put them at a little bit of an advantage. Correct. Correct.
Coach: Correct.
Matt: So, well, in what, in terms of, in terms of your recruiting, like, h- you [00:03:00] say you have a, you have a reserve.
Like, how many, how many kids are you looking to bring in generally each year? What’s that roster size looking like with the reserve team in hand?
Coach: Yeah. I like to sit at about 30, um, and so I know that that seems a little small to have a reserve team, but I, I always… You know, once conference play rolls around, only about 15 to 16 of my girls are getting quality minutes on the top team.
Um, and so I think it’s tragic. How are my players, how are my bottom 15 players supposed to develop as college athletes if they don’t get to play in college games? Um, so I schedule them games against JUCOs, so I’ll play my reserves against the JUCO’s top team, um, and then I’ll obviously play reserve games against other universities res- any other four years reserve teams.
Um, so it’s just a mechanism for me to develop them mostly. So we sit around 30. Um, that’s where I like to be.
Matt: That’s, I- I mean, that, it’s very impressive ’cause most teams who… You know, a lot of schools, especially NAI schools, you know, the, the athletic department of the school will say, “Hey, you need a reserve team,” [00:04:00] which generally means you’re at double what most- Right
people are, where, you know, NCAA roster or D1 rosters are only at 28, so you’re just putting two more and have a reserve game. That’s, that’s, that’s pretty sweet.
Coach: Yep.
Matt: Uh, well, when you’re recruiting, what, where, where is it that you like to go? Where are you finding kids? Kind of what’s your, your hot spots when you’re out and about?
Coach: Yeah, I’m gonna give you the long answer to this, which is, um, when I first started here back in 2022, uh, I was everywhere. Pretty much everywhere but South Dakota was what I was looking. Um, this was a losing program for eight years before me, uh, and so a lot of the local players didn’t even consider Dakota Wesleyan as an option.
So I was kind of, uh, boxed out of the local players. They weren’t interested, and so I went everywhere. I mean, I have girls from California, Texas, Arizona, Nebraska, New York, um, pretty much everywhere, both coasts, and then I have internationals. I’ve had… I had a girl from England, uh, a JUCO transfer center back from England, and I have, currently have two French girls on the team, um, a JUCO, [00:05:00] a JUCO transfer and one freshman.
Uh, however, what’s been very fortunate is we’ve had a lot of success. Uh, we’ve made playoffs, uh, two of the last four years. Uh, we had a winning season last year, first time in a really long time for this program. Um, and so that’s helped, uh, you know, re- re- restore, um, this program’s reputation with local kids.
So, um, I’m actually about… I have about 15 South Dakota kids on the roster currently, um, as a result of the last two recruiting classes. So I’m, I’m very, very fortunate that with that, that we’ve, um, you know, we’ve… the girls have done really well on the pitch, which has resulted in me being able to recruit locally successfully.
Matt: Okay. And now are you doing ID camps up there? Are you working other ID camps? Are they part of the process at all?
Coach: Yeah. Um, we, we don’t run our own ID camp. Mitchell, South Dakota is the most middle of nowhere you can be. Um, it’s tough, it’s tough to get kids out for an ID camp, but, um, we do events in Sioux Falls.
I go to, uh, ID or, um, college showcases whenever I can. [00:06:00] Um, and I also… I make it out to a lot of cl- I have got good club connections and high school connections, so, um, I run a couple of high school preseasons. Um, I make it out to some high school games as well as club games.
Matt: So when you’re at any of those games, camps, tournaments, whatever, what is it that you’re looking for in a player?
Give me that off the field and off, or on the field and off the field stuff.
Coach: Yeah, so the two things for me on the field are confidence on the ball and competitive. Um, you know, I think I’m, I’m a big believer that, uh, good players come in all shapes and sizes. Um, there’s good players that are slow, good players that are fast, good players that are tall, good players that are short.
Um, I, I really am not super invested in that side of things. It’s really confidence on the ball. Um, do they want the ball? You know, wanting the ball, um, looking confident with the ball at their foot is a non-negotiable for me. Um, and so that’s the primary thing is I’m, I’m looking at the players who, uh, in the game are trying to get on the ball, and when they are on the ball are confident.
Uh, and then competitiveness. Um, I [00:07:00] love, uh, when girls are intense. Uh, I think there’s a stigma sometimes, um, within, uh, you know, the female athletes where, you know, maybe it’s not cool to be intense. Um, but the… I love when players are intense, I love when they’re physical, uh, I love when they compete at practice, I love when they hate losing, and I love when they are intense in games.
Um, so those are the two things for me on the pitch is, you know, competitiveness, uh, and confidence on the ball.
Matt: Okay.
Coach: Uh, off, off the pitch, team culture is a really big thing for me. I kind of… Some of my girls say I have a big personality, um, and so if a girl is kind of turned off by, uh, my big personality, then it’s kind of a- Uh, a indicator to me that she’s not gonna fit in our team culture.
Um, and so I’m kinda goofy and fun, and as a result, you know, players reflect the coach’s attitude. My girls are goofy and fun. Um, so that’s what I’m looking for. You know, are you, are you fun to be around? Are you a good person? Are you easygoing? Um, ’cause if that’s the case, then you’re gonna fit in our team culture.[00:08:00]
Matt: Okay. Yeah. No, that’s fair. Well, let’s talk a little bit about the school. Like you s- kinda told us where it’s at, but, uh, there’s gotta be, uh, some things you truly enjoy about it. You’ve been there for a fuse now, a few, few years now, so, uh, tell us some things, maybe some stuff we wouldn’t even know by going through the website.
Coach: Yeah, it is, it is… I mean, I, I did say it’s the middle of nowhere, which I don’t ever try to hide that. Um, but it is a great place. I mean, the, the, the entire town, um, about 15,000 people in Mitchell, South Dakota. Um, but the entire town kind of revolves around the university. Um, so if you play a sport here, um, uh, everyone knows you.
Little old ladies at the grocery store will, will say hi to you if you’re an athlete. Um, the facilities are amazing. Uh, we have a, a massive grass complex where we have access to four pitches, um, one game, one game pitch, and three training pitches. Uh, we have our own locker rooms out there, so we’re very fortunate for that.
Um, our… We have an amazing indoor field house where we have, like, four futsal courts, so they’re basketball courts, but they’re painted with keeper [00:09:00] creases so we can set up for futsal. Um, so we do a ton of that in the winter. Uh, amazing lifting facilities. So, um, the university also has amazing academic programs.
Um, I’m very fortunate, we are the number one nursing school in South Dakota. Um, so we just had 100%, uh, NCLEX pass rate, that’s the nursing boards, um, and 100% job rate for this last class. So that should vault us from number two in the state to number one for nursing schools, um, which obviously for wom- female athletes, that’s an amazing boon.
Um, we have a master’s in athletic training program, five and done, um, which is a really big deal. Uh, and then we are the number one education program in the state as well. Um, we actually have the local public elementary school is physically located on our campus, um, which at first seems kinda goofy ’cause it’s a college campus, then all of a sudden there’s, like, a playground and kids.
Um, but, uh, it’s really cool because the education majors, some of them get to do their student teaching right on campus. They literally roll out of bed, walk 100 yards, and they’re at [00:10:00] their student teaching, so.
Matt: Wow, that, that is amazing.
Coach: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah, that’s, um, very cool. Well, uh, you know, one of the hard things for student athletes can be, especially new freshman coming in, is just really balancing the demands of both the academic side and the athletic side.
What kind of support systems does the school have to try to ensure that, you know, your players are successful in the classroom as well as, as on the field?
Coach: Yeah. Um, I’ll start with nursing. Uh, we are very, very fortunate that we’re one of the very few schools in the entire nation that allow nursing majors to play their sport all four years and be a nursing major.
Um, most schools, even other schools in our conference, um, a lot of the NSIC, uh, D2 schools in the area will kick their nursing majors off the team, um, their junior or senior year. Uh, but we have agreements with labs, clinics, hospitals in the area so that we make sure that these nursing students can get their clinical hours that they need [00:11:00] and still play their sport, um, which is huge, ’cause now instead of having nursing majors for two to three years, we have them for four.
Um, so that’s to me, just a glimpse into what the school’s willing to do to support, um, student athletes. We have free tutoring, um, for everybody on campus, uh, both generic tutoring and specific to classes. Uh, and then the, the profess- professors for the overwhelming majority are, um, really, really flexible in terms of letting students make up quizzes, tests, homework, uh, when they miss for away games.
Um, and, and that kind of all results in a really, really good student athlete experience. Um, as part of the women’s soccer program, we do, uh, study tables for incoming freshmen as well as regular grade checks. Um, so that’s not campus-wide, that’s us. Um, but I think that’s pretty typical of, of, uh, of the student athlete experience.
So, um, they’re very, very well-supported here. Team GPA is never an issue for us.
Matt: Well, sounds like it. Well, let’s fast-forward to October. Obviously, your [00:12:00] schedule right now is different because you’re not in class and games haven’t started yet, but let’s say you’re in the heart of that GPAC schedule. Walk me through what’s a typical week look like.
What time are you training? What are c- classes, meals, game cadence, all that kind of thing?
Coach: Yeah, yeah. I mean, you’re… Like, a Monday, girls get up, they have breakfast, classes, lunch, classes, and then practice 4:00 to 6:00 PM. Um, I always try to sprinkle in, uh, one classroom, at least one classroom or film per week.
So there might be a day where we go practice, and then the girls go to dinner, and then film or classroom afterward. Um, and then I try to do a team bonding about once every other week. So, you know, that could fall on, uh, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, ’cause we play Wednesdays, Saturdays. Um, but we’re doing at least one film classroom per week in addition to practice, and then at least one team bonding about every other week.
So games are Wednesdays, Saturdays for GPAC. Um, always have Sundays off, uh, and then sometimes we take Thursdays off if we play, like, a Hastings and it’s a [00:13:00] physically brutal game. Um, sometimes we gotta take the day off afterward just to survive. Um, but, uh, yeah. So I mean, it’s a cla- training 4:00 to 6:00 PM, sprinkle in a classroom film, uh, about once a week, uh, and then just, uh, you know, missing classes for away games.
Get on a bus, go to an away game. Um, that’s kind of the typical cadence of a student athlete.
Matt: So being where you guys are, what is, what is your normal travel routine for, for matches?
Coach: Yeah. We’re, we’re … I think because Jamestown left our conference, I think we’re currently the furthest north in the GPAC. Um, and so we, we actually don’t have any mandatory overnights in GPAC, which is nice.
Um, furthest we go is four and a half hours to Hastings. Uh, so we try to do that in a day. We’ll leave early morning on a Wednesday or a Saturday, um, travel down, men play, women play, or vice versa depending on the year. Uh, and then we’re getting back pretty late in the night usually. Um, we’re usually getting back around, you know, 2:00, 3:00 AM.
Um, but at least it’s not a, an, an [00:14:00] overnight and missing two classes, two days of classes, so.
Matt: Yeah. No, that’s not as bad as I thought it might be. All right. Well, we talked about the, the roster size, talked about the rest of the roster. What coaching staff, athletic department staff, who’s there helping? What role does everybody play there?
Coach: Yeah, yeah. I’m very fortunate. We have a full-time assistant that we share between the men and women’s program, and he’s our goalkeeper coach. Um, so there’s obviously head men’s coach, me head women’s coach, and then we share a full-time assistant, uh, who works with our keepers and obviously helps us in everything.
Um, but he’s primarily working with the keepers. And then we have, uh, two GAs for the women’s. So we have, uh, Jordan Vargas and, uh, Garrett Hannah. Garrett Hannah’s a former men’s player here at Dakota Wesleyan, um, and now he’s my GA. So two GAs, a full-time assistant that we share with the men, and me. Uh, in my opinion, it’s a robust staff.
I feel very fortunate. Uh, we have full-time strength and conditioning, uh, full-time athletic training assigned to us, uh, full-time athletic trainer. So, um, I … Yeah, [00:15:00] it’s … We’re very fortunate here.
Matt: Okay, great. Well, talk to us about you. What, what’s your coaching style like besides that big personality? Uh, X’s and O’s here, what, how do you guys like to play?
Coach: Yeah. Um, we are, we, we like to keep the ball. Um, and I know there’s, it’s becoming very trendy nowadays to say we, to say, “Oh, we play possession, we keep the ball.” Um, but I think when you actually sit down and watch college film, most, the overwhelming majority of teams play very direct. Uh, it’s safe and easy, kick it to your fast kids.
Um, and we are absolutely not like that. Um, we… I made a goal comp- I make a goal compilation every year where I, um, you know, take all the goals we scored the year before, clip them into a little compilation. Um, and it just, it, it’s, it’s such a great reminder to me of how beautifully we play. Um, I would say about half of our goals started at our keeper’s feet, um, or our keeper had the ball at some point in the buildup.
Uh, so um, super patient. Um, we possess at every practice. Um, I hate passing patterns and I hate dribbling through [00:16:00] cones. Um, I believe we don’t play against cones, so why would we train against cones? Um, all my trainings, uh, start with small-sided rondos, um, moving rondos, position game, positional games, possessional games, small-sided games, big-sided games.
Um, I believe that, you know, to get most from a training, uh, you should have a ball, teammates, and opposition, and all my drills reflect that. So, um, I really hammer into the girls to view mistakes as opportunities to learn. Uh, I think one of the common things I hear from my players is, “Oh, I, I get in my head,” or, “I’m in my head about it.”
And I think one of my, uh, roles is to constantly reset the girls back on viewing mistakes as opportunities to learn. Every time you take a bad touch, every time you make a bad decision, it’s an opportunity to get better. Um, and that’s really how I, I try to refocus them. And as much as it hurts me, that includes in games.
Um, you know, if, if you make a terrible mistake in a game and we concede a goal that costs us the game, um, it sucks that we lost that game, but the silver lining [00:17:00] is that it’s likely you’re probably never gonna make that mistake again. Um, and so that’s kind of, that’s my coaching style is I, I, I hammer the girls on possession, keeping the ball, um, viewing the ball as a mechanism to move the opposition, uh, viewing mistakes as opportunities to learn, and I cannot state enough how much I hate passing patterns and dribbling through cones.
We play, play, play. All
Matt: right. Love it. Well, in terms of- You know, we’ve talked a lot about the fall, the, the big part of the season, but let’s talk about the, the spring. What are you guys doing, uh, in that non-traditional, quote-unquote, off-season?
Coach: Yeah. Uh, a former coaching colleague of mine once said… He was a college coach.
Um, he said that the, the spring is the only time you can actually coach your players. Um, and I, I’ve, I kind of chuckled when he said that, and, and I’ve… it’s… nothing’s been more true. Um, you spend most, most of the fall more or less just getting through it, you know, putting out fires. You have to deal with the next team that you’re playing.
You have to deal [00:18:00] with their tactics. You have to prepare for that. You’re dealing with injuries because of how rigorous college soccer is. You’re, you know, filling in holes. Maybe you’re not starting your best player here and there. Um, and as a result, you don’t get to invest into your players the way you need to, um, if you truly are, you know, a coach who wants to develop players and have a robust, healthy roster who’s gonna, you know, where if you lose a starting center-back, your second string center-back can fill in without much drop in level.
Um, and the only way to do that is to train them through winter and spring. So, um, we have our down period where I’m not allowed contact with them, runs from, you know, end of playoffs to about late January. Um, our captains have a really cool tradition where they run captain-led futsal during that time. So about once a week, without me involved, um, my captains, uh, have, like, pick-up futsal going on.
Um, and then there’s a lift twice a week that is mandatory, because I’m allowed to make that mandatory. So lifting twice a week from end of playoffs to mid-January, uh, captains running futsal once a week. Then once late January runs around and we’re in our, [00:19:00] comes around, we’re in our 12-week period, um, then we’re doing futsal probably three to four times a week, uh, until the snow melts.
I mean, I’m saying futsal, and I think the understanding is that there’s about two feet of snow on the ground in South Dakota, uh, from November until March, late, early March. So, uh, we’ll play a ton of futsal. Like I said, we’re fortunate to have that facility. Lifting twice a week, futsal three to four times a week, um, classroom reveali- reviewing film from the, the season before for about once a week.
Uh, that’s what it looks like until the snow melts in March, then we’re outside March through May, um, three to four times per week training, usually, like, 4:00 to 5:30 PM, uh, with one film session a week again. Uh, and then we always have the three or four spring, spring scrimmages, so.
Matt: Okay. Awesome. Well, you’ve given us some really good insight.
Gonna leave you with one last question, and that is, if you had one piece of advice for anybody going through this recruiting process right now, what would that be?
Coach: Uh, find the right fit. Um, focus on the right fit. Don’t chase [00:20:00] levels. Uh, as a… I was a JUCO coach, um, before this, and the number of my players who trans- part of my job as a JUCO coach was to help them find a four-year to finish playing, and the girls who were chasing level, without exception, went on to have a terrible time, whereas the girls who, um, found the right fit for them, coach that cared about them, invested in them, had the academics, had the finances, those were the girls who were fulfilled and, and had successful careers.
So, um, you know, if D1 is the right fit, that’s amazing. Um, if D2 is the right fit, that’s amazing. If NAIA, D3 is the right fit, that’s amazing. If JUCO is the right fit, that’s amazing. The reality is 7% of youth athletes go on to play soccer in college, 2% do it on any amount of scholarship, so, um, it’s an amazing feat, and focus on the fit, not the level.
Matt: Couldn’t agree more. Well, Coach, wish you the best of luck this season. Hopefully you’re hanging that GPAC banner when it’s all said and done, and, uh- That’s the
Coach: hope …
Matt: [00:21:00] we’ll talk to you soon, all right?
Coach: Thank you so much, Matt.
Matt: Thank you.
Coach: Yeah. Bye.
