Hardin-Simmons University Women’s Soccer – Coach Rusty Oglesby

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Rusty Oglesby from the Hardin-Simmons Women’s Program in Abilene, Texas. We talk about how the program stays ahead in recruiting and why he looks for strong students who are involved outside of soccer and will fit the culture at Hardin-Simmons. Coach describes the strong alumni network, impressive athletic facilities, and academic opportunities that allow student-athletes to compete at a high level while preparing for their future careers. Lastly, we discuss his possession-oriented style of play, the program’s approach to the spring season, and why he encourages recruits to be patient, trust their own journey, and find a school where they will be wanted and enjoy their college experience.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today, I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Rusty over at Hardin-Simmons. Welcome, Coach.

Coach: Hey, man, I appreciate it. Thanks, man, for having me on today.

Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. Excited to talk to you. I, uh, my, my daughter’s in school over at, uh, at McNeese in Louisiana, so, uh-

Coach: Huh

Matt: so she’s gotta play Abilene Christian, and you’re, you guys are over there- Yeah … uh, but, but on the D3 side, which is cool. And I, a- I played D3, so hey, I got a, a soft spot, uh-

Coach: Don’t even … for, for D3 It’s cool. Well, and over at McNeese, you know, Trent Ivey, goalkeeper coach, Trent’s an old Hardin-Simmons guy too.

Yeah. So that’s a, that’s a pretty cool deal, so- Yeah … HSU is always, always around. There’s no doubt about that.

Matt: Well, I mean, you know, s- speaking of being always around, you guys are a few games into the season, uh- Sure … you know, here already. But, you know, one thing, you know, I think a lot of recruits are wondering is like, oh, goodness, like, Coach, uh, like I…

If I wanna talk to Hardin-Simmons, man, they’re in the middle of their season. Should I be emailing? Like, how much of your time right now is spent, say, you know, recruiting class of [00:01:00] ’27 kids, or looking at ’28s, or that kind of thing right now?

Coach: Yeah, it, uh, you know, it’s… We’re very blessed here, first off, with some of the success that we’ve had at Hardin-Simmons has allowed us to really stay kind of ahead of the game, I guess you could say.

Like, we’re- We’re, we’re really done with our 27s already. Um, we’re, we’re gonna bring in, um, another class of between nine and 11, uh, in this fall. Just waiting on the last couple to decide if they’re gonna come or not. So we could have nine if they say no, but we could have as many as 11 if they decide to say yes.

So, um, we’re, we’re thrilled about that. Um, but that, that means we’re already in our 28 class, which for D III is, I think, a blessing. Most of our, our friends in the D III world are still working on 27s, and some will be waiting for after the season to really go back into that. So it’s nice for us to already know that we’re, uh, in three weeks we have, uh, five 28s coming in to watch a game on a Saturday.

So, um, so that’s good. So I say that to say just like every recruiting journey is, is [00:02:00] different for every kid, I think every recruiting journey is different for every school. So what I’m saying right here is we’re already on 2028. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t send me your stuff if you’re a 2027. I mean, at the end of the day, a lot of things could happen.

There’s still no guarantee that even the ones who have committed will show up on, on signing day or show up on, uh, August 15th next year, right? I mean, that’s the joy of D III, is we’re not bound to anything with the kids, so things can happen. So you just never know. Um, so I would, I would encourage everybody that’s a 2027 to keep going.

You know, everybody’s different in season. Some coaches just throw themselves straight into the, to the season. Um, I’m very lucky here that I’ve got an incredible assistant, and she and I work well together, whether it’s planning sessions or we’re recruiting. So if one of us is working on the training session, the other’s answering emails for recruiting.

So, uh, I mean, it… I would say in the D III world, recruiting is a 24/7, 365 job. Um, you know, we don’t have that [00:03:00] down period and the dead time that so many of the schools do. So for us, we wanna take advantage of that. When, when kids are knowing that, you know, “Oh, I can’t talk to you till June 15th,” or whatever the date is, that’s my cue to jump in and say, “But you can talk to me.”

And we start building those relationship with kids- Um, early, and we wanna stay on ’em early because we don’t wanna dig into the transfer portal. I think D3 is such a culture type situation that if you’re not careful, you can really blow up a locker room. So we, we, we bring in the freshmen, and we wanna keep those freshmen for four years.

So I think recruiting for us is, is all in all the time.

Matt: Well, and, and, you know, congrats, ’cause you guys have, you know, had a lot of success there, and it’s interesting looking at your roster. It’s, uh, I think all but, all but two are from Texas, so it looks like- Yeah … you’re, you’re, you’re really working hard to, to, you know, maximize your…

I mean, we… You can’t call… I mean, just recruiting the state of Texas is actually more regional than it is local. It’s, uh, so- It,

Coach: it… Right. I mean, you know, when you look at the fact that I, I was [00:04:00] saying one time, you know, I felt bad asking a kid to come in to work camp ’cause they were from New Mexico, but then I have a girl from McAllen, Texas, that’s an hour further than the one that lives in New Mexico.

So it’s kinda like this, you know, where, where’s the fine line? But yeah, it is very regional and, and everything in how we do it, and we have our hotbeds of things. And then we get the outliers, but an outlier for us, like I said, a kid from McAllen is, is as much an outlier as going out of state. Yeah. It’s, it’s very strange.

Matt: Well, and, and you said you got a- another recruiting class of nine to 11, so, like, what is your kinda roster size that you like to hit?

Coach: We… Yeah, we, we usually stay right around the 30 range. We’ll, we’ll go as high as 33 or 34. When I first got here, we were at, like, 34. Um, and, and I think if this recruiting class stays what it is and they all show up, we have a small senior class, we’re only losing five kids, but it’ll be my fourth year, so my third full recruiting class since I got here.

And so, um, it’s been real important these last two years to really hit some heavy numbers so that we really expand into [00:05:00] the kinda kid that we’ve really wanted to recruit through this whole time, and, and I think that’s why this group’s gonna be so heavy. Um, moving forward, I think our average roster is gonna stay between that 30 and 32, and we’re gonna probably hit between six and eight, is gonna be your traditional, I think, fall back into that number as a recruiting class.

Matt: Okay. Well- When it comes to recruiting, kind of w- what makes up that hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player both on and off the field?

Coach: Yeah, we, you know, we’re, we, we look for… There’s some, we have our own little niche, I guess you could say. I’m looking for a 3.5 GPA or higher kid. It doesn’t mean a 3.5 or higher GPA kid is a better soccer player than a 3.1, but what it does mean is that Hardin-Simmons gives out X number of dollars of scholarships from our endowments, and at a, at a university that costs $48,000, I mean, we don’t sugarcoat it, that’s the number.

So if I can give that kid that has a 4.0 $20,000 or $22,000 in academic scholarships, well, now they’re competing with a [00:06:00] Texas Tech or a, a University of Texas on the price scale, so now I’ve got a chance to go recruit a kid. And, and so that’s why it’s real important for us. We look for a 3.5, we look for the kid that’s involved in other things outside of their athletics, because we’re big into service here at the university, and then we wanna know that, you know, I’m gonna contact their high school coach and find out what kind of kid the kid is.

We already know they can play soccer. When we go watch them play at a club event, that sells us on them as a player, but then I’m gonna dig that deep into it as a high school coach. I was a former high school coach for 25 years, and so I’m gonna dig into that and know where, what are they like in the chemistry class, in the biology class.

They tell me they wanna come be this doctor or PT, I wanna know what they’re like, and I wanna know that when I go to bed on Saturday night, I’m not having to worry about a kid making phone calls in the middle of the night ’cause bad decisions were made. So that’s the, the way we start it. Um, you know, soccer’s about fourth or fifth down the list.

Once we identify that they can play, then we, we move that to the bottom, and then we jump into all those other things.

Matt: [00:07:00] Yeah. No, that makes a lot of sense. Well, is, are there specific events that you like to go to, uh-

Coach: Sure … when you, when you- Yeah, very much so … what, what are your,

Matt: what are your hot bed events?

Coach: Yeah, I think, um, we, we have a big niche in the, in the RL world. Um, that’s not to say we’re not gonna go recruit a ECNL kid, but ECNL’s a different bear, right? I mean, you’re, the pressure to go Power Four, the pressure to go D1 is, it’s very relevant to those kids and to the parents especially, maybe more so to the parents than it is to the kid.

And, and so we, we will go after an NL kid who is, is hot on us, you know? I mean, I’m very honest with them upfront, this is who we are and what we’re about, and we don’t give the scholarships. And if you’re here for- You know, collecting another offer to, to put on your website, b- and then still not choose us, then we’re not gonna go down that path.

We don’t have time. I’ve got, for every NL kid that I talk to that shows maybe a little bit of interest, I have 45 RL kids that are trying to come here. And so I guess that gives you a [00:08:00] better idea there’s more fish in the pond for us there. Um, so we go after, um, the, the high level RL kid. We’re looking for, um, we, we usually go to the, in, in Texas, the DKSC tournament’s always been great for us coming out of Thanksgiving.

Um, it hits the Dallas market really well. Then we’re gonna go to the RL event in, in the last couple years has been in Fort Worth, which is huge for us ’cause we get all those kids there, and we also see that kid that’s dual rostered, so we’ll catch the NL kid that’s kinda back and forth. Um, then we go to the May shootout.

That’s usually, it used to be in Houston for years, and the last couple years it’s been in Round Rock. And those are our three big events. I mean, really and truly, um, then we host a, a nice big ID, um, three-day ID camp in July that we bring in, but we only, we only try to bring in 30 to 40 players that we know are very important to us that have a chance to play here.

Um, so we’re not trying to go out and make money and have 150 kids here and do all of that. We, we keep it very simple. We, we, we’re able to run it ourselves, and we [00:09:00] train the kids the way they’re trained here at Hardin-Simmons. So it’s, those are our biggest things. Uh, it’s pretty… We started doing a deal a couple years ago, Brad Bankhead, our former men’s coach, started a C3 camp, which is for our Christian university.

Mm-hmm. So us and ACU, UMHB, ETBU, um, we brought Baylor in this last year. We’ll do a camp like that. And so those are the kids that are also looking for the Christian service universities, and so that gives us another in as well. So we’ve got some great kids that have come out of that Um, and then I’m gonna go ahead and say what everybody always says doesn’t happen.

I’m a high school guy, and I’m gonna go recruit the high school, and I’ve got four kids rostered on my, uh, uh, squad right now that I never saw play club. They, they came highly recommended by people that I value tremendously, and, uh, they have more grit and some different things that maybe I want, and, and so it fits my style, and it fits who I am, and that’s just, that’s just who I am, and so I go recruit those kids out of the high school world especially.

Matt: Awesome. Love it. Well, let’s talk about the, the school. You mentioned the [00:10:00] Christian aspect, but, uh, y- you’ve been there a couple years. W- what is it that you find is attractive about the school? What’s some cool things maybe wouldn’t even know just by going through the website?

Coach: So I l- I love, uh… First off, I, I actually…

It’s funny. I, I came to Hardin-Simmons and played here at Hardin-Simmons. Now I was a little bit backwards. I’m a West Texas, uh, soccer player but also played football, and so back in the days of, of Permian Friday Night Lights and winning national championships, I was playing at Abilene High, and we were not that good.

Uh, but, but what was cool was, um, my parents had gone to school here, my grandparents had gone to school here, my grandfather built the president’s house at the university, so I swore I would never go to this university because I wanted out of Abilene. And, and the good Lord laughed at me and said, “Check it out.

I’m gonna put somebody there, and they’re gonna want you to go play football there.” So I actually punted and place kicked here for four years. I didn’t c- I didn’t do soccer here. Um, got out and started coaching, and that’s how I, it kind of got into m- my coaching blood for the soccer side. Uh, but Hardin-Simmons is a very unique place.

We have an incredible alumni, uh, system that’s [00:11:00] here. Our hall of fame is just incredible with some of the people that have played in the NFL and played in multiple sports, um, throughout the years. Um, so that’s the first thing is our, our, our alumni are everywhere. It’s funny. We were just talking with one of our players who was at a soccer practice the other night, and she had her HSU bag, and the guy was like, “Oh my gosh, do you know, did you play for Rusty Oglesby?

I, I played with him, and my wife and I met at Hardin-Simmons.” And, you know, this thing, these things happen more and more as the kids are getting out there and, and really learning, and so that’s a huge thing for us. Um, our facilities are incredible. When you look at our facilities, you know, I watch a lot of D1 schools sit under pop-up tents when they’re sitting on the sidelines, and I’ve got bricked in dugouts with, um, with leather seating for my players to sit on.

Um, we have track lighting and, and a full press box that sits over the top of them. We have a grass field with a grass training field of equal size right behind it. Um, so I mean, it’s those little things like that. Our football stadium has jumbotron and, and, and turf. Our, our… And then [00:12:00] we have an indoor facility that’s not a, it’s an indoor facility for our entire school, so it has a, a walking track, two basketball courts, an indoor soccer field, and all the weight equipment that attaches next to a, a heated swimming pool.

So like I say all these things to say, you go Abilene, Texas, and they’re a D3 school and whatever, and then you look at a school that’s won 27 conference championships like we have in women’s soccer, but then it’s just all the other things, um, that go with it. We also have our own physical therapy program.

We have our own nursing program on campus, and our own physician assistant program on campus. So you can come in and be a part of all of those things and play soccer at the Division III level at a high level and not get told no, and I think those are some of the huge attractions for us right now.

Matt: Yeah, for sure.

Well, let’s, um- Talk about the, um, the season right now. Like, you, would you… I know you’re only a few weeks in, but let’s fast-forward, say you’re in the heart of that conference season, walk me through what’s a typical week gonna look like for the players?

Coach: Yeah. [00:13:00] So we’re a Thursday, Saturday conference. Being a, being a Christian-based university, we don’t play on Sundays.

You, you see a lot of the schools that play Friday, Sundays, or Thursday, Sundays, stuff like that. So we’re, we’re Thursday, Saturday. So a typical week for us is, is relax on Sunday, do what you need to. Uh, we do 6:00 AM weights on Mondays. And then, uh, we train 4:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Then we play Thursday, or travel and play on Thursday. Um, and then we’ll do a light hour session on Friday in between, and then we turn around and play again on Saturday at 5:00. So our games are 5:00 in the evening, and the boys follow right after at 7:30, and, uh, so we travel together. It makes it nice.

But it’s a, it’s a very regimented week once we get into the conference schedule. Obviously pre-season’s a little bit wild and hairy as you’re trying to squeeze as many games in as possible without running your kids ragged. And again, one of the reasons we carry 30 on a roster is because, you know, you may play, especially early on, you got three scrimmages in nine days, you’re gonna need everybody getting some [00:14:00] opportunities.

So that roster size comes in really handy sometimes.

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team side. I know we talked about roster size in terms of players, but talk to me about your roster in terms of coaching staff, other folks that help out with the team. What’s everybody’s role

Coach: there?

Sure. Sure. We have… So I have a full-time associate head coach, um, in Coach Rizzo, Taylynn Rizzo. She played at, uh, at Houston Baptist, which is now Houston Christian. Um, and so she’s been here four seasons. Uh, she got here the year before I got here, and then I was hired in the spring after the head coach retired.

Um, and so she and I work together. Uh, I also have a part-time, uh, goalkeeper coach, who was a two-time All-American here at Hardin-Simmons, and is a physician assistant here in town. And so she works during the day, and then comes over once or twice a week, and then on the games she’ll come out on the, on the home games for us.

Um, so we have her, and she works with our, our, our three goalkeepers. Um, and then in the past I’ve had, the la- the last two years I’ve had a, either a volunteer assistant or a graduate [00:15:00] assistant. This year we didn’t land a graduate assistant, so we, we kept that spot open. Hope to do that in the spring again.

Uh, but we love having a GA. We have a, our master’s program is free for our graduate assistants, and so that’s a great way to bring somebody in. Um, and then they can either take the money as a payment, or they can take that and apply it towards their master’s and get the free master’s. So it’s a pretty good setup for those kids as well.

And, uh, we did that last year. We had a girl that played for us that transferred in and played for us, and, and then stayed on as a graduate assistant for, um, for a year for us.

Matt: Yeah, that’s cool. Um, well, what about you? Talk to us about your coaching style and, and the style of play-

Coach: Sure … you

Matt: play there.

Coach: Yeah, it, it’s interesting, you know, uh, I grew up in a time, there’s…

the world is so different, the game is so different than when I played. Back then it was play a through ball and rusty outrun everybody and score goals, and that was considered beautiful soccer, I guess. You know, it was a, everybody played a 3-5-2, pinned your ears back and went. And so we’ve, we’ve grown through the years.

Um, I’ve, I’ve fallen in love with a 4-2-3-1. I think it’s a very [00:16:00] versatile system that you can, you know… But it’s funny to be in a game and somebody go, “They’re playing a 4-3-3.” And I’m like, “Okay, sure. If that’s what you think, that’s great.” And, and then I’ve had other times where like, they’re sitting back in a 4-5-1, and, and, and my joy, my girls always go, “But isn’t that a 4-2-3-1?”

So- … we, that, I think that’s what we enjoy, right? We, we like the flexibility, and we like to be able to take one player and move them up and jump into a 3-5-2 without even, you know, substituting. So, but we base out of the 4-2-3-1. We’re a very possession-oriented style team. We wanna play through the midfield as much as possible, and we wanna, we wanna get the ball to the flanks and take it to the end line and lay it back across and score the easy goals.

I mean, who doesn’t? Um, and I think the game’s really evolved into that, especially at the female level. Um, we try to decrease the number of shots from outside of 18 and increase the number of things inside the six and cause chaos in the box. We, um, we, we will sit back if we need to, but we’d prefer to play high pressure, and I think that our system allows us to do that.

And so defensively, we wanna press and counter as quickly as possible [00:17:00] and kind of shrink the field down, and the more we shrink the field, the better and, and, uh, try to keep possession in that final third as much as possible.

Matt: Okay, awesome. Well, what about the, uh, the spring? What, what’s your typical kind of non-traditional season schedule look like?

What are you guys doing then?

Coach: Yeah, and I, I think this is a great question when you’re talking especially to D3 coaches, and I’m sure everybody kind of does it a little bit different. For us, when we finish our last game in, in the fall, whenever that is, hopefully it’s pushing towards December, but whenever we finish, we finish, and we give the kids a break, and they’re gone through all the Christmas holidays, and they come back in early January, you know, to mid-January.

And at that point, we just are in the weight room for three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. They’ll do some captain-led kick arounds, and they’ll go s- do some indoor and some stuff like that. But we choose not to train our kids until after spring break, so we work them all the way up through spring break in the weight room and really let them get back into the classroom and, and grow in the classroom and into their majors.

And then, um, [00:18:00] spring comes along, and we try to s- we, we cram about 18 training sessions into a 30-day period. We start, like I said, at, at spring break, so mid-March, and we’ll go to the first or second week of April, and then we have one spring r- uh, spring game, which is all the NCAA allows Division III to have at this time.

We’re petitioning to try to up that to hopefully two games in the spring eventually. Uh, but for now it’s just one game. So, um, you know, again, for a kid who’s very strong in their academics and worried about their academics, it’s nice to know in Division III we’re not putting you back on the road and traveling seven or eight times and having another half a season kind of thing.

And, and, uh, you actually get to be a… I, I think that’s the best part of D3. You get to be an athlete that’s also in the classroom, and a classroom athlete that doesn’t have to stress so much about s- you know, soccer. We’re not, we’re not putting them on heart monitors in January and want- and measuring how many steps they take.

We want them to go be kids again and remember what it’s like to be a kid. So, um, I think that’s a huge selling point for us. A lot of times we’re dealing with some kids that need a little more time to catch their breath, and, and I think the spring [00:19:00] allows that for us here.

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Coach, really appreciate all the time and insights you’ve given us.

Gonna la- leave you with one last question, and that is if you had- Sure … one piece of advice for someone going through this recruiting process right now, what would that be? I…

Coach: Yeah, I think it’s just take your, take your time, hold your breath, and don’t panic. I- i- in the world of social media, um, there’s so much stress and, and anxiety over, you know, “My teammate just committed to this school, and, and I’ve got four teammates talking to these schools, and they’re all ahead of me, and I’m back here.”

And, you know, I, I’ve seen great players fall through the cracks, and I’ve seen bad players sign early, if that makes sense. And so, um, the number one thing I’d tell you is your journey is your journey. Don’t stress about somebody else’s. Um, if you’re s- you have a older sibling that, that did certain things, it doesn’t mean that you’re gonna get the same thing, and you might get more, and you might get less, but it’s your journey, so enjoy it.

Um, I think what kids forget is that any recruitment they’re having, whether it’s junior college through Division [00:20:00] I, puts you in that top one or 2% of the entire country. When you consider that 150,000, roughly, high school kids are playing the sport of soccer, and, and, you know, you, you look at the numbers of what’s maybe 5,000 go play every year to go play at the Division I, II, or III level, like just the sheer numbers, the fact that you’re even getting an email back from a coach is pretty amazing when you look at the actual numbers of it all.

So I think that’s my biggest thing for a kid is just be patient and trust the process, and whatever that process looks like for you is what it is. Don’t, don’t stress about somebody else’s, quote, “success.” ‘Cause I, I seen so many times the kids that think that they’re being successful jump on it early, and they get that sign, and, and they’re, they’re, they’re thinking life is good, and six months later they’re in the transfer portal.

So go where you’re wanted, go where you’re gonna play, and go where you’re gonna get to be a kid and enjoy your time. You only got four years, and the vast majority of you are never gonna play professional, and that’s not to knock a player. It’s just the truth. So [00:21:00] go to college to be a, a husband, a wife, a father, a, a doctor, a lawyer, all the things, and soccer is just the, the conduit to get you there.

And if you can keep that in shape, you’ll be in… really successful in life.

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Coach, really appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck this season, and hopefully- You bet … uh, you’re back in that NCAA tournament when it’s all said and done.

Coach: That’s the plan, man. I appreciate it. Thanks for your time today.

Sure do appreciate being here.

Matt: Thank you.