Bradley University Men’s Soccer – Coach Tim Regan

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Regan from the Bradley Men’s Program in Peoria, Illinois. We talk about how he balances recruiting freshmen, transfers, and international players while focusing on long-term development. He describes the small, private university and its strong academics, supportive community, and family atmosphere. Lastly, we discuss his experienced coaching staff and how they adapt their style of play to fit their players.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today, I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Tim up at Bradley in Peoria, Illinois. Welcome, coach.

Coach: Thanks, Matt.

Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. And, uh, you know, look- looking at your bio, you are the Bradley man, right? I mean, uh, undergrad, you were assistant, now head coach, right?

Coach: Yeah, I’ve had the whole run here, and with a little gap in between. I left in 2002 and came back in 2017 as a coach. And, uh, not the typical college soccer pathway. Uh, playing after college and then going to different jobs in the sports. Uh, scouting for Toronto FC, working for the US Soccer Federation, working for Scott Gallagher in St.

Louis, Missouri. Uh, Indy Eleven assistant coach, now USL Championship. Uh, it, it’s not the normal way, um, but nonetheless, gave me some really good insight into the game. And I always feel that we’re, we never stop learning. And for me in the world of college soccer, [00:01:00] definitely never stop learning. I’m in- … my 10th year.

Um, but it, it’s, uh… there’s so many people that put in 30 and 40 years that, uh, you can never stop as a coach.

Matt: Yeah. Well, and, and things keep changing, right? So, uh- Yeah … I mean, just over the last couple years, you get the roster caps, the new five and five, this, that, and the other thing. So, like, I, I mean, for you guys specifically, like right now, right, it’s, it…

Y- you’re, you’re what? Eight games into the season. Um- W- where, uh, may- how much of your time right now mid-season is spent recruiting for, for next year? Or is it even a thought at this point? Or you kinda wait till it’s over? What, what’s that look like for you?

Coach: I, I’ve listened to a few of the pods, and I know every coach says the same thing, recruiting never stops.

But it does take a step back in terms of your time, as well as should. When you have a sprint, a season of only three months, you’re going to put that time into game preparation and improving your own team. So [00:02:00] of course, recruiting has to take a little bit of a step back, but on our staff, we have dedicated one person who solely focuses on that, and to the point where they’re not on the training field, and their, their job is to keep an eye on recruiting.

It doesn’t mean that we’re once a week, uh, doing, uh, multiple visits and, uh, signing people left and right. It’s just someone’s attention, though, is more on that area, which I felt was important in terms of our geographic footprint, making sure we can hit some bigger markets, ’cause we’re in a smaller market, and trying to tackle those parts of recruiting 12 months a year instead of only nine.

Matt: Yeah. Well, w- when you look at your roster, I mean, it’s a pretty good mix. You got, you know, not surprisingly, a g- you’ve done well in the home state, right? But then you got some… I’d say it’s almo- and, and you’ll, I’m sure you’ll correct me if I’m wrong here, but looking at maybe h- half, we’ll just say, local to regional, right, in the, near Illinois, and then you got maybe a quarter international and a quarter outside that.

[00:03:00] Is, is that kind of right? Are you- That’s

Coach: pretty accurate.

Matt: Yeah.

Coach: Yeah. A- and, uh, I’d be a liar if I said it was totally intentional. It’s, it comes to in a variety of ways. But the Chicago, St. Louis Midwestern footprint has always been normal for this program over its 40 years, uh, of course, because our geographic location, dead center almost in, in Illinois.

If I go too far east, west, north, or south, nobody’s heard of us, so you’re starting your, your speech by saying, “We are located here.” Yeah. “And here’s what our city is known for,” uh, which is at one point the headquarters of Caterpillar, the earth-moving equipment maker. So, uh, still a huge Cat footprint here, but, you know, you start with that spiel.

But I don’t have to do that when I go to Chicago. “Oh, yeah, my uncle went to Bradley,” or somebody at my school went to Bradley, and, uh, so that makes it a little bit easier. Or they might have come through town for something, a, an event at some point in time. Uh, high school sports roll through here quite a bit, so that does impact recruiting.

The international side is one that [00:04:00] we’re all seeking in terms of trying to find a player that used to once be an American. But as I always describe it, the trickle-down effect of recruiting is the best Americans play pro soccer. And, uh, on the male side, the best Americans wanna go to Europe. And then the next best Americans are in MLS clubs and wanna sign with the two team or the first team.

So as that makes its way down to the mid-majors, is where do we find that elite player that we used to once get in a different avenue? And for us, the foreign market, uh, has increased in that way. But as a private school, there is a cost, and scholarships are limited, so therefore the American player has huge value.

Matt: How about with, I, I mean, I guess I’m just curious. So I’ve got a daughter who’s playing college soccer, so I’m very, I’m more ingrained on the women’s side and understand it. Obviously, I’ve had a number of these conversations with men’s coaches too, but, but the dynamic in terms of, we’ll just call it the, the timeline, right, of recruiting.

And for the men’s [00:05:00] side, it’s always been later, but now it seems like it’s almost even later, if that’s possible. Plus, with the proliferation of the portal, kind of how, how do you make those decisions in terms of, “Well, I want the 18-year-old freshman,” versus, “Maybe I’m gonna shop the portal,” versus the international kid who it’s a first-year student, but he’s actually 20, 21 years old or, or whatever the case may be.

But just trying to figure out, okay, how, how do I balance this all out?

Coach: Yeah. A balance is the key. Uh, if we have a freshman class of eight to 10, that’s too big. And if we have a transfer class of internationals, and JUCOs, and, and four years of eight to 10, that’s too big. So finding the balance is the key.

And for us, since the, the transition of the transfer portal and now into the, to the age-based model, which is five, five years to play college soccer instead of the old red shirts and the variety of ways it used to be, [00:06:00] I still feel that we’re gonna be four or five freshmen every year. And, uh, there’s this, what I refer to as the classic sense of college sports.

You enter as a freshman, you might not play. You might not red shirt anymore, but your limited playing time will be equivalent to a red shirt. You train, you’re in the weight room, you learn how to be a student, you learn how to be an elite athlete. You do it for 12 months a year. You get better, and by year two, three, or four, you’re a starter.

And, uh, that still exists in our program, and we want it to. We’re not gonna give up on those people. But unfortunately, it’s too easy to move, and some people walk in already at the youth level having moved clubs, and it just becomes normal for them. So we can’t control that. We can’t predict the future. We can only sell and promote what we are and what we want the player and the student athlete to be, and that’s the message that’s over and over again.

And I’m a pretty blunt person. So, uh, if you’re short, I’m gonna call you short. If you’re tall, I’m gonna call you tall. If you’re slow, I’m gonna call you slow. If you’re fast, I’m gonna call you fast. And, and so when I coach, I’m not afraid to tell somebody, [00:07:00] “Yeah, you’re, you’re off the pace.” But there’s a way to make that up: time.

Time is the only way, and if you think it’s gonna happen next week, “Coach, what do I need to work on?” Everything. Um, it, it’s just that that’s the way it is from my viewpoint, and I try to sell that early on so they’re not shocked when they’re going through the process to say, “Oh, oh, I thought I was gonna start quicker.”

And it doesn’t work that way.

Matt: Yeah. For sure. Well, whether it’s a, a freshman, a transfer, a international, any, any of those, kind of what makes up that hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a recruit both on and off the field?

Coach: Uh, we’re in a world now where rosters are changing fast. So- But don’t forget, college soccer’s always been this way on the men’s side.

You have a fall season, and when you graduate, your seniors don’t participate in your spring season. They, they usually lay low and enjoy their last semester on campus. Now, if you need somebody to train or fill in a moment here or there on an injury, they’re, they’re always willing to help. Um, but that’s the transition that was for a long, long time.

Now, it’s a little different ’cause a lot of times people are [00:08:00] transferring out, and those seniors are still doing the same as the past. So every August and every January, we kind of restart with a, with a new message and new leaders on the board and new people to guide the group through the intangibles and the, the commitment to showing up every day in the right way.

Um, so when we recruit, it’s the same way. We don’t do too often Incoming January players, and that’s not… Again, uh, if I could, I would. It, it’s just a little bit tricky in terms of the timelines. Um, then the other part that I’ve heard other coaches reference to is late recruiting. Well, let’s go back, uh, a handful of years.

In 1999 when I was recruited to Bradley, it was, you know, around Christmastime of my senior year. It, so it, it wasn’t like I was this sought-after player that was a, a junior on September f- or I don’t even know what it was back in those- … I think it was August 1st back in those days, making the phone call saying, “Coach, I wanna be a Brave.”

Um, yeah, we’ve always been a late recruiting school, and, uh, now it, [00:09:00] it goes probably a little bit later into the spring than, than it used to. Uh, and I try to call that patience more than anything because players come from so many avenues now, and, um, we don’t give up. We also don’t judge. For the American player, people ask me, “Well, what if I played high school?”

That’s okay. “What if I played ECNL or, or what’s next door, uh, academy, homegrown division?” But we’re judging soccer players and people. We’re not judging, uh, a CV of what club you played on.

Matt: No, I like that. Well, let’s, let’s talk about the schools a bit and, you know, you’re the, well, the best person to talk about it, right?

With, with your number of years o- over, over time. But like you said, outside of Illinois there may be a whole lot of people who, who never heard of Bradley. Um, so what are some things you find amazing about the school? Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know by going through the website.

Coach: Yeah, small private institution, so, uh, you won’t hear of us unless you’re searching something specific.

And engineering is our flagship program in terms of quality. Uh, business is our volume in [00:10:00] terms of number of people in the school that are business majors. We hover around 4,000 undergraduates, so we are small. You’re a six to seven-minute walk across campus. We are in Central Illinois. On your drive in you will learn a lot about corn and soybeans if you’re into the agricultural market.

Uh, but once you hit the Peoria city limits and our outlying towns, is you’re gonna see a couple hundred thousand people, and, uh, you’ll cross the river and, and see some buildings. As I said, uh, Caterpillar w- was founded here and is a major corporation that’s worldwide, and we have over 12,000 Cat employees still doing their thing at, at plants around and offices all over the area.

The hospital system is big. So that kind of creates Peoria the city. And then Bradley’s always had its fit, and, uh, we have local ties. They’re, they’re strong. We connect with the local community, uh, both community service side and a work side. And, uh, getting kids real life work experience as they become- Adults seeking job [00:11:00] is, is really what we sell here.

And, uh, when you are small, you have to embrace being small. So we have really good relationships and, uh, for people that aren’t from the Midwest, there’s Midwestern hospitality, and then I think there’s Central Illinois hospitality, which is a step above. And, um, I say it all the time, uh, I don’t… It’s not a sell, it’s the truth, and, uh, it’s what we offer.

If you wanna find big sporting events and parties and major things going on and concerts, go to Chicago. Um, but we’re, we’re a smaller place that, that people like being here, uh, and they wanna help. And that’s across the board what I see when I go all over campus in different offices from facilities to the president’s office, uh, everybody wants to help.

Matt: No, that’s great. Well- In terms of the academic side of things can always be tough for student athletes coming in, trying to balance being a, you know, a Division I soccer player, plus the demands of, of especially programs like engineering, business. So what kind of support systems does the school [00:12:00] have to make sure they’re successful on and, and off the field?

Coach: Yeah, every department’s gonna provide something to make sure the athletes are in a good place, because the time they’re putting in athletics is significant. And I am always a fan of saying for somebody seeking college sports, find your level, and don’t be fooled by numbers. One, two, and three are just numbers.

They’re not truth. Uh, there are, there are D3 teams that could be us tomorrow, uh, and there are, there are other teams that, that have high and lows and, and that’s sometimes a recruiting class to budgets to, to whatever’s going on in that particular university. But everybody has a support system for, for academics.

Uh, student athlete, student is first for a reason, and th- that is the case everywhere. Here we have a great academic sup- services team, multiple people that work together so they help each other with institutional knowledge, with knowledge and degrees, with knowledge in the future. Um, you know, uh, we refer to our academic [00:13:00] persons as Miss Annie, so not only is she the academic person, but there’s also a, a, a mom-like helper with you that, that meets with you and that will just be, uh, a voice and an ear when you need it.

So r- really important for us. For the younger players, once a week, we do tend to lean toward an academically strong student. It just makes their life easier here. I, I tell students that are a little bit lower on the GPA side when I start talking to them is, “I’m not writing you off, but just know that I don’t want you to struggle.

I want you to be in a place where you can succeed.” And we’ll, we’ll have the support. You’ll get the tutors you need. You’ll get the classes you need. Y- uh, a lot of times put you in with other athletes to make sure that you can find somebody on a similar schedule and a demand that can do homework and study together.

That’s important, too, on the relationship side.

Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, I mean, you’re, you’re kind of in the middle of that season right now. Uh, walk me through what, what’s a typical week look like for a player in terms of winter practices, classes, [00:14:00] meals, game cadence, all that kind of thing?

Coach: Yeah. We tend to train as a team in the afternoon to early evening, depending on the day of the week.

Uh, our class schedules, and a- again, smaller private school is there’s not a lot of sections in each- Study. So as you get older, your options are limited. So if the class is gonna be between 9:00 and 3:00, well, you’re gonna be in class a lot of those times. And then you throw in labs and different majors where they have to do a little bit extra.

So for us, that, that afternoon window is pretty normal. Lifting as a team occurs once to twice a week, and it usually in the season happens in groups based around your class schedule. So trying to get everybody into the weight room can only happen at 6:00 or 7:00 AM. And on the recovery side, sleep is really important.

We live a lot in sports science, and therefore we, we value the things that lead to recovery, and the people… We outsource people to help us with our calendar to make sure that we’re training at the right loads and doing those kinds of things. And of course, all the GPS tracking. That is modern day. W- we’re on that [00:15:00] also.

But is … The, the, the daily routine is we don’t want to, you to be exhausted at practice. So, uh, I would love to train in the morning if we could, but it’s just not feasible in our world. So an occasional morning session and, and a weightlifting session in the morning is normal, but team training in the afternoon four or five days a week, game rhythm d- dictates everything.

So one or two games a week creates two different cycles, but one day off a week is gonna be day after a game or two days after a game. Again, depending on how quickly these games are together. NCAA rules say we have to give one day off a week, so we do. Um, if you’re a 90-minute player, you’re probably getting what I’ll call a day and a half off, because your recovery day, whereas a reserve player might be training to keep the fitness level high.

Um, you know, academic days off are important because being able to go through a school day without having to worry about soccer is nice. Um, but the games dictate the calendar.

Matt: Sure. Absolutely. All right. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team. Um, y- When we know about the roster limits, right, uh, in Division [00:16:00] I, but, uh, are– I’m assuming, are you guys opted into following the rights?

We have 20. Yeah. Okay. So- 20

Coach: players.

Matt: Tell me about the, the rest of the roster. Who, who else is on staff? What role does everybody play there?

Coach: Yeah, I have the least college soccer experience on my staff, and I have the least head coach experience. That’s the avenue I decided to go a couple years ago.

Assistant coach Brian Barnett, right out of college and at Aurora University directly into Division I coaching. Uh, he started at Bradley, had an eight-year run, multiple NCAA tournaments, great success in recruiting. Took that over to Indianapolis, currently called IU Indy, formerly IUPUI, six years as the head coach.

He is a Peoria native, so when he moved back after his time at IUPUI, he, he joined on, uh, our Bradley staff. We spent one year together as assistant coaches, and then he stayed on as the assistant coach when, when I was given the opportunity to be the head coach. And that’s another important part about the Bradley program.

Jim DeRose was our head coach for 28 years. So there are cliches all over our [00:17:00] world. Uh, you could find a million books with titles on that way. But, uh, we have a family atmosphere because one person coached the program for 28 years, and he was my coach, he was my mentor, he was my boss, um, and now he’s criticizing me left and right for not doing things right.

But no, um, it’s just, uh, it’s a great thing we have here. When you go back in time, my brother went to Bradley before I did. So if you think about people that we’ve been like literally been in contact with directly from 1994 and even earlier, ’cause some of those players were juniors and seniors when my brother was a freshman, uh, to today, it, it’s a, it’s a pretty close-knit world in that way.

And, um, I don’t have to like worry about selling too much ’cause I do wear it. And Coach Barnett is an extension of that. His time here as an assistant coach in two different stints and then his experience as a head coach Our other coach is John Trask, and, uh, was an Indiana University player in a, in a time of greatness in the ’80s, [00:18:00] and then on the coaching staff for nine years where greatness continued.

Uh, he spent some time in MLS, and then he became the head coach at both UIC and Wisconsin-Madison with multiple NCAA tournaments and Sweet 16s and Elite Eights. So like I said, I, I’m, I’m the one that doesn’t know what I’m doing when it comes to daily conversations. I’ve got these guys around me that have so much insight and, and that’s a lot of our conversations is, “Well, I tried this once, and it worked, but this team is a little bit different, so let’s, let’s look this way.”

Uh, so yeah, we’re surrounded by a, a lot of college soccer experience and, and a lot of great soccer people.

Matt: Awesome. Well, what about you? Tell us about your coaching style and, and, and the style of play you like to play there.

Coach: Yeah, I, I joke with recruits every time on the phone. I wish I had the luxury to be Bayern Munich to Real Madrid to Barcelona, Man City, Arsenal, to just I, I want a player that does this in this position.

It doesn’t work that way. Um, I wanna play this style, so I have to get this type of player. Uh, I need to recruit a player that, that’s good enough to be a student at Bradley University and wants to be here, [00:19:00] and, and is motivated to do the things that, that matter. And level, who picks level, right? Uh, is it how many times they could juggle?

Is it how good their right or left foot is? Is it pass percentages? I, I, I don’t know. I just know that when we get out there and we see how somebody works and how they fit into a team, we get on the phone with them and we bring them here if we can, and we say, “Hey, here’s what we look like right now, and here’s what we want to continue with it.”

And so I always say to the players, “Do I choose the tactics or do, does the way you play choose the tactics, the skills you have?” And it’s a combination. And, uh, so in that way, um, you know, everybody wants to try to pass the ball, but there’s a limit to how many times we can do that successfully when we’re put under pressure.

So we have to deal with the moment and continue to coach them to make those decisions on their own. Um, we, we haven’t quite gotten the technology where we can put earpieces in everybody’s ear- Mm-hmm … and then we can just tell them what to do the whole game. So I think in our sport, relying on their ability to make decisions within a structure is really important.

Matt: Yeah, we, we, we, we get enough of that at the, uh, [00:20:00] you know, the U8 and U10 level in the soccer.

Coach: Yeah, sure. The whole sideline’s up.

Matt: Well, awesome. Um, what about the non-traditional season, spring? What, what does that look like for you guys? What are you, what are you taking care of during that time?

Coach: Yeah, we’re in a cold climate, and it’s, uh, January and February up north.

Uh, get your winter gloves on and your hat, and, uh, we play at Shea Stadium, which is a grass stadium. It’s a great facility that Coach DeRose and Mr. Tim Shea put together with a lot of investment and a lot of blood, sweat, and blood, blood, sweat, and tears. And, uh, it is no joke in our program, you will get your hands dirty.

Uh, we’ll teach you how to use a vacuum in the locker room. We’ll teach you how to replace divots. Uh, but during the spring season, we do have to spend some time inside, be it a, a classic more indoor environment with a small sided turf or a big dome, and we have to go offsite, but you can get everywhere in Peoria in 10 to 15 minutes.

So, um, that’ll, that’ll take, uh, end of January and early February. We get outside as much as [00:21:00] we can. Uh, we do brave the cold, so, uh, I wasn’t joking about the hat and gloves. But once you start moving, it feels good. And, uh, we, we get our February, March, April of our two and a half months with spring break kind of meshed in the middle of it, of full-time training five, six days a week, and our five exhibition games.

And so, you know, within NCAA rules, we push as much as we can. And really we started to describe it as think of the spring as a really long preseason for your summer, because if you’re into soccer development, you have to continue during the summer to get two to three months of training, playing. Uh, of course, you could work an internship and run every day and be fit and be a good teammate.

That works, but if you wanna be elite, you’re gonna have to do more. Yeah,

Matt: for sure. Well, Coach, really appreciate it. Uh, good insights. Gonna leave you with one last question here, and that is, if you had one piece of advice, you know, for any high school age student, uh, going through this recruiting process, what would, what would that be?

Coach: You invest a lot of time every day into things, and [00:22:00] I make this joke with our players a lot is, uh, “Let me see your phone. Let me see your settings. How much screen time did you have this week?” And if you can put time into that, you can put time into making your future decision and making sure that you investigate pretty thoroughly.

Uh, even as a podcast host, you can tell me a lot about my roster because you take the time to look at it. It’s not hard. And, uh, if you’re a college stu- or a, a senior in high school or a junior, on the female side maybe even a sophomore, you need to go back four years under that coach’s history and say, “What does the roster look like?”

And the thing is about transfers, you might have to actually click on some bios ’cause they don’t always list a transfer on the first roster page. So, uh, if you aren’t willing to put that time in, then you’re not gonna make the right decision. You’re not gonna do it in the right way. Um, and if you need help, I think ChatGPT can help you.

So, um, there, there’s lots of ways to do it, but the more thorough you are… And then we always talk about these soccer world being really small. If you have a youth coach or you have a friend that’s playing somewhere or you have a sibling or a cousin or a, [00:23:00] somebody, just get on the phone and ask people. It doesn’t take long to learn what coaches and, and programs are like.

And so yeah, uh, the proverbial do your homework, but probably do it more like an AP math class than a, than a, a simple, a, a simple subject.

Matt: I like it, Coach. I like it a lot. Well, hey, thanks for jumping on. Wish you the best of luck as you finish out this season, and hopefully you guys are hanging that, that conference championship banner at the end of it.

Coach: Thank you very much.