Adams State University Men’s Soccer – Coach Justin Gilfert

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Justin from the Adams State Men’s Program in Colorado. We talk about the importance of camps in their recruiting. He describes how they view international players and the transfer portal. Lastly, we discuss their typical schedule during the season and their conference game cadence. Learn more about Adams State University Men’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer again. We’re live from the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Philadelphia. And I am lucky enough right now to be joined by Coach Justin from Adams State up in Colorado. Welcome coach. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks for being here. I, I was just saying, I, I spent some, some family time out in Colorado recently.

Beautiful part of the country. Way, way, way colder than, uh, Bradenton, Florida, what I’m used to, but, uh, but it, but it was a good time, 

Coach: just a bit. Yeah. Most might be a little bit colder than where you were, 

Matt: but Oh, geez. Well, I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m good. Back in Florida, uh, not needing a heavy winter coat, heavy jacket, scarf, and, uh, everything else

Yeah, no, that’s good , but, uh, but you can’t beat, uh, the, the vistas and the views in Colorado, that’s for sure. Well, let’s talk a little bit, uh, about Adam State. Um, let’s maybe start with recruiting here. It’s January, it’s college showcase time, uh, for you. Are you. Looking at 20 fours, are you still looking to wrap up your 23 class?

What, what’s kind of your cadence in the recruiting cycle? 

Coach: Yeah, we’ll, uh, we’ll wrap up 23 class probably within a month or so. Um, got a good amount of kids committed already between either signed, fully signed or verbals. And then I’ll start working on 20 fours, uh, towards probably March, April, we’ll start knocking off some 20 fours.

I already got a 20. Not committed, but I already offered it 24. So got the, uh, class started, [00:01:30] but pretty much try to get the guys that are on the board round, um, finish ’em off, finish the class off, and then start prepping for the 20 fours and 20 fives. Cause I would be losing a good amount of kids next year.

So to be very picky on who I want to bring in for the 24 class. And let’s go from there. 

Matt: Okay, now, How, I know there’s no such thing as an average week as a college soccer coach, but never, um, let’s just, let’s just say on average, how many inbound emails and texts and social media dms and everything else do you think you get from perspective recruits in an, on a normal basis?

Coach: I would say just even today, I’ve already been up to 14. Um, so between, well, I’m also scheduled to go to ECNL next week in Florida. So as majority of them are sure kids giving me their schedule. On an average day, I’ll say, between anything, probably between 20 to 40, um, between either agencies, recruits, other clubs, uh, trying to place players or even parents and people asking, like the process.

So, um, yeah, my, my email gets blown up a lot and I do forward majority of them over to my assistant to help out with some of that. So, um, no, I get, uh, I get blown up a lot. So this week was very, I’ve yet to respond to a single email since I’ve been here all week, um, which is probably not a good thing to be doing.

Uh, yeah, no, I get a, I get a good amount every week, but, 

Matt: but that’s a great point. I mean, I, I, I, I’ve always told folks, you know, if you don’t get a reply, don’t think it’s because the coach doesn’t like you or isn’t [00:03:00] interested. It’s sometimes you’re a coach, you’re traveling, you’re going to different venues, you’re going to conferences, you’re doing whatever, and it may be a week before you get to those replies and, and things you need to do, right?

Coach: Yeah. Yeah. And I talked to a kid a couple days ago who. He emailed before ECNL event down in Arizona. Saw him play, got actually one of his club teammates committed. Um, and then we talked the other day and I told him, I was like, super sorry that I haven’t responded back in a few weeks, but I’ve just been getting caught up with trying to get everybody that’s emailed me on the board and who I could talk with and who.

I think is the ones that are gonna sign quicker rather than some others. So, uh, like I told him, I was like, listen, I, I get, I get blown up every day with the emails from everything on the administration side to kids that want to come in. So I, I gotta handle everything in a timely manner of what it is.

Matt: Yeah, that makes sense. What, now you mentioned ECNL events, uh, what other. Kind of tournaments are on your, your must-see list.

Coach: Um, so ECNL now next week, hopefully in Florida, I’ll be in Montreal at the end of the month. Um, we have a kid from Montreal right now, currently on the team, trying to get a couple, few more of ’em signed.

So I’ll be up there with Yes, week college. Um, actually getting, hopefully a goalkeeper signed in a couple weeks from that, from that showcase. So be in Montreal, um, trying to go to Europe. I wanna go to Spain in February. To see a few players over there. And then Mayor’s Cup, president’s Cup, some local or some local IRV ones that are within the [00:04:30] area.

Uh, but a lot of the ECNL MLS, um, like Vegas or Vegas for Mayor’s Cup is one that I’ve never been to and I want to go to it cuz I, why not be in Las Vegas for showcase. So, uh, been to a few. We’ll see which ones are available for us to attend. 

Matt: Okay. What about camps? Do you guys have your own, do you or your staff work other camps?

How do they fit in? 

Coach: Yeah, so we have, uh, we’ll do our own ID camps, uh, trying to in the middle of, even though it’s gonna be super close, but trying to get, uh, one set up for March, uh, for an elite ID camp for spring. Um, we’re gonna be doing a team high school team camp towards end of July. Uh, that will fall right into getting all my players in.

Um, so that way they can get their two week of acclimation to our, we said, at 8,000 feet. So they have to get acclimated to that. Um, so we’ll do a team camp, um, obviously kids camps. Um, we’ll do everything mostly with our women’s staff and their program. So we kinda do all combined with minus like our ID camps and things.

And then I’m a big exact sports guy, so I work exact sports camps as much as possible. Um, the two of them already. Back to back one in Salt Lake City. One was in Denver the next day, and then I’ll do the three day ones in July. So, um, we’re usually out and about. 

Matt: Yeah. Sounds like it. Well, when it’s, whether it’s camps or, or any of these tournaments or anything, what’s.

Kind of your hierarchy of things that you’re looking for in a player that, that would make you wanna offer a player to Adams?

Coach: Um, athleticism is number one. [00:06:00] You know, you can’t coach it, but if you’re just purely an athlete, then there is some way that we will be able to work that into, uh, our program. Then after that, it’s usually just technical side, uh, the tactics, um, personality, how you are as a player.

Um, what do you do when you don’t have the ball? What are you doing when you get a bad call, like who you are. Um, kinda have like a three star process. Um, three stars are like my top guys. The two are guys that are gonna come off bench, get good minutes, and ones are kind of those ones I want to develop a little bit more.

So I’ll do, I’ll do majority of that when I’m out recruiting of 3, 2, 1. Um, yeah, big, big thing for me is just the personality. Um, you know, we got an unbelievable team, uh, and I just want to get more guys that want to, that can fit right into just who we are as a, as a program. Okay. 

Matt: Now you mentioned, uh, internationally trying to travel.

Uh, do you guys have a, a history or a big roster now of international players? Is that something you’re trying to develop? What, what makes you want to kind of look at the international side of things?

Coach: I’ve been very international heavy since I started coaching. Um, I was lucky enough when I started coaching, I was at St.

Ary University for my very first coaching job as a volunteer. That’s my hometown area. So obviously we’re super close to Canada, so we actually had a lot of Canadian kids. , but I’ve been just super international heavy ever since I started coaching. So I want to get as many international players over here because the experience that they go through can compared to some of the le, some of the conferences and teams over [00:07:30] here.

Um, and everybody kind of wants to have that American dream of going to school for four years and seeing America and doing everything. So we have two right now. Uh, we have Italian and a Canadian, um, on the team. Uh, we have a Dutch kid coming in this weekend, um, for spring semester, and then I got a few other international kids already signed, pretty much signed seal and delivered, so they’re ready to be coming in.

So we got Sweden, Norway, uh, Australia, and then hopefully some Canadians coming in. 

Matt: So, okay. Well one of the big. I guess changes in the college landscape over the last few years is the, uh, explosion of the transfer portal. Is that something you guys explore at all? 

Coach: I’m on it every day. . I was on it this morning when I woke up.

I was on it a little bit ago, actually. Met a guy who is doing stuff with the transfer portal to make it a little easier on us coaches. Um, so yeah, I’m on that every day searching to see. Who’s in there. Um, and guys that, you know, I think are at a good level that can come down and play some division two soccer and help us out with this, uh, rebuilding year.

Okay. 

Matt: Well, as a, as a parent, you know, one of the first questions I always, uh, like to ask is, you know, okay, what’s this gonna cost me? You know, how, how big a check am I gonna have to write? Now, I’m not holding you any hard numbers here, but just can you give me an overall view? You know, what cost for Adam State, how do the athletic scholarships fit in academic scholarships?

What’s an average player kind of looking at when it’s all said and done? 

Coach: Uh, between 10 and 20. Um, oh wow. [00:09:00] So we do. Really well on the, uh, financial side. Um, we have a lot of different options when it does come to the financial side. So obviously instate kids, everything you’re gonna get. We’re one of the cheaper schools in Colorado for instate New Mexico residents get kind of everything like half off.

Um, we have this thing called wwi, which is Western Undergrad Exchange. So kids from pretty much all the western states like Arizona, Colorado, or not Colorado, Utah, California, things like that. They’ll all get that, which is pretty much half the. Um, and then just normal out-of-state, uh, guys get automatically a $5,000 scholarship from the school.

And that brings everything down to start off at 22,000. And then adding in academics and athletics, everything drops underneath twenties. So a big one that I’m pushing a majority of my guys right now to do is scholarship universe, which we have $5.6 million of scholarships within it. Um, and that’s open to everybody.

So, done more the merrier for scholarships to help out on all the costs. Uh, we have our ways to work around things, um, to make it as cheap as possible for everybody. 

Matt: No, that’s great. Well let, let, let’s talk a little bit more about the school itself. Uh, folks may not be aware of Adam State, you know, especially, uh, down near me in Florida, not knowing those Colorado schools, but, um, You know, tell me some, some of the awesome things about Adam State, we may not know just by clicking around the website.

Coach: Yeah. Um, 3,500 students, so not too big, not too small. Um, we’re in a very isolated, located area in Alamosa. Uh, we have the National Sand Dune National Park, which is like [00:10:30] 30, 40 minutes up north from us. Um, so if everybody’s already seeing massive hills of just sand, it’s more likely where. Um, I mean, you wake up and you have 14,000 foot mountains pretty much in your backyard, so, um, you can’t beat the views.

Um, and definitely Alamo, we’re a very, very Hispanic area. Um, so we’re one of the most leading Hispanic institutions in the country. Uh, so we do well with obviously the Hispanics first generation kids. Um, so we’re a big in that. Um, and everything’s really right downtown. So you can walk from your dorm room to the pizzeria and it’s gonna take you maybe two or three minutes.

Um, so everything that same town’s, small, um, it’s good size, but it’s very spread out. Campus is very spread out, so it makes it feel big. And um, how I tell kids is you will make it, you’ll make your time worth it depending on what you do. If you’re gonna be that kid that’s gonna sit there and. Play Xbox and not leave the room might not have so much fun, but for the guy that’s like, Hey, let’s go out and do this, let’s do that.

Like do that, then yeah, you’re gonna enjoy it. So, um, when I was going through the interview process, I told, or my athletic director asked me, why Adam State? And I said, I think it’s a hidden gem that nobody really knows about until the right people were there. Um, I’m a big, uh, I’m a big recruiter so people know Adam State now.

So where, you know, hopefully we can put us on the map here in the, in the. . 

Matt: No, that, that’s great. Well, in terms of, uh, you know, there’s, there’s the soccer side, but then there’s [00:12:00] the academic side. So how do your student athletes really balance their commitments between the sport as well as the school and, and what kind of support systems are in place there at the, at the college to help ’em out?

Coach: Yeah, so I was one of the worst students when I was going through the college time. Um, everybody says, you’re a student athlete. And I was like, no, I was an athlete student. I’m a, I’m a big person when it comes to the academic side. Um, very, I, I wanna say I’m strict, but, uh, I ask all the guys to gimme the class schedules, class times where they’re gonna be.

Um, so that way we can just pop in and see who’s there, who’s not there. Um, you know, guys got class and practice at the same time. They better be sitting in class cuz I don’t, they don’t need to be at practice. Um, and then they just kind of, you know, we’re very strong in the academics. So, uh, guys know that the academics come.

Um, and then we do have an athletic academic advisor that works actually within the athletic department. So I can walk out my office and go two, do two offices down and sit with him. Um, and he can help out with everything else when it comes to that side. Uh, and then we also have tutors and actually cut.

My players are actually tutors, so, uh, try to get all of the guys that need that extra help, um, to get in with them. Um, we do study hall, so everything, we do everything to make them. Get their degree. Um, and how I tell ’em is we’re gonna run a, a program that’s professional enough to where when you go into the big boy world, if you’re not playing, then you already know like, Hey, I need to be here.

I need to be there. Um, and you can kind of [00:13:30] lean on everything back from when you’re playing under me. So, um, very professional standards of that realm of show up to class, do the work and graduate, and then you’ll get. 

Matt: Uh, I definitely appreciate that as, as, as a parent and as a fellow, uh, coach. That’s that.

I love that, uh, outlook on it. So in terms of, you know, you mentioned kind of there may be times where class and practice. You know, have conflicts or something like that. But can you walk me through, and again, I know there’s no such thing as a, a typical week, but can you walk me through what, what an average week might look like during the season for a player like winter classes?

When is practice winter meals? Uh, what’s the game cadence look like if you’re traveling, that sort of thing.

Coach: Yeah, so, um, we play pretty much every Friday’s school conference wise. We play Friday, Sunday. Um, so during a typical week, um, usually majority of our Mondays were our off days cuz we were just playing on Sundays.

Guys will obviously just go to class rehab on Mondays, um, on Tuesday, like pretty much Tuesday through Thursday. Um, classes start at 8:00 AM depending on how many classes you’ve taken that semester would depend on how many you have uncertain days. Um, so I had some guys that were done at noon this year.

I had guys that were going all the way until about 8:00 PM. Uh, so it really just depends on what classes that you’re in. It will depend on what the times are. So, um, majority of the time in the fall, we will be start training around 3:00 PM and I’ll have everybody there minus maybe like one or two. Uh, they’ll show up late from class.

So, um, typical day for them is just wake up, however many classes they have, they will, they [00:15:00] will go do that, start the rehab process in the a. Um, we’ll train very intensely, uh, usually Tuesday, Wednesday, lighten it up on Thursday and do more of the tactic side of stuff. Um, and then play on Fridays. And majority of our games right now are either two or 3:00 PM on Fridays.

Um, so if that is that, then guys will get excused right around 1130, noon, so that way we can start. Getting all the field set up, they can do what they need to do, the rehab, recovery area. Um, and then we’ll go talk about five minutes before warm up and then go out there, warm up, and hopefully come out with a win

Matt: Alright. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the soccer side of things, and I guess it’s more back to recruiting, but. Have you found that there’s an ideal roster size that you’re, that you’re trying to hit each year?

Coach: Yeah. Um, so obviously I, when I got hired, uh, it kind of gave me an idea of what it they want me to get, so, you know, I’ll do it.

Um, been around the, been around that size before, so I’m not, it’s nothing that I’m not used to. Um, I want to fill up all the lockers in our locker room as well, so it just gives me options to carry, you know, first team have a reserve squad as well. Uh, so that way the guys. , I think maybe need a year or two to develop.

They’re still playing college games. Um, they might not be playing the ones that they wanna be playing in. Um, but that just gives them an opportunity to get acclimated to the college game. Uh, cuz it’s a lot faster, stronger physical than, you know, coming from high school and club. Um, but that also gives me the option to, you know, if one of my guys gets injured.

And they need [00:16:30] three or four weeks to recover. I can get them down to a reserve game and get them 90 minutes under their belt or a good amount of minutes on the belt to get that recovery process started. So, um, yeah, we, you know, we carry the big rosters for, for a reason. Um, and I look at, like, back to the professional side of stuff, uh, we look at pro teams and they have obviously their first team and then they have like their year 20 threes and 20 ones and things like that.

So I just kind of leaned back to all that of, you know, we have both sides of this. 

Matt: Yeah. Well if, if you’re, you know, you’re carrying a larger roster size, I’m guessing maybe, maybe hopefully you have a little bit larger staff as well. So what does your staff look like? What role does everybody play there?

Coach: Uh, well, right now it’s just myself and my assistant. So there’s only two of us. Um, but I will be bringing on a volunteer here soon, I think. So, um, big, you know, my assistant right now, he, he was a goalkeeper, big time goalkeeper, um, holds, still holds some records at his, where he. Uh, so he’ll work with the goalkeepers pretty much right off the bat.

Uh, and then I’ll obviously take all the field players and we’ll do what we want to do and then we’ll all come together at the end. So, um, just try to pass off all of the half of that administration work, um, to him. I’ll do, we know the things I need to as a head coach. Um, we’ll discuss practice plans and things like that usually in the morning.

Um, and then we’ll just, Whatever makes it easier for both of us to get everything done throughout that week. We’ll, we’ll come up with a plan and do it, uh, usually that mundane kind of plan out for the rest of the week, so. 

Matt: Okay. Well, and how would you describe, you know, your [00:18:00] coaching style, the team style of play and that just overall culture of the team? 

Coach: Um, so my coaching style, I’ll say I’m very rubbing. I step on the line. You can tell I’m very passionate about the game. Um, so I’ll get, I won’t say I’ll get like mad and upset to where like, Kick somebody. Um, I’ll get to the point where, you know, we do a lot of two, three touch majority of the time. Uh, if somebody takes more of what they’re not supposed to do now I’ll blow the whistle and they’ll go sit down for like 30 seconds to a minute and kind of be like, oh crap, I can’t do that again.

Um, so very, like, I would say strict on that type of stuff, but off the field. My door’s wide open. Guys are sitting on my couch. We have soccer games on my tv. Sometimes I’ll bring my Xbox in. We’ll play fifa. Um, we do a lot of, I like to joke around. I like to have fun. Um, so I’m very just easygoing, uh, when it comes to that.

Um, style wise, we went through a lot of different things this year. Uh, obviously my first year in just getting there, um, a week before preseason started, just kind of just messed around with some stuff. , but a very, I wouldn’t say we’re a possession based team, uh, where it is a very high tempo passing team.

Um, so like I said, uh, two, three touch, try to move the ball quickly from side to side. Uh, get into good attacking areas, uh, score some goals and see what we can do after that. . 

Matt: All right, well, you know, here we are in January and I’m, I’m guessing your, your players probably come back to school maybe Tuesday or if, if they’re not back.

What does the, your, your off [00:19:30] season, your spring look like for the player?

Coach: Yeah, so guys will move in this weekend. Um, we’ll start classes on the 17th and then we actually start training back up on the 17th. So I’ve been in the, uh, I’ve been in the division three world for a little bit, so I’m used to the five weeks only get one game, one play.

Now I get like, pretty much, I get eight hours a week until February 15th, and then I get to go back to be full hours train every day for almost an hour and a half doing however long I want to go. Uh, play up to five or six games. So off season, um, very developmental. Um, we’ll do a lot of just more development stuff.

Uh, a lot of tactical, uh, things when we get back. Uh, we train early in the morning, so they’re done with all that before they go to classes. Um, three days in the weight. This year. So get them stronger, get them bigger. Um, play a few, few good teams, hopefully, uh, and just kind of start working on what I want to work on now to push it down into the fall.

Um, so that way when all the new guys coming in the fall, everybody that’s here right now can get them up to speed quickly, usually on day one or day two of preseasons. That way we don’t have to, uh, work on all that. Light to the season, we can get everything, you know, banged out right away. Uh, so we can just focus on the, the job at hand.

Matt: Okay. Well, coach, you’ve been, you’ve been very generous with your time and we’ve covered a lot of ground and I always end these the same way and that’s what didn’t we cover, you know? What else would you like folks to know, whether [00:21:00] it’s about the college recruiting process, about Adam State or about anything else?

Uh, I’ll leave you with the last word. 

Coach: I’ll definitely say there’s always an opportunity out there for kids that wanna play. A lot of the, uh, D one bust mentality, uh, is I think slowly getting away. Um, and I was, I was one of those players, I was like, oh, I wanna go play D one, but I was like, you know what?

I wanna go play where I want to or I can play. So there’s always an opportunity. There’s gonna be a school, always recruiting somewhere. Um, you just never know who that coach is and where they’re gonna be. I’ve seen coach, I’ve, I’ve been that guy that’s gone to high school games. Um, I’ve been that coach that goes obviously to the big showcases.

I’ve been the coach that signs kids from just film and not being able to see them actually play live. So, um, many divisions out there, different areas. Um, I’m sure people probably don’t know the ncc, aa, so, you know, there’s other divisions that are not within NCAA or junior college or the naia, uh, that they can go play, you know, four years or two years of college soccer.

So I’ll definitely say there. There’s an opportunity out there for everybody. 

Matt: Absolutely. Couldn’t agree more as a, as a former NCCAA coach. Uh, I, I, I can, I can fully agree with that sentiment and wish you the best of luck, uh, this upcoming season. And, and we’ll, we’ll keep track and see how you guys are doing.

And if you get to, if any of your events are in the Bradenton area, uh, look me up and we’ll grab a cup of coffee. Cool. 

Coach: I appreciate it. Thank you. Alright.

Matt: Thank you.