Alderson Broaddus University Men’s Soccer – Coach Aron Bassoff
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Bassoff from the Alderson Broaddus Men’s Program in West Virginia. We talk about the international flavor of their conference. He describes the wonderful facilities of the school. Lastly, we discuss their heavy conference schedule. Learn more about Alderson Broaddus University Men’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Bassoff from Alderson Broaddus University in West Virginia. Welcome, coach.
Coach: Thank you for having me.
Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. Um, you know, it, it’s, uh, I grew up in Ohio, so, so I’m familiar with a lot of the, the, the great schools down there in West Virginia.
A lot of people don’t know how many, uh, Awesome D two programs are out there. So let’s introduce ’em to yours, but for, well, to get started, um, let’s talk about the recruiting side of things. When is it that you’re really starting to talk to. Players and, and start building out a class. What, what year in high school? How does that work?
Coach: Well, for this year we’re, we’re starting right now. Um, you know, uh, me taking over the program in August, I came in and, um, wanted a chance to probably evaluate our players before we went forward and started making decisions on. You know, what positions we were gonna be looking [00:01:00] for and how we were gonna recruit.
Cuz that for me dictates a lot of, um, you know, direction I go as far as recruiting, um, goes. So now we’ve kind of picked up a little bit more steam in the recruiting process. And, um, you know, right now for, for what we. Are aware of and everything like that. We have, um, you know, been targeting certain positions, um, you know, on the field that we know we’re gonna need, uh, for next season.
So, uh, hopefully in the future we’ll be able to kind of catch up. And be able to start recruiting for the following year’s class in the, in the spring. So what would be the junior year of those players? Um, you know, for now we are, we are recruiting, um, for the class of 2023. Um, and hopefully we will be done in time enough to at least start identifying for, uh, the spring to look at, um, The class of [00:02:00] 2024.
Okay. So that’s kind of our, that would be our timeline.
Matt: How, how many inbound contacts would you say you get from, from potential recruits in a, in an average week or average month?
Coach: I would say, especially right now, I mean, it’s definitely picking up on that end. So I, I would say we probably get between 15 or 20 a week, um, you know, contacts. Okay. From players.
Matt: And what is it that you like to see? From a player in that first outreach that they make to you?
Coach: Well, I definitely kind of a, a, a professional email, not kind of a, you know, email that you would write to your friend or something like that. We get some of those, Hey coach, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, um, you know, like to have the, uh, the time and the thought put into it as far as, um, you know, they’re giving us good information.
And then I think it’s also good the, the personalization. Of the email to the specific school, [00:03:00] um, would, shows me that they’ve done a little research, um, on the program and know what it’s about instead of, it’s not just a simple copy and paste and, you know, throwing it out there to everyone and, and, and anyone.
So, um, You know, and, and definitely, uh, I look at every video that comes across. So if a player sends me their information, I’m gonna look at it. Um, and, and, and the ones that are, uh, you know, can, you can tell, have that kind of professional touch to it are gonna be ones that I’m gonna be a little more interested in.
Cuz those are the type of players we wanna bring into our program. Okay.
Matt: Now in terms of when you’re out on the recruiting trail, what are some of the tournaments, uh, you know, that are kind of, must, must hit events for you in terms of, of getting to watch players?
Coach: Uh, tournaments that are, are, are either, um, gonna be, uh, have like some of the best teams in the area.
Uh, I plan on going [00:04:00] to, uh, in November, the Delco Showcase, uh, which is in, you know, the Philly suburbs. And then in that same weekend, there’s another good tournament too as well in, um, at, uh, Cedar Stars Complex in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. So those are two good tournaments on that weekend that are happening.
Um, and those are more o obviously regional type of tournaments. Um, you know, also the tournaments that draw in. Um, teams from other areas that we may not have been able to look at. I should also mention that my assistant is gonna be at the Raleigh tournament, uh, in the beginning of December, in conjunction with the Final four for the division.
Um, one, so that’s, that gets a little bit more, um, kind of a national tournament, two where you’re pulling teams in from, from all over the place. And then also I will be down in December at the, um, the National League. Uh, In Orlando. So again, that’s an [00:05:00] opportunity for us to see, uh, teams that we maybe normally wouldn’t see, um, which is a nice event to have.
And then Jefferson Cup, um, you know, is a good, uh, tournament again, to see teams from other areas that we don’t. Normally see. So those are the kind of tournaments that, you know, I like, either the ones that are regional, um, in the sense of, uh, areas that are, are good to recruit from and, and are close to our school.
Um, I’m gonna try to make the, I think the Columbus crew have a combine too as well. That’s kind of more just like a. Invitation, I think type of deal. Uh, you know, it’s not a team, but it’s individual players. But yeah, I mean, the areas that are, are, you know, within four or five hours of our school and they have a really strong, um, you know, regional tournament or good tournaments for us to go to the tournaments that are, you know, stronger nationally, like the Jefferson Cup and the National League will go to those.
In Raleigh. Um, [00:06:00] just so we can see players from other areas that we may not, you know, have seen too. And that kind of covers all of our basis. Uh, Penn Fusion has a good tournament in the end of, uh, February, as long as it doesn’t snow, um, , but they, you know, they tend to bring in really strong teams. Um, so that’s, that’s generally what we target as far as, um, , you know, recruiting events.
We’ll go to the, uh, high school All Star game for West Virginia. Okay. You know, too as well to see if we can identify some of the top players in West Virginia. Okay.
Matt: What, how about camps? Uh, do you guys do your own camps? Does you and your staff work? Other camps? Do camps fit into your recruiting at all?
Coach: Yeah, we will definitely do some ID camps for players that are kind of, you know, maybe that we haven’t seen play and they just wanna be considered for the team for sure. Um, We’ll probably try to squeeze one in before, uh, Christmas, um, maybe sometime in November. And then also have [00:07:00] one, um, in the early spring for the 2020 threes that haven’t, um, you know, had a chance to sign.
And that’s also obviously a place for us to start with identifying 20. 20 fours. Um, and we’ll go to other ID camps. Yeah. I mean, if we’re invited, um, in the past I got invited to like the West Virginia University ID camp and I went to that. And, and those are good events, you know, to go to as well. And, and if we’re invited, uh, whether to work or not, we’ll, we’ll go up and we’ll watch ’em.
Okay.
Matt: Now looking at your guys roster, you got a. A decent amount of international players. So how, how does international recruiting fit into your whole mix?
Coach: Well, I mean, we definitely consider internationals, obviously that’s a, that’s a big part of not just our school, but also our conference too. If you look at Charleston and um, And d e and then also, uh, Notre Dame College.
Uh, the top three teams in our conference, those [00:08:00] have, you know, international players. So, um, you know, they’re, they’re obviously pretty accessible. Um, I have contacts that I’ve built up through the, um, years I’ve coached, so I get in contact with those people and. You know, and from there, uh, you know, we just have, I’ve compiled like a list of, uh, of recruiting agencies I follow on YouTube.
So I’m always on there looking at their new videos, Victor, um, you know, putting up. So, um, you know, we definitely have a lot of access. And now there’s the, um, I think they’re called the International Alliance, which is like a conglomerate of five or six. Um, Uh, recruiting agencies working together, and they’ve kind of streamlined the process for a lot of coaches, which is nice.
There’s one out of, uh, Iceland called Soccer and Education usa. There’s one in Italy called College Life [00:09:00] Italian. There’s one that is more, uh, outta Spain. It’s called agm. And then there’s one in Germany called Sports Scholarships. And then there’s one called c. Uh, USA and they’re more Scandinavian. So they’ve all come together and what they do is they have one website, one app you can go on and you can search by whatever the graduation year is, the position you’re looking for.
And all these different things, and it has all of their players, um, from all five of those recruiting agencies together, which is really nice. You know, it makes it a lot easier to do. So there’s a lot of things that you know, you can do as far as the recruiting internationally, um, that lets you know what’s out there and available.
Matt: Okay, Well, whether it’s at camp or uh, a tournament or, um, anything kind of, what is your hierarchy of things that you’re looking for in a player? What kind of ticks those boxes, whether it’s on the field or off the field stuff.
Coach: [00:10:00] Well, I think the first thing on the field would be, um, their technical ability.
We do try to play, um, you know, a pretty technical type of a game. Um, you know, I’m looking at, uh, you know, what they’re, how they’re playing and what level they’re playing at too as well. Cuz I think that’s a pretty good indicator. Um, as far as, uh, you know, how. They’ll adapt to the college game. Um, and that’s one thing I would encourage all recruits to do as I’m watching all these videos of recruits coming in, is to make sure that they put on the highest level that they, um, you know, that they compete against, um, that’s really valuable.
Um, putting in, you know, against competition where you have a lot more time and space to do things is really gonna leave question marks in a, um, you know, coach’s head. Just because at the college level, you know, time and space is, is definitely valuable and [00:11:00] it’s, um, you know, you don’t get as much of it.
And so that lets a coach know whether you truly can, um, you know, play at the next level. Um, and some of the things that you might be able to get away with because of those things, um, if you rely on them for success. I think for me as a coach, it leads me kind of a question of if they’re gonna be able to adapt and be able to do it differently at the college level without that same, you know, time and space of things that they’re trying to do.
Um, so, you know, that’s, that’s kind of how I’m evaluating, um, players. Um, and uh, that’s not to say that we completely rule those guys out, um, but we definitely, um, you know, try to get another look at them to see if it’s just a question that they haven’t given us that video at a high enough level. So the technical, the technical ability, uh, the decision making, um, you know, keeping it simple.
Uh, we’re not looking for [00:12:00] players that are necessarily gonna try to do, uh, you know, so much on their own all the time. Um, you know, we, I appreciate the, the simplicity of doing things. Um, you know, if a player dusting simple over and over again, Executes, Well that’s gonna stand out just as much as that one, you know, major play that they make or they’ve been trying to make.
Um, and then I would say as far as just, you know, when we talk to them and we get to know them, obviously we’re watching the them, how they interact. If they’re at a tournament, I’ll even watch players and how they warm. Um, tells me, you know, what type of environment they’re used to being in, how serious they are, um, how they interact.
Uh, you know, obviously on the field with their teammates off the field too, with the coaches and, and their teammates. So if I’m going to a tournament itself, I, I’m definitely looking at, you know, all of those things. Um, and if we’re in a conversation and [00:13:00] we’re talking together, Uh, you know, just that they are, uh, mature and they can, they can carry a conversation and things like that are all indicators how well they follow up as well, you know, in the process.
Um, cuz the whole process, just cuz we tell a recruit we’re interested in them and we think they’re good enough to play at the next level, doesn’t mean. , Um, that that stuff doesn’t factor in as we go along too, as, as well. Um, you know, cuz once you get here, we want guys that can lead themselves, they can take care of themselves and, and that we don’t really have to manage.
Sure,
Matt: Sure. Well, let’s shift gears. Talk a little bit about the school. Um, You know, I know you’ve, you’ve just been there since August, but I know you’ve got a lot of history in that conference, so, Yep. Can you tell me, you know, we can go to the website, click around and learn a lot, but kind of gimme some inside scoop.
What are some awesome things about your school that, that I might not just learn about on the website?
Coach: Okay, well, we have a [00:14:00] great facility. Um, and, uh, you know, it’s a great environment to be playing in. Um, you know, you really have to play on, uh, a turf field in this area. . We probably would’ve had about five or six games, uh, canceled this year if we didn’t.
And that would’ve been hard to make it up. So it almost becomes a necessity, even though I like a really good grass field. I just think in this area, you know, we had the turf, uh, redone just this past year. Um, so we’re playing on brand new. . Um, and uh, that’s, that’s awesome too as well cuz um, that plays really nice and um, you know, we get to play, uh, night games because we have lights.
So I think it’s a great environment, um, you know, to play in. And as we build the program and, and get more and more competitive, I think that will, you know, help us, um, you know, as well. You know, even though it’s, it’s in a smaller area, uh, Philippi [00:15:00] is, um, you know, we really don’t get a ton of, Oh, there’s nothing to do and things like that.
Um, so I think that there’s enough to do close by in Morgantown, Pittsburgh, you know, other areas, um, that the players are not, you know, necessarily lacking for that type of, uh, that part of the college. You know, experience. Um, so most of our, uh, and I think that’s also in large part because most of our population, even though the school’s a little bit smaller, you know, lives on campus, so you have a little more community sense.
Um, Than a school, even though a a state school might be bigger, not all the kids might live on campus and things like that. So I, I think that benefits us that, uh, all of our players and, and most of our students live on campus too. Um, and the support amongst athletics team is, is really good. Uh, you know, we.
Uh, a lot of different sports coming down and watching us [00:16:00] play, which is nice. Um, there’s not really like that divide that you might think that there is between sports, we get the football team coming down, volleyball team, lacrosse, you know, all these different sports, and we go out and we support them. So I think that’s also a strong.
A strength of, of vison broadest is that you get that support amongst other athletic teams too. No, that’s
Matt: great. Well, you know, parents, uh, their first question, uh, is usually around dollars and cents, so I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask, uh, just to give me a, a, an overview of kind of the cost and financial aid situation there.
What academic scholarships are available, athletic money, kind of what’s a, an average student athlete walking into, uh, when they go to.
Coach: Uh, I, the average, I would say, you know, and we have some, some good aid, even non athletically, which is nice. And, um, that is the one of the reasons why [00:17:00] probably, uh, in comparisons, To some of the other schools, um, even like at Davis Elkins and at Charleston, you see more American players on our roster because of the aid that we do give away, um, for even guys that are not getting soccer scholarship, um, money.
And that allows us to be able to go out and recruit, um, some of those American players, um, that are, uh, pretty good academically and maybe have a, a decent need as far as what their financial aid. And, um, you know, I would say in general, uh, that the packages are gonna range between 25 and 30,000 aid money, and then you’re looking at, uh, the school being 42.
Um, so it’s a good average, I believe, and, um, You know, it generally, the recruiting part actually, um, isn’t, I wouldn’t say, you know, really, really hard for us to be [00:18:00] able to, you know, get players in, um, just because of the, of what you look at on our roster. Um, we’re not like, um, We’re not struggling to get the numbers in that are interested in our school and getting good financial packages.
Okay.
Matt: Can you, can you walk me through kind of what a typical week looks like in terms of, you know, Meals, practice time, class time, kind of your, your game cadence. Just to just, I know there’s no such thing as an average week, but Right. You know? Right. But, but what one might look like if I’m a student coming in.
Sure. What, what’s that? What’s that like?
Coach: Well, we, our conference generally plays on Wednesday and Sunday, and right now we have 16 conference games. Um, so you’re talking about That’s pretty much our schedule for games throughout the, um, This season. So what that looks like as far as the schedule goes, um, you know, if we started and we played a game on a [00:19:00] Sunday, um, a Monday, we would have practice.
Uh, you know, generally in the early evening, um, after football. So that’s when our usual practice time is. Um, so players have, um, our classes do go just a little bit later, so that’s nice. Kind of, uh, you know, works out. Some classes don’t end until three or four o’clock, um, in the afternoon, so it would be hard to get kind of.
You know, afternoon practice in. So we will, um, you know, have practice at six or seven o’clock at night. And, um, the players are obviously getting dinner before that. So they have their classes during the day. Um, You know, and then also, uh, you know, get their, their meals, breakfast and lunch. And then there’s that time, um, where they can get some work done, uh, before practice too if they need to.
Um, and then we don’t end so late at night that they can’t get to that work again, [00:20:00] cuz we’re usually ending around eight or nine o’clock. At night for our practice. Um, so there’s definitely time for them to come back and, and to do school work if they need to and other things. And then we practice on Monday, on Tuesdays, same setup.
Wednesday we play Thursday’s, usually our day off. Um, and then Friday, obviously we’re back practicing Saturday. Um, kind of depends on football, whether there’s a home football game or not, but we, we practice at some point on, on Saturday, um, before the game on, on Sunday, but that’s kind of what a, a schedule looks like for us.
Okay.
Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team then. So is there a typical roster size that you like that you’re trying to hit each?
Coach: We definitely like to keep the roster around 30 players. Okay. Um, you know, this year, uh, especially right now, we’re dealing with a lot of injuries. Um, so 30 might seem like a lot to people, but an actuality.[00:21:00]
Once you start factoring in injuries and other things that happen, um, you know, right now we’re at a point with our injuries where we can barely play 11 V 11 in our training. Um, so, uh, I think 30 is a good number. Um, and, uh, we generally like to carry three goalkeepers and then 27 field players. Um, And, and, and, and the recruiting process for us is, is the full picture when we’re looking at our roster and even looking at maybe some areas that we need to improve our depth with.
If we feel like in that, uh, training process, um, hey, we need to be a little bit stronger in our defense. So, uh, you know, we’ll focus our attention, you know, on bringing in, uh, you know, a strong group of defenders to make sure that our training sessions are very competitive and, and they’re not too easy, um, you know, for the guys.
So, you know, we [00:22:00] definitely look at every part of our roster. We’re not. Taking players in just to take them and give them a roster spot. We’re working hard to, you know, identify players in different points in their development. Some guys might be able to play right away. Um, but those players that even if they can’t start or play right away, we.
Still are looking for, uh, you know, them to be competitive, um, and then to be strong so that they can develop. And then that also breeds that competition that we need in training as well. Uh, if that gap is there, then it’s really a struggle. So, um, we definitely, and my assistant and I have talked about that a decent amount there in this season, just continuing to, Improve the roster top to bottom and get like 30 very strong players in.
Okay.
Matt: Uh, you, you, you mentioned staff, so how big is your staff? What role does everybody play?
Coach: What does that kind of look like? I have, I have one [00:23:00] assistant and then we have, um, a, uh, athletic trainer that works with just the men’s in the women’s team. And he’s a former soccer player at the college level, which is nice.
Um, he’s done an awesome job. Um, you know, he’s available throughout the day for our guys to get their treatment. He’s got a great setup, Um, gives the guys, uh, a schedule that he’s gonna be there and they sign up for their times. Um, you know, so, uh, that’s our, that’s our setup. For, for right now. Um, you know, we would love to be able to kind of bring in, uh, a goalkeeper coach too as well.
Um, but we’ll have to see how that that goes. I didn’t really have a lot of time, you know, to do that, but we would love to be able to, um, you know, bring that in cuz that would be, uh, huge for us too.
Matt: Okay. In terms of, you know, what happens on the field, how would you describe kind of your style of coaching and the team style of play and just that [00:24:00] overall culture of the team?
Coach: We definitely try to build our attack, you know, through, uh, you know, each line, um, that we’re playing in. Um, you know, and there are different styles in the, um, the conference for sure. I mean, I think when I watch Charleston and, and Davidson Elkins play, they are very different. In the way both those teams play.
Um, and, uh, we’re kind of like in between those two teams with the way that we try to play. Um, Charleston is extremely patient in their buildup. And I would say d and e is tries to be very quick and fast in getting down. Um, you know, the field. So we kind of are trying to fall somewhere in between, um, where we are, uh, trying to play fast enough, but little bit more, Hey, let’s keep possession of the ball to, um, you know, as well.
Um, and our main goal is, is to try to find space, um, and open up space that we can [00:25:00] attack and we can have success when we’re going forward in attacking and maintain, um, possession. And, and we are trying to play a game where we, um, high pressure the other team counter press when we lose the ball, um, you know, right away.
So, um, you know, that’s our, that’s our style of play that we’re trying to play. Um, you know, out on the.
Matt: Okay. Well coach, we’ve, we’ve covered a lot of ground here, talked about a lot of different things, and I like to end these all the same way. And that’s what didn’t we talk about. Uh, is there anything else you, you want to talk about?
Whether that’s recruiting the school team, the process, anything in general? Uh, I like give you the floor.
Coach: All right, thanks. Well, I think, uh, one thing I will highlight is that our conference is an extremely competitive conference. We have two teams right now that are basically. Uh, top 10 in the nation.
Charleston and Davidson Elkins. Um, Notre Dame was receiving votes. Uh, I think that we’ll have three teams that make the [00:26:00] NCAA tournament this year, which is a lot. I would say. Um, you know, having three teams from one conference make the NCAAs is pretty significant since we get 40 teams in the NCAA tournament.
So we’re definitely, uh, you know, a competitive conference. Um, you know, that kind of like you said in the beginning. That notion of division two schools in West Virginia, you kind of gotta throw that out the window. Um, because I think people would be surprised how good of the competition is if they’re just kind of thinking about, um, whatever their perception of West Virginia is in soccer, um, you know, it’s a high level of play.
Um, you know, that’s the reason why I came to Auto and brought us, cuz um, you know, I, I knew this was a good. Um, and, uh, I enjoyed playing in the, the Old Weave Act, which is now a lot of the members of the, of the Mountain East. Um, and I was looking forward to that. And, um, you know, I, I think that [00:27:00] people, as our team gets more and more competitive and we build towards that, um, it will be a good, exciting, um, you know, program to be a part of.
and uh, you know, so I just mentioned that too as well. And, and we are definitely a, a program that I think next year with the really strong recruiting class are gonna be, um, you know, much improved. Um, the players that we, um, have been talking to and the recruiting process, I think are gonna give us a good, strong foundation to help meet some of the needs that we saw on this year’s team and, So I think we’ll be right up there with those teams and, and competing, which will make for an exciting, uh, program.
You might be throwing another team into the mix there, um, in the conference. Awesome.
Matt: Well, coach, we hope that, uh, that pans out for you and you get even more recruits coming in and, and keep pushing that program forward. So best of luck and, [00:28:00] uh, we’ll talk soon. All right? Okay.
Coach: Thanks for having me. Thanks.
