Ashland University Women’s Soccer – Coach Cayleb Paulino

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Cayleb from the Ashland Women’s Program in Ohio. We talk about how he looks at the overall culture of the team when recruiting. He describes the school’s amenities and perfect location between Columbus and Cleveland. Lastly, we discuss their expectation and standard of success. Learn more about Ashland University Women’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Cayleb from Ashland University Women’s Program in Ohio. 

Coach: Welcome coach. Thanks for having me.

Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. Excited to talk to you. You got a, a stellar division two program up there in Ohio and, uh, you know, Being from Columbus.

I’m a little partial to the Ohio schools, but, uh, yeah, forget, but I won’t, I won’t let that shine through too much here, but, uh, that’s all right. Um, well, let’s talk about recruiting. You know, it’s, it’s January when you and I are talking. It’s the, uh, the, the heavy hitting showcase season and all that kind of stuff.

And then the. Transfer portals, hop in and all those good things. But right now where you guys are at, is, is your 23 class closed, or are you still got a couple left? You working on 20 fours? What’s that look like for you?

Coach: Yeah, I, I, I think, you know, timing is everything. Um, you know, we’re, we’re still on conversations with some kids that are later in the process for 2023.

We’ve started to create a list for, for 2020 fours being. The event in RL event in Florida, um, this past week and you know, the transfer portal’s been been crazy as well. So a lot of kids that are from the area that know Ashland really well, that have reached out to us about potentially, you know, joining our roster and our program here at Ashland.

So it’s a little bit of everything I think. You know, it’s just the right fit for the right kid and, and understanding where we’re at as a program. So I think that, you know, for the 20 threes, it’s always continuing and with the transfers and now the 24th, we’re, we’re really starting to dig down into our list.

Matt: Well, you mentioned ECNL and, and RL [00:01:30] and Florida and, and, sorry, I, I, I live three miles from the premier complex and didn’t get over there this time. Yeah. Uh, just one of those things, but, um, what other tournaments are kind of on your, on your hit list every year? I mean, obviously your rosters Ohio heavy, but, but where do you like to go to, to make sure you’re seeing players.

Coach: Yeah, like the crazy thing is like when we go to those events, we’re watching mostly regionally based teams. So you’re looking at Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, New York, Ohio. Um, we went to the EC L event down in 10 Tennessee. Um, Ohio Elite puts on a showcase here, uh, and then next month or two, so, you know, for us, They’re Grand Park always has a couple events that we go to as well, but you know, the more kids that reach out to us at a certain event, the more we’re gonna be going to those things and, and watching those players play.

So, you know, again, I think it’s, most of it is based off the region and, and where the amount of teams are participating in. So that’s kind of where we stick to and we’ll always get some kids outside of the region as we go to those. 

Matt: Now, what about camps? Do you guys do your own camps? Does your staff work?

Other camps? How much do they fit into the overall process for you? 

Coach: Yeah, I think, you know, we kind of use camps to that. We’ve already identified players and, and getting a feel for Ashland University. You know, it’s run specifically from, uh, our coaching staff perspective. And then we might invite some other, uh, local colleges as well to come watch the kids play as and, and participate in our camp.

For us, it’s, it’s a kind of a last look or maybe even a first look for some kids of what Ashland University is [00:03:00] and what we have to offer. So, you know, that’s the way we treat our ID camps. We go to some other ones that, um, some other bigger schools in Division one world have, and, and go and watch some of their, their camps as well.

But for the most part, we, we stay close to home and do our own kind of thing. And, and just use as a intro to, to Ashley University. 

Matt: All right. Well, don’t forget to post it on the Discover, uh, college soccer.com website too. Yeah. . Um, well, so whether it’s camp or one of these showcases or, or really watching any players, kind of, what’s your hierarchy of things that you’re looking for in a player that’s gonna make ’em stand out, make you guys want to have the, those future conversations?

Coach: Yeah, we do things probably a little bit differently than a lot of other schools. Big thing that we love to see is kids that are comfortable in the ball and love to dribble. I think regardless of what position it is, center back, outside, back midfielders forwards. Like we like kids that kind of show that ability to break lines off the dribble.

And you kind of miss that in the game today cuz you see one or two touches and I feel like everybody can do that. And then you see someone do a move in an event, you’re like, oh my gosh, what was that? So those are that kind of the things that entertain us, um, you know, in the recruiting piece and you know, getting to know players throughout this process.

I think. Changed dramatically since Covid because now you have the opportunity to meet with every single kid via Zoom. And I think that’s been absolutely, uh, helpful for our program. Cuz I think one thing that we talk about a lot is, is culture. and getting to know families and, and we talk about fit a lot, understanding if that kid we feel is gonna be a really [00:04:30] good fit to the culture of Ashland Women’s Soccer.

So that’s been huge and, and something that, you know, we’ve never thought of before, COVID, now that we’ve had these opportunities to really get to know our recruits for longer periods of time and have these interactions with them. So, um, it, it’s definitely something that. picked up on and really done our research on with recruiting is getting to know these kids outside the soccer element.

Matt: Well, and you, you talk about getting to know the kids. How much are you in conversations with a player’s club coach or their high school coach or, or that kind of thing?

Coach: A lot. I think you get different perspectives. I think, uh, there’s a club setting, like that kid might play a particular position or have certain responsibilities in the club role, and then high school, they’re completely different.

So it, it’s good to build those relationships, uh, with those players. You know, we have a really good relationship with a lot of the local high school coaches around here that. start giving us names early on and say, Hey, you might wanna pay attention to this kid. They play at such and such club. They had a really good fall.

Can’t wait to see how they do in the winter slash spring. So I think those things are great. Like we even love kids that, you know, we joke around like a lot of our kids are multi-sport kids and like, hey, how basketball go? Um, and some of ’em are like, man, I’m a defensive specialist and I don’t score any points.

But you know, it’s just fun to. Hear about how that, that’s been going and like the rivalry games for them and, and, and different sport and, and hearing how, you know, they’re managing balancing school and other sports and soccer. So it, it’s good to, you know, get the whole perspective, whole person out of the experience.

Matt: No, that’s awesome. Um, well, you know, as a parent of a daughter that will be going to [00:06:00] college, you know, soon, but four years from now, I guess, right? You know, I’m always looking at how, okay, how much is this gonna cost me? So I’m not, I’m not holding you to hard numbers here. Yeah. But just gimme an overall example of what an average student athlete walking into the soccer program’s gonna look at in terms of academic money, athletic money.

What, what does that kind of picture look like?

Coach: Yeah. I, I, you know, room and board tuition, room and board is probably under 40,000, maybe like 38,000. Um, you know, depending on how you do academically, you’re probably looking at anywhere between eight to 12,000 academically. Um, and then we start having conversation based on athletic aid as we get to know players, I think the important piece for us is the way we go about the recruiting process is you gotta love Ashland for Ashland.

I don’t think the dollar sign should make a difference when having that conversation if you don’t like a, b and C about Ashland, just because we have an, an, uh, opportunity to talk about athletic aid, that shouldn’t change your mind if you don’t love the other things about it. So I think for us, that’s kind of how we approach it.

We have a really long discussion and get kids on visits multiple times before we have those conversations about athletic aid. Cuz I wanted them to know like, this is just a small piece of why you’re here. You’re supposed to be successful in the next piece of your life. And hopefully Ashley can provide for, provide you that.

And if, if that’s the case, then great. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll figure out the athletics piece, um, once you’re okay with everything. 

Matt: All right, fair enough. Well, let’s, you know, there’s a lot of people probably, uh, listen who aren’t familiar with Ashland, who, who maybe haven’t driven through Northern Ohio, but, uh, yeah.

So, so let’s talk a little bit about the school. What are some of the [00:07:30] awesome things you found at the school that maybe I’m not gonna learn just by going through the website?

Coach: Yeah. You know, the, everybody’s actually like, where’s Ashland? I’m like, well, it’s in between Columbus and Cleveland. If you go diagonal, it’s right square, middle.

Um, so we’re about 7,500 kids, uh, 60. Hundred kids or undergrad. Uh, so it’s a, a decently sized division two school. Uh, you know, athletic amenities that we have. You know, we just build a 30 million indoor facility that our group trains in, um, throughout the winter and spring. We never go outside, which, you know, I’m not complaining about in Ohio weather.

Um, but again, you know, soccer only turf field, uh, we have colleges. on the, in the, on the campus as well. So College of Nursing, college Arts and Sciences, college of Business and college education. So a little bit more academic driven in those specific colleges, which is nice to kind of know that you’re gonna go into a specific building and, and be there and, and really hone in on the academic piece, you know, wherever you’re at in those colleges.

So, you know, it, it’s a unique experience. I know our, our college in nursing does really well here as far as our players on the roster. We have a ton of prem. Bio exercise science kids, um, as well as business kids, and you name it, we probably have, you know, one or two of every major that you can think of.

Matt: Okay. Well, yeah, I mean, you talk about academics, so that’s tends to be, you know, somewhat of a challenge sometimes for high school kids coming into to college for the first time. So how do your student athletes really balance the commitments between their sport and the academic side, and what kind of support [00:09:00] systems does the school offer to help?

Coach: Yeah, I, I think it’s part of the experiences of figuring out how to do it on your own. Um, you know, most of our kids are very good students coming in, and I tell them, whatever you’ve done to be successful in the high school, experie, Do the same thing in college. , that’s who you are. Um, I don’t force study tables on kids to make them a different type of learner than they, than they are.

Uh, some kids don’t thrive in being in a environment with 30 or 40 other people and get anything done. So we, we tend to make sure that our first year kids are checking in on us every couple weeks, um, and making sure they’re checking in with and with our assistant or myself and, and asking about how the academics piece is going, because I think starting out well is a.

Piece of your experience in the, at the college level? So the nice piece for us is most of our away trips or our conferences pretty close knit, so there’s not a lot of overnight travel, so it’s usually down and back. But I, I make sure that our staff. Let’s the professors know week ahead of time, like, Hey, here’s our roster.

Here’s who’s leaving, here’s what time they need to be dismissed. They’re responsible ultimately for making up any work that they, they need to. So we haven’t had a too much of a problem. We had 3.6 gpa. Um, you know, our girls do a really good job and they won the conference. So I think those are things that.

Our always worrisome at, at, at Christmas time is like, listen, don’t win the conference and not do well academically. So I think we had 23 out of our 30 on the dean’s list, which is awesome. Wow. That, that, that is 

Matt: Well, [00:10:30] in terms of, of the season, let’s, you know, rewind a few months back to when you were in the throes of it.

Yeah. Can you walk, can you walk me through what a typical week would look like for a player in terms of winter classes, meals, practice games, cadence, that kind of thing?

Coach: Uh, our schedule’s pretty straightforward. We practice from four to six every day. Um, the days that we don’t have games, obviously the reason why we train from four to six is that’s the least amount of class offer to Ashland.

So I don’t want kids to figure out, well, how am I gonna balance the academics piece and athletics piece when there’s not too much offered during that time? Now we might have some kids in our bio pre-med groups that might get outta lab right at four, or some kids that have night class that have to leave early.

Uh, but essentially we wanna make sure. , we’re taking the stress out of that part for ’em. Uh, I think as well, we tra we travel on Thursday, Saturday, so, you know, being able to ahead of time schedule those different classes as a student athlete, making sure that, you know, if you’re gonna schedule a class on Thursday, make sure it’s not every single one of your classes.

Um, , but again, it’s pretty straightforward. And Sunday’s our day off. Um, they know that routine. Mondays are usually pretty lighter for us cuz it’s still a recovery cuz we played, you know, essentially two games in 72 hours. So we don’t do much as far as like, pushing the group extremely hard during those first couple days, knowing that, you know, we, we were gonna be going at it pretty heavily over the weekend.

Okay. [00:12:00] 

Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more, you know, about the team and, and the season, I think you mentioned earlier, but is there, is there a roster size that, that you like to, to hit each year that you find is ideal?

Coach: Well, we have 33 lockers, so I don’t want to try to go over that . Um, so that’s kind of the, the max goal that we go for.

Um, you know, this year we were right at 30, I think, and my first year with the programmer about 27. So, uh, you know, three or four keepers in that mix. So you’re looking at, you know, anywhere from, you know, 26 to 28 field players. Um, and that’s pretty typical, I think, across the board for division two is that’s kind of the typical roster size.

So for us, you know, that’s, that’s kind of where we imagine ourselves at and kind of put ourselves, but you know, that changes. Throughout the course of the year and with kids coming in and going, so, you know, we, we understand that there’s some flexibility in that number. 

Matt: Okay. Well, in, in terms of number of staff, what does your staff look like?

What role does everybody play there?

Coach: Yeah, I, I. Have a ga Uh, she was an all region kid for me. She actually helped me out a ton because she played here and knew more kids than I knew when I first got the job. So I, I, I got the job five days before they moved in, um, last year. So I was playing name games and, and Deja assistant was able to fill me in with the players that she played with, knowing the program really well and being a kid that’s, Close to Ashland for a long time.

Uh, that was super helpful. And then we also have a part-time goalkeeper coach that comes in and works with our group, so a smaller staff. But I think a lot [00:13:30] more conversations that we’re able to have, being, being a smaller staff and, and getting to know our players than, rather than, you know, having five or six different voices to go to and have questions with.

So I think, I think it works. No. 

Matt: Sounds good. Well, in terms of your style of coaching team, style of play, just kind of the culture team, can you give me a little bit, uh, a background on that?

Coach: Yeah, so, you know, when I inherited the job, I think when I came in I had 10 seniors. And the one thing that they asked me to do and the importance of them was they wanted to leave this place better than what they found them.

And they felt that culturally things could have gotten. . Um, and I think that was one thing that we stressed my first year, is I think it’s easy, and we talked about this in the recruiting process, is to identify talented players. I think it’s difficult to find kids that you feel are gonna be really good teammates and good people without going through the process of getting to know them over a long period of time.

So for us, I think that’s one thing that we talk. More and we end with every day is it, it costs you nothing to be a good teammate, but it makes the world a difference. So I think, you know, we’ve done a really good job of being successful the last couple years that I’ve been here, but I, I think it goes full circle to the emphasis that we put on team culture and being a good teammate and a good student, and giving back to the community that makes us who we are.

Okay. 

Matt: Well, in terms of. The kind of the on field stuff. Do you guys employ any, [00:15:00] uh, technology? I was just at the coach’s convention and there was all kinds of cameras and analytics and GPSs and all that kind of stuff. Do you guys do any of that for practices or games? 

Coach: We have filmed a lot of our training sessions and obviously games as well.

Uh, every player has an account that they’ll be able to go in and and watch video. We do that stuff as a group as well, so that way at least I know everybody has seen it and, and had those, um, conversations. As far as like what we’re looking for as a group, we also use it for our opponents as well. Um, we’ll always give the day of the game, give them some clips of what the teams typically try to do, uh, against their opponent and kind of be prepared for that kind of stuff.

But yeah, the gizmos and the gadgets. . Unbelievable. And I think, you know, some of it is overwhelming. Some players would love that stuff. Some players, they probably don’t care either way. So, uh, I think we’re gonna start trying to look at more like performance stuff with tracking like passes and stuff like that, which we do a lot of statistical stuff just based on staff taking stats.

Um, but now you can submit that stuff and you know, people do it for you. So it’s also an opportunity for me to rewatch the games and, and dig deep into you. Myself evaluating how we did. So I think for us, like we’re gonna get into that stuff a little bit more and take the next step, but man, that stuff is pretty cool.

And, and as well as overwhelming. Yeah, for sure. 

Matt: For sure. Well, as we mentioned, we’re, we’re talking here in January, right before you said your kids have been back, uh, a week or two and, and you’re getting off to practice. So what, what is this off season gonna look like for you typically? What do you guys do [00:16:30] between now and say, the end of the.

Coach: Yeah, this is what we call the developmental season because I think, you know, when you’re playing in the fall, it’s, it’s so much soccer condensed in a small amount of time with games that. and I think you’re, you see a little bit of the version that you are as quickly as you can in preseason, but now we can kind of slow things down and pay more attention to areas that I think we need to get better at.

Um, so our typical schedule is train twice a week, lift twice a week. Uh, when we get back from spring break, that’ll increase to three times a week training, one day a week lifting, and then we get five competitive dates to play. Other schools. So last year we played five division one opponents. Um, I think we have slotted for four this year.

Uh, I just think it’s fun to play different schools that you don’t get to play all the time. And also schools that we’re recruiting against. I think that’s, you know, one thing that we use it for is, okay, you know, when you’re comparing and contrasting two schools, maybe one’s a division one, one’s a division two, here’s where the difference is in the level.

Um, it might not. that much different than you think, or it might be a lot more different depending on who you’re playing. So, uh, we use that as kind of a recruiting tool as well. And it’s also a preparation for us to be prepared for like the NCAA tournament in like a small spring setting. Oh, that’s awesome.

Matt: Well, You know, we’ve kind of covered a lot of ground, talked about a lot of different things, and I always like to end these the same way. And that’s what didn’t we talk about. What else would you like folks to know, whether that’s about the college recruiting process, about your school, about the soccer, anything else?

I give you the last word.

Coach: Yeah, I think, you know, we have something special going [00:18:00] here and I think, you know, my first year we won 15 games, we won, we lost, uh, one game before the NCAA tournament. , you know, in two years we, we lost our first conference game, um, this past year. And that was because I felt like we graduated 10 seniors and we had a lot of younger kids and they needed to figure out how to be in that environment and be successful.

And we end up playing that team we lost too, uh, and the conference final at their place in winning. So I think those are things that you learn about a group is, you know, there there are gonna be difficult moments that think there are things. Kids don’t realize when they get to the college setting is like there’s an expectation and a standard of success and every day is a day of competition.

But you’re also balancing the social component, the academic components. There’s a lot of things that can. Essentially affect what you’re doing every single day. And it’s figuring out how to go about it in the right way and, and leave the things that are distractions outside the soccer field and making sure that you’re prepared every day to compete.

But, you know, I, I’m excited where we’re at as a, as a university, as a program, the things that we have, the, the growth that we’ve seen in a small amount of time in, in two years. And I think, you know, we’re we. Putting ourselves in a national stage and con and conversation at the highest level, and we’ll see how we do next year.

I think, you know, that’s the biggest growth. We’ve been to a tournament 12 times. I’ve been to a Final Four once, you know, have multiple scholar and, uh, athletic all Americans. Now it’s can you be in the Final four consistently? And that’s kind of the [00:19:30] growth of the group and what we talk about. And I think, uh, we’re, we’re moving in the right direction with the right people and, and finding the right kids that are helping our culture.

And I’m excited for, for what’s in store for ash limb and soccer in the. 

Matt: Well, absolutely. You guys are, you’re doing big things and, and we’re looking forward to, to seeing how it progresses. And if you get down to Bradenton for any more c l events, gimme a shout. Yeah, we’ll, we’ll grab, we’ll grab a cup of coffee or something.

Coach: Yeah, for sure. Awesome. 

Matt: Well, thank you for being here and wish you the best of luck, coach

Coach:. Thank you. Thank you for having me.