Benedictine University Men’s Soccer – Coach Spencer Pappas

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Spencer Pappas from the Benedictine University Men’s Soccer program in Lisle, Illinois. We talk about the recruiting process for a Division III program, including the importance of ID camps, evaluating players in person, and why academics and character are at the top of his recruiting priorities. We also discuss what makes Benedictine special, from its people and long-tenured staff to the academic and athletic resources available to student-athletes. Lastly, we dive into the team environment, coaching staff, and Coach Pappas’ playing philosophy built around purposeful possession, aggressive defending, and creating attacking overloads. Learn more about Benedictine University Men’s Soccer.

[00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today, I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Spencer at Benedictine. H- welcome, coach. Thank you. I appreciate you having me on. Yeah, thanks for being here. If I said that right, Benedictine. You know, they- Yep, Benedictine … talk about the monks, Benedictine, eh.

Yeah, exact- nah, you’re good. Um, so you guys are D3 in Illinois- Yep … men’s program. You and I are talking after that f- one day after the fabled June 15th, you know, starting gun for all the Division I folks, but the beauty of D3 is you could’ve been talking to these guys forever, right? So I, I guess- Yeah, I guess that’s true.

Well, but, like, well, I mean, like you said, you guess that’s true, but the reality is, like, what is your kinda timeline calendar right now? So June 15th, that, you know, the gun goes off, all the class of ’28 people are really excited and hoping- Yep … they get a phone call, but where are you right now with, say, the class of ’27, right?

Yeah, so for ’27, right, I think we’ve… we were really lucky this year and [00:01:00] fortunate where our recruiting class for 2026 was pretty much done beginning of April, end of March, which for us, m- my, this is, I’m going on my sixth year, so this, we’ve brought in five recruiting classes. It’s pretty early for where we’re at normally.

Um, so was kind of pleasantly surprised with that. I think our staff and I did a really good job in kind of identifying guys and getting them locked in, um, early in the recruiting process, and around the holidays, right? So we were able to kinda start focusing on ’27s, um, earlier in the spring, um, and starting to kind of identify some guys.

But, um, for us, it’s w- a lot of initial conversations with ’27s. Uh, we have our, our, our big ID camp, our su- our summer ID camp coming up next week, so trying to get guys there, trying to watch them throughout the spring with some of the State Cup games or some of the showcases that are going on regionally, locally, uh, in May and June.

And then obviously gearing up for when high school season starts and trying to really get out to a lot of high school games, get guys on campus for [00:02:00] game day visits, um, that kind of stuffs, right? So it’s, we’ve had initial conversations with- A fair amount of guys, right? Um, but it’s still, for us, so early in the process, um, especially with kind of how our program is with guys that we’re kind of targeting.

We’re, um… And from, especially from an academic standpoint, right, compared to a University of Chicago and some of those higher end academic schools, right? We’re a little bit further behind, uh, in that recruiting process compared to those guys. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. Um, well, you mentioned, uh, you mentioned high school, you mentioned- Mm-hmm

ID camps, kinda. W- where, where do you like to go to see players? How important are the ID camps for you guys? What, what does that look like? Yeah, for sure. Um, I think if you… We’re fortunate. If you look at our roster, right, I think 98% of it is from Illinois or the Chicago area, right? And so, um, for us, it’s a lot of regional, local stuff, right?

So, uh, ECNL had their big, like, Indianapolis showcase in, [00:03:00] um, April that we went out to, and we’re identifying guys that were from Chicago, but also from the Midwest and different areas, right? Um, I went out to MLS NEXT Fest in, uh, Arizona in, uh, December. So we’ll hit some of those bigger, um, events, but a lot of it’s regional, local stuff, right?

So we’re fortunate enough, we’re… If we’re, we, we have 34 guys on the roster in the fall, right? And go, uh, look, I’m looking at our, thinking about our roster for the, this upcoming fall. 16 to 18 of those guys were at a previous ID camp that we’ve hosted, right? So for us, our camps that we host on campus for us are massive.

It’s, it gives a chance for us to work with our guys or work with the guys and, and they get a feel for us as, as our staff. They get to see campus. And, and to me, the most important, they get to know our guys. We have 10 to 12 guys that will come back, work camp, and they get to interact with them, get to ask them questions that they don’t necessarily feel comfortable asking us or just aren’t whatever with, right, because they’re, we’re the, we’re the coaches, so it, it can be a bit more intimidating.

And the great thing is a lot of them know our guys [00:04:00] because they’ve played against them, they’ve grown up with them, they’ve played with them. Um, and so it just helps, it just ma- it makes it… An ID camp for us is, is, we do one in the summer and one in the fall, um, is, has been really big for us from a recruiting standpoint, for sure.

Now, uh, uh, to dig, just dig a smidge deeper on the ID camp- Yeah … front, ’cause this is something I see people ask all the time, is, let’s say you said 12, 15 guys on the roster had gone through ID camps. Yeah. Of that, of those 15, let’s just call it an even- Yeah … nice easy number, right? How many had you talked to before they got to camp?

Did… Was there anybody who showed up to camp that you didn’t know until camp that you were like, “Oh, M, we gotta, we gotta-” Yeah. I mean, there, so there’s- “… we gotta get this guy in”? Yeah. So there’s guy- so, like, there’s one kid we have coming in, uh, in the fall, Brendan. He’s from southern Illinois, southern, central Illinois, right?

So closer to Champaign, Springfield area, right? So for us, that’s a two to [00:05:00] three-hour drive to go watch him play in high school versus the level that- isn’t as good as the Chicago suburbs, right? It’s less populated, whatever. So he’s a kid that we had watched and seen film on. Like, okay, like we’re intrigued.

I wanna see more of him. Came to camp, was absolutely fantastic at camp in the fall. Watched him play one, maybe two more times over the winter and, like, offered him a spot, right? And so that was a kid that, yes, we had had conversations with, and we’d watched film on, seen some highlight stuff, but I hadn’t watched him play in person, right?

And so that’s where him coming to camp w- for us was, was massive, right? I, I’m a big component, like, I wanna see guys play live in person two, three, I mean, depending on where they’re at, like, at least, uh, a handful of times before we offer, before we bring them on campus, before we do all that, right? And so for us, again, for guys that aren’t right in the Chicago area, that’s harder to get to high school games with, right, that’s a great way for us to go and, and get them on campus.

They can see campus. They can tour campus. They can see everything that we have, [00:06:00] right? We can watch them play. We can work with them, and then kind of go from there with things, right? So, um, that, for instance, Brendan was, is one kid that stands out, right, that’s coming in the fall that, that was like, yep, watched him at camp, really good player, did a really good job.

All right, let’s continue in this process even more. Okay. Well, whether it’s camp, whether it’s a high school game, club game- Mm-hmm … whatever, kind of what makes up that hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player both on and off the field? Yeah, I mean, I think first and foremost, right, it’s gotta be academics.

Um, we- Because our school, if you look at it, right, we- it’s the Chicago area, right? We’ve– my first couple years we had some really talented players, right? But weren’t, they weren’t necessarily prepared academically, um, for the college level that were with us for a fall and then weren’t with us any longer, right?

And so, um, and that’s something that I kinda gambled on, and th- those gambles didn’t pay off, right? And so the last year or so, right, is something we’ve done a complete 180 and really targeted guys with academics and making sure they [00:07:00] have that pedigree that we know can stand up to the rigors, um, of a college life.

And I know, and I’ll be the first to say, I don’t like our school– like I said, our school isn’t University of Chicago Academics. It isn’t some of those high-end Ivy Leagues, but it’s college. And, and if you don’t wanna go to class, and if you don’t wanna do your homework, and you don’t wanna do that stuff, you’re gonna struggle, right?

And so, uh, for us and foremost, it’s always gonna be grades, right? Because if you’re having a good GPA in high school, it shows that you can balance your, uh, academic load with your soccer load, and you’re good at time management. You can kind of put all those things together, right? So that thing, that’s always gonna be the first and foremost, right?

Um, the second obviously is gonna be your character, right? And I think that when guys look at it, it’s like it’s not ju- we’re not here– we’re not with you just two hours a day at soccer, and then you’re gone, and you’re off, and you do your own thing, right? Like, we’re around you guys four to five to six hours a day.

My daugh- I have a 13-month-old daughter, she comes to games, she comes to practices, right? I, I’m not gonna bring my daughter around a bunch of guys that I don’t wanna spend time with. And even that like, “All right. Hey, we gotta go to Green Bay to go, go play St. Norbert,” right? That’s, we’re leaving at 8:00 AM, and we’re not [00:08:00] getting back till 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 PM, right?

And so if I’m gonna spend 12, 13 hours on a bus with you guys, I wanna be enjoyable. I wanna be able to talk, talk sports or talk movies or see how your, like, see how life’s going, see how you’re adjusting. So I think for me, like obviously academics is one, but what is that character like? Do I wanna spend 12 to 13 hours with you on a bus and hanging out, right?

Do I wanna be around you for the next four or five years, right? Do I wanna bring my daughter around you? Do I wanna bring my family around you? Do I want your family around me? Um, and so I think that, that for me, that character piece is always gonna be important. I think then that’s where our guys become such a huge part of a recruiting process, right?

Is because they know all of our– they know you somehow. They’ve played with you, they’ve played against you, they’ve played, uh, they’ve played men’s league, high school, club, whatever. And so it’s like, “Hey, what do you think of this guy?” “Eh, you know what? He’s kind of… Yes, bring him in. Let’s go.” “Eh, hey, Coach, like I didn’t like the way he’s kind of, kind of a-” tool, right?

You’re just, he’s… I’m trying to think of the best phrase, right? He’s like, he’s not the greatest guy, right? And so we’ve been, guys are like, “Hey, that’s, I’ve seen this is [00:09:00] really good.” And the other guys are like, “Coach, you don’t want anything to do with him.” Okay, cool, fair, right? And so, um, obviously like, again, when you’re doing your background on players, it’s one of the reasons why I like watching them, it’s why I wanna watch them practice, why, why I wanna watch them play games.

I wanna see how they interact with their coaches, how they interact with their teammates, right? And also, like, again, how are, if our, if our guys know them, how are they interacting with our guys, right? ‘Cause that’s a big… If you’re on our roster, there’s a reason why. And so I want guys on our ro- I want, I want our guys to want guys to be a part of our roster, and I think we do a good job identifying that as well, too, which is nice.

Okay. Well, I, I mean, I- you did mention most of the guys are from that Chicago land, Illinois, whatever. Yep. And, um, what about the, what I’ll call the non-traditional recruits, right? Yeah. Junior college, transfer, international. Yeah. That doesn’t look like there’s a lot of that on your roster. Is that intentional, just happens to be the way it is this year?

What, what are we- Yeah, so I mean, international-wise, we haven’t really targeted that, right? I think when you look at it, um, obviously financially s- internationals, that’s always gonna be a big part of [00:10:00] it. And while I think our school’s pretty affordable, right, we’re not gonna be able to go to, “Hey, all you have to do is pay tuition,” or, “Hey, you’re not gonna have to pay anything,” or whatever.

Like, that’s just not realistic for a Division III program, right? So that’s why we kinda eliminate the national, the international, um, part. And the other piece, right, like I said, I, I like watching guys play. I wanna see you play three or four times live in person. I can’t do that internationally. I’m not, I don’t have the budget to go overseas and do that, right?

Um, when you look at a JUCO roster, we do have guys that are JUCO players, right? We have guy… But it’s local, it’s local JUCOs, right? It’s, it’s… And again, we’re in the Chi- we’re in the Chicago suburbs, we’re fortunate enough to have five, six, seven, eight programs that are really good. When you look at Morton College, College of DuPage, Waubonsee Valley, Elgin, um, South Suburban, Moraine Valley, right?

And so- Triton, just some of the, just some of the ones off the top of my head, right? And so we’re able to pull guys from those junior colleges, um, that are, yeah, local guys that we watch play, we watched in high school or h- for whatever reason, hey, it was better, it was more affordable to go to JUCO, or hey, it was grades [00:11:00] to go to JUCO, or they went under the radar, and then whatever, right?

So, um, Attila, who was the head coach pr- uh, prior to me at Benedictine, right, he was very heavy on the JUCO stuff, right? And I’ve not as built on a roster, right? But we’re gonna add, um, a couple in, guys that we think can come in and, and impact our lineup right away, or some guys that we just need for the culture from a work standpoint, from an academic standpoint, that are just good guys that we’ve gotten to know over the co- couple years.

Like, all right, hey, let’s bring them in. Um, so we’ve got, we’ve, we’ve, we’ll, we’ll bring in a c- uh, probably I think we have three JUCO guys coming in with this year, with this class. Um, and then for us transfers, like it’s all, it’s not gonna be, hey, we’re gonna live and die by the transfer portal and bring in a transfer heav- transfer heavy roster, right?

But we’re, I mean, we do bring in three to four guys out of the transfer portal every year. But they’re guys that we recruited in high school that decided, that went a different place and didn’t like it, didn’t work out for whatever reason. And like, “All right, hey, let’s come home. Let’s come play with my boys.

Let’s come pl- I have a good relationship with you. Like, let’s, let’s, let’s [00:12:00] rekindle this and, and get it going,” right? So, um, we had one transfer in coming at the semester in January that we were really heavy on, went to a top 25 program, and just didn’t like it, was afraid, was a- away from home, different…

He’s, uh, used to playing with a bunch of Hispanic and Polish and different ethnicity guys, and just didn’t like being where he was and, um, transferred back, and, and he’ll be a main guy for us in the fall, right? And so I think it’s, for us, that transfer portal is, we’re not just taking a hit on random people.

It’s guys that we know, guys that we’ve recruited, guys that we’ve played, that our guys have played with, played against, that they want, um, to be at Benedictine and be a part of the program. Okay. No, it makes sense. Well, let- well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. Yeah. You’ve been there a, a, a good number of years at this point.

Kind of what, you know- Not, not to bring the elephant in the room- Yeah … people may have heard about, uh, the university from a commencement speech a couple years ago that, that, that brought maybe light to the university, but- So- What is- [00:13:00] Yeah, so the great thing is, like, I was in Europe with my wife when that commencement speech heard, happened, and everybody’s like, “Oh, what did you do?”

Like, I don’t even know what the heck we’re talking about. So there’s Benedictine College, which is what you’re- Yeah … referring to, which is the Harrison Buckner thing. Ah, okay. All right. That is an NAIA school in Kansas. We have nothing to do with them. Okay. All right. Yeah, completely. Just making sure. Yeah, that’s- No, totally.

I- It’s a totally fair question, and not the first time I’ve been asked about it. Well, it, it, and that’s the thing. So I’ve- Yeah … I’ve made jokes about this in the prior podcast, that I think there’s, like, five Trinitys, six Saint Marys. Yeah, yep. Uh, you know, you know what I mean? So that’s why- Yeah … I wanted to throw it out there, ’cause you, you know, people are like, “Oh, man, I know Benedictine.

I da, da, da.” No, no, no, different school. Yep. So gotta throw it out there, different school. Yes. No, totally. Um, what, but, but I guess, sorry. Well, sorry for that aside, but it, but it was- You’re good. No worries. To me, it was an important distinction for folks to understand which, which schools we’re talking about here.

Um- For sure, and, and I’ll, and I’ll… And so with the Benedict, right, so there, there are three Benedictines,

right? Oh, there’s three. Okay. So there’s Benedictine Ohio, which is our campus, right? We have Ben- and then we’re affiliated [00:14:00] with Benedictine Mesa, which I believe is an NAIA program, obviously, in Mesa, Arizona. Oh. So, like, we have one university, two campuses, right? Gotcha. So there are two BenU’s specific- Right

and we are affiliated. Gotcha. The one in Kansas is Benedictine College. We don’t have an affiliation with them. Right. So there we go. Perfect. Yes. The, I knew that. I wanna make sure everybody else knew that. Yep, for sure. So, um, okay, that all being said, like I said, you’ve been there s- five, six years. What are, what are some of the things that you really like about the campus, the school, some things maybe we wouldn’t even know if we went through the website?

For sure. I mean, to me, the most important thing and reason why I love Ben and, and been here going on six years is the people, right? Uh, I’m going on my sixth year as head coach, and I am the second or third shortest tenure head coach at our pro- at, in our athletics department, right? Um, our AD, Paul, is fantastic.

He played, uh, he played basketball at BenU, was a coach at BenU, and has worked on as administrator, and has been there [00:15:00] since the ’90s, right? Kate, our softball coach, played here. She has had the softball field named after her because of her success as a so- as a player and a softball coach and with everything.

Jen, our women’s volleyball coach, is in the Hall of Fame, um, as a player from the volleyball team, right? So, like, those are our three kind of big admins that are all alumni and have been a part of this program and been a part of the athletic department for a long time, right? Then you have baseball, you have football, um- Women’s basketball, women’s soccer, and I all ca- ca- and men’s basketball all kind of came on at the same time, the same year, right?

So i- it’s, it’s a great culture from that standpoint, right? I think for me, like, the place is, uh, uh, I, I am a Michigan State guy through and through. That’s… I grew up there. That’s where… I grew up rooting for Michigan State. I- it’s where I went, did my undergrad, right? So you look at Tom Izzo, you look at, um, the Damon Rensing’s, guys that have been at programs and have built things, right?

Um, that’s important to me, right? My high school coach is still teaching and still coaching at the, at Lyons Township here in, in, in Chicago, in the Chicago area, right? Like, he’s still there. That’s [00:16:00] important to me. Um, Jerry Block, who I worked with at Albion, was there for 15 years. Um, Nick Darin, who’s at Detroit, was there as an alum, has been there for f- was there for 15, 16 years, right, as a player, head coach, assistant coach, head coach.

And so to me, like, that, that means something to me, and that, and that, not a guy that’s just hopping job to job. And so to see people that are there for a long time, um, and wanna be there, and care about the university, and care about the people is really important. And I think that’s, like, obviously an athletic department’s great, but also if you look across campuses is the same thing.

Marco, our dean of students, I don’t even know how long Marco’s been there. It’s, it’s… But he, he’s the, he’s awesome. He’s Mr. Fix It, right? He’s at our game. He’s at, I don’t wanna say every game, every home game, right, but he’s at a game a week between us, volleyball, women’s soccer, football, bask- like, he’s at games all the time, right?

He’s always there on campus. He’s Mr. Fix It, right? Any of our guys have an issue, they go see Marco, and he’s, and he knows their name, he knows their, what year they are. He, he knows, he knows the, the problems are before they even start, [00:17:00] right? And so j- to me, the big, the greatest thing about Benedictine is the people that are there, and the people, and the people in there, and, and they care about you.

They care about you as an individual. They care y- uh, you as a person, and they wanna see you succeed. That’s why they’re at BenU. Um, so I think that to me, that’s the biggest thing. Um, I think campus and facility-wise are fantastic, right? I think both academically and athletically, um, you look at our College of Good, Goodwinner College of Business, there’s a Starbucks in the ca- in, in there, right?

Like, there’s stat trackers and computer labs, like, all the tools for our guys to be successful with the tutoring center, with the career support center, with newer buildings, with the newer cafeteria, right? Like, everything, like- I think my dad, the first time he came on campus, his jokes was like, “You can see where the money goes,” right?

Which is, which is important, right? As a, as a, as someone, as a parent who pays, who’s paying tuition, like, college isn’t cheap these days. No matter what boat you’re in, like, with how everything is going, like, college just keeps getting more and more expensive, right? And so, regardless of what that financial aid packages look like for guys, and so parents wanna see, like, [00:18:00] where is my money going, right?

Students wanna see, like, what am I going… If what am I taking out loans for? What am I spending my money on? Why am I working 40 hours a week to put myself through college, right? And to me, the resources are there, right? In both academic and, and ac- and athletically at BenU, and it allows our guys to be successful, which it for me is everything.

We graduated six guys, uh, in the fall, and I wanna say five out of the six have jobs already lined up or go, or, or are going to grad school, right? And so it, I mean, that to me is like, “Hey, Ben, here you go. You’re gonna be successful.” And the one guy that doesn’t is ’cause he’s- He’s got a couple different things in the hopper, and he’s trying to figure out exactly what he wants to do, right?

Is it playing? Is it an internship? Is it grad school? Is it doing- is it getting into coaching, right? He’s, he’s not really sure what that next step is for him. That’s the only reason why he doesn’t have it figured out. Okay, fair enough. Well, let’s fast-forward to October, say we’re in the heart of that conference season.

Walk me through, what’s a typical week schedule look like for your players in terms of classes, meals, game cadence, all that stuff? Yeah, so our [00:19:00] conference, the NAC, it’s one of the bigger conferences in Division III soccer, right? So we have 13 teams. So if you look at it, like this year, right, so Sept- how September 1st starts is on a Tuesday, so our schedule gets a little kind of wacky.

So we literally have two weeks from September 1st, which is our season opener, to September 14th, which is our first conference game of the season. And once we start that, it is every Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday until Halloween, essentially, right? And so, um, knowing that our schedule, it’s, A, it’s chaotic and a little bit crazy, um, but the nice part with that, it allows our guys to get in a rhythm and kind of know what that weekly schedule looks like pretty early on, right?

And so, um, Sundays are always gonna be our day off. That’s just kind of the given. Give guys a chance to get some laundry done, study, get a home-cooked meal, whatever. It gives me a chance to reset, spend time with my daughter, spend time with my wife, and go to the zoo, go to the city, do whatever, right? Um, we ch- also fortunate [00:20:00] where we train 9:00 to 11:00 in the morning, right?

And so our guys, yeah, we might have a issue or two, right, but our guys kind of know what that schedule is, and they’re able to schedule classes around it. And, um, the school does a really good job of supporting that for the most part, which is great, right? So, um, guys might have an 8:00 AM. They might have an 11 o’clock, right?

And like, “All right, hey, you have an 11:00. You need to leave at 10:30.” No big deal. So, um, generally we train Mondays, 9:00 to, 9:00 to 10:30, 9:00 to 11:00. Um, Tuesdays we’ll do film, and then, excuse me, film before practice. We train. Wednesday’s a game. Uh, Thursday, recovery session. Uh, we, big thing is like our, we have a 60-minute rule, so guys that play 60 minutes or more, uh, we’ll do a recovery session with John, who’s our strength and conditioning coach, at the start of practice, that first 15 to 30 minutes, and then are able to hop back in the session with those guys that didn’t play as much or get into more of a fitness, heavy duty session r- um, end of the day.

Friday is film, prep, Saturday, game, rinse and repeat, right? Um, now the nice thing about that [00:21:00] conference, right, is all those Wednesday game- our sch- our conference is half- Illinois, half Wisconsin. So all those Wednesday games are going to be your Illinois schools. So from a student athlete perspective, because again, that’s the big focus, that’s always gonna be my big focus, and as a Division III that’s the focus.

You’re not missing class because you’re playing on a Wednesday game, and those Wednesday games are gonna be at 7:00, and all the schools are in the Chicago area, right? Now, there’s two schools that don’t have lights, so yeah, you might have a random one-off 2:00 on a Wednesday game, but your professors know that, it’s one day, there’s no big deal, right?

And then all the Saturday games, where you gotta drive two, three hours to Milwaukee, Green Bay, Northern Wisconsin, whatever, are on Saturdays. So again, you’re not missing any class for those longer road trips, right? And I think, um That’s one of the great thing, uh, balancing academics where our guys are able to be successful is ’cause they’re not on a bus for five, six hours a day and missing two, three days of class or doing overnights or any of that kind of stuff, right?

Is, so they, they get kind of in a pretty good regimented schedule from that standpoint. So, um, guys will have a [00:22:00] class, generally, probably two or three classes a day. Normally, hey, I got an 8:00 AM, I got an 11:00, I got a 1:30, and I’m done, right? Or Hey, I got an 11:00, I got a 1:30, and I got a 3:00, and then I’m done.

Right? And so, um, guys are kind of able to have a little bit of free time. They’re able to have some structure. Um, our guys that aren’t playing as much are able to get a lift in during the afternoon, or guys that weren’t playing more, they’re able to go work with John and work with our strength coaches and get a lift in in the afternoon, uh, in between classes or after classes when they’re done for the day.

Uh, they’re able to get in with Nate, our athletic trainer, get in the cold tub, get in the hot tub, uh, get electric stim, get whatever treatment they’re able to before practice, but also after practice and throughout the day, right? Um, and so having that morning session for us really opens up a lot of things for our guys as far as, um, treatment, as far as getting into tutors, as far as getting into office hours to help with professors.

Um, it just gives them a lot of that flexibility and freedom to schedule classes as, as they need, uh, throughout the day, which is really great. Okay. Well, let’s shift gears, talk a little bit more on the team side of things. You talked about what that roster size is, but [00:23:00] talk to me about the rest of the roster.

Who are the assistant coaches, the other staff who help with the program? What role does everybody play there? Yeah. So, um, again, we’re fortunate enough, we’re, we’re one of the, we’re one of the few schools in the area, we don’t have a second team. We don’t have a JV team. We have one squad, right? And it’s gonna be 34 guys that everyone’s at practice.

Everyone dresses for all of our home games. Travel squad for away games, when we’re going to a Green Bay, a Madison, wherever, just because we have so much, we only have room under room on the buses. Um, and some of our more local ones, when we’re playing North Central, which is right down the road, or a Wheaton or Elmhurst, like we’ll bring everybody ’cause it’s a five-minute drive, and then some of the guys can drive themselves, right?

So, um, I think we’re very fortunate from that perspective, where it is a family, right? It is a group. It is the guys that are… It is a brotherhood, and the guys are together. So we’re fortunate from that. Um, our athletic trainer, Nate, has been at the university for 15 years. He’s our head athletic trainer for the university.

He’s our men’s soccer stuff, so he’s at all of our practices, all of our home games. Um, and he normally has a couple different staff that are with him, whether it’s undergrad, undergrad students or grad students that are working with him, which is [00:24:00] great. Um, I’m in the process of, we’re having, we’re gonna have a new, two new assistants in the fall, right?

So, um, Adrian, who’s been with us the last couple years, um, is going from a volunteer assistant to a graduate assistant, so we’re excited to have him on board more full-time. Um, he’s been fantastic from a recruiting standpoint, um- And then just being a younger guy, 22, 23, graduating from college in 2025, um, or sorry, 2- 2024, right?

And so a younger guy can relate to a lot of our guys really well, which is great. Um, we’re adding Sebastian, uh, I’m gonna butcher his last name, so I’m not even gonna try to say it, uh, who pl- it was an All-American at Lewis University, D2 school in the Chicago area. Helped them to go to the Final Four as the goalkeeper.

So he’s gonna come in, work with our goalkeepers. He’ll be a great, um, resource for us. And then JP Navarro is gonna come on staff as well as our kind of part-time, full-time assistant. Uh, he’s coming in from Franklin Pierce, um, after helping them to a national title. Um, and to really kind of be my number two and kind of work with a lot of our field guys.

So he just, he’s just moved to the Chicago area, wanted to stay in co- He’s getting married this summer, wanted to be involved in college [00:25:00] coaching still. Uh, we have a couple of Michigan State connections, which is always big for me. Um, and so we’re excited to bring him on board. So we’ll have four coaches, um, this fall All three are kind of volunteer part-time in some capacity, right?

So it’s never no full-time guys. Um, but they all put in the hours, and, and I’m really excited to, to see what that staff– to see how kind of everything comes together and what that looks like in the fall. Uh, especially having two guys from outside the program with different ideas, different viewpoints, uh, will be a great, will be a great resource for me as well to kind of challenge some of my ideas, which will be good.

Well, let’s talk about your ideas. Yeah. Talk to us, uh, what’s your coaching style? What kind of style of play are you looking to play there? Yeah, I think, I mean, as far as coaching style, right, I think it’s very much, and I say, um, guys would be saying I’m a players coach, right? It’s not– during pra- like, during, when we’re in practices and we’re in stuff, right, I’m not pausing it and stopping every single little thing.

Obviously, when there’s stuff I need to, I’ll jump in and, and pause it and rewind and reset. But I think a lot of it’s coaching the flow, coaching after natural stoppages, and letting our guys do their thing, right? I think, um, our guys are creative, [00:26:00] attacking foot-footballers. I want them to do that, right?

And so from an offensive pl- offensive phase, it’s all about possession with a purpose and how are we able to get the ball forward, right? So we’re not just gonna be play direct and pump it over the top and just play long balls, right? But our first look is always to break lines with our possession and get the ball in.

So there’s days where we’ll build out of the back and play through the thirds and knock it around. There’s days where, hey, it might be a little bit more direct off of goal kicks and punts, and then we’re gonna knock it around, play a little one-twos, um, and get the ball forward, right? And so it’s how we break lines with our possession, um, and then also how do we create overloads, right?

So getting our wingers and outside backs into two V one versus an outside back. How do we cr- get our center mid to create a four V three with our nine or a four V three with a center mid or an outside back that’s coming in, right? And so, uh, for me, it’s all about that possession with a purpose and looking to penetrate with those and create overloads, um, offensively.

Defensively, right, um, it’s gonna be aggressive. So there’s– so we might set a high press and have a high line and set some pressing traps, right? There’s days where we’ll sit in a mid [00:27:00] block and try to bait balls into certain areas and look to press and trap there, right? And so, um, it’s a lot. I just got done running a session this morning with the high school, and we just did a counter-pressing thing, right?

And so, one, that’s ’cause that’s what they wanted, but also, two, that’s how we coach, right? It’s like, all right, hey, we’re gonna bait it in this area, and then we’re gonna go. Um, and so for us, offensively, defensively, it’s very aggressive in picking those times to be– when we wanna be aggressive and when we wanna go.

Um, and I think our guys, you can kind of tell that sometimes I’m pretty energetic. I’m pretty passionate about when I get into it, right? And so I think our guys kind of feed off of that a- and, um, sometimes for the better or sometimes for the worse at times, right? Um, depending on the situation, right? But I think, I think it kind of flows through our guys, that, that energy and that passion at times, which is really exciting for me to see.

Awesome. Well, Coach, you’ve been super generous with your time and, and give us a lot of details, which is fantastic. I’m gonna leave you with one last question, and that is if you, uh, had one piece of advice for somebody, you know, class of ’27, class of ’28, somebody going through this recruiting [00:28:00] process right now, what would that be?

Be open-minded. I think there’s so many moving pieces and so many things going on right now that, like, it can be overwhelming, right? And I think there’s no door that cannot be closed, and it’s, this coaching world is a small world. Um, and I’ve been fortunate enough to be on the positive end, negative end on both wise w- as a player and as a coach, right?

And so you never know who’s watching. You never know who your club coach knows or who your ta- or who a college coach that you’re talking to knows, and like, yeah, “Hey, you might not be the right fit for this program,” but that coach might recommend you to a different program, right? And so, um, I think just being flexible, don’t be closed off to any ideas because if you wanna play college soccer, there’s a place for you to do that in our, in our s- collegiate system.

Now, whether you like that level or what that role is, that’s up to you, right? But I think that’s why it’s, it’s so [00:29:00] important to have an open mind from Division I to JUCO, NAIA, Division II, Division III, right? There’s, again, there’s so many different platforms and so many different ways that you can play football at that collegiate level.

Just be open-minded and, and, and open to different ideas and different things because there, the opportunity’s there for you. Fully agree. Well, Coach, really appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck this fall, and, uh, all the best. All right. I appreciate it, Matt. Thank you. Thank you.