Bethel University Men’s Soccer – Coach Jason Freeman
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Jason from the Bethel Men’s Program in Indiana. We talk about how looks at both on the field and off the field items when recruiting. He describes how they actually guarantee scholarships for four years. Lastly, we discuss what it is like to win an NCCAA National Championship. Learn more about Bethel 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 Jason from Bethel. Welcome coach
Coach: Thanks for having me. Matt. Good to be here.
Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. Really appreciate it. Um, we’re, we’re, we’re talking here kind of end of the February. It’s, uh, the college showcase season, hot and heavy.
Um, so, in terms of your recruiting calendar, kind of, where are you in that right now is the class of 24 is all totally done and you’re moved on to 25, you still wrapping up 24. What, what is your normal kind of cadence of a recruiting class look like?
Coach: Well, I think this has changed over the years. We’re trying to get further and further ahead and still as a young coach with only a couple seasons under our belt, we’re really trying to push things farther out as we go.
But we’re still recruiting in 2024 and we’ve we’ve had a great number of signings so far and players that are committed for 24. We’re going to keep pushing that, but at the same time, we’re also double dipping and we’re heavily recruiting 25s right now. And then starting to peak at 26 is, but there’s still a lot of work to be done in 24 and 25.
So that’s our focus right now. Yeah, absolutely.
Matt: So this being that, uh, heavy event season, uh, what are some of the key events that, that you like to get to each year? Some of the ones that you’re finding the most success at and want to see players at.
Coach: We’ll get, we’ll get to a couple of events a year. Uh, we don’t do a ton of.
Travel just to get down to go out and scour, watch random [00:01:30] games. Uh, if we have a number of players that emailed us and said, Hey, we want you to come see us, we might get down to that event, you know, if the number is good enough, I think COVID has changed the way that we recruit in a little bit, uh, where 10 years ago, nobody had video.
Now everybody is kind of expected to have video so we can do a lot of triage work from the desk. You know, it’ll take me a full weekend to go down and see 20 players play or I can see 20 players get a glimpse at 20 players while I eat my sandwich over lunch. And so the efficiency for us is doing the triage work with video upfront stuff and then go follow up with those players and really get a good look at players in person that we’re very interested in.
Okay.
Matt: Um, one of the other things I think that’s really changed in the soccer landscape over the last several years is the proliferation of ID camps. Uh, do you guys run your own ID camps? Do you or your staff participate in other ID camps? Are they part of your recruiting process?
Coach: Definitely. So we, we didn’t do an ID camp, I don’t think, my first year, but then we started doing a summer ID camp every year after that.
So, 2020, we didn’t have an ID camp, but we did a kids camp even that summer. And then we’ve started doing ID camps. Our ID camp for 24 is going to be June 15th. And so we, last year, we actually recruited. Heavily from our ID camp, we maybe had 15 to 20 players, but the quality was very good and we ended up signing quite a few players from that [00:03:00] group.
So that was exciting to see locally. Um, they and Don over at Notre Dame has been kind enough to ask me over and to work some of their camps there on the women’s side. So great relationship there. And we get to see players and it gives us another look, you know, obviously it’s their camp. So they get first dibs and if they’re players, they say, Hey, we’re ready.
Pass them along and it’s an opportunity for players to be seen by multiple coaches as it is at most ID camps.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Makes sense. Well, whether it’s at an event or through video or at an ID camp, kind of what makes up the, the hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player, whether that’s on the field stuff or off the field stuff.
Coach: Yeah. So four main things that we look for in recruiting process, uh, versus soccer talent. And so we need to know that you can play at the level either we’re at, or hopefully. At a better level than we’re at because we want to continue to grow as a program competitively. So, soccer talents, the 1st thing we look at, and, you know, within that, there’s its own hierarchy of things and, you know, technical ability, athleticism, soccer IQ, how well do you read the game?
A lot of things within that. But 2nd, we look for character. We want to know that the people coming in to our program, we’re going to have the values and uphold the values that our program stands for and. I want to know that we’re bringing good kids in just good people. We know that soccer careers are great, but they’re short.
They’re going to be gone in a blink of an eye, whether you go pro, whether you play in [00:04:30] college, whether you end in high school, you close your eyes and you open them back up and your soccer career is done. But how can we make sure that we have the right people to build a culture to send people out? You know, I may never know how good of a coach I am now or how good our staff.
What kind of job we’ve done now, but 10 years from now, we look at these players, you know, how are they in their families? You know, are they great parents? Are they great employees? Are they doing things that matter and are going to help impact the world in a positive way? Those are the first two. The third thing.
We’re going to look at is the financial. Obviously, we need to know how much scholarship money can we offer you? And what’s your family budget? So we need to make sure it works for both parties and both sides. And so we do, there’s a wide range of variety and maybe we’ll get into it later. Cost of the university and expectations there and what we can and can’t offer and some of those things and then last thing is academics as the 4th piece of the puzzle that we look for.
We want to know that. Yeah, it’s not so much that student needs to be a 4. 0 or, you know, the bar is not. The bar is set, but it’s not a unreachable bar for most people. What we want is a commitment to excellence. And so on the field off the field, we expect our student athletes to do well to show up to class to be present to be engaged in their learning process and to value and understand the experience that they’re getting while they’re in school and not take it for granted.
And so we. We [00:06:00] could we, you know, we’d always set up study tables if we need to during the week. But right now, our group does a great job. Like, they take care of business. They manage their time. Well, bringing student athletes who are going to to be excellent in what they do. So, I think I think our team GPA was over a 3.
8 last semester, maybe even spring semester before that. So, until we need to make a change, we’re just going to let the players keep taking care of business.
Matt: Yeah, love it. Well, you kind of brought it up. So I’ll go ahead and ask the question. I’m and I’m not going to hold you to hard numbers here, right? Uh, those are always ever changing, but it kind of walked me through a typical student athlete that’s coming in.
Um, what would they expect in terms of? You know, what, what is tuition room and board? How does financial aid work in terms of academic and athletic? Can you stack kind of just give me a broad spectrum picture of what a player is looking at?
Coach: Yeah, so I think that’s 1 of the things if you’re looking at a private school, you can look at the.
You know, sticker price and say, wow, that’s really expensive. No way we’re going to be able to afford that. And I think a lot of players will push options off the table before they do the research and really find out what’s available. So I will. For players and parents looking at schools, I would say, don’t rule anything out right off the table until you’ve done your homework and really got your scholarships back and looked at the financial aspect and make sure it’s right.
A lot of different things you need to look at, but be diligent and do your research. If you’re a parent or player, you’re looking for places, but for [00:07:30] Bethel specifically, you look at the cost of tuition. You look at the cost of housing and food. You’re looking at roughly 45, 000 a year, but if you’ve got kind of close to a 4.
0, you’re, you’re going to get the max academic scholarship, which I believe for the fall of 24 is going to be 18, 000 a year. And that’s, you know, the thing that we do at Bethel that’s different from some places is some places will give you a scholarship amount, whether it’s athletic or academic. And it’s like, hey, here’s your 1 year contract and this is what it’s good for.
You might come in on a full ride your 1st year, and if you don’t produce, then, hey, sorry, now you’re on the money next year. So that will guarantee your scholarship for 4 years. And that’s. And that’s something that we really think is great because it helps you as a family financially plan and say, okay, here’s.
Here’s what you can afford. It’s going to be in your budget, and it’s going to be consistent for the next 4 years, and I think that’s a key selling point for Bethel. But also, we do have the ability to stack scholarships, and so you can get scholarships from the outside, not from Bethel money, and add those to whatever Bethel’s giving you, and I think the more you can find, the better.
We encourage players to apply to everything because you never know where 000 there is going to turn up. And so be diligent and looking for outside scholarships. But then you look at academic, you look at outside scholarships, you look at applying for FAFSA, getting FAFSA dollars applied, and then you look at athletic scholarship.
And so when you stack all those up, it can be 1, 000. Very affordable. And I think the average [00:09:00] players probably paying more in the anywhere from 15 to 25, 000. But, you know, we have players who are all the way up and paying very little. And we have players who are paying a little bit more. And it’s really a balancing act, as you know, across the scholarship divvying up process as you look to bring in the most talent.
And obviously, the more talent we can bring in for the less money that means we get to bring in more talent. Even more talent. And so it makes us better and better and better.
Matt: That’s right. You gotta be that value shopper if you can, if you can do it. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. I’m sure there’s folks out there maybe not familiar with Bethel.
You’ve been there a few years now. Kind of what have you found to be the, the, the awesome, excellent things about Bethel? Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know just by going through the website.
Coach: Yeah, so I first moved to Indiana from North Carolina in 2017. And then I was a graduate assistant. That’s what I came up to Bethel for.
I was a graduate assistant under Tiago Pinto, our men’s coach. He’s still there. They just won the NAI national championship in 22. But I came up to Bethlehem. It was my first college coaching experience and I got in there and I said, you know what? I want to get my masters. My dad always told me, hey, don’t pay for your masters, like, go somewhere and find somebody to pay for your masters and put in the work and some experience at the same time.
So I did that and, um, grew a lot as a coach and, and she was a great mentor and helped me. Growing the coaching world quickly, but 1 of the [00:10:30] things that I wanted to do was jump up the coaching ladder. Hey, I’m going to do this and I’m going to go up and I’m going to be an assistant coach somewhere. I’m going to be a head coach and then find myself at the biggest school with the biggest name and do those things.
But the more time I’ve spent at Bethel, the more I’ve realized it’s really a special place and it’s the people. And that’s probably pretty cliche to say, but I think even. A lot more than some places, some good places that I’ve seen and been in and been a part of the, the way the professors care for the students and the way that the coaches on our hallway care for the student athletes and are engaged in their lives and in ways beyond athletics and beyond the classroom.
You know, professors are gonna have the whole class over for dinner and, and the way that, um, people pour into the lives of the young students here. And it’s really impressive and the friendships that I’ve built and just the character and the quality of the people that are here, um, year in and year out is, is really incredible.
Matt: Yeah, sounds like it. Well, one of the things that, you know, all student athletes have to do is be a student and an athlete. Right? So, uh, how do your players. Specifically kind of balance the demands of of their academics as well as their athletics and what kind of support systems as a school offer to to help them be successful on both fronts.
Coach: Yeah, I think part of it is in the recruiting process. We want to make sure we’re bringing in players that we don’t have to babysit and players who are already. At a certain level of [00:12:00] responsibility and willing to take ownership for what they’re doing, but the school itself provides a great set of resources, whether it’s the career center looking to go to the future, whether it’s tutoring in any class, you need, whether you can get the resources, the counseling, the, um, psychology, whatever you need, the school has it to help support the student athletes.
Student centers and writing centers. If you need help in specific areas, those are available for all the majors and all the classes are student athletes. You know, women’s soccer players. They do a good job. They’re very disciplined. They manage their time. Well, and whether it’s writing a paper on the bus on the way home from a game, or whether they’re knocking out an hour between, I’m sure it’s pretty common to see high levels of excellence in season, even more than out of season, because You’re busy and you have to manage your time where the spring, you have a little bit more flexible time.
And sometimes when we have flex time, we waste time and yada, yada, yada. But, um, I think there’s a perception coming from high school students that they haven’t understood yet because they haven’t been in the college scene is you’re not sitting in class from 730 in the morning until 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
Like, it’s not a straight class. You may have 2 classes on Tuesday, you’re going to have 3 hours in between that class. And so how you choose to use those 3 hours is now up to you. And the ownership is on you. So you can, you can knock out all your homework during the daytime and then you can go to practice, you know, in the afternoon and hang [00:13:30] out with your friends, do extra homework.
If you need to study for the next test, whatever there’s, there’s a lot of time that you have. In the college world, and there’s a certain amount of choosing to be in certain things. And then, you know, obviously, in athletics, you’re required to be at practice and things like that, but you signed up for that.
And so. I’ve seen a really mature group handle things well and manage. Manager time.
Matt: Well, it’s good. Well, you talk about class and practice. So let’s take a step back. Rewind to October. You know, you’re kind of in the heart of the season. Walk me through what a typical week for a player might look like in terms when’s practice games, meals, uh, whatever, whatever they’re going to be doing in a week.
What’s that look like?
Coach: Yeah. So we actually have 2 teams now. We did when I first started here. We’ve got a 1st team and reserve team or varsity and JV if that’s the terminology you’re familiar with. But, um. Typical day students are class from 8 to 3. We have practice around four o’clock sometimes, you know, somebody’s trickling in five minutes late because they’ve got a chem lab that runs late on Tuesday, and that’s the nature of college athletics is, you know, if you’re going to be a student first and then an athlete, that’s how it has to be.
The typical game schedules about two games a week are non conference games earlier in the season staggered the days a little bit, you know, we might play on Tuesday, we might play on Friday, we might play Wednesday, Saturday, we might have a full week to train and leading up to a Saturday game. But on average, it’s probably, you [00:15:00] know, one and a half to two games a week through the season.
Our conference schedule is very set in stone and it’s, our conference does a great job of lining up our schedule where we play three games. We play Wednesday, Saturday, um, or Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, and then we have a full week to rest, recover, train for the next Saturday game. Play that Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, full week to train and prep for the next Saturday’s game.
So it’s, it’s good for player recovery. It’s good periodization calendar. Um, but that’s, that’s the typical fall schedule. We’re going kind of six days a week with the first team. Our reserve team has a little bit less of an expectation time commitment wise. They’re training 2 3 times a week and then they have their own separate game schedule.
So they may play, you know, 8 12 games a year where the first team is playing 18 games, scrimmages plus postseason. All right.
Matt: Well, you talk about having the two teams. So what is the overall kind of roster size, uh, that makes up both teams? Is there a lot of movement? What’s that kind of look like?
Coach: Yeah. So when I first started with the women’s program in 2020, and it was a little bit of a crazy start and came in mid season in the COVID year.
And there, there’s just a lot of things, but, uh, we had 18 players in the program and we recognized that we have the opportunity to expand. Just the way our financial aid system is set up. And, um, there are multiple benefits, but I think 1 of the key reasons is, hey, we can impact the lives of more people.
And it kind of fits the mission of [00:16:30] what I want as a coach. And if it’s the mission of the school, we can impact more people. But as we’ve expanded our roster to now, we’re in the 35 to 40 range. We’re pushing in the over the next 2 years. I’d like to get closer to 45. That’ll allow us 25 to 30 on our first team, and that allows us roughly 15 to 20 on our reserve team.
And I think those are healthy roster numbers where it’s not, you know, it’s not 70. Where all of a sudden, okay, we have, we just have way too many people who are not playing and coaches understand if you have too many players who aren’t playing, you get unhappy people and expectations are hard to manage.
But I think 45 would allow us over the next couple of years as we continue to stretch our rosters a little bit and give a little bit more depth. It will allow us to give the best soccer experience to players while also challenging them in the competitive. Um, we have the ability to move players from our first team to our reserve team and our reserve team to our first team.
There’s a little bit of movement. And right now, as we expand our reserve roster, we actually have some overlap. So, uh, we’re able to best develop the players because of that, because the players on the first team who don’t see the playing time, either they want to, or we want them to, you know, it’s a reality is not everybody plays and not everybody plays as much as they want to.
We can get them game minutes and reserve games. We can get them game experience and that helps them grow as players. And we’ve seen a number of cases where we’ve had that kind of bottom third of our first team roster playing reserve games, get experience, keep their fitness level high and [00:18:00] work their way into, Hey, you know, we had a player who played in a lot of reserve games last year.
And then this year, you know, we’re playing in the national championship game at the At the and she’s in the starting 11 and I can’t take her out because of how much she’s grown as a player over the last year, year and a half. She just put in the work. She’s been disciplined. So I think it gives players a pathway.
To really develop, but, you know, even if you come in and you play on the reserve team, all 4 years, we still believe you can have a great college soccer experience. And as we’ve expanded numbers, we’ve expanded our coaching staff and really blessed with a ton of quality coaches on staff. Care for the players and are great at helping.
Matt: Well, that feeds perfectly. And my next question was, was going to be, let’s talk about your staff. You know, how many folks do you have? What roles do they play? What other staff maybe are in the athletic department that help out with the team? What’s that look like?
Coach: Yeah. So my first year, it was kind of just made for the first week.
And then I made a few phone calls and said, Hey guys, I need some help. And I need it now. I need it, need it last week. Um, so Steve’s on our staff. He’s part time. He’s a, he’s a business owner. He’s in the soccer world and. He’s had experience as a head coach here for 4 years previously, and he was an assistant before that 4 years.
And so a ton of experience there. Grace is on our staff. She’s an alum. She played here. She’s great with the young ladies in our program and growing as a coach. She’s part time as well. [00:19:30] Coach Chris is a professor here, but he’s part time. Um, Tim is our recent addition. He’s been here for 2 years. Tim McClelland’s he’s full time now.
So, as we’ve expanded the program, we’ve been able to financially justify. Hey, let’s bring in full time people and and build things. We’ve created student manager. Positions and kind of created student director of opposition. It’s not, you know, it’s not like your division one set up where you got somebody on full time salary of director of ops, but, um, but they’re, they’re gaining experience in sports management and different things like that.
But yeah, Tim McClements, he’s our full time assistant. He and I are day in day out in the office doing the majority. He has, he has quite a resume when it comes to soccer. He was between jobs, but wanted to move back to this area to be closer to his kids and family. And so he was, he worked with Chalice Heidman at SMU.
Tim was a head coach at SMU for a while. He was a head coach at Vanderbilt before they closed the program down on the Bend side. He’s been in a number of number of different stops. He’s been at Grand Canyon. Inside as well. But then he was here. So he’s been great addition. Um, as a young head coach, he’s been great to learn from.
That’s a lot of soccer experience. I think sometimes as a young head coach, I can, I can try to complicate things and he does a good job of saying, okay, let’s, you know, let’s refine that and how can we present that to the players in a way that’s going to simplify it. So we go back and forth and we collaborate really well to help develop.
Awesome.
Matt: Well, I [00:21:00] forgot to mention, but congratulations on your N. C. C. A. A. National championship this year. I, when I, uh, coached many moons ago, we were similar to you dual affiliated N. C. C. A. A. And at the time we were, we were division two. But, uh, can you talk a little bit about that in terms of just your, your schedule, your goals?
What, what, what, what players can expect? What does that mean to your program?
Coach: Yeah, I think. Thanks. I think it was a great Great accomplishment for the program. It’s the 1st 1st national championship in program history, but I think it’s been fun to watch over the last few years in that 2020 season. We scored 3 goals, which you don’t want a ton of games.
If you only support 3 goals in a season, but to see that group that has they were freshman when I started and they’re now graduating seniors. Some of them are sticking around and kind of. Whether it was injury or COVID, we’re having people that are trying to stay. But to see that senior group put in so much work over the last few years and then obviously we’ve brought in some young talent.
We had four players on the all tournament team that were sophomores. Tournament MVP was a sophomore this year. She’s one of our young team captains. But the seniors have really led in a way that’s been phenomenal to watch. When I first got here, there’s a certain aspect of leadership where you just have to say, hey, here’s what we’re doing, here’s where we’re going.
And this is why we’re doing it and then to get the buy in from that class and [00:22:30] now I’m a little bit more leading from behind now at this point saying, hey, you know, bring people that go astray from time to time and say, hey, let’s come back. Let’s remember what we’re doing. What our mission is. What our focus is.
But the seniors are leading and the juniors are leading and they’re taking the program to go. And so to watch them work and a lot of the same players that were here when we scored three goals in the season, now getting to reap the benefits of hey, we won a national championship this year and we had the best record that we’ve had in A long time in program history and, um, to, to not, you know, we knocked off a top 10 team and then I, for the 1st time in program history, we, we’d be a top 25 program and a conference tournament.
And we, we think the crossroads league is the strongest conference and I am on the women’s soccer side right now. And I mean, it’s loaded. So, when we went to the national tournament, there was a certain level of, hey, we’re not, we’re not going to see teams. At a level that we haven’t seen all year. Um, so there’s a confidence that we were able to carry in that and go play.
It was just a fun experience.
Matt: Yeah, sounds like it. Well, you’ve been super generous with your time. Appreciate that. I got 1 last question for you. Uh, if you could give 1 piece of advice around the college recruiting process, kind of 1 nugget of information you want kids, families, parents to know what would that be?
Coach: Yeah, I think there’s a lot there, but. If I were to advise parents and players to [00:24:00] do your due diligence and be be hard working when it comes to looking for the right fit for you and make sure you like the school. Don’t go there just because of the soccer. You know, make sure the school’s right fit for you too, because You never know like you never know when you’re going to get injured and then that that’s it because we tell our players all the time.
Your soccer careers are short, so make sure it’s going to be a good fit. Make sure you’re going to be an environment where people are going to help you grow in your character, not necessarily just the soccer. We’re going to push both here. But if you don’t grow in your character, I think we’ve missed a big part of that.
So make sure you find. A place and the coaching staff and the faculty environment and administration, like, across the board, you want to be in a place that that you enjoy want to be in a place that, yeah, this may be a side conversation about the transfer portal, but find a place where you’re willing to commit to and do that up front rather than just jumping into things.
And then. I think it’s a very finicky world and young, young people aren’t willing to commit to hard things, but be willing to commit to hard things and to do that in an environment that you’ve researched and are ready to jump into.
Matt: It’s funny you say that. I just saw a video last night and sent it to my two daughters about there’s a Duke women’s basketball coach talking about handling hard better.
And I couldn’t agree more. Well, coach, really appreciate it. Thanks for the time. Wish you the best of [00:25:30] luck, uh, in, in your efforts to, to repeat as NCCA national champs, or hopefully even, even move on to the NAIA national championship. And, uh, if you get down to Lakewood ranch Bradenton area for any of your recruiting stops, give me a shout.
All right. Sounds good, Coach: Matt. Thanks for having me.
