Bob Jones University Men’s Soccer – Coach Ryan McCarty
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Ryan McCarty from the Bob Jones University Men’s Program in South Carolina. We talk about how they recruit a players work rate both on and off the field. He describes the tremendous faculty and the help they provide the students. Lastly, we discuss their very closeknit team culture. Learn more about Bob Jones 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 Ryan McCarty from Bob Jones University. How are you, coach?
Coach: Doing well, Doing well.
Matt: Awesome. Well, you guys, you guys are in Greenville, South Carolina, if I’m not mistaken, right? Uh, yes, we are. Awesome. And you are.
The unique thing, uh, that I don’t like, I can’t remember if I’ve interviewed any schools like this or not, but you guys are dual affiliated, both NCAA division three as well as NCC A with a Christian colleges. Uh, and if I’m not mistaken, you guys got a little bit of a national tournament here coming up.
Coach: Yes, sir. Uh, we leave, uh, Sunday, Sunday going down to Florida.
Matt: All right. Well, you, you’re, you timed it well because, uh, they just got blasted here, uh, yesterday. Me, me too. Cuz I’m down in Bradenton, so I’m not, uh, too far from, from where you’re gonna be. But hopefully the fields will be in good shape for you.
Coach: Hopefully, yeah, we’re getting the tail end of it right now in Greenville, so Yeah, I bet it’ll be gone by then.
Matt: Yep. [00:01:00] Well, good. Well, hey, let’s, let’s talk about recruiting a little bit cuz you know, it’s an interesting, probably dynamic for you guys being dual affiliated, but you’re in the NCC a a. Division two cuz you don’t offer athletic scholarships and obviously you don’t, you division three cuz they, they don’t offer athletic scholarships.
Um, but, you know, talk to me a little bit about your recruiting process. What, um, you know, when do you usually start talking to, to players to try to, try to get them in?
Coach: Yeah. Um, it depends, uh, a lot of these questions are probably gonna be depends, but, uh, really we like to identify guys by their junior year.
If possible by their sophomore, but usually about their junior year. And then be talking to ’em, kind of have those decisions finalized by senior year. Um, it’s not uncommon though to have guys reach out that we’ve missed. Um, and so who are seniors and they reach out and, um, so really between junior and senior years when we start contact with a lot of [00:02:00] guys, but ideally that junior year.
Matt: Okay. And what, what are some of the kind of. Tournaments, uh, places you go that, that you’re really looking to find players and, and really see what’s out there.
Coach: Yeah, tournaments are tricky because, um, you really want to know who you’re looking for before you get there. It’s kind of hard to be watching all these games and taking notes on all these different players.
So, uh, for what we’ve experienced, this is only my second year, um, as assistant, so I’m still somewhat new in it. But what we found is, A lot of online, uh, finding guys online and then being able to see them in person at different tournaments, so different ECNL tournaments, um, different MLS next, um, tournament type showcases.
Um, This past summer actually had some good success at the, uh, future 500 ID camps. And then, uh, the exact, uh, camps, uh, worked a couple of those. Um, but it’s really, it’s, it’s, it can be hit or [00:03:00] miss. You know, there’s some camps we went to and there really wasn’t anybody there. Uh, there’s other camps we went to and, and found, you know, found a few guys.
Matt: Do you guys do any of your own camps or, or is it all kind of third party or other school stuff that, that you guys are.
Coach: Yeah. Yeah. So we, we hit a lot of other, you know, third party, um, camps. But we hold our own, We actually have an ID camp coming up, uh, January 21st, um, of 23. So we have a winter ID camp, a summer ID camp, and then we also have a summer, a week long summer camp for guys who might wanna get a fuller, you know, uh, experience.
Um, especially. Kind of tweaking that program or tweaking that camp. So where it’s more of a, uh, preseason getting into club or, you know, for North Carolina schools at their high school season. But if we find a guy online who we think he looks, you know, he’s got the video for it. Uh, I always say video can be deceptive.
It’s hard to tell a good player from video. You can usually tell bad player. But if we see someone who we think this guy could be a [00:04:00] good candidate, um, for our program, then we, uh, we invite him to our damps and get a better look at him.
Matt: Well, don’t forget to put those ID camps on, uh, Discover College soccer dot com’s, camp listings.
Um, but when, when you’re looking for players or whether that’s through the video that you’re seeing or at tournaments or camps or whatever, kind of, what is the hierarchy of things you’re looking at, whether that’s on the field stuff or off the field stuff?
Coach: Yeah. The um, I like that hierarchy. I mean, somebody’s gotta be good enough.
Um, they can be the nicest guy in the world. Um, you know, they can be the smartest guy in the world, but if they can’t kick a soccer ball, um, you know, they’re not good on the field, then unfortunately, they’re just, they’re, we. They’re not able to give ’em, um, much more than a first look. So the technical’s gotta be there.
I’d say that the mental side of it has to be there, but really what’s gonna help get you over the line is the combination of, um, the technical, the tactical, the mental, all those things that make you a good [00:05:00] player. But then off the field, are they a good student? You know, we have, we’ve had guys who come in, they’re great players, but.
They’re either ineligible off the bat or they become ineligible because they don’t do the work in the classroom. So that’s something more and more we’re honing in on can they do the work and do well on the field, but stay up off the field, um, keep their grades up off the field. And then I think probably the, the final part of that is just their, their character, um, where Christian University.
So, um, we looked to bring in. Christians believers who want to, who want to grow in their faith while growing in their education, growing, uh, in their athletic abilities. So are they gonna be a good fit for, for the school, for the program? Are they gonna fit with the guys? Uh, so a lot of those kind of intangible things that you can’t really measure on a stat sheet or even by watching somebody on the field that’s, um, getting to know them off the field, which is why those, those in-person camps are so important.
Matt: For sure. For sure. Well, On the roster side of things, I look, [00:06:00] you guys have a couple international players, so how does, how do international, how does international recruiting fit in and, and do you guys get a lot of transfers or do transfers fit in at all?
Coach: Yeah. Um, so starting with international, uh, we have a number of guys who.
Have a lot of our internationals are kind of transplanted to the United States, so they’re not straight from, um, foreign countries, but have come from, um, sometimes refugee situations, sometimes just, uh, a parent’s job, um, or a situation is changed and they’re here. So there’s a lot of opportunities. Uh, like you said, we don’t have athletic scholar.
But there’s different opportunities for international students, um, through other scholarships. And obviously those are for any student, not just athletes, but, um, internationally that’s kind of the, you know, a lot of ’em, uh, a lot of international students will get different kind of financial aid, uh, through those other scholarships outside of athletics.
And that’s where, you know, we get a lot of those, those from.
Matt: [00:07:00] Okay. Well you, you mentioned financial aid and, and you know, that’s always the number one question, at least usually on a parent’s mind. Uh, so I’m not holding you to any hard numbers here, but can I, can you just give me, uh, a broad strokes overview of what, what does the overall tuition and financial.
You know, packages look like in terms of whether that’s academic money or other scholarships or kind of what all that looks like.
Coach: Yeah. Um, I’m not a salesman and they say the number one thing in sales is, don’t say the price right up front, but I figure in my mindset is you kind of get the, get the elephant, you know, address the elephant in the room and then you kind of help you see the elephants and really not that big and bad and scary as it is.
Um, so this past year, I believe tuition was, um, once again, rough numbers. It was right around 2020 1000. A room and board was about 11,000, which you look at a lot of D three schools, even some of the D two s and D one s in the area. It’s, it’s actually very affordable. Um, but still that’s, no one wants to [00:08:00] just pay, you know, 31, 31 K just because.
And so, uh, thankfully about 94, 90 5% of our students. Financial aid. Um, and that’s once again, not just limited athletes, that’s across the board and a lot of D three, I think statistically D three institutions give more financial aid than D one s and D two s. And so with that, uh, you have the first line of academic aid, which is financial.
So, uh, a student coming in, let’s say they had their top. Top academic scores, their gpa, their, how they ranked in their classes, the kind of three metrics they could get up to $10,000 off. Um, just purely based on academics. And, and that number goes down as the scores go down, but it could be, you know, 6500, 4500.
Um, and there’s some flexibility in there depending on the, depending on the grades. Um, then you have need based. So if you have a student who, based on either their situation or the family situation, uh, there can be, um, [00:09:00] Upwards to, you know, six to $8,000, um, that are, that are offered just on need based. And then there’s other scholarships outside of that based on your major, based on, uh, you know, if your parents, it’s a, it’s a Christian university, so if your parents are in ministry, there’s other scholarships that can be added onto that.
And so the, it becomes very, Uh, you know, very affordable compared to the initial maybe shock at the price tag. Um, I believe last I checked, the average eight a student got was, uh, or the average a student was paying was around 14,000. Um, and obviously there’s some lower, there’s some higher the average, but, uh, that’s kind of the nuts and bolts.
Um, general overview of what our, you know, financial packaging would look like. Yeah, no, that’s great.
Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school cuz there’s probably folks out there who haven’t heard of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Uh, it was funny, I was just actually talking about Greenville, South Carolina to somebody just the other [00:10:00] day and I did not know that that’s where Bob Jones University was located.
So I’m learning something, uh, here as well. So, kind of besides what I can find by clicking around the website, you know, gimme some of the, the awesome things about the school that, that folks may not know.
Coach: Um, So I, so a lot of it is on the website, so,
Matt: Well, that’s, that just means you got a good website, but, but gimme the highlights, I guess.
Coach: Um, so I’ve already, you know, it’s a Christian university. It’s, uh, was found in 1927, so it’s coming up on a hundred years. Um, we’ve been in Greenville since the mid forties, I think 1946 was our first year in Greenville. Uh, we’re about 2,500 students, uh, give or take, depending on the year. Uh, that’s trending upwards.
But, um, that’s the number right now. We’re a liberal arts school, which, uh, for some who don’t know what that is, it’s a, uh, you basically have your core classes that you have to take, trying to make you or help you become well rounded in whatever field you’re going into. So you have your [00:11:00] x, you know, amount of math and English and sciences that you need to take.
So it, if I could boil it down, it’s. From the initial founding back in 1927, a Christian education, educating the whole person, um, academically, culturally, uh, as you know, for us as athletes, athletically, you know, the, the physical aspect of it spiritually. And, um, and kind of wrapping all that into one package to give you the best, uh, best education possible.
And, um, so. Kind of going back to that question, what’s not on the website? I think the biggest thing as I was trying to answer that question, you know, there’s a lot of our, the academic achievements that are listed online. It’s a very tough school academically. There’ve been a lot of great things. Um, Our test scores are passing rates, you know, success rates that have come out.
Um, there’s a lot of experiences. Greenville, you know, is a great location for us. It’s one of the top 10 downtowns. Uh, at least it has been. I, I don’t think I’ve [00:12:00] seen the ratings rankings this year, but in the United States, it’s one of the top 10 downtowns. But the thing that you can’t put on website, I think is the experience and just your, your teachers care about you.
The, you know, other students care about you, even though they might. You know, know you. Um, it’s just a, it’s a really unique environment and there’s a small student to teacher ratio, uh, of about 12 to one, and you get a lot of that individual investment from the teachers. So I, I mean, uh, I’m not a salesman, but as every salesman say, you have to come and experience for it yourself, you know, on a visit or on a tour.
But, uh, I’d say that’s probably the best part, uh, of the university is just the people. And, um, along with all the other great things, No,
Matt: that’s fantastic. Well, you mentioned academics, so being a challenging academic environment, you know, how do student athletes really balance those commitments between academics and athletics, and what support systems does the school have in place to help?
Coach: Yeah. Um, uh, you know, I’m not gonna cut [00:13:00] corners, you know, it’s tough. It is. It’s tough being, uh, a college athlete where wherever you go, uh, I think. Particularly hard at, um, at schools that value the education a lot. Um, you know, students will come and say, or prospective student athletes will come and say, How am I gonna balance it all?
And I think the best way I’ve viewed it is it doesn’t cause any problems. Like it doesn’t. Uh, your, your athletics and your education aren’t gonna, aren’t gonna create problems, but they’re gonna reveal maybe bad study habits or bad time management. So to help with that, uh, every freshman, at least for our program, every freshman coming in has to meet with an academic coach.
Um, that’s different than a tutor. We have tutors available. But an academic coach is someone who’ll plan out, here’s what your schedule looks like. Hey, here’s how much time that you probably need to allot for this class. Um, you know, this class that all the freshmen. Causes problems about this time of the semester.
So you wanna be working ahead. So there’s, there’s that support system that all our freshmen in incoming [00:14:00] transfers, um, have to, have to be with, have to meet with on a, on a weekly basis until they’re, until they’re settled. Um, and then there’s others as well. There’s a, there’s a writing center any student can go to, um, that we push a lot of our athletes to, especially.
You’re having to balance writing papers as well as, you know, you’re, you’re hitting the road and you’re traveling. So, um, communication with teachers is, uh, it really forces you to learn how to communicate with, with teachers ahead of time and how to work out schedules. So it is a tough balancing act, but the teachers are, are great about working with students to help them either get stuff done ahead of time or, um, you know, to give them the, the tools they need to, you know, study on the road.
Okay,
Matt: Well can talk about being on the road. Obviously you guys are heading to nationals here very shortly, but minus a week on the road, in Florida. Can you walk me through kinda what a typical week look like during your regular season in terms of wins, classes, meals, practices, all that kind of stuff?[00:15:00]
Coach: Yeah, so, uh, classes can be really anytime between eight to five. Um, so, you know, classes will run, uh, I guess anywhere from eight to 11 I should say. Um, we have chapel, um, couple days a week. So that starts at 11. So there’s no classes during that time. Um, and the classes will start in, you know, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, Uh, a clock will be the latest that a class will start.
Our practices run from three 30 to five. So most all our guys are able to get all their classes in. Uh, there’s occasionally a guy who might have to miss, um, maybe a part of a session or a session here or there, but that’s pretty rare. Um, so I’m trying to think through a typical, you know, a guy will have a nine o’clock, a 10 o’clock class, head to chapel, head to lunch, have a one o’clock, a two o’clock.
Um, that would be really busy day actually. They might just have a one o’clock. Um, they’ll be af they’ll be done after two. And then, uh, at three 30 we, we start training. Um, we keep. Keep it tight and short using all the time with the 90 [00:16:00] minutes. Um, we found that you don’t really need to go, you know, extra, at least not every day.
We used to do two hour practices and, um, We, we have a, a professional club in the area, the Greenville Triumph, and we have a good relationship with them and their sessions rarely go longer than 70 or 80 minutes, so we kind of took a page outta their book. And um, so that’s why our trainings tend to run that way.
Once we get into the season. Um, probably about two games a week is normal, so Monday we’d have kinda the schedule. I. Training Tuesday, Um, you know, say it’s, uh, it’s a home game, so we have your same schedule, and then we have a game at seven o’clock or six o’clock that evening, Wednesday, Thursday. Same schedule as Monday.
Um, and then either a Friday game, which would be in the evening or we do, um, we did a lot of our wait trips on Saturdays this year. Uh, so that kept us from having to, to travel too much. Um, we still end up traveling, I think, more than we normally would during the week, but long and short of it, that’s a [00:17:00] typical week.
And, um, two games, training on the days that we don’t have games and, uh, and then classes outside of that. Okay. Well, let’s
Matt: talk a little bit more about the team, the soccer side. Is it, is there a roster size that you guys try to hit? Do you, do you have like a reserve side developmental squad as
Coach: well? Yeah, so we don’t have a reserve or, um, You know, JV developmental, um, we, we really like one of Coach Greg, the head coach.
His, his focus is that we’re family as a team. So it’s everyone together. We, we talked about, uh, the, I, the, uh, the idea of having a, a. A jv, a vr, whatever you wanna call it. And he, he just really wasn’t a big fan of the idea, um, keeping a, a smaller squad to keep everyone together. So that’s, you know, when you come in experience, that’s, I think that’s something, at least when we talk to recruits, that they’ve.
Notice and mention things about how close the guys are together and that that comes from, you know, the top down. [00:18:00] Um, so we try to keep it right around 30. Uh, the past few years we’ve been a little higher than 30. Um, with, with Covid we expanded the roster a little bit, just, you know, for all the protocols and, um, you know, if someone, you know, guys have to quarantine.
If you’re able to not quarantine the whole team, maybe you can have enough numbers. So that was kind of the thinking in past years. Um, now that that’s, um, you know, mostly, mostly gone, it’s, it’s getting that roster back down to around 30 guys. So the idea is that everyone on that roster can, can be a vital part of the team.
You’re all gonna have some guys who are developing freshman, sophomores, particularly, who might not be impact players, you know, their first year on the team. But, um, And, and anybody can be called on it at any time, especially at the end of the season to, to jump into a role if need be. Okay.
Matt: Well, in terms of staff, obviously there’s, [00:19:00] there’s you and, and other folks.
So can you give me a, just a little background on, on how many staff are there? What roles does everybody play? What does that look like?
Coach: Yeah. Uh, so we have the head coach, um, Greg Fulton. Then he, we have three assistants under him. Michael Klein is the other one. Um, myself. And then, um, we have a goalkeeper coach, um, uh, Paul, Paul Christensen.
Um, he’s actually the starting goal only for the Greenville Triumph. So he was balancing those two. And he’s been, he’s been great to work with. Um, he, he brings an extra level of insight, obviously playing at the highest level. Of soccer in the us He played for Atlanta, United and now with the Triumph. And so he brings that, um, that experience and those insights, uh, job responsibilities is, is an interesting one.
Um, I smile because we, we often overlap in a lot of ways. Uh, our first year together, it was a little bit of everybody kind of jumping and doing everything. [00:20:00] So it wasn’t like, you do this, you do this. Um, this year it’s settled more into roles. So I’ve, I’ve handled a lot more of the recruiting this year. Uh, each one of us have small parts in it, but I’ve done a lot more of that.
Um, Micah’s done a lot of the, a lot of the detail work, helping guys, um, in their, in their classes, just making sure, you know, attendance wise and other issues that might arise. Um, communication with teachers, um, And then Greg is, uh, he kind of is the overarching, has the vision. So whether it’s the marketing, whether it’s, uh, the recruiting, I’m more the early stages of recruiting.
He’s more in the later stages, getting guys who we really want and being a part of those conversations. Um, and uh, kind of along with that is our overall play style. How do we wanna play as a team? What, what direction do we wanna go in training? Um, so. I hesitate to kind of put those, uh, you know, put us in those categories because there is overlap.
But, um, especially when it comes to planning training, it’s, it’s really [00:21:00] collaborative, um, collaborative effort. But he’s the one who really drives the, um, steers the ship, I should say, and in a lot of those ways,
Matt: uh, that makes sense. How would you describe, I guess the, the overall, the team style of play, uh, the coaching style of the staff and, and just the overall culture of the team?
Coach: Whew, uh, I’ll try to keep it short. , um, the, the style of play, um, uh, Greg, uh, spent a lot of time actually over in Spain when he was, uh, you know, coming outta college and, and, um, was, uh, I gotta keep this short story, but looking I over there. But he, uh, so he fell in love with Barcelona. Um, he was there in the prime years, uh, you know, messing name marez, um, and yes, Asha, you know, pulling all the strings and so we, we really favor possession, um, possession style team.
Um, this year we’ve done a lot of work in the 4 33. Last year was a 3 [00:22:00] 52, so not so much tied to anyone’s system. But the system that gets the best of our, out of our players, while allowing us to keep the ball, but also to be dangerous. Um, so that’s something we’ve looked to add to our, um, add to our arsenal this year is being able to possess the ball, keep it, but also to be dangerous and, and be direct when we have to.
Um, so I think obvi we’re gonna, we’re always gonna choose to keep the ball. Um, This year has been a, a step forward in learning. Sometimes we gotta play the ball over the top and we can’t, You can’t ticky taka, you know, through, through every team. Sometimes you have to attack with more speed and not be this slow buildup.
So the word I like is flexible, but it’s flexible with a. Possession based attacking style, uh, is, is the goal that we, we strive for. And it’s, and it’s always a work in progress. We have some games where it looks great and some games where, um, reminds us what we need to work on. But, um, I would say that’s the style of play we’re shooting for.
Okay. Um, the, I think the next one [00:23:00] was what on coaches on how longs I just, Well,
Matt: I mean, you talked about your style of coaching. Um, a style of coaching. Yeah.
Coach: Um, it’s a lot. Uh, I’d say it’s a lot of, a lot of rondos coming from Bara, but a lot of, um, a lot of our training centers around, um, quick paste, um, one and two touch drills, possession drills, uh, small sided games, small sided drills.
Um, and when I say drills, it’s, it’s not a lot of, uh, not a lot of. Um, there’s a mixture of everything, but it the, it’s not a lot of, you know, standing in lines and, and running through patterns, although there are some of those things, but it’s really wanting guys to learn to understand the game by doing and to get a feel for the game rather than us prescribing everything in this situation.
Do this in this situation. Um, There is that at times, but really trying, trying to let the game be the best teacher. And so the more exposure you have to [00:24:00] that and the more small sided, um, quick possession games you play, the better you’re able to think the game process, the game and and technical ability is really at a premium.
So guys who their technical ability is, uh, is up there, we’ll, we’ll get the nod over guys who might be more physical, um, or physic. Um, gifted, uh, because we, we wanna keep it and be able to keep it in tight spaces. Okay.
Matt: Well, coach, we’ve, we’ve covered a lot of ground and, and I always like to end these the same way and that’s what didn’t we talk about.
If there’s anything else you wanna let us know either about, uh, the, your recruiting processes, the school itself, the soccer side of things, or college soccer in general? Uh, I, I give you the last
Coach: word here. Yeah. Um, I think two things, mainly from some of the, the questions I was looking at that we didn’t have time for.
Um, but I think it’s good as for any prospective student. One is when you’re reaching out to a coach, um, make sure you’ve researched the school. Um, don’t send a stock [00:25:00] email. You might think well just, you know, there’s, um, wisdom and just sending out mass numbers and you can do that quickly. But take the time to research the school to know, uh, We have, we have so many emails that guys send in and it’s, Hey Coach, I’m really interested in your school.
We’d love for you to take a look at me. You know, here’s my contact info. But the ones that stick out are, Hey, you know, coach, and you have the name in there and, uh, we saw that your record’s this and you have this big game coming up or been following this, and I saw this game. So just, just little personal touches.
Um, I think that’s a life principle, but you know, especially when you’re trying to make an impact and, and stand out from. The hundreds of other stock emails that coaches are getting. I’d say the second, maybe, maybe related to that, but as you do your homework, make sure you have a full vision, um, a big picture of the school that you’re gonna go to.
Uh, just talking to a recruit the other day who he went to a, a school. Um, You know, quality [00:26:00] program. But he went in, he didn’t know anything about the school really, aside from the fact that he wanted to be on the soccer team, . And, uh, and so he gets into classes and he gets in the environment and, and you know, once the soccer doesn’t start going well, he starts all these other, because you’re like, Man, soccer’s not going well.
And I don’t like this. I don’t like that. So you, you go for more than just the soccer team, although that might be the biggest motivator. I know it was for me. Um, but you go for the environment, you go for the education, you go for who the coaches are as people because, um, There are gonna be hard times, there are gonna be disagreements, there are gonna be times you can, you have to trust your coach’s decision or, or have conversations with them, or have conversations with your teachers.
And there’s so much more than just playing the game. And I think, um, you really shortchange yourself if you, if you, um, if you don’t do that extra work to, to see the big picture.
Matt: Absolutely. Very well said. Well, coach, I really appreciate the [00:27:00] time and wish you guys nothing but the best down in kissing me, uh, and, and hope you guys can bring back.
I think you guys did happen to bring back the ship last
Coach: year, didn’t you? Yeah. Yep. Looking to repeat.
Matt: So the good luck and in that, and, uh, we’ll keep it on you and thanks again for the time.
Coach: Thanks so much, Matt. Thank you.
