Brevard College Men’s Soccer – Coach Helio D’Anna
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Helio from the Brevard Men’s Program in North Carolina. We talk about their international and domestic recruiting. He describes their gorgeous campus in the land of waterfalls. Lastly, we discuss the treasure trove of activities the campus offers. Learn more about Brevard College Men’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer Today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach L over there in Brevard. Welcome. Well, thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks for coming on. And coach and I go back and now I look at it 20 years. Uh, we coached against each other 20 years ago. Uh, and then now we get to reconnect after a long, long time.
So it’s great. Great to have you on. Um, let’s, my pleasure. Yeah, let’s start talking about, uh, you know, you had a long history as a D two coach, now D three. So let’s talk on the recruiting trail. You know, what is kind of your calendar now in terms of recruiting? Are you wrapped, is the 23 class done and you’re looking at 20 fours?
Or how, how does the timeline look now and is it different from when it, when you were at D two?
Coach: Yeah, actually I started my career in ai. I was a union college for many, many years. So, uh, I’ve experienced a little bit of everything and. Uh, I, I’m still young at D three, uh, to the extent that, um, I, I may change my answer maybe in a year or two, but, uh, uh, my experience has been that, uh, in D three you’re always recruiting, you know, cuz uh, technically, uh, if there’s a good player and he’s interested in the program, we want ’em, you know, but, Uh, my, uh, my career, I did coach a little bit of women’s soccer and probably the answer would be different for them, you know?
Sure. But yeah, my cycle should be [00:01:30] close to the end, but it’s still open. Okay.
Matt: Well, you’re in a gorgeous part of the country, uh, there in North Carolina. So what are some. The areas and tournaments that you go to, to look at players and, and kind of really get a lot of that domestic recruiting done.
Coach: Sure. Um, It’s, it’s not that it’s necessarily these only, you know, uh, we’ll go where we need to go.
Um, I, I do have, I’m fortunate that I do have three, uh, young men under me, uh, assistance, uh, that we can cover ground. But typically we try to hover towards these tournaments that are a little more regional, but yet, Attract a bigger crowd, you know, ie. The Disneys the, um, rallies and, and so on and so forth.
But there’s always a little local, uh, either ID camp or tournament that’s, we got an invitation that will come and, and, and check it out. But, um, uh, one thing I’m sure you’re gonna ask, you know, but, uh, one thing I, I put a ton of emphasis and I put a ton of value. Is a kid reaching out to us. So oftentimes something that we weren’t planning on going to, we will because of that interest and because we see the preliminary information that is worthwhile.
Yeah, no, and that, and that’s definitely something I
Matt: tell people. You gotta, you gotta do the outreach. Right? Um, although one thing about your roster, I, [00:03:00] that’s a little bit different from a, from a lot of division threes, to be honest, is you got quite a number of international students. Um, so I guess twofold, I know you, you did a lot of international recruiting at, at Lincoln Memorial, but what, how has that kind of transition, um, in terms of.
Where you put your focus and, and why such a, such a big focus on the international recruiting?
Coach: It’s not that I put focus on it, uh, but it, it’s because you, you do have a reputation and a name out there, and I don’t want to give away my age, but you, you do this, uh, long enough that all of a sudden you have a former player that now coaches fill the blank, you know, either at another, uh, country or another, uh, recruiting service or whatever the case might be.
But, uh, Crazy as it sounds. I’m coaching some, uh, kids that actually are the sons of former players, you know, so, uh, but sometimes it’s a little deceiving because our sport is so, um, Influenced by, you know, uh, a diverse crowd that, uh, sometimes you see a name in a, a country listed there, but this is a dual citizen, a kid who actually is an American citizen, uh, but you know, family lived or he grew up or whatever the case might be in another country.
And oftentimes they say, coach list me as Italy, but the kid’s American, you know? So yeah, it’s a [00:04:30] little deceiving. Uh, I don’t put one ahead of the other at all. In fact, uh, some of my biggest success stories, kids that reached the m l s and and you know, just became big time players. They’re Americans. So I like good players.
I don’t care where they’re from.
Matt: I ca I hear that. Well, what about camps? Do you guys do your own ID camps? Do you or your staff participate in other camps? How important are they in your recruiting process?
Coach: Yeah. And, and the D three thing, again, I’m learning it, but uh, it’s so important, right? Cuz you don’t have the tryouts.
So yes, we do several ID camps throughout the year. We just had one a few weeks ago and, uh, I’m about to post the next one. It should be around about in early May. Uh, it’s very important for several reasons. And, and now I’m not even, I don’t even charge that much. You know, if I could, I would make it no charge.
But there are rules about that, so, uh, I just charge a minimum fee to, to stay compliant. But, um, the bottom line is this, um, regardless of how close or far you are from a campus, when you go to an ID camp, you have. An opportunity to see the settings, of course, an opportunity to get a tour, hopefully. But, uh, um, that interaction with the coaches is as important as anything you’re going to do.
You know, of course you should check the academics, you should check the settings, you should check the, well the facilities, uh, as well. And that’s part of the [00:06:00] id, um, model. But, but that interaction with the coach is so important. At least that’s the way I do, I, I bring a, a number of kids that we tell them guys, today we’re gonna run a college session.
You know, so those kids are gonna have an opportunity to see what does he do on a given day, you know, not that every session is equal, but at least have an, an idea and, and how we, we communicate how, you know, cause that’s, that’s a big part too. Uh, I, I think it’s a dating process, so to speak. You know, you’re, you’re, you’re trying to get to know.
Who, who you actually gonna end up dating, you know? So, uh, it, it’s a big commitment and, and if you go flying blind, um, you might make a mistake, you know? So ID camps I think are super important.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, what are, whether it’s at an ID camp or, or watching a game or whatever the case may be, what are the things you’re looking for in a player?
What’s that hierarchy, whether it’s on the field or off the field?
Coach: Yeah, and I get this question quite a bit. Um, there, there’s one position that I’ll say, all right, this is a different one, which is the goalkeeper, uh, for everybody else. I, I don’t go positional, you know, uh, I look for, um, a bunch of things, uh, because it, it, it has to match your, um, playing style to which my philosophy is not like, all right, here’s how I want you to play.
Deal with it [00:07:30] is the opposite is bring good players and we as coaches will, will adjust to you. You know, so we have the picture on the back of the lid, so to speak, on a puzzle. But you know, we might have, Hey, this is how we want to play, but there’s no sensing in enforcing either formation or system or whatever the case might be.
That the player is not, not producing, you know, so good coaches will change from year to year, even during the season that we wanna hide. So to speak your weaknesses and, and showcase your strengths. That’s how it is. And we’ll develop the, whatever weaknesses, but. The common thread that I look for, you know, uh, this is a, a, a, an athletic sport, so you gotta have some athletic traits.
You know, some people are stronger, some people are quicker, some people are faster, whatever the case might be. But if you have a no, no, no on the boxes of different, uh, it might be a struggle, you know? So that’s one thing. The second thing is because we try to play a possessing style because we try to showcase midfield and just just build numbers up front.
We want players that have a good, um, like a touch good intimacy with the ball that. Deal with pressure well enough that they’re not what I call the hot potatoes. You know, hot potatoes are the guys that get the ball, get rid of it, because I don’t want any, any, I don’t wanna make mistakes, you know, quite the other way around.
I don’t mind mistakes at all. I like players that have personality. [00:09:00] Obviously. There’s a, a, a fine line between. Freedom and, and being a ball hog, so to speak. Right? Uh, I like you gonna laugh, I like talking to kids. I like, um, meeting the kids because I like assertive kids and it’s not necessarily. They’re shy kids that are very assertive.
Uh, it, it’s a, it’s a, I think that’s a, you’ve done this a long time. It, it’s, it’s not exact science that sometimes, uh, the quietest of the kids, they step on the field and they, they transform themselves, you know. But I like assertive players. Players that they want the ball, players that communicate. At least what it needs to be communicated.
You know, you don’t need to be blabbing the whole game long, but if you never talk, you know, uh, you, you, you might not be as good. Uh, you, you might not make the, the players around you, uh, uh, better players, you know? So that’s the thing. And then there’s, there’s. No such a thing anymore. Hey, I play back, so I just gotta defend, Hey, I play middle.
You know, there’s no such a thing. You, you gotta be able to play all phases of the game. And I always pick on my players saying, what are the phases? And they always say, ah, defense and, uh, offense. And they, they cannot even, you know, and I, I, I kind of, uh, use those teachable. I’ll even say it, you know, there’s five phases, you know, there’s.
Office, there’s defense, there’s transition to offense, there’s transition to defense, but there’s set [00:10:30] pieces and which is a lost start anymore, right? So players that can do multiple things in those phases, they’re valuable for any coach. You know, so these are the things I look for. He are completely different.
Matt: Yep. Absolutely. Well, let’s, let’s talk a little bit more about the school itself. Uh, you know, actually one of my players. When I was at Oakland City, his brother had gone to Brevard to play. So, uh, a little bit familiar there, but, uh, you’ve been there a few years now. Um, kind of give us what’s the, what are some of the excellent things, the awesome things that you like about Brevard that maybe I’m not gonna learn just by going through the website.
Sure.
Coach: I mean, it was, it was an a, a really unique situation for me because you mentioned that I, I was at a, at a d d two school before here, but it was in Tennessee. So if you look on the map, Tennessee is very close to North Carolina, even Kentucky where I was the, the school before, it’s really close here.
So, long story short, the president that was my president at my school in Kentucky came to to Brevard. Gosh, I don’t even know, man. Uh, maybe 20 years ago. I, I may be mistaken, but, uh, maybe 15. Uh, but when he came, yes, 15 years when he came. He brought my wife, so I was married to a, a, a, a young lady from Kentucky.
So, so he brought her and we had such a great experience [00:12:00] in, in Kentucky. But at that point I had already moved to the school in Tennessee and I am very, very loyal to, to my program. I’m, I’m so much so that I only have, have coached in three places. So me and my wife made it work at least for seven years.
That I was coaching Tennessee. She was here in North Carolina. But all those seven years I was looking from distance then. It’s not that far. You know, it was one of those situations that I’m, I’m, during the week I’m in Tennessee and on weekends we see each other. But I saw the transformation of the campus and the college and, and the ambition, you know, and the de president kept saying, come on over, come on over.
But I will not finish what I started, you know? So I came over here four years ago, five years ago, and, and. We really saw a completely transform, a complete transformation of everything from academics. Now the school is ranked number four in the south, southeast, which is really amazing, but, but my experience in Kentucky and then in Tennessee was this, there’s three things that I always wanna provide to my players.
I want them to have that experience that I think is important for them. Academics, of course, the settings of the town and, and, and, you know, being a college town and being the, the, the, the settings of the campus and then the soccer program, of course, you know, this is the first time in my career that all threw you, those [00:13:30] things are in great shape.
This is a great little college town. We’re suburban, whereas my previous two schools were very rural. Um, and being suburban sometimes. Sometimes city can be a problem, you know? But it’s in, in that perfect situation that is the colleges, uh, the city itself has everything a college kid needs, but we’re like 15 minutes from the big city, bigger city, you know?
So the airport is 20 minutes away. My gosh, that makes such a difference. You know? I mean, my, my kids that fly safe from Florida. I don’t even leave campus until they land. I mean, it’s such a refresh, uh, refreshing situation that I, by the time I get there, they got their luggage, you know, so little things like that.
So, but the beauty of the place, my gosh, you know, is this, this, uh, town is called the, the land of the waterfalls, right? So there’s 250 waterfalls here. So the beauty of it is a touristy place. So lots of people have. Um, a getaway place here or they come over a weekend or whatever the case, but that means restaurants are good, there’s stuff to do, and, and.
The facilities. I’m blessed. I’m very, very blessed. There’s probably division one schools that don’t have the stadium that we have, the locker room facilities. There’s a few house, you know, and that’s why I came, you know, and, and uh, so I think it’s a great little balance of these things that a, a [00:15:00] college kid is looking for.
I think.
Matt: Yeah. No, that, that, that’s a great description. One thing, especially like a parent like me, when I think about schools, I gotta think, okay, how much is this gonna cost me? Uh, so just give me a rough overview of kind of what the cost to attend is, what scholarships are available. Obviously not athletic, but what kind of merit academic, what is a, an average student athlete coming in, looking at paying, and, and just kind of a brief overview.
Coach: Yeah, the school, because we’re ranked so high in the southeast, the, the school is showcasing all the, the states in the southeast, so a kid from. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, any state that touches, uh, North Carolina is considered quote unquote in-state. So all those kids immediately get, have tuition, you know, and, and we’re, we’re not open admissions, but we’re also not so hard to get in that the, the requirements are so high and.
That’s a great start. You know, a kid that gets maybe an extra academic scholarship, an extra merit or whatever the case or some financial aid, you know, the true, the true state or states, you would have to be a North Carolina kid, but the federal grades or whatever the case, they put all those things together.
This is quite affordable. You know, the school itself costs 43 tuition, room and board, which [00:16:30] yes, it’s expensive. But in the D three world, I think it’s not quite that high, but because of these things I just told you, At the end, you know, the bottom line, which is what parents normally look at is, is quite, quite affordable, you know, so, um, and, and the school also does a good job with these little opportunities that along the way you come here with a certain package, but then along the way you’re producing, I’m talking academically, socially, whatever the case, you start picking up little other opportunities.
And also the, the goal is always to, to get people here with the least possible. Um, Debt, right. In loans. But, uh, but yeah, they’re, they’re doing a good job.
Matt: Okay. Well, we talked, you talked a little bit about academics there and, you know, we gotta put the, the student and the student athlete, right? So how does Brevard support the student athletes as they try to balance playing a sport and their academic.
Coach: Yeah, I mean, I, I, if I, if I don’t tell you a couple of things, uh, my wife will kill me cause she’s the vice president for Student Life and she’s behind a few of the, the things I’m gonna say. But one of them, there’s something here called Early Alert System. So when a freshman comes, they have first a success mentor because oftentimes they don’t know.
What major they, they, they, they want, you know, so they, not always, it’s a smart idea to put an advisor in [00:18:00] a department, yet they might be still searching, you know. But that person, me, the faculty athletic representative, of course the, the compliance officer, cuz there’s eligibility issue and your teacher, they’re in the early alert system.
So if, if a student misses, um, Say a class without the elements of, uh, notification because it was a game or, you know, it was apart from a game. Um, we get another alert. Uh, if, if you, if you do poorly in a, in a exam, I get an alert. All of us do. If you don’t turn any, uh, an assignment, we get an alert. So the, the whole point is to be proactive and step in and say, Hey, can I help you know what’s going on?
Are you sick? Or whatever the case you. So that to me is a good approach because instead, Trying to play catch up. We catch things before they happen. We’re small enough that there’s tutor available for every class, uh, which sometimes in bigger schools, not only, that’s not the case, but some of them charge, you know, so it’s not the case for us.
But, uh, there’s a new program that my wife is behind that I’m very excited. It, it’s called Career Advantage, and it starts this coming fall. So when a, when a a incoming student, Says, Hey, this is the career that I’m, I’m shooting for right now. And that might change. They’re gonna have weekly meetings with, [00:19:30] uh, uh, I don’t even know what she’s gonna call that person, um, that they’re gonna map out step by step, cuz it might look like a internship at some point.
It might look like a. Uh, I don’t know. Let’s, uh, have a, a public speaking course that you take on site, you know, a co-curricular class, whatever. But, but they’re gonna make you at the end of your four years, uh, extra transcript. So you get your diploma, you get your transcript, and you get what they’re gonna call a co-curricular transcript with everything that you’ve done for four years.
And that’s individual, which we’re smart enough to do that. So that. When you apply, say, for a professional school, right? It could be a physical therapy school, whatever, uh, or a job or, or master’s or whatever. You gonna have something that makes you stand out. Uh, we don’t know of any other school. And, and forgive me if, if, um, somebody listening to this, Hey, we’re doing this.
We haven’t seen it, you know, and, and, um, so that’s gonna be very unique. You know, so all those things, I think, um, That, that, hey, there’s, there’s something special. There’s worth considering.
Matt: No, it sounds amazing. Well, in terms of. You’re student athletes. Exactly. Let’s take it back to the fall a little bit.
Can you just quickly walk me through what a normal week looks like, uh, for a player in terms of class, practice, games, all that kind of thing? Yeah.
Coach: I [00:21:00] mean, you know, you, you, you were in D three, you, you played D three. You know that there’s a little bit of a, a separation between fall and spring, right? The fall is busier.
You, it’s your season, the spring. I’ll be honest. That was my biggest disappointment when I came to D three. But the good news is we just passed that rule. I’m sure you know. Yeah. That this coming, uh, spring, not this current, but next spring. We’re, we’re so much more parti, uh, there’s so much more participation.
But being as a MA fall is still gonna be a little more, um, demanding. Um, the usual NCAA thing that you can use six days of the week, and we do, you gotta have one day off and we do in the spring, even if you. Burn all your number of practices as is in the model. Right now, you can only go up to five days a week because it’s so thin.
Right now I’m going about four times a week and I’m starting after spring break. We’re, we’re in spring break right now. Next year that’s gonna be a little different, but it’s still gonna be less, less busy. It’s. What I tell my parents and my players is, is there’s a good busy and a bad busy. You know, the, the bad busy is the one that you always playing catch up.
You, you always, you feel like you’re trying to dig a hole or dig yourself out of a hole. You can never do it. You know, that’s why your grades start hurting or you always feel like you’re behind your late for class. You’re late for practice. You. This is the [00:22:30] good busi because let me tell you one thing, there’s one thing I learned cuz I’ve been there.
You’ve been there. If you got too much time, you don’t get anything done, let’s be honest. You know, you, you need to have a little bit of a pressure. So this is the best busy. It’s the one that makes you stay honest, makes you stay, and it gives you the tools. All right, here, tutoring, here’s whatever you need.
But it, it, it, it allows you to, Hey, I don’t need to be Superman here, right? Uh, the team gpa, so stock is cheap. Team GPA is 3.2. I think that’s quite good for men’s. Quite good, you know, and, and, um, uh, it, it’s, it’s, it’s a weird calculation. This, this, it’s a hundred percent graduation in my world, cuz the federal government calculates that difference.
You know, there’s guys now taking five years to graduate and whatnot, you know, but guys are graduating. That’s how I care, you know? Yeah.
Matt: Well, especially with the covid stuff, the graduation timing and raise all. Willy-nilly. But let’s, you know, one thing I want to ask you about was, uh, roster size. It looks like you guys have a fairly large roster and do a reserves, is that right?
Coach: Right. And I see this quite a bit in my conference. Maybe that’s a division three thing. I don’t, I don’t know if it is a fair statement, but I think I can say this with a, a big enough. Um, Like a study sample, because I was at a, at a S school, Kentucky, that was small, a school in, in Tennessee that was small.
And now I’m at, at a school, North Carolina, very small. [00:24:00] They, they need the enrollments, right? They need, uh, numbers, they need. Uh, so, uh, the, the balance that I created with me, my athletic director is yes, we have a first team. Yes, we have what we call the reserves squad. But I don’t, I don’t want to get to the point that a, a kid that might find himself on the reserves says, I, I, I don’t have a shot.
I’ll never be up there. Or a kid that is in either squad will say, man, I’m not playing this year. You know? So none of that. So it’s in the twenties for both. It’s exciting and it’s humbling. The last year it got close to 30 in the first team. It, it’s a little, I’m trying to do away with that for this coming year, but, but again, I’m not gonna turn away a kid.
That’s, man, I love the school. I’m a good player. I, you know, we’ll make it work, but I don’t want to have 40 in one of the two squads, by all means. Yeah.
Matt: No, that makes sense. Well, Coach, you’ve, you’ve been super generous with your time. We’ve talked about a lot of different things, but the last question I wanna leave you with is if there was one thing that you could communicate to, to parents and players that are in the recruiting process, uh, what, what’s that one nugget that you wanna make sure they all know, or, or that, that one piece of advice you want to give Anybody looking to play soccer in college?
Coach: Yeah. I mean, Not able to find everyone, you know, so it [00:25:30] shouldn’t, the, the, the burden shouldn’t be on the coaches to find you. The burden should be on new parents and on new, you know, young men should look for the schools and you need to have a plan of attack too. Cuz this thing about, Hey, let me send a million emails and, and uh, you know, whoever buys by, no, you need to have an idea.
Do I want a bigger setting? Do I want my. Because otherwise go back to the dating thing. Uh, if you flirt with everybody, let me tell you, you’re not getting any of them. They’ll, they’ll find out in a hurry that you’re, you’re, you’re really not working. So yeah, have a plan. Have, it’s okay. Let me get a few communication elements with maybe a bigger size.
A smaller size, that’s okay, but narrow it down quickly and understand one thing if. If you always have that approach that it might be greener elsewhere, you’re gonna miss great opportunities. You know, just, just, uh, realize that when you find a place that really resonates with you, it’s over. Go, go for it.
But take that first step. It’s okay if, if, um, you wanna go to showcase with a open right. Uh, hey, let me, let me give it a shot, but. Until you start communicating with a coach. That’s at least my philosophy. I I, I think a coach wants to see as much interest from you than, than you one from the coach. [00:27:00] That’s my, my 50 cents.
Matt: Well, I love it, coach, coach L it’s been great catching up with you. Uh, glad to see you’re doing well over there in Brevard and, uh, really appreciate the time.
Coach: Hey, thank you so much. Hey, I appreciate you doing this. This is so awesome. No, thank you.
Matt: All right. We’ll be in. All right.
