Buffalo State College Women’s Soccer – Coach Greg Margolis
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Greg Margolis from the Buffalo State College Women’s Program in New York. We talk about the variety of tournaments he likes to scout. He describes their diverse, urban campus. Lastly, we discuss their high press style of play and how they like to possess with purpose. Learn more about Buffalo State College Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Greg Margolis from Buffalo State. Welcome coach.
Coach: Thanks for having me, Matt. Appreciate it. Excited.
Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. This is good. I, I, I’m not familiar with Buffalo State, so this will be a good chance for me to, to learn as well.
Um, but before we talk about the school itself, let’s talk a little bit about the recruiting side of things. You know, you’re, Your season just finished up, so, uh, I’m sure you’re, you’re starting to look already at, uh, at the next year. So when it’s the time when it’s times like these and, and you’re really hit starting to focus on the recruiting side, when.
When is it that you’re really starting to look at players? Are you right now looking mostly at seniors, mostly looking at juniors? What, what, what’s that kind of look like for you guys?
Coach: Um, pretty, pretty active and all encompassing with the recruiting process for, for me. Um, you know, I have. Refined it over the years.
Um, but I’ve gotten it pretty streamlined to the point where by the time our season ends, you know, right around now and maybe, you know, another month or so, we are able to be pretty. Much done with the recruiting class for the following year. So for 2023, um, you know, if, if somebody was trying to reach out to me now, um, that’d be pretty late in the process.
And, you know, depending on the person and fit and everything there, there’s still opportunities. Of course, I never completely [00:01:30] shut my door on recruits. Um, but at, you know, at this point we have six already committed. There’s probably. You know, up on my board here, you know, another 10 that we’re in conversation with, that we’re really focusing in on, um, which at that, at this point is pretty small.
Um, but. You know, it really depends on the year as well. Things can always be flexible and C’S thrown a wrinkle into things with the transfer portal and everything right now too. Um, so it’s, it’s, it’s an ever moving target, but right around now is kind of when we’re finished with the following year and starting to look ahead to, you know, 2024 is kind of the group that we’re starting to, to hit on a little bit more now.
Um, and I’ll still look a couple years out, 20 25, 20 26, uh, at least to. Get the ball rolling. Um, I like to have a pretty active conversation with my recruits over the course of multiple years, um, to make sure that they’re a good fit for us and we’re a good fit for them. Um, so I’d say if you are, you know, A junior or a sophomore finishing their year Buffalo State.
Matt: Sure, sure. Well, you guys, I mean, looking at your roster, it’s predominantly kind of that tri-state area, uh, which isn’t overly surprising, right? For, for division three up in the northeast. But you know, are there tournaments that you kind of are [00:03:00] musty tournaments, uh, places that you have to go to every year to, to help with, with your recruiting.
Coach: Um, there are ones that I tend to go to in general, just kind of where I’ve been over the course of my time. I felt like they’ve been good spots that you can see a lot of teams from, of many different areas. Um, and kind of what’s starting to develop here within the Sunyac and just with how I recruit too, is I am looking to, to broaden.
Our net a little bit more. So, I mean, heading into next year we have somebody coming from Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Florida, uh, along with two people coming from New York so far. But we have, um, you know, people that we’re speaking with in a few other states at this point too. Um, and virtual recruiting has helped with that process to.
A little bit outside of the realm, a little bit more. Um, and I’d say, you know, the big ones that you always hear about are, you know, Jefferson Cup’s a huge one. That’s always beneficial in our neck of the woods. That’s, we can go a little bit more to the west. Whether it’s Kings Hammer or Pace Setter or Blue Chip, those are good ones that are out in Ohio area.
Um, you know, I’m from New England, so I’m always in that area for being at home and everything. And we’ll go to NFC or any of the tournaments that are at the Lancaster location, location in, in Massachusetts. Um, you know, [00:04:30] EDP and PDA are big ones in New New Jersey that tend to, to pull people a a lot of the time.
So, um, I’m big on. Going to the places where the most variety are, and also where players that are connecting with us, uh, the most. So we’ll, we’ll put up on, you know, got soccer, we’ll sign up for events, and then if we get, you know, 10, 20, 3000, however many people reaching out to us saying, Hey, we’ll be there.
Um, those are the ones that we’ll prioritize.
Matt: Okay. What about camps? Do you guys, uh, do a lot with camps, whether that’s your own camps or your staff work in other, other camp?
Coach: Yeah, camps are great. Um, I think it’s a good opportunity to, um, connect with players a little bit more in depth than they, especially on campus, where they get the opportunity to just see everything, um, kind of get a better feel of what Buff state’s all about.
Um, we do a lot with. You know, not just the soccer side of things, but the, the team culture and, and kind of giving them a taste of what that looks like and everything. So, um, we do a lot here on campus. Um, I mean, I was at a camp yesterday that’s one of those more broad spectrum ones that, you know, specific company will hire coaches to, to come and work.
So I’ve done that before. Um, some of the bigger ones that I’ve been at, I’ve been to Yon in the past, um, which is a good opportunity, a good experience just to see [00:06:00] from a, a guy who’s more focused on the D three landscape. But you get to see, kind of, and connect with other coaches at the D one, D two and AIA level just to connect with them a little bit more so, Camps are massive.
I think they can be extremely helpful in just getting to know people a little bit better, um, and really seeing a recruit in the setting that you’re gonna end up potentially coaching them into.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, whether it’s at, at tournaments or camps or anything else, uh, what’s kind of your hierarchy of things you’re looking for when you’re recruiting player, whether that’s on the field stuff or off the field stuff.
Coach: Um, that’s a good question. I think in the, per the whole process, I’m big on holistic fit, so I want people who are gonna come choose Buffalo State. Yes. Because of soccer and because, you know, hopefully because of me as a coach too. Um, but they’re also choosing it because low location, because of education, because of their opportunities that.
To do outside of sport and academics. Um, so through those conversations that I might have with recruits, uh, I want those questions to, to be answered so that they know if soccer for some reason was taken away from me, injury, just not a part of the team anymore, um, that this is. Still the place that they wanna be.
Um, in regards to soccer specific stuff, I look at versatility first and foremost. Um, overall athleticism and ability to play in multiple positions, multiple roles. Flexibility is really, really important at the next level, um, in college and especially in the [00:07:30] SUNYAC Conference with how competitive it is.
You know, I think a lot of, sometimes a lot of kids get really focused in a way, I’m, I play forward, that’s where I’ve played my whole life. This is what I’m gonna play when I go to college. And then when they get there, there’s some really great attributes that, that we see in those. You know, people in the, in those positions and we think, you know, maybe you actually could be somebody who could help us build out of the back and be an attacker from the outside back position.
So that versatility and willingness and wanting to play wherever they are needed and, and will get the most out of them, um, for the team’s benefit, but also for theirs. Um, that’s something that I really like to see in recruits. Uh, and then their, their presence on the field. When I, when I’m watching them play, are they communicating?
Are they using their voice? Are they competing, um, on all face facets of the field where they’re constantly involved, whether it’s with their communication with their one B one, defending with how they are breaking lines. Um, just their overall presence is something that I like to see. So that we know, okay, when this person comes into our team, they’re going to add their value to our program even as a first year.
Doesn’t really matter to us what year you are. Um, so even as a first year coming in, they’re gonna be able to add value for the program in some way, shape, or form.
Matt: Okay. No, makes a lot of sense to me. Well, A lot of parents, uh, are always [00:09:00] wondering, okay, what’s this, what’s this gonna cost me now? So I’m not, uh, I’m not, you know, checking your numbers here or holding you to anything specific, but can you just gimme a broad strokes overview of what, uh, financial aid packages look like?
What’s the academic scholarship, uh, another scholarship, financial aid, all all the things. What does that look like if you’re gonna attend Buffalo, Buffalo State?
Coach: Yeah. So, What’s nice about Buffalo State in-state school tuition makes things really beneficial for those people from New York state. But then also what SUNY is now implementing into next year.
Um, and I don’t know how many years this will be in place or how widespread this will start to go, but we are doing some in-state tuition matching with select states in and around. Um, so, you know, off the top of my head, I think, you know, pa uh, Ohio and and New Jersey are three, you know, obviously surrounding the state of New York, that they’re starting to now do tuition matching.
So that can open our doors a little bit more too. Um, and even out of state tuition is still gonna be in some regards a. If not less than most private school institutions. Um, so that’s what makes our, our costs quite competitive, um, and is a really big selling point for, for us here at Buffalo State. I think in state tuition wise, you’re probably paying a.
It really depends on the individual, but anywhere from, you know, eight [00:10:30] to 10,000, I think with everything, once you get your FAFSA and merit and all that, um, outta state is, you know, maybe twice that amount. Still extremely affordable. Um, You know, division three, so no athletic scholarships, but we do have some merit based scholarships based on GPA and, and you know, we’re test optional this, this year again.
So I think that’s something that’s beneficial. Uh, and they’ll, they. They kind of assess all those things. Um, for the most part, I honestly stay out of the money piece. Um, it’s not something that I am one either well versed in or two. Again, it starts to, you start to paint that, you know, going through that gray area when you get into things with, with money and, and division three level.
So, um, it, I’ll just say in general, it is extremely affordable, both in and out of. And with some of the merit scholarships and other ways that you can kind of bridge that gap, it’s in this day and age where, you know, coming from a guy who did way too many degrees, um, and is gonna be paying off things for the rest of his life, I think it makes sense to go to a place like this.
Just from that standpoint alone.
Matt: Oh, no, . Exactly. I love it. Um, On on the last thing I wanna ask you, on the recruiting side, I, I noticed you guys use the, the recruit spot, kind of front rush recruiting profile system. [00:12:00] Is that, is that something that you, you guys really find useful? Do you use that system to, to find players as well then just the folks who, who submit something through your site?
How does that whole kind of recruiting technology profile stuff work for you guys?
Coach: Yeah, so Front Rush is a great tool and it’s a tedious tool. Like at the same time, um, I find it extremely beneficial because of kind of what you say. One, it’s a place that an outside recruit who we might not be looking at can come in, fill it out, and it allows us to then start that conversation with them.
So I, I find that to be a really benefit. Uh, a really beneficial part of that tool. Uh, you know, like I said, I was at an event yesterday. I put all those people into our, uh, system this morning, sent a, a mass email out to, to those individuals to, to make sure that they were aware that I saw them play, um, what we liked about them and hopefully get in touch with them soon.
That’s another really beneficial part of that, that front rush tool that allows us to communicate with people, um, in mass. And then, you know, you can. Very much specific to how you want to get what you wanna get out of it. I think there’s a lot of people who use it to put every single conversation in and it can kind of show you how to, or it can keep you up to date on conversations with, you know, how your assistants might be communicating with other recruits, et cetera.
Um, what I’ve tried to do and just to make it easier on us, is to have all of those in [00:13:30] one place. So we have front Rush, then we just have a base level Excel sheet that has all of the recruits in every single conversation that we ever have with them. That way we can see it all in one place where front Rush can be very, um, anti-intuitive, where you’re trying to like see everything at once.
It’s hard to do that. You have to kind of go into one recruit, go back. Go see another one, go back in. Um, and it can be a pain. Uh, so having kind of dual connections with Front Rush and then just a general Excel has made things really easy. Um, we use, we’ll be on every single one of those websites. Um, anything from be recruited to sports recruits, to ncsa, we use those a lot to, to to recruit as well and, and see players.
So I think those are good services as well.
Matt: Awesome. Thanks. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school, cuz there’s Sure, there’s people out there who, who aren’t familiar with Buffalo State and that, you know, I’m sure you get, uh, confused with the buffalos from time or, uh, ub. Ub, yeah. Um, I went to Ohio University for undergrad, so, you know, we were Mac School and had a buddy who played football at ub, so I can understand the, the, the confusion.
But, uh, you know, give us some, some insights into the school. Maybe something that’s really cool about it that I’m not gonna find just by clicking around the website.
Coach: Yeah, so Buffalo State is, um, really great institution for, for a few reasons. Some of the things that kind of sold me on [00:15:00] coming here, um, to take this position, one, you know, you’re in the heart of Buffalo, so you’re in a, you’re in an environment where you are smacking the city.
Um, and that can be. People either love that or they don’t. And, and that’s kind of something that’s really important to look at in the recruiting process. But, um, it’s smack in the city, but it’s all in one place. So, um, just to compare it, UB has multiple campuses. You have to shuttle from one to the other.
It is quite large, um, which is not taking anything away from that institution. Some people love that. Um, with B State, everything’s in one place. You do not have to cross busy streets. You don’t have to, you know, take a charter bus from one side to the other. It’s 10, 15 minutes to get across campus. So you get a little bit of the bigger city feel with some of the smaller school vibes, um, which I think is kind of really nice.
Uh, student teacher to ra student, um, to teacher ratio. With a larger population still stays quite small, so you’re still 20 students are under for most of your classes. So not a number in a crowd, which I think can be really beneficial to your educational experience. Um, and then a big thing that has sold me and just my experience of kind of how I grew up, where I’m from, where I, where I’ve been, is this.
The school is extremely diverse, and so you will run into somebody from every single walk of life, race, religion, background, culture, uh, and I think that allows for a really unique [00:16:30] educational experience, whether it’s in the classroom or just socially, to develop as a person. Um, again, big on holistic. To fit in holistic development for, for me in my program.
And I think that B State just is a, a really great kind of melting pot of people that you get to develop in a really great way. Um, so that’s something that really sold me and I think sells a lot of the students that end up coming here.
Matt: Oh, that’s awesome. Well, in terms of the academic side of things, um, how do your student athletes really balance the, the pull between both athletics and academics and kind of what supports systems does the school have in place to help ensure success?
Coach: That’s a balance that everyone has to kinda work through. And their, their, especially their first semester is trying to figure out, you know, what was successful for me at the high school level or, or in the past. And what can I then continue to do and what might I need to flex now that I’m at the college level in order to be successful.
Um, Some of the big things that we try to do. So for me, I, I bring in every single first year student, we talk about their schedules, we talk about, um, classes, how they’re going. We’ll continue to kinda look through the process of their semester and see, all right, you know, around midterms, you get a self, you have to bring a self-evaluation to your professor.
They’ll kind of tell you how, um, you’re doing, and then I get that as well. If things are going [00:18:00] well, then we’ll just continue to support you when you need it. But if there are challenges that have come up, then we will either sit down with me, myself and we’ll do some work together. We’ll get you a tutor.
And what’s been nice this year is there’s an actual student athlete liaison now in our athletic admin department, um, and he meets with basically any and. Student athlete as well as general population here. He has a pool that he meets with in order to help them, should a flag it raced by one of their professors.
Um, my background too is in sports psychology, my master’s and my PhD. So that’s performance enhancement on the field, but also performance enhancement as a person and in the classroom. So, um, I had a lot of ex, I had an experience for a year working with special forces. And their, um, some of their groups and helping them in their learning process while they were going through that, um, educational experience to get become a Green Beret.
Uh, and a lot of that was actually how to properly learn and how to effectively study and, and take all this information and cram it into a very short amount of time. Um, so I’ve taken a lot of those strategies and implemented them in now with my program here to make sure that they can be successful.
And then simple things like study halls and just wellness checks and everything like that. So we make sure that they are getting the most out of their experience here and setting themselves up for success in the long term. Um, you know, I [00:19:30] hope that there are, there are opportunities for people within our program to go play beyond their time in college and play professionally.
But for 99% of the people that will come through these doors, there’s gonna. Professional development, professional work will be outside of the game of soccer. So we wanna make sure that they’re ready for that. Yeah, for sure.
Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about, about the team and the soccer side of things.
Is there, is there a roster size that, that you find ideal that you’re trying to hit each year?
Coach: Um, in and around 30 is kind of where I want to be. Um, I play a, a deeper roster, I think than most, um, most coaches, most teams say for the most part. This year too, I think everybody, except for, for a couple players, played some pretty significant minutes this year.
Um, do that for a lot of reasons. We. Early in the year to provide everybody the opportunity to earn their chance to be in the top one or two group, um, of, of our roster so that they’re able to earn those opportunities. Once conference play comes around. We want everyone to be able to compete. That’s one of our values here, um, for those chances and compete to make each other better.
Um, and just the, the standpoint. From an injury standpoint too, we wanna make sure we have enough depth, um, so to balance out our roster to, to scrimmage during practice, to again, provide depth within every single position. So there is constant competition, uh, and I think that just provides a really. [00:21:00] Really fun and and competitive environment.
If you get anywhere higher than 30, then you start to run into, you know, there are gonna be a pretty significant amount of players who won’t see a lot of minutes, and I just don’t think that’s worth anybody’s time. You should be going to a place where you have the opportunity to play and earn your way into those opportunities.
Um, and then if you go a little bit lower than that, then once if injuries come up, that can start to, to limit what you can do in practice. And, um, if specific positions you start to be, you know, an injury prone area, um, you can really get into a tough spot when the season comes around. Um, so. My first year took over a program that only had, um, 13, 15 players.
Um, so I never wanna be in that area of, of that number again.
Matt: I can relate my fir my first year head coach, I, my last game I had, I only could take 12 . It was not fun. Exactly. Never, never wanna be in that position. No. Well, in terms, Of not just having a deep enough roster of players. How’s your, your roster of coaching staff, you know, what, what, who else is there with you?
What roles does everybody play and, and how does that help?
Coach: So it’s, uh, something I’m still continuing to build right now. Um, I came in and um, the assistant was still here and Victoria ate, and I could not have asked for a better assistant. Um, she was ready to work, she [00:22:30] was ready to learn. She was ready to take everything that we were looking to do and build within the program.
And. Has been absolutely running with everything. So she does a lot more of the administrative stuff and, and kind of some of the stuff that gets us where we need to go on, on the road and, um, handle some of the, the red tape for me, which, uh, is extremely appreciated, allows me to focus on the recruiting and on the coaching side of things a little bit more.
Um, but she is a very knowledgeable coach, very passionate coach. So she does a lot with our technical training. Um, she took a little bit more responsibility on the defensive side of our tactical approach this year. Um, and just her voice is extremely, um, extremely welcomed by the players because of her experience playing here at Buffalo State.
Um, and her, her experience is she’s now actually continued to play. She’s been a part of the FC Buffalo uws program, um, over the past two years, and they were in the finals. Um, uws last year or so. She has a lot of the respect for the players with just her experience, um, and has been doing everything that I could possibly have ever asked for to, to help this program get back to kind of where it was, um, in the past.
And then, um, Sierra Boche is my goalkeeper coach. She, she and I actually, Both were at Springfield College, um, when I was coaching with the men and she was a player on the women’s team. Um, so when I [00:24:00] got out here, I knew she was out here, um, and she was like an all conference goalkeeper when she was out at Springfield, so wanted to get her on the staff to help with our, our keepers and um, she’s done an incredible job to.
Developing, um, developing them and then running sessions that have prepared them to be extremely successful, um, especially this year. Um, and how we’ve developed from year one to year two. So the both of them have added extreme value to this program. And, um, you know, there’s, there’s a player who we’re looking to potentially add to the staff heading into next year, now that she’s finished up her time.
So, um, hopefully we’ll have another person on the roster, um, to help with that growth as well. .
Matt: Well, how would you describe your style of coaching and the team’s overall style of play?
Coach: Um, so I’ve been at some, some great places leading into my, my time as a head coach. Um, had some really good mentors that I’ve tried to kind of.
Pick and, and choose and find some, some really specific things to add to what I want to do. And just to wanna mention, you know, a couple of them with my time at Williams with Michelin Pinard and, and Sarah Raymond and Eileen Bauer. Those three provided me a lot of the, the tactical structure, um, from the women’s.
Um, side of the game a little bit more where, um, I’ve been able to kind of take a lot of what they taught me from a possession standpoint, a defensive structure, um, and just a [00:25:30] culture structure as well, and implement into what we’re doing here. Um, and then now he’s actually that the head coach. At Williams on the men’s side, uh, Stephan Seabert when I was at Springfield.
And, um, we did a lot of incredible stuff there. Um, taken a lot of what he’s provided me from a, um, you know, he’s a German international, so very tactical, very high press, very interface type of soccer. Um, taken a lot of that and implemented it and blended it together too. So for us, we’re, we’re. Big on being extremely organized defensively, um, making it hard for teams to, to break our defensive unit down.
So super compact, wanna high press all over the field as much as we can so that we can win the ball back and go at speed at the other team. Um, and then from an offensive structure, we wanna possess with purpose. So I love the possession side of gain, but I wanna make sure that we are doing it to create chances.
Possessing for the sake of just keeping the ball, um, and, and get into high percentage areas. So we wanna get. To the end line, wanna be in the wide area, want to be in and around the top of the 18 where we can create some really dangerous opportunities, um, to, to score some, some goals. Uh, and I think that our team, our program really took a huge step in that this year, um, where we basically flipped the script from year one to year two in all offensive defensive stats wins.
Um, just everything kind of [00:27:00] changed. From one year to the next, and we’ll continue to kind of expand our tactics so that we can continue to grow things, um, to be as success, successful as we possibly can here. Awesome.
Matt: Well, we, we’ve talked about a lot of different things, covered a lot of ground, and I always like to end these the same way.
And that’s what didn’t we talk about? What didn’t we cover? Uh, if there’s anything on your mind regarding the team, the school recruiting, college soccer in general. I leave you with the last word.
Coach: Um, I think, you know, just in general for, for me, whether it’s here or for, for wherever people might be ending up in their, their college search is, you know, do your research and make sure that you’re finding what’s the best fit for you.
I think you wanna make sure you’re checking every single box as best you can. Um, and a big part of that I think is team culture. You know, you figuring out where. You are going to make an impact within the culture, uh, and, and try and continue to boost that culture in the most positive, productive, uplifting way is gonna be the most beneficial thing to your experience.
Um, providing your, you know, going to a place where you can. Add your voice and, and have a platform to be empowered as a student athlete, but also more importantly, just as a person, um, is really critical. So that’s something that we’re really trying to do here within our program, is help these young women be empowered in their experience, but also empowered in what they can then do once they leave Buffalo State.[00:28:30]
Um, there’s a lot of them who want to get into. You know, high quality programs here are, you know, speech pathology, education, criminal justice, and I think those are some areas within, you know, the states and in the world where they can make some pretty impactful changes. Uh, so make sure that you’re just doing your, your due diligence to find the best place for you and in a place that’s gonna help you grow, uh, in every way you possibly can.
Matt: Great advice. Well, coach, I really appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck, uh, finishing up that recruit, uh, recruiting class and getting set for next year. And, uh, if you find yourself at the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Philly, uh, in January, swing by the booth. And let’s, uh, let’s meet in person.
All right?
Coach: Absolutely, Matt. I really appreciate it. This was awesome.
Matt: Great. Thanks coach.
