Capital University Men’s Soccer – Coach Corey Kirk

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Corey from the Capital Men’s Program in Ohio. We talk about their recruiting timelines they have each year. He describes their roster size and makeup to ensure engagement from all the players. Lastly, we discuss how he aims to give players the tools they need in training to be able to best play in matches. Learn more about Capital 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 Corey Kirk at Capitol university in Columbus, Ohio. Welcome coach. 

Coach: Thank you, Matt. Good to be here. Thanks for having me. 

Matt: Yeah. Thanks for being here. I I’m excited. Cause you know, I, I, a while back I was able to interview, uh, Eckerd and New College, which are the two schools closest to me geographically now, but you are the, the school geographically closest to where I went to high school.

I drove by Capitol University every morning for 4 years. So, uh, even though I didn’t go there, uh, or anything, I, I do have a, a soft spot in my heart for, for Capitol. 

Coach: I will, we’ll take it anywhere where you can get it. So I appreciate it. 

Matt: Well, you know, you guys are division three school. We’re talking on June 14th.

So, you know, tomorrow is a big day for, for some kids, you know, hoping to get those D one D two calls. Um, but you obviously have been able to communicate with recruits, whatever. Um, but I know that there’s kind of a. A different timeline. So for, for, for you guys, does the June 15th thing, I mean, obviously it doesn’t mean anything from a recruiting restrictions perspective, but, but does that kind of kick off anything for you from a 26 perspective?

Are you going to be just spending most of this year on 25 or kind of what’s your normal recruiting [00:01:30] calendar look like as we roll into the summer? 

Coach: Yeah, and Matt, you know very well from your time and knowledge of talking to a lot of these coaches that for us at a D3, the specific date is a lot less important.

Like you said, we’ve been able to contact or be in contact with kids and it’s pretty typically as early as freshman year for some of those ambitious kids that we’ll have out of the group. Um, but right around this time of year for, for at least for me as a D3 institution and kind of how we want to look at our timeline, it’s really right around the time for us to really kind of kick into gear for the 25 class or the guys that are coming into a senior class.

Now, these are guys that we’ve probably, uh, identified and had some initial contact, but right around this time of the year is where we really start to kind of hone in on what our class could shape up to look like. And who are some of those guys that might fit in well to that group. 

Matt: Okay. Well, in terms of.

You know, your roster and doing those recruiting visits and what, what are some of the tournaments that are kind of on your must hit list every year, you know, places you want to go and see players no matter what. 

Coach: Yeah. So I get a little bit of a benefit of pulling a double duty and being a college coach or being a club coach as well.

Uh, and coaching for Ohio premier gives me an opportunity to get out at some of Premier showcases and events like we’ve [00:03:00] got a couple of groups right now preparing for ECL playoffs that will be in San Diego next week or in a few weeks, and those types of events are really good for us to see more on a national level.

Some of the guys that might be good fits for us as an academic and athletic institution, but thinking more regionally around here, there’s certainly some good ones in the Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania area. We think out. Uh, Grand Park in Indiana has some great ones between crossroads and those types of events.

Uh, blue chip that’s down there in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky area, every year force gateway, the King’s hammer group does a really good job of putting on some different, uh, quality recruiting events that allows for a lot of different areas, right? Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, uh, Western Pennsylvania, Indiana.

So it really helps us in some of those get to more of a regional base and keeping some guys close to home. 

Matt: Okay. Well, what about camps? Do you guys do your own I. T. camps or are you and your staff working other folks I. T. camps? Are they important at all to your recruiting process? 

Coach: Yeah. Camps are, uh, they’re blowing up, aren’t they?

For a million different reasons. And it seems like every day someone’s inventing a new and innovative, uh, Type of way to get kids together. Uh, and there’s a lot of value to them. I don’t want to sit and say that there’s not, um, for us individually, for me, stepping in in January, I felt that there was a higher priority and some of the other things.

So we don’t have an ID camp right now in a, an annual kind of basis or really anything on the [00:04:30] horizon, but there are absolutely camps that we get to hosted by other universities or organizations that gives us an opportunity to stay connected. Gives us an opportunity to get to some of these events and meet some kids.

Meet some coaches. Uh, but right now for me, it’s, it’s not really in the cards of having anything to host for ourselves. Uh, like I said, I just think there’s a little bit more pressing matters for us as, as an organization or as a program rather than, you know, 

Matt: Well, I mean, obviously you need to try to recruit more St.

Charles kids instead of these DeSales kids, but that’s a whole nother thing we can, we can talk about later. Uh, 

Coach: recruiting in the CCL. Absolutely. 

Matt: Well, I don’t know. I saw, I saw DeSales and Waterston on your roster. It’s just, you know, it’s just unfortunate, but, uh, but you know, Hey, you know, every, every, you got to fill the roster.

I get it. I get it. Give me, 

Coach: give me, give me some time. I’ll walk down, I’ll walk down Broad street here. That’s 

Matt: right. That’s right. Um, well, In terms of whether it’s. You know, at one of these events, or you’re talking to recruit on campus or any of these things, kind of what makes up that hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player, whether that’s on the field attributes or off the field stuff.

Coach: Yeah, when, uh, when the player takes the time to really kind of visit campus or be here, when we’re looking at guys, it’s much more off the field kind of stuff. We, we can get a good feel from seeing, uh, I think a value. Or a benefit of [00:06:00] kids playing today versus maybe when I was a long time ago or even before that is everything’s on film now.

Uh, so we can see a kid play, we can see a kid play on film, in a home environment, a hundred different ways. When we’re really getting to know kids, when they’re on campus, when we’re talking to them, it’s really trying to figure out who they are as students, who they are as kids, uh, what their family lives are like.

We know that there’s a lot of different situations and scenarios, but how do they treat their families? How do they fall into their family structure? Uh, and then ultimately, what are goals that these guys have for themselves? Right. Because college, college athletics, college academics are really going to set themselves up for the next 40 or 50 years of what they want to do.

So for us, we really are interested in knowing what plans a kid has for himself, right? Because if we understand what they want to do, we can help guide, whether it’s here at Capitol or maybe somewhere else, it’s best for them. Uh, but it’s really trying to understand who they are as people and what they want to achieve.

Cause then it really helps us understand maybe how we can help fit into that. 

Matt: Makes sense. Well, in terms of the, the school itself, uh, you know, you just started in, in January. So, um, I know you’ve kind of been in the area though, uh, over, over the years. So you, you have a little bit of understanding of capital before you came in, but, but what was it that Kanye.

Kind of drew you to the position. What are some of the things that you’ve learned about [00:07:30] capital that you feel kind of make it an outstanding university? Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know by going through the website. 

Coach: Yeah. So, um, I I’ve had just from your coaching staff that has been here for a very long time, Yes, to Tamir or Frank, who served in an interim role last year, um, have a great deal of knowledge and kind of the inner workings of this group about it being a little bit more than soccer.

And as I got into into January and went through the interview process and really started to understand who the people were, who the kids were, I think that’s what I’ve started to find that you’re not going to find on a website. And I think that’s what you’re going to find anytime you go into an organization.

What the people are that make up that group, what drives them, what motivates them. And I think that’s really what I’ve found that you’re going to find most out of our program is that between the student organizations that we have on campus, the different intercollegiate athletic events that these kids like to go and and participate in.

Every time I went to a basketball game, there’s. 15 men’s soccer players. They’re watching and supporting. Um, so I think that’s that’s what you’re gonna find about this group is that it’s so much more than soccer for them. And they’re now in an area where they can impact their lives a little bit differently than maybe a different area, right?

We’re right here in downtown Bexley, which is just a few minutes from downtown Columbus. You can see the skyline every day as you take a look driving in and out. And I think it’s where you’re gonna [00:09:00] find that these guys are. Soccer players that are so much more than that, and that gives them a much more well rounded college experience.

And that’s really what drew me to this campus and drew me to the position was understanding that I think you’ll go. And if you go and pull a lot of D3 soccer coaches, you’re gonna find that the actual amount of soccer coaching we do is somewhere in that 25 to 30 percent range. Uh, so it’s finding an opportunity in an environment where that other 65, 70, 75 percent is gonna have to be spent.

Off the field in ways that are going to impact these guys. And, and that’s what I’m really happy with capital and this university and the program is that everybody’s on board to enrich their lives. 

Matt: No, that’s great. Well, I mean, you kind of mentioned it, you know, the coaching parts, a small component, but, uh, especially at D three academics is, is King, uh, really the student first of that student athlete moniker.

So it can be hard making that transition for some players, you know, uh, making sure they’re successful both on and off the field. So how does capital help make sure that the students are successful making that transition? What kind of support systems are there to help them? 

Coach: Yeah, so, like you said, we, we are a support system to them in the fact that they’re going to spend a lot of their time with us as coaches.

They’re going to spend a lot of their time with their fellow student athletes in the soccer program. So, it’s important for them to know that we’re here as a support system to them to help connect [00:10:30] them with resources that they might not know about to check in on them. To make sure that there’s some guidelines in place and some standards in our lives that make sure, as you said, that the academics come 1st.

So, as these guys come back from summer break, that’s 1 of the 1st things that will kind of get on the same page with is what we expect from them as a standard academically and what will go into that is what I’m sure you hear from a lot of. Of small colleges of things like study tables, uh, and academic progress checks, uh, new guys that are coming into campus.

We’ll have them kind of meet with us as a coaching staff to make sure, uh, things like time management and, you know, kind of social constraints that they are experiencing. Uh, for the maybe the 1st time in a college environment is something that they’re able to get through with us. Uh, but some of those resources on campus, we’ve got a great academic success, uh, department in our library here on campus that can help from anywhere from peer tutoring through kind of intervention in kind of study tables and specific classes that we know are very difficult on campus.

Uh, so it’s being able to kind of connect those 2. Us as well as the professional resources that they have. Uh, and then empowering the guys to know that we’re here to help them, but the responsibility is theirs. The action is theirs to make sure they’re taking care of business. 

Matt: Oh, I love it. Well, let’s fast forward to, uh, October.

Let’s say you’re in the heart of that OAC season. [00:12:00] Um, what do you expect that schedule to look like for a player in terms of when our classes, meals, practices, game cadence, all that kind of thing? 

Coach: Yeah, so good way for us to keep a balance or keep a focus in everything that we do is that their students 1st is to make sure that we’re allowing them the time that they need for their studies.

Right? So we don’t have training early in the morning that now forces them to have to alter their academic schedules or anything like that. Uh, their students 1st and foremost, so they will get up, they’ll go to classes. I think our classes range typically from 8 a. m. to about 3, 4 p. m. Which is pretty standard for college programs around the area, so we won’t train any earlier than 4 o’clock for us.

So this allows guys to know that classes come 1st and foremost. We won’t schedule anything that conflicts in the rare instances where maybe they have a lab. That goes until 415 430. They know the expectation is that they stay in that lab until their professor excuses them until the work is complete.

And then they get over to us as quickly as they can. If that means that they missed the 1st, 15 minutes of a training session. I can live with that. Right, but we want to make sure that they have that balance that they have the understanding of what we expect of them. So, in a normal non game day, they’ll get up, they’ll go to classes, meals as they normally would breakfast, lunch, and then they’ll get to us in the evening for a training session.

We’ll go through a bit of a recovery, get them ready with anything they need for the next day [00:13:30] and then we leave it to them to be college students again for the next, you know, 21 and a half hours of the day or so, whether that’s, you know, getting a good meal in them, getting treats, And with the athletics that train staff, uh, and then ultimately going back, uh, to do their assignments and to be kids.

Matt: All right. Well, now never the thing that, uh, a private division three coach wants to talk about, but I’m going to ask it anyway. Uh, and I’m, but I won’t, I won’t hold you to hard numbers here, uh, as you’ve only been here for, for a few months, but, uh, for a student athlete interested Coming to a school, uh, like capital, you know, what could they expect with regards to just total cost financial aid?

You know, obviously there’s no athletic money, but what, what does that ballpark look like, uh, for a student athlete? 

Coach: Yeah, so, as you said, no, I thought scholarship for us, but we do have our main street scholarship and different financial aid available to us. Um, and I, this is the part where I’m going to plug capitals website to check out a locks.

Like you said, if you hold me to facts and figures right now, it’s, it’s probably not the best thing in the world. But taking a look through it, just kind of rough facts and figures through tuition, through financial aid that’s available, I’d say kind of a rough ballpark is probably in that 20 to 23, 000 for a kid to be paying.

That’s when you take into room and board tuition fees, and that’s where it can get just very wonky with commuters [00:15:00] versus who’s living on campus. I’d say take everything, and with our Main Street and our different financial packages, that 20 to 23 is really what you’re looking at. 

Matt: Not a bad average at all there.

Well, in terms of, uh, the team and looking at that, is there a roster size that you’re trying to hit that you find is ideal each, each season? 

Coach: Yeah, that’s, that’s always a good question. That’s always a delicate one to balance for a lot of different reasons. I think a number that’s pretty consistent or a range is pretty consistent for me to think through is around 28 to 32.

On a roster with, with three or four of those being goalkeepers, right? So, so if you think around 24 to 27, 25 to 28 field players, plus the goalkeepers that we get ourselves into. Um, that I think gives us a strong enough balance into what we want to do as a program. I think it gives us the right amount of depth that you’re going to need through a college program because injuries happen.

Events happen through a year where you’re going to be missing some guys and you have to be able to account for it. But you also want to make sure that you’re keeping every guy on the roster engaged. You want to make sure that they’ve got a role. They know what it is. It may not be the 90 minute captain that’s leading the team on the field, but everyone’s got a role.

If I bring in 65, 70 guys and I’ve got nine left backs, I find it a lot more difficult to keep some of those guys down lower in a, in a depth chart or in a role clarity engaged. Um, and so [00:16:30] naturally if we can shorten that up and now there’s only maybe two, three guys playing a certain position, uh, a guy knows he’s, you know, an unfortunate injury away or.

His string of performances moves him up, a string of bad performances moves someone down. Uh, it keeps everybody much more engaged and motivated into their role. I think is what I found in the past. So that’s what we want to try to stick to as much as possible. 

Matt: Okay. Well, besides players on a roster, there’s coaches.

So, uh, talk to me about. Who else is on the staff? What roles do they play and maybe what other support staff are in the athletic department that, that help out with the team as well? 

Coach: Yeah. So we’ve got a great athletic training staff that in my experience in D3 colleges is a lot larger than, than what I have experienced.

We’ve got six full time on staff here in athletic department or an athletic training staff that’s able to help us, uh, contracted through Ohio state. So, so they make the. The funny quip from time to time with recruits that, you know, any ologist at Ohio State that we may need to help take a look at some guys we have available to us.

So I think that’s certainly an advantage that we have being so close, uh, the coaching staff. It’s an interesting one, uh, in D3 athletics, really everywhere is an interesting one and trying to, to build out the staff with resources. Uh, so we’ve got a full time assistant is Matt Ogden. He’s actually the women’s coach.

Uh, head coach here at capital as well. Uh, Matt is in a unique situation. He’s been here [00:18:00] for over a decade, knows capital and capital soccer in and out. And it also helps that his son Ethan is our starting goalkeeper. Uh, so Matt has agreed. He’s he helped last year. He’s going to help along this year. And it’s going to be a great resource to us and a full time staff member.

That’s right here in the hallway with me in the athletic department. So anytime I need to. Go and bug him about the same thing 30 times because I’ve overthought it. He’s a great resource to bounce ideas off of, uh, but understanding that especially as we head into the conference season, we’re going to lose Matt’s availability.

Uh, we’ve got another four guys that have come in that are going to help in different various roles, both on and off the field to help me keep my head on straight. We’ve got a few guys that are going to be able to help us on the field more functionally where maybe they’ve got some expertise or some better practical application of activities and training that I would with defenders, midfielders, frontline players, goalkeepers, obviously, and then guys that have a lot of different experience in off the field, um, kind of areas of expertise, budgeting, social media, finance, all those kinds of things that are going to help us, uh, stay on track as a soccer program.

Matt: Oh, that’s great. Well, now training the guns on you, uh, kind of, how would you describe your coaching style and the style of play you’re trying to implement there? Capital 

Coach: coaching style is, uh, it’s a difficult one because I hate talking about [00:19:30] myself or thinking about myself and then describing it out to folks.

But the, uh, I’d say probably the best way I can explain a coaching style Is that we give these guys the understanding of what we expect from them, or I guess I keep saying we and it’s on me is me as a coach. I want to be very clear with these guys what I expect from them as soccer players, as students, as human beings, uh, and then quite honestly, give them the tools and resources that help them be successful on the field and get out of the way.

Uh, I’m not one that is going to every time the ball’s in play, dictate or tell a guy who’s open, where to move, where to turn, where to pass, where to play. That’s not for me. If I’m doing that in a game, I’ve obviously wasted everybody’s time in training sessions. So we’ve got to make sure that my coaching style is give them the tools that they need, help them understand why.

In a certain context, we’re asking to do something in terms of our game model or our style and then get out of the way. So I’m not a yeller. I’m not a screamer. Um, For 90 minutes, there may be some times where I’ve got to raise a voice to get a point across. But for the most part, when a game is being played, I like to sit, I like to observe it, and let these guys do their thing.

And then help solve problems, just help find solutions, whatever there is, try to help these guys see through it. Uh, style of play that we want to implement in here is Still one that we’re working through, uh, and I’ll [00:21:00] admit to it. It’s because we’re bringing in a lot of guys that are here to replace a lot of guys that we’ve lost, uh, specifically in the attacking third, whether it’s graduation or guys using a fifth year.

So we’ve got, uh, Jack Kasugi, who’s been here for a long time and has done a great job. He’s going to move on to Seton Hall. To use up his fifth year of eligibility, a great goal scorer and creator of opportunities for us, uh, three or four other guys that through graduation or through some transfers that we’re going to be missing.

So we’re going to bring in a lot of guys. We’re going to be young. But we want to sit down and we want to play soccer. I want to keep the ball on the ground. We want to find ways to exploit opportunities, whether that’s overloads to isolations, whether that’s a little bit more direct play. Uh, that’s something that we’re still trying to figure out, but it’s going to blend the team that we have together and figure out the best way to play soccer.

Matt: Awesome. Well, You did join in January, so you got to have the spring season, uh, with the team. So what does, uh, an off season spring time look like for, for your team? 

Coach: So the spring is one, and again, with a D3, it’s a bit more of a relax. We’ve got some, some real kind of, um, Restrictions on the number of times that we can get together and train and what we can do with them, uh, or the number of competitions that we can have in the spring.

So for us, it’s finding that balance of getting the right level of competition, but also knowing that the spring is also [00:22:30] there for them to maybe compensate for some things that they had to sacrifice in the fall, right? If they took a few, uh, Credit hours less in the fall to focus on soccer, but need to ramp up and take an extra class.

We respect that. And we expect that to come with the spring. Um, so that’s off the field, maybe a little bit more focused into their academics because they have the time. They’re not with us six days a week. But when we’re on the field, it’s really trying to take the group that we have The, the returners that are going to continue to play with us and really try to hit through on really principles of how we want to play, how we want to attack and how we want to defend.

Uh, it may be difficult because if we want to get down to a complete style of play, we’ll go through a spring and then we’ll bring in a whole new group of recruits and we’ve got to go through the whole thing again with the entire group. So it’s much more about just trying to find principles of play when we’re attacking.

Do we want to look forward first? How do we want to combine? And then it’s really just getting after it and competing as much as possible, whether it’s 11 v 11 or it’s a champions league style where we’re tracking points in different activities and throwing it up on a leaderboard. Uh, it’s really given these guys an opportunity to use the spring to, to find a competitive balance for themselves.

Matt: Well, coach, really appreciate the time. I’m going to leave you with one last question, and that is for anybody going through this college soccer recruiting process, if you had one piece of advice for them or one nugget you would want them to know as they go through this, what would that be, [00:24:00] 

Coach: man? There are so many pieces to this, um, I’m looking away from the camera because I’m really trying to think about, I’m not looking through any notes.

I’m really trying to think through how to not ramble and try to stay to 1 specific point.

I would say that the most important thing for a recruit going through this process is to be. To be flexible, to be adaptable, uh, and to be able to respond. This is not a cut and dry a to B type of process. Um, it’s not for us as coaches. It’s not for student athletes. It’s not for parents or really anyone involved.

Um, Anything can change from when you decide I want to play college soccer to when you actually commit or you actually enroll into a program. And I’d say the best thing that a student athlete or recruit can do is to be adaptable and to respond to those as positively as you can. Good things are going to happen to you.

How do you respond to those so that you continue that momentum forward? Bad things are going to happen to you. You’re going to find out that the school that you wanted to go to is maybe not a realistic opportunity for you to continue playing soccer. Your area of study that you thought about as a sophomore might have no interest as a senior to you.

It’s being able to go through this journey, knowing that you’re going to change and being okay with that. And [00:25:30] I think that’s really the biggest piece is to be able to adapt to that change, know who you are as a person and what you want to accomplish and you’ll find your way through it. 

Matt: Yeah. Love it.

Well, coach, really appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck as you go into that first season. And, uh, if you, if you do decide to, to get down to Florida for any recruiting, uh, make sure you give me a shout. 

Coach: Will do. 

Matt: All right. Thanks coach.