Colorado State University – Pueblo Men’s Soccer – Coach Nick Blackwell

In today’s episode, I speak with Coach Blackwell from the CSU-Pueblo Men’s Program in Colorado. We talk about how they look to find the right mix of players. Coach also shares about the amazing facilities and outdoor life in the town. Plus, we discuss his high energy style and a love of training. Learn more about Colorado State University – Pueblo Men’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Blackwell at Colorado State at Pueblo. Welcome coach. 

Coach: Welcome, Matt. Thanks for having me. Appreciate your time and appreciate being on the podcast. 

Matt: Yeah, no, it’s great to, great to talk to you. I’ve been, I’ve had the pleasure of.

Going out to Colorado a few times, uh, with the family and, and of course with my daughter’s a senior high school now. So we made stops and saw a couple of your armac, uh, foes, but uh, haven’t been out to Pueblo, so I’ll have to add that to the list. Yeah, absolutely. We’re, we’re talking here, it’s, uh, you know, early December, um.

Season’s wrapped up, but we’re hardcore in, you know, recruiting showcases all over the country. So kind of what, what’s your day like now? Uh, you know, now that the season’s wrapped, what’s the portal’s open? Kind of what, what’s your daily recruiting efforts looking like these days? [00:01:00] 

Coach: So I think to preface it, when I took the job as the head coach, um, in January of this year, I’ve been here now for six seasons, five as the assistant.

This was my first year as the head coach, and so last recruiting cycle, I brought in 27 players due to we lost 15 to graduation. We lost five. To junior college players that gained an extra year of eligibility at the division one level who couldn’t play division two, and then had four or five guys that decided to move on in life.

And so when I took the job, no matter what happened, I was gonna have to bring a big class in. And so this year I’m only really looking in to bring in five to seven players, which. You take 27 to five to seven, it seems, uh, mu much more easy to, to get a, to get a grasp of it. And what we’re looking for is very specific.

And so it’s going through showcases, emails, portal, [00:02:00] international players, and really trying to find very few players that fit into exactly what we’re looking for. And so last year I needed to bring in a large pool of players that. Ranged from freshmen to transfers to grad students, and so it was kind of all over the board.

Whereas now there’s a very defined process in terms of what we’re looking for. And so going through people that we know and that we trust and going through seeing their profiles, videos, showcases, trying to find the right profiles in terms of what’s here in the us. And so trying to really make sure we bring the right people into the organization because we have a lot of players returning.

That are gonna be a big part of it on the field, but also big parts of it that are young players as well, culturally, that are gonna be with us for a couple of years that we already have. And so it’s really trying to get kids on campus, find the right players, have the right interactions, go through our process to make sure we’re bringing in the right people into the organization.

And so it’s a little bit different this go around than. [00:03:00] If you asked me in Jan, January when I took over being the head coach, because now it’s a much more refined process in terms of what we’re looking for and what we’re trying to bring in. 

Matt: So what, what is your, I guess, ideal roster size that you’re trying to hit each season?

Coach: Yeah, so I think for us in division two when, since I’ve been here, my previous school I was at the University of Louisville and so I worked in the a CC for about five and a half years. And I felt like when I was there with the scheduling and the time that you have in between the games, I’m sure if you ask those coaches they would still like to have more time between games.

Um, but we had a roster size when I was at the University of Louisville around 30, and I thought that was a pretty good size, whereas being here. In division two, where you play a lot of Friday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, and it’s nonstop. Like in division one, sometimes you only play one game per week. And division two pretty much as soon as you start your non-conference, you’re playing Thursday, Saturday.

Friday, [00:04:00] Sunday, and there’s only one day in between. And so I found that having around 35 players for our roster here at CSU Pueblo is, is really good. We have five goalkeepers in that, so 30 field players, which really allows you to train at the level that you want throughout the season. I know like last year in 2024.

Um, we had 30 players because we had a couple guys have life events happen right before the season started. We’re gonna be around 35, 34. It ended up being at 30, and then injuries happened. One goalkeeper breaks his hand, the other one gets sick. We only have three goalkeepers. Only one goalkeeper can train.

And then guys get injured and it’s tough to play 11 V 11 to prepare for matches. And so I really think that this year with the squad that we had at 35, 5 of those being goalkeepers, like I really felt like every day we could go to training, have a really good session, get the most outta it with the players, have the depth that we wanted as well coming off the bench.

And so I felt like [00:05:00] that’s kind of been the sweet spot we’ve had for the past couple of years that I’ve been here. And I think that as of right now with. The way division two is with scheduling and how tough our conference is. I think that that’s the number I’ll, I’ll typically be at. It’s around 30, 35.

Matt: Okay. Well what, in terms of your recruiting efforts and, and your out about, what are some of the tournaments or, or showcases or, or things you like to make sure you go to, to, to see players? 

Coach: Yeah, so I think that anything that’s within our region, and so for me, I, I love having the Colorado guys on our roster.

And so any type of event that’s nearby here in Colorado, Colorado Springs, Denver, out west, if it’s on the Western slopes, we’ll be at. And I do a lot of camps that are here, and we have some really good universities in Division one here in Colorado that they’ll, they bring in 200 to 500 kids over two summer camps and that I’ll always be at them.

And [00:06:00] so there’s events here in the state of Colorado. I really enjoy than anything in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, California, kind of within our region. Because the way that our university’s set up with some of the scholarships now is that they offer in-state tuition to pretty much any state that touches Colorado.

So Kansas, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, California, Nevada, Arizona, all those. Kids now can get in-state tuition from CSU Pueblo. And so now, whereas it was probably a challenge for us to go out and get those kids before now, being able to go out to those showcases and going out to see them in different areas, um, is really big for us.

And so having kids from primarily the Western region is where the showcases that you’ll find us. 

Matt: Okay. Well, whether it’s at a showcase or a camp or you’re, you know, I’m sure internationally or just watching film, whatever it is, kinda what makes up that hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player both on and off the field.

Coach: Yeah, so it very much depends on. What we’re looking [00:07:00] for in terms of player status. And so if I kind of have like three tiers of players that we have, and so one is immediate impact players and then we have role players, depth players, kind of those two go hand in hand. And then the third one is developmental players.

Guys that I think that have a high potential to succeed within our program. And then we wanna bring them in and develop them over a year and then. Have them for three or four years. And so it very much depends on what we need in the recruiting, in the recruiting cycle. And then for every single position that we have within our roster, we have a very specific criteria tactically, technically, and psychologically of what we want in those players.

And so once we kind of see a highlight video or I go to a showcase and I see a player that I like or I watch a video internationally, then I’ll start to continue to. Probe, um, all those different areas that we want. But to be honest with you, the biggest and most important thing for me is the feel that I have with a student athlete.

And so getting them on a visit, getting them to [00:08:00] come to our own ID camp, having multiple phone calls, zoom, I’m a, I’m a big Zoom call FaceTime guy when it comes to recruiting. Um, I want to see how I interact with a player, how. Our faces, all those types of things, how they respond to things whenever I say something.

And so I think that we have a pretty rigorous process in terms of bringing someone into the organization. And when I took the job, I wanted to make sure that. Especially when I brought in 27 players, that there was a clearly defined process and what I really wanted technically, technically, technically and psychologically in each of the players, in each of the positions, and along with the tiers that we have as well.

Because I think that bringing in a kid that wants to develop, you have to also have the right psychological aspects within what you want out of that. Type of player, uh, because if they are in that, if you kind of think of them as they’re gonna develop, but they, the kid comes in, thinks he’s gonna play every single minute, then there’s obviously a disconnection in terms of what the overall expectations are and then what the [00:09:00] overall season will look like.

And so I think that we’re very honest and transparent early in the process, but we also have a lot of stories and all three tiers about how we develop players. How we have players come off the bench and make an impact. But then also we have the guys that start every game or play a massive role in terms of the minutes.

And so I think it’s an overall package that we try to put together and it takes a quite a while for me to really offer someone a spot on the roster, but it kind of accumulates in all these different types of areas. 

Matt: Okay. Well let’s talk a little bit more, uh, about the school. Um, yeah. You know, people probably don’t even, may, may not even know where Pueblo is, but you’ve been there a few years now.

Talk to me about some of the awesome things about the school. Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know about going through the website. 

Coach: Yeah, so I think that first off, Pueblo, Colorado, we’re on the front range of the mountains of, of Colorado, so you fly into Denver. We’re about hour and a half south of Denver, Colorado.

And um, I’m from New Albany, [00:10:00] Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky, so I’m a Midwest guy. And so that’s where I grew up and very much, uh, schools, people kind of everywhere. Whereas in Colorado it’s kind of spread out. And so you really go city by city. So you go from Denver and it’s literally just a straight highway.

From Denver, Colorado to Colorado Springs, and then you just keep going about 45 more minutes south and then you’re in Pueblo. And I think that the thing that people really get surprised by when they come to Pueblo and they don’t really see it until they get there, especially on the campus, is how amazing like our facilities are.

I think that people that come and they see, especially like what we have for men’s soccer and women’s soccer. And our building and women’s lacrosse is absolutely incredible. Um, being in the a CC and seeing like Virginia, Clemson, like you see those setups and how amazing they are. And then you go see mid-major division ones, um, division, other division twos.

And what we have here is incredible having our own indoor facility, which is only two men’s soccer programs in the state of Colorado that have. Their [00:11:00] own indoor facility on campus, which is us in the Air Force Academy. And then we have our field, which is right attached to a building that houses my office, the athletic training room, um, a a player’s lounge, my assistant coach’s office, the laundry, the locker room, and it’s literally five steps from our locker room to the field every single day.

And everything is housed in one building, which is. Incredible for the student athlete experience. Having all those resources in one place, not having to walk a mile across campus and then do your treatment and then walk a mile back to, to go train and then go walk to a different building to come see me.

And so having that accessibility for the student athletes is incredible. And I think that. What CSU Pueblo does an amazing job of, especially, is investing into their student athletes. Like the na, our football team won the national championship in 2014 and the NCAA tournament every single year. They brought the program back in the early two thousands.

So it’s not like a program that’s been around for a hundred of years and you can really see how much [00:12:00] support. That the athletic department has, not only from the university and the campus community, but also from our community Here in Pueblo, we are, we’re not a small town. We have about 130,000 people, and so.

Plenty of things to do. One of my players’ fair things that they love to do, that PE people probably don’t know about is we have a reservoir here in the city of Pueblo, which is a state park, and I think it’s the largest body of water on the front range of the mountains, and so in the summertime. Pretty much everyone from Denver, Colorado Springs, all the surrounding cities on the front range.

They’re bringing boats, jet skis, everyone’s coming to Pueblo to enjoy some outdoor life. And so, uh, my players, they like to go cliff diving and all a bunch of crazy things. We do, we do, uh, team dinners and picnics out there as well in the early part of the season. And so, um, I think that there’s a lot of fun things to do in Colorado.

I’m, I’m a big outdoors guy and so I love that part of what I get to do. And so. I always encourage my guys to go [00:13:00] out, enjoy, enjoy what we have to offer in terms of the wildlife being in outdoors. And so I think there’s a lot of awesome things to do, not just in Pueblo, but just in the state of Colorado in general.

I. 

Matt: For sure. Well, in terms of the school and sports, you know, it’s especially incoming freshmen or even international students, it’s really hard to balance the demands of both. So what do you guys do to help players be successful both on and off the field? Kind of what support systems does a school offer to ensure that?

Coach: Yeah, so we have, we have amazing support systems, um, tutors. Um, guidance counselors, all different types of individuals within our system here at the university that can provide support with them throughout their academic journey here. I think that one thing that I take a lot of pride in and that I’m pretty proactive about is trying to provide my own student athletes with resources to help them be successful throughout their entire journey, but also whenever [00:14:00] they.

Go into whatever sector of professional life after. And so we talk a lot about time blocking, which is a big one with my team. And so how do you schedule your time throughout the day? What does your day look like? How do we maximize your day? And we break it up into little increments of, all right, this is when we wake up, trying to set a consistent rhythm with sleep.

Trying to set a consistent time with when we wanna wake up. Go to bed. This is when we go to class. This is when we have rest time. This is when we do homework. This is when we do recovery. And so I spend a lot of time with the student athletes trying to block out their days and try and make sure that they have time within their days that they feel refreshed, but also they’re able to maximize what they need to get done and going.

Within that, we also talk about a lot of. Things off the field that you can do that give you quality of life. I kind of call it feel filling your soul, um, to a certain degree. And so for a lot of the international players, guys being away from home for the first time, um, FaceTiming your parents every single night, [00:15:00] um, spending time.

Writing down what you’re grateful for. Attitude of gratitude is a big thing that we talk about. Um, finding time to be off your phone when you wake up. How much time should you be off your phone, um, drinking water when you wake up. And so we try, I try and provide not only things that they can do on the field for recovery and technical, tactical, psychological things, but also how can we fill their plate when maybe they’re not with us.

And what kind of habits and what kind of. Positive mantras, can we give them that they can practice every day? That helps them find this balance of life and happiness that they need to be successful? Because all of us know, whenever you’ve done anything in life where you feel you’ve done a really good job, you’ve probably felt the most confident, you’ve probably felt the most belief, um, most settled with who you were as a person.

And so really trying to empower the student athletes across all areas, specifically from, from. My chair and being the leader of the program or trying to give them the tools to be successful both on and off the field. [00:16:00] 

Matt: Okay. Awesome. Well, let’s rewind a bit, A few weeks back to say mid-October. You’re in the heart of that conference season.

Walk me through what’s a typical week look like for the players in terms of their schedule with practices, games, classes, meals, all that kind of stuff. 

Coach: Yeah, that’s a great question. So I kind of. Characterize it by the week. I think it’s easier to do a by a week for us. So we have to get the student athletes one day off per the NCAA rules, and so that we play Thursday, Sunday in our conference.

And so Monday is typically their off day where they can’t have any contact with myself and the coaching staff. And so that day is very much where they’ll have class, um, they’ll have their own meals on their own. They’re very much, that day is kind of their day to get whatever they need to get done.

Mondays is always a day for them to really focus on themselves. Tuesday’s our first day back, and so on Tuesday we’ll have a training session, um, in the evening. My players, and I [00:17:00] don’t know if it’s just this generation, they, we used to train in the morning, but they were like, Hey, coach, like we don’t wanna train in the morning.

And we will like, I think they were, they were very adamant with me about, Hey, let’s, if we can train at night, I think that. All of us stay up pretty late, just in general. Um, I think we get more out of it. And so I kind of changed how I trained the group throughout, around this time as well in October. Um, especially here in Colorado, it starts to get colder in the morning as well.

And I love the cold and I like the morning. And so for me, happy days. My student athletes not so much and so and so, um, on Tuesday they’ll go to class throughout the day. They all, pretty much, our classes start at 9:00 AM and they’ll end around four, 4:30 PM And so on Tuesday they’ll go to class throughout the day.

At 5:00 PM on Tuesday, we’ll have a weight lifting session with the entire team. So from five to 6:00 PM they’ll be with our strength coach. They’ll have a session, um, kind of depending on the tiers of which they play. So. Kind of the developmental [00:18:00] players will have one routine that they’ll go through.

The guys that are role players, they’ll probably lift a little bit, a little bit less, and then the guys that play a lot, they’re doing much more maintenance. But everyone will go, as a team, will go lift from five to 6:00 PM 7:00 PM Then we’ll train outside under the lights, which is the highlight of their day, and then they’ll have dinner or eat whatever they need to before or after that.

And then. Wednesday, um, a little bit different. We will train at two 30 just because gives us a little bit more time to get everybody there. Um, we’ve done it for the past five, six years and we have a pretty good retention of getting everyone there in the middle of the day. And we also don’t have to keep them super late, nor do we have to wake them up early.

And so we have a session in the middle. We have one training session in the middle of the day, the day before the match, Thursday. All the matches on our conference are at nighttime, so 7:00 PM And so they’ll, again, they’ll have that entire day to go to class, eat, do what they need to do. Um, if it’s a home game, they show up at five 30, kickoffs at seven.

[00:19:00] And so they have pretty much the whole day to themselves to get what they need to get done. And then Friday we’ll train at two 30 again. And so they’ll go to usually wake up, eat breakfast, go to class, do their treatment, come to me. And then for, for most of our players, they don’t even have class on Friday because they’re all business majors and business.

Our business school doesn’t have class on Friday, and so Friday’s very much a day to their own as well, to do what they need to do. But we’ll train at two 30 Saturday, we’ll train in the morning at 8:00 AM and so we’ll get ’em outta bed. We’ll train from eight to 10:00 AM and then Sunday we’ll have another match in the middle of the day.

Usually around one to two 30 is when our conference has matches on Sundays. And so it’s kind of spread Tuesday through Thursday, four days of training, one lift session, and then two matches, and then one day office. Kind of, uh, the overview of how I characterize it to the student athletes. 

Matt: Okay. Awesome.

Well let, let’s talk a little bit more about the team. We already talked about kind of roster size, but talk to me about staff and staff size. Who, who all helps out with the team? What role does everybody play? 

Coach: Yeah, a [00:20:00] hundred percent. So I have an incredible staff and uh, my previous head coach that I worked for here, he was from Wales.

I’m, uh, I’m from the United States and then our. Assistant Coach Mark, who actually played here when myself and the previous head coach came and then joined us on the staff. He’s from London, um, and so he’s English as well. And then our Goalkeeping coach, Alberto, he’s from, from Mexico, he’s from California, but has Mexican descents.

And so we’re a very diverse staff. And then when I took the job over Mark and Alberto, both, both stayed on staff and so I added my, my assistant coach, my full-time assistant coach. His name’s Mariano Fazio. And he’s from Argentina, has, uh, also Spanish and Italian family descents as well. And so having someone from a different part of the world, um, different perspective, he can speak Spanish, English, and Italian, which again, is uh, very helpful with, with our team in just the modern game in general, being able to speak fluently.

All three languages. And so myself being the head coach, uh, Mariano is my [00:21:00] full-time assistant. And then Mark and Alberto, um, they both come and help out as much as they can. Alberto is our goalkeeping coach, and so what I really like about our staff is that we’re still very diverse. We have four completely different backgrounds where we grew up, how we grew.

Um, playing college soccer. I played division three College soccer. Mariano, my assistant coach, he played junior college and played at the University of Tulsa, and so he has a complete, completely different background mark. He played division two at CSU Pueblo, and then Alberto, he played junior college. And so we have a wide range of what we’ve played, what we’ve experienced, and so I really like the diversity that we have within our staff and what we’re able to provide to our student athletes.

Matt: Yeah, it sounds, sounds great. Um, well what about you? Talk to us about your coaching style and the style of play you like to play there. 

Coach: Yeah, so I think if you ask my players, I’m a very high energy, love, love what I get to do every single day. I think that whenever I started this [00:22:00] coaching journey when I was 18 years old.

I sat in my coach’s office my freshman year of college and he was like, well, what do you wanna do with your degree when you, uh, leave this school? And I was like, well, can I do what you do? And, uh, being very naive and being 18 years old, I really didn’t know anything about coaching in college if this could be a profession.

And I was very fortunate to be able to play four years of college soccer at the same university, graduate with my bachelor’s degree. And then go work at the University of Louisville, which is my hometown team in the A CC. Got to see and coach against so many incredible players over the years. Guys that play in the World Cup, guys that play for Inter Milan in the Champions League.

Um, and see the highest level of college soccer. And I, I went to graduate school at the University of Louisville to get my master’s in organizational leadership, but I think I got a PhD in soccer, um, working for Ken Lola, who is an incredible head coach and been around the game for many, many years. And he hired me [00:23:00] and got to work with an amazing human being for, for five and a half years.

My, my overall energy, I, I love what I get to do every day. I wake up and I’m excited to go to training. That’s the best part of my day is being on the field with the guys. And so, um, I love the intricacies of training. Sometimes my assistant coach looks at what I have for training and the activities that we do can seem pretty bizarre or there’s a lot of things going on, but, um, I’m a student of the game.

I’m very, I’m a very humble person and so always trying to learn from other people, but. I think that my players, there’s two sides of me. You see the side of me off the field. It’s very loving, very caring, very friendly. Um, very much someone that I want the student athletes to have a really good connection to and be able to connect with me off the field.

I’m still relatively young, I would like to feel like, and so being able to connect with them on, on various levels and having that open communication with them about life, what’s going on, and [00:24:00] school family and trying to really have that connection off the field with them. But if you ask them when I get on the field, I’m very demanding.

Um, very strict, very, um. Hard on them with the standards and the principles of, of what I want us to do and how I want us to play and what I expect of them. I’m very much a teacher. Um, I view my role as I’m able to provide solutions, provide guidance, help them develop, and so I’m a very much a teacher.

Love using video. I love trying to help them grow and trying to, I’m a big believer in doing extra, and so you’ll see me out there after training with the guys working on little bits and. Bits and parts of their game, and so I love what I get to do every single day. I love being on the field. I love coaching.

I love teaching. I love trying to find new ways to improve the players and. My overall coaching philosophy in terms of style is I want to be a coach that has the ball. I’m a very proactive coach. I wanna play on the front foot, be very aggressive in all [00:25:00] phases of play. I think that the one thing when I took the program over and coaches that played against our group would say that we’re.

A very technical team. We’re very tough to, we’re very tough to figure out. I give my players a lot of freedom within our structure to express themselves and to be the best version of themselves, like when we play, which I think is very unique to college soccer. And I think that we’re a team that predicates everything upon us having the ball and being the on the front foot in the game and being the pro, being the protagonist.

And so. Anytime. Anytime my team plays, I wanna see my group play. I believe that the way that we operate and the way that we play, that we can beat anybody on any given day in the country based on our ability and how we’re able to find solutions. But I want my team to be brave and take risks in certain areas, but do everything as a collective unit.

And so everything that I do, it starts with the ball, but everything we talk about within the group is doing it as a collective.

Matt: [00:26:00] Okay. Well, I appreciate all this and it’s been great talking to you. I don’t want to keep you too long, but I’m gonna leave you with one last question, and that is, if you had one piece of advice for anybody going through this college soccer recruiting process right now, what would that be? 

Coach: Be proactive.

Be proactive. Don’t take no for an answer and really, really put what you want into it, is what you’re gonna get out of it. Um, I, I always, whenever I do recruiting events, I share my own story because I did pretty much all the no-nos. Um, and I was, I think I was very similar to what a lot of kids go through.

Um, I played on a really good club team growing up and I always was like, I wanna go D one, I wanna go D one. It’s all about division one. And I put off a lot of coaches, didn’t respond to a lot of emails from division two, division three coaches, and was really naive in the process. Didn’t ask enough questions, didn’t do enough homework, didn’t have enough conversations with mentors and [00:27:00] coaches and my own family, and was just really so set on trying to play that play division one and then by.

December, January of my senior year, I had really nothing like no real concrete offers from division one. I hadn’t done all the proactive things on the front end with all the other schools that reached out to me in division two and division three, and now I’m trying to play catch up at the end. And so I got lucky and found a really good school that wanted me, but at the end of the day.

I don’t think it’s a great model to just wait all the way up until that time. And I tell kids all the time, even if you’re not interested in my school, um, it’s always great just to respond to the coach and be like, Hey, I appreciate your interest in me. Thank you for reaching out, but at this time, I’m not interested and going any further.

But if something changes, I’ll reach out. And I’m like, listen guys, you want it to go both ways. If you’re emailing a coach. 40, 50 times and you’re not getting a response. But then a coach is emailing you [00:28:00] thir, uh, 20 to 30 times, but you’re not responding to him. Then it goes both ways, guys. And again, even if you’re not interested in that school location, financially, academically, whatever it is, I was like, it’s okay to let them know.

’cause then the coaches know and you want that reciprocated to you. And so I always tell kids, just be proactive in how you want to communicate with coaches. Even if you are not interested in that school, it might be worth hopping on a phone call because in four or five months you might be like, Hey, I really enjoyed that conversation.

Things haven’t gone how I envisioned them. Maybe I wanna go back and talk to that coach and see if there’s still an opportunity at his university. And so I always think that being proactive in the communication with with coaches is by far the most important. Be respectful, be polite. Respond quickly just as just treat people how you want to be treated.

And so that’s very much what I tell my own student athletes. That’s what I tell recruits as well. Um, and the last piece of advice I would give is if you really want to be noticed by a college [00:29:00] coach, get on their campus, whether that’s their individual ID camp, whether that’s going on a visit, and you’re gonna be like, Hey, coach.

I took the time to come out for a visit. Can I meet with you for 10, 15 minutes? Hey coach, I’m coming to watch you guys play on Thursday night in a really big game. Um, love the way your team plays, been following you guys all season. Do you have five or 10 minutes after the game to come say hi? And just little things like that.

They go such a long way because as coaches, like we love people that wanna one support us and two people that want to get on our campuses. And so I always encourage guys like I’m, I’m like, listen, even if you don’t, even if you don’t wanna come to my own ID camp. Go find the, once you’ve kind of exposed yourself to the whole ID camp circuit and what that looks like, go find the schools that you really want to be on.

Like once you go on someone’s campus and you go to their individual ID camp, more than likely. It’ll be a smaller ID camp. You’ll get to interact with the head coach, the assistant coaches, see the facility, see the cafeteria. You’ll get to see how they coach, how they interact with our [00:30:00] players like that’s one of the best things that I think from my ID camp is some of the kids that come to our ID camp, they’re like, wow, Nick’s like very lighthearted jokes with his players, and they can really see a different side of you than just whatever I say on a phone call or a zoom call.

Because whenever you get into that coach’s environment, you’ll really see what they’re all about. And so I encourage kids all the time. Listen, once you kind of figure out the big idea of ID camps, start to go to the little camps, interact with those coaches, get on their campuses. We love nothing more than having guys that really want to come be on our campus and experience and get to share what we’re all about at our university and our programs.

And so that’s a big piece of those, those two pieces of advice for me I found really helpful and those helped me a lot in my journey as well. 

Matt: All right. Awesome. Well, coach, really appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck as you round out that roster for next season, and, uh, hopefully you’ll be hanging that armac banner here pretty soon.

Coach: Awesome. I appreciate it, Matt. Thanks for your time and love what you’re doing with the podcast. Love watching the episodes, and listening to other [00:31:00] people from around college soccer. So keep doing what you’re doing. Appreciate what you’re doing for the game. 

Matt: Will do. Thanks.