Columbus State University Women’s Soccer – Coach Jay Entlich

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Jay from the Columbus State Women’s Program in Georgia. We talk about recruiting in the time of the alphabet soup leagues. He describes what a typical in-season week looks like. Lastly, we discuss how he has a large staff of mostly alumni. Learn more about Columbus State University Women’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to talk to one of my buddies I haven’t seen in ages Coach Jay at Columbus State. Welcome coach. 

Coach: Thanks for having me, brother.

Matt: Yeah, man. Thanks for being here. Uh, it’s been too long, that’s for sure. And, uh, you know, I grew up in a different, Columbus, Ohio.

My dad taught at a different Columbus state, which was a community college. So we’re talking Columbus, Georgia for, for those who don’t know what we’re talking about. Um, and you and I met a long time ago when you were at Tampa and, and you just had a tremendous. Run there at Columbus State. I mean, just so many, uh, NCAA tournament appearances and Natty, you guys are just amazing things going on there.

So I’m, I’m fun. I’m really excited to talk to you. See, see what people can learn about the recruiting process, about your school and everything else. So one of the things you and I were just talking about, we both got your daughter’s one year older than mine, but, but kind of going through the same process and we’re, we’re a week after the old June 15th deadline or, or, or starting gun for, for you guys.

And so, Uh, were you rushing to pick up a phone and call, uh, all these, all these rising, did you have a pool of people you wanted to talk to, or what’s kind of your recruiting calendar? When do you start really focusing and trying to pull people in? 

Coach: Yeah, no, great question, Matt. I I, I think the important thing for all of the, uh, players out there is just because you don’t get a call on June 15th doesn’t mean things are not gonna work out, but, um, no, we, we, we take a little bit different approach.

[00:01:30] Um, we, we know that, uh, that the recruiting landscape is massive and we know that, uh, a, a lot of the Division one schools have. A little bit more ease to communicate with players because they’ve got four and five coaches calling, you know, uh, whereas my staff, it’s, it’s really myself, uh, coach Joe, my assistant, uh, I do have a grad assistant, but unfortunately she just graduated and she’s looking for another job.

So really a, a big part of it fell on, um, coach Joe and myself. But really, honestly, coach Joe was really good about, uh, picking up the phone and communicating and, um, Just trying to, you know, plant seeds because we know that, uh, for a lot of these young ladies, um, and, and I can only talk about ladies ’cause uh, that that’s the world we live in.

Um, uh, but yeah, a a lot of ’em, um, are gonna get recruited by big schools and they’ve got a lot more resources than we do. We’re a division two university. Uh, we like to say we’re a medium sized school, uh, but we don’t have, uh, this, this ridiculous amount of money. And, uh, nowadays, uh, I think one of the issues with the amount of money that us as parents spend on our own children playing E C N L or, or GA, or E C N L R, uh, or, or whatever league that, that these kids play in, we’re, we’re spending an exorbitant amount of money in hopes that we get a return on our investment.

So it, it’s tricky, [00:03:00] Matt. It’s tricky. 

Matt: Yeah. Well, for sure. Well, you, you mentioned, you know, the alphabet Super leagues, and I know you, you’re getting ready to, to head off so your daughter’s got a tournament or, you know, or E C N L event, uh, soon. So do you, as a coach, do you care about those letters? Do you what, you know, what, what events are you spending most of your time at?

Where are you looking for players? What’s that look like? 

Coach: Probably, probably for us here at Columbus State, it’s, it’s, we’re more of a regional based school, so a good majority of the players that come to us are from kind of like the Southeast. So, uh, but honestly Matt, if you look at our roster of say, 28 players, um, We, we have the entire alphabet soup, as you’d call it.

Uh, we have e n L players, we have e n LR players, we have GA players, we have state level players. We, uh, I mean the list goes on and, uh, it’s almost one of those things where, We as a staff have realized that it, it’s no bearing as to what letters follow your name. Um, heck, this last year, I think we had four All Americans.

Uh, one was, uh, an an e n LR Player. One was like a state league player. Um, another one, I’m trying to think. She was E C N L. And then our last one was an [00:04:30] international. Um, so in, in the end you had four different leagues represented and, uh, we at Columbus State, and I know there’s, there’s many, many schools out there that.

Don’t care about what alphabet you’re playing in, as long as you’re playing at a high level and you’re getting minutes. And I think if, if I could share any sort of feedback with players, it’s um, you know, it’s so much better to be on a team where you’re playing consistently versus maybe going to the number one team in the state, but you’re only getting five minutes a game.

And so we, we, here at our university, we, we will never, ever say to a kid, you know, the team you’re playing on is, is not very good. You, you gotta go play at a higher level. Um, we never say that. Um, we say, listen, if um, you’re getting 90 minutes and you’re having to go to the proving ground every day and compete, man, we’re happy that you’re getting minutes.

Matt: It’s awesome. No, I love that. Well, you mentioned international, an international player. You know, I, I’ve, I’ve interviewed a lot of division two schools, both men’s and women’s, and obviously it’s a little different on the men’s side, but international tends to be a heavy focus, really even on the division two level.

But you guys only have a couple. It’s really not. And so does international recruiting play a role at all? And also, what about transfer portal? Is that becoming a bigger thing in your world now as well?

Coach: Yeah, I, I [00:06:00] think Matt, one of, one of the things, like I look at our roster, I think we have two, maybe three international players tops.

Um, one of ’em, I don’t even consider an international. She played down your way at I M G, right? Um, and so, uh, with all the coaching courses I’ve done down at I M G and meeting a, a bunch of you all down there, um, I become pretty good buddies with IMG staff and, and we found a really good player, uh, via, uh, Newcastle slash Dubai.

But, but she spent two years at IMG and came to us. Um, our other international Maria was from Norway, and, um, honestly didn’t really have any sort of connections, but, uh, we saw some game tape and liked her. Um, she graduated, which freed up some money. Some international money that we had and we ended up signing a U 20 Colombian player, uh, coming in this fall.

So we’re really excited about her. Um, but yeah, other than that, um, a lot of our players are, are kind of what I consider almost like a homegrown player coming outta high school. They’re, um, we’ve got, I think seven. No six incoming freshmen that all played, uh, whether it be regionally and E C N L e C N L R, um, you know, state leagues, um, national leagues go, so to speak.

Um, we, we do have a transfer. We [00:07:30] actually have two transfers coming in. Um, so the transfer portal is important. Um, I, I wouldn’t say it’s the end all be all, but, um, we have a very unique situation and a young lady who played for us as a freshman left after her freshman year. Um, went to a school on the west coast ’cause that’s where her family retired to and she missed Georgia, so she’s moving back.

So that’s one of our transfers. The other was a young lady who, uh, because I worked for US Soccer, was doing some youth national training center. She was one of our training center kids. Went to the university, um, wasn’t really getting the minute she wanted and we were in, we graduated a goalkeeper. So she’s coming to us so, I don’t know, Matt.

It’s, um, I, I guess if you’re looking at percentages, uh, we’ve got, I think nine new players coming in. Uh, six are American incoming freshmen. Uh, one is an international, and then we have, uh, our two transfers. So, you know, I think for the most part on the women’s side, we still feel that. Getting freshmen here at Columbus State that have played regionally.

We really like those kids. ’cause we, we can develop ’em over time and groom ’em, um, on the men’s side, I don’t know, brother. It’s, uh, my, my son, I have a, a senior, rising senior and I think he’s pretty darn talented, but he is not getting a sniff anywhere. I mean, I, I feel like the men’s game has gone completely international [00:09:00] and, uh, I hate it.

’cause he is got a lot of talent and, uh, he is just not getting many bites, you know? Yeah. Hmm. 

Matt: Yeah. Its, uh, it’s a changing world out there, right? Yeah. Well, and, and one of the changes that we’ve seen, I think over the past maybe 10 years or so, is just the proliferation of ID camps, right. And ID clinics being a big part of it.

So, do you guys have your own cl ID clinics? Do you and your staff work other people’s? How does that fit into your recruiting process?

Coach: Yeah, I, I think Matt, one of the things that maybe that. It’s a little bit different here at Columbus State where, uh, because we’re a a medium sized university, um, we, we do everything we can to limit the amount of kids that come to our ID camp.

Um, we have one field, uh, we want to make sure our staff is here and watching every single kid. Uh, and so we, we limit it to, to 40 kids, no more than 40. And my entire staff is here and we learn every kid’s name and we know we know. Um, our, our staff, not, not me, but our, our, our younger staff, they, they do go out to other ID camps and I think it’s super important and they have found kids at other ID camps.

But, you know, the one thing, Matt, is some, some of these camps are, they, they, they’re asking a considerable, um, about a money for your kid to come and, and they’re also inviting close to 200 kids. And, and so to me, I, I, I’m not sure that I would really consider that an [00:10:30] ID camp per se. Right? Um, a big part of that is, is how much money can they make?

And so just being honest, I think, and I want to be careful with my own daughter who’s a rising junior. Um, I wanna make sure if I send her to an ID camp that she actually is a human being and being considered for that program versus, you know, going on, you know, the field in the pasture, you know, two miles off campus.

Yeah. Yeah. So, but I think a lot of that happens. I just, I. I’m gonna make sure that, uh, I, my money is well spent, so to speak, and I wanna make sure she gets considered because again, um, with, with the money that we pay for our children to play in travel soccer, um, adding onto that, these ID camps are getting absurd that they’re getting very, very high priced.

And so we here at Columbus State have, have kept our costs down. Um, we don’t charge, uh, you know, $500 for one day. I, I think that’s absurd. And, um, but, and we only offer two, you know, we’re not doing it every week. We, we do one in the summer, one in the winter. And we hope that kids can, can find the time if they’re interested to come down.

Matt: No, I think that’s, that’s great. Yeah. I got lucky, Matt, my daughter went to, uh, St. Leo a couple weeks ago. 33 kids. It was great. 

Coach: Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah. That’s great. 

Matt: Well let, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. Uh, you know, I’m sure there’s folks out there, not maybe not familiar with Columbus State.[00:12:00] 

You’ve been there a couple, few years at this point. Uh, so, you know, kind of give me some, some great things about the school, some things you love the most. Uh, maybe some stuff we wouldn’t even learn by, by going through the website.

Coach: Yeah. You know, man, I’ve been here 20 years, um, and, and it’s been, you know, uh, I, I’d like to say it’s been all roses, but, but for sure it’s not.

I mean, there are some things that we have to work on. We’ve, um, you know, we’ve been fighting the school on getting ourselves, uh, our own athletic weight room. So that’s something that, uh, is being, uh, built right now. We’ve got the flooring down. We order all the equipment. Um, so that’s one thing. Uh, we’ve had to share a weight room for the last couple years with.

All the students on campus. So finally getting our own weight room. Um, Columbus, Georgia is located, um, and, and I have to make sure I reference this, it’s now called Fort Moore. Uh, it used to be called Fort Benning, Georgia. It’s one of the largest military bases in, in, in the country, but it’s now, um, Fort Moore.

So we are, um, kind of one of those situations where we. We love where we’re at. Uh, we’re an hour and a half south of Atlanta. Um, we are are blessed to, uh, have a, a wonderful university with a plethora of, of academic majors that, that our kids can kind of take. Um, you know, one thing you might not read on the internet is, um, the women’s soccer team just [00:13:30] had the highest g p A of all the sports on campus.

So, um, our overall G P A was a 3.73. And so super, super proud of our young ladies and, um, you know, and these are young ladies that are studying, you know, nursing, um, engineering, uh, pre-law. So it’s, uh, it is not like we’re all here taking these easy, easy classes. So it’s been, uh, it’s been a good run academically for us.

Um, you know, we, this past season we had a successful year and trying to get ourselves to the national championship, we. Won the conference again. Um, won a couple rounds in the N C A tournament, so it’s, uh, it’s nice. We ended up, uh, beating West Florida in the Elite eight to go to the final four and we’re actually down three, one with 17 to play.

So that was pretty exciting and, uh, ran into a tough Western Washington team out west. Um, and, uh, yeah, lost in the semis, but, uh, got a nice group returning and, uh, You know, overall, I feel like one of the things that we, we make sure that we do everything we can is to develop kids. Um, we know when kids get here, uh, they’re not five star players, meaning that they have all five tools, right?

And so we pride ourselves on if a kid is willing to work hard and reciprocate, uh, we want to help them with the qualities [00:15:00] that they’re missing. So, uh, that’s kind of our, our bread and butter here. Okay. 

Matt: Well, awesome. Well, let’s fast forward to, uh, this upcoming fall season. Uh, can you just walk me quickly through what a typical week looks like in terms of winter classes, practice meals, travel game cadence, all that?

What’s that look like for you all?

Coach: Yeah. You know, um, that, that question comes up a lot with our recruits. Um, we are a, an afternoon training team, so, you know, one of those, uh, I, I always tell people, you know, a lot of these coaches want to train at 6:00 AM and I go, listen, lemme look at your schedule. Do you play games at 6:00 AM?

No. So, uh, we we’re a three to five in the afternoon. A lot of our kids are in. Uh, from eight o’clock all the way to about 2 45. So we practice three to five. Um, we are, uh, another team that, uh, every now and then, um, we’re going to train at night under the lights if we have a night game. So we kind of prep our kids.

Um, you know, we, uh, we typically will play two games a week. Um, right now, it’s almost like on a Wednesday, Saturday schedule. Every now and then we’ll go Friday, Sunday. Um, we are also a, a team that I believe in academics, so I try my best not to stay overnight if we don’t have to. So Matt, we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re going to the game We play, we turn around and come home.

So we do [00:16:30] everything we can not to miss school, which, um, I, I, I find very unique at the division one level, there’s a lot of programs that are going. Not one, but two days early to get their athletes there and they’re missing classes. And uh, you know, to me, um, I think it’s super important for our kids to be in school.

So, um, but yeah, overall, um, you know, our kids are, uh, you know, do a really nice job in the classroom and, uh, they compete, you know, on the field. Um, you know, it’s just one of those things that, that we really try and find a, a life and balance at the division two level. I love that. 

Matt: Well, you mentioned earlier roster of about 28.

Is that kind of your ideal size that you’re trying to hit each year? 

Coach: Yeah. You know, I think it’s, it’s kind of one of those things where we don’t, we don’t punish kids, Matt, if they miss practice for, for classes. And we have a lot of nursing majors that may miss a couple practices. So we wanna make sure we can go, uh, what we call elevens, you know, and play 1111 in training.

And, uh, you know, oftentimes we might be missing four or five kids, uh, each day in, in practice. So, uh, we typically will have three to four goalkeepers and. You know, 20, about 24, 25 field players. Um, now even within that 24, 25 field players, we also have injuries. So, uh, we’ve taken, uh, you know, one or two injuries a year.

So that’s a part of life. So, [00:18:00] you know, typically on any given day, we’ll we’ll have 22 healthy bodies and, and we can at least play 11 B 11 at practice. 

Matt: Oh,that makes sense. Well, you talked about your staff earlier, but how would you describe kind of just your style of coaching and the team style of play?

Coach: Um, you, you know, we attack a lot, Matt. I, you know, people ask me all the time like, Hey, can you send me a session on defending? And I’m like, eh, we don’t have any, you know, so we, we, we love the ball. Um, we play out of a 3, 6 1 right now, and, uh, you know, we’re very top heavy in the central midfield and, uh, we have a lot of interchanging of players.

Uh, we’ve got really good wingers. So we’re, um, we try and build through our midfield. Um, you know, the, the biggest thing for us is we wanna play outta the back. We don’t wanna punt, we don’t wanna go long on, on goal kicks. Um, we want to build, we want to keep the ball on the ground. We’re. We’re not very direct at all.

We’re probably the weakest part of our games are heading. So, um, you know, we’ve got footballers and, and they can, they’re brave at every position, even our goalkeepers. So, uh, ultimately that’s kind of our style. And, um, those are the kids that we look for that can solve pressure through dribbling through.

Passing. Um, they don’t panic. Um, and, and you know, I’ll be going out to San Diego in two days and that’s kind of what I’ll be looking for every time I go out. You know, we’re, we’re not the team that wants these big, huge, [00:19:30] strong athletes that can’t trap a ball. They can’t pass a ball and, but they’ll run over you.

Like, we don’t like that. I, I want kids that can play soccer. You know, I. 

Matt: For sure. Well, you mentioned, you know, things that you’re looking for, so, so besides just the ability to, to to play right and, and keep at it, what, what else is it that you’re looking for in a player, whether it’s it’s on the field or off the field stuff.

Coach: You know, a big, big thing is, um, recoverability, uh, we, we talk about that a lot within our program. And, you know, when kids make mistakes, don’t put your head down. You know, what, what, what is your behavior, you know, one to two seconds after a mistake happens. And, uh, I talk to my own children about it a lot, and, uh, my son’s going through this phase where he’ll, he’ll make a bad pass, and right away his head goes down.

And I said, listen, that’s, that’s not good. Uh, you know, behavior right after a mistake. And so we talk about that. We talk about not giving up and you know, sure as heck, if we go down three, one with 17 to play against West Florida, our kids didn’t give up. And they fought back and we ended up winning four three.

We didn’t even have, we didn’t even go to overtime. And so, uh, you know, those are, those are some key things. And you know, nowadays with social media, you know, we are, uh, our assistant coaches, not me ’cause I’m a dinosaur, but our assistants are on the internet, you know, they’re on Twitter, they’re on Instagram and uh, Snapchat.

And [00:21:00] so if we see kids that are not modeling good behavior, We don’t recruit ’em that, I mean, I hate to say it, it is God’s honest truth and we’ve stopped recruiting several kids because of their TikTok videos or, uh, you know, their behavior on Instagram and you know, the old red solo cups. I don’t think kids realize, like, you know, you and I were their age once and we know we, we don’t really drink water out of a red solo cup, you know, so, but, but kids don’t, they, they think that we we’re dumb.

They think we don’t. Realize, you know what, what’s in a picture? Pictures can say a thousand words, man, you know? 

Matt: Absolutely. Well, hey man, I, I really appreciate all the time and, and all the things we’ve talked about. I wanna, I wanna leave you with one last question, though. For any parent player family going through this college recruiting process, if you had one piece of advice, one nugget to leave ’em with, what would that be?

Coach: Well, I think what I’m learning as a parent is sometimes, uh, you know, having children at play, I’m learning that the return on your investment is not always the exact same or, uh, you’re going to benefit from it. So, um, I, you know, I have conversation with my wife all the time, like, I’m, I’m. I see so much joy in, in going with my children to these events all over the country and spending time with them and how sports teaches such great lessons.

And, [00:22:30] uh, I know all of us as parents go, well, if I spend, you know, $4,000 a season for my kid to play soccer, then in return I should get a $4,000 scholarship somewhere. It just doesn’t work that way. And, um, I, I think the lessons that our kids are learning by being involved in sports and the travel and the, the teamwork, um, that, that’s gonna benefit in the end.

So, uh, you know, I’m, I’m learning that wholeheartedly right now, having a junior and a senior in high school and realizing it may not work out for one of ’em or two of ’em, or. Maybe it will. It’s, it’s a gamble. And, and I tell my own children all the time, look, I I’m gonna bet on you. You guys are my kids.

I’m gonna bet on you that it’s going to work out. So let’s keep fighting. 

Matt: Absolutely. And, and it, your r o i, like you said, it’s that time spent with them. The, the enjoyment, they get the lessons learned for sure. Uh, as, as I know it on, on the. 13 hour slog my daughter and I had on our way back from Greensboro checking out school.

So I hear you man. It’s, it’s good stuff. Yeah, it’s awesome. Can’t beat it. Well, hey man, thank you so much. Wish you the best of luck in the fall and let me know when you’re down for the E N L events here in Bradon. 

Coach: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I’m sure we, I went down to my son and it went down to my daughter, so Yeah.

Yeah, we’re down that way all the time. Lakewood Ranch and Sanford. 

Matt: Well, gimme a shout ’cause, uh, I’m here in [00:24:00] Lakewood Ranch, man. All right. All right, brother. 

Coach: All right, we’ll talk soon. Okay. See you man. Bye.