Corban University Men’s Soccer – Coach Corbin Bowers
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Bowers from the Corban Men’s Program in Oregon. We talk about how likes to focus on work ethic and culture when recruiting. He describes the gorgeous location of their campus and all the available outdoor activities. Lastly, we discuss their travel and the players’ need for time management skills. Learn more about Corban 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 Corbin Bowers. Welcome coach. Thank you. Appreciate being on the show. Yeah, this is this i’m sure you’ve heard this a hundred times But it’s definitely first for me is having someone with the same first name as the school that they’re coaching at so spelled differently obviously, but uh A corbin a corbin unless it’s corban and i’m just mispronouncing it.
Coach: Well It’s not it’s not french
Matt: Well, uh, so you’re new to the school, though, just, uh, hired recently. We’re talking end of July. You just kind of got there beginning of June. So, uh, we’ll keep that in mind as, as we discuss how you’re going, but, uh, how is it walking into a program this late? Did, did, did hopefully the previous coach left you with the cupboard full as, as you’re walking in?
Coach: Yes, it’s been an amazing transition. Everything happened really fast and there was a lot to take care of in the short amount of time, but, um, historically the program is. We’ve experienced a lot of success, some things have been done the right way here for a long time. So, previous coaches and coaching staff before that left everything in a good spot to be able to take over as smoothly as possible when the transition happens this late.
Matt: Yeah, no, that is great. I mean, you guys, uh, the school made national tournament for NAIA last year. So that’s good stuff. In terms of taking over and, and looking at, at who’s going to be graduating next year and kind of forward thinking, I’m sure you kind of already have to be looking at [00:01:30] that class of 24, uh, and that sort of thing.
And so kind of how do you see your recruiting calendar looking as you move forward?
Coach: Yeah, it was crazy. We had to put together pretty much. 95 percent of our 2023 class when I got hired here in June 1 and we announced our class yesterday. So that’s all done and dusted, but at the same time I got here and maybe a week or two later was already hitting the road for recruiting camps and tournaments here in the Pacific Northwest and very much wanted to build a deep pool of 2024 guys, um, local, countrywide, and then obviously internationals as well and make sure that we had.
The best possible pool that we can operate with while we hit season here next.
Matt: So where do you like to go tournament wise in terms of you mentioned, you know, regional, national, international. So, so where, where do you go to see players? How do you find talent or expect to find talent for your program?
Coach: Yeah, I think, um, something I really take pride in and love doing is covering every, every little rock possible in the recruiting trail, um, to stick to that trail metaphor. So in my previous coaching experiences and continue to do so at Corbin University, trying to hit as many of the big showcases as we can, but also finding local ones in our region where we can identify maybe some talent that goes undiscovered or slides under the cracks.
Um, here locally, we’re hitting. Everything in Washington, Oregon, if possible, we’re [00:03:00] Crossfire Challenge, Pacific Northwest, South, um, Pac Northwest. Um, CNL Showcases, we’ll try to get to one that’ll cover most of the West Coast teams, just so we perceive us being a stronger, uh, pool building out of the West Coast.
Um, we have good, I have good relationships with my network in Colorado as well, just as an example there, we’re the Rapids, and then… We’ll, I imagine we’ll expand on it, but also covering international students as well. And we do a lot of stuff here recently with junior college transfers as well. So, I want to cover every possible player.
I pride myself in recruiting to the best of my ability and finding everybody we can that fits our program and university.
Matt: You mentioned camps. Are you going to have your own ID camps there at the school or how will that help?
Coach: Yeah, so for CS at least I make two every recruiting cycle. So I’m taking things off this year with a December camp.
We’re finalizing dates for that, but looking at one of the first two Saturdays in December. Uh, and then we, with how late I was hired this year, we weren’t able to put together a summer ID camp, but we plan to do one and finding the right weekend to do so in the summer, but. Working out for those two, trying to get as many kids on campus as possible that can train with us, train under the coaching staff, and also experience campus, our field, eat in the cafeteria, and just have a really unique visit experience.
On top of us, NAIA, every guy is being able to come and train with us outside of a camp experience. Um, but that’s potentially somebody that can come and train with us three times, four times, and really get a feel [00:04:30] for our style of soccer.
Matt: And, well, and don’t forget to post those on Discover College Soccer once you get your dates.
But, uh, whether it’s at a camp or at an event, showcase, wherever it is, kind of, what do you foresee as making up kind of your hierarchy of things that you’re looking for in a player? Both on the field and off the field.
Coach: Yeah, I think we get repetitive here and everybody obviously focuses on the on the field stuff and how that fits.
So I’ll probably touch on that last, but for me, with what the university stands for and what I see as building the right culture, work ethic is extremely important to me. Uh, I want to see players that pride themselves on being the hardest working player on the field based on their position. So they can, based on their responsibilities on the ball, off the ball, do they do it in an excellent manner and they work as hard as possible.
to get the best outcome for their team. Um, We are looking for those little interactions. How do they treat their coach when they get some ball? How do they treat their teammates? How do they react when they’re losing? I want to see like their moral character as well in play because college soccer is so challenging and these guys come in as young guys and play against men.
I want to see how they react to adversity. Um, and then from there we dive into the soccer piece. We pride ourselves on being a very strong possession dominant team. Uh, we want to take the game to the opposition. So we look for guys that are very comfortable on the ball, brave on it, but can move it at a quick rate.
Um, and then guys that are willing to press. I want to pride ourselves on our pressing ability and how we can win the ball [00:06:00] quickly in the final third. So we look for guys that can cover ground quickly, that understand pressing triggers and succeed in a pressing system as well.
Matt: Well, In terms of, you know, you kind of mentioned internationals and JUCOs, obviously NAIA that, that, that tends to be a major source of recruiting.
So how do you, how do you see them fitting in? How much of your roster do you see that making up? Do you look at the, uh, the transfer portal at all? You know, does that come into play?
Coach: So, you know, thinking about our roster this year, um, to be honest, we only have two internationals that will be on the squad this year.
And then the junior college transfer is coming in, I think it’s four or five of our guys are Washington, Oregon, California players. And that seems to be pretty typical. I think, you know, historically our squad has been at maybe eight internationals. I’m not strong here and another four or five junior college transfers as well.
And then we apply to really find that best talent in Washington, Oregon, California, and Idaho as well. Um, we foresee it being the same. There’s going out there and finding internationals that can take us to the next level, but also being really in tune and in touch with local talent here in our area. Um, And I think the benefit of a junior college player was something I really love is that they have heavy minutes under their belt, they’ve played an impactful games, and they can come in and really adjust to any system really quickly and they’re hungry to play right away.[00:07:30]
And then there’s always something special about a true professional that comes in and brings their own USA, uh, experience. It’d be Development Academy, it’d be C& L, it’d be club, it’d be whatever it is, or, and simply high school, but they bring their own special flavor to our soccer experience. And I think the more diverse your background is on the team, the more diverse ethnically, socially your team is, the better experience it is for everyone and the more our team thrives.
Matt: Yeah, no, I love that. Well, one of the questions people always ask me is, you know, what… D do I need to… Uh, play in the alphabet soup of leagues, right? The ECNL and MLS next and all the things, or can I play other places or could I even just play high school? So do you, do you recruit high school games at all?
Are you talking to high school coaches during your recruiting process to see, or, or how does, how does high school soccer fit into the grand scheme of things?
Coach: For us, not to the cliche, we don’t rely on. The alphabet soup, how we are able to, like I’ve said five times today, cover every stone and uncover every stone and find the best guys for our program and our connections in the state with high school coaches is very deep as well.
So I feel comfortable reaching out to them and continue those relationships for our coaching staffs and. Uh, we do look at high school stuff and our staff is able to get to a few high school games where we hope to be able to do so. Um, Oregon High School happens at the same time as we’re playing our season.
Uh, so we’re strategic about it and finding the right time to go watch players and making sure that [00:09:00] we listen to the advice the high school coaches are putting in front of us, the recommendations they’re putting in front of us. Um, and I don’t think you need those letters in front of your team to make it to our program.
Um, if you fit into our style, if you fit into the culture of our university, you can thrive here. Um, and I would say, you know, most of our players, you know, with this, this national powerhouse of the NAIA team are not coming from that background. They are local guys. Uh, they’ve gone, they’ve slipped through the cracks and there’s a few that come in and are from a higher level that really take our team to the next level.
Uh, well, that’s with NAIA being able to practice almost year round. For us, it’s more about development. So we can take you as a really strong player from whatever level you’re coming from, spend the most time with you out of any of the college systems and really help you grow and develop over the course of four years.
Oh, that’s great.
Matt: Well, as a parent, one of the questions I always have is, okay, what? What’s this gonna cost me? Um, I’m not holding you to hard numbers, knowing especially you’ve only been there, uh, you know, a month and a half. Can you just give me a rough overview of what, uh, a student athlete should expect in terms of, of cost, maybe what average aid is, both either athletically and or academically?
And kind of what, what someone should expect if they decide to attend.
Coach: So I think all in, uh, when I talk all in, we talk about tuition, room, board, fees, all the fun stuff on our university is about right under 50, 000. Um, aid really comes down to the coaching staff. We do not stack academic and [00:10:30] athletic aid at Corban University.
So it’s up to the coaches to factor in the academics, which we do take into account when we make our financial aid offers. Um, and we work off of just a precise system of how much we can cover our team. And I will try to get everybody as close to possible as, um, affording their budget, you know, discussing with families what can be affordable to them, what can make it work and helping them realize the best financial plan for them.
It’s super important and the range is very vast within NAIA. And if you’re in soccer scholarship, we are evaluating off of talent and, uh, right or wrong. You could get crushed here. The better soccer player you are, the more aid you end up receiving from us. Uh, so it’s really up to you to prove yourself on the field and then come and meet with us, interact with our coaching staff, interact with our players and bolster.
How we feel about you to increase your aid, um, and a range would be tough, but I think, you know, our scholarships range from about we’re offering anywhere in the range of like 20, 000 to 40, 000 in scholarship.
Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. Obviously, there’s folks probably not familiar with Corbin, uh, folks, you know, you and I couldn’t almost couldn’t be farther apart with me down here in Florida, but, uh, so Corbin is not a school that I’m familiar with.
So. What kind of drew you to Corbin? What are some of the things that you found that really make the school stand out? Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know just by going through the website.
Coach: One of the fun things is the location. Being in Salem, Oregon, [00:12:00] uh, we’re in a spot where you can truly enjoy the Pacific Northwest and what I mean by that is Um, hour away from Portland, so you can go and experience a big city, if that’s your cup of tea.
Uh, we’re also an hour and 10 minutes from the coast. Oregon coast is very unique, very beautiful, completely different than the Florida coast, but um, Uh, if anybody, or age myself here, date myself here, but if you’re familiar with the movie The Goonies, it’s filmed on the Oregon coast. Um, so you’ve got Haystack Rocks, you’ve got other coastal towns, and…
Just an awesome place. Um, here nearby 25 minutes away, we’ve got a hike where you can experience I think 10 waterfalls during your hike. Spend a little bit exploring that. So the outdoors is massive here. Uh, going the other way, uh, you’ve got Bend about 2 3 hours away. So location to location is awesome here for Salem.
Want to dig deeper, dive deeper into the university. Um. Campus is beautiful, um, sits on a hill, so you’re driving uphill or walking uphill, and you get to experience a lot of the outdoors. You’ve got like the typical Oregon evergreen pine tree situation on campus. Um, some new buildings, um, a beautiful brand new turf field on campus as well.
And the university itself, we’ve got some really strong majors that I think attract a lot of students. Business is top class here, but you’re able to dive into some specializations like data stuff, um, but also sport management is a really popular major here. Uh, we do offer kinesiology, but what I’ve found lately is a lot of guys are looking to go on that kinesiology path.
And something really [00:13:30] unique academically is you can pursue a general studies major here. And so maybe you want to get into the world of sport management and kinesiology, you can pursue both of those. And almost have like a double major, uh, and really decide what you want to focus on after graduation. Um, and then there we went into the University of Justice without talking about our culture.
We’re a faith-based university, so, uh, there’s a lot of Christian lifestyle on campus in the classroom within the teams, and I think that’s something special that helps us stand out and be unique. So if you’ve gone to a Christian high school or if you grow up going to church, you’re really gonna enjoy the environment that we have to offer here on top of really good academics and the soccer program.
Um, Yeah, so those are maybe the main highlights, uh, what the university has to offer.
Matt: Okay, well let’s, let’s fast forward to, let’s say October. You know, you’re in the heart of your season. Kind of walk me through what you see a typical week looking like in terms of when you’re going to practice, when are classes usually on campus.
Maybe your game cadence, just kind of an overall week in the life of a player. What’s that going to look like?
Coach: Uh, so our conference, Cascade Conference is probably the AI, the most, um, diverse, but also a geographically challenged conference in the whole country. So teams in our conference cover Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho.
Um, So it’s a lot of travel and we play Friday, Saturday, once we get into the thicker conference. So we’re the only in AI back to back days. Um, so the travel [00:15:00] is a huge component. Time management is massively important to our guys. But I’d say typical week, we’re practicing Monday through Thursday, 5 to 7 in the evening.
Um, That gives the guys plenty of time to focus on their studies, get out of class, knock out initial homework, but then maybe even get into the weight room or get into athletic training and get their bodies right for practice. Um, there are a few night classes, so sometimes guys are having to leave early to attend night class.
That’s not a problem. It doesn’t affect how we view our guys. Um. And then once you get into game day, you know, we’re typically for an away Friday match, we’re leaving Thursday evening after class, staying in a hotel, playing Friday, staying in another hotel, playing Saturday. So some guys really love that.
You get to spend a lot of time with your teammates and you have those away trips that you’re going to look back on years later and really remember, spend time in the hotel. You almost feel like a professional with only being a college athlete of that travel, hotel, travel, play, game, hotel. It’s spoiled with some food and stuff.
So, uh, it’s just a really fun environment. The guys really enjoy it, but I do think it’s crucial that players coming in, understand the geographical challenge, the time consuming nature of our conference, and really stay on top of our studies and use the resources at their hand. Yeah, absolutely.
Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team and the soccer side of things.
I mean, I guess I could ask you this during the recruiting segment. Do you have a roster size in mind that you feel is ideal? Obviously you may not be at it this year, [00:16:30] but one that you’re working towards that, that you want to have in place.
Coach: Yeah. So this year, uh, we’re at 30 guys and we’ll have just our main, uh, first team program heading into 2024.
We’ll be moving up to 40 guys and typical to the NAI. Also carrying that reserve team as well. Um, and I think 40 is an ideal number to be able to balance both squads and make sure something unique and special about our reserve team is we make sure that they play 10 games. It’s not every program across the country that has a reserve team for the pool at all, but with the teams nearby, the D3s, the junior colleges, the NAIAs close to us, we’re really able to play 10 matches and really give those.
Reserves and opportunity to develop in games as well. Um, 40 guys with three or four coaches, depending on the year, we feel like that gives guys enough attention, enough detail in their coaching, and they can really get positive feedback from the entire coaching staff.
Matt: Well, and you mentioned coaching staff.
So what, what does your coaching staff look like right now or what it will in the season, maybe you’re still filling out some slots there, but, uh. And then obviously it sounds like you see that changing a little bit next year as you go to that development.
Coach: Sure. So this, uh, this year we’ll have a main assistant that will help us day to day all the time.
Uh, we’ll, we’re working on plugging in a second assistant that will shortly join us on as well. And then we will have a full time goalkeeping coach already settled, done and dusted that will be able to train the goalkeepers, which is very important. And we have a director of operations that helps us with travel, restaurants, hotels, but is also at training.
Um, kind of [00:18:00] his secondary role, if you will, is building those personal relationships during breaks or before practice, at the end of practice. So, um, I would say a very deep squad and hopefully by next, this time next year, adding one more member to the staff to be able to cover those 40 players.
Matt: Do, are there kind of, for lack of a better term, support staff through the athletic department, uh, you know, strength and conditioning, athletic training, academic advice, is there anything like that as well for the team?
Coach: Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, we have a strength and conditioning coach. He’s not on campus, uh, but he’s at a lot of the university. Uh, he’s worked with the software program for a very long time and he, uh, develops our strength program through an app and those workouts get sent to our guys. Um, they can also choose to go to his weight room in the off season and work with them.
Uh, and he and I work. Uh, side by side, we’re developing the best strength program for our guys. End season, off season, summer vacation as well. Um, full time athletic trainer that works with our squad as well. Uh, and then a faculty athletics representative that helps us bridge the gap from academics to athletics.
Uh, and then outside of maybe the athletic department, but athletics, um, peer to peer tutors, and student success center, writing center that can help as well, so. Um, I feel in general, our program is very well covered, covering all our bases from before practice, after practice, off season, on season, to make sure they get the best doing record.
Matt: Yeah, it definitely sounds like it. You mentioned it a little bit earlier, but, uh, I’ll ask you [00:19:30] to get maybe even more detail here, but how would you describe your style of coaching and the way you see the team playing in terms of style of play?
Coach: Um, I think the cliche word again is maybe the players coach, uh, where We understand that it is a player’s game.
It’s unique with soccer. We don’t have timeouts. We can’t call players necessarily. So we spend a lot of our week preparing our guys. I’m obsessive with proper preparation and getting very detailed with our style of play. We will focus our opponent, their strengths and weaknesses, but we want to take it to the next level where we focus on us and being a dominant team.
And from a coaching style perspective, that’s making sure we can be competitive animals is the terminology we use. A guy that thrives on our system is super competitive at everything we do in every training session, so. We’re on the ball a lot, um, it’s conditioning through small sided games, but it’s playing our game model on a daily basis.
So the guys are very comfortable with our expectations on the ball, off the ball, and in transition. But everything’s competitive. There’s a purpose to it. Uh, the guys know what that is. They know the objective heading into practice. And I just feel that puts us all on the same page. So guys, if you come into our training session where you’re gonna compete, you know you’re gonna spend a lot of time on the ball.
You’re gonna walk away saying, man, I had a lot of fun during that session and I walked out of that session an even better player and an even better competitor. Um, and I think that helps us with our style. We want to dominate possession. We want to dominate the other team. Um, we commit a lot of numbers forward and we [00:21:00] spend a lot of, and then we’re very good in transition.
We have a very, Good counter shape set up and that allows us to each and every one of us know expectations during the game and then take it to Opposition and really impose our nature on the game. Oh, that’s awesome
Matt: Well coach we’ve covered a lot of ground talked about a lot of different things and I always like to end these with you know If you had one piece of advice one nugget of information something that you wish every player parent family going through this college recruiting process Something you’d love them to know.
What would that be?
Coach: Yeah, uh, I love to tell recruits that IB camps or interacting with them is like take control or seize your recruiting process. Um, there are so many opportunities out there, so many options that you have to take control and really discover what you want to do and where you want to take your college at soccer experience.
There’s a level for almost everyone. Uh, there’s so many schools and I think by seizing control, you’ve made a decision of how far you want to be from home, what major you want to pursue, the level you want to play at. Uh, the type of campus you want to be on, the size of the university, and if you’re very on top of that and you go out of your way to contact those coaches that fit your list and you show initiative, you’re going to find the right hole for you.
And that’s kind of like the second part of my advice is really pursue the best fit. Uh, we want guys that are going to be here all 4 years if they’re a true freshman or 2 years if they’re a junior college transfer. And we wanted to walk away saying I [00:22:30] loved my time at Corbin University. I love the team.
I love the coaching staff. And that’s all because I really pursued Corbin as the best fit for me academically, socially, and soccer wise.
Matt: Awesome advice, Coach. Couldn’t agree more. Well, we wish you the best of luck in your first season there. Hopefully, you’ll make that return trip to the national tournament.
And, uh, we’ll follow you and see how you do, alright? So, thanks for being here. No problem.
