DePauw University Men’s Soccer – Coach Steven McCarthy
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Steven McCarthy from the DePauw Men’s Program in Indiana. We talk about what it’s like recruiting as a new coach. He describes how to look at the outputs of the school. Lastly, we discuss how he likes to view a good offense as the best defense. Learn more about DePauw 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 Steven McCarthy from DePauw in Indiana.
Coach: Welcome. Hello. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Matt: Yeah, thank you for being here. Coach and I have a lot in common. He was at Denison, which was a camp I used to go to as a kid and actually was a counselor at, he was at Ohio University, same as me, Alma Mater for a bit.
Love that. And uh, and you went to College of Capital, which I drove by. Every day of high school since my high school was around the corner. I’m sure you’re a lover of graders ice cream like I am. That’s right. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Right there in Bexley. Gotta love it. All right. Well coach, you’re brand new to DePauw.
I, I think, uh, just start of the year. So, so welcome to a new program, but, uh, I know you’re familiar with the area and then division three. Um, How has it been as a new coach kind of taking over right at the kind of the peak recruiting time, right? For, for the fall. So what’s that looking like for you right now?
Coach: Yeah, no, it’s obviously unique opportunity to come in, in that changes semester, right? Um, any coach would much, much rather come in now than the summer . Right. Um, cuz I still have the chance to, to build a class right where the summer you pretty much wouldn’t. And then with that, with the current team, I get my pre my spring season, I’m able to work with them.
So from the recruiting standpoint, um, no, it’s been very good. Right as coming in. In the middle of a recruiting cycle, closer towards the end of one. Um, for the division three [00:01:30] landscape, I’m very happy with how our classes has been turning out. Right. We’ve still, still recruiting a couple guys for maybe one or two last spots at this moment, but we’re, we’re 90, 95% done and I could be.
Um, I don’t know if I could be happier with how, how it’s gone. Um, because when you come in that middle, that middle ground, you don’t really, it could go one or two ways. Um, the, the new person could help sway some people to commit, or there just couldn’t be a whole lot out there for you to pick from.
Decisions are already made. Um, so I’m very, very happy with how the recruiting front’s gone. And that was when I started, um, the beginning of January. You know, there wasn’t a whole lot of of soccer to do, right? Um, not many of the students were on campus. We do a winter term, so only about 10 of them were even on campus in January.
So it was a big focus in recruiting when I first started to get that up and running. And then that has been the main focus my first two months on the job, and now it’s kind of switched to the current team. We started training about a week and a half, two weeks ago. Um, and I, which is pretty early, right?
You know, we only get our 15 practices in a, in a game opportunity and most coaches will push that later in the spring when it’s gonna be nicer and warmer. But I wanted to work with them as soon as possible. Um, and we’ve got some good turf facilities so we don’t have to worry about the weather. So, um, yeah, it’s been a good, it’s been a very, very good start to the new role.
Matt: Yeah, that’s good. So, are you looking at 20 fours now? Are you going to a lot of events? Do, do, will that continue [00:03:00] throughout the spring for you?
Coach: Yeah, so really just kicking off the 24 class. Um, you know, like I said, just about wrapped up the 20 threes, which is a bit different. Right. Um, when I was at Lowers for three years, we were recruiting our 20 threes into the summer.
Right. So, um, we were definitely more a, as an opportunity towards later in the timeline when I was at that. at that school. Um, here, you know, I don’t envision my 20 fours being done in the summer or anything like that, right? We’re not gonna be on that division one timeline or, or, or anything. Um, but it’s nice that when the spring season starts up now for all the club sports and then the high school states that play, now I can focus on the juniors, um, because it allows us to spend all spring and summer evaluat.
Right, which help us get a lot of eyes on players. So yeah, just kicking off the 24 class, um, and, and just trying to build that, that recruiting database, that pool that will, will, will end up recruiting from.
Matt: Oh, makes sense. Well, are you gonna try to hold any camps? Uh, ID camps Or do Are you or your staff gonna work?
Other camps? Do camps fit in at all into your recruiting equation?
Coach: Yeah. Nope. Camps absolutely do. Um, as a general philosophy, you know, we don’t have this gin ginormous resources of Division one ones. Right. . But we, but we are, we do have resources, don’t get me wrong, but I, I ideally wanna see a recruit play twice.
I’d like to see him play in his own environment, right? His club team, his high school team, someplace where he feels comfortable. But then secondly, in our environment, right? Um, when they come to one [00:04:30] of our camps, we have the chance to work with them, right? We can run a training session with them, we can identify their training habits a bit better.
Um, and then I can kind of see how coachable they are. I can give them some tactical things when they’re playing 11 and say, Hey, try this for me and see if they can pick up on. That quick bit of info, we can also move players around, right? If there’s a player that is playing right back for his club team, but I actually think he might be better at a right wing back spot or something, depending on the shape.
I can’t go to his club coach and say, Hey, move this guy, or change your shape so that I can benefit. But our camp, we can do that. So in an ideal space, if I can see them play a couple times in their own environment and we can see them play in a camp setting, That’s, um, that’s ideal. As far as camps, we will hold some ID camps this summer right now in targeting one date in June and one date in July.
They’re not finalized yet, but they should be finalized really, really soon. Um, and once those are available, um, anyone that’s interested can find it on our website, um, at the DePauw athletic page. And then they’ll also be able to, um, if they sign up for our recruit questionnaire, we’ll keep them up to date with ones.
Our camp dates get.
Matt: And I’m sure you’ll, uh, you’ll also make sure you post that on the, you’ll discover college soccer. Absolutely. Camp listing page.
Coach: Absolutely.
Matt: Well, in terms of whether it’s at a camp or watching a player play or anything, when you’re recruiting someone, what is it that you’re looking for?
What’s that hierarchy of things that makes a player interesting to you? Whether that’s on the field stuff or off the field?
Coach: [00:06:00] Right. I think, uh, for me there’s four main areas I look for. First is character, right? Um, you gotta be a good person. We hear, you know, any program I run, so here at DePauw we break character into moral character and performance.
Character, right? So moral character is what you think of, right? Are you a good person to do the right thing? Um, you know, we’re trusting you wearing our brand. Our badge. And if you’re gonna be out there in the community, we gotta make sure that you’re upholding the standards that we expect. So, um, want nothing but high character people when it comes to the performance character, right?
That’s, um, are, are you doing what you should be doing when you should be doing it? Just because you don’t like sleep, right? Or take care of your nutrition or don’t hit the weights, doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, right? But your performance character isn’t there. You’re not taking your craft serious by taking care of your body, the off field things.
and, and so we want both, right? I, I want performance and, and good, good moral character, right? Um, some professional athletes get away without having the moral piece, right? . But as a college athlete, you need to have both, right? Um, the second thing we look for in, in players is commitment, right? I want players where, Soccer is not the only part, only thing that’s part of their college experience.
Right. Um, but I want players where it is a big portion of it, right? It’s one of the reasons they’re choosing, um, to play. College soccer is, they want that experience. They’re like, they’re two feet in. It’s not like, Hey, I’ll just play soccer when it’s convenient for me. Right? We want players when we’re trying to be a high achieving program, go for conference [00:07:30] championships, make the national tournaments.
It needs to be important to you. Right. But I think that’s one of the great things as a former Division II athlete that’s great, is when we are in season or out of season or whatever opportunity it is for you in the Division three landscape of sports, right? You should be taking your craft very, very serious.
But as everyone knows in division three, it’s not gonna rule your world, right? It’s, you’re not gonna do it all the time. It’s just that when it is time, it needs to be very, very important to you. Right? Um, and I have also found in my experience that players that truly have that commitment, right? And they really want it, when it gets hard, you’re still gonna do it, right?
If we really want something and we’re committed to it, even when it’s challenging, we still put the. . Um, and for 99% of players their freshman year in college is gonna be very, very challenging. It’s gonna be the, the first moment that they are being pushed and some for some of them in a while. Um, or they’re having to compete with multiple players for one position.
And so when you’re truly committed and it’s tough, you’ll put the work in. Third thing, we look for physical qualities, right? You have to have certain level of physical qualities to play at the college level. Obviously this isn’t a sport. Basketball or football where there might be parameters, right? I’m not trying to recruit an O lineman that’s 6 5, 300, right?
So I can’t tell you exactly what it comes to, but you gotta have a certain level of athleticism, right? Or whatever your physical qualities are. How do you use ’em to your strengths, right? If you are six five, you better win everything in the air. , right? But if you’re not, and you’re a smaller crafty guy, right?
Then you need to be pretty quick and athletic and have some [00:09:00] pace. So, um, we look at what physical qualities you can bring to the college level. And then the fourth thing we look for are the soccer qualities. Everything you’ve been taught or everything you’ve been taught your entire life, right? From technical ability, tactical ability, decision making, soccer IQ training, habits.
ability to read the play, just all those different attributes of soccer and, um, typically, like that’s the order I look right, be I want a good person that’s committed, right? Like those, if I get those two things, we’re halfway there right? To having a good quality person. And I haven’t even talked about their athletic or soccer ability yet.
Right? Um, so we get a good character person that’s truly committed, um, and then we can go down from there and, and look at their, their physical qualities and then their soccer qualities.
Matt: No, I, I love that. In terms of coming to DePauw, uh, you know, again, you’ve only been a few months, but a as you’ve been recruiting people, I’m sure, uh, some of the kids and their parents have maybe said, okay, coach, how, how, how am I gonna afford this?
Uh, you know, there’s with no athletic money, you gotta get creative there. So, Not holding you to hard numbers, especially as a new guy, but just give, gimme an overview of what it’s like in terms of, uh, price, scholarships, academic merit, whatever aids available, right. That kind of thing. Just just to give folks an understanding.
Coach: Yeah. No, I think, I think it is important for anyone that’s new, um, to the college recruiting landscape is to understand that the majority of us in division three are small, private. , right? [00:10:30] And you’re gonna get online and you’re gonna see a giant sticker price. Um, but for 99% of 0.8% of the student bodies, you’re not paying that.
Um, , you know, I don’t work in the side of universities in higher ed that come up with pricing and, and all the scholarship stuff. So I can’t answer why they are like that. Like why price ’em high and then bring it down with the scholarships. Um, I’ve had parents ask like, why don’t they just start there, , right?
Um, I’m can’t answer that question, but what I can say is that when you get online, whatever you see, generally speaking, that’s not what you’re gonna. , um, you know, the first line of scholarship that anyone’s gonna get at DePauw is gonna be, um, your Merit scholarship, right? That’s based off your academic achievements, uh, the rigor of your courses, um, your, your test scores.
You know, some schools out there are test optional, but they can also definitely help you get a, a larger, you know, um, academic aid. Um, so that merit scholarship’s the first thing, and that’s generally the biggest chunk of scholarship you will get. You know, we’re talking tens of thousands of dollars. Right.
That will help, um, bring that down, you know, um, still learning the hard numbers here at DePauw, like, like you said, but it, speaking in general, division three, most of those merit scholarships can, can range to a couple thousand to 10,000, all the way up to half tuition. , right? So they, they can be a very big chunk when you, when you factor in your merit scholarships.
Um, the, the second like [00:12:00] bucket of money that you can get, um, are at a lot of universities and DePauw has this as well, is your competitive scholarships, right? So those are ones that have more of an application process. You might have to write a separate essay. There might be an interview involved whether.
On Zoom or you have to come to campus. Um, but those can also be very substantial, 2, 3, 4, 5, $6,000 scholarships, um, that are, you know, per year that can help drive that cost down. Um, and again, those types of scholarships, even though they’re com you know, they’re competitive, um, but they just get added onto the top of your merit, right?
And now we’re even looking at a, at a better number. Um, the next, you know, opportunity for, for aid is the financial aid process, right? Um, filling out FAFSA and going through the, the government. Um, and that is different for every student, right? That’s always a tough conversation with coaches because we don’t know the family background, right?
So they can always say, Hey, what do you think? And I’m like, you have a better idea than I. Um, and so yeah, of course if you’ve got parents out there where they’re sent, this is their third kid, they’re sent into college, they understand that process, but the first one, they don’t know what they’re looking at.
But for a lot of families, that can be a very good, um, area to get some, what we call, you know, need based aid. Right. Um, and it starts at the federal level and then every state, right? And I’m learning, um, Indiana, right, in the past couple months here, and Indiana has some, some very substantial need-based aid for students, right?
When the family income is below a certain number, right? They qualify for additional [00:13:30] need-based aid that can, that’s just from the states. Now you add federal money plus state money on top of those merit scholarships. Um, and now you’re looking at it a very, very reason. Um, price to attend. Um, a very good academic institution, right?
Yeah. And then, you know, the last, one of the last buckets, there’s always outside scholarships, right? You get from third parties. Everyone knows that. Um, and that’s this unique opportunity for students. And then the last one that no one likes or loans , but it is an opportunity and that’s again, a decision that I always default to the student athlete in his family.
Like, you have to decide if that’s the right route for you or not. Um, I am not in the position to sit here and try and convince you and say, oh, take out more loans just so you can come play for me. Right. Um, I’ll always say that’s an opportunity and an option, but I’m not gonna push that.
Matt: No, that makes perfect sense and thank you for that amazing breakdown.
Uh, I think it’s great for people to hear, uh, all those different avenues. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. I’m sure there’s people out there who. Might be even going, wait, I thought DePauw was in Chicago , uh, because it had an L on the end and you got a W in Indiana, so Correct. What, uh, let folks know a little bit about the school.
What have you found interesting and exciting about the school? Uh, having only been there a few months?
Coach: Yeah. I mean, DePauw is a top 50 ranked liberal arts school in the country. So one of the top 50 schools, um, for small private, which is, um, fantastic. They’re ranked number one in Indiana for liberal liberal arts schools.
a lot of our students, you know, are coming from the Midwest area, [00:15:00] right about a three hour radius, right. With that Chicago, St. Louis, Columbus, Cincinnati. Um, you know, that’s the, that’s the big chunk. But we also get students from all over the country. Right. West coast, east coast, down south. Um, something I have started to find out, you know, from being here that I wasn’t aware of is, is that we do pretty well get into the south, well, that’s Texas and Oklahoma.
Um, we can get into those areas just for the lack of maybe similar academic schools like. Um, in those areas, we can drive some, drive some interest up here. So, um, you know, as a liberal arts school, DePauw’s also starting this fall, a business school right, that makes us one of only four liberal arts schools in the country to offer a liberal arts education in tandem with a business school.
Um, Most liberal arts schools don’t have a business school. They might have, you know, economics or finance as a major, but not a true business school. So that’s really helping us, especially since I recruit males. And that’s a, that’s a big major for males, right? Is that they, they wanna go in the business route.
So that’s really helping me. Um, push that. Right? When I was finalizing and building this last 23 class, that’s how I got a couple recruits, right, is I was able to say, Hey, I know you’re looking at maybe some of these state schools, right? Because, or other, other academic institutions that have a business school, but so do we.
Right. And that was very helpful, you know, to drive them DePauw’s all about like, you know, um, a, a high-end student experience. Right. You know, in my role we talk about a student athlete experience, right? But DePauw’s talks about a student experience and, [00:16:30] um, whether that’s the academic rigor that you’re gonna get while you’re there.
But what I think is really important for parents to understand and, and, and the students is I think there’s a lot of focus on like inputs to schools, right? Like what’s their acceptance rate? How many applications do they get, right? And I think there needs to be more focus on the outputs, right? Like what’s the average mean salary of a graduating student, what type of internships are they getting when they’re in school?
Because it is kind of, yeah, it’s great to say, Hey, I got into this school with a low acceptance rate. Right? But where’s that gonna get you at the end of the day? Um, and so DePauw does a fantastic job with our internship placement, with our location, and is close to Indiana, right? We’re only. 20 plus miles away.
It’s about 30 minute drive and you’re in downtown Indianapolis. So a lot of Fortune 500 companies there for the opportunities for internships. Um, fantastic alumni with connections in a, in many different industries that can really set you up for jobs. You know, when you’re done. And I think this new business school’s really gonna propel a lot of grads, a lot of students to go where they want to go in in their careers.
Again, specifically recruiting males. That’s just a big major we see, and I think that’s gonna be a game changer for a lot of myself and other coaches that coach males. At the school. Um, but the same thing if you’re in the pre sciences, um, or you want pre-law or you’re looking at grad school. Um, our grad, our grad, excuse me, our graduate placement rate is extremely high and compared to the [00:18:00] national average, again, I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me.
a little too new to, to spit those out at you. But, um, our students are getting into their, their graduate school of choice, right? They’re, they’re getting to where they want to go. as families are doing research, yes, you wanna pay attention to what a school’s ranked and, you know, acceptance rates and all that.
I’m not discrediting that, right? But let’s also focus on the outcomes, right? What, what is that school, not just inputting, but what are they outputting with their graduates?
Matt: No, I think it’s a, it’s a great way to look at it for sure. Well, let’s. Fast forward a little bit to your first season here, um, in the fall.
Can you walk me through what a typical week might look like for the players in terms of, you know, winter are classes, meals, practice times, what’s kind of the game cadence and travel look like?
Coach: Yeah, for, for during the season. Yeah, absolutely. So, um, a general week, right, is, you know, you’re always gonna have one off day, you know, in your week, but generally, we’ll, we’ll train on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Play a game on Wednesday, train Thursday, Friday, play a game. Saturday and Sunday is gonna be your off day, right? That’s the closest to a normal week that there’s gonna be, right? Yeah. Sometimes you play Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Sometimes you play Saturday or Sunday instead of Saturday. Some weeks you don’t play midweek and you play Friday.
Sunday, right? Like, so there’s gonna be some differences and nuances in there, but generally speaking, you’re, you’re playing two matches a week, um, and you’re having that one off day. , we try to keep our travel within a three to [00:19:30] four hour radius of where we’re playing. Um, we do push that envelope though within, within our conference with most of our schools other than Wabash, which is 30 minutes up the road.
The rest of them are in Ohio. So when we have to get up to, you know, northeast Ohio and the Cleveland area, it’s gonna, it pushes us closer to five sometimes. But for most of our games, we’re trying to stay in that three to four hour radius. Try to limit that misclass. As best we can. Um, you know, we play all of our games at night during the midweek, so you’re not gonna miss class.
And then we play. , you know, usually mid-afternoon games on Saturdays. Right. So it’s, it’s a good opportunity to, to balance the academics with the travel. Right. That, that we have. And of course there’s gonna be, some days you might have to travel to an opponent midweek. They don’t have lights. The game’s at four o’clock
Yeah. We’re, we’re, we’re missing all day. But those are few and far between. Right. That’s not the norm. Um, the norm is you are usually not gonna have to leave till three, four in the afternoon for a seven o’clock game. , you know, sometimes maybe closer to two, but a lot of the students are getting their classes in in the mornings, right?
We always pu push, get your class in the mornings as best as you can. Um, and so a typical day for a student is they’re gonna get up, they’re gonna go to class anywhere in the morning between eight, nine, and 10 is when they’ll start their day. Um, they’ll have some lunch and breakfast in there, obviously, you know, in season, depending on where they’re at.
Their bodies, they might have an appointment with the athletic trainer and that staff because they’ve gotta work on some injuries. Uh, there might be. [00:21:00] Small group positional meetings around class. We might wanna go over some film with some guys on a certain day. And again, that’s not like an everyday type of thing, but that’s possible.
Um, and then typically we’re training in the afternoon, somewhere between four and four 30 is when we start. Um, ideally we try and hope players can come out, um, a little bit earlier, get some individual work in for themselves. . But, um, but yeah, we’ll finish up training around 6, 6 30. It’s about two hours and then they’ve got their evening to kind of recover and get some dinner and work on their homework.
Okay.
Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team, the soccer side of things. I know we were talking earlier about the recruiting side and, and that, so is there a, an ideal roster size that, that you’re looking to hit each year that you find? is a good one.
Coach: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think you’ll get different answers from a lot of different coaches.
Um, one of the biggest things I, I believe in college soccer is we have to be so injury resilient with our roster. Um, when you play almost every third day, right, you can’t risk the opportu. You can’t risk the chance of having three players get hurt, and that derail your entire season because by the time those three players come back, you might’ve played six games, and that’s your season, right?
Like so. Even though we do spend a lot of time on injury prevention, we do a lot of key important things in our workouts and our cool downs to really limit like soft tissue injuries, right? You’re never gonna stop the acute injury. It’s a contact sport, right? A dude gets [00:22:30] tackled, rolls his ankle, that’s gonna happen, right?
A guy gets whacked in the shin, has to miss a couple days. Those are gonna happen. We really try to put our focus though, on limiting those. Those soft tissue injuries because a, a pulled hamstring could be four to six weeks. Well, if you’re playing two games a week, , that’s eight to 12 games that they’re out.
And when you’re scheduling 17, 18, 19 games, I mean, you’re talking, two-thirds of their season could be done with one injury. So that’s a the player. But then as a team, we need to be injury resilient. You’re gonna be picking up injuries, so, You know, give or take a couple players, I usually look around 35. Um, you know, and there’s, you’re gonna have anywhere between four and six goalkeepers in that number as well.
Um, you know, you’re gonna have, again, you’re gonna have a couple goalkeepers, you’re gonna have injuries. And we always wanna be able to kind of scrimmage ourselves right. In training, which means we always need at least, you know, 22 guys. Um, but then once you factor in a couple injuries and your goalkeepers, that’s how you get up to, into the thirties.
Matt: Yeah, that makes sense. In terms of your staff, uh, what. Look like or going to look like, uh, for this, for this first full season, right?
Coach: Yeah. Um, kind of more of what it’s going to look like. Um, you know, right now, this spring, again, I was just focused on the recruiting efforts. Now I’m focused on the current team and working with them, um, and teaching them.
You know, things that are important to me, you know, my, my vision and, and principles and methodology of how I approach the game. Um, and [00:24:00] then towards late spring, early summer, I’ll start working towards building the staff. I’m fortunate right now to have, have an assistant coach who was with the program last year.
He’s, he’s a local, Um, a local guy, um, coach Scott. He does a phenomenal job helping disconnect a little bit of the guys from the past. You know, he works with the goalkeepers, um, which is great to have. So glad to have him a part of the spring. It really helps me balance out, you know, my duties. But come this summer, we will hire like a full-time assistant.
So an ideal staff will be myself. We’ll have a full-time assistant, um, a part-time assistant, and then sometimes if the opportunity presents itself right, we’ll have a volunteer as well. Um, but those are unique situations because again, it it’s, it’s tough for people to volunteer their time. Right. Um, . But ideally if I could have a staff of four, right, a full-time head, full-time assistant, part-time assistant, and then a volunteer, that would be ideal.
Um, you know, scenario wor working ourselves into the fall.
Matt: Yeah, no, that, that would be, uh, definitely an ideal setup. Um, you, you did kind of mention, uh, you know, how, how you like to. To coach and, and, and getting your kids familiar with that. So can you tell us kind of more about your style of coaching and, and the team style of play you’re hoping to, to input in the fall?
Coach: Yeah, sure. Um, , I was a forward player as a player, right? So, right or wrong, I like scoring goals. . Um, you know, don’t get me wrong, I value the importance of defense. Right? I’ll, [00:25:30] I’ll take a one. Oh. Win over a , over a loss any day. But, um, I believe the best defense is an offense, right? So I want us to get to the final third as quickly as we can, right?
Depending on what the defense is giving us, right? I try and teach our players to be adaptive and, and read what’s in front of ’em. Um, , you know, if the goal is got the ball in his hands or it’s a goal kick and they’re not pressing us, then sure. Right. There’s only two guys in front of you play short. Right.
Um, try and suck the opponent out. Right. But if they’re. If they’re trying to press us with 6, 7, 8 guys in our own half, well that doesn’t make any sense to be playing short, right? The space to attack is behind them. So I always try to get our players to think about where is their available space to attack, right?
Um, but again, how can we get to the final third as quickly as possible? Because we wanna score goals, right? We wanna get the ball in the scoring zone, um, whether that’s centrally or from white areas, we wanna generate scoring chances Offset place. . You know, in my opinion, I don’t have the stats, I don’t haven’t done enough research to say this, but in my professional experience at this level, I think the two biggest ways you see goals scored are transitional moments and set plays, right?
So, um, yes, it’s important to have an identity when you have the ball and have a style of play, but there’s also five moments of the game that you have to focus. , right? So yes, I teach our style play, or you know, how we get the ball from, from our box of the opponents, but we spend a lot of time on transitional moments, right?
What do we do when we win the ball? What do we do when we lose the ball? Um, you know, what’s our attacking [00:27:00] transition? Like, what’s our counter pressing like? And then, um, we’re gonna be, we’ll be dialed in on set plays right now. set plays aren’t a huge important thing to work on in the spring season because that’s so game specific.
Right? And we only get to play one game, so we’ll work on those a couple, couple days before our game to make sure we’re all on the same page. But when you’re in the fall and you’re talking about playing a game every three days, we might be working on set plays two, three times a week. Um, because it can be such an important.
Aspect of the game, right? Um, you know, there’s so many good coaches. Um, at this level. There’s so many good players and sometimes you can see a set play could be the difference in a game. Um, By no means am I saying it’s more valuable than the other ones, but I just take, have to make sure we just don’t overlook it.
So, um, yeah, I try this to be aggressive, attacking, um, wanna be on the front foot, wanna be the protagonist and the dictator in every single game that we play. I don’t wanna be too reactive to the opponent, um, but if we have to be to get the result, we will. Um, but I hope that’s very few and far between.
Matt: Oh, love it.
Absolutely love it. Well, you’ve been very generous with your time. We’ve covered a lot of ground and, and I’m actually, I, I usually. Just, just kind of give a catchall last question, but I’m changing it up on you this time. Okay. and, and I’m gonna be more specific with my question, but if you had one piece of advice for parents of, of players or players themselves that are going through this process right now, that if there’s one thing they need to hear, what is that?[00:28:30]
Coach: You gotta make me boil it down to that. Yep.
Matt: I, I, I, I’ll, I’ll give you, catch it. If there’s two I’ll let you go. Two. No, let’s just stick it to one.
Coach: No, I, I can stick it to one, but you know, I think it’s, there should be a bit of explaining and I think my advice is go where you’re wanted. Um, I think a lot of times there’s players that say, oh, this school has everything.
If I can just get the coach to give me an offer so I can play there, then that’s where I want to go. You’re, you’re not getting the love from the coach, right? And it’s like, well, do you really want to go to that place? Because the same thing happens for, for us as coaches, right? I may see a player and be like, that guy’s gonna be a game changer for me.
He’s everything I need to take my program to the next level. Well, if the guys is not returning my phone calls, if I can’t get him on campus for a visit, then we’ve gotta move on, right? And I can’t put all my eggs in one basket. So I think it’s important to, to go where you’re wanted. Now my, my follow up to that is, So parents and students understand as well.
How do you know that? Ask pointed questions, right? Ask pointed questions to coaches and say, do you see, are you actively recruiting me? Do you see me getting an offer? Are you gonna give me an offer? Right? Like, and then once you have an offer, ask, how quickly do you think I’m gonna play? Am I gonna get on the field as a freshman or am I, is it gonna take me a couple years?
Um, . And so I think it’s important, you know, this is our profession as coaches, right? We’re gonna be very cordial in our, in our, in our correspondence and things like that. And so I think sometimes, um, , you know, parents and, and players get lost in the gray area of like where they actually stand with the program.
It’s like, well, the coach is [00:30:00] responding to me, but like, what does that mean? Well ask pointed questions. Figure out if you’re truly wanted there, and that can help guide your list of like, okay, these are the options I have to play. These are the options I have that don’t play. And then, You know what’s in, what’s, what’s the most important to you as the student when it comes to your four years experience?
Because ultimately, I think any coach would say this, we care about the student athlete experience, right? We want you to have a good experience. Whatever that looks like, whatever you have an envisioned for that is, that’s what we want, right? We want you to enjoy your four years.
Matt: No, that’s fantastic advice and I really appreciate it.
Coach. Wish you the best of luck, uh, with the rest of your spring season in that first full season in the fall. We’ll keep an eye on you, see how you guys are doing, and if you get down to Bradenton doing any recruiting, give me a shout. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll get together. All right?
Coach: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Matt: All right. Thank you, coach.
