East Central College Men’s and Women’s Soccer – Coach Joseph Benninger
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Benninger from the East Central Men’s and Women’s Programs in Missouri. We talk about how much word of mouth plays into recruiting. He describes the warm and friendly local community. Lastly, we discuss how he manages the different roster sizes. Learn more about East Central College Men’s and Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Joe from east central college in Missouri. Welcome coach. Well, appreciate you being here. You are both the men’s and the women’s coach there at the two year program. Uh, I think this fall it’ll be your second year at the helm.
So, uh, you know, I’ve talked to a couple junior colleges recently. I know it’s, it’s all, it’s harder because you’re recruiting twice as much as everybody else, right? Reloading the, the, the team. We’re talking end of July. So you’re getting ready for preseason and whatnot. Um, uh, one question that it’s always fun to ask this time of year is.
Are you actually even done with the class of 23 recruiting? Uh, do you have everybody or there’s still somebody you’re trying to sneak in here in those last few weeks?
Coach: Yeah, no, fortunately, uh, for myself, uh, on the men’s side, we are done. Um, we hit our number, um, inevitably, um, someone might not show up, but, um, we’re built to, to handle that.
Um, I’m, I’m very happy with the class that’s coming in. Um, A little bit of boost, obviously, that comes with winning, um, the previous season, so we were able to get some, uh, some guys in very early, um, that were more regionally or local, um, than previous years, um, and that was a boost. On the women’s side, um, of course, um, it, the nature of the, the game and where we’re at being going into our fourth year.
Um, and the talent level [00:01:30] that’s here in our area, Union, Missouri, um, you know, we’ve, we’ve had the player of the year, um, in the eight, 10 at St. Louis university come from this area. So there’s a lot of very talented female players in this area. So, um, we’re still definitely looking, um, and last year we, we actually picked up one or two, a little bit in a season that, that wasn’t sure they wanted to play that were talented players from the area, um, that came out a little later in season.
So good on the men. Um, still, still, uh, have room on the women’s side.
Matt: Well, for that recruiting, I mean, you kind of mentioned the regional area there. So, you know, what, what are the events or places you like to go to really do that recruiting on both sides?
Coach: Sure. Um, lucky enough to, to have, you know, great clubs in the area.
Um, the few Scott Gallagher, Missouri rush. Um, and there’s always new clubs popping up here and there, right? Um, that, that are, are, are kind of in that realm where they’re, they’re almost operating as feeder clubs to these bigger clubs. So there’s a lot of showcases, a lot of things, um, that these clubs promote.
They do a very good job of, of, of making, uh, the players available to the college coaches in the area. Um, and then there’s the high school games that there really is just in Missouri, a very high level of talent, um, whether it is club or whether it is high school. So, um, We my assistant here, his wife is the head coach of Portia.
Um, and, and, and being, uh, it’s ST louis is, is, as you know, and I’m sure this is true everywhere is soccer community is [00:03:00] small. It seems larger than it is, but it’s small. So those relationships are important. Word of mouth is the best recruiting tool you can have. And we rely a lot on that, but to go out and be able to watch good level high school men and women’s soccer here, um, in, in ST louis and the surrounding areas is fantastic.
Matt: Okay. Do you guys run any ID clinics or do you or your staff work any ID clinics as part of your recruiting process?
Coach: So unfortunately, last year, uh, when I came in, it was very late in the year, um, uh, with, with the previous head coach, one of my best friends, Mark Clay’s, um, moving over to Scott Gallagher.
And so we weren’t able to run something last year. And so we lost a little bit of the momentum on our camps. Um, we, we had a couple of camps this summer that unfortunately we did have to, um, decide to shut them down based on numbers. But, um, this year was, um, guys that we recruited girls. We recruited playing throughout the summer with the U S Y S with ECNL.
There wasn’t a lack of opportunity, um, camp wise or playing wise for these kids. So that’s the biggest thing on my end is, is. If they’re not coming to us, um, for a camp that they’re still out there and have opportunity that to get, um, you know, on the ball in the summer. And so it’s hard, hard to be upset when they’re going and playing for national champions, um, uh, and traveling states.
And so we, it was a little harder to get the numbers this year, but we will ramp them back up again next year, um, in the summer and we’ll [00:04:30] hope we’ll have a better turnout.
Matt: Well, how about international recruiting? Is that come into play on either the men’s or women’s side or both?
Coach: Absolutely. Um, we’re fortunate enough this year that, um, we are bringing in our two returners, um, on the women’s side, international and four new internationals coming in.
Uh, we. We’re in a position where we don’t have as, as part of me as a division to junior college program. We don’t have on campus housing. And so that can be difficult, especially with, with the environment that we’re in where we’re rentals are hard to come by, kind of, from what I understand across the country.
Constantly growing in this area. So there’s a new apartment complexes that have been put up. We’ve developed relationships with them to waive the, um, uh, proof of employment, um, on the international kids. That was always a giant hurdle. So now we have the availability to work with this, um, company. And, um, uh, E L S is the company name.
I’m sure they would love the shout out. Um, but they’ve been a pleasure to work with. And we’ve had the ability now to bring in more internationals on the men’s side. We do have a heavy international class coming in, um, due to COVID we moved on quite a number of people. So, um, we were bringing, we’re bringing in roughly 24 new men’s players.
Um, all but about nine of them are international players. Some are transfers, some are brand new. So some have had the experience of at least coming over, [00:06:00] playing, um, and having, um, gone through that pathway of coming to America. Some, this will be their first, um, time doing it. So, first and foremost, we always want to make sure they get in and get settled, uh, and then we get right to settling and working on the football.
Matt: Awesome. Well, you know, You mentioned being a division two junior college program. So can you give me a little bit better idea of what the, I’m not holding you to hard numbers here, but just give an overall financial picture of what it looks like for an average player coming in with, is there athletic money, academic money, total cost, that kind of thing?
Coach: Sure. We’re, we we’re, uh, lucky, um, the school is, is, has a. Um, good idea of what the athletics brings, um, to the school and the marketing that that does for the school. And so they back us quite well. Um, we are well funded on the scholarship side. Uh, obviously we’re, we’re hold to 24 offers. Um, so we move that money quite, uh, around quite a bit, obviously.
Um, also in Missouri and in other states, you have the A plus style program. So a lot of our kids come in, if they’re local, um, they come in and the university or the, or the schooling is free because they’ve met certain academic attendance and, and charity or volunteer work, um, in, in their, um, high school studies.
And so. On the women’s side where we, where we have much a larger group that comes in, they, they’re covered on that so we can spend a lot more, um, internationally recruiting and [00:07:30] make those numbers fit. It’s very much the same on the men’s and the women’s side. We’re at about 14 scholarships on each side.
Um, a full, um, obviously covers academic. But not housing being a division two program. We estimate housing and food and insurance, all these things to be comfortably a budget of about 6, 500, um, would be your out of pocket costs. And then based on scholarship money, full is obviously zero academic that covers books and everything, but fees.
Your lab fees and these different things and these internet course are the online courses and things like that will definitely you’ll you’ll take the brunt of those fees, but they’re small, and they’re very manageable, a half, you’re looking somewhere around 8500, that includes what we say in that 6500 for budgeting with housing and food and everything.
And then last on the smaller scholarship side, usually around 10k or so. That’s really typically the most that we see people pay because we do a good job of getting enough locals in to then fill out the roster with the internationals. So 10 is typically the max and on the women’s side it’s usually no more than than that 6, 500 out of pocket because of the availability to have more local players come in.
Matt: Oh, sounds fantastic. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school other than the financial side. You’ve been there for a couple of years now as assistant first and head. So what are some of the great things that you found out about the school? Some things that you’d like to share that maybe aren’t easily going to be found on the [00:09:00] website.
Coach: Sure. Um, so, uh, the first time I pulled in, uh, you know, a number of years ago, 2021, um, coming off Highway 44 and coming down 50. I had almost some nostalgia. I went to Truman State University. Um, and I hit the sign that said Welcome to Union and it had 10, 000, you know, uh, population 10, 000 on it.
And it reminded me of pulling into Kirkstall for the first time. So one of the things that, that you’re probably not going to find on the website is it’s a very warm community. Um, it’s small, everybody knows each other. Um, but we’re not too far from Washington. That is, you know, 15 minutes down the road, which is just blowing up.
It’s, it’s budding with, with life and, and homes, um, down on the, on the landing, they call it over there with million dollar homes. And, um, but, but the community is very warm. It’s very strong. And so you get, you get a real sense of pride. Um, for the area. Um, the school academically is strong. Um, you know, we, we’ve got, um, very good teachers.
We’ve got very good programs, um, whether it’s, um, the nursing program that’s out here. Um, I have a player that last year was enrolled in the welding, um, um, program and got a certificate. There’s, um, the EMT, um, programs out here. So there’s a lot of availability that I didn’t know before I, I was, um, uh, at a junior college that I just didn’t know all of the benefits, all of the, the a plus with the free schooling [00:10:30] and, and everything that was really available to you.
Um, and then, like I said, that the coursework, um, one of the things we like to use in our recruiting talk is we don’t go to school on Fridays. Um, the, the schedule is Monday through Thursday and kids hear that and they’re like, I get Fridays off. I’m like, well, we train. Um, but yeah, you know, um, it’s not a day off.
Um, but yeah, you know, you get a little bit more time. Um, and then like anywhere else, the population numbers to the faculty are very good. So you get a lot of support, um, where you can go to some of these bigger institutions and you feel like a number, um, here, you know, they know your name. Um, that’s good and bad.
They know when you’re not in class and they know when you are. So, um, it’s got, it’s, it’s got its pluses and minuses, if you will.
Matt: Sure. Well, you mentioned not M Friday’s, uh, class, which is great. I’m sure for the students, but having training. So let’s fast forward. Let’s say we’re in the middle of October.
Uh, what would a typical week look like for one of your players in terms of when it’s class? When, when her meals practices, what kind of, what the game cadence looks like? Gimme a a week snapshot.
Coach: Sure. Um, we’re very lucky, as I said, the school backs us. We travel everything we do with coach buses. Um, we’re not packed into vans.
Um, um, it’s a very nice situation. So typical week, um, we typically play Monday or I’m sorry, Wednesdays and Saturdays for the most part. Um, that would be a typical week. So we’ll use that as an example. [00:12:00] Monday, um, come in off the weekend. Um, If we’ve played a Saturday, then, then, you know, we hold these guys accountable to, to some, um, self accountability, if you will.
So Sunday would be probably a recovery day. We asked for 45 minutes of work, um, 15 minutes on a bike or treadmill, 15 minutes, uh, 15 inch stretch, 15 minute bike treadmill, 15 minute stretch, 45 minutes of work, um, if. The gym is usually open or, or the new apartment complex has a gym. So there’s availability for these guys to have a place to do that.
Monday, come back in, go to class, typically eight to around noon, 1230. Um, the guys will get lunch. Um, girls will get lunch. Girls will train at one, um, one till typically three. Um, and then the mental start 3 30 and go to five. It gives me a nice little break in between to collect my head, my thoughts on, on, um, kind of code switching from one team to the other.
Uh, we’ll, we’ll go Tuesday again, a lighter session because we play on Wednesday. So typically we’ll only go for about an hour. Um, and we’ll walk through if it’s an opponent we know enough about, maybe we do 20 minutes of film, um, and then go down to the pitch and work on some of the things we talked about in film, work on some, um, pieces that maybe we’ve identified from a previous game, um, whether it’s maybe not dropping or stepping early enough in the back line, maybe it’s, um, something as simple as, as, uh, um, uh, restarts or are we doing them appropriate timing?
So we’ll just find details that we can pick up on that we can be sharper on. [00:13:30] Wednesday, um, if we’re away, um, we’ll, we’ll have our departure time, we’ll get together, um, and, and we’ll jump on the bus and, and then out to the game. We typically like to get to the games, um, about an hour and a half early, and then spend that first half an hour.
to 45 minutes just collecting ourselves. Um, and then about 30 minutes before the game, we’ll really kick into the full warmup. Um, and, and that gives us time. The men will then typically, um, they’ll either come watch the game because we tend to play back to back women than men. And, uh, men will have lunch.
Um, they’ll either do it on the bus. Um, if it’s October, it’s nice and cool. They can eat it outside. Um, and then. Um, we’ll, we’ll travel home, uh, Thursday, we’ll, we’ll do another recovery session. Friday, we’ll, we’ll probably have a, a, a mid kind of day on the periodization style of training because we can’t go too light.
We can’t go recovery, then light with maybe a game on Saturday. So, um, that, that’s kind of on the football side, on, on the school side. We’ve got an awesome program here called Food for Falcons where the students can swipe their student ID card and get lunch. So when the women train at one, the men train three 30.
So typically what we ask is the men eat, you get your free lunch. Um, it’s between 10 and one 30. I believe when you can pick up that free lunch and then we asked the men to go do study hall. So they’ll go out there. We were, uh, a number of study hall hours during the week. And I always say guys. You’re the rest of your week will be way more enjoyable if you get your homework done early, right?
[00:15:00] Uh, if you truly want that free friday, um, outside training, don’t spend it, you know, get your homework done during the week and then you kind of really have your friday to decompress and get ready for saturday’s game and then come sunday when you’re recovering, um, you’re free. You can actually just, you know, focus on your mental health.
Um, because it is a busy schedule and school and football is a lot to deal with, um, amongst all of the other things that college kids deal with. Absolutely.
Matt: Awesome. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the teams. Um, you know, we, we talked about recruiting earlier, but is, is there a roster size for each team that you’re trying to hit that you find is ideal?
Coach: I do. Um, 28 to 30. Um, on the men’s side is very manageable. Anything over that. Um, I believe you start to at our level start to lose players. You start to lose interest. Um, and so that’s my job to keep them interested. Um, but that that 28 number we’re fortunate this year. I went out and I recruited four goalkeepers on the men’s side, um, for competition purposes and for training purposes.
Um, you know, the guys you Um, I kind of picked that up from from time I spent at the U. S. L. With the ST Louis Lions. Um, shout out to Tony Glavin there as well. Um, but having that availability where you don’t have to stick a random player in goal or I don’t have to go on goal and every team feels that they’re not being neglected in some sense because they’re five aside or six aside or eight aside doesn’t have a [00:16:30] goal.
Um, and so, um, I went four goalies and so that means I have 24 outfield players for this upcoming season, which is very healthy. We’re one of the deepest, um, this is one of the deepest teams I’ve seen in a number of years, um, from, from a standpoint. And then the women’s side, 18 to 20 is ideal for me. Um, a little harder to hit right now.
We’re, we’re at about 16 going in, so we’re not far off the number. Um, but you know, we’ve built this program, Martin, Claes and myself from, from zero. Um, as far as player recruitment went, those first years we were, we were sitting at 11, 12 players, some games, um, and now to come in comfortably into a season at 16, um, you know, uh, A small pat on the back to myself there.
Um, and the work that Martin place, but in the school, um, you know, it, the school, like I said, continues to back us and, and, and offer these, these scholarships. And, and when we came to them with the idea of internationals on the women’s side, they said, all right, we’ll do it. If we can figure it out, we’ll do it.
And so they were, they’ve been very helpful in the process. That’s good.
Matt: Well, you mentioned having an assistant earlier. What does the overall staff situation look like both from a coaching perspective and is there athletic department support staff, trainers, strength and conditioning, anything like that as well?
Coach: Um, yeah, we, so we have a trainer. We, we use athletico, um, as our training. So we, um, have a contract with them. Um, hope it, um, just joined us. She actually played, um, High level [00:18:00] college volleyball. Um, she’s originally from Hawaii. So she’s coming in as her first year new athletic trainer. Um, but our training staff over the years has always been excellent.
Um, whether it’s a couple years ago, a woman named B who moved on to, um, uh, Missouri Baptist and then Cindy, who is one of the managers at Athletico filled in last year due to, um, staffing shortages in that part. And she’s excellent. She kept us, um, on the field. She, she was really great with our players, which.
Can not be stressed enough on my end, how important that side of everything is that recovery side, having a strong athletic, um, training staff. So, um, from the athletic department standpoint, um, Jay, uh, Mierhoff, our, our athletic director is, is fantastic. He, he is a soccer guy through and through. Um, he loves the sport he played himself.
And so, um, it’s always great to have, have the athletic director in your corner, um, and then the school supports us as well from, from, uh, direct, um, staff, um, it’s myself, Alex, um, Severino, um, has joined us. He joined us in the spring. Um, he’s from, uh, he lives over in Boursier with his wife, where I mentioned McKenzie is the, um, head women’s coach over at Boursier high school.
And then this year we’re lucky enough to have, um. One of our former players, um, who’s a couple of years from from the programmer named Sierra Pittman is going to come out and work with us a little bit. She’s currently employed at first form, and so she’s going to come out and work with the girls, get the girls comfortable in the gym.
Um, you know, where, where that’s one of the things I think that, um, that’s been [00:19:30] tough in the past, difficult in the past is getting them comfortable in the gym, not scared to be in there because the guys have no problem walking in. But if you know, for some people, it’s easy to forget that When you walk into a gym, it can be intimidating, not knowing how to do the equipment, not knowing what equipment to use for what.
So that is a part of the program that we’re ramping up. Um, we were lucky enough that another coach of mine gave me a 10 week pre season training program that he had a sports performance coach make for him a couple years back. He was formerly in our conference. Um, he is no longer. So he, he was like, I can share this now with you, which is great.
So, um, We are always looking for volunteer assistants that want to come out and sharpen their resumes or who are maybe older and retired and got a good CV in the game and want to come and help out. I have no ego in this. Best idea wins. Um, and I’m, I’m happy to, um, share the praises. I know that typically the, um, the negatives come down on me and I’m okay with that.
That’s signing up for the job, but, um, uh, without being too much of a cliche, it takes a village. And so, um, we’re always welcoming to those that, that, um, want to help in any way possible, even guys that want to come out and just. Shoot photos and photography or want to help with social media, um, and help with operations and those kinds of things where we’re actually currently looking for someone, um, a student that we can, uh, offer, um, an opportunity [00:21:00] to get an internship, get some credits, um, and help out on the operation side with social media and photos and these kinds of different things.
Matt: Okay, great. Well, how about personally? Train the guns on you now for, for this one, but how would you describe, you know, your style of coaching and the style of play you’re looking to implement?
Coach: Sure. I I’m extremely lucky. Um, Martin and a licensed coach who I’ve known since college, um, came over from Scotland, so he knew the recruiting process.
Um, as far as internationals go. So I trained under Martin for that year and a half as his assistant. And then I I’ve also back in the day coach for Scott Gallagher, where I was under Dave Beck, another, um, very good coach who was an assistant at SLU is now over at, um, uh, uh, St. Louis development Academy.
And then, um, Kevin Stoll and Kevin Kalish out at St. Louis university. I grew up with the two of them, so I’ve had excellent mentors in this. Um, I’m a big culture guy. Um, I don’t mind doing the hard work on the front end. Um, I believe that players, it’s not my. Not my first and not the first priority on my list to develop you.
Um, we’re in the college game. It’s to come in, get you to play as a team, create the best culture, get the tactics in front of you and see who can adapt the quickest and the fastest. Um, that that’s quite literally my coaching style. Um, I thoroughly enjoy, um, the puzzle aspect of the game. Um, [00:22:30] And I like to go out there and look at every detail.
I come from a marketing background. So, one of the things I always say is perfection is the enemy of progress. Let’s just work harder every day. Let’s see what we can do to build the team up because it’s going to take an entire team effort. Um, It’s going to take the next guy up, pushing the guy that’s there.
And the guy behind the next guy up, it’s going to take him pushing. So competition with within the team is healthy. Um, but it is about a, a, um, competition versus, um, uh, uh, combativeness, if you will. Um, it’s getting everybody to buy into the, to the program. For sure.
Matt: We’ve covered a lot of different areas, uh, but I always like to end these the same way.
And that’s if you had one piece of advice, one nugget of information that you wish every parent, player, family going through the college soccer recruiting process would, would know, what would that be?
Coach: Persistence is key. Um, we, we, as coaches get a lot of emails. We get a lot of phone calls. We go to a lot of games.
Um, we’re, we’re seeing a lot of kids. Um, research your programs and then if, if, if you are dead set on a certain program, learn everything you can about it and then be persistent with that coach. Um, the best thing you can do is, is get in front of that coach. So emailing, um, uh, where you’re going to be, where you’re playing, um, finding out if that coach is going to be there.[00:24:00]
And then attending ID camps, um, get in front of that coach. That is, that is my biggest piece of advice.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Couldn’t agree more. Well, coach, wish you the best of luck with both teams this fall. And, uh, we’ll check back in. Hopefully you’re, uh, hanging a conference banner this time next year. All right.
Coach: All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you.
