Elmira College Women’s Soccer – Coach Bill Kelly

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Kelly from the Elmira Women’s Program in New York. We talk about the difference between their inbound and outbound recruiting. He describes the high percentage of students on campus that are also athletes. Lastly, we discuss his focus on a growth mindset when it comes to coaching. Learn more about Elmira College Women’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Bill Kelly from Elmira. Welcome coach. Great to be here. Thanks, Matt. Yeah, thanks for coming on. So you guys are, you know, up, up in New York, I, I, it’s weird because I would say upstate, but you’re really not.

You’re kind of down and overstate. 

Coach: Yeah, we’re pretty close to the Pennsylvania border. Yep. Finger Lakes region. Beautiful area. 

Matt: Oh yeah, absolutely. Uh, yeah, I. Driven through there several times. It’s gorgeous. Well, let’s, let’s talk about recruiting. I think you’re, you’re getting ready to start your second season here.

So you’ve gotten, uh, one full loop right, uh, of the recruiting cycle. So as a D three program, you know, uh, I mean, well, we’re, we’re two weeks away from the fame, June 15th date for all the D one and D two folks. But for D three, How do you kind of work your timing o of recruiting? I mean, when, when do you start talking to which classes and what’s that all kind of look like for you?

Coach: Well, you know, we’re, you know, we’re, we’ve already started reaching out to, to 2025 grads. Uh, the 2020 fours. Were pretty, pretty deep into it already. Um, you know, this spring, for example, with the 20 fours, we’ve really been, uh, encouraging campus visits. Uh, and, you know, we’re, we’re asking our 20 fours to really come, uh, forward with a, uh, a verbal commitment by.

September, you know, earlier, if they want to, you know, for the ones that are our top recruits, we’re ready for their commitment anytime they’re ready to give it. [00:01:30] But we, you know, we, we’re not gonna pressure people. Um, we want them to be comfortable with their decision, but there is sort of an end to the recruiting process, and we want to be wrapped up by Christmas time.

So verbal commitment by September. Um, then just, you know, they apply, they get accepted, that whole thing. And then if financial aid works out, you know, right after Thanksgiving, before Christmas, right around Christmas, uh, we’re set and ready to go. 

Matt: Okay. That makes sense. Well, in, in your, you know, recruiting your outbound stuff, how, how much, how much of it would you say is inbound versus outbound, if you know what I’m saying, in terms of, you know, people reaching out to you versus you finding people at, at in different ways.

Coach: Yeah, it’s a great question. Uh, we do quite a bit of outreach ourselves. You know, we are, you know, we’re on N C S A, we go to the tournaments. Uh, we identify players. We’re using a lot of different resources. We’re casting a pretty wide net. Um, and then in terms of inbound, uh, a lot, a lot of players are connecting with us too.

I get, uh, a dozen emails each week, uh, from various. Uh, student athletes are looking and just reaching out. Um, so both, I think, but I think we’re, we’re really going and really hitting the pavement and getting out there ourselves quite a bit. 

Matt: So when you’re, when you’re at an event, is it, well, again, last two questions here.

First of all, when you’re at an event, how [00:03:00] much of it is looking at players who, who have already contacted you or you’ve already have a relationship with versus. Sitting down at a match and you’re just hoping to see somebody good. 

Coach: Yeah, well, I just, I just got back from Needham, so I’ll just use that as the example.

Uh, when I went to Needham, I had a list of 24, uh, players that had reached out to me who seemed like a, a pretty good fit. You know, we’d, we’d identified them. Um, in most cases we’d seen video. Which, which can be helpful. Uh, but we sat down to watch the matches and uh, you know, we, we start noticing other players as well, uh, on the other team or on the same team even.

So we’ll reach out to those players and, uh, you know, kind of get, get it done both ways. 

Matt: Okay. Well you, you mentioned Needham, but what kind of, what, what events are on your must hit list that you guys are at every year? Kind of what’s your focus when it comes to events? 

Coach: Oh, it changes year to year. Uh, sometimes it depends on the budget too.

Uh, but we, we love going out, going out to Vegas in the third week of March. Uh, that is great because the weather’s usually always really good so we can count on the tournament actually happening. I mean, there have been times when we’ve tried to go to tournaments here on the East coast and it’s still been.

You know, inclement weather. Uh, so we go to Vegas, uh, love that. Been to Surf Cup out in California, um, here in New York. Uh, mad Dog has been great for us in June. Um, we’ve even gone [00:04:30] to the Nordic Cup up in, uh, Vermont. Uh, been to Jeff Cup. Um, just, yeah, we’ll, you know, every year we’ll just see, you know, maybe we’re getting more interest from players, uh, who are happening to, to go to those events, and we’ll try to arrange it that way too.

Okay. But, but Vegas is a, we usually go to Vegas every year that we get so many kids from all over the states showing up there. Okay. 

Matt: Well, what about, uh, camps? Do you guys do ID camps? Do you or your staff work external camps? Do they fit into your recruiting process at all?

Coach: We haven’t started ’em yet. This is, this is my first year at Elmira, so we are in the process of doing that.

But we’re gonna get some camps going. Uh, you know, ID clinics, uh, camps. We’ll see how, you know, if we can get a MULTIDAY camp going. But, uh, right now we’re gonna start with ID clinics, you know, one day clinics. Um, and tho those should be pretty good. So yeah, we’re looking forward to starting those up. Okay.

Matt: Well, whether it’s through camps, clinics, tournaments, inbound, outbound, whatever the case may be, what is it that you’re looking for in a player, whether it’s on the field stuff or off the field stuff, kind of what’s that hierarchy of things that, that you’re looking for? 

Coach: Yeah, well, I, I think most, most coaches start off with, uh, you know, pure talent, of course.

Uh, and, you know, we’re all looking for, for really good players. I, I tell you, Matt, when I sit down at a game and, and, and watch, I’m just kind of waiting for the personalities to emerge from the game. I, I just like to see what the personality [00:06:00] player is out there, that, that catches my eye. And it could be a combination of things.

I mean, some players are really fast. Uh, some are super technical. Um, there’s just different iterations of, of gifts that players offer out there, so I’m trying to see what that combination of gifts is that a player has. And, um, so I’m not really, you know, too picky about, oh, they’ve gotta be this or this or this, you know?

Yeah, it’d be great if there were all athletic and all fast and all this, but I’m just looking to see what emerges. And if I see a combination of things that, that really, I think would work for our program, then, then I’ll, I’ll contact that player. They may not be the fastest player out there, but boy, they’re super technical.

Or they may be super fast and their technical side isn’t as great, but you know what? I, you know, we can work with that. That’s, you know, that’s, we can coach ’em up and, and work with them. Um, and of course if there are players who are, you know, just really good in all categories, yeah, we’re gonna talk to them as well.

But, um, I, I look for personality players out there. Okay. 

Matt: Let’s talk a little bit more about the school. I’m sure there’s folks not familiar with, with Elmira, and especially if they’re not from that mid-Atlantic region. Uh, haven’t driven up through there. But, uh, you know, you’ve been there a year now at the Helms, so kind of gimme What have you found to be the, the really cool things, awesome things about the school that maybe someone wouldn’t learn just by visiting the website?

Coach: Yeah, great question. It’s, uh, Elmira’s a gem. It really is a wonderful little school. Um, you know, we’re not, not a huge school. You know, we got just under a thousand students now. We’re, you know, we’re working to, to build it up just like [00:07:30] everyone everywhere else in the country. You know, enrollment’s always an issue for everybody, but, uh, it’s a, it’s a great community.

It, I think that’s the outstanding part about Elmira. We’re, you know, the college community here is really tight, close-knit. A lot of athletes here. I think 60% of our students on campus are, are recruited athletes, um, which is phenomenal. And it creates this environment where, you know, there’s a lot of mutual support among all the sports.

Um, the professors are awesome, small class sizes. Um, the region that Elmira is in is, is beautiful, the Finger Lakes region. So we’re surrounded by just a wonderful pastoral beauty everywhere, rivers, lakes, um, you know, the, the Finger Lakes region is, is known for. You know, great wineries and great places to go, little small towns and things like that.

So yeah, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s a wonderful region. It’s a wonderful school. Um, just really excel at a few areas that, that have distinguished Elmira over the past decades. Um, education, you know, we’ve produced a lot of teachers, uh, nursing nursing’s huge. Three of my graduating seniors are nurses. Uh, actually it’s, it’s, it’s interesting they, uh, They already have jobs.

They’re gonna be working together at the same hospital and they’re gonna be living together, uh, as they work at this hospital. So the, the team’s spirit continues into the, the real world. So that, that’s, that’s kind of cool. But that’s, you know, that’s how Myron in a nutshell, just community is really strong.

Matt: Okay. Well, You mentioned some of [00:09:00] the academic programs and, you know, being a student athlete can be tough in, in trying to balance those things. So how do your players really balance the, the rigors of being an athlete and the school side, and what kind of support systems does a school offer to really help them with that?

Coach: Well, it, uh, that’s a great question for me because I’m, I’m the support specialist here in the athletic department. They, you know, I work with all the athletes who, um, maybe need a little extra help with academics, whatever that is, uh, to whatever degree. And so I have an office in the gym and I have another office in the library.

And, uh, so I’m the, I’m the support specialist who meets with athletes and we review things like, Oh gosh. You know, maybe it’s their study strategies that, that need to, to change or they need more study skills or time management. Um, even specifically, maybe it’s, you know, how’s their note taking? You know, maybe we should look at the Cornell system of note taking or SQ three R or something like that.

So I’ll sit down and talk with them about how they can get better at academics or what resources they need. I’ll steer ’em to the writing center. Maybe they need a math tutor. Maybe they just need somebody to check in with and just get a sense of, you know, this will help me be accountable. Um, so I work with all the athletes here in the department and, um, and of course with my own players, we, so we have a, a, you know, a priority of academics coming first here at Elmira.

And so that’s, that’s a real thing for us. And, uh, my, the teams here have done really well. We’ve, I think we’ve got 10 straight. National, uh, awards for academics. So they’re [00:10:30] plastered on my wall here, so gonna keep those going. So I offer a lot of support, but the college, the, the, the learning center over in the library is just awesome.

The people there I’ve gotten to know really well, are very supportive, um, in just every capacity for, um, academic excellence. 

Matt: No, that’s great. Well, as a parent, when. Daughter’s thinking about schools, I always gotta ask, okay, what, what’s this gonna cost me? Right? So I’m not, I’m not holding you at any hard numbers here, but just gimme an overview of what tuition looks like, what kind of grants, scholarships, financial aid is available.

I mean, obviously with you guys, b D three, no athletic money. So what can people expect since, since that might not be an option for them? 

Coach: Yeah, with, with, uh, with tuition and room and board and everything, it, it totals up to 51,000 and, uh, that’s, that’s with, not without any help at all, but the average package, I think the average, and this is just the average, I think the average is about 24, 25 is what people actually end up paying.

That varies a lot. We’ve got some top level merit scholarships. Um, you know, up to 22,000 I think is our top scholarship. Uh, and then from there, depending on what your grades are and how well you’ve done and distinguished yourself as a, as a scholar, uh, you’re gonna re be rewarded with competitive merit aid here.

So, uh, yeah, the average package, I think is, is around 24, is what it’s gonna cost. Okay. That’s not too bad. 

Matt: [00:12:00] Well, Take me either back or forward, uh, whichever you prefer, but can you walk me through what a typical week might look like during the season in terms of winter classes, meals, training, kind of the game cadence, travel, what all that just looks like in an average week, even though I know there’s no such thing.

Coach: Yeah, it, it does vary a little bit, but, you know, early in the season we’re a little busier. We’ve got more games packed in. It’s just, uh, just better to get, get our non-conference games and so we’ll play. Two games a week to start off with. And so let’s say, well, we’ll just start off, you know, we’ll have a Saturday game, um, and then we’ll recover, take Sundays off.

Usually I like to just give Sundays completely off. I think that that works really well. Um, Monday, we’ll, we’ll have training. We usually go in the evenings. We’ve got a lighted grass field. At our complex. So that’s, uh, it’s nice to have so that we don’t ever have any real conflicts with classes, or if we do, we can adjust our training time.

Um, so we’ll go from five to six 30 or later, seven to eight 30 sometimes. So we, you know, we just arrange it. Um, we’ll train, usually I like to get training done within 90 minutes. I don’t think there’s a whole lot of benefit to going past 90 minutes. Um, then, you know, we’ll, we’ll hit it pretty hard Monday, Tuesday.

You know, if we have a game Wednesday, that means Tuesday is gonna be a little bit lighter. We’ll just focus on some more technical, tactical stuff. And then, uh, Wednesday, uh, we’ll have a game. Maybe it’s a home game. So we’ll play at four on our, [00:13:30] on our home pitch. Uh, we’ll have a meeting, team meeting at two, get ready for the game.

Play four to six, you know, uh, get done. And then Thursday. You know, we’ve just played a game so we have to periodize a little bit and, you know, get some, I get the effort to, um, uh, recovery continuum going the right way. So we’ll take a little bit of, uh, uh, a breather there. We won’t go as hard. We’ll work on some things.

We’ll recover Thursday. Again, same thing. We can’t go too hard cuz we have a game Friday or Saturday, depending on what our schedule is. And then, uh, you know, if it’s, if the Saturday game, for example, or Friday game even is, if that’s an away game, you know, we’ll jump on a charter bus pretty comfortable. Uh, maybe we’ll leave oh two three in the afternoon, sometimes earlier if it’s farther away.

But a lot of our games are about two or three hours away. Uh, some are like within an hour, but, uh, travel isn’t too bad. But the buses help and kids can do homework on the buses. And then, uh, and then we start over again the next, the next week. All right. 

Matt: Well, let’s talk a more about the team and, and the soccer side of things a bit.

So we, we talked about recruiting before, but is there a roster size that you’re trying to hit every year that you feel is ideal? 

Coach: Yeah, I, I like a roster around max 27, 28. Um, you know, we’ve had, I’ve had bigger rosters in the past, you know, 30, 31, I think between 25 and 28 is a good number. And, uh, yeah, we try to hit that usually.

Matt: [00:15:00] Okay. Well, In terms of your, your staff, I mean, you’re the head coach, but what, what other staff are there? What other support staff to, to really help the team throughout the season, throughout the year. 

Coach: My assistant coach, uh, Ashley, uh, is, is phenomenal just to, uh, she, she also trains our goalkeeper. She’s got a goalkeeping background.

Um, so she’s been really useful there. She’s worked with a lot of top clubs in Indiana and, uh, Pennsylvania. So she’s at the high school level. This is her first college, uh, job. But she’s, she’s just been tremendous. Um, in terms of other support staff, we’ve got, uh, athletic training, uh, really top level.

People that work here with us take care of our athletes really well. Um, yeah, so I think we’re, you know, we offer a lot of support, uh, physically and uh, in terms of coaching, um, as well. 

Matt: Okay. Well, how would you describe your style of coaching and overall the team style of play? 

Coach: Hmm. My coaching approach is, uh, geared towards the transformational, uh, Side of leadership.

I think I, I really promote a growth mindset with my players. Um, I like players who like to embrace challenges, who like to challenge themselves, who are open to feedback and, and they’ll stick with it when times are tough. That’s, that, that’s really great. I think the, uh, the overall, uh, picture of our program could be presented in, in, in three main ways.

And, and [00:16:30] the, the first way is, uh, you know, we look at ourselves as a program that. Promotes developing great human beings. That’s number one for us. Number two is the academic piece. We want you to succeed as a scholar athlete here. So that, that’s number two. And then number three is the soccer piece. I mean, now all three of those are very important, but uh, you know, that’s kind of the priority order that, that we utilize here.

Um, yeah, so, uh, I think in terms of playing style, Uh, obviously everyone wants to lay possession. No one wants to give away the ball. Uh, that, that depends on how technical we are. And, and I always plan our, our playing model based on the personnel that we have here. So if we have. Um, a really great technical side.

You know what we’re gonna, we’re gonna try to play a, a, a real strong possession game. Um, if not, then we’re gonna maybe mix in some more direct play, uh, balance it out. Just, you know, we’re gonna go to our strengths and we’re gonna cover our weaknesses, let’s put it that way. Um, we’ve played different. You know, formations last year we played a 4, 2 31.

It worked out pretty well, but I, I, my favorite, uh, is, is a two striker system up top. Either a 4 42 or 3 52. But what, whatever, whatever we need to do, we’re gonna do. Okay. 

Matt: Well, obviously we’re, you and I are talking, it’s beginning of June, uh, school year for you guys, I’m sure just wrapped up and what. Did the non-traditional season or or off season look like for you guys?

What, what does the team do in the spring?

Coach: [00:18:00] Yeah. Well, we spent the winter, we’re hitting the weights pretty hard. That was, that was the main thing. And then towards our non-traditional season, we got five weeks. To get that, uh, get that done with, uh, 16 practice opportunities in, in a scrimmage day. So, um, we started developing our cardio a little bit more as, as that, uh, as that approached.

Um, so a lot of strength training. Uh, but the team also played indoor soccer, uh, in a league, a local league. That was great. They also played FUS all in the gym. So two, three times a week, they were playing soccer either with a fus all or an actual soccer ball on an indoor surface, and then hitting the weights, uh, three times a week.

Um, once our, our training schedule began for non-traditional, we were training two or three times a week, you know, five to seven, and then we had a scrimmage day, uh, went and had two scrimmages, two one hour scrimmages, and that, that worked out really well. And, um, now we’re gonna start our summer conditioning program.

I hand out the packet and we do a lot of, uh, aerobic intervals. That’s where we’re hitting now. We’re toning down the, the lifting a little bit to only twice a week. Uh, and then really going for the cardio. And then, uh, the sprint training, uh, agility training. And then come August if you want to be ready to go and fit to play.

Okay. 

Matt: Well, we’ve covered a lot of ground, talked about a lot of different things, but, uh, I want to get one last bit of info from you, a [00:19:30] little piece of advice for, for the folks that are out there. If there, if there was one nugget, something you wanted to share for parents, players, anybody interested in college soccer, in this whole recruiting process, what would you want folks to know?

Coach: Well, I think, I think it’s really important to, to make sure that you are. Searching out a program that really fits what you’re looking for, um, and maybe not succumbing to pressure from outside sources saying, you should go here or you should go there. It really has to be a fit. It has to, you have to find the right community.

You have to find the right coach, the right, uh, opportunity for yourself to do that. So that takes research. So I always tell, uh, prospective, Players to, to do their homework, to, to come visit campus, talk to the coaches, talk to the players, you know, make sure that you connect with the players and, and make sure the coach offers opportunities.

And the other thing I would say is, you know, it’s okay to ask a coach what your role on the team is gonna be. I, I think that’s, you know, to, to, to get the feedback so that you know that there’s a plan for you when you come in. Um, you know, I’m, I’m the type of coach that doesn’t wanna recruit a whole bunch of.

Players in here to fight for a position and then end up cutting people in preseason, that’s, that’s not okay for me. I’m looking for players that I have a plan for that I want to see coming in and contributing and, and having a plan to develop over a couple of years. But then also there’s the academic piece.

Does the major fit, does the community fit? Do they feel like emotionally it’s, it’s a great place for [00:21:00] them to, to be and grow and, and embrace that growth mindset. 

Matt: Awesome. Well, coach, I really appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck in this upcoming season, and, uh, if you ever get to any of the events down in Bradenton, gimme a shout and we’ll we’ll get together.

Coach: All right, great. Thanks so much, Matt. Really appreciate it. Thank you.