Fairmont State University Women’s Soccer – Coach Kernell Borneo
Welcome to the Discover College Soccer podcast. I am your host, Matt Baehr. On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Kernell Borneo from the Fairmont State University Women’s Program in West Virginia. We talk about the importance of academics in the recruiting process. He describes the great conference setup they have in terms of limiting travel. Lastly, we discuss the mix of technical training, conditioning and other things they do at practice. Learn more about the Fairmont State Women’s Program.
[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer. I am lucky enough to be joined by coach Kernell from Fairmont state in West Virginia coach. How are you this morning? I’m doing great. Doing great. Great. And no, we didn’t plan this. I just happened to be wearing the same colors as Fairmont state. This is my daughter’s club, a sweatshirt, but, uh, so just works out.
[00:00:19] So, so she goes to Fairmont she’ll can keep all her maroon gear. Right. Anyway. Uh, well, let’s just jump right in and talk a little bit about, uh, how you, how you do your recruiting there at Fairmont. So when do you start usually hearing from players and when you start looking at players, what year are they in, in high school?
[00:00:40] Coach: Well, we, um, we have had players is as early as that, uh, starting school in 2024 have been reaching out to us. Um, but more so we are looking at the 20, 20 trees right now. Um, you know, this is actually my, my, my first full year. Coaching here at the college level. So it’s been a great experience with the team and yeah, we have had a lot of recruits reach out to us, but I’m still talking to one or two.
[00:01:07] We have, we have had five players committed for 22 might bring in one or two more, but right now we are heavily looking into 2020 trees. Right. Okay.
[00:01:18] Matt: You talked about inbound contacts. How many inbound contacts do you usually get in a week or a month?
[00:01:24] Coach: Yeah, we it’s it’s it’s, you know, it varies right at times they just come in.
[00:01:29] So I would see at least 30. Wow. At the BM minimum, I would see, I would get a week. Um, contacts from all over, you know, you have kids from all over Europe, all over south America. You got kids here all over, all over the United States. It’s a it’s, it’s a lot. It’s it’s, you know, a lot of kids, uh, looking to go to college and, you know, to study into places.
[00:01:53] Matt: So, what do you like to see in that first communication from a
[00:01:57] Coach: recruit? That’s a very good question. Um, I personally, me, I like the kids to be a little personal personable in terms of, you know, we have had a recruit reach out and say, Hey, um, I saw you guys playing the mountaineers conference. You know, you played, um, Concourse.
[00:02:15] With mandatory lead aid. You guys, you know, some like that, you tie them and you, it was a close game and the, and the semifinal, you can tell the kids, um, did their research. Um, some kids even go as far as, as watching some of the games online. Really sparks interests. Um, when the kids go to lengths to really tell you something about the school and not only, not only the soccer program, but also the academic piece as well.
[00:02:45] Um, I’m looking to study nursing. So you have a great medicine program, all that stuff, kind of like, you know, sparks my interest when a, when a recruit really reach out and kind of mentioned some of those things.
[00:02:59] Matt: Makes sense. So, you know, you said the amount of volume of, of inbound or, uh, communications varies year by year or time of the year.
[00:03:08] And I’m assuming it picks up, uh, when you get closer to some tournament or showcase coming up. So what, what are those tournaments and showcases that you like to visit to scout players at? And do you also check out the high school games and stuff like
[00:03:23] Coach: that as well? Yeah, well, um, a lot of the local players, a lot of the West Virginia players, um, want to Twitter, high school games, you know, I’ve, I’ve watched one or two of the high school games or more so, you know, we, the tournament’s, if you want to reach a kid, you might have a kid from Arizona.
[00:03:42] Um, because we D we recruited a kid from Arizona actively, um, You know, reach out to you and the tournament, one of the tournament was an NCFC showcase. Got to see a play there. She came up on a visit to as well. We wanted a national. This past weekend here, and a lot of, a lot of recruits reach out to us.
[00:04:02] And we had the opportunity to watch someone recruits play, obviously, um, tournaments like Jefferson cup and, um, blue chip showcase. And some of those events are some of the big events that we target for recruiting players. Obviously, obviously you have the academy showcase and the ECN, our showcases to.
[00:04:26] Right.
[00:04:27] Matt: So how do camps fit into your recruiting process? Do you have your own ID camps? Do you and your staff work, other schools, camps to help identify players?
[00:04:36] Coach: Well, this year is going to be our first year to have our summer camp. Um, and it’s something, we invite them a lot of all interested in groups to come and attend.
[00:04:47] Um, those camps, um, I am possibly going to work one to two on a camp stool as well, where it will give you, give me a chance to actually get, to see someone who recruits I’d probably want it to division one schools, um, division two schools and whatnot like that. Just to have a chance to see players. Um, it’s, it’s a little bit more personable.
[00:05:09] Um, when you have a kid and a camp, Um, I suppose to, you know, you saw you look at a kid, play a tournament, you kind of get to see the kid train, see the kid interact with other players. It’s outside of the game, like environment too. And then you get to see them in the game, like environment when you scrimmaged to as well.
[00:05:27] So I think, um, working campuses is definitely a big piece in helping recruit.
[00:05:34] Matt: Now you said you had five or so players committed so far, maybe you might bring in another one or two. Do you, do you have a set number that you really want to bring in every year or is it just kind of ebb and flow with your graduating classes?
[00:05:47] Coach: Th that’s correct right now. It’s um, like for us right now, we, um, we graduated, um, tree seniors. Um, so we didn’t really lose a whole lot. Most of our staff in lineup, but most of our starting lineup, so to speak state and attack, and obviously to stop the lineup, it’s not, it’s not, I don’t want to make people think that it’s, it’s, it’s going to be the same as, as every year.
[00:06:15] But the majority of the girls who played major minutes, uh, still a positive program, so to speak, um, where we brought you five players and all five players. But we bring in, I’m going to contend for playing time or for a starting spot where we brought in five. It would probably put us at about 26, 20, 29 around there, which is a solid number.
[00:06:37] We had quite a few injuries last year. Believe it or not with seven weeks. 26 players and they will want a two games. We had 17 because of the amount of injuries we had. It was sort of a kind of crazier with the number of injuries we had. So we cannot recruit a little bit more 14, one to two more girls.
[00:06:57] So just in case, if we have to deal with injuries again, we can have a solid numbers to compete, you know, playing twice a week and train and it can be a lot. So we need fresh legs to be ready to get in and out.
[00:07:11] Matt: Sure. Um, what is the. Scholarships situation at your school, obviously your division two. So you have some athletic money.
[00:07:21] Um, but what would you say is the mix in terms of your players on academic and athletic money?
[00:07:28] Coach: So that’s a, that’s actually a very good question. I think a lot of kids should know a lot of potential recruits should know that, um, for us at Fairmont State, I rely heavily on the academic piece. You know, you want girls coming in who are academically inclined.
[00:07:44] To with a good GPA with a good act or sat score. Um, because obviously with you here, we can stack, we can give academic and athletic scholarship and the biggest pieces when you have a, uh, a recruit can, who can come in and get, you know, full academic. It’s great. You know, you can put some scholarship on that and then it works out for both the player and for the university too, as well.
[00:08:16] And also you want kids that are academically inclined, not just for scholarships, to where you want those kids to make sure that they’re coming in and doing first, the most important thing that you have to study. Um, and you want to make sure that you’re bringing in kids who would be on board with studying and playing soccer and being competitive with.
[00:08:37] Sure.
[00:08:37] Matt: Sure. Well, you know, you mentioned academics being, uh, a nice, uh, aspect to, to target and recruit what are, what are some of the other things that you look for in a player, both on the field and off the field, in terms of your, your hierarchy of, of characteristics, of, of, of players you want to bring into your program?
[00:08:57] Coach: Well, you got to have a, definitely a personality. You got to have a great personality. You gotta be able to, um, be able to work in a team setting, because again, it’s a team sport mentally, you have to be tough, which is one of the biggest things. Um, but you’re going to have ups and downs. You know, you’re going to lose games.
[00:09:17] Um, you’re going to win games. How are you going to handle how you’re going to handle losing games? And I’ll give you an example. Um, this year we, we, we had a rough start being my first year with the group and trying to figure them out. We were two and six and it could have went down the hill from there.
[00:09:33] But we turn things around, you know, we had individual meetings and say, look, we, we need to, we need to fight through this. We need to work through this. You know, losing four or five games in a row is not good. And, and, you know, we turned around the season completely. And our last 11 games, you know, we won six.
[00:09:52] The last two entire tree. So we had a, we had a great second half of the season. And if our girls, if we weren’t mentally tough and, and wanting to fight and work through it in the season could have gone out a direction easily. Yeah, for sure. We ended up 500, which was, which was pretty good considering all this stuff.
[00:10:11] Matt: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Especially for first year, uh, with a program that’s, that’s, that’s a nice, uh, nice to see that progress. So the last question I have, uh, in terms of the recruiting side is how do transfers or walk ons kind of fit into.
[00:10:31] Coach: Well, that’s, uh, you know, I’m actually talking to, you know, you have talked to a couple of kids from jucos Virginia college and, um, you know, they got some pretty quality players. We used to be, those are one of the players. We actually looked in the signs still. Um, but obviously it’s, it’s great. It comes down to, if you transplant, you have to get that academic money and then you can get some athletic money, um, too, as well.
[00:10:55] But what the transfer students, they, they, they kind of, they would bring, um, uh, obviously they already been playing. Um, so in the college environment, whether it’s a junior college or another, um, for the university, I know some students are just looking for, they switch their major or they’re looking for something different.
[00:11:15] So we have, I’ve spoken to quite a few of those players and if they are the right fit for our program, you know, we would pursue them, um, uh, as well. But for the most part, Um, they have the experience coming in and obviously want to make sure a lot of things you check out, you know, correct. The why you leave in, um, was it because of playing time where you didn’t fit into the coaches system or what exactly was this?
[00:11:41] You obviously do that as a reason why someone wanted to transplant. Sometimes for some kids, it just doesn’t work out for them and they are good players. So, you know, you got to give kids the benefit of the doubt. I transferred from St. Louis to West Virginia. So I know how that can be as a transfer student.
[00:11:56] So definitely take the time to talk to the transfers, the students who want to transfer it.
[00:12:02] Matt: Uh, that’s good and sorry, one more other question around on your recruiting, you mentioned earlier getting a lot of inbound contacts from international students and, and judging by your accent. You’re not from West Virginia.
[00:12:16] Um, how, how to, how to international students. Fit into your
[00:12:21] Coach: recruiting? Well, we have, we have quite a few international students. Um, we have a few international students in our program. Um, I it’s it’s it’s, you know, it’s, it’s tough in terms of yo-yo going by, by, by a video or, or game tape and, and trying to watch, and you watching the level of the game.
[00:12:42] So it was. ’cause you know, the international students it’s it’s depends on where they are from scholarship money can, can play a big factor. So you really have to be picky and kind of choose, you know, If you’re going to sign international student and or if you’re going to go work with the American kids, they have a lot of talented players here in the U S I would say though.
[00:13:05] Um, and even me being an international student, you know, a prior international student, But yeah, they have a lot of talent here in the U S so we kind of look here first and then if it can’t follow our needs, then, you know, look, look, look international. What I do believe they got a lot of quality here in the states, um, for, for, especially for women’s soccer.
[00:13:27] For sure.
[00:13:28] Matt: For sure. Well, let’s talk a little bit about, uh, about your school. Uh, you know, there’s probably a lot of people out there who, who don’t know a Fairmont state. Uh, you know, I grew up in Ohio and drove through West Virginia multiple times. So, so I’m aware, but, uh, but you know, tell us some things about the school that you know, that I’m not gonna find on the website.
[00:13:48] What’s, what’s something awesome about your school or some things
[00:13:51] Coach: you want people to know? We have a nice little mix here. Nice one campus. Well, I have, I have all load acts and I’ve been in West Virginia for about 22 years now. So I’ve lived more than half my life here now in West Virginia, um, right up the road Morgantown.
[00:14:08] So Fieldman state is about, you know, 25 minutes from Morgantown, which it’s, it’s a it’s nice little distance with all as a main city. You know, and, and, you know, in West Virginia and, um, Fairmont it’s nice small campus we have yet. Um, it’s a good environment. We have other competitive athletic teams. Um, as, as, just as just once the student athlete come and visit here, it feels at home for.
[00:14:36] For most kids who won that small second environment, I think we offer that we have certain majors that, that a lot of students look at that, that a unique, you know, we have criminal justice. We have obviously nursing is a big one. We have an architecture program too as well. Um, so we have a little bit of a niche area where we, we do attract a lot of students, um, who are wanted to get into those fields here at university.
[00:15:04] Okay,
[00:15:05] Matt: well, what, um, how, how does students, uh, at your school really balanced that school and sport commitments on a day-to-day basis?
[00:15:15] Coach: Well, for, I know for, for our soccer team, we are in a, in a great situation in terms of our conference. Um, we really don’t have overnight games. So, so our, our, our players don’t really miss any classes, which is a huge draw for, for our girls and a team and all athletes here.
[00:15:36] Most of our games are within an hour, hour and a half away. I think our first game was, um, Concord and Notre Dame in Ohio, since you’re from Ohio and Notre Dame, I’m out of Ohio there, but for the most part, those games on weekend. So during the week, it’s a, we go to a game and, and, and head back our home games, uh, at seven o’clock at night and all away games can be anywhere from four to seven.
[00:16:04] What we are back that same day. So our student athletes and our girls, they can balance. It’s a good balance where they’re not really missing classes and they are going to, and they have an opportunity to still complete classes. And we can still attend our game. So most times we don’t really even leave early, um, um, for, for game per se, if it’s a seven o’clock game away, you know, you leave four o’clock it’s an hour.
[00:16:31] So it’s not like if they’re missing classes or anything. So that’s what is actually great playing in a locked conference. And, um, it’s a. For a lot of our girls who, who, um, come to Fairmont state complete. Sure. No,
[00:16:45] Matt: that’s good. That is great. Well, what types of support mechanisms does the school offer for both?
[00:16:52] Uh, both on the academic side and then are, do you have like strength and conditioning coaches, stuff like that on the athletic side. So, you know, what, what other support, uh,
[00:16:59] Coach: mechanisms. When we do have a strength program here, um, it’s a very good training program. Yeah, it’s, it’s, um, it’s full time for the student athletes.
[00:17:10] Um, all girls, uh, really get an interim. We actually left with you in the season two as well, but obviously, and as it is managed, um, where it’s, it’s structured, where based on when we play, um, When we train, um, we lift light. Um, I’m not, I’m not the expert for that, but, um, we have a great thing set up where it is managed based on, on how much some of the girls play too as well.
[00:17:43] Um, and, and whatnot like that. So it’s, it’s, it’s um, I’m pretty sure. With our strength program here. Um, it’s, it’s, it’s been great for the girls. Um, and with the academic piece, we had study hall. We have, um,
[00:18:07] Yeah, we have study hall set up, um, for the players, um, who, whatever subject area they need help in, which is we have a great support system here within the athletic department where they can reach out to tutors, um, for whatever subjects they are. We actually have girls on our team that actually tutors do as well.
[00:18:29] For the kids within the university, some of our girls are pretty smart. We got our overall team GPA was a 3.6, which is very good. It goes one of the highest and all that. And that the department, I believe it was the highest and that department. So yeah, we have a great structure set up yet. Even within the team, we have girls who help others, um, with classes within the team, we have a close-knit team like that, and some of the girls are academically.
[00:18:54] They’re, they’re pretty good. No. That’s awesome.
[00:18:57] Matt: So, you know, you mentioned you don’t have to travel far for away games, which is great. What, what would a typical non-game day look like for one of your players?
[00:19:06] Coach: Um, we, we have, it depends on if it’s after you’re talking about like,
[00:19:12] Matt: like during the season, like a regular practice day, what what’s it going to look like from when they wake up to when they go to bed?
[00:19:19] Coach: When the kids wake up. Um, and obviously depends on the student athlete, what class you’ve taken, but for the most part, most of the girls on a Monday, we would practice at, let’s say we have a 4:30 PM practice. Most of the girls.
[00:19:38] Yeah, I will. I will do most the frog typically classes, let’s say on a Monday, we are typically all the players are typically done by three o’clock. We have a four 30 practice. Uh, we go from four 30 till about six, and then after girls, they, if girls got a study day, they go, they do their study halls or whatever homework they have to do.
[00:20:01] Sometimes we would get like a little team dinner after. As well, just to have a little kind of commodity within the team. Um, and then on a Tuesday’s the same thing Tuesday, we typically practice at about Tuesday. We have a little bit of a later practice, like six 30, um, because we shared a field obviously, and then Wednesday’s game day, where if we have an away game, we would leave with.
[00:20:26] For our way game, the girls will get out of class. Um, we would grab something to get something, to eat order, have it here. Uh, we typically eat before the game, make sure the girls eat before the game, because you know, as a college student, you have the cafeteria. We want to make sure we, we order, we know what the girls are eaten before they, uh, we go to the game, travel to the game on chatter bus.
[00:20:52] We are 14, eight. We have great, uh, um, school, not, not the school buses, but it started bus. We UCF and state, um, traveled to the game. Typically we get to the game like hour, hour and a half, two hours before sometimes. And then after games. Girls get something to eat again, and then we head back to campus. So that’s our, you, you got molded for them when we on it playing games.
[00:21:18] And when we are playing games, how well, okay,
[00:21:21] Matt: great. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about, about, you know, the team and that sort of thing. Um, how, how big is your soccer staff, coaching staff? What roles do they play, et cetera?
[00:21:31] Coach: We have, we have one, um, other one assistant coach here. We actually hired another assistant coach, um, or not a coach this week here.
[00:21:41] So we are going to have to, to myself and Taurus. Um, obviously one of the biggest things, um, time consuming is. Recruiting looking at recruits, looking at videos, looking at games, breaking down games, that’s really time consuming. So we want to make sure we get back to all the recruits. Um, as much as we can, um, Even if, even if we don’t feel like if they would fit the need of the program, you still want to reach out to them and say, Hey, thanks for reaching out to the program in
[00:22:18] And so we still want to do that because obviously we’d get her off of active. You’re not getting back to. We make it our utmost best to get to, to all the recruits. Um, and there’s just different roles. You have a bunch of compliance stuff you need to work with and just kind of divided that and Shannon up between, um, coaches to make sure you hit what you’re supposed to hit and everything like that.
[00:22:41] Yeah.
[00:22:41] Matt: Well, how would you describe your style of coaching and you and your team’s style of play?
[00:22:46] Coach: Oh, we, we, we love to keep the ball, um, for me, I value, um, technique. I’m very big on having technical players, players who are patient players would definitely, as we see how the soccer brain want to put the ball in play, who is, um, who a patient to build up from the back and keep possession.
[00:23:10] Um, that’s, that’s the style we want to play on. We are. Always looking for players or trying to recruit players who can fit that style of play. Yes, obviously. Speed and speed is one. You can beat speed. We want quick, fast players, but at the same time we looking for players who can actually. Put the ball on and play at the end of the day, I tell all my players here, you here for two things, right.
[00:23:35] To, to, to go to school, um, for the academic piece and to play soccer. And it’s, it’s, it’s my role as a coach to make that enjoyable for you. After you’re done with classes and you come on the soccer field, this should be a relief from classes. This should be okay. This is what I want to do. If dread and practices and don’t want to be here, then something is not.
[00:24:00] So we want to make sure we create an environment where the players want to come to train. They want to come to practice. They want to play. They want to embrace the style that we have. Yeah. Feeling state and the girls are coming along pretty well. Um, we have had lots of flashes where we have played quality soccer.
[00:24:19] That’s
[00:24:19] Matt: great. That’s great. Well, you and I, you know, we’re talking it’s February, it’s the off season. So what does your off season program look
[00:24:26] Coach: like? Good question all season. Um, it’s it’s agony. We, we train three times a week right now. Um, off season, we go twice a week. On a Monday, we go at six 15 in the morning.
[00:24:41] Um, on a Wednesday, we go at six 15 and we go Monday, Wednesday, Friday on a Friday, we go at three o’clock, um, technical stuff. We focus heavily on the technical bits. We’ll do some fitness too, as well. And our girls are also lifting weight training program. We do some fitness too as well, but for me, a lot of technical stuff, a lot of small sided games, because obviously it’s went to time and the space.
[00:25:09] So a lot of small sided games that are touched in a, on. I believe that’s where you get the touches. This is where kids can, can clear skin, you know, try things. And you might, in the spring games, we have coming up, try a plan, a different position, um, to just do little tweaks within the team because it’s the spring and preparing for the fall.
[00:25:31] So it’s a great opportunity to work on a lot of technical stuff and to move around some players and give players different opportunities, playing different positions, playing players more who haven’t played a lot in the fall. Just making it fair for everyone where, where, where they can come out and just kind of show what they have.
[00:25:51] Okay.
[00:25:52] Matt: Great. Well, last question for you. This is kind of the, the, your chance to tell me what I’ve missed. So what, what is there that you want? Are there any players, parents, prospects to know about your school, your team, that, that we haven’t covered so far?
[00:26:08] Coach: Well, I won’t go on our desires to win a championship, just like anyone else, you know, but, but we, I do feel that we have, um, the ability to do so if, if, um, and more so if you look at West Virginia, for some reason, I’ve had, we have had a lot of programs here with WVU and the woman sediment side Marshall.
[00:26:32] Um, you know, Concord, all these other schools here. So we, we feel that, you know, we can be one of those schools too, as well. Um, here in the, in the state of West Virginia. And I really do feel we have some of the student athletes here to take us at the next level. So that’s whole. So if you’re looking for a championship program, um, upcoming one it’s right.
[00:26:54] Yet fiance, even you believe in that too. Cause you got our colors on,
[00:27:00] Matt: right. That’s right. That’s right. I’ll have to, just to change the logo, but that’s all right.
[00:27:05] Coach: Yeah. But yeah, but it’s um, um, yeah, for us, it’s uh, it’s a great, um, atmosphere here. Um, good school, nice small campus. Um, everyone, most who come to the campus.
[00:27:20] Like the campus. And, um, obviously we have some great academic programs here as well. And our soccer program is going to be one to contend with.
[00:27:29] Matt: Awesome. Well, coach, I appreciate the time. Thanks for joining us. We wish you the best of luck in the upcoming season and hope you get one step closer to that championship.
[00:27:38] Yes ma’am. Thank you.
