Fort Lewis College Women’s Soccer – Coach Damian Clarke

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Damian from the Fort Lewis Women’s Program in Colorado. We talk about how he likes to have players for all 4 years. He describes the school’s gorgeous, scenic town. Lastly, we discuss how he makes sure his program has a focus on mental health, along with a lot of resources from the school. Learn more about Fort Lewis 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 Damian Clark from Fort Lewis college in Colorado. Welcome coach. 

Coach: Thank you. Appreciate it. 

Matt: Yeah. Thanks for being here. Uh, so I guess we’ll, we’ll start on the recruiting side of things. You know, we’re, we’re here talking early March.

It’s a kind of the height of the showcase season. I’m down here in Bradenton where the GA champions cup is kicking off today. So, uh, lots of, uh, female tournaments and things. So. With that being said, where are you guys right now in terms of your recruiting calendar as a division two? Are you, are you still got a few 24s out there?

Are you still got more? Where does your normal calendar fall right now? 

Coach: I mean, to be honest with you, I think a lot of times that. At this point, we’re probably close to being done with the current class beginning to really try and get after like the 25 and familiarize ourself with 26 is per se. Um, I think a lot of schools, or at least I can speak for ourselves, we still have.

Five kids in the program that are sort of bottlenecked from the covert scenario. Um, so our numbers are really healthy. We have 1 kid who’s transferring out, um, has another covert year, but decide instead of going and hanging out 1 more year in Durango. She’s gonna go to Hawaii. So, I don’t blame her. So, realistically, [00:01:30] we returned every single kid from last year, with the exception of her and two other players that transferred out for really academic reasons.

Um, so, at the moment, you know, we have five kids coming in that are four freshmen and one junior college kid committed. Um, we’re still trying to get after one more player. Um, and we’re looking at, um, a junior college kid that’ll be here on Tuesday. And then pretty much on to, you know, 25, 26 is, and, um, we’d like to say that we’re, we’re buttoned up for the most part.

Matt: Okay. Well, in terms of recruiting events, are there ones that you guys try to get out to, you know, each year that are kind of your, your hotbeds, 

Coach: Yeah, yeah. I mean, for a long, long time, um, the President’s Day tournament in Phoenix was where we had done a lot or had a lot of success with a whole bunch of Arizona teams.

Um, now that that has sort of the high school season has interrupted that tournament for us. So it’s kind of like a lot of Vegas tournaments have been where we’ve been the last few years. Yeah. Been out to Florida once, but try and stay for the most part, pretty regional. So Albuquerque and Phoenix, um, and Denver [00:03:00] are, you know, the areas that we focused on.

Um, but right now, um, we’re not going to, uh, to, to the mayor’s cup or to, uh, the players showcase. I think, um, we’re, we’re sort of tapped out budget wise and waiting for the next cycle. 

Matt: Shoot. Cause I’m headed to Vegas for players here. Uh, you know, soon. So, so now we got to wait longer to meet in person. All right.

Coach: I know, I know there’s a chance, but, um, it would be my assistant trying to get my assistant to go, but she hasn’t given me a firm answer yet. 

Matt: Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, besides events, uh, you know, it seems like ID camps are kind of all all the rage these days. So do you guys do your own? Do you and your staff work others?

How important are they to your recruiting process? 

Coach: I mean, I spent. You know, the last, um, I guess the last 2 events, and to be honest with you, that I went and worked, um, I went to Rush, had a huge ID camp, um, and so did Real, and they sort of piggybacked on each other, a Saturday and a Sunday, so that worked for us to really get a good idea of the in state kids that, um, are still available for 25, as well as some 24s.

Um, and then, uh, went down to you and M and worked at the University of New Mexico. Um, and that had, you know, I don’t know about 120, 130 kids. So that’s been able to kind of keep us into what’s going on regionally. [00:04:30] Um, and yes, we’ll have. Two ID camps, one at the beginning of the summer, one at the end. Um, and then we, we’ve run a big high school camp as well, where we’ll have two or three high schools coming in.

We’ll train high schools and they’ll sort of play a little round robin tournament inside of that camp. 

Matt: Okay. That sounds interesting. Well, one of the things you mentioned was, was junior college, um, and, and transfers and the one thing I noticed about your roster, which is maybe a little bit odd for a division two roster is.

No international real, uh, flavor there. So in terms of what I call those kind of secondary recruiting markets, right? Juco transfer and international, how do they kind of overall fit in each for you? 

Coach: Each year for us. We’ve had some good JC kids over the years. Um, to be honest with you, I prefer to have a kid, if I can, four years, um, three years, if, if possible, if I can get a JC kid to come out, you know, after their first year, um, I feel like for us, it works best because we, you can look at our roster and tell that we’ve, we’ve got kids that are 18 to 21, 22.

Um, so we’ve tried to go usually the freshmen route, but. I don’t spend a lot of time in the transfer portal. So I’m not the type of guy that, you know, sits there and just waits to try and find the D one kickback type of situation. Um, but we’re, we’re messing with [00:06:00] trying to get some foreign kids in. So I’ve spent a lot of time this year, which has probably taken me off the recruiting cycle of tournaments, trying to get some foreign kids.

Um, I think there’s a chance that we can get some kids that are, you know, mid level D one type of players. In, but it’s very difficult to get American kids at that level. I think it’s a little bit over recruited and saturated at times because you’re not going to win on the armack without kids that can play D one.

You’re just not. 

Matt: Yeah, it definitely is a, is a tough conference. So in terms of, of you just overall via any of these recruiting avenues, kind of what is it that makes up the hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player, both on the field and off the field attributes? 

Coach: Yeah. I mean, I mean. On the field where a team wants to play through the lines.

So of course the ideal players is a kid that’s technically capable of making decisions under pressure and wanting to draw pressure on the ball. Um, I was a really athletic kid. Player at one point in my life. So I lean towards kids that can if they need to solve problems with pace. Um, so I think a lot of our teams have probably been marked by, um, and as we’re getting better, we’re probably more athletic than we were good at football.

I think when you look at our record now, you can tell a bunch of ties because we can keep the ball. Um, and so we’re getting to the point to where hopefully that, that, [00:07:30] that combination of athletic kid that’s also comfortable on the ball is beginning to be, um, you know, what our, Roster saturated with, um, missing a goal scorer like every other, you know, program that’s, you know, probably in the same boat.

If you’re not top 25, it’s probably because you don’t have a kid that scores 10 to 15 goals a season. Um, so I, I think. You know, for us, it is the combination of those two things ideally, but decision making is becoming, you know, probably the biggest focus. Cause I think athletically the team has the base that it needs.

Now we need some kids that are, you know, pulling the strings in a little bit different way to get some of our athletes into better positions. 

Matt: Okay. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. I’m sure there’s some folks out there not familiar with Fort Lewis and, and, uh, and where it is, uh, and everything.

I mean, I’ve, I’ve looked at a map and seen Durango and, uh, you know, you have some unique perspective though, cause you’re an alum as well as a coach for many moons. So obviously it’s a special place to you. So give us some of the things that you find that are awesome about it. Maybe some things we wouldn’t know by going through the website.

Coach: Yeah. I mean, obviously I’m super biased. But, I mean, it’s, I mean, we can be isolated, which is part of the challenge. But, you know, most of the time, once we get kids on campus, it’s, it’s usually a done deal. Um, we’re on a Mesa above, you know, a beautiful little mining town, um, that has a river running through it and a train.

You know, I mean, that was that bottom line is it’s a tourist [00:09:00] destination and a lot of the kids that they get here. Sometimes it might just be because their parents and vacation here at 1 point in their lives. And they’re like, Hey, we should look at that. Even if they never came up to the college. Um, it’s a town that’s just gorgeous.

So, a lot of it is, is really the location. I mean, once, once people are here, we have a grass fields, you know what I mean? We have a tradition of success, um, a great business school, which, you know, was a lot of times, uh, one of the huge selling points. Exercise science department, that’s just, you know, redone all of its facilities.

So brand new locker room, some things that have been, um, a long time coming. But, you know, at the end of the day, this is a place where, when you come here, you end up falling in love with the land. I mean, it’s just, you know, the mountains are massive and you’re in the middle of them versus being separated from them in a place like Denver, or, you know, closer to Salt Lake City, where the mountains are kind of right behind you.

Um, so, yeah, I mean, that that’s a lot of it. 

Matt: Well, let’s, let’s rewind and take us back to October. You’re in the heart of that tough RMAC schedule. Kind of walk me through what, what a week’s going to look like for a player in terms of when is training and classes and meals and game schedule and all that kind of stuff.

Coach: Yeah. I mean, this is the first year that we’ve kind of been able to do a little bit of a hybrid in terms of time, um, of, of training sessions. I mean, normally, you know, you have either a [00:10:30] Thursday, Sunday game rhythm or Friday, Sunday game rhythm. So a lot of times, maybe a Monday is going to be your day off.

Um, Tuesdays and Thursdays, we, we train from 8 to 9. 30. And, you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, if you did have training on those days, it was, you know, 430 to sticks. And at the end of the day, we, we absolutely loved the morning training sessions. I think it helped us a bunch. Even if we played on a. On a Thursday, um, if we played that night, we could get the kids in in the morning and whether it was set pieces or whether it was, you know, some tactical pieces that we needed to address in terms of pressing or building.

Um, it worked really well for us to, to have that Thursday morning training session. And then you lift twice a week inside of, uh, uh, the, the week too. So, you know, during season you’re training three to four days, depending on the game rhythm and lifting twice a week as well. 

Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team.

Um, you know, we talked about the recruiting side, but in terms of the players you’re bringing in roster numbers, is there a roster size you feel as ideal that you try to hit each year? 

Coach: Yeah. I mean, you look at most people and they’re on, you know, 30 to 31, 32. Um, we’re a bit big right now. I think this year we’ll end up at 33.

Maybe even 34 if we get the next kid that comes here on [00:12:00] Tuesday. Um, but ideally 2728 is a number that I think you can manage. Well, if the classes are separated in a pretty decent way. Um, sometimes it, it, it can fall weird to where you have massive classes and we’re going to have interest. Like, we graduate 9 kids this next year.

So we’ve got 9 seniors. Um, it’ll get us back to being able to manage that 27 or 28 and be a little bit closer to that. Um, I think that the COVID bottlenecks sort of set that up for us. Yeah, I’d like to have 27. I think that’s going to be the number if I can do it. 

Matt: Okay. Well, besides, uh, players on a roster, their staff on a roster.

So how big is your staff? What role does everybody play? What other support staff maybe are there to help? 

Coach: I’m super fortunate. I mean, um, my assistant was with me before I left and went to Midwestern and came back. So I’ve had, you know, my, I guess now she’s actually the associate head coach, but hope, um, I shoot, this is our.

13th year of coaching together and at two different schools. Um, so, you know, she is probably, uh, I would say as good as, as most head coaches, if not better than sometimes even me, um, and then Haley, uh, Halinga is our, um, goalkeeper coach. She’s actually a [00:13:30] kid that played for us, um, here and there. She holds all the scoring records.

She’s also the goalkeeper. She’s, she’s, she’s a forward, but she’ll beat you at ping pong, beat you at darts. She’s a better goalkeeper than all the other goalkeepers in the conference. So, so she, she honestly, um, she became the goalkeeper coach and has done a great job of helping us out there. I think that the whole athletic department is really fortunate.

We have a sports psychologist, really a counselor inside the athletic department that deals with, um, any, any sort of mental health, whether it’s, you know, whether it’s playing and actually the psychology of sport. Or whether it’s things that, you know, I think at the end of the day that the mental health aspect is more important than sports psychology, you’re not going to play.

Well, if you’re not happy in your personal life, we’ve got a great staff. I mean, we also have, you know, um, someone on staff that, oh, she’s probably does 8 to 9 in person sessions with us. And really more on the mental health side than really the sports psychology side. She’s another kid that actually played here for us and, uh, got a counseling degree, but it’s also, um, he works with quite a few teams, works with New Mexico United in Albuquerque and, uh, is, is able to spend a couple of weeks here every year as well.

Just, um, putting tools in our kids toolbox to try and deal with the stress of being a college athlete. So [00:15:00] great support staff, in my opinion, for the level that we’re at. 

Matt: It sounds like it for sure. Well, to train the guns on you now, uh, how would you describe kind of your style of coaching and the style of play you’re looking to implement there?

Coach: Yeah. I mean, I think I’m always learning. I mean, you know, I think we started as a team that was, you know, or as a coach, it was very, very, um, just interested in keeping the ball and, uh, you know, Over the years, I think moved to Texas, things were a lot more direct and just a little bit, a little bit more athletic, a little bit nastier in a certain sense.

So went there and had to change the way that we played to become successful. Um, and I think I’ve come back and gotten back to being a team that wants to play through the lines and yeah, are we going to skip a line to get in behind you? Yeah, yeah, of course. But at the end of the day, I mean, I think we’re trying to get the sixes turned around, facing forward.

Next step is getting the 10, you know, facing forward and then runs from there. So a lot of our possession is definitely, um, pretty deep in our own half. Until we find ways to, to, to spring ourselves in and behind people. Um, so I think as a whole, um, we’re a team that’s going to draw pressure and break pressure and find ways to, uh, get in behind you purposely.

Matt: Okay. Love it. Well, I, I appreciate all the insights. I got one last [00:16:30] question for you with, uh, all your, all your years of experience. So if you could boil it down, if you had, if I, if I put a gun to your head and said, give me, give me one nugget, one piece of information, you think that all, uh, high school or any, any could be transfer students, anybody going through this college recruiting process, there’s one thing they should know.

What do you think that should be? 

Coach: And this should be the four best years of your life. And. Um, or at least some of them, man, choose, choose it by location, be somewhere you want to be. And I think most of the time, if you’re somewhere where you want to be, you’ll end up walking away from the experience, being pretty happy with it.

Matt: Yeah. I couldn’t agree with that more. Well, coach really appreciate it. Wish you the best of luck. And, uh, hopefully, uh, we’ll, we’ll see you guys hanging in our Mac banner here soon. All right. 

Coach: There we go. 

Matt: All right. Take care. Thanks, Coach: man. Bye bye.