George Washington University Men’s Soccer – Coach Craig Jones
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Jones from the GW Men’s Program in DC. We talk about how the international flavor of their school translates to their roster. He describes the school’s amazing location in the nation’s capital. Lastly, we discuss how his coaching focuses a lot on high standards and accountability. Learn more about George Washington University Men’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Craig Jones at George Washington University in dc. Welcome coach.
Coach: Thanks for having me, Matt.
Matt: Appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for being here, coach. And I go way back, way back when you, uh, I think you were still an assistant under Mr.
Lidster back in the day, uh, when, when, when we first met, uh, traipsing around DC So, uh, you know, I You’ve, you’ve done a great job at, at GW for almost a dozen years now, right? I mean, you, it’s, it’s crazy, uh, to think it’s been that long. But, but anyway, um, let’s, let’s first start talking about the recruiting side of things.
Um, you know, it’s what I would call the showcase season right now. Right? So, are you guys wrapped up with your 23 class and looking at 20 fours, or are you still doing some, some stuff, but what, what’s it look like for you guys right now?
Coach: Um, yeah, we we’re still trying to close out 20 threes. Um, I think we’ve, we’ve been impacted a little bit.
You know, obviously some of our guy, you know, everybody got that covid year. I think one, it, it’s added a lot of difficulties and challenges. Um, you know, we had guys we thought were coming back. I’m now gonna try a new experience somewhere else. You know, we had a lot, you know, this transfer portal. I think we’re really seeing the impact.
Um, the transfer portals had, I think basketball we’re probably dealing with this maybe two years ago this year. For me, it’s, it’s really kind of hit home, kind of some of the challenges that, and then some of the challenges that come with that. [00:01:30] Um, so we’re, we’re still trying to close out you. 23 class.
We’ve started working on our 24 class, but we still got some spots and, and some holes that we wanna fill. So, you’re right, we’re, we’re on the road. Both, you know, here domestically, you know, a lot of the showcase stuff going on now. Um, we’ve done some, you know, international trips, um, so you know, we’re. , we look under every rock, you know what I mean?
To, to find, define guys, you know? And, you know, there’s no one solution for us. It’s, you know, it’s not ML’S next. It’s not just c l, it’s not just the captain, whatever it is, you know? And I think sometimes people think they’re playing in a certain league or whatever. You kind of, it’s, that’s where all it’s.
That’s, we don’t work that way. It’s where we can find good plays and get a chance to expose ourselves to looking at as many plays as we can for kind of in, you know, in that amount of time. Then that’s what we are gonna do. And you know, we’ve had guys coming from a lot of different avenues, you know, the Olympic development program coming in, mls, next guys, east n l guys, you know what I mean?
We’ve kind of got. Across the board. So anytime we can be there, we’re, we’re out. Whether it’s me or my assistants, um, hopefully we, we hope in the next couple of weeks that 23 class will be closed, but maybe gone a little bit later than we, than we wanted. But yeah, it, it’s still a work in progress, but we’ve already started 24, so we’re.
we’re clashing a little bit now with some of that stuff, so we wanna close one out and move on to the next.
Matt: Absolutely. And, and, and you touched on a lot of different things [00:03:00] that, that I hear questions on all the time and, and it was great to hear, you know, the, the alphabet soup really doesn’t matter. You know, you guys are just looking for, for the best players and then folks are like, okay, well, you know, I, a lot of D one rosters are so heavy international these days.
Are they not finding enough domestic kids? So, is is there. any rhyme or reason for you in terms of the split? I mean, one of the things that’s interesting about your roster is GW draws from all over the country. You know, you’re not just a regional roster, but then you look at, so you look at yours and you got a myriad of states represented, but also countries.
So, so what, what kind of comes into your thinking when it’s domestic versus international and, and, and that sort of thing?
Coach: Yeah, I think we’ve always, we’ve always had a blend year of international. I mean, I played at gw, which is what, 20 something years ago and we had a bunch of internationals, you know what I mean?
We were probably, back then, it wasn’t as common. Um, but I just think because of gw, I think, like you said, we, you know, we have everyone for 50 states and this River Columbia hundred 30. Countries, you know what I mean? Of, of students who were here. So we do have a, you know, I don’t know what it is, 10% number percent of our undergraduate population is international, so it draws players.
One, it, it still draws players to the school that we don’t know about yet and will go on recruit. Um, but also I think the, the international option, as you s you’re dead, right? I think. [00:04:30] Even more in division one. You’ve seen a huge influx of international players. Um, I’ll go back to what I said earlier. If we can fill a spot with a, the guy from Arlington right down our doorstep or dc then we’ll take, you know, we’ll fill in with that spot.
Sometimes we, you know, we can’t do that. So to get an international player, you know what I mean? Who can then, . That’s kind of the root. I also think a lot more, um, you know, of our international students, certainly some of the countries that we worked with, there’s a lot more opportunities now for them to work with some of these kind of recruiting companies to learn more about the, you know, the American college system if you like, you know, get ahead of, you know, the eligibility center and things like that.
So they’re putting on some events. , you know, certainly wasn’t available to me when I was recruiting, or even, maybe even 10 years ago. There’s a lot of different companies now that are, are kind of pushing that ticket of, you know, you’re a good soccer player, you can keep playing soccer and you’re gonna get an education, which is a little bit different to a lot of the places that these players are in.
So we’ve, we’ve kind of always been a little bit international, I think. You know what I mean? So we always have some of those, you know, I guess networks from alumni who are still, who moved back home from guys who were here like myself, you know what I mean? Um, but again, like I said, if we we’re looking for the best player for the best spot and, you know, and whether we can make [00:06:00] that work, you know, financially to bring those guys in.
Matt: Yeah. And you mentioned the transfer portal, which is obviously a, a, a big topic these days for, for a lot of coaches, is. S is that, I guess, combined with the covid year and, and maybe you’re losing some kids that you thought you were keeping or whatever. So does it make sense to then look in the transfer portal?
Cause maybe that player was a junior so it makes sense to replace ’em with a junior or, I, I guess what, what is the thought process when you’re, when you’re looking at the transfer portal as opposed to recruiting, you know, a, a freshman?
Coach: I think one of the, so one of the thing, again, when we go in there, you know, we, you, you’re probably getting someone that has played college soccer.
So they already have some ex, you know, experience playing division one or whatever it was. Now, how. How much they’ve played then determines, you know what I mean, the, the level of that kind of player. So I think for us, um, you know, knowing we can go in some of the, some of the plays we played against this, you know, whether it’s last year or the year before, we know when we might like them.
Could be un this is the personas, it’s even. Guys in our conference are in there, you know what I mean? You’re like, man, I wouldn’t, he’d go, you know what I mean? He, well, for us, . Um, so you, you know, you, you might need a forward, you might, you know, that’s, so we look at some guys and you know, for us again, it’s okay.
Then it’s like anything, you still gotta do your due diligence, right? It’s okay. Yeah. You know, we got a kid coming [00:07:30] from, I’ll just use our neighbors here, you know, au where have you? Mm-hmm. , when you look at his stats, you know, he didn’t play or he played one game academically. You know what I mean? We gotta figure.
Is that academic piece still gonna work? Because, you know, we know that the academic profile is, is fairly high at gw, um, or is high at gw, so we gotta make sure that works. So I just think it, it’s, it’s, for me, it’s almost given, uh, you know, it’s, it’s given players a way out. , you know what I mean? And it’s kind of, if I wanna, you know, one thing I want my teams to to do is, you know, when, when things are hard, you’ve gotta dig in.
You’ve gotta, you’ve gotta show some determination, some grit, and, you know, you’ve gotta fight your way out of things sometimes. Whether that’s games, whether that’s training sessions, whether that’s, you know, some challenges you are experiencing in life. And, you know, I think the transfer pool has allowed guys to just go in and I think the issue that we’re having is people think the, the pastures are always a little bit greener.
but. They don’t know how it works either. So when they go in, they think it’s, you know, all these people are gonna come to them. The reality is you’ve gotta go, still go, then you’ve gotta, you put yourself back in the shop window, you’ve gotta go out and market yourself as well, you know what I mean? And hope that someone picks you up.
So, um, you know, I’m not a fan of it. I’ll be totally honest with you on that. , do we look in it? Certainly. Have we talked to players in this? Certainly. Have we got players in the past from it? Um, yeah, probably. [00:09:00] Um, but again, it’s you, you still have to do, you know, like I said, what I call the due diligence on, on that person.
Sure. It’s not just the soccer piece, the academics, you know? Okay. Why is he leaving? You know what I mean? Can you have a, do you know the coach? Can you have an Noman conversation? And, and you know, the character of that person, so it’s. , it’s just added another, you know what I mean? Another thing that, it’s, it’s crazy.
My assistants probably spent like two days, the first day, you know, that window opened, I think November 15th, and, you know, you went from maybe 200 to like 800 people in there. Um, so getting through all those guys, it’s definitely an option. Do you know what I mean? That we look at. Um, but it brings, its, there’s the pros and cons to every.
You go down. Sure. Um, it’s just, you know, finding the balance that’s gonna work for you as a program.
Matt: Yeah. Well, I think you, you may mention this before, but camps, uh, do you guys do ID camps? Is that a big part of your recruiting to help decide and, and whittle down the numbers?
Coach: It is actually. So we’ve been fortunate enough that I want to, every year we’ve picked up someone that we hadn’t seen before, whether.
Totally unseen. Now we’re able to watch video. You know what I mean? And a lot of these kids, you do sign up, um, and we’ve added them to the roster. And some have been true walk, you know, full walk on. Some have received some athletic aid. So I think for us, in terms of the ID [00:10:30] camps, and we, you know, it could be two day, it could be one day.
We varied the, the, the process because we are a little bit, well, we are a lot smaller in terms of our numbers. It’s me and my. . Um, so one, I think for the players, you know, we use it as, as a recruiting tool. One for the players that get to work with the staff. They might not like the way I, I do things. So there you go.
There’s your answer. You’re not going to gw, you know what I mean? Um, it gets ’em on campus, you know what I mean? So, Pre post, you know, in the, between the breaks, they get a chance to tour the campus or it gets ’em on campus. Get some work with the staff. You can see the facility. And I think, like I said, we’ve just been fortunate because of the numbers we keep.
Small. Um, we’re able to work with these guys on a little bit more personal level. So for them, they’re sussing us out for us. We’re kind of figuring those out. Some guys we, you know, we just had one in January, which was probably one of our biggest ones actually we’re around 50 kids. Um, you know, there was 20 threes on there who, you know, unfortunately, We had to say, look at this stage, we, we, we are knocking off you a spot.
There was 20 threes that we hadn’t really didn’t really know too much about. We’re scrambling now to come and watch him play in the next two weeks. So we’ve been very lucky. You know, unlucky, you know, fortunate, we’ve definitely used it as a tool. We, we’ve definitely been fortunate. We’ve picked players up from our camps.
Um, and I said it, it just encourages, we encourage players to do it just because one, [00:12:00] like I said, working with staff, you’re on campus, you get a feel for campus facilit. . Um, and for us, if we haven’t seen you live, it could be the first opportunity to do so. We just did the one in January. We have one in February, um, 26.
I think we probably do another one in the spring, and then we normally do maybe one or two in the summer. So it’s probably like five, maybe windows where, you know, those college or sort high school in ninth through college, um, have opportunities to, to showcase themselves and for us to kind of take a look at them on campus.
Matt: Well, in terms of GW itself, you know, I, it’s obviously, uh, I’m very familiar having lived in DC for a long enough time, but there’s probably some folks out there who, who aren’t familiar with gw, and you’ve got the great, uh, perspective as, as a former player there and, and longtime coach. So, besides what I’m gonna see on the website, give me the, the awesome things that you love about GW and that, that are really a draw to the school.
Coach: I mean, location, right? I mean, for me, as much as you can, you know, you say it when you are able to, you know, I don’t run these route as much as I used to, but you know, being able to, you know, go out for a run and, and get that kind of fitness in aerobic stuff, and you’re running in the title basin, or you’re running around the reflecting pool, or you’re going on a big one down at the capitol, you know what I mean?
That’s. That doesn’t happen every day. And that’s an experience that, you know, I think [00:13:30] is, is truly unique to, to the DC location. You know, for me, driving in from Arlington, sometime they’ll come over, um, maybe Memorial Bridge, you know. pre-season is great cuz it’s, the traffic’s not high for that early session and you got the sunrise, you know, behind the Lincoln.
I’m like, that’s another only f g w moment. So I think you’ll, there, there’s, for me the location is one of our big sellers. Um, I think that’s something that’s really unique and I, I think one of the things that people maybe assume, you know, gw obviously politics, you know what I mean? We’ve got a lot of government, but there’s so many other avenue.
That our players are involved in from nonprofits to private, you know, research. Obviously GW is a huge research school. The NIH is on the doorstep. We’ve got the World Bank, a block from campus. So it really does cover, you know, we’ve got 10, maybe 10 different schools. Could be wrong. Don’t quote me on that.
Um, you know, so probably around, you know, 80, 90 different majors. So it’s not a lot of people come to GW for. You know, the political side and, and the media side and, and that route. Um, and, and we, we offer some great programs, but there’s a lot more to, to what we offer in terms of the academic, um, opportunities and DC in general, like I said, from research to nonprofits to private the media, you know what I mean?
The politics. So I think it’s just, there’s something here for. . And when I talk about [00:15:00] GW and the schools, I’m then talking about even exploring the city. You know, you jump on a, a capital bike rental or I try not to encourage our guys to get outta schools cuz they’re a little dangerous. But you know what?
You, you jump on there. You, you can spin around the city for an hour and you know, it, it’s just so much to do. So I think the city itself has something for everybody. We’re fortunate in terms of our location. , like I said, it was so close to some of the major monuments. Um, we actually, you know, we have a, a metro stop pretty much on campus.
So guys can jump on, go down to Chinatown, watch a game, you know, watch a hockey game, watch a basketball game, go to another part of the city, explore that area. So, I think for me, the, the location, like I said, is, is it was obviously a big sell for us. Um, I do believe that you. Our athletic department truly, truly believes in, you know, building young men and women.
And that’s a big thing that I think we take, you know, not for granted. But I think I, I’ve really invested in, look, I love my guys, but I wanted to get outta here in four years, whether that’s a professional career, whether that’s going into, you know, private, Nonprofit, military, whatever that may be, is preparing them for that next step too.
So I think, you know, the support we have from the department, you know, and, and kind of our, our themes of determination, commitment, respect, that’s stuff that carries with ’em for life. So, um, I’m still here. I, you know what I mean? [00:16:30] I, I graduated in 99. I’ve been in this area and there’s still stuff I haven’t done.
And I said, I think that’s what GW can offer you. Um, that is something for everybody and it’s so much that, you know, to explore that. , you wouldn’t have to stay at home one day unless the weather was too bad. Like . Yeah. Location is key. I think the, the opportunities for the education, the numerous stuff that GW can offer you.
The internships, like we have everybody doing internships, which is another selling point for the school itself. Um, yeah, like I think it’s. I haven’t moved, like I said, so I can’t, they can’t get rid of me. I hope so.
Matt: well, yeah. Let’s hope not. Right. So, you know, you mentioned, um, the, just the, the internships there at the end.
Oh, of course. My dog decides to go crazy. Sorry. Um, you mentioned the internships at the end, but how do the, the student athletes really balance the athletics and the academics in terms of. Of what they need to do, um, as a D one soccer player in a high academic environment.
Coach: So I think that obviously there’s a lot of resources that we have to support, um, from, you know, our academic support working with this men’s soccer team.
You know what I mean? Requiring certain, certain things, the study hall and whatnot. Um, so we hope that getting that time management piece down. You know what I mean? Early [00:18:00] when they come in as first years, um, you know what I mean? We’ll set ’em up for success down the road. So that would be my first thing.
Um, in terms of the balance, I said, I think that comes back to the time management piece. Um, working again with, with our staff, with our academic support staff. And it’s a challenge. I mean, some. Don’t get it straight away. Some guys come in like they’ve been, you know, we are a first year who’s like a senior.
You, you know what I mean? It, it differs for everybody and it, it happens at different phases for people. So I think for us it’s trying to give them the resources that they can be successful. But again, it’s almost. How they choose to use those resources really is gonna impact how successful they are when they’re here.
So I’m certainly not saying it’s easy. I don’t think that, you know, oh, that class is an easy, there’s no such thing as an easy A or an easy, you know, class. It’s, you have to do the graft. And as athletes, you know, I think you should be more aware of how the hard work pays off at the end. So I think. Um, that’s one of the challenges for the, for the academic piece, I think is just getting our guys on a routine.
Getting them to start if they’re not already planning their week out, planning their day out, helping them when they’re on the road, you know, if we are traveling, you know what I mean? Maybe it’s a study hall for an hour, two hours in the, in the hotel, um, to make sure that kind of, hopefully nothing’s kind of falling through the cracks in terms of, of the academic piece.
But what they [00:19:30] do miss out on sometimes when we, you know, You know, we have classes that could be held at, you know, Congress. We have classes that are the Supreme Court. Now, that’s a unique, only at GW moment when you are able to take a biology class at the National Zoo. You, you know what I mean? Things like that.
Um, but overall, like I said, I think for our guys just the planning, the daily planning to, the weekly planning to looking ahead to getting ahead and reading, um, and encouraging them like I’m a big. I love my guys when do well in the classroom. It’s, I, I support that probably more than on the soccer field sometimes.
I know how hard the hard work they put in, and I, and I want to recognize that too. And I want to give them the, the, the, the clap. I want to give ’em the pat the back because they’ve earned the results, you know, that, you know, they get.
Matt: So that’s good stuff. That’s a challenge. Well, let’s talk a little bit more on the soccer side of things anyway.
This is maybe more of a recruiting question, but, but still team related here. Do you have a roster size that you like to try to hit every year that you find is,
Coach: Yeah, we probab, we’ve average, I wanna say we average around 25. Um, that probably, I think this year we had 27 maybe with four keepers. Uh, we’ve gone 25 or maybe three keepers.
Um, we’ve gone as high as 28. Um, I think it’s 28. Good. If you get hit with injuries, I think 28 becomes a challenge when you try to keep [00:21:00] everybody happy. And I think one of the challenges as, as any team and, and certainly from our college coaches is as much as we have conversations with players about maybe the role that we anticipate them play in the reality then when maybe, you know, playing time, they don’t get as much playing time as maybe they perceive they would have.
That’s a challenge. And to keep, the more players you have, the more players you gotta keep, you know, keep happy. Um, I think that’s the first part of, of recruiting is for the recruits to ask that question, what is my role? Where do you foresee me playing? Or. My first year, my second, and, and I’m honest, you know, and that’s one thing I’ll, I’ll hold, kind of hang my hat on.
I’ll, I’ll tell you straight up, you know what I mean? I’m not gonna BS you, I’m not gonna kind of, you know, go around to snowball you with answers. I’m gonna tell you where I think you fit in and I’ll say, look, if you go to my schedule, if you go to my, you know, results from last season, look at the, the classmen who played.
I don’t really care if you’re a first year or a senior, if you’re the best player. For that position, for that week against that team, you’re gonna play. Um, so that’s just my philosophy, but I think it’s important to have those conversations with recruits cuz you know, you’re coming from being, a lot of times, you know, the, the star or one of them on a team playing every single minute to them maybe come into division one and being more of a role player their first year.[00:22:30]
um, that’s difficult to deal with, you know, not mentally, you know what I mean? You want and as coaches to, to try to keep those players in a, in a good, positive place.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, uh, how would you describe your overall style of coaching and, and that of the staff?
Coach: Yeah, I think, um, I, I would say again, I’m, I’m consistent.
I think I, I try to be consistent with all my decisions off the field stuff to, to on the field. I’m honest. I think sometimes honesty in remain is, is, is a lot harder to take. Um, because we, again, it goes back to, you know, building. Young men here to have those hard conversations, um, and difficult conversations and encouraging them to do that.
So I think I’m definitely, I’m hard in terms of, I demand, you know, the standards and I th you know, . I hold guys accountable to that, and I think that’s one of the, you know, I think when I first took over, I think I was like, you know, I’m brand new. It was like A, B, C, right? Accountability, bravery and commitment.
Those are my three words. I’m brand new. Accountability. Right? I was like, you hold guys accountable to the standards that you set. You know, nobody drops below. You know, the B part was brave, right? Bravery was like, look you, you have to be able to. Brave decisions on the field. We always, Hey, you gotta be brave.
Put your head in where it hurts. You know what I mean? . Yeah. I get that. And it’s off the [00:24:00] field, you know, are you brave enough to, you know, everybody’s going out. They’re, you know, whether it’s careful to a party, you shouldn’t be there. Are you the guy who’s brave enough to want to, to not go? Are you the guy who’s brave enough to tell a teammates, look, this isn’t a good idea.
We shouldn’t. so it’s not just on the field. And then obviously commitment, you know, as a pre, not much no-brainer. It’s commitment to everything that we do as a program. So, um, there’s certain standards, like I said, I think that I definitely, I would say, I say honest people say hard as a coach, I think, you know what I mean?
I think, yeah, this kind of balance. I think people need to hear the truth to improve. Um, . And like I said, the accountability, um, is a big part of my coaching kind of philosophy in terms of how we run the overall program on the sidelines, depends how we doing and who we playing, how calm and how loud I can be.
You know what I mean? I think that’s just emotion. Uh, I’m, you know, I don’t show a lot of emotions sometimes around, I try to keep fairly, you know, I think just like a player should, right? We don’t want to always be in like a red zone. You gotta come back down and kind of find that. Green zone where you can think clearly to make decisions.
Same with me as a coach, but you know, there’s certain times where our emotions always get the better of us. So
Matt: Yeah, I hear you. Well, hey, you’ve been super generous with your time. I leave you with one last question and that’s what didn’t we talk about. What else do you want folks to know, whether it’s about the college recruiting process or GW DC or anything else?
Uh, I leave you with the [00:25:30] last word, coach.
Coach: Look, I think my, you know, my advice is to, to do your due diligence. We do hours on our players, you know what I mean? From teams, from academics to social media, to, you know, talking to opposition coaches, talking to high school opposition coaches, not just the people you work in.
So I think, you know, for players out there, it’s doing the, doing their homework. , you know, doing the due diligence, having, you know, when you, you go from 10 to three to two, getting on campus, you know, doing as much research as you possibly can because the decision you make, you hope is gonna be that decision for the next four years.
And you wanna make sure that you’ve covered every base before you go into that. I, I tell families I work that, look, I’m gonna give you all the answers you need to make the best educated decision for you and your. If I forget anything or ask, but I think that’s the same for the players. I think you, they have to do the research, make sure you know every single thing.
Have those difficult conversations or hard conversations in terms of with the coaching staff where you fit in. Um, but think about, look, this is, this is, I want to go to place for, for the next four years. That’s where you’re gonna be looking at soccer, the academics, the financial piece works, the environment, kind of the social area works.
Those four areas, if I, you might not be able to. every box perfectly. But if you can do that, you’ll find a, find a home in somewhere. You’re gonna be in a good space for the next four years of the adventure. Yeah,
Matt: [00:27:00] absolutely. Well, coach, really appreciate the time. Great seeing you face to face. It’s been too long.
It has. It has. And, uh, uh, so hopefully if you get to any, uh, recruiting events down here in Bradenton, give me a shout. We’ll get together in person and, uh, I think I’ll be up in DC here in a, in a, in March. Uh, so we’ll see if you got any spring stuff going on. Sounds good. Thanks for having. Yep, thanks.
Coach: Take care.
Bye bye.
