Goucher College Women’s Soccer – Coach Michael Singleton
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Singleton from the Goucher Women’s Program in Maryland. We talk about the nurturing community of staff. He describes how he looks for players that have a hunger to win. Lastly, we discuss their goal of getting to the NCAA tournament. Learn more about Goucher 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 Mike up at Goucher in Baltimore. Welcome coach.
Coach: Thank you. Glad to be here.
Matt: Yeah. And, and, and friends of the podcast will, will recognize coach for you. We talked to her. It’s crazy. It’s been two years. Uh, you were over at Washington and Lee on the men’s side.
You’ve made the transition to Goucher on the women’s side, but. You have a, a long and illustrious coaching career that spans both men’s and women’s college soccer. So, so no surprises there, but, uh, so what’s it been like so far? I mean, how long have you been at Goucher now and what’s the transition been like?
Coach: Uh, just a little over two months now. Um, so, you know, still got my sort of feet in the water. And, uh, but, you know, I think the girls, I was able to do seven practice sessions with them before the spring ended. So that was great. And they’re totally enthusiastic and on board, which I’m really excited about.
And, uh, you know, just a very welcoming place overall. So, you know, when I interviewed here, when I went back to the idea, I’m like, there was a word I could use to describe all the deans and people I had to meet with that would be nurturing. And he’s like, yeah, that’s kind of, kind of what we try to do is take care of the students first and make sure we’re all on the same page with that.
And I said, well, I’m on board with that. I believe in that philosophy. So, uh, you know, it’s been a, [00:01:30] a good transition and, uh, now it’s time to bring the program up. Yeah.
Matt: Well, so it’s gotta be tough. Uh, Jumping in that late and, you know, with D3 kind of recruiting being a little bit later anyway. Um, what was it like?
Was there already commits in place? Are you still trying? Were you still trying to get a few of those 24s in or you turn your sights to 25s? Kind of what’s that timeline looking like?
Coach: Well, it was, we had recruits already committed. Um, I did want to add a few more, but for 2024, it was really hard because it was, you know, when it’s late April and May and stuff, you’re not, there’s not a whole lot of impact players that are going to come to you at that point.
Uh, we did get a few transfers in, so hopefully that they can come and be impactful and then, uh, you know, where we’re at. Sort of pushing the girls that are returning to, to be more fit. Um, when I started, I wasn’t, I’ll say I was shocked at the lack of fitness. I’ll put it that way. So we’re, we’re making good steps forward and, you know, they’re all sort of doing their work in the summer.
And so I think just coming back as soccer fit team will be a better team just because we’re soccer fit. So that’s, that’s what we’re banking on. And, uh, you know, everyone’s sort of on board and [00:03:00] doing good stuff in the summer. And then we got a trip to Spain and Portugal before preseason. So that should help us as well.
Matt: Wow. That’s awesome. Well, in, in terms of. You know, you kind of hit, hit spring. So some of those college showcases happening, right? You got some finals, uh, not, not too far from me down in Virginia, uh, and whatnot. Like, where is it that you see yourself looking for those recruits moving forward? And, and in terms of, uh, what tournaments are you going to get to, what kind of, what’s that look like for you?
Coach: I’ve already been to 2 girls Academy showcases, playoffs, going on to serve cup next week, but it’s tricky. It’s, you know, we have a really. If you look at our roster there from everywhere, quite honestly, and, you know, there’s this 1 of the best colleges to transform lives. And that’s a very popular nonprofit in California that spreads that word around.
So we always get a lot of interest from California and Arizona and stuff for me, you know, because the program hasn’t been winning a lot. I think the sort of 100 mile circle that you would often draw is kind of hard because we’ve got to improve the standard. And once we do that, I think we’ll have a lot more local.
What I’m doing right now is [00:04:30] I’m just recruiting everywhere. Like I do have some local interest and I do have interest from California, Hawaii, Arizona, Florida, Connecticut, you name it. I’m just, you know, trying to find the best players I can possibly find anywhere and convince them to come and sort of change the program.
Okay.
Matt: Well, you mentioned bringing in a couple of transfers is, uh, Do you see the transfer portal as something that that can be a benefit to your recruiting as you move forward?
Coach: Um, i’m kind of ambivalent about it. Um, there’s some good to it But it’s also depending on what class they’re in when they come in, if you only have them for a year or two, like I’m really happy that the COVID waiver is going away because that one year off thing, I’m just like, yuck.
But, uh, You know, it’s something that I look to and I’m just like, okay, if it fits right, then great. If it’s someone who realizes that, you know, they want to be more impactful and get more regular playing time. If it’s someone who’s just disgruntled, you know, one bad apple spoils the bushel. So, you know, I think you got to do your homework as a coach and make sure that people are looking for the reasons that you want them to come in.
Um, [00:06:00] and, you know, with first years, you know, I always tell people it’s, it’s an interesting challenge because all these players come in having had 7 to 10 different coaches and they’re playing careers. And then we have 3. 5 years to get them to listen to our voice and not all those voices and, you know, coaches in general repeat each other all the time and just echo their mantras all the time.
So. Three and a half years. That’s pretty hard to get people to transition. And I know if a transfer comes in, it’s like, okay, I have two years or one year to get you to buy into our philosophy and how we play. And so if I had my druthers, I’ll build it through freshmen. Um, you know, if there’s an awesome transfer and really wants to come in, I’m definitely gonna, you know, keep the door open.
Matt: Do you see yourself doing any ID camps? Are they going to be a part of your recruiting process at all?
Coach: Have one this Saturday. Okay. There you go. So, and then we’ll do one in the fall and we’re going to do it on October 13th and then one in the spring and then probably two next summer. Um, so that’ll be a consistent thing now that sort of my feet are on the ground and I’ve got things going.
So that’s something that we always use, you know, even at my previous place, it was like 50 percent of the team had come to those and really convinced us because, you know, one of the things about. Clubs is we know what style we’re playing at the college game and what we’re asking players to do. And sometimes their club [00:07:30] coaches have a different style and you’re asking them to do different things.
So that’s where those camps come in really helpful is now I can task you with this and task you with that and see how you adjust and see if you have this skill set to playing what we hope to do. Um, that’s always something that allows us to get to know players a little bit more. And just kind of have a, uh, bigger comfort and understanding with them.
Matt: Well, whether at any of these showcase events or camps or anything, kind of what is it that you’re looking for in a player? What is it that’s going to make or break kind of that? Hey, we want you to come to Goucher.
Coach: Biggest thing I always say is hunger. Um, and it can be, you know, kind of vague and I get that I want people who want to be impactful, who are going to be bold, who are going to have the courage to try to make the game.
And I know a lot of players like to play negative all the time because they don’t get yelled at when they play negative. But I tell people playing negative is your last choice. Bye. Find the penetrating paths, find an attacking dribble, find space that isn’t backwards and allowing a team to get organized defensively.
And so that’s kind of what I look for is people who, you know, they have a little bit of courage and they. They sort of have that hunger to [00:09:00] drive them. And, you know, I tell all the recruits, I place a priority on recruiting competitive people. You know, if you look at a typical club, there’s a whole bunch of different motivations.
If you come to a college team and everybody’s competitive and trying to push themselves to be their best, it’s pretty fun. You know, I’ve had people come to my practices and go, wow, that’s super intense. I said, well, did I yell at all? And they’re like, no, you never yell. And I’m like, well, why do you think it was so intense?
They’re like, the players just really want to win. And I’m like, yeah, I’m like, I find that’s very important. I tell everybody, I’m still going to ask you to better last game of your senior year. And if that’s not okay with you. Don’t come to us because I win car races on roads every day against cars that don’t know they’re racing against me.
Matt: I love it. Well, let’s let’s talk a little bit more about the school. I’ve, uh, I had the pleasure 25 years ago of playing a couple games of goucher. But, uh, what is it that drew you to goucher? What are some of the great things you found about the school in your few months there so far?
Coach: Well, it really is a place that puts students first.
And that’s what I really like about it. And even in the time that I’ve been here, we got a 55 million donation from an alum who said, Goucher put her on the path for life that she was so happy with. And then some of the school did that shocked me in an impressive [00:10:30] way. They put all 55 million in financial aid.
I’m like, I don’t know too many schools who would do that. They would figure out some operational way to put it down the drain. With this, I’ve seen great packages come out. And you know, one of the transfers said that basically her package here was twice what she had at her previous school. And I’m like, awesome.
We should send an email to that woman thanking her for donating 55 million. Okay, that’s how it happened. Um, but it’s a beautiful campus, you know, it’s so many walking paths and on the trees and bushes and really pretty. And then you cross the street and you have a hundred restaurants and a hundred stores right there.
So I tell people it’s the best of both worlds. You got your peacefulness and you can, you know, do your studying, go lay out on a hammock in a, in a beautiful area. Yeah. Do that, and then just go across the street and do whatever you want. And I think that’s really good. And then the school too has all these collaborations with other universities now.
Like it’s, it’s amazing. Like our pre med people have a hybrid thing where they work with us in Hopkins. And then they just made a deal with Towson. If you have a 3. 0, when you graduate here, you’re fast tracked into their grad program, whichever grad program you want, and you get more aid than other students.
If you come from Goucher. And it’s like you’re guaranteed accepted for whatever you want to do if you have above a 3. 0 [00:12:00] and like these types of connections that they’re doing. I just think it’s super impressive because it does say long term taking care of students, which I think is very important. Okay, we’re bridging pathways to make sure people get to feel like their education really helped them and put them on a path that they want to be in.
Uh, So those are things that I really like about the college is it really does seem to run through and and everything I’ve learned so far it’s they’re trying to figure out ways to make it more beneficial to students. Um, I actually think that’s what college should be doing. Yeah, I think,
Matt: yeah, it’d be great if more colleges definitely looked at it through that lens.
That’s for sure.
Coach: Yeah, I always tell people, I believe I work for the students and I’ve been in places where I’m like, am I the only one?
Matt: Yeah, yeah, I’ve, uh, I can relate. Uh, well, let’s, let’s fast forward here a couple months. Let’s say you’re, you’re in the heart of the conference season. What do you expect that schedule to look like for your players? What’s a week look like in terms of practices classes? Yeah, The game cadence, all that kind of thing.
Coach: Right. Well, it would be six times a week, just like every, every division. Um, but we’re going to practice once classes are over, because we don’t want to build in any conflict. Um, and it’ll be interesting. It’s You know, once [00:13:30] you’re in the college season, you don’t get to have full practices very often because there’s just too many games and too short of time.
So, I’m really going to be taxing their brains and trying to get them organized and understanding what we have to do as we go throughout, you know, the Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday. Um, but I’m really looking forward to pre season because that will, Get them really on the same page. Get us really where we need to be.
So then doing maintenance in September, October is possible. If you’re on that path already, um, and that that’s kind of it. I think, you know, we don’t have any overnight trips right now. So that’s kind of going to make life a little bit easier for everybody. Um, but, you know, we’ve 1 foot in front of the other and prove ourselves.
Now, you know, we’ve got to do it. Man, gotta get more than four wins. That’s for sure.
Matt: Well, we’ll be cheering for you except, uh, when you’re at Catholic, that’s the one win I don’t want you to get, but that’s a whole nother, uh, that’s a whole nother thing, but well, late season game. That’s right. That one, that one will mean something.
I have a feeling, but, uh, well, in terms of the team, I mean, is there a roster size that you’re well, I know there’s going to be roster size you have this year, but is it the size that you want or will it be different moving forward? What’s that number look like for you?
Coach: I like 30. Um, and I explained it as, well, we need to be able to practice full sided to truly [00:15:00] prepare for some important games, especially late in the season.
So that’s 22 right there. And then we typically are carrying four keepers. So that’ll put us at 24. And then because of the way the college season is built, you can usually have four or five injuries. All the time. So pretty soon you’re at 30. And if you want to have some when you’re scrimmaging each other, then that’s why it sort of comes to that number for me is it’s just the realities of what the college game brings.
And, you know, I do think doing some tactical training and functional training and really getting them to walk through some things that they need to do later in the, in the year. So if you’re in conference tournament or battling to get into the NCAA tournament. You know, legs are typically dead come late October.
Um, so if you’re trying to build fitness or have them work a hundred percent, there’s no way they’re going to win those games. That’s where I think it’s really important to really get them on the page first and then really build it to those times where, okay, we’ll just walk through, we’ll go through some of these things.
We’ll do some functional training, metal. Be very specific to your position in our system and how we connect the dots across lines. And that will be just what, you know, we’re stamping in constantly and reminding people of, it was funny last year, [00:16:30] my team was very up and down and consistent. As we got towards the end of the season, we did an exercise that we call double down.
And it’s basically, you know, coming back to put pressure on the ball from advanced. We did that 22 days in a row. And then I pointed out to the guys, Hey guys, look, we’re going to the final four. We’ve only let up two goals this whole NCAA tournament two years ago. And we’re there, we let up a lot more goals than that.
You have to realize that double down was so impactful to us having the successful season we had. And that’s kind of what I’m always looking at is okay. What’s missing in the team as we get into these late time periods that if we can basically tattoo it on their brains, then we can put it in right away and then install it.
And that’s the big thing is, you know, just consistently looking at what we need to do to be the best team we can be and how we figure out what is able to to be installed within a season or what might have to wait for the spring because it might be too big to try to do in October. So maybe it’s something that, all right, we’re just going to have to focus and in the spring I usually focus on just one or two major topics because if we’re going to imprint them.
We need a lot of practices to, to do that. And it’s [00:18:00] something where if we’re just doing generalized training, I just don’t feel like we’re going to be improving because it’s getting the players on the same page and stamping in the system of play. And so that’s kind of what, what I expect. And I hope we’re in the position in October where I can find something.
It’s just a little wrinkle that’s going to make us a better team and allow us to get in the conference tournament and surprise some people. Thank you.
Matt: Awesome. Well, besides the roster of players, have you been able to build out a staff roster? What other folks, maybe an athletic department going to help out with team?
What’s that look like?
Coach: Well, I had a person who is going to be a GA assistant, but her permanent residency didn’t come through and won’t come through in time. So now we’re looking for someone and I might have a volunteer assistant or two and meet with the guy tomorrow who wants to help out. And there’s another person who wants to help out too.
So. I would love to have, you know, three assistants. I think that really makes practice sort of run well. Um, but I think it’s probably going to be another two to three weeks before that’s cemented in right now.
Matt: Okay. Well, in terms of, you know, you, you’ve kind of talked about it a little bit, but, What else would you like folks to know about the, your coaching style and how you’re going to approach, uh, coaching this team?[00:19:30]
Coach: Well, sure. You know, it’s, it’s not going to change much, you know, the last two places after the first season, we’re in the NCAA tournament every single year in both places. So that’s my goal for this program too. And, you know, I’m someone who likes to play a creative style of soccer and attacking style, where I tell people I’d always rather win three to one than one to nothing.
You’ll never hear me say the word bunker because I don’t believe it’s part of the beautiful game. If you’re worried about giving up a goal, score more and then you don’t have to worry so much. Um, but you know, I look at it too and we’re not like a set piece, corner kick type of team. We attack from all angles.
You know, my team had 20 different goal scorers and 19 different goal scorers in the past years. And that kind of tells you about the style. It’s, you know, Let’s really find good opportunities and move the defense and make sure that we’re finding quality shot opportunities. And what I call is the gold zone, which I kind of draw out for people.
And that’s it. And it’s fortunately I’ve been all around the world and at some top events and I tell everybody it’s gotta be fun. I truly believe that. You know, I saw, you know, working with the Spanish men’s World Cup team in a World Cup day before quarterfinal game, where you figure all those guys are going to have their careers either take off or plunge.
They’re laughing and joking. I’m down in Brazil at Flamenco. They have a [00:21:00] Brazilian championship, which I would think comes with stress. Laughing, joking, signing all the t shirts, giving them to my players, just loving life. And, and that’s kind of something that, you know. I’ve always taken with me is, okay, if at that level, they’re still acting like kids, we got to make sure that we’re not thinking it’s too, too serious or that being always intentful and demanding is helpful because these players aren’t getting paid millions of dollars.
So it’s gotta be fun. And if they have fun, then I think they’ll play better. So we keep that as a part of it. We typically high press. I always say I’d rather have you run five or 10 yards to press where we lose the ball, then run 50, 60 yard backs to make a recovery run that at the end of the game, you’ll have more energy to score the winning goal and be the hero.
That’s kind of the style that we’re. We’re going to be playing in, um, and, you know, we’ll see sort of how quickly we can install it overall and get some productivity from it. Awesome.
Matt: Well, coach, I really appreciate the time going to leave you with 1 last question. Uh, you’ve got a wealth of experience at all college levels, men’s women’s different divisions and everything.
So, if you had 1 piece of advice. For any player going through this recruiting process [00:22:30] right now, what would that be?
Coach: Ask the questions. And what I mean by that is there’s a lot of information on websites out there. So you get on the team website. If you like a certain position, see who’s playing, what class they’re in, see if they’re getting a lot of minutes. So when that coach tells you that they think that you’re going to come in and Start right away.
Well, if that person’s been a three year starter and they’re coming back, ask those questions and, you know, make sure the vagary of recruit speak isn’t something that makes you question your choice. I want every player when they make a decision to choose a college. To be smiling and happy and confident only get there from asking those questions and asking if somebody says, Hey, you’ve got a spot on my team.
Well, what does the spot mean? Is the spot at the end of the bench is a spot bringing water to other people, or is it you’re starting central midfielder? You know, what, what does that? And so, because like coaching language all has that. vagary to it. And I know the power dynamic of, you know, uh, a kid coming in and a big college coach can be scary.
Unfortunately, you gotta have the confidence and have the comfort to ask those questions and ask really about that situation because wherever you go. If you ask those questions and get to know really what you’re [00:24:00] going into, then we won’t have 4, 000 players in the transfer portal, which just in women’s soccer is crazy, 4, 000 people in the transfer portal, like some people haven’t done their homework
Matt: on both
Coach: sides.
Matt: Right? That doesn’t even include the NAIA folks. So yeah, it’s just craziness. Yeah. Well, I couldn’t agree more coach. Great advice. Uh, really appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck, uh, with the new school, the new season. And, uh, well, if you come down to the ECNL event here in Lakewood ranch, let me know, and, uh, we’ll, we’ll get together.
All right. Sounds good. Awesome. Thanks coach. Thanks.
