Greensboro College Women’s Soccer – Coach Mike Johnston
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Johnston from the Greensboro Women’s Program in North Carolina. We talk about the importance they place on culture when it comes to recruiting. He describes their smaller school feel with access to a larger city. Lastly, we discuss their typical in-season schedule, complete with weight room work. Learn more about Greensboro 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 Johnston from Greensboro College. Welcome.
Coach: Hey Matt. Thanks for having me. I appreciate you having me on the show, man.
Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. It’s great to talk to you. Got a nice division three program there up in North Carolina.
I’m sure I’ll be driving through some point this summer, uh, on my way north for our, our our Family Road trips. But, uh, in the meantime, let’s, let’s talk a little bit about the, the program and let’s start with recruiting. You know, it’s that crazy time of year of, of. Showcases and tournaments and, and that maybe you’ll even be down here in March for the E C N L uh, girls event.
But, um, it being early February, have you closed out your 23 class? Are you, are you still working on a few? What, what, what’s kind of your timeline generally speaking?
Coach: So we’re still working on a few for 23. Uh, we’ve got a really solid class coming in. Uh, we’re up to nine now. Um, like to get to 12. So, wow.
You know, still working on a couple or three. Um, have a couple coming in over the next few weekends for visits, like to have that wrapped up probably by the end of the month. , you know, we certainly started working on our 24 class. Um, we have some offers out in that class as well. But you know, the, the main thing for us is to get a, a really foundational 23 class that can come in, um, replace all these players that we lost from this last fall and, and kind of continue the, the upswing of the program.
Matt: Now, are you looking at. Any transfer, I mean, transfer portal stuff 12. That’s a, [00:01:30] it’s a big freshman class. Is there a particular reason you’re, you’re, you’re, you have a lot to replace. How does that work?
Coach: Yeah. You know, I think, I think for me, one of the things we realized last fall was it’s very critical to train 11 v 11, especially at the college level.
And we started last fall with 23, um, lost one of our top freshmen on day one to an a c l. Um, kind of went from there, had another, another season ending knee injury, some concussion stuff, some covid stuff. And at the end of the year, you know, there were days we were training with 14 or 15 kids. So I think for us, , you know, like this, um, spring we’re training with 16, 14 field players, two keepers.
So really vital to get those numbers up so we can train 11 V 11. I think it really helps not only with competitiveness within training, but in terms of being able to prepare 11 V 11, um, with the scouts and stuff. It just, it just makes sense. So, you know, we, we knew when we came in last March that we wanted this 23 class to be quite big.
Um, and they’re all, they’re all quality. So, um, you know, speaking of the. You know, transfer portal. It’s, it, it’s, it, it’s kind of a, a, a interesting entity for us. You know, we reach out to 10 kids, we hear back from maybe two. At our level, you know, you get a kid’s transfers from D one or D two, they think they still wanna stay D one or D two.
Um, we do have a, a solid transfer kid that fits in this weekend, um, that I do hope we end up, end up getting. But, um, you know, the, the portal’s kind of been hit and miss for us. For, for us it’s to find, you know, we, we’ve been really good at finding the late 20 threes. That are [00:03:00] realizing kind of their niche and the, the level they can play.
And, and we’ve got some, some really good players that committed especially late this fall. So that’s kind of the crux of our 23 class, kind of in a nutshell. Okay.
Matt: Well, I, is there a roster size that you think is ideal that you’re, you’re trying to, to hit?
Coach: Yeah, for me, I think that 28 number is, is, is good.
24, 25 field players, three keepers for me would be ideal. My druthers, we have two keepers now. Um, you know, still certainly looking for, for another one, but our, both of our keepers are, are very quality. Uh, they’re very young. We have a rising junior, a rising sophomore, uh, who’ll compete for time next year.
So for me, the ideal roster spot at this level, I think is. Three, four keepers, 24, 25 field players I think is, is perfect.
Matt: I I, I think if you averaged out every interview I’ve had, uh, I think it’s probably about where you’d land is that 28 to 30 number, but, uh, so that makes a lot of sense. Well, are you guys doing any camps, uh, at Greensboro or do you or your staff work other camps to, to help the recruiting process?
Does that fit in?
Coach: Yeah, so we do both, you know, we’re, we’re kind of in a, in a unique niche here in Greensboro, so we’ve got a great relationship with UNC Greensboro. So we go down and work both of their ID camps, and then we have our own ID camps. So we’ll have one coming up here in April, and then we have one in July.
We had our first ID camp as a staff last July, and was, was really, really well attended. We actually ended up having to cap it at 50. Um, you know, we’ve got a great [00:04:30] relationship with a, a couple of the local clubs around, especially N C F C sent us a lot of kids to that, that camp, and so it was really quality.
So we’re looking forward to that this year, but, , you know, it’s always good to get out and see other camps as well. And I, and I will say, you know, certainly we like to promote our camps, but the USC Greensboro ID camp last summer in terms of quality, top to bottom was fantastic. You know, probably a hundred twenty five, a hundred fifty kids and, and the quality was, was really, really good.
So for us that helps because it’s, you know, a quarter mile down the road, you know, we’re literally right next door. So it’s kind of a, a unique entity between the two of us. And we have a really good relationship with their staff and, and vice.
Matt: Ah, that’s awesome. Well, in terms of whether it’s at a camp or, or any of these tournaments that you might be recruiting, is there a hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player?
What is it that that made one of those 12 players? What, what is it that you saw that made you really wanna offer them and that you wanna offer recruits?
Coach: You know, I think, I think for us, and it, it is kind of cliche, but you know, our culture I think is very, and in the fall, one of the things we talked about was changing the culture and to a T.
All of our players talked about how improved that culture was for us. . So for me, I tend to look at, you know, I think I’ve been doing it long enough now, , I tend to look at things maybe other people don’t look at. You know, you can have a talented player that if they get subbed off, taking their shin guards, throwing ’em to the side.
Those aren’t the kids that we recruit. We recruit the kids that are impactful both on the bench. Um, you know, they’re out with an injury, they’re still [00:06:00] up chairing for the team. Um, you know, they’re super articulate, you know, I mean, we’re a high academic institu. , obviously we look at that as well, but for me it’s kind of the total package.
Are they lifting other people up when they’re on the field? You know, are they winning balls in the air? Are they gritting it out? Kind of that, that, that, you know, intangible, so to speak, is what we look for. So I, I think that’s really what this 23 class brings are young ladies that are willing to, I guess, buy into the We Over Me system.
Um, and they’ve all done that for their club teams, high school teams, you know, whatever the case may be. So for us, I think those culture pieces. Kind of to continue what we, what we’re doing here is, is uh, you know, the most impactful thing for us.
Matt: Yeah, well that’s, that’s good stuff. And I always, as much as I try to tell kids, you know, that they are watching, you know, how you react, whether it’s when something goes wrong or coming off the field and what, and what, what that culture is, what are you saying to your teammates?
I think it’s, it’s a big important thing. So that’s great to hear. Um, in terms of, um, Cost of attendance, right? I, I got a, I got a high school girl, right? I’m starting to think, okay, what, what’s this gonna cost me? So, I’m not holding you to hard numbers here, but can you give me an idea, especially since you guys are D three with no athletic money, what, what is an average student athlete on the soccer team coming in looking at in terms of what, what aids available, scholar, academic scholarships, that sort of.
Coach: So we have a pretty interesting tiered system of scholarships [00:07:30] here. We have everything from kids that are high academicians in the, in the four Os that get close to fully funded merit academic scholarships. The price at GC Proper dropped during Covid and they dropped at about 15 grand. And luckily, knock on wood, we’re doing okay.
They’ve kind of left it at that. Um, so everyone that comes in generally gets something. Whether that’s just a few thousand off the top or anywhere between a few thousand and, and kind of the full academic merit, which I think we have four for our campus. So, you know, we’re a school of what, 1500, you know, so you bring in 250 undergraduates a year and you get four of those.
You know, that’s, uh, you know, they don’t grow on trees, but, you know, we, we typically very proud of our academics as a soccer family. Last spring, we had a three six. This fall we had a 3, 4, 9, 2. So, you know, we kind of hold ourself to a standard for this spring. We want to reach that three six goal again as a family.
You know, we have lots of kids with, with four OS that graduate and never, never get less than a in a class. So for us it’s, it is important to us, but there is aid available, both need based through the FAFSA and then school based through merit academic.
Matt: Okay, well let, let’s talk a little bit more about the school in terms of, you said, you know, high academics, which is great.
Uh, and it’s right there in Greensboro, but, you know, what are some of those awesome things about the school that maybe I’m not gonna learn just by clicking through the website? Yeah.
Coach: You know, it’s, it’s for me and, and to be completely transparent, you know, I’m [00:09:00] a public school guy. I went to school next door at UNC Greensboro and I have two degrees from there.
And, and actually worked there and, and you know, coming over to Greensboro College was unique for me because it is a smaller school where a school of about 1500. But the cool thing about Greensboro is, number one, the relationships with the faculty. With each other. All the athletes are very close, more than, most than, or more than half of our students play a sport, um, which is a unique entity.
But we’re actually in the historic district of Greensboro, so we’re in a beautiful setting, but we’re four blocks away from downtown. . And when you’re on campus, you would never know we’re that close to downtown. But when you stand at our field and you turn around at our home bench, you see all the buildings of downtown Greensboro, which is like super fantastic view.
And so we get kids reaching out to us on Instagram, we’ll have a 6:00 AM training and we’ll post a picture of the sunrise and they’re like, man, that’s awesome. You know, you’re that close to downtown. So there’s always something to do. And then I think the other unique entity for. Is we are right next door to UNC Greensboro.
So yeah, we’re a small school of 1500, but if the kids want a bigger school environment, they’re actually allowed to take classes at U N C G. through Greensboro College tuition if the class isn’t offered at gc. So it’s a really cool consortium we have with U N C G. And I think that relationship and the fact that we’re four blocks away from downtown kind of separates us.
You know, it’s, it, it really does. It’s a super scenic setting. But on the weekends, you know, the kids can walk downtown three, four blocks away. Have fun. You. [00:10:30] Places to eat, minor league baseball, great performing arts center. So it’s, it’s a really unique entity and, uh, being that close to downtown certainly helps sell the school for.
Matt: Yeah, that, that does sound pretty amazing. I, I, I can’t wait to check it out for myself. . Uh, I haven’t, haven’t been there yet, but it’s on my list, uh, for sure. Very welcome time, . Awesome. Well, we, again, we’re talking, talking about the academic side of things. You know, it can be difficult, especially at the high academic D three level to balance.
And studies. So specifically, how do your student athletes kind of manage the balance between those two things and what kind of support systems does the school offer to help them?
Coach: Yeah, I think time management is really critical and I’ve been fortunate enough since I’ve been here, we’ve had some really impactful leaders.
And so I think peer leadership is super important. So, you know, we have a freshman that’ll struggle in bi struggle in biology, and our senior leader will say, I got you. Um, so I think the peer leadership is where it. . We also have some really good resources on campus. We have the Peak Center, which is our center that, you know, helps kids with papers, with research.
With jobs, with summer internships, um, on and on. And that’s a, a super impactful relationship that the athletes can use and students alike can use. So it, it, it’s a really close family. Um, and, and we never want to see a student not succeed. So there are several facets that we can have to help the [00:12:00] students succeed.
And every freshman that comes in has an advocate or an. That’s a little, I guess, closer than what I was used to at a larger public institution that they can rely on if they need it. In terms of academic support, social health, mental health is big on campus. Our counseling service, obviously 2023 is fantastic.
So I think some of those resources that we can tap into I is really impactful for these, these young women.
Matt: Yeah, that, well, it’s good to hear that there are, are those. things available for everybody. Well, in terms of, of being on campus and then a soccer player, and you’re in the middle of, of, of school and, and everything.
Take me back to the fall. It’s during the season. Give me an average week for a player. When are they waking up? When’s training, when’s classes? Kind of what’s the, the game cadence. What’s what, what’s everything?
Coach: Yeah, so our, our typical week, one of the interesting things is I’m also director of sports performance here at Greensboro College.
So the weight room is important to us. The recovery is important to us. So during the season we lift twice a week, so, Our game days are typically Wednesday and Saturday, so for us, we typically lift on Mondays and Thursdays during the season. So a typical week when you lift, they’ll wake up. We’ll lift from seven to 7 45, they’ll have a day full of classes.
Our training time last fall was five 30 to seven 30. Then after training, obviously dinner and then [00:13:30] homework on their own. And obviously that varied a little bit. We have. , we share a field, you know, our field is is very good, but we share it with both lacrosses football and men’s soccer. So we have, you know, two hour slots that we fit practices into, especially during our training time in the fall.
So, you know, a typical day, if they have weights, they’re waking up at, at 6 15, 6 30 to get the weights by seven. If it’s a regular training day, it just depends on their class schedule. You know, a lot of ’em actually prefer to take the 8:00 AM classes just so they can have the rest of the day to relax, eat lunch, you know, do do things like that.
But, um, you know, our classes are offered throughout the day, you know, anywhere from eight in the morning to eight, nine at night. So that’s typically what a day for an athlete would look like based on whether we’re lifting or, or we’re, you know, kind of having a recovery day.
Matt: Okay. Well in terms of the, the soccer side of things, you know, we talked about roster size.
What about overall staff size? How big is your staff? What role does everybody play there?
Coach: Yeah, so we have a staff of four, which I think is a, is a really good size for any school. But I will tell you, I would put our staff up against, most anyone in the country are my first assistant, Matt Cartes, played here, was an all conference player here.
High academics. She’s an exercise physiologist at Wake Forest now. Um, I’m super impactful for the girls Great leader. Still runs with ’em, um, actually kicks their, kicks their tails when we’re, when we’re running. Um, you know, kind of gives him a role model to look up to. [00:15:00] Um, and then our volunteer assistant, uh, coach Poppier Jake has, has been with me for years throughout different stops at the, at the prep school level around here.
And he’s, he’s fantastic. Certainly wise beyond his years. And then our goalkeeper coach was actually a standout down the street at UNC Greensboro. Um, coach Black, Jennifer Black. And so she brings a wealth of experience. So I think we’ve got a good mix of youth and kind of elder statesman on our staff.
And I, I mean, again, the staff is fantastic and in terms of the way that, that those three, you know, can deal with the kids and, and, and relate to the kids is, is super, super cool and, and super special. I think we’ve got a, a, you know, I’m, I’m certainly very fortunate that we have such a good staff here.
Matt: Wow.
That’s tremendous. Well, I think, I think most pe most D three schools would be jealous of a staff of four. I know even when I was d d two was a staff of me , so. Right, right. Uh, well in terms of, The, the coaching style, how would you describe your coaching style and just the overall style of play of the team?
Coach: Yeah, so coaching style for me is, is very simple and it’s person first, player second, and that’s something I’ll always hang my hat on, is you have to be relational. You have to have relationships with players first before you can get them to trust you. Um, and then in terms, you have that relationship between coach and player in terms of.
Coaching style as a staff, we’re very much, our job is in [00:16:30] practice, so practice is our time. Games are the players’ time. So we’re not the the type that are gonna stand for 90 minutes. Um, we’ll certainly make corrections, but practice time is our time. And so our thing is if you want to earn playing time, you earn it in practice.
And we c we want to compete every training session we do. In terms of style, you know, we want to keep it, we want to knock it around. We wanna play through the center of the park. We want to get in line. You know, it, it was interesting, you know, I, I had it in my mind when we came in here. We were gonna play at 4, 2, 3, 1.
We were gonna keep it. We were gonna be at this session team, and, you know, our best freshman went down on night two with an a C L tear. . So we had to change some things up. We ended up playing a 3 52 way more attacking than I anticipated us being to start last year. And we were fantastic. And I think we realized if, if, if kids buy in, that they can, if kids buy in to play in different spots, you know, you can morph to a system based on the personnel you have.
And that’s what we did. And to give you an example, we had a, uh, one of our best players, one of our rising senior captain, Was an outside Ford for us a whole year, getting the conference tournament last year. Had to have her move her to right back and I mean, she didn’t miss a beat. Absolutely hit on all cylinders.
Played both conference tournament games back there and, and so that, that’s kind of our, our motto, our CRE is, you know, you gotta be willing to do whatever you can for the team. And then us as coaches need to be able to adapt based on the personnel that we have available. Okay.
Matt: Well we’re talking in February.
Um, it’s [00:18:00] the off season. What does, uh, your off season look like for, for the team? What are you guys gonna be doing between say, well, when the came back to school in January till, till end of May.
Coach: Yeah, so when we got back in January, the kids are in the weight room two times a week, and then they have open field three times a week.
So open field, obviously captain driven, um, you know, we can’t use that for evaluation or anything. They’re just out there playing around and, and they have open field, open gym. Occasionally we’ll see some of ’em up in the gym, playing wall ball, doing stuff on their own. And then we’re in the weight room two times a week and, you know, we’ve done some, some fun stuff.
Me being in sports performance, um, you know, we’ve had some speed agility sessions this spring. We do it in conjunction with volleyball and other women’s sports on campus, which is cool to kind of forge those relationships with other athletes. And then when we come back after spring break, so middle of March, we start our non-traditional season, which is a six week season, five week season.
We’re allowed to train 17 days over those five weeks. And then we’ll go down to cata. Which is a D two school in, you know, near Charlotte. And we’ll play a couple friendlies down there, you know, for our competition day. And then, you know, once that concludes in, in mid April, they’ll go back to doing some stuff on their own.
And then March, uh, May 1st they’re out of here and they’ll have their summer packet they’ll start working on, and we’ll start gearing up for the, the, uh, sports specific phase of weight training, which is in their packet, which they have, you know, June and July leading up in the, in the coming. Okay.
Matt: Well you’ve, you’ve mentioned, uh, the sports performance side of things.
Do you guys use any sort of, [00:19:30] of technology, whether that’s video, gps, anything with during the season for training games, anything like that?
Coach: Yeah, so we do video. I, I wish, I wish I could say we, we had gps I’m jealous of, of the bigger schools that are able to, to use those toys and, and I’ve asked for those and hopefully at some point we can start with a couple and build from there.
But we, we do use a lot of video. Um, you know, we do use some heart rate monitoring stuff, um, in terms of just taking it on their own, um, in terms of heart rate reserve and, and, and those calculations. And we will start, start doing those things in the future. But, you know, we, we don’t have any of. I guess the standard tech toys that the, that the big boys have, so to speak.
Um, but the girls are really good at, at knowing, knowing their bodies, eating right. Recovering, right, sleeping. And one of the things we have here is we have a fantastic aquatic center. You know, we have a pool here, you know, in the athletic center. So we use that for recovery and, and give you an example, you know, we play a conference, tournament game on the road quarter finals.
Grid out of one. Oh win. Have to go to the top seed Methodist two days later, last fall. In between day. We’re not training. We . We got in the pool. We did a 30 minute pool recovery workout. You know, the girls are all in the, in the, uh, sports med center using the, the crowd cuffs and the boots and, and, and regener recovery tools down there.
And, and we used those a lot in conjunction with sports Med. So that’s kind of how we do recovery and performance here, so to speak. Okay.
Matt: Even that, that’s fantastic. [00:21:00] Well, coach, we’ve, we’ve covered a lot of ground, but I always end these the same way and that’s what didn’t we cover? Uh, what else would you like folks to know, whether it’s about the college recruiting process, about your school, the team, anything else?
I’ll leave you with the last word.
Coach: Yeah, I would just say, you know, Greensboro is a, is a fantastic area. I’ve been fortunate enough to be around here for a while, and GC in and of itself, we call it a hidden gem of the Southeast. And one of the things is when you come to school here, you’re two hours away from skiing in the winter, in the mountains, and you’re.
Two hours, 45 minutes away from the beach and, and ocean in the summer. So, you know, it’s kind of a, a perfect setting in terms of, of school and you know, even though we’re small in stature, I think there’s a, there’s a ton to offer and the, the location property, I mean, North Carolina is beautiful. I think it, it sells itself.
And you know, I would just say for all those out there, they’re kind of on the fence about booking at the smaller schools is give, give Greensboro a chance cuz it really is a, a beautiful area.
Matt: Absolutely. Well, coach, it’s been great talking to you. Uh, if you do get down here in March for EC and l gimme a shout, we’ll grab a cup of coffee or something and, uh, we wish you the best of luck in the spring and, and hopefully, uh, get even more dubs in the fall.
Coach: Yeah, thanks Matt. I certainly appreciate you having me on, man. Best of luck. Thank you.
