Gwynedd Mercy University Men’s Soccer – Dave Bontempo
In today’s episode, I speak with Coach Dave from the Gwynedd Mercy Men’s Program in Pennsylvania. We talk about how uses a mix of inbound and outbound recruiting. Coach also shares about what a normal week’s schedule looks like during the season. Plus, we discuss his supportive, but demanding staff.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Dave at Gwynedd Mercy in Pennsylvania. Welcome coach.
Coach: Thank you. Uh, great to be here.
Matt: Yeah. Thanks for coming on. I, uh, you know, I, I played, I played at Catholic u uh, not too far, but we never, we never got up the, to the Philly way to, to play you guys.
Before,
Coach: before I got to Gwinnet, I was an assistant at, um. Archbishop Bryan High School in Philly, which was one of. One of the, uh, best programs in the state and we had a run in the eighties. Uh, we won the, the conference eight years in a row and my favorite player from that team is a guy named Michael Bradley, who went on to be the head coach at Holy Family and his son just graduated from Catholic U Oh, nice.
I watched him a lot the last four years.
Matt: I definitely knew some, uh, Archbishop Ryan guys in my day there. We got a lot, lot of, lot of Philly Catholic School, uh, folks, uh, that, that end up at Catholic u [00:01:00] well being, you know, a a a division three side kind of in that area. You know, we’re talking mid-April, you know.
Is your 25 class done and dusted? Are you still looking for a couple more or are you on to 26 is where, what’s your timeline look like?
Coach: This is an interesting time. Um, I’ve been here 22 years. Um, we have a, uh, we, we brought in 22 last year, so I did not think I was going to need many this year. Um, we have about 24 coming back, and I have commitments from six high school freshmen.
High school seniors who will be freshmen. Uh, some sad news in our geography with, uh, Brent Athens College announcing two weeks ago that they were dropping athletics. We’re about seven miles away. And, uh, we’ve had nine of their guys out for a tour in the [00:02:00] last 10 days. And then sadly, Rosemont, who’s 15 minutes away, uh, Villanova is buying them and they are.
Uh, hoping to have one more season. So many of their guys are in the portal and we’ve had conversations with them as well. So I’ve chatted with my assistant AD and said, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re going to have conversations. We don’t know what we’re gonna do in terms of we accepting credits transferred and finances, but, um, it’s interesting times for us right now.
Matt: And wasn’t it, uh, was it Cabrini that that went away not too long ago as well in terms of their, and we
Coach: have, uh, we have four guys that we absorbed from Cabrini this season, who, who were with us last September. Yeah. Um, so it’s, uh, we’re very sound at Gwyn. We’re financially strong, but it’s really sad to see what’s going on in the landscape.
Matt: For sure, for sure. Well, yeah, that, that, that is a interesting thing. So, [00:03:00] with all that aside, if you had your druthers, and I mean, like you said, you’ve been there, uh, a number of years, kind of what is your ideal roster size going into a season?
Coach: That’s a great question too. Um. I’m kind of unique. There’s only five or six coaches in the whole region who are part-time.
Um, I have my own, uh, I’m a headhunter. I have my own recruiting firm, so it’s kind of natural for me to go from recruiting from one to the other. Um, this past year I. With the Cabrini News and coming out of Covid year three, we decided to really beef up and we brought our biggest class in ever at 22. Um, we had a roster size of 35.
Um, some of my competitors though, um, have 40, 42, and I thought 35 was tough. Um. I don’t know how you keep that many guys happy. The school graciously allowed us to play three reserve games last year, which was [00:04:00] really beneficial. Um, I think ideally I’d like to be 32 to 34, which allows you competitive training sessions.
You could have, uh, lots of, uh, scrimmages and, uh, you also can absorb some injuries.
Matt: Yeah. Well, I mean, every summer I do a survey of all divisions, all colleges and, and, and get that number. And 30 is usually where that dart lands. But really, if you said 28 to 32, that tends to be the, the, you know, covers probably two thirds of, I think
Coach: that’s manageable.
Yeah. You know, for travel bus sizes. Meal money, yeah. Uniforms, the whole bit.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. No, that makes sense. Well. In terms of, uh, your recruiting, let’s go forget the school closure that says, hopefully an anomaly, not, not the norm. Uh, yes, moving forward, but where is it that, that you like to go? What tournaments do you like to see players at?
Where do you [00:05:00] find your kids? Well, it’s
Coach: interesting where you, you mentioned the Catholic League. Um, when I got the job in 2 0 0 3, uh, I had been the head coach at Father Judge High School in Philly. 10 years and I was at Archbishop Ryan before that. I didn’t get the job until Aug April. So most high school guys know where they’re going, but I kind of had a sense I was going, so I kind of let a lot of people know.
And when I got the, uh, green light, um, I got on the phone real quick. I ended up bringing 14 guys with me from the Catholic League. Following year, we brought 13 more. So if you looked at us in oh 4, 0 5, we had 27, 28 guys from Northeast Philadelphia all played in the Catholic League. Uh, if you look at us the last few years, we’ve had guys from Tennessee, South Carolina.
We’ve had a couple guys from Africa, uh, Russia, and, um, all parts in between. So this year’s crew, [00:06:00] uh, we have some, a Boston guy in New York, Jersey Shore around Atlantic City, Cape May. Uh, we have a couple guys from Philly and a couple from Suburban, uh, Maryland. So we’re, we’re kind of eclectic.
Matt: Okay. Well what about, uh, ID camps?
Do you guys hold your own? Do you and your staff work any ID camps? Are they part of your process? I,
Coach: I, I do attend ID camps and, um, I have a former, uh, player who played for me, his name Anthony Can. He is real involved in the, the club world, and he does something really unique. He runs a, an ID camp, uh, where he doesn’t charge.
And he gets a lot of the inner city guys and a lot of the guys who have been to a number of ID camps, and he holds that in December. He had like 50 some guys this year and it was a great, uh, he invited five schools and it was great for us to, uh, see what we’re looking for. And also we attend a lot of, uh, showcases.
Matt: Okay. [00:07:00] Well, whether it’s at a showcase or tournament or high school game or wherever, what, what is it that kind of makes up that hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player both on and off the field?
Coach: Um, we, we try to have a couple of golden rules. Um, number one, uh. Some people joke that it, that totally Thursday.
I’ve been around. They, some people say I’ve been a waiter at the Last Supper. I’ve been around so long. But, uh, I have nine grandkids and I tell my guys, um, if I wanna babysit, I’ll stay home. And you have to be a certain, um, caliber for us. We’re incredibly proud. Three of the last four years, we’ve had the highest GPA in the conference.
We have, uh, won the National Academic Award for United States Soccer. So we make sure that they’re good student athletes. We also, I tell ’em, you know, I’m Italian and the Italian Sunday dinner table is precious to us and I have to make [00:08:00] sure what I invite you to the table and sit you next to my daughter before I put you on the roster.
Matt: I like that. I like that a lot. Well, in terms of just all, all the recruiting you do and, and things, give me an idea what, what’s the maybe percentage of inbound you’re finding somebody because they’re reaching out to you versus. Outbound, you just going to a tournament and finding a kid.
Coach: We do a lot of outreach.
Um, I try to, um, I, I call, I, I stole this from my work world, as I said, where I’m a headhunter and I call my recruiting funnel and it starts very wide at the top. And we try to, uh, come up with a, a spreadsheet of a hundred guys that we’re focusing on, and these are guys that we’ve become aware of. They’re sophomore and junior [00:09:00] years in high school.
Um, club coaches, uh, I have a number of my former players are club coaches who are always feeding me names. Um, I, I’ve been fortunate, uh, 10 of my former players have become college head coaches and, um, sometimes if they have somebody. Like, like for example, Georgie Montag played for me. He’s the head coach at D two Holy Family.
And sometimes he’ll have somebody that maybe isn’t slotted for him, but he’ll kind of, uh, send them my way. Um, we then try to get this a hundred, we watch them during our high school season. My assistants are always out. And, um, we try to invite maybe 35 to 40 for visits. I give the tour myself. I love to do it with them and their parents and, uh, we try to show them what we’re about and what we’re looking for, and then we kind of leave them alone for them to, we encourage them to go look at other schools [00:10:00] and make the best family decision, but we really try to focus on a core of 20 and, and hope the land like 10 of those.
Matt: Okay. No, that makes sense. Um, you mentioned, um. International, a couple international, I mean, D three doesn’t generally get a huge play in the international recruiting scene, but how does that work for you guys?
Coach: We got lucky. Uh, the school attracts international players. Uh, we’ve had a, uh, couple of local churches and organizations who have, uh, sponsored, uh, families and it just so happens their sons were excellent students and good soccer players, so, uh.
And once you, once you do that, and, and they have a good experience, they, they help you recruit additional friends and family. And, um, fortunately many of them were born with a soccer ball at their feet. So, uh, [00:11:00] it, it’s not hard to make a decision. One entertain them.
Matt: Yeah, that Absolutely. Alright, well let’s, let’s learn a little bit more about the school.
I mean, you’ve, you’ve been there a couple decades, so I’m sure you’ve got some great information for us. But tell us a little bit more about the school that maybe we wouldn’t even know by going through the website.
Coach: Sure. Gu Mercy University is in, uh, GU Valley, pa. It’s. Probably about, uh, 20 minutes, 25 minutes from Villanova.
Just obviously everybody knows that name. Suburban Philadelphia. Uh, small Catholic Schools sponsored by or founded by the Sisters of Mercy, uh, which is the name Gwyn Valley, PA. And the Sisters of Mercy is where Gwyn Mercy comes from. Uh, probably about 2000 students, uh, day nights, weekends. Um, the, the school has really started well known for nursing and teachers, but in the last 25 years, we’ve added, uh, men’s baseball, men’s basketball, men’s soccer, men’s lacrosse, men’s track.
[00:12:00] So along with that went the, the new majors, criminal justice and counting and finance and business. And it, um, so. We’re able to attract a lot. One of the things that I like to say is, um, my son went to Gwynne, so I know it as a parent and I know it as a coach. And when I was at father at Judds High School for five years, I sent seven guys to play for Gwynne before I got here.
So I know it as a high school coach, a parent, and as coach. Um, it’s a great community. I have two daughters that went to Westchester and, um, I, I give people the comparison. My two daughters, freshman English class, 120 people in a lecture hall, Gordon Mercy, my son had 13. Um, there’s a lot of one-on-one. The teacher ratio is great and it’s, it’s a community.
So I, I tell recruits, if you’re looking for a place to hide, this is not it. You’re looking for a community to have lifelong friends. Uh, this is certainly something you should [00:13:00] take a look at.
Matt: I love it. Um, have I took my daughter to see Westchester this past fall, so, uh, okay, good. Good to know. Good to know.
You know what I’m talking about. Yeah. Um, well, you know, one of the toughest parts for students, especially coming into college is really learning to balance the demands of being a collegiate athlete as well is the academic side. So what kind of support systems does the school offer to help students be successful in both arenas?
Coach: We do, um, time management is really key. And, uh, handling the freedom, uh, of living away, uh, not having classes from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM every day. So we try to work on the maturity. We start in the summertime. Uh, we have a phenomenal, uh, counseling center and I, and during training camp I bring in last year, uh, we brought in a parade.
They brought in six of our counselors and we talk about. [00:14:00] Time management, class management. Uh, the, the, the tough. Scheduling of your classes to work around an, uh, uh, an NCAA collegiate season, uh, with the travel involved and we’re, you know, we’re at it six days a week. Uh, we have academic support. We have phenomenal tutors.
Uh, we have our, our head, uh, men basketball coach has been our academic liaison and our, our dean of, um, criminal justice doc McGrain, he’s the athletic, um. Um, academic advisor and he’s the, the go-between and, uh, make sure that we, we have a good balance. But, you know, academics is always first. That’s why you’re there.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, I. Let’s rewind or fast forward your choice to, uh, okay. Say October, middle of the, the conference season. Kind of walk me through what’s a typical week look like for a player in terms of winter [00:15:00] classes, meals, practices, games, the whole nine yards.
Coach: We, we try to, uh, make sure that our guys know that they should get all their classes scheduled before, uh, 1:32 PM be kind of free.
Uh, we typically train every day. Now we’re, we’re a typical D three school. We have a beautiful. Turf Stadium. Uh, we share it in the fall with women’s field hockey and women’s soccer. So we have a great relationship with all the head coaches and we take a look at our guys and when they are available to train.
Um, this year I had, uh, six guys who are nurses, so they’re in clinicals in hospitals. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have some, uh, radiology, some respiratory who are also clinicals, and I have a couple student teachers who are in the classroom. So we try to train somewhere around four or five o’clock. We try to play one midweek game.
Typically, uh, the schools have been really good moving them to nighttime so parents can get there. [00:16:00] Uh, we have a better, um, opportunity where they’re not missing classes and then we try to schedule every Saturday in the fall so there’s no downtime losing classes, and we can travel a little further on Saturdays and bring teams from further away.
Matt: Okay. Well, no, that makes sense. Well, let’s talk more about the team. Um, you talked about the roster size, but, uh, what, let’s talk about the other folks that felt the roster, your staff or staff that maybe help out. Uh, I’m blessed with the team. Um,
Coach: I’m sorry. Yeah, no, go ahead. Go ahead. I’m, I’m blessed. My staff, um, I, uh, I have five guys who actually played for me and were former captains.
And, uh, you know, I have, I’ve. A gentleman like Mike Leonard and Mike Womba and Tim Daly and Kevin Hanon, who know what we want, know what we need, and they’re, they’re kind of younger me. They’re, they’re more intense, uh, and demanding than I used to be, which is nice. [00:17:00] Uh, I have a gentleman named Billy Bono who had a phenomenal career at Cabrini and uh, I have a guy named Larry Lowry who works with our keepers now, who’s in the De Sales University.
Hall of Fame is one of their goalies. Uh, just last week we finalized with Beth in closing, bringing in a young guy that I actually recruited 12 years ago, but he went to LaSalle, played D one where I played, and, uh, Andrew Wirehouser was joining us. So I’m blessed having a great staff. Um, I. We also are blessed.
We’re, we’re most proud that this May we’re graduating 150 seventh guy that we recruited since I came in in, in oh two, and that that’s our big banner that we share with everybody.
Matt: No, I love
Coach: that.
Matt: That’s
Coach: awesome.
Matt: Well, you mentioned yourself. Talk to us about your coaching style and the style of play you look to play there.
Coach: Um. I actually played at Archbishop Ryan and I like to tell people I played [00:18:00] on the last Bad Archbishop Ryan team. Uh, they went on a great run when I left. Uh, played at LaSalle a little bit and then I got hurt. And, uh, actually, uh, Bobby Wilkinson, who’s the head coach at Moravian, I played for his dad, uh, coach Bill Wilkinson, who coached many guys in Philly.
And I think coaching at the high school level gave me a good sense of, um. D three now is better than D one. When I played, uh, there’s some phenomenal players in it. Um, it, and it’s, we tell recruits, you need to come here. It’s a four year marathon, not a one year sprint. Um, our, our basketball coach has a sign.
He says, you know, freshman watch, sophomores play, junior start, senior Star. Um, not always the case, but it, it often happens that way. And I tell recruits, uh, you know, you’re 17, 18 years old right now, you’re getting ready for your senior prom and you’re coming in, in August. You’re gonna be playing against [00:19:00] 22, 20 3-year-old men.
We’ve been working out and lifting weights for four and five years and there’s an adjustment period. Our style is predicated upon who we’re playing and, um, what, what type of environment do we have? We struggled this year, to be honest with you. Um, but I didn’t realize this until October, but we, we graduated last May, our spine, we graduated our all conference keeper who had been there for five years.
Our center back was the defensive player of the year. Our captain was the center mid, and then our leading goal scorer up top. So we, we lost it right down the middle. Uh, 22 new guys this year. And, uh, we took our lumps. We, we, we just missed the playoffs on the last day of the season, but we had a great tournament on Sunday.
We brought in four other colleges. We had a good day. We went undefeated. And we’re hoping with all the new guys, adding to them that, um, uh, we’re gonna have a good fall this year. [00:20:00] No, that,
Matt: well, you mentioned the, the, the tournament this weekend. So what does your typical spring, kind of non-traditional season look like?
Coach: So, uh, prior to this year it was very structured, very rigid by the ncaa, and very limiting. And then on top of it, you’re, you’re battling for turf time, not only with women’s field hockey, women’s soccer, but the two sports that are in season, men’s and women’s lacrosse. And obviously they got first. Dibs on everything.
So, uh, we were able to work out sessions before lacrosse, after lacrosse and on weekends. Um, we had 20 events. And then you’re allowed one play day at D three. Um, so we brought in, uh, valley Forge, Christian College Valley for University. Uh, Manor College was right down the road. Uh, we wanted to test ourselves.
We brought in. D two Chestnut Hill. Mm-hmm. And we brought in D three, [00:21:00] uh, Cairn University. We have great respect for those guys. Uh, Luke Gibson, the head coach and I, we try to get our guys together a lot on the pitch. So we had a round robin, uh, eight games on Saturday between the five teams. It was great.
Matt: It sounds like it. Awesome. Well, really appreciate the insights to, to the program and, and your tremendous history there. Gonna leave you with one last question, and that is, if you had one piece of advice for any young man going through this recruiting process right now, what would that be?
Coach: Be proactive.
Um, I. I would think right now what they, they need to do is, uh, let a coach know that you’re interested in them. Do your homework. Like I, I said to you, I watched many of your sessions before I got on this call. Uh. What I would I do not like is when a recruit, uh, reaches out to you and then you say, great, you know, what do you know about us?
What about us is [00:22:00] attractive? Uh, the other thing I would say, and this, this would be my one answer, I would tell the high school guys to go out and watch a couple college games this fall, because when I’m recruiting them, I ask them, and I often do not get the, the affirmative answer. I said, ha, have you seen many college games?
Do you know where your game can slot? Can you play D 1, 2, 3, uh, or Juco? Um, do you know about our substitution rule, which limits the coach’s ability to get many guys into the game? And many of them don’t. And, and I think that they should expose themselves. It’s not hard to find a college game online, uh, on demand or live, and they should do that.
Matt: Definitely. Absolutely. Well, coach, really appreciate it. Wish you the best of luck, uh, figuring out this roster and, and moving on to the fall season. And, and hopefully we can get you into that conference tournament this time.
Coach: Thank you. What you’re doing, uh, for college soccer, it’s just a [00:23:00] wonderful, uh, thing that, um, more people should be taking advantage of and, uh, I appreciate what you’re doing.
Thank you.
Matt: No, no. Appreciate the words. Thanks Kate, coach. Take care. Alright.
