Husson University Women’s Soccer – Coach Dennis Mullins
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Mullins from the Husson University Women’s Program in Maine. We talk about how he likes to recruit all over the country. He describes the school’s tremendous advanced degree programs. Lastly, we discuss the staff and how they help ensure the success of the program. Learn more about Husson University Women’s Soccer.
[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Dennis Mullins from the Husson University women’s program. Welcome.
[00:00:07] Coach: coach. Thank you very much.
[00:00:09] Matt: much. Thanks for being here. Your weather’s probably much nicer than mine up in Maine. Uh it’s you know, probably already 95 degrees outside, uh, here in Florida, but, but I’m not gonna.
[00:00:18] That’s with stepping outside. That’s at
[00:00:20] Coach: at least not yet. the best time of year here heading up into preseason. We’re just in the glory of main summer right
[00:00:26] Matt: now. Oh man. Yeah. Uh, the one thing I miss about the north is beautiful summers rather than, uh, baking here on a, on a hot humid day. We’ll see what time the thunderstorms roll in this afternoon.
[00:00:37] I, you know, it’s, you can almost set your watch to it, but anyway, Let let’s talk about re recruiting, you know, I’m sure getting people up to Maine in the, summer’s a great draw, but, but getting them to, to go to school there for four years and, and play soccer. What, when are you usually hearing from players?
[00:00:53] When are you looking to recruit players and, and kind of get that process started?
[00:00:58] Coach: Yeah. You know, from actively recruiting a player, you know, we’re pretty invested in juniors, in high school, uh, going into their senior year, whether it’s that summer or the fall of their senior year. At the division three level, you know, those decisions from a roster standpoint, and even particularly the students looking at colleges.
[00:01:18] Is a little slower paced. Um, you know, we’re not, we’re not looking at freshmen and sophomores necessarily, uh, juniors. We kind of start that conversation. And early on in their senior year, we’re looking to, uh, finalize those decisions.
[00:01:30] Matt: And, and I mean, I know that it ebbs and flows a lot throughout the year, but how many inbound contacts would you say you’re sifting through on a, in a typical week?
[00:01:40] Coach: On a week to week basis, you know, it depends, I would say it’s, it’s really not uncommon for me to have anywhere from 10 to 15 contacts per week. Uh, but on the flip side of that, if I’ve got some downtime and I’m using some of those online recruiting, recruiting resources, you know, I may, I may initiate contact or, you know, uh, by viewing a student’s profile, they get notifications.
[00:02:03] So if I put in a little extra effort in some of those slower types of times. That can certainly ramp up just based on, you know, communications
[00:02:12] Matt: and, and what kind of, what do you like to see in that first communication from a recruit,
[00:02:17] Coach: you know, Other than just kind of, uh, getting to take a look at a student’s academic background, you know, any video resources they can show via, again, an online profile or, you know, uh, connecting us via email with a link YouTube, whatever it might be.
[00:02:35] Communicating with a player is often predicated by at least taking a look at them somehow, uh, in a playing capacity. If that’s somebody we see in person at a recruiting event, or maybe at a tournament, um, or again, hopefully getting to look at some highlight videos at the very minimum. Okay.
[00:02:51] Matt: You just mentioned tournaments, kinda what are, what are some of the main tournaments that you generally go to every year that are, that are, must see TV on, on, on your recruiting
[00:02:59] Coach: radar?
[00:03:00] Yeah, so traditionally right after our season ends, you know, early to mid-November when the juices are still flowing and you’re ticked off cuz you lost your last game and all reality. Right. Um, you know, you want to get out there and get after it again. So very often. Some Thanksgiving tournaments, those early club level tournaments that take place.
[00:03:18] Uh, there’s a really good one here in Massachusetts’ not too far up the road that I’ll often get to. And then once we start getting past the holidays, uh, into January, I always go to the national coaches convention. And kind of get my juices flowing again after the break and kind of get some education and some training going.
[00:03:36] And shortly after that, I could be anywhere from Phoenix to Las Vegas, to Denver, Colorado, uh, down in Florida, you know, in your neighborhood for a couple of tournaments. Um, I’ve been to the Disney showcase. I went to some events in Tampa. So, you know, I really am trying to kind of expand, uh, my recruiting base all over the country and trying to promote our school to more kids who might be interested in some of our programs.
[00:04:03] Oh, that’s great.
[00:04:04] Matt: What about camps? How are they? Fit in. Do you run your own camps? Are you guys active at other people’s camps and, and how important are they in your recruiting process? So
[00:04:13] Coach: a little bit of both, you know, I do participate in some of the other, you know, uh, promoted camps or, you know, corporate camps.
[00:04:20] Uh, I’ll go in as an instructing coach or, or a, uh, evaluating coach. Um, and I tend to do those again, uh, closer to home. So, the bulk of those are usually in the Massachusetts area. That I participate in, you know, within a short day’s drive. Uh, as far as on campus ID events. Uh, my first season we did a couple, we did one.
[00:04:42] Kind of at the tail end of our season as we were winding down. Um, but the girls will tell you that they participated. It is kind of a tough time of year to showcase your highlights because we had some tough conditions, and the weather wasn’t cooperative. Uh, we also did an indoor event that winter again, which is nice to see per girls play in person, but it’s not the same as full field.
[00:05:03] Um, so this year we’re probably looking at doing a combination of a walk on tryout with, uh, an opportunity for some local girls to. To an ideal event. You know, when, when we, when we put on an event, we’re, we’re generally bringing in players that are from the state, maybe the New England region. Um, but again, as I mentioned before, I’m trying to really kind of grow our reach a little bit beyond just the neighborhood.
[00:05:27] So, um, it’s tough to get girls from far away, you know, to come to an ideal event here, but we, we do our. Okay,
[00:05:35] Matt: Well, whether it’s at, at a tournament or camp or whatever, what’s kind of your hierarchy of what you’re looking for in a player, whether that’s on the field or off the field.
[00:05:45] Coach: Yeah. So again, academics are obviously very important here at the D three level. Education comes first, at least as far as my, as far as I’m concerned, um, you know, we’re passionate about soccer.
[00:05:56] You know, we want to compete, we want to win, but the bottom line is most players are at this level. It’s still a passion project. It’s something they’d love to do. It’s not necessarily gonna be anything that they’re gonna make a career out of professionally, uh, or they’d probably be at a much bigger, more prestigious institution. Uh, so academics are important. I want girls that are gonna be eligible. You know, injuries are one thing, but if you’re, if you’re slumming on academics and that I can’t use you, that’s a problem. So that’s always ground, ground zero. Right? You gotta have good grades in high school. It’s gonna qualify you for the most academic aid, first of all, uh, and make sure that you’re committed to getting that degree while you.
[00:06:37] Beyond that, uh, you know, I’m looking for just well rounded, technically proficient players. Um, I don’t necessarily shop positions specifically, uh, unless it’s goalkeeper, of course, but that being said, I’m looking for, for girls who are just technically, you know, at the level I want, you know, you can complete a pass, receive a pass, uh, and then I can put you in a position where I think you can be most success.
[00:07:01] Matt: No, that makes sense. You mentioned that kind of the financial aid part a little bit, and, and it’s always something everybody wants to know about, you know, being D three, don’t have the athletic money, but what what’s, and I’m not holding you two specific numbers or anything, but just. An average player coming in.
[00:07:17] What is the, what does the academic merit aid look like? What does the other scholarship in aid look like? And just kind of an overall financial aid picture at the school?
[00:07:27] Coach: Yeah. Well, I’ll start with one of our biggest promotional topics, uh, here at Husson, you know, we’ve been ranked, uh, The most, what do I wanna say?
[00:07:36] Um, we’re the least expensive private university in all of New England from a, from a base standpoint. So tuition and room and board, uh, with no financial support whatsoever. You’re looking at around 34, 35,000. Uh, and after, you know, again, if I’m gonna reference a student that’s been successful in high school, let’s say a three, six or above GPA.
[00:08:01] You know, decent ACT or SAT scores. They’re gonna qualify for our highest level of merit based scholarship. Uh, and we can usually get a good student in the door, all in for around $22,000 a year. Okay. I like to throw those numbers around because our neighboring schools, Colby Bates, Bowden, you know, they’re hovering around 65, 70 K a year.
[00:08:24] And when I can offer programs that are comparable, if not better, based on what kids wanna study, um, to graduate with little to no debt in comparison to some of those other big numbers is a huge advantage for.
[00:08:37] Matt: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, let’s, let’s talk a little bit more about the school then in general, you know, especially us folks down here in Florida, probably haven’t heard of, of, of Husson.
[00:08:47] Um, so, you know, I can go to the website and, and learn a bunch of things, but kind of give me the behind the scenes. What, what are some awesome things about the school that I might not learn about just by visiting them?
[00:08:59] Coach: You know, it’s interesting. You, you mentioned Florida because, uh, that’s actually a pretty significant recruiting base, not just for me as a women’s soccer coach, but we have a number of football players.
[00:09:07] We get some basketball players from down there. And I think the big reason Florida’s a target for us, cuz there aren’t, I don’t know if there are any division three schools in all in the entire state. Right? So those athletes that want to continue their sports career and don’t earn those big scholarships.
[00:09:23] You know, we’re, we’re a good opportunity for them to come up here and continue to play their sport. They love. So, uh, you know, that’s, that’s part of it as far as us reaching out to Florida. Um, I kind of lost track there. Sorry, can you refresh? No, no,
[00:09:37] Matt: just in terms of what’s what’s awesome about the school
[00:09:39] Coach: yeah.
[00:09:39] School. So Husson, when it originated , was a business school. So we actually had the largest school of business in the state of Maine, uh, based on the enrollment. But our president about 15 years ago really started to pay attention to the kind of jobs of the future. You know, where is that, um, that market, what careers are gonna be, uh, needed down the road.
[00:10:03] And so he really took an initiative to develop. And expand our university into different programming. We now have a school of health sciences, uh, that has physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing pharmacy, uh, all of these, you know, medical fields that we can provide, uh, excellent training. For example, you can get a doctorate and physical therapy in six years here.
[00:10:25] You come in as a freshman, you’re in the program. There’s no reason to reapply or look for grad school. It’s all rolled into one package OT, and master’s in five years, you can get a master’s in business administration in five years. Uh, you can be a doctorate in pharmacy in six years. Beyond that we have a school of education.
[00:10:43] Uh, we have a school of communications. Uh, we have plenty of liberal arts programs. Um, one of the best things about this school is you don’t have to know what you want to do, right? You can have an idea, but as many freshmen and sophomores often do, if you change your mind, you don’t necessarily have to change universities.
[00:11:02] Uh, because we have lots of different programs and a lot of different varieties of degree programs. So, no, that’s great.
[00:11:08] Matt: Well, I mean, you mentioned some amazing programs there, so specifically at your school, you know, how do student athletes balance that commitment between sports and athletics and, and what kind of support mechanisms are there in place to help them on that journey?
[00:11:21] Coach: Sure. You know, there’s no ifs, ands, or butts about a time management in season is a massive responsibility and it’s something that the girls have to come in and be prepared for, you know, uh, having upperclassmen to kind of mentor off of and get some ideas about how to structure your day in season is really key.
[00:11:41] You know where we’re located. We end up traveling quite a bit for our matches. We have two to three overnight trips or weekend long trips within our season. And it’s really strongly encouraged that the girls, you know, bring their studies with them because we will be off campus for a number of days. Um, Our professors, you know, they’re well aware of the number of student athletes we have here.
[00:12:02] So they’re always very forgiving and understanding of the scheduling. Uh, and I think as long as the girls are, you know, proficient in their time management and their communication skills with their professors, they often do very well. Now there’s a couple tricks of the trade, you know, in this season, fall semester for us, maybe you dial down your credit enrollments.
[00:12:20] Maybe you just take 15, maybe even just 12 or 14 credits that semester. And then you kind of add up a little bit in that spring semester and, and play a little catch up, maybe take an extra class or two. Uh, so there’s some simple, you know, processes to kind of keep it manageable, but really it’s important to just stay on a schedule, you know, know what’s expected of you and just stay on top.
[00:12:41] As far as resources go. Uh, we have an athletics academic center now. I don’t mandate my girls go there unless they slip below a certain threshold from a GPA standpoint. Uh, I’ve been very lucky in my three years here. I’ve not had to make a single referral to the academic center. Our girls have the second highest GPA as a team in all of athletics, only behind the tennis team, which only has six players.
[00:13:05] I don’t think it’s really a fair comparison. so we’re doing really well in the classroom, which I’m happy about. That’s awesome.
[00:13:10] Matt: Um, well, in terms of just balancing all that, can you walk me through what a. And again, I know there’s no such thing as a typical week, but, but give me a rough idea of, you know, when are classes, when is practice?
[00:13:23] What days are games? When are we leaving that kind of thing? What does a week look like for a player
[00:13:26] Coach: in season? Yeah. So to start off with, you know, NCAA division three, we’re mandated to give one day off, one day off of rest, no training, no game, no team, mandatory meetings. What have you now on occasion that could be a travel day.
[00:13:40] You know, if we’re going away for a long weekend, we might leave on Friday and not train. So that would. But generally speaking, if we’re not training, uh, we’re in a match. So once our season kicks off, we often play two to three matches a week. Again, because of our geography. It’s not uncommon at all for us to play it back to back on Saturday and Sunday, whether it’s because we traveled or our opponents had to travel to us.
[00:14:03] And then I often will try to schedule. If possible someone in state or maybe within a few hours drive, uh, for a midweek match. So we’ll typically train, let’s say if we play on Saturday and Sunday, Monday is a logical day off. We would train Tuesday, maybe have another match Wednesday. Train Friday, train Saturday, and then potentially a game or to the following weekend again.
[00:14:28] So we’re, we’re pretty much nonstop once we hit the ground running, um, from again, preseason mid August all the way through early November when our conference tournament wraps up. And when we make the NCAAs, we keep going from there.
[00:14:44] Matt: OK. Okay. And you already talked to me about travel. Let, uh, so let’s talk a little bit more about the soccer side and then the team a bit.
[00:14:51] Is there a roster size that you’re trying to hit every season? Usually, you
[00:14:55] Coach: Now, my first full season, my first season was COVID. Uh, so that one didn’t really count now my second full season, which was last year, uh, I had some carryover roster. Members because of the COVID season. And a lot of them were in these advanced degree programs.
[00:15:11] I mentioned, so they had eligibility and they were gonna be here. So they had the option of playing if they wanted to. So I had a big team last year. I had 36 girls. Yeah. Uh, which was it, it posed its challenges. Uh, but again, it gave these girls that opportunity to kind of just be with the team for one more season.
[00:15:29] Uh, this year I’m gonna be carrying a roster of 28, uh, which is right around where I want to be. Uh, I don’t mind going around 30. And I ask people questions that seem like a lot. And my response to that is once you factor in a couple of injuries, um, again, hopefully no academic issues, uh, but there could be class conflicts.
[00:15:50] There could be schedules. There could be illness again. We mentioned COVID, uh, before you know it, that 28 is down to maybe 20. Or even 22 and all of a sudden, you’re, you’re lucky to be playing 11 V 11 in training. So for me, that size of roster is almost necessary at this level, just based on the attrition and based on, you know, things that can occur within a season.
[00:16:13] Yeah,
[00:16:13] Matt: I, I think, I mean, I’ve done over 65, these interviews. I, if I had to guess, I’d say the average is that 30 mark, you know, 28 to 32 would probably be what I’ve heard most, most schools. So that makes sense. What about your soccer staff? Who else is on staff with you? Whether that’s soccer only or support staff within the athletic department and what role everybody plays.
[00:16:35] Coach: So, first of all, you know, we’ve got a full athletic training staff in regards to the support system. Uh, anytime there’s any athletic event going on anywhere on campus, there’s always a trainer here available. So if, if we’re on the field until nine o’clock at night, uh, and something were to happen, there’s somebody available to our athletes.
[00:16:53] Uh, we have an assigned athletic trainer that travels with us for our away conference matches, which is great to have them available. Otherwise we use the host teams’ training staff, obviously the administration’s there for us, very supportive again, because of our geography. We’ve got a really healthy budget to work with, which as a coach is really phenomenal to have access to those funds.
[00:17:16] Um, now when it gets into the coaching positions, uh, again, I’m the full-time staff here. I’m at the university every day. And I actually have four assistants who work with me, which is a lot, but, um, that’s the one place where I don’t have a massive budget. And so these staff, they’re all, part-time, you know, they all have regular jobs and they all work with me when they can in season.
[00:17:38] I’ve got really good help out of season. Uh, my primary assistant coach is definitely one of my recruiting assistants for sure. Uh, so in season I’ve got three other staff that help me out, uh, with training and. Team management and so forth out of season again, it’s myself. And one of my primary assistants that spends most time recruiting.
[00:17:59] Okay.
[00:17:59] Matt: Um, well, how, how would you describe your style of coaching and the, and the team style of play overall?
[00:18:06] Coach: Yeah, so, you know, first and foremost, I, I like to kind of. I wanna be an educator. You know, I want to help my student athletes not just become better on the field, but better in life. Uh, you know, I want to be there for them in a supporting role for whatever they may come across at these, in these often challenging years.
[00:18:26] Uh, I actually have a daughter who plays on my team. Who’s gonna be a sophomore this season. Um, so I, I kind of end up playing that role for, you know, all 27, 28 of these girls in season. And, and I really enjoy doing that. Some of these girls travel from far away and, you know, they’re away from their families.
[00:18:42] So to have someone that they can rely on and connect with is important too. Uh, in regards to my coaching style, you know, I’m, everybody can always learn and always get better at the little things. And, you know, it’s up to us to figure out where those skills can be best utilized in our formation and our tactical ideas.
[00:19:01] Um, but beyond that, it’s really about continuing to love the sport and get enjoyment out of the sport. And it’s really important for me to kind of minimize. Self-induced pressure that these girls really put on themselves, you know, to remind them we’re having fun and make our training sessions enjoyable, make them want to be on the field for practice and something.
[00:19:24] They look forward to every day as opposed to, oh, I’ve gotta go to train again. Uh, I want them to be excited when they get there. I want the energy level to be. And that starts with me. So it’s about, I have to be engaged. I have to be energetic and I do my best to draw that out of every player.
[00:19:43] Matt: Okay.
[00:19:44] Awesome. Well, you know, we’ve kind of covered a lot of ground here, uh, and appreciate the time, but I always like to end these with, with one last question, which is what didn’t we cover? What else would you like anybody to know whether it’s about the school, the team, the soccer side, or, or just the recruiting in general?
[00:20:01] Anything you want any potential prospect to know? This is your time. Sure.
[00:20:05] Coach: You, you know, I had some kind of an interest. I won’t call that a dilemma, but more of, uh, something that kind of materialized throughout the season last year, uh, prior to being the women’s head coach, I was an assistant on the men’s team here for four seasons.
[00:20:20] And I was kind of, um, in my role, in that in the, as an assistant, I was really working a lot with the defenders and I’ve always kind of had that mentality of, if you don’t give up a goal, You’ll you won’t lose the game. So I I’ve kind of taken that approach into the women’s side and I started the season last year thinking, okay, we’re gonna defend, we’re gonna possess, you know, we’re gonna, we’re gonna look to build in the attack, uh, about five games into the season.
[00:20:47] Um, we were ranked number one in the nation in scoring offense.
[00:20:53] We were scoring crazy goals. We were giving some up for sure, but we were scoring a lot of goals. We ended up finishing the season as the national leader, division three in all of NCAA, division three, as the highest goals per game average in the country. Um, so that being said, I had to obviously mold my philosophy as the season went on and make some changes.
[00:21:17] And also that shaped my recruiting for this coming season. Knowing that we needed to be better about not giving up goals, but hopefully we can maintain that offensive momentum. Um, so just little old Bangor Maine up here, Husson university, just racking up numbers and, and ended up the season, number one in the country.
[00:21:35] So it was pretty cool for us to achieve that and something for us that we got excited about as a season built.
[00:21:41] Matt: That’s awesome. Well, congratulations. We hope you can continue that scoring success as well as, uh, winning success here. This fall I really appreciate the time and, uh, I’m definitely gonna have to get, uh, Maine on my summer vacation list here for next year.
[00:21:54] So I can get outta this, uh, oppressive heat for a little bit of time. I highly recommend it. Well, if you get down to Bradenton for, uh, IMG cup or any ECNL stuff, let me know I love to meet you in person, but really appreciate the time. Coach sounds great.
