Immaculata University Men’s Soccer – Coach Richard Punt
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Richard from the Immaculata Men’s Program in Pennsylvania. We talk about recruiting players that fit into their game model. He describes their campus, its athletics and how it was the subject of a movie. Lastly, we discuss how they continue to train and develop during the spring semester. Learn more about Immaculata University Men’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Richard from Immaculata, a men’s program in Philadelphia. Welcome coach.
Coach: Thank you for having me.
Matt: I appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks for being here. I, uh, I, you know, I played at Catholic U just down the road. Never, never played Immaculata though, in my four years, but, uh, uh, I saw your, your schedule saw a lot of, a lot of school names I was familiar with.
Coach: Yeah. Everybody kind of knows the same schools in this area, right?
Matt: So. Yep. For sure. For sure. Well, we’re talking here end of January. It’s the, you know, kind of the, the height of a showcase season. Um, let’s talk about recruiting, you know, Where, what is kind of your timeline as a division three men’s program?
Are you, is the class of 24 done and dusted? Are you still working on a few kind of what’s your normal timeline and, and when you lock down things? Yeah.
Coach: Um, I mean, typically most years I would say we try to be done around the end of January. Um, obviously this year may be a little different with the changes with FAFSA.
Um, so that’s certainly delayed the process for a few of our potential recruits. Um, I think, you know, the next month kind of typifies our, um, approach to recruitment. So we have one of the local events this weekend with Mainline Friendlies. Um, we try to get out to as many of the ECNL and ECNLRL national events [00:01:30] as we can.
Um, so one of my assistant coaches will be down in Florida the following weekend. Um, you know, we are lucky enough that we have some nationally ranked clubs on our doorstep as well. Penn Fusion, FC Delco. So we’ll be at the fusion event as well in a few weeks. And then, of course, BDP is is typically right on our doorstep as well, just over the bridge in New Jersey.
Um, so the next month is really busy for us really picking up our 25. Um, but rounding out that 24 class at the same time with those events, I’d say as well.
Matt: Well, if your assistant coach needs any help, uh, down here at Lakewood Ranch, just, just let me know. It’s about three miles from my house and I don’t know if I, I might even be reffing a few of those games, but, um, I’m sure he’d appreciate it.
Yeah. Um, What about camps? Do you guys do any ID camps there at the school or do you or your staff work other ID camps? How important are they in the general structure of things?
Coach: Yeah, so we do work some other ID camps. We have the Philly soccer camps coming up. I think on the weekend of the 11th as well.
So I’ll be there for us on campus. Our ID camps might be a little different. So we offer one in the summer. Um, so obviously this summer that will be more for the 25 that we’ve had on campus. We’re kind of through 25 to 50 percent of the process at that point with those guys. Um, and we want to see, you know, a [00:03:00] how they interact with each other.
What’s that kind of dynamic? Like, um, how do they respond to our coaching staff at a typical training session with us? Um, obviously they get to see our campus and our facilities again. Um, and then we typically try and offer one, you know, after the full season at some point in the winter, um, as a way of maybe getting some new guys on the hook around that showcase time as well.
Um, so we’ll offer one or two a year, just kind of depending where we are. Okay.
Matt: Well, whether it’s at a showcase or an ID camp or anything else like that, what, what kind of makes up the hierarchy of things that you’re looking for in a player, whether that’s on the field stuff or off the field?
Coach: Yeah. So firstly, um, how do we think players will potentially fit into our game model?
Um, so obviously we’re not expecting anyone to be anything close to the finished article when we watch some of these showcases. Um, but we’re looking for technical aspects within certain positions. Um, you know, our center back’s comfortable on the ball. Um, we want to make sure that um, our fullbacks able to play in different areas, whether that be talking in centrally overlapping, um, just different aspects of what we think people could bring within our game model.
Um, obviously we have to tweak that depending on how our roster looks, but we don’t want to start from scratch with new recruits. So one is what can they offer to us and our style of play? Um, the other big thing with us being a smaller school is we really want to get to know our recruits. Um, And understand what they [00:04:30] would bring to the program and the school kind of off the field.
Um, so are they going to help continue to engage, um, within the campus community and the local community? Are they going to push our culture and our standards and our values? Um, so we do spend a lot of time once we’ve seen recruits at events, um, getting to know them and really kind of seeing how they would fit in here as well.
Matt: Okay. Well, in terms of. Inbound traffic and people reaching out to you. I mean, can you give me a sense of maybe how, how many inbound emails or different players might reach out to you in a recruiting class? And then how many might actually show up on campus? Versus come to a camp versus, you know, just what does that funnel kind of look like in terms of of numbers for a typical year and you know, obviously I’m not asking for exact numbers, but just an idea.
So people understand. Hey, coaches are sifting at the start with this many kids and then it goes to this many kids and then it goes to this many kids.
Coach: Yeah, I mean, that’s a great question. Um, So I think there’s it’s more and more common now for kids to reach out to us directly Um, you know, whether that’s just interest in the school whether that’s that they’ve got a tournament or a couple of tournaments coming up Um, so if you look at you know from that late November timeline really through until probably memorial day Um for the bigger [00:06:00] 20 and 40 emails So EDP Spring Cup, for example, I’ll be, yeah, I would say around 30, 35 kids will reach out for that event.
Um, we’ll obviously also as a staff handpick the games at events we want to watch, um, and then we’ll follow up with recruits who maybe don’t know about us or, or, you know, we haven’t had communication with previously. Um, so I would say right now for, you know, 25s is our kind of main focus. Um, by the end of the spring, we’ll probably be out.
100 to 125 potential recruits and then that obviously narrows down Um, so we cast a wide net right now and you know narrow that down to get the the 10 12 kids We want in a typical class? Okay. Well
Matt: You said about 10 kids in class. So is there a roster size you guys find is ideal that you’re trying to hit each year as, as a total, not per class, obviously.
Coach: Yeah. I mean, we’ve been a bigger roster, um, for the last couple of years. I think that’s probably been more common post COVID at the D three level. Um, I would say, personally, I want to be around 28 to 32. Um, the season is so short and so intense that we want to make sure we’re covered. We don’t want, you know, too many people who aren’t going to be involved, um, in games.
So, typically, we would want to be around that 32 number, I would say. Again, we’ve been a little bit more than that over the, uh, the past [00:07:30] couple of years, so that brings some challenges. But at the same time, it’s great because we know we’re covered depth chart and everything. Um, it has been really strong from that point of view.
Um, but yeah, 32 is the number we’re looking at.
Matt: All right. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. I’m sure folks out there maybe aren’t familiar with with Immaculata if you haven’t been in that mid Atlantic region, especially with all the all the different Catholic schools over there. Um, you know, you’ve been there a few years now kind of what are some of the things you find just awesome about the school maybe some things we wouldn’t know even by going through the website.
Coach: Yeah, good question. The first is there’s always something going on on campus here. So since I’ve been involved in the program since 2018, um, the campus development has been incredible. Um, we’ve had a new turf and a new track put in, um, a new eSports arena which is absolutely incredible for any of the gamers who, who kind of are looking at.
IU as well. Um, and then from a general perspective, um, they’ve refurbished academic buildings. They’ve put in new student apartments, a student center, a new science pavilion, um, was put in last summer, I believe. Um, and the equipment in there is obviously brand new state of the art. Um, I think we’re one of a handful of schools in the country that have an anatomized table.
Um, so there’s some, you know, unique aspects in terms of the campus development. Um, and then one of the other cool things about us is we’re one of the few colleges to have a movie about us. [00:09:00] Um, so our women’s basketball team won the national title in 72, 73 and 74. Um, and so there is a movie, we’ll promo it a little bit right now, um, but the Mighty Max movie, um, is a kind of feel good story about that team.
Um, so that’s a kind of unique feature for us as well. All right.
Matt: Well, yeah, not, not many folks can, uh, say they’ve got a movie, but, uh, obviously it’s, it’s, if you’re going to college and playing soccer, you are a student athlete, right? So how do your players specifically kind of manage the demands of the student side, as well as the athlete side and, and what kind of support systems does the school offer to make sure the players are successful in the classroom, as well as on the soccer field?
Coach: Yeah, so I think actually being a student athlete helps, um, particularly at a smaller school because time management is obviously essential and your day is pretty much mapped out for you. Um, so in the season, for example, um, the guys are going to be taking classes through the morning. Um, our training blocks start from three o’clock.
Um, so we want our guys to finish their classes, uh, before then. Um, and then through training and then, you know, they’ll work with academic advising. Um, we are lucky here that our field hockey coach works within our academic advising department. Um, so particularly for fall athletes, you know, she understands the need to balance it.
Um, and she’ll work with, with all of the athletes. Um, so they’ve [00:10:30] been a big resource for us. Um. And I think, you know, it goes back to that time management piece. Um, if the guys understand they’ve got to get classes done in the morning or early afternoon, there’s going to be days that probably, you know, writing assignments or reading research papers on the bus, depending on our travel times.
Um, And there is that accountability here for our athletes. Um, so we have weekly communication with the various academic departments. Um, they provide feedback on our athletes who are doing well, athletes who maybe need a bit more support. Um, so that’s a kind of big factor here as well for our guys.
Matt: Okay.
Well, let’s rewind a little bit. Let’s pretend it’s October. We’re in the heart of that conference season. Can you walk me through what a typical week is going to look like for a player in terms of, you know, winter classes, meals, practices, game cadence, all that kind of stuff?
Coach: Yeah, so I suppose it’s more and more common that coaches work within a periodization model.
Um, you know, we’re no different. So the day of the week may kind of vary for us a bit. Um, but typically the guys, um, would start classes around eight o’clock or nine o’clock. Um, so they’d have breakfast before that in the dining hall, head over to their first class. Usually our athletes will have kind of back to back, back to back classes through the morning.
And then again, lunch on campus, depending on the time we’re training. We’ll do video [00:12:00] analysis earlier in the week from our games the week before. So ideally, we’ll do that before the first training session of the week. There’s, you know, scout report meetings here. And as you know, at D3, the games come thick and fast.
So there’s a ton of opposition analysis, um, that we have to do as well. Um, and we are lucky this year that we’ve managed to schedule kind of 99 percent of our games for this coming fall on Wednesdays and Saturdays. So once the guys have had that first week or two, there will be a consistency to that schedule.
Um, And I think that’s going to be essential for them as well.
Matt: Yeah, man. No, absolutely. Um, well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team. Uh, we talked about roster size, but, uh, the other part of the roster is the staff. Uh, so can you tell me a little bit about your staff? What role does everybody play?
And are there additional kind of support staff in the athletic department and help out with the team and what that looks like?
Coach: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so as well as myself, um, I do have numerous part time, um, assistant coaches or volunteer assistant coaches. Um, and this is where Immaculata is a smaller school and a fantastic community.
Two of my coaches actually played here. Um, so my goalkeeping coach played here years ago. I’m one of my assistant coaches as well. Um, and then I have. So I have a goalkeeper coach and three assistants, um, the way we try and work it a typical training session. Um, we’re going to try and hit some technical work with our guys.
So one of us will, we’ll focus on that two or three days a week. [00:13:30] Um, and then I, I have one of my coaches focus more on the defensive side of the game. One focused more on the attacking side of the game. Um, We do split our roster into functional groups. Um, you know, with us being a bigger roster size, I think that’s key to get the technical and tactical work with those specific units.
Um, so we will have days of the week where, you know, one of our coaches is working with 15 of the attacking players, whether that be midfielders, wingers and forwards, and another with the center backs, fullbacks and holding center mids. So we try and kind of rotate how our coaches work, um, just so we don’t get stale, um, and the boys aren’t hearing the same voices, but that’s typically the areas that we look to hear in most of our sessions.
Matt: Well, we are, uh, starting to get to that, uh, spring season kind of timeframe. Uh, I’m sure your, your students are back in for the spring semester. So what can they expect from a, uh, off season or spring season, uh, schedule? What, you know, what kind of training are they doing? Any kind of games? What, what does the off season look like?
Coach: Yeah, so this year we actually gave our guys a bit more rest, um, at the end of the fall season than we typically have done before, um, so we try and break our winter programs into two phases, um, so this past winter they started phase one, um, during winter break, so, you know, it’s kind of more bodyweight exercises that they can do within their house, um, and then we gave the guys one [00:15:00] day back on campus to re acclimate, um, and we actually started phase two of our lift program, um, um, um.
That first week back. So they’re working, um, with a strength and conditioning coach right now, four days a week. Um, could be in the morning before class begins, could be in the evening after classes. Um, but we’re really kind of ramping up that strength program now. Um, That will kind of tailor off just before we begin our spring season.
So we’ll maybe give the guys a week or two’s rest. Um, yeah, and then we’ll begin our, our spring training. I would imagine the kind of final week of February or first week of March, we’re just actually kind of finalizing the days and times of that now. Okay.
Matt: Well, now I’ve got to train the guns on you for a second.
Uh, how would you describe kind of your style of coaching and what, what kind of style of play you’re looking to implement and maybe what kind of culture of the team you’re looking to implement?
Coach: Yeah, great question. Um, so in terms of style of play, um, doesn’t really matter where I’ve coached what level my two objectives are.
We want to control how the game is played and where the game is played. In order to do that, I have three non negotiables. Um, so my teams are always going to be possession based. Um, we are going to build from the back. We are going to try and play through the phases. Um, We’re going to be as attack minded as possible.
Um, so we want to get numbers in and around the box. We talk about a number we want to hit in terms of box occupation. Um, and then we want to be [00:16:30] as proactive defensively as we can be. Um, so a lot of our spring season actually is going to be looking at our press shape and our press structure and how we can counter press quickly.
Um, and maybe with a bit more effectiveness and aggression. Um, But they’re my, you know, my three non negotiables. Um, we definitely have a, you know, a style of play. So in that sense, it goes back to recruitment when we are recruiting. And I said, we want people who are going to kind of come into that game model.
Um, it’s not just about what they bring on the field. There is a risk element to how we play. Um, so I am looking for recruits to show a bravery and a commitment to that. Um, And it means kind of sometimes ignoring outside voices with, you know, when we are taking risks and playing out from the back and you hear the groans and the noises from the crowd, can we be brave enough to ignore that and believe in what we’re doing?
Um, from a culture piece, I know core values is probably a buzzword right now. Um, but we do spend a lot of our time relating back to our values as a program. Um, so we want guys who understand that, um, who understand why our values are important to us. Um. And who are going to leave that Jersey in a better place than when they picked it up.
So that’s, you know, both on the field and off the field. Um, so that’s something we work with our guys a lot as well.
Matt: Okay. Well, coach, I appreciate, uh, all the time and info you’ve given us. I got one last question for you. And that is, if you had one piece of advice or one nugget of information that you would hope that, that all [00:18:00] prospects, parents, players going through this process would know, what would that be?
Coach: Yeah, I think recruitment is such an individualized, kind of personalized process. It’s for people to understand that and own their process. Don’t be swayed by friends who are maybe looking at, you know, other schools and trying to persuade people to follow them there. It’s make the decisions that they’re comfortable with, that are right for them.
And just trust themselves to know, you know, what they want, where they want to be. Obviously work with their family, but ultimately it’s down to the, the person and the player to, to be confident enough to make decisions for the, you know, the best college experience for them.
Matt: Couldn’t agree more. Well, coach, wish you the best of luck with all the tournaments coming up and, uh, like I said, open invitation.
If your assistant needs any help when he comes down to Florida, have him gimme a, gimme a shout and, uh, wish you the best of luck this fall.
Coach: Thank you. He’s just happy to get away from the snow and the rain right now, I think. So he’ll enjoy himself down there. Well,
Matt: I’m sure. Well, he’s timing it well. We had winter, uh, last weekend, so we’re back up to normal Florida temps now, so.
Yeah.
Coach: We’ve got winter for the next two months, I think.
Matt: Yep. All right, coach. Take care. Thank you so much.
Coach: Appreciate it.
