Jacksonville State University Women’s Soccer – Coach Sean Fraser
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Sean from the Jax State Women’s Program in Alabama. We talk about how he looks for attacking players that are fun to watch. He describes the support players get both academically and athletically from the school. Lastly, we discuss how he is lucky to have a fully stocked staff. Learn more about Jacksonville State University Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today, I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Sean from Jacksonville State in Alabama, not Florida. Uh, welcome, Coach. Thanks for having me on, Matt. It’s a pleasure. Yeah. Thanks for being here. I, uh, you know, being, being the Florida guy I am, every, you know, if I say Jacksonville, I got to make sure everybody understands we’re talking about Alabama, not Florida.
Um, but, uh, congrats on a, on a good season. I know you’re, you’re probably, I bet last weekend, uh, You were trying to decide whether you were going to be in California, North Carolina or Tennessee, right? In terms of this recruiting fall crazy season, are you and your staff just scattered all about or how’s that work for you?
Coach: Yeah, so obviously, you know, like college athletics, I think over the last couple of years has kind of taken on different pathways, you know, with, with, you know, the portal has kind of had different rules every year. Yeah. Um, obviously we’ve got COVID, you know, seniors that still have the extra eligibility after graduation as well.
Um, you know, obviously, and then you’ve got, you know, for me, like, I mean, the first year here, so trying to obviously build a program as well. So certainly a lot of moving parts, so it’s, um, but that’s, that’s the way we like it though.
Matt: Yeah, I bet. Well, in terms of, you know, kind of resetting the program, right?
I mean, you’re coming over, I believe, [00:01:30] from, from Louisiana Monroe, if I’m not mistaken. Yeah. Um, and trying to build that what’s it like trying to recruit to a division one program, but one that, you know, maybe people aren’t familiar with one that, you know, kind of in a rural part of Alabama and really kind of maybe changing the mindset of what people think of when they think of Jacksonville State soccer.
Coach: Um, yes, quite interesting to be to be honest. I mean, like, just. I’ve been at a few different universities now, both on the men’s side and on the women’s side, and I’ve coached Division One, I’ve coached Division Two, NAIA as well. Um, and really recruitment is, is different everywhere, but at the same time, it’s the same everywhere.
So, you know, just like speaking in general terms, every. University or every place is going to have it’s, it’s, it’s going to have things that are appealing to people. So I think wherever you are, what you’ve got to try to do is figure out what type of person is going to fit at the university that you are at, maybe what the landscape is around campus.
So You know, do you have a major city close to you that has really good soccer or are you going to have to rely on another area as well to, to be successful? So certainly wherever you are, that, that, that for me has been, or wherever I’ve been, [00:03:00] that that’s been ultimately what we’ve had to try to start doing as we look to, to build a, build a program.
And, um, you know, that’s no different here.
Matt: Well, in terms of, of, of recruiting and building that program, you mentioned the portal. I’m pretty sure that accent of yours is not from Alabama. So, um, you know, what is it? What are you looking for in players? We’re looking at international versus bringing in the portal versus the traditional freshmen.
Like what, what kind of goes, goes into all of those decisions?
Coach: Yeah. So like for us, we’ve, we’ve, um, well, for, for, for, for everybody, you’re looking for good players. So, um, and I think that for everyone as well, you’re looking for the best students possible, you know? And I think the interesting thing about our sport that is maybe different.
And again, I don’t know. How, you know, perspective student athletes may not know that there are headcount sports such as football that all of their, you know, they have 85 scholarships at this level. Um, you know, and for us, we are an equivalency sport. So, ultimately, what we can do is we can give partial scholarships.
Um, in in from soccer money, we can use academic money to to create a package as well. There’s an in state tuition rate and there’s an out of state tuition rate as well. So we can piece together scholarships with [00:04:30] regards to that to to try to make it best best fit for the athlete. So, um, but you’re right.
Yeah, I’m not from Alabama, actually.
Matt: In, in your recruiting kind of besides the obvious, you know, we’re looking for the best players possible, right? What, what, what is it that, that you, you know, that catches your eye, whether you’re at a tournament or, or maybe it’s an ID camp or, you know, kind of what, what makes up a player right now that, that maybe you’re looking for, uh, to, to bring to the program?
Coach: So, so, so for me, like, you know, I like, I like attacking soccer, football, um, and I think, you know, for me, find them players that, you know, I want to coach players who, uh, it’s easy to say fun to watch, but, you know, I want to coach the player that, that I would pay to watch, you know what I mean? And, and don’t get me wrong.
Like I know, like I’m, I know I’m really fortunate to be doing this career and I would. There’s, there’s nothing better for me than being around a group of, of, of young players who they want to, they want to learn, they want to get better, they see value in, in me being their coach, they see value in our community that we’re creating.
Um, and I think the real interest in, like, for me, that, like, putting on the training kit, having some brand new balls, some fresh cut grass, I’d pay to do that. I would actually pay to do that. So, [00:06:00] like, a lot of people talk about athletes being fortunate to maybe have an opportunity to play Division One. I am the fortunate one because I get to work with some absolutely unbelievable footballers.
You know, and I’ll give you an example. We have a player here that last night she qualified for their under 20s World Cup, which is in Columbia. Now we’re going to miss her. She’s Austrian. So we’re going to miss her for a couple of weeks during the season. But what an amazing experience she’s going to have playing in a World Cup.
And, you know, we had a girl. Um, the other day that made her first full national team appearance for Bulgaria. So, you know, unbelievable, like things that I get to share with these kids. So, um, but in terms of what, what, what maybe I would look for is certainly, you know, players that, that, that, that I would pay to watch is by definition, what I’m, what I’m looking to, looking to, to coach and be around every day.
Matt: Well, I know you have a, uh, an ID camp coming up and. ID camps seem to have gotten just to be a really big part of college recruiting these days. So, how many ID camps do you generally have within a year? And how important are they to your overall recruiting?
Coach: Yeah, so what I will say is for us here, like, I’ve not, I’ve genuinely not experienced the volume of interest.
In in Jacksonville, like in a university that I’ve ever that I’ve that I’ve been a part of before like this. I mean, [00:07:30] you know, you can imagine what what emails like and on one email chain that I’ve made a mistake. Put my cell phone number on him. I’m never going to do that again. But, um, you know, so so ID camps are a way for us to pull recruiting kind of.
Um, I think for everybody, you know, sometimes ID camps get a bad rap really, but you know, and sometimes become a bit of a money grab, but you know, for us, like, like I said, before we started recording, we’ve got three girls coming to us in 2024 that attended ID camps this summer. Now, whether we had identified them before, or they have signed up for the ID camp in a hope of getting in front of us.
That, that’s obviously, uh, uh, uh, certainly a part of the conversation as well, but for us, like we always say that ID camps, uh, there’s three things that you can get from an ID camp. Um, learn about college soccer in general. You can, you can obviously get better at soccer is another one as well. And then certainly as well, if, if you’re interested in Jacksonville state or you’re interested in the university’s ID camp that you go on to, are you learning something about.
Whether it’s college recruiting in general, but are you learning? If that school is a fit for you. So there’s really three things there that I think add value in the ID camp process, which for me, for anybody, when people ask me about ID camps, as long as that ID camp falls in [00:09:00] into the realm of, well, this is maybe a school that I would go to, or this is a course that I want to work with that can train me to be better, maybe I can learn something for all there’s massive value in them.
Matt: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. I’m sure there’s folks out there not familiar. With Jacksonville State and that there’s a Jacksonville in Alabama, right? So, um, you’re, you’re, you’re just wrapped up your first season. You’re somewhat new, but what kind of pulled you in to the school?
What are some things you’ve learned about the school that you find are really awesome? And maybe some things we wouldn’t even know just by going through the website.
Coach: Yes. I mean, again, a great opportunity for me to, to coach the players that I want to coach. And, um, you know, be, be a part of. Certainly a part of an athletic department with a winning culture.
I think what’s happening with our football team at the moment with coach Rich Rod over there and his staff, you know, is amazing. You know, the first year in FBS football where they’ve. You know, they’ve, they’ve managed to make a ball game and honestly, what they’re doing is amazing, you know, and I think two years ago, our men’s basketball team were at March Madness.
Our softball team are just unbelievable. You know, we’ve got our bowling team has taken off as well. So to be a part of a winning culture, to be a part of a place that is progressive, um, to be a part of a place that really, um, has the student athletes best interests in mind. [00:10:30] It’s been absolutely, you know, from my perspective, an absolute pleasure, um, and, and some of the people here that I’m working with are just unbelievable people.
So, um, you know, again, like I said, I mean, I’m, I’m, uh, I’m the fortunate one here.
Matt: You just got to be careful not, not to say that part about you would pay to do it and let your athletic director overhear you because you don’t want to give them any ideas. , well, you know, it’s not just soccer, right? The, you know, there are student athletes going to get their degrees and sometimes that can be challenging, especially for high school student.
Really, really figuring out the balance of the demands. And in your case of, of, of a di a Division one sport and the academic side of things. So how do your student athletes really make sure that they, they achieve that balance and success on both sides, on the field and off the field. And what kind of support mechanism does the school provide to help?
Coach: Yeah. So for us, we have, you know, our athletes have access to. To our athletic advisors. They also have have direct free access to mentors, tutors, success, coaching, um, and any other supplemental instruction that they need, um, individually. So having the ability to, uh, to kind of customize their experience based on how little or how much help that they want is, [00:12:00] is really an added benefit about being here.
Um, we, we. We have a, uh, each coach is responsible for, for a certain element of our program as well. So one of our coaches is, is responsible for, for the academic side and kind of bringing that closer to the soccer side as well. Just, just in case we need that, you know, we’ve got girls coming in, for example, that are, that are going to be nurses and if they need to miss a practice.
It’s here and there, or, or, you know, if they have to get extra study hours in, we can kind of modify their schedule if we need to. So certainly, um, that kind of bespoke atmosphere, customizable experience here has been what I think is the most valuable, um, part of, or one of the most valuable components about being a student athlete at Jax State.
Matt: Okay. Well, I mean, let’s let’s rewind maybe about a month. Uh, well, maybe six, eight weeks. You’re in the hall. Let’s say you’re in the heart of that conference schedule. Can you walk me through what a typical week for 1 of your players looks like in terms of, you know, winter classes, meals, practice time, game case, what, what, what should they expect?
Coach: Yeah, so the, the schedule for us this year was quite interesting. Obviously we, um, in September we were quite heavy with games and, and, and we, um, we tried to really manage, you know, I don’t want to say manage, injury preventions, like a word people use a lot of the time, but we really want to [00:13:30] manage the players load, let’s say.
So in September we’re playing two games a week. So we kind of gave them the option to. Well, it was a voluntary workout on a Monday with us, um, but we would kind of, and it was, these are truly voluntary. It’s not volun, volun tual, so, um, we, we would, we spent more time telling girls not to work out on, on those Mondays.
Uh, that should probably tell you a little bit about our culture, to be honest, but, um, Tuesday they would be in training, maybe a little bit of a lift. Um, obviously they’d have classes in the morning, uh, lunch, maybe a break, and then come straight to practice, uh, in the afternoon with us. Um, and then probably the same thing Wednesday with a light of practice, and then Thursday night we would have a game.
Um, so that would kind of give them the chance to to nap or whatever it is, you know, particularly if it was a home game, if it was an away game, we would have already traveled on the on the Wednesday. Um, Fridays were our day off this year. Um, and then on Saturday we would train and prepare for the game.
On on Sunday. Um, now in in October, it was quite interesting. We actually only had five games in October. So we, uh, we just actually did a study around injuries and what that did for our injuries. Um, and certainly getting players on the field. Um, so we were able to prepare over the course of a week. Um, so what we did was [00:15:00] there was we would have them in lifting on a Monday.
We would train and lift on a Tuesday, train and lift on a Wednesday, and then we would give them the Thursday off and kind of midweek day off allowed us to train a little heavier on the Wednesday. Um, but also, you know, they could, they could be college students and instead of having to wear practice gear or like t shirts like this to class, they could actually wear like real clothes.
Um, and then Friday we would train and kind of start looking at the opponent. Saturday we would train and then obviously Sunday we would have the game as well. So that was kind of the schedule for us in, in October. We only had one week where we had the two games. In one week in, in, uh, for probably five weeks towards the end of the season.
So that kind of, that was quite different, but, uh, but it’s busy. I mean, you know, and, and, you know, certainly, and I know every coach has their, maybe slightly different things that they’re doing, you know, we, we have an individual plan for every single player. So they would have individual work around that, uh, around the team session, should I say, well, lifting stuff as well.
Um, and then of course video, whether that’s individual or with the team, um, you know, we, we, we have some online video component things that we do with players as well and kind of drop, drop little group messages here and there with clips. So it’s pretty, it’s pretty intense, but, um, [00:16:30] we kind of prepare them for that on the, on the front end.
The spring’s obviously a little bit, bit different, but still we’re working.
Matt: Okay, well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team and the soccer side of things. So, um, I know you kind of mentioned a little bit earlier, it’s a weird time, right? With the COVID year and transfer portal and all these things and you’re coming on after a first season.
But is there a roster size that you’re aiming for for this coming season that you kind of think is ideal?
Coach: Um, so, so this past year, I think for us, you know, with, with a couple of injuries that we inherited and a red shirt, we were a little bit higher on the roster size with 29. Whereas this year coming up, we’re going to try to get that a little bit lower.
Um, what that kind of pans out to be, I don’t know, but we’ve got 20, we’ve got 28 lockers in the locker room. So we’re gonna, we’re going to try to have a couple of spare ones.
Matt: Okay. All right. Makes sense. Well, besides, uh, your roster of players, I’m sure you have a staff roster. So can you talk to me a little bit about your staff, whether that’s Assistant coaches or other staff from the athletic department that helps out with a team.
What role does everybody play there?
Coach: Yeah, so that’s, that’s again one of the, one of the biggest, um, you know, one of the [00:18:00] biggest, uh, positives for us here is, is that we’re fully stocked in the, in the staffing area. Although I say that we’re, we’re hoping within the next year to be adding a second full time assistant.
We have one full time, we have two graduate assistants and then two student managers as well. That are able to help us. One of them works on some analysis for us. Um, and we’re actually going to be making that both, both of those positions analysis based. Um, you know, in, in different areas of the game, um, and then, and we, we share a football, we share with football, a strength and conditioning coach.
And I, you know, for us, I can’t stress how good we have it there, um, with, with that side of our program as well. And then we have our own athletic trainer and then our own academic advisor. My office is set up kind of like a meeting room. And an office space for me as well. And, you know, we meet every week and, uh, it’s, uh, gets pretty full in here.
So I’m happy about that.
Matt: Yeah, no, that’s definitely a good problem to have. Right. Um, well, in in terms of. Uh, the offseason, you mentioned it a little bit, but what would a player expect to happen, right? I mean, are you, I’m assuming you’re not doing a whole lot between now and Christmas, but when they come back for the new year, what would a player expect to kind of be doing?[00:19:30]
Coach: Well, I think just, you know, speaking generally about that, I think, you know, now at the college level, they’re really, I don’t want to say that isn’t an off season because they kind of has to be, um, you know, because of course there’s the science around rest and fatigue and, and, and, and, uh, obviously, We’ve got to allow the student athletes to be students as well, um, and just students for some critical periods such as finals week and, and, and so on and so forth.
But, um, you know, I’m sure for most programs, there’s, there’s physical. Uh, outlines for what the players should, should be coming back and, and, and where they should be physically. Um, I think we have, we’re not different. I mean, we do a lot of stuff, you know, with the players around, um, around vertical jumps and trap bar deadlifting.
Um, so, so the, the science around that is, is, is what we’re interested in. And, um, the players know the numbers that they’re supposed to be at. Obviously, we have physical fitness testing with the team every month. Um, so, so they, uh, they’re aware of what the level required there is as well. Certainly for, uh, at this level, you know, and one of the, one of the brilliant things that I don’t think is talked about enough is, is what [00:21:00] the actual, what, what the actual three levels of college soccer all about, you know, and certainly there’s different roles and different amounts of training at different levels that people can do.
And that should be considered when a student athlete is. is picking where they are going to go or what level they’re going to play. Do you know what I mean? It shouldn’t necessarily be that one level is better than the other. It should be about what What, what, what, what level of, um, or what kind of level of intensity really you’re looking for?
I don’t mean that to be rude or disrespectful, but to be honest, but, uh, but, um, with us, it’s, you know, we were allowed five dates in the spring and we’re still allowed 20 hours a week for, for quite an extensive time. So we try to generally use as much of that as possible and, and, uh, Try to help, particularly now with a young team, try to help the team develop and grow as much as we can.
Matt: I like it. Well, coach, I really appreciate your time. I like to end these with the same question for everybody. And that is, if you did have one piece of advice, one nugget of information, you would hope that every player, parent, family going through the college recruiting process knew, what would that be?
Coach: Oh, hit me with that one. Um, one piece of advice. I think. I think it is not to get bogged down in somebody else’s experience. You know, everybody’s recruiting timeline and everybody’s pathway to a college [00:22:30] program is going to be different. There’s no, there’s certainly no straight path to. To college soccer or to gaining a college scholarship.
And, you know, my, I don’t know if it’s a nugget of information, but but certainly having a plan with regards to proximity to home a plan with regards to. What academic pathway maybe you want to get into, size of school, um, what, what style of play the team wants to play. And if you can find as many filters as possible, you’ll probably create a pool of six or seven schools.
And then ultimately from there, a little bit of further research might narrow it down to two or three. And then, and then maybe going to ID camps, this, that, and the other. Connecting with the coach and, and, and stuff like that is maybe what’s going to be able, what’s going to help to find the best fit.
Matt: Love it. Couldn’t agree more. Well, coach, wish the best of luck as you continue to build out the program and, uh, really looking forward to see what you guys got up there. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. And if you come down to Lakewood Ranch for, uh, any of the ECNL stuff, give me a shout. We’ll get together.
All right. We’ll be there.
Coach: Definitely. We’ll be there next month. Yeah. All right. Thank you.
Matt: Yeah.
