John Carroll University Men’s Soccer – Coach Dejan Mladenovic

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Dejan from the John Carroll Men’s Program in Ohio. We talk about how the financial aid situation of players affects his recruiting. He describes how it is the people that make the school a truly amazing place. Lastly, we discuss what a typical in-season week looks like for the players. Learn more about John Carroll University Men’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Decky from John Carroll University in Ohio. Welcome coach.

Coach: Thank you, Matt. Appreciate you having me.

Matt: Yeah. Thanks for being here. Love, uh, love talking to Ohio schools, having grown up in Columbus myself, but, uh, you don’t have any St.

Charles players on your roster, so we’ll have to fix that. But that’s, uh, that’s for another day. Um, congrats on a great season. Um, uh, trust me, I’ve, I’ve lost, uh, I think I lost a good two to three games of my college career to Mary Washington as they were in my conference when I was playing. So I know that field and how that feels.

But, uh, As a, as a, you know, guys are perennial kind of always challenging for, for the tournament and doing that. And as a D three school, how, how do you manage this kind of crazy recruiting time? Right? Like we’re, we’re in early March. It’s the showcase season. Um, kind of, where are you guys at right now?

Especially with the FAFSA changing and all that kind of stuff. Are you done with your 24s? Are you still closing that out? Are you on to 25s? Are you looking at 26s at all? Kind of what’s your normal calendar? 

Coach: Yeah, I definitely think the word is crazy. Um, this FAFSA situation is throwing everyone for a loop no matter where you’re at in the country or division, et cetera.

Um, so that’s just an extra layer of, of wild west. I’ll call it that you’re trying to deal with, but we are a little different in recruiting. I don’t think we ever stopped [00:01:30] recruiting. I think we’re kind of a 365 day a year, um, enterprise. And that doesn’t mean, uh, Because we’re done with one class, we’re moving on to the next.

I mean, if a kid comes to me the day before preseason and this could be an incoming freshman and he wants to come try out, like we’ll take them, you know? So I don’t think we’re ever really done with our classes. It’s a, it’s always a work in progress, but if you want a, a real timeline that I would prefer, I would say.

Um, we want guys, uh, hopefully committed sometime in, in the spring semester of their senior year of high school. Uh, but we’re not a big pressure type of situation program. I’ve never given a deadline. I’ve never given a timeline. If I get asked about a timeline, I tell the recruit that is up to them and their family.

Um, I will never force anyone into a decision, especially if they’re not ready to make it. Uh, I think it’s a very big decision that is stressful and I don’t want to add stress to what is already, uh, A stressful situation. So I know, and I’m not trying to bang on guys who do the whole deadline thing or whatever, I just, I don’t want to add pressure to that kind of situation.

But, um, yeah, we would love to have guys committed sometime. Like I said, um, spring semester of their senior year. And then this is the time of the year where we are getting out to a lot of showcases and we’re trying to talk to the current juniors. And have some phone call conversations, get people on campus, um, see if they’re interested in going down that recruiting process path with us as a soccer program.

Um, but yeah, I want to say we were in Florida [00:03:00] since the season ended, which was, you know, when we lost the Mary Washington, like the third week of November, something like that, right, right around Thanksgiving. Um, We have, we have been down to Florida, I believe four times and South Carolina for the Greer ECNL event once Phoenix MLS next once.

So that’s a lot of airplane travel in a two, three month time span. 

Matt: Absolutely. Well, and, and speaking of those events, obviously you’re, you’re hitting MLS next and ECNL events, but, but what are some of the other events that are kind of on your, on your must see list? And, you know, you’re obviously an Ohio school of a lot of Ohio players on your roster.

So, you know, what does, how, how national would you say you’re, you’re recruiting takes you?

Coach: Yeah. Pretty national. Now, I think our perspective, um, really changed after we lost in the sweet 16 and 2021 to Middlebury. I don’t think we were 10, 15 minutes out of that game, you know, after we had lost in the coaching staff, all kind of look at each other, like it’s time to get a little more national with our footprint, which I think we have, um, pretty quickly.

But I will say that I feel like ECNL and MLS next are definitely the two leagues that we’re probably most focused on. A close third is National League pro, uh, USYS kind of stuff, E64. And then. It gets pretty random from there. And I don’t mean random in a negative way. I mean, where do we need to go in a [00:04:30] particular year or a certain region or whatever, and we kind of figure that out on the fly, uh, in those kinds of situations, but our calendar is mainly built around ECNL and, and then what’s next.

Matt: Well, and this is a question I get from, from folks and it’s, let’s just say you’re Your class of 24, whole recruiting pool, not, not everybody that you signed, but just, just the pool of players, how much of that is, well, how much of that starts with players that are contacting you versus how much of that pool starts because you saw somebody at an event?

Coach: Where we’re at, I would say 90 to 95 percent is that we saw them and we reached out to them now. And that, that certainly wasn’t the case. Um, when Hector and I took over back in 2006, this, this is my 22nd school year at JCU between playing and coaching. And I can’t even begin to tell you how different it is.

Uh, I would tell you it was the opposite way. It was 95 percent people showed up because John Carroll was a really good school that had a good soccer history. And the other 5 percent were guys that we saw because we didn’t know a thing about recruiting when we took over. And now it, it couldn’t be more polar opposite in, in 18, 18 years.

Matt: Oh, I’m sure. I’m sure. Well, another thing that’s really changed [00:06:00] is the value or, or, or proliferation of ID camps, right? Like back when, back when you and I were growing up, those things didn’t exist. So how important are they to you guys? Do you and your staff work other camps too? Like how integral are they to your overall recruiting process?

Coach: They are very important to us. And I want to be clear. I, I know there’s the, the moneymaker ID camps out there where it’s unlimited space and there’s 300 kids running around in a field, but that’s not what I believe in. When I say I’m a big supporter of ID camps, I believe in the type of events that Our cap that a certain amount of players, something that, you know, players are able to get evaluated.

Um, you know, for example, for us, we like to focus on a 13 to 15 player to coach ratio at our events. Uh, so it’s not getting to a space where you have a group of 30 working with one coach, like that’s already unrealistic. So we like the cap bars at 60 field players and six goalkeepers. We have two of them and normally they’re, they’re sold out or, or pretty close to it.

And it has been huge for us, um, in the sense that one, I do think we get to evaluate guys a little bit differently just because they’re in our environment and we’re controlling the variables of the day and the drills and the games and whatever. But it’s also a chance to get them on campus and in front of us to see if they enjoy being around us in that kind of capacity and, uh, you know, building that relationship and figuring out if this could be a good fit or not.

And I think. The more information you have, the better decision you make. And that could be a [00:07:30] very important step in the recruiting process. That being said. I have never told the recruit it’s mandatory for them to come to an ID camp. And I never will, it’ll always be a voluntary thing if they’re able to, and they’re willing, um, we would love to have them, but I’m again, not the kind of coach who’s like, you need to come to our ID camp for it to be a recruitable player.

I don’t believe in that either. 

Matt: Okay. Well, in terms of, we talked about how the recruiting landscape has certainly changed over the years when you throw in junior college. International recruiting and the transfer portal, uh, you know, it’s really, it’s really changed. So do those three avenues ever come into play in your recruiting process or, or not as much?

Coach: Uh, junior college, I think we’ve only had one. Uh, individual who ironically enough ended up being the best man in my wedding and, uh, I just visited him at his new home on Sunday. He’s the godfather to both of my Children. Uh, now he was a family friend prior to, so I think that was even kind of a different kind of circumstance that normally wouldn’t pop up.

But he’s the only guy I can think of in the 22 years that came from a junior college transfer portal has been hot and heavy. Um, I think that’s a product of COVID and the extra eligibility. I certainly don’t think it’s going to be as crazy at the D3 level as it has been after this last year of extra eligibility exhaust itself.

So for example, the guys who will be, [00:09:00] um, the guys who are seniors right now, we’re freshmen during COVID and they’re the last wave of guys who have the option to come back for a fifth year. This fall. Uh, and then once that goes away, I think that will definitely change the landscape, especially at the D three level.

I I’m sure it’ll still be pretty active in D one. Um, and I think it will affect recruiting for high school seniors, but I think in D three, it’ll kind of go back to normal. Uh, and sorry, what was the third Avenue? It was international. Yeah. For us at JCU, we unfortunately. Um, don’t package international kids now.

That could be changing now that we are becoming a little more of a national brand with our move to the N. C. A. C. And 2025. Um, But in the past, we really haven’t had a big market of international students in my, you know, previous two decades here. Okay. 

Matt: Well, I mean, let’s talk more about the school. You mentioned two decades.

You got some great insights for us, both as a student athlete and in the coaching side. So what is it about John Carroll that stands out to you that maybe some things we wouldn’t even know just by going through the website?

Coach: The people. Um, That’s my question or my answer to that question. Every time I hear it, I can’t say enough about the faculty, the coaches here, the administration, the kids themselves, you know, the young men and women that go here, the alumni base.

I just [00:10:30] think it’s a Atmosphere environment that when you walk into it, you can feel the warmth and you could feel, um, how different it is maybe than than other campuses. And I, I can go on and on about the academics and the athletics and the campus and all these things, but I think that the big X factor is the people and the longer I am here, the more I believe that.

Um, especially from an alumni alumni standpoint, when you see what they do to come back and help our current students and student athletes in terms of internships and job opportunities or just advice, um, they’re just first class people and I think they take care of one another and I can’t say enough about anyone who’s come through the hallways here at J. C. U. 

Matt: Well, you mentioned the academics, obviously, John Carroll known to being just just a high academic institution. So, especially for student athletes coming into college, the need to balance, uh, being a collegiate athlete as well as the classroom stuff is always difficult. So how do your players specifically do that?

What kind of support systems of school offer to make sure they’re successful? 

Coach: That’s a great question. I, you know, I think it’s very ironic, and this is not just John Carroll. I’m sure there’s a lot of institutions out there like this, but, um, there are so many resources available to student athletes. You know, here at John Carroll, we have the Writing Center, we have tutoring, we have Academic Success, um, we have a Athletic [00:12:00] Director, whose title is Assistant Athletic Director of Student Success and Leadership.

Uh, someone who’s almost like a secondary academic advisor on top of Any student’s academic advisor here at the university, you know, for student athletes specifically. It’s, there’s a ton of awesome resources, like I said, not just here, I’m sure everywhere, but the big problem with male college athletes, I will say specifically because that’s who I work with, is that they’re normally too proud to use these resources.

Um, so my big hurdle I need to clear every year is to a do the simple stuff and inform them of these resources, which I like to do in the preseason before they even step foot into a classroom. Um, but the secondary piece is not allowing them to dig that hole so deep that they can’t get out of it because they’re too proud to use those resources.

So, um, I don’t think it’s an issue of them knowing what’s available to them. I think the issue is they don’t want to admit they’re struggling and going to get that help, which I do think we’ve, we’ve definitely covered some ground there and improved tremendously. But I think a big part of that is this academic advisor within our department here.

I think that’s been a huge change here. He’s in year number two in this role. And I think he’s a big catalyst for, for that change, especially internally with men’s soccer. 

Matt: Okay. Awesome. Well, in terms of the players during the season, let’s rewind maybe to, uh, October conference, you know, heart of that conference season.

Walk me through what’s a typical week look like for a [00:13:30] player in term or when classes are meals, practices, game cadence, all that. What’s all that look like? 

Coach: Sure. Um, We are definitely creatures of habit. You know, we like to get ourselves in a little routine and try to replicate that week in and week out to see what, you know, where we can improve this, the, the routine and what have you.

Um, we like to make our athletic schedule around our academic schedule. Uh, I don’t know if that’s a common thing or not in, in V3 athletics, but I know that’s what we’ve done here for a very long time. So for example, guys are usually in classes from. 8 a. m. to 4 or 5 p. m. somewhere in that window where, uh, they get an eight to nine hour block of time to obviously take classes, do some homework, study, they take a nap, you know, whatever they’re going to do during the day.

Um, and then we kind of focus on the soccer responsibilities in the evening and it’s usually. Some kind of two to three hour window a day, um, that involves whether it’s film, lifting, training, games, um, you know, things of that nature in the, like I said, late afternoon, early evening. So for example, um, you know, Mondays is usually a lift and training day.

Tuesdays is normally a film and training day. Wednesdays is normally a game day. Thursday is usually a regen, a lift or a reserve game day. Um, depending on, on where you’re playing and what’s going on. Friday is normally film and training Saturday, another game, and then Sunday off. Uh, but usually those soccer, those soccer [00:15:00] responsibilities, like I said, they fall into a two or three hour window.

And the earliest I think they will ever start is on Fridays at four. And that’s just because our class schedule ends earlier on Friday. So we’re able to get out there a little bit earlier, but it’s usually like a, like a six to nine, um, seven to 10 kind of situation in the evening.

Matt: Well, let’s, uh, let’s talk a little bit more about the, about the season. Um, and I guess we’ll go back a little bit to, to the recruiting side of things, but in terms of your roster, as you mentioned reserves, is there a roster size you’re trying to hit? Do you have two teams? What does that look like? 

Coach: Yeah.

So we are definitely one roster that plays two schedules. I think that’s a big common misconception about how we do things at JCU. Everyone trains together. Everyone’s together. Pretty much all the time, uh, until game day where we roster guys in different games. So everyone is eligible to play in either game.

It’s just a matter of what game they get rostered in. And that certainly changes throughout the season. Guys get moved up and down. Uh, there’s, there’s constant opportunity to move up. Uh, and there’s definitely situations where guys get moved down, um, if they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

But the way we look at it is it’s kind of like a, Professional soccer set up in the sense that we want to play our varsity games. You know, I’ll use a real example, Wednesdays, and we’ll look at who plays a lot of minutes in those games. So [00:16:30] let’s say it’s a Wednesday night game at 7 PM. And there’s 15 guys that play in that game that play 40, 50, 60 minutes, something of that nature.

We’re obviously not going to roster those guys the following day. Those guys will do a region in the morning and then a lift in the afternoon. And then we’ll roster the next 18, 20, 22 guys for the reserve game on Thursday and get those guys minutes as well. And then now we’re kind of doubling down on the amount of guys who are getting minutes week in and week out.

Now, um, I think a lot of people try to use this against us in recruiting, or at least I’m told that all the time, here’s the reality. Um, there’s two reasons why most coaches don’t do this. And this is why we do this. One is you do not get a bigger salary as a head coach to do this. So I’m not getting, uh, 100 a head of every kid you bring in.

If anything, our administration doesn’t understand. Why we, we bring all these players in, um, especially when they understand how much extra work that really is. We know it’s right for the players, so we do it. Uh, the secondary piece is that you do not get a bigger budget as well. Um, and we need to make our budget work for all of these games.

And you’re kind of adding a game a week in theory, you know, to, so that that costs money. Um, and that’s where usually coaches don’t do that. But they seem to love to bring that up when they’re recruiting against John Carroll. And I love when they do, cause that’s when I can bring up this topic. Um, but, but the reality and the bottom line is we do it cause we know it’s right for our players and they have an opportunity to get game minutes week in and week out.

If they [00:18:00] don’t, um, if you’re not one of those 15 guys getting regular minutes, um, you know, at the varsity level, what are the other 15 guys doing on the team the rest of the week? Maybe training once or twice a week. Um, that’s not a real opportunity to get better. So that’s why we do it. Uh, yes, it’s a lot of work.

Yes. It’s a lot of extra stuff that, um, you don’t plan on in a, in a normal season, but, um, this is probably year 12 or 13 that we’ve added this system. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’ve had the kind of success we’ve had, especially the last decade. Because of the development for the players and, um, the opportunities provided them.

Matt: Well, it’s a lot of players, but that hopefully means you have a decent number of staff. So talk to me about the staff. What is everybody’s role? What other support staff maybe help out with the team during the season? 

Coach: Yeah, we are very lucky to have an awesome staff. Obviously, as the head coach, um, you want to bring in guys that you trust and you know, understand the system and what you’re trying to do.

But Ante Pilicic is our first assistant. He joined us from Notre Dame College three years ago. He’s a guy I grew up with. I mean, we’ve known each other since we were literally eight or nine years old. So when I was able to take over and bring him in, that was a huge asset for us right away. Michael Adelman is our second assistant.

Michael was a two year captain for us, um, as a player, and the best leader I’ve ever been around as a men’s soccer player in my entire career here. He is a huge asset, um, especially [00:19:30] when it comes to player relations and, and kind of being that bridge between the coaching staff and, and the current players and, and things like that.

Uh, but he is now in his second year as a coach, um, with us, Eddie Doberwolski is our AT athletic trainer, but he, we consider him a coach. I think he’s a lot more than that. Um, he just joined us from IMG. Uh, this is also his third season with us as well. He is kind of like a coach on top of being athletic trainer.

He has a soccer background. He understands the game. Um, he has a, a speed and agility and, uh, athletic performance background on top of just, you know, normal AT stuff of rehab and taping ankles and things like that. Uh, so that’s a huge resource for us. Goalkeeper coach, Liam McIntosh. Um, he was a two time, two time always see goalkeeper of the year, uh, plays professionally, uh, indoors from the Cleveland crunch, uh, works for a company called Cronus, which is a goalkeeper company, uh, based out of Hudson, Ohio.

Liam was a fantastic goalie and we’re lucky that we still have his services to come. How about, how about the keepers? But, uh, yeah, that kind of runs out our staff, but we’re, we’re very lucky to have all those guys. Um, and especially in the different capacities, especially when you get into the goalkeeper specific stuff, athletic training, physical therapy, a lot of things outside of the soccer spectrum that kind of fit into the soccer circle, if you will.[00:21:00] 

Matt: All right. Well, the almost last question, because I don’t want to keep you too long, but I got to know more about about you specifically. Kind of tell us about your coaching style. Um, and you know, your ideas around how the team style of play you wanted to play. 

Coach: Yeah, I think style of play is pretty simple.

I mean, we want to be on the ball and possess him and play. Um. I’ll never get into the, what’s the right way to play soccer. I mean, everyone, uh, has the ability to go do what they want. Uh, and some teams are very good at these particular styles for me. I would just rather be on the ball possession oriented and things like that.

Um, in terms of my style, I think I am a. Hybrid of an old school coach in a new school coach. And what I mean by that is, uh, I grew up in an era where it was a little more of a dictatorship, you know, and you were told what to do and you were going to like it. I know that’s not right. And that’s something that will not work for this generation, but I do think there’s some core values, um, discipline, respect, accountability.

There’s some very important culture things that I did learn, uh, from that style of coaching that I think need to be implemented into the current era of soccer. But in terms of the new school coaching, I believe in player collaboration. I believe in having meetings. I believe in, um, everyone has a voice, uh, and you know, voting on things and, uh, [00:22:30] players, managers, assistant coaches, everyone needs to feel part of it.

I never want to come off like it’s my way or the highway kind of style. I want to have. That collaboration, the open door policy and things like that, and I’m not trying to act like I agree with everything people come in and tell me, uh, or vice versa. But at least when we have these conversations, we understand one another of why something is being done.

Um, and that understanding can can help bridge that gap when disagreements do happen. So, yeah, like I said, I think I’m a little. Um, a little bit of hybrid of both. It is interesting growing up, playing in that era and now having to coach in this era because it’s very different, um, how I was coached and how I have to coach, but, uh, I do think it happened for a reason and I think it’s made me a better coach because of those experiences.

Yeah, 

Matt: I feel you on that one for sure. Well, you’ve been generous with their time. Love it. Coach is going to ask you one last question and that is, you know, you’ve got great experience both as a, as a player and a coach there at John Carroll. So if you could boil it down, give me one nugget, one piece of information that you would hope all, uh, parents, players, families going through this college recruiting process would know, what would that be?

Coach: Yeah. I, I hope I don’t offend anybody here, but I’m going to be. Very transparent. I think when players get into this recruiting decision process, they need to make soccer a [00:24:00] much smaller variable, uh, in the equation than they probably are 16, 17, eight years old. I get it. I was there. You know, soccer is your life.

You’ve done it. You’ve done it for many, many years at very high levels and you’ve had success and you want to play at the next level. There’s nothing wrong with that. But the end of the day, A college or university is a college or university. You need to make the academic variable much bigger, um, and focus on that.

If soccer were not to work out, and that doesn’t mean, uh, it’s not a variable. It’s just not, it shouldn’t be as big as, as people probably make it. And what I mean by that is you might get to college and you might, might not want to play anymore. You know, God forbid you get injured, knock on wood. There’s a million reasons why soccer might not work out.

But the academic institution you’re at better be the one that’s going to prepare you for the next level, which is your career and a working career and things like that. Um, the preparation, the opportunity, all these things that happen once you’re getting out of college. And that doesn’t happen on the soccer field.

Yes, we take soccer seriously. Yes, we want to win and make memories and have a great time. But the reality is, that’s a very small part of the equation in what is a life decision. And I don’t want anyone ever coming to John Carroll just because of soccer. I want them coming to John Carroll because it’s a great academic institution.

And the soccer is the bonus piece, the extracurricular that we get to have fun with and compete with and, [00:25:30] um, do together. But, um, If they’re just coming here because they like me as a coach or they think we have a really good team, that’s probably not a good way to make that decision or get off on the right foot.

Matt: Couldn’t agree more. Well, coach. Hey, I really appreciate the time. Uh, best of luck this off season and getting ready to, to get back to the NCAA tournament in the fall. And the next time you get to an event down here in Bradenton, give me a shout. All right. 

Coach: Yes, I appreciate it. Thank you.