LaGrange College Women’s Soccer – Coach Kennet Fosuhene
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Kennet Fosuhene from the LaGrange College Women’s Program. We talk about his top qualities that he is looking for in players. He describes how the people are what makes his school unique. Lastly, we discuss how he hopes to grow the team. Learn more about LaGrange women’s soccer.
[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I am lucky enough to be joined by coach Kennet Fosuhene also known as coach K, the coach K that actually, uh, is still coaching now. Uh, so we’re happy to have him here from LaGrange in Georgia. Welcome to. Thank you for having me really appreciate it.
[00:00:18] Thanks for being here. Um, well, you know, we’ll talk about the school here in a second, cause I’m sure there’s folks out there who, who aren’t familiar with LaGrange, but, uh, but let’s talk a little bit about, um, the recruiting side of things for you. You’ve you’ve got, uh, now almost a full year under your belt there at LaGrange.
[00:00:36] So. When it comes to your recruiting process, when are you starting to, to, to look at players? I know you come from a Juco background, so you were recruiting all the time because it’s just, you know, it’s a lot harder, a constant turnover and graduation and whatnot. But now that you’re at a D three school, what, what’s kind of your timeline, your process of when you start kind of a recruiting class and then.
[00:01:02] Coach: So this first year was a little, a little different from me having coming, uh, so late. So this year I totally worked on, you know, the senior costs, just trying to get this class, uh, you know, this incoming process a little bit better and up to scratch to be able to, to compete in our conference because it is.
[00:01:19] Pretty tough conference, but most, mostly junior year. So we start to evaluate junior year, we start to reach out, uh, shoot you, you know, our recruiting packet that has all the Intel, you know, the financial aid, all that good stuff that, you know, the parents and the kids, uh, need to need to know about. And so from there, after we evaluate you, we should, the recruiting packet would bring you onto campus.
[00:01:41] We that’s a big part for us, I think. Is it bringing you onto campus and showing you what LaGrange has to offer? Because like you said, not many people know about LaGrange. And so coming on to LaGrange campus, figuring out what it has to offer and then kind of making your own, you know, assumption and decisions from there.
[00:02:00] Okay.
[00:02:00] Matt: Um, now you mentioned. You know, financial aid and that sort of thing. Uh, you know, always always of interest to folks is, is what that final bills going with. I know you guys are division three, so you don’t have to worry about athletic money, but can you just give me a basic general overview of what, you know, tuition, financial aid and all that kind of looks like.
[00:02:22] Yeah.
[00:02:22] Coach: So I’ll, uh, LaGrange people, you know, see the overall price and see, and see 46 46, uh, for this current year. And that’s kind of, uh, you know, that’s the glare in factor that people look at and say, coaches, I want you to be paying coaches. I want them to be paid. And then even the parents ask it, but you have to realize that at a division three where the academic package is very, very competitive, that that is hardly ever what you’re going to be paying.
[00:02:46] So obviously, you know, Versus our state residents, those things factor in, um, but nine times out of 10 times, nine out of 10, that overall amount is definitely going to go down.
[00:02:59] Matt: Sure. No, that, that makes sense. Well, going back to, to recruiting then. So when you’re looking at juniors, uh, and, and even seniors, you know, what are some of the tournament.
[00:03:12] They are kind of a must attend on your list, uh, and, and, and how to camps figure into your recruiting as well.
[00:03:20] Coach: So again, this year, uh, it was pretty late in the process.
[00:03:26] Started out roughly about September, October, you know, after I got my feet under the table here and the Grinch, so I was able to attend a, the Disney was able to attend a couple showcases over Thanksgiving. And that was kind of really where the recruiting process started to pick up. So later, later the ball game.
[00:03:45] Uh, but hopefully for next, you know, we’ve already started off our class of 23. Uh, we wrapped up our class of 22 on Monday. So again was pretty late. That’s the, that’s the Juco background in me, always recruiting up until the very last minute. And so I wrapped up the recruiting class on Monday and now looking forward to building our 23 class and I had to have our 20 twos.
[00:04:06] Okay.
[00:04:07] Matt: Uh, camps. Do you guys host any, do you work at any other schools, how to camp. Figure into everything for you guys.
[00:04:15] Coach: Uh, so this year, no, no camps. Uh, but for me attending a lot of the cams go into exact camps, attending a lot of different schools, uh, camps. If, you know, if the invitation is they’re always willing to work, you know, the club camps that, you know, some coaches go to, so camps is a big part of our recruiting.
[00:04:33] If you go into camps, you emailing us, us identifying you, seeing if you are a right fit for our program. And then again, that’s kind of an initial start of our recruiting process for. And so once you do attend the camps, that’s how we can start our recruiting process from there.
[00:04:48] Matt: Okay. So when you, you, you know, you mentioned recruits reaching out and whatnot.
[00:04:56] What are some of those things you like to see in that first contact from a.
[00:05:01] Coach: Um, so again, going back to not many people know, know about LaGrange, uh, the grandfather, so something specific to the school, uh, whether it’s, you know, you’ve watched us play whatever, it’s, you’ve done a lot of research, uh, online, wherever it’s, you’ve done the research of, you know, the coach, the program, some of the young ladies that have attended.
[00:05:21] And so just doing the research, um, and then specifying your email to, to, to us, to, um, maybe. You know, just a general fact, um, about the school again. And then what I look for for an emails is have you included some of the right stuff? So the film, your position, uh, what you looked into to major in, and that’s a big one, too.
[00:05:44] If you’re emailing. Uh, about a major we don’t have, then I’m afraid that lasted. It has to go into the trash box.
[00:05:53] Matt: Makes sense. Makes sense. Well, when you know, okay, so you’ve, you’ve received a contact you’ve you’ve maybe you’ve watched a highlight video. You’ve gone to. Disney tournament or somewhere else and seen a player.
[00:06:05] So what is your kind of hierarchy of, of things you’re looking at for a player, whether that’s on the field or off the field, what kind of ticks the boxes for you as a coach? Uh,
[00:06:15] Coach: you, we all have our, you know, speed of play, touch technique. A big one for me is the, the thought process of. Do you understand, uh, the predicaments that you meant to be, why you’re in them?
[00:06:28] So just the overall IQ of the game for me is a big one. Uh, we’ve touched on it a lot with, with our program and trying to improve the IQ of the young ladies that are already here. And so, you know, our recruiting we’ve, we’ve recruited high intelligent IQ players that are going to come in and, and therefore we all have to be.
[00:06:47] Kind of the same page. And so the IQ is a big one, good character, good grades, um, to go along with a few stuff. And then obviously the, uh, the athletic part, you know, are you strongly good? A physical, do you have a good touch? All that good stuff.
[00:07:01] Matt: Okay. Well, let’s talk about the school a bit then. Um, you know, obviously you’ve, you’ve only been there a year, but a kind of.
[00:07:09] Kind of give me the inside scoop about what’s cool about LaGrange. What am I not going to click around and learn on the website, uh, that you can share with everybody about the school,
[00:07:19] Coach: the, the people, the community, um, just no softer. They here. The student athletes that are here, the students that are here, just everyone in the community, it’s a very, very tight knit community, um, to where you’re coming into campus.
[00:07:38] And you’re not just one of the numbers, so to speak again, it’s a tight knit group, small school, but not when I tell recruits there’s not small enough that you’re going to see everybody every day, like high school, but we’ll see them, you know, a couple of times a week. And for me, Yeah, dice. It makes you feel a part of something.
[00:07:55] It makes you feel part of the community and in special about. Uh, what you, what you’re here to do at the Grange.
[00:08:01] Matt: Okay. So you guys are, how far from Atlanta, are you guys at you to the Southwest?
[00:08:07] Coach: How about an hour? 15 an hour, depending on how you drive somebody somebody’s 15 and out there,
[00:08:16] Matt: kind of right near that Alabama border, right?
[00:08:19] Coach: Yeah. Right. And so about 45, about 45 minutes away from, from open university. Um, uh, about an hour. Okay. If the, in a way from Atlanta. Okay. So that’s Canada, the geographic look 30 minutes from Columbus. Okay.
[00:08:35] Matt: Well, I grew up in Columbus, but a different Columbus.
[00:08:37] So we went, but, uh, so in terms of the academic side of things at the school, how do your student athletes balance, you know, their studies and their sport commitments? Uh, very, very
[00:08:49] Coach: well, very, very well. I would say. You know, again, the, the faculty that we have, the staff that we have, they’re very, very good job of communicating, you know, across the board and making sure that, you know, if we do have a, an athletic event that the students have covered, the students can go, you know, maybe before off the, um, you know, their event and take the test if they need to.
[00:09:10] So again, we send out here weekly emails of all of our travel rosters, just to make sure that we’re all today. Uh, we have that to make sure the faculty up to date with that and make sure that there’s no kind of gray area of, should this person be in class. Shouldn’t this person meeting.
[00:09:25] Matt: Okay. Can you walk me through what a typical week would look like during the season, in terms of, you know, players waking up class ones, practice ones, eating, all that kind of stuff.
[00:09:36] Just kind of a base level. Uh, I know if there is such a thing as an average week during the season, but you know what I’m saying?
[00:09:43] Coach: Oh, so close, so constantly changing. Uh, I would say that. So on average, about 80. Uh, his cost costs start time, but eight, 9:00 AM going up until sometimes 12. Some of the young ladies go up until two, some have labs on the day, which can go to three, four.
[00:10:00] Um, obviously we have breaks in between time to go to the cafeteria to eat, do what’s needed to do sometimes relax a little downtime. We usually start our training sessions about. Um, or if the men’s team practice, then what we’ll do is we’ll go about six or sometimes even seven. So we do have lights that we can turn on and go on to utilize, which is a, is a nice feature of sometimes get that atmosphere of no, no only practicing on underneath the lifestyle, playing on the beach.
[00:10:26] And so, uh, we like to do that sometimes. And so it was just kind of, uh, you know, that’s, uh, that’s the day for us. So clots in the morning, usually. Um, practicing in the afternoons. And then if we have time throw in a study hall, obviously if we practice at six o’clock at night, when I’m making the young ladies go from study hall from 10 to nine or nine to 10, sorry, that’s a little bit, you know, upside.
[00:10:49] Uh, so we just kind of, again, work around the schedule, whatever we have here.
[00:10:57] Matt: What does your kind of travel radius look like? You know, when you’re going away to games and things, how does that factor into missing classes, et
[00:11:06] Coach: cetera? Uh, so we usually. Either a day trip or one day. Um, so again, we’re not missing a lot of, a lot of class times I think off of his travel last year was bred Kentucky.
[00:11:19] And so he was able to do that, you know, obviously in a, in a day, uh, we stayed the day before played and then came back. And so it was on a weekend too. So not many. Mrs Claus times. So that does kind of do definitely factor in. Now, if we’re going to Kentucky, we try to make that you’re trying to schedule it on the weekend.
[00:11:36] If we go into Mississippi again, tried to schedule it up. You don’t want a weekend.
[00:11:41] Matt: Yeah. Well, well, as I mentioned, I think I drove through Berea, uh, just a couple of days ago on my long Trek, uh, up and down 75. So, um, well, let’s, let’s talk a little bit more about the soccer side of things, you know, it is there.
[00:11:57] Well, I guess it’s kind of a mix of soccer and recruiting, but do you have a, uh, an ideal roster size that you try to have each year that you’re trying to get to?
[00:12:08] Coach: Yeah, this year is 30. Uh, so I won’t, I won’t go any, uh, I won’t go over that. 30 is the, is the magic number for us, for us. That’s just a, a good number with the coaching stop size.
[00:12:19] So we have to, and making sure that everyone can be evaluated. And then again, You know, bringing in players for the right, the right reasons. 30 is more than enough to rotate within a 16, 17 game schedule, you know, including the preseason games, you know, that can sometimes go to 20, 21. And then obviously with the post-season games for me, that’s that’s enough.
[00:12:40] Uh, you do have some higher end of the rosters that go to 35 40. Again, I think for me, 30 is, is more than enough. Okay.
[00:12:51] Matt: In terms of soccer staff, you know, do you have any, any assistance or anything like that? How does that factor in? So
[00:13:01] Coach: currently, currently just me, um, well working on, you know, getting stuff in, um, possibly, you know, assistant or possibly a GA, but more towards the, the realms of bringing in an assistant and then kind of build from there that weekend, you know, work together over the next few years to kind of build this.
[00:13:21] Okay.
[00:13:22] Matt: Um, in terms of, you know, your style of coaching and the team style of play, how, how would you describe
[00:13:31] Coach: that? So my style of coaching, I’m a hands-on coach, but then again, I let the players, you know, make the decision all in the realms of what we’re looking to accomplish within the program. And so ultimately if you’re making decisions and you’re making choices that.
[00:13:49] They ultimately end up wrong, but they’re for the right reasons. And so again, within that kind of structure of what we’re looking for in the program, working towards our goal, I’m happy with that. And I’m happy with players making that decision is when, you know, if you have certain players that step outside of what we’re looking to overall accomplish, no making, you know, the, I wouldn’t say the right decisions, but decisions, um, based within that structure, then that’s when.
[00:14:18] Have an issue and have a problem. Uh, I’m the navigation. I have a quote in saying that I’m navigation system, the ladies put in the hard work. And so for me, that’s kind of what I, you know, structured and based the program on is I’ll give you the right tools and necessary to be successful, but ultimately you have to put in the hard, the hard work.
[00:14:38] Matt: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you know, we’re. Talking here in June, so sure. The kids are, kids are gone. But what w in terms of an off season program, the non traditional season, what did that look like for you here in your, in your first year LaGrange?
[00:14:53] Coach: So for us, firstly, in LaGrange, uh, we started the strength and conditioning.
[00:14:57] And so some of the young ladies weren’t exposed to that. Uh, for, from the previous regime. So they expose them to that, exposing them to kind of the high level, you know, training to expect, uh, was something that we worked on again in the spring and then development of the ICU, the ICU, the ICU, the ICU, uh, again, was something that we, we needed.
[00:15:19] In the spring. So wherever it was from a coaching standpoint, walking them through certain situations, whether it was from a coaching standpoint, creating a PowerPoint so that the young ladies know where to be, how to do what to do. Uh, but we really worked on, on that.
[00:15:35] Matt: Okay, well, we’ve covered a lot of ground here, coach, uh, but you know, I always end this the same way and kind of give you the last word.
[00:15:43] What, what didn’t we cover? What else would you like folks to know, uh, about your program, about the school or, or anything else?
[00:15:50] Coach: It’s just a special place to be, um, at this, at this current time with, you know, a lot that’s going on around, you know, the school and the program. The community again has come, come together.
[00:16:02] Um, and so it’s a special place to be a special place to really thrive. You better work hard. Um, just to be a part of something special, ultimately, something that’s bigger than, than just a number being bigger than just yourself. And so anyone who is interested in, you know, not only being a part of the women’s soccer program, but also, you know, looking into colleges and the grain is a great college.
[00:16:27] Matt: Awesome. Well, I appreciate the time coach. We wish you the best of luck in the upcoming fall season. We’ll make sure we keep an eye and see how you guys do over there in the USA south. And, and, uh, like I said, wish you the best of luck and we appreciate the time.
[00:16:41] Coach: Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
[00:16:42] Thank you.
