Lancaster Bible College Women’s Soccer – Coach Jake Warren
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Jake from the Lancaster Bible Women’s Program in Pennsylvania. We talk about how he recruits both from high school and club. He describes the school’s costs and financial aid situation. Lastly, we discuss how he views roster size along with managing injuries and making sure they have depth and competition at each position. Learn more about Lancaster Bible College Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Warren from Lancaster Bible. Welcome coach.
Coach: Hey, thanks for having me, Matt. Big fan of the show. Love watching your stuff. So it’s an honor to be here.
Matt: Oh, well, I appreciate that. And I appreciate you taking the time to chat.
Um, you know, I, I know you guys are, are dual affiliated, right? You’re division three, but also NCCAA and, and back in my day, I was dual affiliated with, with. NCCA as well. So, uh, be, be curious to talk about that. But the, but I guess with that in mind, let’s talk about that. You’re kind of recruiting timeline.
You know, we’re talking in March, but, uh, you know, I don’t know how. How the dual affiliation affects that just in terms of, uh, when, when you’re looking to sign people or how long they’re waiting to sign. And of course, with this FAFSA mess going on, uh, who knows what’s up. So, so where are you guys at right now in your recruiting process?
Coach: Yeah. I wouldn’t say the dual affiliation has. Much to do with the recruiting process, um, probably similar to most D3s, like we’re finishing up our 2024 class right now, um, couple offers still out there that were, you know, waiting on to be accepted, but we’re pretty much wrapping up 2024 and then starting to get into the junior class.
So typically the [00:01:30] timeline for us is we. We want to see you play as a sophomore in either the high school or club environment by junior year. Um, get that official visit done and make an offer to you. Um, and then. Obviously every situation is different. Every family and individual player has a different, you know, process that they follow, but we always like to have commitments done going into senior year.
Um, you know, for our benefit, but also the athletes benefit as well. I think I always encourage it just because once your senior year hits. Um, there can be a lot of pressure, like where am I going to school, um, it just goes very fast, especially, you know, high school soccer being in the fall here, um, that goes really fast.
And then, before you know it, you’re in your last semester and you’re still trying to make decisions. So, for your benefit, like, know where you’re going to school, going into your senior year so you can enjoy it a little bit more and have that, you know, covered. And then, for us, obviously, as we try to make.
Roster decisions and know who’s coming back and what we need to, um, you know, put on the field, replace and whatnot. Um, it benefits us as well, but in saying that I get everybody’s on, you know, a different situation, sometimes we’ll get really late spring or summer commits and it’s just, it’s just part of the game.
So
Matt: for sure. Well, you, you mentioned high school soccer there. So how, how much of, of your [00:03:00] recruiting. Uh, is, is high school versus club because I’m assuming, and again, this is an assumption, but being, you know, a Bible college and, and folk, you know, you might be more focused on, say, folks who go to a Christian high school, um, or, or, or does it really not matter as much or kind of how does that all fit in?
Coach: Yeah, I mean, we do get a big draw, obviously from a lot of the, uh. The Christian high schools in PA in Jersey, Maryland. Um, we have a strong affiliation with a lot of those schools. So, um, typically a good maybe 30 40 percent of our roster kids who have played at some sort of private high school. Um, but that’s not necessarily all that we focus on like both high school and club soccer.
Ideally, even if you’re. You know, a kid that goes to a small Christian high school, you’re playing club soccer somewhere, if you’re, you know, someone that’s serious and wants to play at the college level. So, um, so obviously it just depends. Like I said, we do have that strong connection with a lot of those, those schools, um, but we, we invest a lot in the club scene as well.
Matt: So in terms of, of the club scene, are there tournaments that you like to get to every, every year to see kids? And, and what do those look like?
Coach: Yeah, I mean, we pretty much hit all the regionally based showcases and tournaments, you know, um, we’re fortunate enough to be, you know, in a part of the country where there’s, there’s a lot going on as far as youth soccer and [00:04:30] some of the bigger tournaments and we don’t have to travel super far.
Um, so anything going on in Eastern PA, you know, Maryland, Jersey, which has a lot of quality. Events. Um, we’re pretty much at all those. Um, we’re not typically going to be traveling to, you know, Arizona or Florida, a whole lot. Um, so yeah, like I said, we’re, we’re fortunate to have, you know, a good base here that we can get to within two, three hours of our school.
Matt: Okay. Well, what about, uh, ID camps? Do you guys do any ID camps? Do you, your staff work other camps and kind of how important are they in your overall process?
Coach: Yeah, both. Um, so we, we typically do an ID camp once a year on campus here at LBC. We’ll do that on President’s Day. Um, we like that just because most high schools are not in session on President’s Day.
And so it’s a good opportunity for kids to come in. So we’ll host that every year and any sort of, you know, ID camp that we can attend or go work if we’re invited to do so. Um, we’ll take advantage of that as well. Um, I think ID camps are important. I mean, my advice and encouragement to, to players usually is I think they can be a little bit overemphasized.
Like, I don’t think, uh, you necessarily need to, um, you know, Bank everything on being seen at an ID camp. I think if there are certain schools that you’re targeting that [00:06:00] are high on your list, definitely take advantage of those. But I think some players tend to invest a lot in the ID camp scene, hoping to get discovered.
And sometimes that happens sometimes, especially with a bigger school, it can be just a bit of a moneymaker too. So, um, it just depends, but I think it can be important if you use it the right way and, um, You know, you’re selective about the type of camps you’re going to.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, whether it’s at any of these high school club or ID events, uh, kind of what makes up what, what you’re looking for in a player, whether that’s on the field attributes or off the field stuff.
Yeah.
Coach: For sure. It’s a great question. Um, you know, we’re, we’re definitely a niche school. Um, what I mean by that is, you know, like, we’re obviously a Christian college, um, probably even a little bit, you know, a step deeper than that, you know, we’re a Bible college. So, Anybody that comes to LBC as a student, um, knows that they have to, um, take part in a Bible curriculum.
You know, even if you’re a business major, um, you’re gonna be set up well for that, but, um, you’re gonna walk out of here graduating with basically a Bible minor. So, um, that being said, um, we’re looking for the right fit. We’re looking for kids who are mission fit here and Kids that are serious about their faith.
Um, not just the academics, not just the soccer part, but kids who want to be [00:07:30] in a Christian environment. So if, if that doesn’t fit you, we’re probably not, um, the best, uh, option. So for us, that makes it, Easy as far as identifying players, but also it makes it more challenging, right? So I think it’s a little bit of both.
Um, cause we know, we know who we are, we know what we’re looking for. Um, so that kind of weeds out, you know, a bigger pool of kids. We’re not, we’re not looking for just, uh, the best soccer players. Obviously we want that we’re competitive and we want to win championships, but we’re looking for the type of kid who wants to be in our environment.
So when we’re looking, obviously that’s always something in. In our minds, um, we’re probably not going to high school games or showcases. And just looking for players, you know, blindly, typically there’s some sort of connection. We’re going to go see, um, kids who we already know about kids who already have interest in us and who we are.
And, um, that just makes the process a lot easier. Um, from a playing point of view, you know, I think it’s pretty easy for most coaches to identify talent. Like, you know, everybody wants good players. Technically sound players, um, you know, players that have good vision on the field. I think that’s, that’s the easy part.
Um, some of the X factors that we look for, um, when we’re just evaluating is competitiveness. Like, I think that’s really important. Um, [00:09:00] especially in the college game. Like, is it a girl that loves to win? Is that apparent in the way she plays and the way that she competes? Um, we want girls who are driven, not just to play the game, but to compete.
Um, we also value speed, just, you know, something that’s important to our style of play. Like we like to play more uptempo and in transition. So, um, I think speed is very valuable. Um, it’s not something you can teach. So, um, girls that are good athletes that can cover a lot of ground and, um, help in the college style type game.
That’s what we look for.
Matt: Okay, well, let’s shift gears a little bit. Talk a little bit more about the school. I’m sure some folks not familiar with the college. Um, You’ve been there a few years now and have coached in other kind of Bible college environments. So what are some of the things that you found are, are awesome and outstanding about Lancaster Bible?
Maybe some things we wouldn’t know even just by going through the website.
Coach: Yeah, for sure. So yeah, this is the third school that I’ve coached at. Um, I’ve pretty much only been in the Christian college scene, you know, um, but I was attracted to LBC from the first day, you know, set foot on campus, you’ll, you probably hear this a lot at small schools where they say, you know, the people are what the biggest difference are.
And, um, that’s definitely true here. You know, it’s a small campus. We typically only have about. 850, [00:10:30] 850 enrollment. Um, and so it’s definitely a community based school. Um, you know, in the day and age where I think a lot of schools are going to more commuter based students. We, we have a very alive campus, even for a small school.
Um, a lot of kids live on campus, which just helps with the community factor and, um, it just makes it a really fun place to be. Um, but at the end of the day, we’re, at LBC, we’re committed to who we are, like I mentioned earlier, like we’re very committed to bringing in the right type of kids. hiring the right staff, um, people that fit, um, you know, a Christian college environment.
And so we don’t compromise with that. And so because of that, it’s a very unique place. Um, it’s a very friendly environment, definitely the most friendly, welcoming, welcoming place I’ve ever worked. Um, and like I said, I’ve worked at multiple Christian colleges and it’s just a very unique place in terms of, The type of people you interact with every day.
So, so if you, if you wanna play somewhere competitively and you want a, a smaller school environment and a place that’s, you know, committed to their mission and committed to what, um, we’re called to do, then it’s a great place.
Matt: Well, and, and I don’t wanna put you on the spot here, but I’m not gonna hold you to hard numbers, but, uh, people be, people will be kind of wondering, okay, well, is this. [00:12:00] I know you’re division three too, so that means no athletic scholarship. So, but a Bible college, I don’t know, are they more expensive or are they cheaper?
Uh, you know, they, there may be some confusion there. So help, help us out. Just give us an over rough overall view of what does it cost to attend tuition, room and board, that kind of stuff. What can a typical student athlete come in and expect maybe in terms of financial aid, what academic scholarships available, that kind of thing.
Coach: Yeah, no, it’s a good question. Um, so I would say yes and no to your question. I think yes, it’s expensive. Most, uh, most private schools, most D3 schools are on the pricey side. I think that can be a little bit based on perspective. Every family’s in a different boat. Um, I think, um, you know, if you’re, if you’re living on campus and you’re paying full price, which nobody does, it’s close to 40 here.
Um, I would say the average student. Is paying probably somewhere between 16 and 20. Um, so those are kind of specific numbers. Um, and yeah, I always tell people that’s obviously a big factor when you’re when you’re making a decision and you’re trying to decide on a school. Um, my advice and my encouragement is don’t make that the only factor, you know, if you’re just price shopping, you know, a school like LBC is probably not going to be.
Um, the top school on your list, um, it’s it should be a factor. It’s an important thing. But, um, I [00:13:30] also encourage like, hey, look at the experience you’re going to have. Are you going to grow while you’re here as a student in your faith? Um, is it a good soccer opportunity? There’s a lot of factors. So, um, obviously the financial piece is the big one, um, for a lot of for a lot of players.
that are looking at schools. Um, and I get it. Everybody’s in a different boat. You know, um, some people might look at 20, 000 a year and say no way. And some people might think that’s cheap. Um, compared to a lot of private schools, I would say we’re we’re on the affordable side. Um, even though by definition, we probably are considered expensive, um, but we’re not 60 to 80 grand.
So again, it all depends on perspective, right? Um, if you want to be like at a state school, community college type price tag, you know, that’s going to blow us out of the water. But then again, you have to look at what kind of experience are you having? So, um, yeah, it’s a good question, but obviously a lot of things to consider too, based on what you’re looking for and what you want.
Matt: Yeah, no, that makes sense. Well, you’ve got the athletic component that we’ve been talking about. There’s also the academic component. And so that can be a struggle for some students coming in to try to be successful in both arenas. So how do your students kind of manage the demands of both being a student and an athlete and what kind of support systems does a school offer to help them in that?
Coach: Yeah, that’s probably the number one question I get when, uh, [00:15:00] when girls visit campus. Um, and how I answer that is just to basically say our team does very well. Um, not necessarily anything that I’m doing well, we just have a good group of girls who are serious about. Succeeding in the classroom. I think in the fall, our team GPA was 3.
7. So, um, pretty much everybody on our roster was over a 3. 0. Um, so we do very well in the classroom. Um, ironically, and this is kind of year after year consistent, um, You know, our, our team typically has a higher GPA in the fall than we do in the spring, which if you think about it, that makes no sense because we’re busier in the fall and we’re traveling, we have games, we’re in season.
Um, but I think that just shows you, you know, what a disciplined student athlete is capable of. Um, typically when you have. A structured environment, you’re gonna succeed. Um, versus if you have more time on your hands, which obviously the semester we’re in now our off season, we’re still training, but they have a little bit more free time.
There’s just that human tendency to. I think, uh, slack off a little bit more. So, um, I just try to reassure players with that, just because that’s sometimes a concern. Can I be, you know, a really good athlete and a really good student? And the answer is 100 percent yes. Um, and typically if someone’s asking that question, Um, [00:16:30] my encouragement is, you’re gonna do just fine.
Um, it’s the ones who don’t ask that question, who think it’s gonna just gonna be easy to manage their time, that struggle a little bit more. But the ones that come in and they’re, they’re concerned about balancing the student athlete lifestyle. Um, you know, those are usually the more diligent students, so they do great.
Yeah, for sure.
Matt: Well, let’s rewind back to October figure we’re in the you’re in the heart of that conference season. Can you walk me through what a typical week is going to look like for for your players in terms of, you know, winter classes, games, meals, training times, any other things that might occur during the week?
Coach: Yeah, so our season or our program is kind of broken into three parts. We have fall, spring, and summer. So obviously the fall is when we’re in season and that probably looks pretty typical, um, for everybody. Like even at the high school level, we’re probably following just about the same timeline, same type of schedule.
We’re playing two matches a week on average, training every day after classes end. in that like 4 to 6 p. m. range. Um, probably the only adjustment for a high school player coming into college, um, can be the travel. Um, just, you know, depending on the season, we might travel five, six hours for an away game and run on the bus a lot or in a hotel a couple times.
A semester. So, um, aside from the travel, I would say the [00:18:00] schedule in the fall looks probably similar to high school soccer. Um, the spring semester, um, which is our non traditional season, um, also might be a little bit of an adjustment, especially for, for girls who maybe play multiple sports in high school and are used to going from soccer to basketball or another sport.
We do train year round. So, um, spring semester. Um, we are on the field twice a week. Um, and then on top of that, working with our strength and conditioning coach. So typically four days a week in total, we’re training throughout second semester, and that’s really our player development portion of the year.
I like to look at our fall as our team development, and we’re focused on a lot of tactical ideas and big picture things and In the spring, it’s more player development, more individually based, trying to, um, help individuals improve. Um, and then the third part, obviously, is summer where everybody’s gone, everybody’s at home, but there’s still a training component to that, where they, they take, they take home, uh, workout packets from our strength coach.
Fitness, um, program from us. So it really is a year round process. It’s just broken up into different cycles for sure.
Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team. Um, You know, we talked recruiting, but in terms of the players, is there a, is there a [00:19:30] roster size you find as ideal that you, that you’re trying to be at each year?
Coach: Yeah, we typically carry close to 30. I think the last couple of seasons we’ve had high twenties on the roster. Um, I think there’s always that, you know, differentiator of like, what does a coach prefer and what do you end up getting? Like, I would say for me, a perfect number is probably 24 to 28. Just in terms of having enough to play 11 to 11 and training.
Um, also having some room for injuries and having depth obviously is important. Um, but we tend to have a little bit more than that. Um, we, we usually have close to 30 players in the roster, so that’s where we’re at right now. It’ll probably be similar for fall 2024. Um, You know, each year we’re, we’re trying to bring in usually eight to 10 freshman transfers.
Um, so yeah, managing a big roster obviously can be a lot of fun. It can be a challenge too, because, uh, you know, one of those first preseason talks we always have with the girls is like, you know, how many people play at once that’s 11. And so if we’re carrying 28, um, You know, I’m not a math major, but that’s a lot of girls not playing.
So how do you manage that? How do you maintain good culture, good team chemistry? I think we do a really good job of that. We have a phenomenal group of girls that push each other and, um, love playing [00:21:00] next to each other. And so, um, and then competition, healthy competition as well. So, but yeah, like I said, probably close to 30 this coming fall, which is pretty typical.
From season to season.
Matt: Okay. Well, besides the roster of players, you’ve got a staff roster there with you. So talk to me more about your staff. How many do you have? What roles do they play? What other support staff maybe are in the athletic department that are helping out with the team?
Coach: I feel like we’re really blessed with what we have.
We don’t have any, uh, full-time assistants on staff. Um, I have two part-time assistants that help me with the team, a goalkeeper coach. Um, she’s an alumni who’s been around longer than I have with the program, so it’s nice to have just that consistency, you know, um, a familiar, a familiar face who’s been around the, the group.
And then, um, I have another girl who’s my assistant coach, who’s a recent graduate. Of Gordon College. Um, so had a really good playing career. It’s always nice to have a younger female that can help relate to the team and, um, support me in a lot of ways, um, and be there for the girls. So, um, and then we have, we fortunately have a, a full time strength and conditioning coach that was new last year, which was a big boost for us.
So we have a guy who has great experience, who. Designs all the physical aspects of our program in season, off season, summertime. So he’s here [00:22:30] working with us every day. So, yeah, um, we have, we have a really good setup, really good group of, of coaches that, uh, invest in our team.
Matt: That’s great. What about you?
How would you describe your style of coaching and the style of play you guys are looking to implement?
Coach: Yeah, for sure. Um, you know, I would say as far as, uh, the type of coach I am, I always describe myself as warm, but demanding. So, um, we hold really high standards for our team. And, um, at the end of the day, it’s, it’s person over player.
Like we’re going to value you as a person. Um, Over you as a player. Um, we want you to come in and have great relationships with your teammates. Like we want the, the environment to be very warm, very welcoming. We want you to be able to express your personality while you’re here. Um, but while we’re on the field, we want to compete.
We want to get better. We want to, um, win a conference championship. We’re very driven to do that. So, um, We’re crazy enough to think we can do both of those things really well, um, to be a very relational group, but also highly competitive team. So that’s, uh, that’s the big things that we emphasize, um, the type of the brand of soccer we want to play.
You know, you know, I’ll preface this part with just saying it depends on the group that you have right. Ideally, we bring in every year, a certain profile player that’s going to fit our [00:24:00] style year in and year out. We don’t always have that luxury. Um, if we can get a good player who’s. a good fit for our program and the school.
No matter what style of player you are, we’re gonna we’re gonna bring you in. So a lot of that just depends on the flavor of our group. Um, so we don’t necessarily stick to one system on the field or formation. Um, it depends on what our strengths are like this coming season. Um, we’re going to have a lot of good midfielders.
We might lack that goal scorer up top, um, but we’re, we’re bringing back a lot of midfielders, adding some good midfielders. So that’ll dictate a lot of how we want to play the game. Um, typically though, like I love, I love teams that play in transition. So we’ve tried to be very effective, um, in those moments when the ball’s lost and the ball’s won back.
We want to be really good in that moment of the game. I think it’s, The winning difference in soccer, obviously possession is important, defending is important, but that moment of transition, those first five seconds when the ball turns over and the ball turns over a lot in college soccer, that’s just the way it is.
It’s not a professional game. Um, that, that moment of transition is key. So we really focus on that and training and try to put the girls in a, in an environment every day where they’re making fast decisions. Um, and having to play it in controlled chaos, so, uh, we want to play up tempo and get to go quickly when we have the ball and when we lose the ball, we want to try to win it [00:25:30] back right away.
So that’s typically, um, the overall game model that we’re looking for. But like I, like I mentioned, a lot of it does depend on just the type of players and we have to adapt to that.
Matt: Okay. Fair enough. Well, you’ve been super generous with your time. Really appreciate it. Got one last question for you. And that is if you had just one piece of advice or nugget of info that you would hope that all parents, players, families going through this college recruiting process would know, what would that be?
Coach: Yeah, I would say my advice is know what you’re looking for. I know the, you know, the college recruiting process can be daunting and, and confusing. Um, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend, you know, Looking at 100 different schools. I think you start with just this question. What am I looking for? What are the three or four things that for me as a player or non negotiables?
What do I want out of my college experience? Think if you start with that question. During your search, you can really narrow things down quickly. Obviously, you know, what do you want academically what you’re going to study. Um, what type of school do I want to be at in terms of size, you know, a large, you know, 30, 000 state school or, um, like us in a school that only has 800 students.
So what type of environment do you want to be in? Um, are you interested in a Christian school? That’s something that we typically deal with. If you’re not, we’re probably not going to be a [00:27:00] great fit for you. So there’s a lot of questions you need to ask yourself in terms of fit. So that’s always my encouragement is.
What’s the best fit? Um, for most good players, there’s a thousand different schools they could play college soccer at. And that’s why I don’t think that should be the only thing you’re looking at. Um, 99 percent of high school players are probably not going to play professionally when they’re done with college either.
So, you know, where are you going to have a NAIA, doesn’t really matter. Like, where are you going to have a great for your experience? Are you going to be able to play right off the bat? Or are you going to a division one school? Because that sounds good, but you’re going to sit for two years. So I think there’s a lot of things.
Um, but at the end of the day, what’s a fit for you and where are you going to have a great experience? Um, that’s what I typically challenge people with. That’s what I want for all players. Have an amazing, um, four year college soccer experience. Cause that’s what I had. So that’s what I want for everybody.
Matt: Awesome. Couldn’t agree more. Well, coach really appreciate it. Uh, wish you the best of luck here in your non traditional season. And then in the fall, uh, in, in reaching for that conference championship, so best of luck.
Coach: Hey, thanks for having me, Matt. It was a pleasure.
