Lesley University Women’s Soccer – Coach Paul Vasconcelos
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Vasconcelos from the Lesley University Women’s Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We talk about how he likes to recruit all over the country looking for high academic players. He describes the school’s small class sizes and supportive staff. Lastly, we discuss how he only looks for players who truly want to be there. Learn more about Lesley University Women’s Soccer.
[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Paul Vasconcelos of Lesley University. Up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Welcome coach. Thanks for having me. I appreciate Matt. No, thanks for being here. Um, well, let’s start off, uh, talking about recruiting. That tends to be, uh, a topic everybody’s always interested in.
[00:00:20] So when do you start recruiting players, talking to players, really getting in the hot and heavy of it, to build your classes?
[00:00:30] Coach: Um, junior year, uh, it’s pretty hot and heavy. Occasionally you’ll get a kid or sophomore reaching out, but usually junior year we look at kids. In the showcases, whether it’s the GA stuff or the ECNL even some of the top elite showcases, uh, we get really, really focused and concentrated there during the year because that’s, you know, to be honest, that’s when they become focused and when they become concentrated on schools.
[00:00:51] Sure, sure.
[00:00:52] Matt: What I know is this, it ebbs and flows, but how many inbound contacts would you say you’re sifting through in any given week?
[00:01:01] Coach: Um, to be honest, we’re so selective. And so. If a smaller filter than some of those big. So we don’t have a really big recruiting net. Um, everything we, our staff does is a little unorthodox compared to most.
[00:01:16] Um, for instance, we only bring in seven every year. We do that. Our magic number is seven, uh, cuz you know, in a perfect world, if you get seven times the four glasses, you get your 28 player roster and 28 is something that we can manage. It does two things. 28 gives you enough. And 28 is enough for you to manage?
[00:01:36] Uh, I feel really, um, I sympathize with a lot of my colleagues and peers out there that have like 35-40 players on their roster. And I can imagine trying to, you know, keep everybody happy and all that stuff. So we don’t have that issue here. Um, luckily, uh, it, it, administration has never given me any type of direction as far as the size of my roster.
[00:01:58] So, uh, it trickles down to the recruiting aspect, which. Magic number is seven for the most part. Yeah.
[00:02:05] Matt: Oh, that’s good. Um, in terms of, you know, tournaments and, um, you know, must have, you know, places to go to see players, where, where are you usually looking to, to watch players? What kind of terms are you going to all usually every,
[00:02:22] Coach: yeah, so, so most of our teams are actually from the west coast, we only actually have only two players from Massachusetts.
[00:02:27] We have about 15 or 16 from California. Um, Most of our teams, Texas, Colorado, Chicago. We don’t really isn’t that we don’t recruit here in mass. It’s just the level player we’re looking for, um, maybe not looking to go to school down the street, so to speak kids, wanna try something different. So, uh, with that said, you’ll see us in, in Texas, you’ll see us at, in San Diego, you see us in north Cal.
[00:02:53] Uh, we go to the Florida showcase in North Carolina, a lot of the GA ECNL stuff. That’s predominantly where we do most of the bulk of our work.
[00:03:01] Matt: Yeah, that, I mean, that was kind of wild because when you look at division three schools, a lot of ’em tend to be pretty regionally focused, but you guys have that crazy amount of west coast and, and kind of folks from all over kind of what drives that difference in you guys as say someone else in your conference that may not have that diversity of geography.
[00:03:21] Coach: Yeah, I think it’s two, it started off as one thing it started off with so California kids, I should just put a label on every Call. I think they just wanna try something different. And I really can’t think of anything more different than LA to Boston as far as. You know, whether it’s, how the streets are made up of, or, you know, how college life, or how people handle themselves or the city itself or weather or anything like that.
[00:03:46] Uh, we found that just a lot of kids just want to have a different experience for four years and, and Boston, I I’m obviously super biased, but I think it’s, uh, pretty awesome city it’s um, you know, it’s the college city in America. There’s 25 universities within 10 miles. And I think at the end of the day, it was a combination of zip codes.
[00:04:07] And then the fact, you know, we’ve been really successful over the years. And I think that players are starting to look at things like, you know what I could go to this program, much bigger name, much bigger label, much bigger, you know, standing in, in the, in the NC paradox, paradox, but at the same time, it’s, you know, maybe they wouldn’t play till they’re junior, or maybe they’re gonna get redshirted or maybe that’s not appealing to.
[00:04:33] They could come here and they can play right away if they’re playing to a certain level and luckily we’ve been successful. So I think the combination of being able to play winning and, uh, and living in a great city, I think those are the three things. No, that makes
[00:04:47] Matt: perfect sense. What about camps? Do you guys do your own camps?
[00:04:50] Do you and your staff work, other camps? How do they fit into your overall recruiting process?
[00:04:54] Coach: Great question. Um, we do not do any camps. We don’t host any, we don’t work. Um, again, like I said, in the beginning, we’re super unorthodox. We would much rather go see someone play in a showcase where they’re losing.
[00:05:09] So this is my take when you’re at, at camp or if I’m working at someone’s camp and your team’s losing three, nothing, you have no dog in the fight. You, you, it’s three, it’s a, it’s a camp game. It’s, you know, but if you’re playing for your ECNL team and you’re playing the playoffs and you’re down San Diego and you’re losing two to.
[00:05:25] We wanna see what you’re like in a competitive aspect where you have vested interest in the result of the game. So that’s our take on it. Um, and as far as ID camps, when you’re only looking to bring in seven, um, you know, not for nothing, but. Why are you going to camp with 80 kids when they only want seven?
[00:05:43] So,
[00:05:44] Matt: okay. That’s fair enough. Um, well, when you’re looking at those players at ECNL events or any other events, what is your kind of hierarchy of what you’re looking for? Whether that’s on the field attributes or out the field attributes.
[00:05:57] Coach: So I think everyone can. Pretty much say across the board, everyone can play, obviously some are more athletic or, or cleaner on the ball or just more technical or just, you know, soccer, IQs, maybe a little higher.
[00:06:10] But, um, we look at things like, what do you like when you get sub out? What do you like when you don’t start? Um, what do you like when you, if you’re a goalkeeper and you’re getting shelled and you’re losing three or four, nothing. Uh, how are you digging the ball out of the back of the net? Are you kicking it up?
[00:06:24] Are you clapping it up? Let’s go defense. Are you cheering? Are you a cheerleader for your team? Um, you know, three, four years down the road, you’ll be a junior in college and if you’re playing in the NCAAs and it’s a really, really. High stress environment. Um, are you the type to point fingers? Are you the type to put your shoulders in and put your head down?
[00:06:47] Or are you the one that wants to rally your team up and get them going? So that’s definitely what we look for as far as off the field on the field is just, I’m probably no different than anybody else. Just high soccer IQ, kids who are clean on the ball and play in good systems that are similar to ours.
[00:07:04] And obviously athleticism is, is. Okay.
[00:07:07] Matt: Now I know you say your, you guys, your guys are very specific in who you’re recruiting and, and very targeted. So does that include any sort of international transfer students? How do they fit in at all? If, if at all with your recruiting? Yeah.
[00:07:21] Coach: So we’ve had internationals in the past.
[00:07:23] Um, it really has to be a two-way road. Like they have, they want to come to Leslie. They wanna go to school in Cambridge. They want to study something that we specifically do. Really really well at, or they have a career path they want to go, or maybe they just wanna live in Boston. They’ve always wanted to live in Boston.
[00:07:41] They wanna be in Cambridge. Um, as far as transfers, we don’t do too many incoming transfers or obviously not a lot of kids leave the program, but we, every once in a while, we’ll come across a kid who we lost in the recruiting process, in the original recruiting process. And they say, Hey coach, thanks for your time.
[00:07:59] But I’ve decided to go to ABC college and. 10 out 10 times out of 10 and we always wish ’em well, congratulations. We wish you all the best. And every once in a while, we’ll get a kid back in November, December their freshman year. Hey, you know, ABC. Wasn’t what I thought it was. And, or maybe I didn’t have a great experience.
[00:08:19] Do you remember who I am? I like to everyone once in a while, we’ll get kids like that, but, um, transfer transfer in the sense of, um, I think a lot of it has to do. You know, some of its socio economics, some of its just a certain type of demographic. We’re a private university in Cambridge. And, um, to ask a kid who’s going to a local community college for, for next to nothing, to all of a sudden, you know, pay for a, you know, a private school in Cambridge, Massachusetts of all places.
[00:08:49] Uh, it could be, could be a little bit daunting for families. So we try not to, uh, we try to avoid that those situ.
[00:08:55] Matt: Well, that’s a perfect lead into my next question, which, you know, everybody, especially us parents who are, might be writing those checks, uh, are always curious about the, the, the final bills side of things.
[00:09:07] So, you know, obviously there’s no athletic money there, but what, and I’m not holding you to hardcore. Uh, no, I’m not specific, but what. A, an incoming student. What are you a typical soccer player? What are they gonna be walking into with regards to academic money, merit money, any kind of scholarship money?
[00:09:28] What’s the overall cost of the package look like on average? That’s
[00:09:32] Coach: fair question. So the cost, uh, room board I tuition per year is $53,000 a. That’s everything included, um, which is obviously a lot of money, but on our street, we’re like the TJ maxx or the Marshalls with, MIT and Harvard, uh, Harvard, literally across the street and MIT down the street.
[00:09:51] So 53 compared to them is not anywhere near, but it’s still a lot of money. And for, uh, working families who have maybe multiple kids that wanna go to college, I can only, you know, ascertain that it’s it’s, it is a lot of money with that. All, every single one of my players is here on academic scholarship.
[00:10:12] Um, some get more than others. Uh, we have a team GPA of 3.75. Um, so we recruit right out of the box, kids who are high academic kids, cuz when you go to the showcase and you fall in love with a kid and maybe they’re a 2.9, what’s the use of falling in love with a kid that you can’t get in or if by some way they get.
[00:10:38] They get no money. And now you coach, I really like your school. I like you, but my family can’t just afford, just can’t afford this. Right. And I, I really don’t wanna put families in that position to, to have to feel like they’re not doing everything they can to, to, to support their child. So I try to avoid those situations.
[00:10:57] We only go after. So when we go to the showcase, the last thing I’ll say. Along with the off the field stuff and the on field stuff, we look for a kid that is going to be a good fit academically. It’s paramount. I have no interest in bringing in, uh, a young lady who, you know, isn’t gonna be academically successful here, but now going back to this scholarship thing, but for the most part we give, we give us a sizable amount.
[00:11:20] We give between 13 and $15,000 guaranteed each. Scholarship, which, you know, if you get ’em under 40 at that point, then financial aid kicks in. And then we have a unique situation of being in Cambridge. So a lot of our players live off of campus and you can save a lot of money by living off campus. So, uh, we can get some players down towards the 25 area, uh, all of a sudden 25,000, still a lot of money, not gonna say it’s not, but, uh, it’s a four.
[00:11:50] Cambridge education, private education. Sure.
[00:11:52] Matt: No, that makes sense. Well, you’ve already mentioned some of the, some of the great things about the school’s location, but there’s probably a lot of people out there who aren’t even familiar that Leslie exists, uh, you know, especially folks that aren’t from that New England area.
[00:12:06] Mm-hmm so, you know, besides what I can read on the website, you know, clue me into some of the awesome things about Leslie that that folks may, may wanna know.
[00:12:14] Coach: So from a social aspect, The they, the, you get the best of both worlds. Um, academically super private, super small. You will literally be in classrooms with 16, 15 kids, students tour the professor, all of our classes are taught by professors.
[00:12:32] Um, very, very small private academic setting. The professors will know your name, they’ll know who you are. They’ll know when you’re not in. Um, the students will get to know their professors. The students really have a, um, a vested interest in their own education and, and getting, uh, in their four years really, really becoming, taking everything they can out of the academic piece here.
[00:12:57] But then socially speaking, there’s a quarter of a million college students here. So like Thursday, Friday, Saturday night in the off season. You’re sadly mistaken. If you think you’re gonna find one of our players on campus, um, it’s, you know, uh, they have a saying here, if you’re bored at Leslie, it’s your fault.
[00:13:17] And it’s basically what comes down to, uh, our girls will be at Celtics games, red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, Boston marathon, the Charles river of God, a Harvard Yale games. And then whatever else is going on in the other 26 universities, that you can jump on a subway and go to, none of our girls have a car. None of our players need a car.
[00:13:38] Um, public transportation’s wonderful here. Uh, but the city’s not for everyone. You know, I say that a lot, the city is not for everyone. If you’re, we’re the type of program, like I just had a kid visit. And the first thing outta my mouth was, I’m gonna tell you all the reasons not to come. And it kind of caught them off guard because they’re used to going to play, oh, this is great.
[00:13:58] This, I don’t know what they like. I don’t know. Some kids might come to Cambridge and like, this is too much, um, you know, I want to go to the quintessential, you know, pre-campus in the middle of the woods and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Yeah,
[00:14:12] Matt: no, absolutely. Well, you know, you talked a lot about the, the high academic standards and everything that’s there at the school.
[00:14:18] So, you know, being a student athlete at the collegiate level is always a new experience for high school kids coming in. So how specifically do your students balance the rigors of, of their academics with the, the rigors of being an athlete and what kind of support systems are there in place at the
[00:14:34] Coach: school?
[00:14:35] I’ll be honest with you, Matt. So I used to talk in length. We have in place. And we do, we do have a center of academic achievement. We have tutors, we have academic mentors. We have a full time student athlete, academic advisor, all these things are wonderful. Um, but what I just realized a couple years back was if I’m recruiting really top notch, high academic kids, they’ve already been doing it for four years.
[00:15:00] And to be totally honest with you, if you’ve been jogging it at the high school level for four years, college is gonna be a. And, uh, I I’m sure I’m sure some parents and some academic people are gonna be like, what are you talking about? But I firmly believe that. So I have a son that’s in high school and there lives literally two to three hours every day of classes that are not going to be.
[00:15:27] They’re just not for him. It’s almost like not a waste of time. I don’t wanna make it sound like high school. School’s a waste of time. It. They’re not gonna study that in college. It’s not gonna be something for them going forward. So, you know, now you get those two, three hours a day back and you’re taking four classes or five classes a semester, and, and you’ve been a 4.0 student, all your, your career in high school.
[00:15:50] So what’s gonna change all of a sudden in high school, just because you’re playing college soccer. I do think we do take up a little more time in the sense. Maybe practice. We have film sessions and we have team meetings and we go, we have scouting reports that we go over and there’s a lot more reading as far as email watching film and things like that, but certainly nothing that, uh, the, the student athletes that we’re recruiting can’t handle.
[00:16:15] Okay.
[00:16:15] Matt: Um, can you walk me through it? Average typical week during the season, in terms of when is class, when is practice, when do you usually play games, how does your travel work? That kind of thing. Sure.
[00:16:31] So,
[00:16:32] Coach: um, we’re usually like a Wednesday, Saturday. Um, sometimes we’ll do like a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, if we’re trying to cram in more games, um, schedule it probably isn’t very much except for the, the, the, the back end in the evening.
[00:16:45] So we’re exclusively a night program. We only train at night. We only have weeknight home games. Um, and that is wonderful for our student athletes, because we’re not asking them to miss class or have any scheduled conflicts or anything like that from time to time, if we have a road game and we have to go away and it’s a 4:00 PM game, then obviously we’re gonna miss some classes.
[00:17:05] And just like every other university professor signs off on it and, and it’s known, uh, prior to it happening. But, um, We really back it up by saying things, the academic piece, by saying things like, Hey, we only practice at 7:00 PM at night, so we’re not gonna have any conflicts with your class. You’re not gonna, there’s so many kids out there.
[00:17:25] Coach. I need to take this class next semester at 3:00 PM, but we have practice and the coaches, you know, they’re kind of hamstrung. They don’t know what to do either. Uh, we don’t have that issue. Um, so as far as the rest of the schedule during the day, I can’t, I can’t believe it’s anything different than anywhere else.
[00:17:42] It’s a combination of going to class, getting ready for papers, eating, working out, taking naps, um, getting ready for class, going to class, uh, meeting up for lunch, going see the athletic trainer. Maybe God forbid they watch some film, um, you know, things like that, but it’s usually rotation of class writing papers, reading, lots of reading here at, at, at Leslie.
[00:18:06] So, um, yeah, I would say it’s a combination of those things. Okay,
[00:18:10] Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team and the soccer side of things. I mean, you mentioned a little bit about your roster, so what, what would you say? You said about seven players a season, but what would you say is your target roster size each year
[00:18:22] Coach: target roster’s 28?
[00:18:23] Um, so this fall we’re going with 24 and a very, very small roster for the most part. It’s a small roster. For college, but, um, it kind of backs up what I said earlier, which is we only want players who want to be here. Uh, so we’re not going to, not to, not to, uh, sound pessimistic, but we’re just not going to take a player for the sake of playing, taking a player.
[00:18:49] Um, we’re not that person and, and we do understand the human element. If we’re not going to make them have a good student athlete experience here, we’re not gonna take them on the team just so we can say we have 27 or 28. So this year we found 24 plays that we really like. We’re very optimistic. Um, you know, we’re conference defending champs and we Wednesday NCAA tournament.
[00:19:13] And we expect that same thing again this year. Uh, but to answer your question, 28 is the ideal. But only if it’s a 28 that are really truly excited to be here and really want to be here. Uh, we have no interest in, you know, carrying 24 and then four of those are just like, yeah, I wonder would’ve been like if I went to so and so, or this was my second choice and I didn’t get into a ABC and I wonder what it would’ve been like if I played at, you know, X, Y, Z college, we don’t want that.
[00:19:44] We want our student athletes to be fully bought.
[00:19:48] Matt: Okay. Well, what about your soccer staff? How, how, how big is your staff? What other kind of support staff that you have maybe there in the athletic department? What role does everybody play? Yeah,
[00:19:58] Coach: So we’ve, we’ve gone under tremendous growth within the athletic department here at the university.
[00:20:03] Uh, for years I was the only full-time coach here. Uh, and in recent years we’ve hired seven new full-time coaches. We have an administration, a new president that’s really, uh, bought into the NCAA, uh, student athlete. Not only the student athlete experience, but what it does for the greater good of university when you have student athletes on campus.
[00:20:24] And that is a byproduct of bringing in full-time coaches and having offices here and helps with retention. So that’s on the macro side. On the micro side, I have three wonderful assistants, uh, All female staff. I’m the only guy, uh, by myself from the middle of August to pretty much the middle of November. I’m the only guy around.
[00:20:45] And, um, and I’m better for it. I’m better. I’m a better dad to my daughter. I’m a better coach to my players. Um, all played at the collegiate level. Uh, all have a lot of say in how we do things. Uh, two of my assistants have been with me for over four years. Uh, which shows a lot of loyalty here in the city, cuz they can hop, they could easily go to another program, uh, and, and probably make more money.
[00:21:12] Uh, but they choose stay here cuz they really bought it into what we do. They, they generally love the program.
[00:21:18] Matt: That’s great. Um, well how would you describe, you know, your style of coaching and the team style of play?
[00:21:24] Coach: Did you chop up on me? Oh, can you hear me?
[00:21:30] Matt: I’m can you hear me
[00:21:32] Coach: coach?
[00:21:36] Matt: Can you hear me now?
[00:21:38] Coach: Oh, lost you there. I lost you for a second. I think I got you now. All right.
[00:21:42] Matt: Um, can you describe, you know, your style of coaching and the team style of play?
[00:21:47] Coach: Sure. Um, so, uh, I’m Portuguese and, and we, uh, you know, we just do every part of the world has a style of play of how they do things and, and, and how they buy into things.
[00:22:01] And. Um, my style is, you know, let me preface everything by saying, if I have great 11 grade players on the field, we’re gonna win. And it literally has nothing to do with what I say or do within those 90 minutes. Um, us as coaches, we feel that we’re more important than we really are. Um, 11 players.
[00:22:24] That’s who’s winning. At training is when I do the bulk of my talking. I really don’t talk too much during match times, half time. I might talk for two minutes of a 15 at the
[00:22:41] pretty much, um, style of play, very triangle based, very diamond, very third attack. Um, very much, uh, recognizing overloads going the other way with it, keeping the ball away from pressure at the same time, you know, um, you know, sucking in defenses and, and putting the ball out and, and, um, you know, maybe not different than a lot of programs, but, uh, we tried to play a really high cerebral soccer soccer with, with a good tactical.
[00:23:16] Okay.
[00:23:17] Matt: Um, the last question, well, next to last question, um, you know what, in terms of your off season, right? So whether that’s the spring quote unquote semester or even summer, but what, what does your off season tend to look like in what term in what the players are doing?
[00:23:40] Coach: The NCAA division three is very hands off in the off season.
[00:23:44] Um, it’s probably why D three is so popular, um, because we cannot micromanage you. It’s your time. Um, The players do ask for a strength conditioning packet. They do, Hey coach, what can I work on? And we other here at the school, we say, Hey, this which can work on this, this and that. And here you go. But we can’t be, you know, monitoring or regulating or anything like that and making sure, so it’s very much left to, um, the, the student athlete as far as what they want.
[00:24:17] What kind of shape do they want to come in? What, what did they really improve over the summer? Are they playing on. A U 23 team or a club team in the summer or are they, you know, not, um, and more often than not within the first two days of preseason, we can tell who did the work and who didn’t. Um, the other thing we don’t do is we don’t do cookie cutter workouts for everyone, a player who’s, you know, 5, 5, 1 20.
[00:24:40] Isn’t gonna get the same packet of 5, 8, 1. Um, you know, someone who needs to work on winning balls in the air, I’m not gonna give them a packet on working with their feet when they need to work on winning balls in the. That
[00:24:53] Matt: makes sense. Well, coach, I appreciate your time. We’ve covered a lot of ground, but the last question I always like to end the same way is what didn’t we talk about?
[00:25:00] What didn’t we cover, uh, whether it’s about soccer, recruiting the school, or is there anything else you would like prospects to know? Uh, or, or anything else you wanna
[00:25:09] Coach: reiterate? Yeah, yeah, actually, yeah. I wanna take it’s a great thanks for letting me go, so, um, go somewhere where you are wanted, uh, go somewhere where you know that the coaching staff actually knows who you are.
[00:25:22] Where do you go to school, what position do you play? They’ve actually watched you play. They’ve made the commitment to fly across the country and go watch you play. Um, it just shows that they have a vested interest in you. Um, uh, go play for the coaching staff, that is, uh, that you see yourself playing. Um, along with, you know, I talk about something called the broken leg syndrome, which is God forbid, you hurt yourself and you can’t play soccer anymore.
[00:25:50] Um, do you like where you are going to school? And um, if, if, if you don’t, if, if you don’t see yourself going to school there, um, the rest of your soccer’s for the most part, it’s middle of August to pretty much for us. It’s the middle of November, and then you gotta live there from November until may. And if you don’t like where you live from November to may, then maybe you should think.
[00:26:15] Looking at another school. Um, but go somewhere where you want to go somewhere where you want to live, um, uh, definitely for a coaching staff that you feel the energy like, Hey, you know, their, their, their emails to you have your name in them. It isn’t hello, common and went out to like 5,000 kids.
[00:26:36] Um, it actually has your name. Um, it, and you could, I think, I think it says a lot. I, uh, my son is going through the recruiting process and, you know, uh, luckily I’m somewhat experienced in this and, and I told my son and he loves, you know, typical 16, 17 year old boy, just, you know, big names and look at their fields and look at their facilities.
[00:26:58] Oh my God. And then I’ll say something like, Hey look, they have 42 players on their team. And the coach has no idea where you’re from. and they don’t have your major. Um, and it’s just simple things like that. So hopefully for someone that genuinely wants you to be there, uh, and, and, and everything else to make sure that you have a wonderful student athlete experience.
[00:27:19] Matt: Oh, great. Great words of advice. Well, the coach appreciated the time. Wish you the best of luck this fall. And, uh, if you get down to the Bradenton area, hitting up IMG or ECNL give a shout and, uh, all grab a cup of coffee. All right. Sounds good. Goal links. Let’s go. All right. Thanks coach.
