Madison College Men’s & Women’s Soccer – Coach Logan Fye
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Fye from the Madison Men’s & Women’s Programs in Wisconsin. We talk about him taking over the women’s program while coaching the men. He describes the well supported athletic department with great resources. Lastly, we discuss his energetic coaching style that also allows players to give input. Learn more about Madison College Men’s and Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Logan from Madison college up in Wisconsin. Welcome coach.
Coach: Thanks Matt. Looking forward to being on here.
Matt: Yeah. Thanks for joining you. You have, uh, You now have two hats. You got to wear. You are the head men’s coach and the head women’s coach up there at Madison, uh, to your program.
Uh, I know you just kind of took the reins of the women’s program in the spring. So you see, you haven’t had that first season with them yet, but, uh, but we’ll kind of talk about both programs a little bit. So. You know, let’s, I guess, let’s start about the women. If you started in, in March or January, March timeframe, uh, spring, whatever, uh, how has the recruiting process been?
Uh, you know, it’s even harder for two year coaches. You’ve got to do twice as much recruiting. So, so how’s that been for you on the, on the women’s side?
Coach: Yeah, that was, uh, you know, number one priority, I think when taking over is make sure the, the roster is in a good place. Um, we had, uh, nine returning players, um, After the transition from fall to spring, um, those that intended on playing.
So got to know them a little bit through the interview process, taking over, um, the program, you know, they were all, um, you know, really eager and excited to kind of, um, turn the page obviously. And, and, you know, Matt did a great job here, um, leading the program to, uh, you know, a great amount of heights here.
And I think those returning, we’re, we’re excited to continue on that tradition and hopefully, um, you know, build upon that. So for me. Um, you [00:01:30] know, naturally got connected with the committed players that, um, previous coach had recruited, you know, got, got them a chance to get to know me and me to get to know them.
Um, and then obviously kind of worked with the database that was already, um, passed along to me, um, in addition to building my own, right. So reaching out to connections I have, um, to kind of, you know, figure out who’s still out there. Um, it is late, obviously in the process and, you know, I’ve, I’ve. quickly learned and knew that going into it, that the women’s recruiting game is different than the men’s game.
Um, as far as timelines go and, you know, depending upon the amount of programs, et cetera. So, you know, for me, I think I, I was, um, eager to figure that out myself as well. Right. And to, to dip my toe in that end of the water to figure out, um, you know, what kind of team we were going to have for this fall.
And I think. Recruiting has come together pretty well. I’m still feeling the last couple of spots, but, um, you know, from, I think the time I took over March, I think it was mid March is my day one, um, as head women’s coach, um, brought in an additional 10 of my own recruits. So we’re up to, uh, I think 21, 22 ish right now.
And the most we can have is 25. So we’re, we’re getting there to a full roster. We have a mandatory one day tryout, um, for anyone that is non recruited, um, that takes place next week. So there’s a few that have signed up for that. That’ll give me a chance to get to know them. Um, you know, evaluate them to see if they’re at the level of a college soccer program and fill out a roster that way, um, as needed or continue recruiting and, you know, shaking the trees to see who’s still out there.
Maybe changes their mind at the last minute and wants to [00:03:00] stay local.
Matt: Okay. Awesome. Well, obviously it’s, Junior college coaches, as, as folks have heard through my other interviews that you, you know, they’re, they’re recruiting until a month into the season, uh, sometimes depending on where they’re at, but like, so where is it that, that you are doing most of your recruiting events, high school, you talking to club coaches, like talk to me just about your overall recruiting process and what that looks like.
Yeah.
Coach: Yeah. For me, I think, uh, the way our, Um, you know, junior college, community college, technical colleges, what kind of our real name is Madison area technical college. Um, the, the real, um, makeup of those students are going to be within about a half hour to 45 minute drive of campus. So, you know, my first.
You know, line of, of duty. I have a responsibility, I think when taking over the women’s program was reach out to every high school coach within that radius, right. And see who they know that’s maybe already coming here or who they know that doesn’t know their plans yet. Right. So that was a huge, um, you know, point of emphasis for me when it came to recruiting on the women’s side, right away at that timeline, um, on the men’s side, you know, I, that’s where primarily my, uh, background came from.
So when I took the men’s job here. Um, last April of 2023, you know, I had already built upon a database of players I was talking to of those that knew me, um, knew the type of coach I was, that sort of thing. So it was really just kind of hitting up anyone I knew at that point. Um, and then that obviously gave me some [00:04:30] time to build what was going to be our 2024 class here, which I, I feel really good about on the man side.
We We were recruiting from day one last year in April of 2023 for this class. And, um, you know, really finished up, I would say in February or March was kind of when we, um, completed that recruiting class minus one or two that were kind of on the hook that we were waiting on final answers for. Um, but that obviously gave me some opportunity to then focus on the women’s side when it came to the recruiting.
So now that I’m kind of in that place now, 2025s are, you know, what we’re focusing on on both sides, um, building upon. You know, that, that radius and making sure that no player slips through the cracks of who might be a good fit at the junior college level for us, but also, you know, casting a wide net and making sure that, you know, people learn more and more about this opportunity.
So those that maybe wouldn’t consider junior college or Madison college, um, are seeing us on social media. So for us, I think social media has become a really big recruiting tool and just, you know, following anyone. That is within Wisconsin, because that’s primarily our focus, um, that plays club soccer, high school soccer, and try to get them to follow us and see what we’re about and, you know, be able to follow along our success, hopefully, you know, come fall and be, uh, be able to showcase what we do off the field, team bonding related, um, you know, that sort of thing that they can get a picture of what it would be like to be a student athlete here.
Um, that’s a big thing for us, I think, is that, you know, we want to be able to showcase who we are. And hopefully then build upon a bit of [00:06:00] exposure to the, you know, the younger crowd as they get older, they know who Madison College soccer is right, whether they’re a young male or female student athlete that wants to play in college, they’re going to know who we are, what we do and what the level we are and try to give that exposure that maybe previously hasn’t been there.
Um, you know, at the at that level in this state.
Matt: Well, and one of the things. That, uh, some junior colleges tend, tend to sometimes do is be a, a place for, for internationals to, to come over and make the transition potentially into, to higher level, you know, education. Universities, but they, they, they have that Juco stop, uh, or international players, something you guys look at doing any recruiting of,
Coach: Yeah, I would say, you know, on the men’s side, we, we definitely did look at that.
Um, coming in to my experience, there’s a local high school in Richland center, which is roughly an hour or so away from, from our campus that, um, for whatever reason, it’s been a hotbed for Brazilians to go and finish their high school, um, Experience there. Um, and a lot of them. Loved Wisconsin, loved the Madison area and want to stay local and potentially play college soccer.
So we have a couple of players from that school on our, on our men’s side. Um, that naturally I inherited, um, we picked up, uh, a transfer from New Zealand last year that ended up being one of our, our top players and a great kid that, you know, we, we were lucky to have for even a year, um, and really just seeing kind of the mentality and experience that they bring, um, [00:07:30] really sparked an interest in my mind at my previous school where I was at, um, the international.
Uh, scholarships were not a thing. So we really just weren’t in the market for them and they, we weren’t an option for them either. Um, so here it’s, it’s really an appealing thing, right? Like you said, Juco is definitely an area where internationals maybe look to, you know, use as a springboard to get to the higher level, you know, cost savings as they get acclimated to the United States, things like that.
So. On the men’s side, we have an incoming player from Denmark, Germany and New Zealand. Um, and then one more Brazilian from that high school nearby. So we’ll have four new international players. But within our program, we have a player from Peru and Zimbabwe who started in January that I had recruited. Um, and then we have a couple of those other Brazilians.
So we’re, we’re represented, uh, by maybe a third of our roster. Um, you know, having some international flavor on the men’s side, on the women’s side, um, we do not have that currently, but that’s definitely an area where, you know, I’m open to, to looking and, you know, trying to bring something different to our, our, our community.
Program our experience. Um, but I do think that, you know, our bread and butter is still going to be Wisconsin, still going to be within that 45 minute radius, but the balance between the both I think is a, is a proper way to be successful and run a good program here.
Matt: In terms of costs, you know, I’m not holding you to hard numbers here, but I think it’s always good for people to hear what, what does a two year.
Education costs, what are [00:09:00] scholarship opportunities, whether they’re academic or athletic, um, and that whole kind of thing. So just give me some rough idea of what a typical student athlete might be looking at.
Coach: Yeah, so that’s obviously one of the, you know, first things I talk about when it comes to the recruiting process, where, you know, at some schools, that’s the last thing you talk about.
You try to. Get them to fall in love with the school and then tell them what it costs right here. It’s, you know, it’s one of those where it’s definitely part of the whole process. So, you know, if you’re a Wisconsin kid, if you’re in state tuition, since we’re a public, um, public school here in Wisconsin, um, tuition is going to be roughly 4, 000 a year, just over that.
Um, so it’s, it’s by the credits, but that’s, you know, what a full class load of credits would be, um, you know, cost wise, um, the challenge for us is, is we do not have on campus housing. Um, That is owned by the institution. Um, so we are, you know, actively trying to assist in giving them options to pursue if they are coming from, you know, outside of the greater Madison area.
Uh, so we have a player, um, who I used to coach in club soccer in Milwaukee, that’s moving here. Um, we have a player that’s just outside of the Chicago suburbs that’s moving here. And then we have obviously some international players that are moving here. So, um, that’s the kind of the challenge where if you’re out of state tuition, that’s going to be.
Not quite double, but, um, just under that, I would say it’s about, you know, 1. 75, the cost of an in state tuition. So that’s, you know, roughly 7, 000, um, housing around Madison, depending upon the, you know, the, the type of housing, you know, how many rooms, et cetera, how close to [00:10:30] campus or that sort of thing.
Right. That’s a bit of a variable, but I try to say anyone who has to afford housing. Um, in addition to out of state tuition, that’s going to be roughly about 000 before scholarships, um, you know, that could include that includes, uh, a lower variable cost when it comes to meals. Again, that’s another thing that, you know, they’re not required to have any sort of meal plan on campus, that sort of thing.
So that’s really up to them in their budget. Um, but then for us on the scholarship side, we are new to NJ. Division two. So we are slowly building our scholarship amount. Um, currently only have two, uh, full scholarships available. Obviously we split that a ton, um, you know, for each program. Moving forward, the, the department goal is to continue to increase that, um, and offer obviously More to be competitive within our region for those that have been division two longer have more to offer.
And I think the lucky part about this place is the resources are phenomenal here. The facilities are phenomenal here in the cost is relatively low. So, you know, Wisconsin does have its, uh, hotbed of talent here that we want to make sure that we are pursuing. But we also obviously want to make sure that we aren’t, you know, turning over stones that, you know, shouldn’t be turned over, right?
So I think it’s an important thing that we’re taking a look everywhere we can to get better and give out a proper experience here.
Matt: Okay, well, let’s talk more and more about the school. Um, you’ve been there a little bit now. So, so what are some of the things that you found that are great about the school?
Maybe some things that set it apart. Some things we wouldn’t even know by going through the [00:12:00] website.
Coach: Yeah, I would say, like, the biggest thing is once you’re here, it feels like a large campus feel right? So there are. Um, really updated brand new buildings, um, you know, throughout campus. Our soccer field is phenomenal.
Um, turf, soccer only lines, lit, you know, our equipment room is right there. So we don’t have, you know, our players lugging things across campus to utilize for training. Um, you know, our athletic department is well supported. Um, all, almost every coach. Within our department that is a head coach is full time.
That’s another great thing. Um, that I think that our student athletes are able to build that proper relationship by having their coach around a lot, which I didn’t have previously to when I was just the part time head, head men’s coach, um, wasn’t able to be here as much as I probably would have liked.
Um, and then really, I think the, our location and proximity to, to Madison and downtown and UW Madison is definitely a draw, so we are roughly three to four miles away. Um, from the capital as well as UW Madison. And I think it’s, it’s consistently rated as one of the best college towns, um, in America. It’s a really safe part of, uh, part of Madison.
The airport is literally right next to us. So if you, you know, for anyone international or if you have, um, you know, things to get to or want to, you know, get away from campus and such, um, that’s obviously really accessible. Um, and then, like I said before, the resources are phenomenal here, right? So we have, uh, two full time athletic specific [00:13:30] academic advisors on campus, um, within our department that work hand in hand, obviously, with students that know them on a deeper level that know their academic course load and pathway to what they want to do.
Um, that’s been super beneficial for my eyes in my first year of seeing that. Our athletic director is fantastic. He’s been here a long time, really supportive of what we’re trying to do here and obviously pushing for us to get more and more. I think that’s an important thing too. But then I think as a, as a campus wide setting, right, there’s a really good relationship between athletics and academics, personnel, business personnel.
Um, it’s really definitely a cohesive place. And I think for me in my first year, it’s definitely been a positive experience and seeing that and hopefully adding to it, right. I want to do my part here to to make Madison College and the athletic department. The best place to be and the right place to come to for our, for student athletes.
Matt: Awesome. Well, let’s fast forward to, to fall, the middle of the season, kind of walk me through what’s, what’s a typical week going to look like for a player classes, meals, practices, game cadence, all that, you know, men and women, both. What’s that going to look like?
Coach: Yep. Yep. So it’ll be pretty consistent for, um, for each.
So I’ll give you a kind of a snapshot, um, for the women first. So, um, Once classes get rolling, um, that’s roughly August 26th here. Um, that’ll be, uh, we’ll train in the mornings, um, before classes get going. So 6 30 to 8 AM. Um, so they’re able to, uh, build their class schedule around that pretty easily, naturally all [00:15:00] classes.
Kick off, you know, roughly right around 8 30. Um, they’re able to, to really schedule anything outside of Wednesday afternoon and evenings because that’s our primary game date during the week. Um, so our, our cadence is typically a Wednesday, Saturday when it comes to matches. So Monday, Tuesday would be training.
Um, Thursday we would adjust based upon the time, the location of the Wednesday match, whether it’s a recovery, a film, or if it’s, you know, if we had a midday home game, then we’ll probably train as normal Thursday, um, Friday train Saturday play Sunday off. That’ll be kind of our consistent week to week schedule.
Um, on the men’s side, they train in the early afternoons, so they will be depending upon the day because I also have to teach a course here. Um, so that kind of adjusts my, my practice schedule to build upon that. So Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, um, that will be 1 30 to 3 30 in the afternoons and then Tuesday, Thursday, it’ll be after my class finishes.
So that would be 2 30 to 4 30 in the afternoons. So for them, They have a little bit, uh, more of a time block to work around when it comes to classes, uh, but they’re able to obviously pick up a night class if they want. Online classes and hybrid classes here are super popular and, you know, are definitely options that a lot of our players pursue just to, you know, build upon the balance of things, but definitely gives them time for part time work, whether on campus or off campus.
Um, a good amount of our players have interest in coaching. So getting them involved in working with local youth clubs is an important thing. And I think making sure that they’re giving back to the game as well, as is always a positive.
Matt: Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, [00:16:30] let’s, let’s talk up, uh, about the, the coaching’s part of the roster too.
We talked about the recruiting and the numbers on that, but, but talk to me about your staff and maybe what other staff are in the athletic department that help out with either team.
Coach: Yeah. So something that was, uh, really helpful, I think for me in the transition of taking over the women was, uh, two of my assistants I had with the men in the fall, uh, definitely had interest in, in working with both, um, one, Had primary experience on the, on the youth girl’s side.
So naturally bringing him on, I think made a lot of sense. So he’ll take over as associate head women’s coach. Um, and then our goalkeeper coach for the men, um, who also does a ton of social media stuff for us, which is fantastic and super, um, resourceful on how we do things, you know, And he’ll work with the goalkeepers on the women’s side as well.
And then I’ve hired, or in the hiring process of one specific assistant coach for both men and one for the women as well. So I feel really good about how the staffs are coming along. Um, their experience is great. You know, there as a whole, you can obviously probably tell, right. I’m on the younger side when it comes to college soccer coaching and my assistant coaching staff is going to be the same way.
So most of my assistants are anywhere between 22 and 28 years old. I think that brings its own challenges, but also brings its own opportunities and benefits, right? I was a young assistant that was hungry and looking for every opportunity I could to build experience and, you know, be able to, to try new things and be able to build my resume for future jobs.
And that’s what [00:18:00] I want to do as well with my staff and nothing against more experienced coaches. But I think those that are younger and maybe don’t have families, I have a young family myself, so I need. Need coaches that are going to be around that don’t have a ton of commitments outside of things, um, that they’re going to be able to, you know, really use this as an opportunity to go on and coach somewhere else.
Right. So if they’re with me for a year and they get a new job, I find that to be one of the more prideful things of what I’m doing here. So. I think that the staff itself are, are, are really good. I feel good about both sides. Um, like I said, within the department, the athletic academic advisors are, are definitely someone that we lean upon to help, um, you know, keep these, these players on track and get them onto the next thing, you know, naturally we’re going to have players that are.
Looking to transfer UW Madison for school. We’re going to have players that are here that are going to be done with after two years because they have a specific program that they then enter the workforce. And then we’re going to have student athletes that come here with the idea of transferring on to a four year school.
And I think that’s been a definite thing that we’re we’re striving to do is Bring players in here that have plans beyond Madison college and can we help them get there? And that’s where those advisors are great. And, you know, working alongside our staff to make sure that our, our players are getting the support they need in order to achieve what they want to do.
Matt: No, that’s great. Well, what about you as, as, as the head man here, uh, talk to me about your coaching style, style of play for, for the teams you’re coaching.
Coach: Yeah, I think the important thing for me is, you know, I want to make sure that I have, uh, that my players have my ear, right? That they can [00:19:30] give me their thoughts.
But at the end of the day, I’m still the one that makes the final decisions. I’m still the one that’s going to determine, you know, who’s going to play, how we’re going to line up, et cetera, and make the adjustments obviously in game. But I also want them to feel like they have, you know, some sort of say, right?
They have some, some real meaning within the program. So I think my style would be, you know, on game day, I’m definitely going to be one that’s going to be involved. That’s going to be, you know, animated in some ways that’s going to get into the games. Um, but at the end of the day, I think training is where it obviously gets done.
So we’re going to have, you know, a specific setup of, of what training looks like each day, you know, having the, the staff that we have, you know, being able to give them some autonomy to be able to show. You know, that they have worth within the staff. So our players feel like that our assistants have a voice and that they have meaning within it.
And that they’re just showing up and picking up cones, right. Or, you know, doing the little things that the head coach doesn’t want to do. Right. I want this to be a staff and let. And more so that, excuse me, than a head coach and assistants, right? So, um, our, our trainings are going to be, you know, pretty formatted where, you know, an assistant maybe is running the warmup phase when it comes to the dynamic stuff, as well as the technical stuff.
Then either myself or another assistant is going to do the possession. You know, that leads into a topic that then maybe we bring out in a larger sided picture, right? So each day is going to have a, some sort of focus of what we need, you know, especially in, in preseason, we’ll build upon all areas of how we want to play.
But, you know, for me as a coach, I think it, [00:21:00] it depends upon the personnel. So, you know, if you looked at our season in this past fall on the men’s side, um, we played for about the first half of the season in one way, and I think we just looked at ourselves and said, we maybe don’t have. The players in order to play the way we want to play.
So how do we get the most out of what we have? Right. So as a staff and as our leaders within the team, we talked and made an adjustment. And I think you could see as our season came to a close, we were playing some of the best soccer we had all year. And it was a shame with how things kind of finished, but we were definitely in a, in a place of contention and, and feel really good about, you know, where we finished and where we’re heading.
Um, so for me, if I had my ideal players, um, you know, I, I would classify it, you know, a system of play being, um, you know, a build out of the back, but it’s not building in the back, right? We want to get it at forward as possible. So I would say it’s, you know, ball on the ground, but it’s also a vertical style, right?
So can we play forward passes that get us going at our opponent’s goal as quickly as possible? If we can score goals in four passes or less, that’s how I would prefer it. But if it takes more than that. Fantastic. As long as we’re not, you know, putting ourselves into dangerous positions, turning the ball over unnecessarily, giving up, you know, dangerous, just counterattacks, that sort of thing, right?
That’s something I try to avoid. And, um, you know, ultimately, I want my players to be able to, to make decisions based upon what they see, not what they’ve been programmed to do in training. So that’s trying to, you know, trying to build upon that in my first year with the men, I think we’re in a really good place going forward.
And the women, we had, you know, a number of individual training sessions really this spring in [00:22:30] small group settings. Um, so building upon that in the early stages this fall will be very important to, to try to build our identity and style of play with them as well.
Matt: Okay. Awesome. Well, coach, appreciate the time.
Got one last question for you. Uh, for folks that are going through this college recruiting process, if you had one piece of advice for them. What would that be?
Coach: That’s a great question. I think for me, um, I went through it as a, as a player naturally looked at a ton of different schools at various levels and ultimately came down to, I think the fit, right.
And people have mentioned that all over, right. You, I think you kind of know, um, once you’re finally there. And for me, it was probably at a school that I didn’t expect it to be. Um, I had connections to UW Whitewater, um, previously. And when I first went there, I didn’t expect to really enjoy my experience on campus.
Um, but I went into it with obviously a relative open mind and really fell in love with the place, got to know my coach really well, got to know the players on the team really well. Um, you know, the, The academics programs there were exactly what I needed and actually had a meeting with the athletic director while I was there once.
So I think that was, you know, just for me an opportunity to get a full glimpse at a place that, um, going in, I had no expectation that I was going to go there and it was the right place for me. I had a fantastic four years there. So now when I’m here, uh, in, you know, bringing players onto campus and showing them what this can be, you know, I want them to look back and say, yes, that was a hundred percent worth it.
I’m glad I went there. That’s a place that I look back on and [00:24:00] have fond memories, have a connection to, um, and want to support going forward. Right. So my advice for. For those going through this process is try to find a place where you can see that being the case, right? That you can see a connection to what would be your Alma mater, right?
And if you can feel that you’re likely going to, to really understand what that means and it’s going to match up with your priorities
Matt: for sure. Couldn’t agree more. Well, thanks coach. Really appreciate it. Wish you the best of luck, uh, with both teams and, uh, hopefully you continue to grow and get better on both sides of them.
All right. So it’s really appreciate the time.
Coach: Yeah. Thanks, Matt. Really appreciate it.
