Metro State University Denver Men’s Soccer – Coach Nick Kirchhof

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Nick Kirchhof from the Metro State University Men’s Program in Denver. We talk about how his roster is made up primarily of domestic players. He tells me about fantastic benefits of having their school in a great, urban location. Lastly, we discuss their conference and the high-level teams they play. Learn more about Metro State.

[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer. I’m excited today to be joined by Nick Kirchhof of Metro state and Denver. Welcome coach.

[00:00:08] Coach: Hey, thanks Matt. I really appreciate you having me on today. Yeah,

[00:00:11] Matt: no, I’m looking forward to it because, uh, this is, I’m not, I’m not familiar with Metro state, so this should be interesting.

[00:00:17] Um, so let’s start off. Just talk about recruiting, you know, when are you starting to hear from players? When are you starting to look at players? Like what year

[00:00:26] Coach: in high school? Yeah. So I think, you know, we’re a division two school. Located here in Denver, Colorado in the Rocky mountain athletic conference.

[00:00:35] Um, and you know, I’ve been on the division one side of things and then division two as well. So I think, you know, for us division two, um, our recruiting is a little bit based on kind of division one. Um, usually division one kind of has first pick of some of the players, um, especially out of the out-of-state for us and out of the region.

[00:00:54] Um, and so we can generally start a little bit. You know, now that being said, um, you know, this previous class, we had a lot of guys that we really liked here locally. Um, and so we kinda are ahead of the game for, I guess like 20, 22 recruiting. Um, and so right about this time kind of April. We’ll be starting to kick off our recruiting for the 2023 class.

[00:01:18] Um, now that could be based on this year. Sometimes we could go a little bit later, sometimes a little bit earlier, you know, it, it is a little bit flexible there. Um, but you know, in general, we can kind of wait, um, a little bit longer and not have to identify kids as you know, Um, which for me as a coach is nice because we kind of have a better idea of, of what you’re going to be coming as, when you’re a senior going into your freshman year.

[00:01:42] Whereas other places I’ve been, you know, we’ve had to look at guys even a sophomore years because of a variety of academic factors. So, um, Yeah.

[00:01:50] Matt: Okay. Well, how many, how many inbound contacts do you think you get in a given week? Now? I know it’s going to fluctuate with tournament season and things like that, but just kind of average average number.

[00:02:00] What, what do you think you’re getting?

[00:02:01] Coach: Yeah, I mean, I would say it’s pretty consistent. I mean, I would say, uh, per week easily a hundred emails, um, obviously yeah, around the big showcases it does ramp up. Um, you know, I, I do think that, uh, Being in Denver. And I think Colorado and Denver kind of being a new and growing city.

[00:02:18] I feel like there’s more interest than may have been in the past, you know? Um, and you know, a lot of people like to come here vacation. It’s fun to be here year round because you got the great outdoors, but then also the. Um, the city life too, you know, we’re about an hour from the mountains, so there’s not too many places in the country where you can be in a city urban environment and then be almost looking across the street at our neighbors.

[00:02:41] And you got the mountains in the foothills. So, um, I’m a little biased I grew up here, but I do think it’s a pretty awesome place. Uh,

[00:02:48] Matt: uh, I, I can understand that. Um, so. Uh, what are some of the first things you like to see in that, uh, first contact from a, from a recruit?

[00:02:59] Coach: Yeah, I think. You know, in general, just key information, right?

[00:03:03] Graduation year positions, um, you know, GPA, you know, luckily here we’re a little bit flexible academically. Um, we’ve got a wide variety of students. Um, and so, you know, I think academics, isn’t the first thing we have to look at. Um, but it definitely plays with. You know, I I’d say in general, I like to recruit students that are above a 3.0, just because, um, they’re generally students that can handle the travel of playing, you know, competitive travel soccer, um, as well as keeping on top of their academics, you know, with some of these higher leagues where they’re traveling, um, in region or nationally to play, it really does mimic the college kind of environment.

[00:03:42] And so. You know, that’s, that’s a key, I think one for me, um, it’s just making sure that you’re a solid student, that you can balance your time. And then hopefully, obviously you’re playing at, at the highest level you can push yourself to play at. So

[00:03:57] Matt: on that note, what, you know, if you’re out at a tournament or, or whatever, I deem players, w what is that, you know, checklist of yours, you know, besides the academic side, either on the field or off the field, um, characteristics, what is it that you’re looking for?

[00:04:11] Coach: Yeah. You know, I think we’re, we’re big on making sure people are hardworking, that they’re relentless, that they’re willing to improve. And so I like to watch players when things aren’t going right for their team and see how they respond. Um, you know, I like players that have mental toughness, grit, um, may not always be the fanciest player, but the ones that are willing to push themselves.

[00:04:35] Um, you know, once they get into our environment, um, you know, we try and prepare them as much as possible. I’m not a, uh, like a used car salesman. I like to tell it how it is. Um, so that there’s no, uh, no miscommunications about what we’re signing up for both on my end and the players end. Um, you know, once you get in here at the end of the program, it’s super important that you’re coachable, you know, for division two soccer and where we’re at.

[00:05:00] We, we get a week, maybe two weeks before school starts and then we’re playing games for the fall season. Um, so how you prepare, how you work up to that point is super hard. Um, you know, some of the position specific, you know, um, kind of characteristics, you know, we’ll play in a kind of a 4, 4, 2 kind of system.

[00:05:20] And so I like wide guys that are fast that want to beat people, you know, one V one, um, center mids that can cover ground that are more complete players. Um, You know, back for guys that are organized great. One B, one defenders and can pass the ball. And then, you know, for us, I want to find strikers that want to score goals.

[00:05:39] Um, I think, uh, a lot of times now in this days of soccer, Stryker stands up there by himself and faces backwards and, and isn’t really part of scoring. And so I want guys who are, who are desperate to score goals who want a score. And, um, I think playing in that kind of 4 42 system gives you that flexibility working with a strike partner, um, I was in, I was an attack minded player.

[00:06:01] Uh, and so, you know, that’s what I want to bring into my teams as well. Oh, fair

[00:06:05] Matt: enough. No, no, no, no false nines of Metro state. I said, well, when you’re, you know, when you’re out recruiting, you know, what, what are the tournaments that you like to go to or the places you like to see players?

[00:06:19] Coach: Yeah, I think mainly regional events.

[00:06:21] Um, you know, we’re a state school here and so we actually, uh, Basically have a scholarship type of program called the woowee, um, the Western undergrad exchange. And so what that is, is an agreement amongst Western states that instead of having to pay full out of state tuition, um, you get a reduced costs.

[00:06:39] And so, you know, right now that that knocks off around nine to $10,000 off tuition right off. Um, I also think we’re fortunate to live in a region that’s really high-level soccer. Um, and you know, throughout my time, I’ve kind of spent all of my coaching career on the Western region. And so I’ve got great contacts in, you know, California, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, um, and it also is a little bit cheaper for those students as well.

[00:07:07] So, um, the majority of our recruiting will always be. Um, you know, ECE and L events MLS next. Um, there’s some other, uh, events coming up too locally that are just quality tournaments, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, um, and even Washington. And so we’ll really try hard to make it out to as many of those as possible.

[00:07:29] Um, you know, with the advancement of the transfer portal and things like that. Um, MSU Denver is a very, uh, Transfer, I guess, supportive university. Um, we have a lot of transfers come in. And so it’s another opportunity we know, you know, we want guys to be here for four years and try and work with them as long as possible.

[00:07:49] Um, but we know that sometimes things don’t work out. And so we’re always willing to look at guys to transfer in, um, potentially. And then we also have a graduate program too. Um, so we actually have a goalkeeper who’s doing an MBA currently. Um, so I think what’s great for me is we have flexibility to bring in a wide variety of student athletes from a variety of different backgrounds and different even timings of their life.

[00:08:13] Um, and so for that, I really liked this university misplaced because it is very accessible to anyone and everyone.

[00:08:21] Matt: And on that, you know, I checked your roster, you got a couple international players, but I would say for an average division two, you’re actually fairly domestic, uh, in, in basis. So how does the international thing fit in for you guys?

[00:08:36] Coach: Um, you know, we do have the opportunity to recruit international students. I think. Everyone has their own thoughts on, on whether, whether to do it and have it do it. Um, you know, I think for me, um, the majority of our team will always be American based players. Um, I think that we can recruit and find some of those top players definitely in this region and across the country.

[00:08:57] Um, but if there are special players that are foreign that we think can make an impact in the program, we’ll, we’ll look at it and consider it. Um, you know, I’ve been fortunate. When I played in this conference, we had a couple special foreign guys and that helped us to some great success. Um, at a previous institution, we had a lot of success without having a single foreign player.

[00:09:17] Um, so, you know, I think. For us, we want to get out and about. And I also like to see players in person as much as possible. Um, and so I think recruiting from video, things like that, that won’t ever be where we, where we do the majority of our recruiting, it’ll be in-person out events. Um, Get people to come to campus, because what we want to do is have somebody here the whole, their whole four years, or as much as possible.

[00:09:41] And I think sometimes when you recruit some of the foreign players, they can be using a division two school as a kind of a stepping stone to get to somewhere else. I do think because we have a great location in a good city environment that generally guys are wanting to stay here, which is awesome.

[00:09:58] Matt: W well, you, you mentioned, you know, getting them on campus and that sort of thing.

[00:10:03] So how do camps fit into your recruiting? Um, Yeah system.

[00:10:10] Coach: Yeah. So we run a couple, um, kind of smaller ID camps, um, generally capita at about 60 field players, maybe, um, 10 goalkeepers, um, you know, it’s, it’s not a huge moneymaker for us. I want to use it as a good recruiting tool. Now, obviously some of that money goes to supplement our assistance and a little bit of the program.

[00:10:29] Um, but for me, I want to identity. Great players from around the country, try and get the best local, Colorado domestic players, um, to come to our camp as well. And guys that we’ve seen a lot, hopefully then we see them competing against other guys in the region and we can get a better feel for kind of where they’re at.

[00:10:46] Um, level-wise um, you know, generally we’ll do about two during the summer. Um, usually June and July, uh, we’re fortunate that we’re actually going to be having our field, um, redone. Completely brand new turf installed. And so this past year we did one camp in January, and then we’re going to do another one in may.

[00:11:05] Um, and we usually like to kick those off as an opportunity for, um, the next recruiting class to kind of start building that, that, uh, pool of players. But then also as an opportunity for guys who may be late in the process, they could potentially come in and make the team, um, We’ve only been here for a year, but we’ve actually brought in, I think, five to six guys that did come to camp.

[00:11:30] And, you know, most of the time we had kind of identified them at camp or before camp. Um, but camp sold us on them. So, um, yeah, for us, it’s, it’s uh, More intimate, I guess, closer we have our guys work. It, we want them to, I know the players don’t always ask me all the questions that they want to know. And so we make sure to have a lot of players around and I encourage the campers to go and chat to them and figure out what it’s really like.

[00:11:56] Cause they’ll, they’ll tell the truth, um, especially when I’m not around. Right. Right.

[00:12:01] Matt: Well, let’s switch gears. Talk about, uh, MSU itself. Um, You know, I can, I can spend time on the website and learn, you know, all the numbers and majors and all that kind of stuff, but you know, what, what are some things that are, that are awesome about your school?

[00:12:17] That I’m, that I’m not gonna learn just by, by clicking through the.

[00:12:21] Coach: Yeah. Um, you know, I think, uh, we, we truly do have a, a great environment. Um, what’s a little bit unique here is that we’re an urban campus. You walk across the street and you’re in downtown Denver. Um, which is, I think, as Austin, when it comes to opportunities for internships and potential jobs, um, I think one of the statistics that I’ve kind of held on to is that 95% of the students that go to MSU Denver, um, end up staying in Colorado or the Metro area.

[00:12:49] And so, you know, the opportunity to make those connections and then hopefully have those go further on, in, into career and things like that is, is a huge one. Um, also a little unique is we actually on our campus, we have three schools, so we have MSU Denver, we have the community college of Denver, and then we have CU Denver.

[00:13:09] Um, and so. You know, we’re the only ones with athletics. So all the athletics facilities are all owned by us. Um, but you do get to interact with, uh, other students, you know, um, so on campus at any time, I think there could be over 20,000 people potentially. Um, but, uh, it doesn’t, it’s not over. We don’t have any, any courses that are the giant stadium classes, like some of the bigger universities.

[00:13:34] Um, they’re generally real professors teaching the courses instead of, you know, graduate students or TAs. Um, and, uh, it’s not a large campus. So, you know, to walk from one side of the other, it’s about 15 minutes. Um, And so, you know, for me, I think you kind of get the best of both of being in a smaller environment when it comes to learning.

[00:13:55] But then when it comes to your just general classes and meeting people, you get to meet a variety of different people from a variety of backgrounds. Wow. You know, I think our business programs probably are most well-known. It has, um, an accreditation, um, that only like 5% of business schools do in the, in the world or country.

[00:14:13] I can’t remember. But, um, you know, it’s, it’s definitely kind of a bigger program for us. And then, um, we actually have an awesome aviation program, so you can get your pilot’s license, um, and go through school here and do all of that. And so, um, we’ve got flight simulators here on campus, which is pretty cool.

[00:14:33] Um, and just a little bit unique. I actually had a couple of friends growing up that came here and they’re now pilots. So, uh, so just a little, a little different than some other places. Yeah, no,

[00:14:42] Matt: that, that is cool. Um, You know, you talked about making sure you’re trying to recruit students, uh, with Alisa three oh GPA, you know, it is, it is student athlete, right.

[00:14:52] So how specifically at your school do do your players balance those commitments between, uh, you know, their studies and their sport?

[00:15:02] Coach: Yeah. So, I mean, I think what we try to do is keep everyone on a path so that they can graduate in four years. Um, so that means, you know, taking 15 credits per semester, um, or 30 total for the year, generally, we like to recommend to the student athletes that they take a lighter coursework, um, during the fall season when we’re playing and competing and traveling.

[00:15:24] Um, and then maybe take some of the more time consuming or tougher courses during the spring. Um, what I think we’re super fortunate to have as a, um, assistant athletic director that’s specific to academics. Um, he’s awesome. He, uh, comes from a sport background. He’s a former UCLA football player. So he’s not just an academic he’s, he’s a student athlete that came from that space.

[00:15:48] Um, and so he’s a tremendous resource, you know, already he helps, um, organizing class. Um, checking in with professors, you know, we get progress reports pretty much monthly, which I think is fantastic. Um, we can set them up with tutoring, um, all sorts of things. And so, you know, for us, It is part of being a student athlete here.

[00:16:10] And so if you’re not taking care of the academic side of things, then you don’t get to participate in, in the sport side. Um, and so, you know, I’m not a big fan of doing mandatory study hall or anything like that, unless you show that you may need it. And so, um, currently we only have a couple guys that are in that extra kind of tutoring study hall area.

[00:16:32] But because of that, they’re, they’re doing a lot better this semester, which is fantastic. Um, the mass majority of our team though, had it had over a 3.5 GPA, and I think we had six or seven guys with a 4.0, which was fantastic. So. You know, it’s part of being here. It’s part of, uh, doing what we want to do.

[00:16:51] I want you to have a choice after you leave MSU Denver, that hopefully you can continue playing for as long as possible. Um, but if not, you have a fantastic degree to, to go out into the workforce with. And so having that option, uh, when you finished school is super important to us and in our program.

[00:17:10] Matt: Earlier you mentioned, you know, the travel. Um, and, and it looks like if I’m not mistaken, your conference has, uh, a pretty big footprint, uh, there in, in the west. Um, so you know, how much do you normally travel and how does that factor into, you know, the players, uh, course

[00:17:27] Coach: load? Yeah, I think we’re super fortunate based on where we are in our conference.

[00:17:32] Um, because we’re in the Metro area. I think there’s five schools that are all. Um, very close by, you know, a couple just across town, um, the furthest being maybe two hours away. And so when it comes to like those big weekend travel trips, we actually don’t have too many, um, this upcoming year we’ll play in Utah and then, you know, we’ll fly out there, play, um, probably drive halfway, play another opponent and then drive the halfway back.

[00:17:58] So it breaks up the trip pretty easily. Um, And then we do have one kind of another outlier team in South Dakota that we’ll go play this year. Um, each year it’ll rotate. Um, whether we play a team home or away, cause we have 11 teams total, you play 10 conference games, um, in region, you know, it’s kind of nice.

[00:18:18] Our region is basically Colorado, Texas, and everything. And so, you know, last year we went down to Texas and played. Um, we played out of region, played a couple of teams in Kansas, um, in the future we’ll play teams from California, the Pacific Northwest and Texas each year. Um, and that’ll also vary whether it’s home or away.

[00:18:40] Um, so. This upcoming year. Um, we actually have a all home games out of region, which is nice. Um, in the future, it’ll usually be, you know, one weekend or two weekends home, and then one or two weekends away before we kind of start the conference piece. So, you know, when it comes to travel, I think it’s very manageable.

[00:19:01] And then the only other thing I didn’t add in was, you know, the mass majority of our classes are really only scheduled Monday through Thursday. So, um, generally we play games on a Friday and then a Sunday. So it’s kinda nice on a weekend when we’re playing games, you’re not having to worry about school usually on a Friday or a, uh, or anything like that.

[00:19:21] And then when we are traveling, generally we’ll travel later in the day on a Thursday. So you’re really not missing too much, potentially.

[00:19:29] Matt: So then with that being said, what, what does like a typical day look like during the season, you know, from, from when they wake up to go into bed?

[00:19:40] Coach: Yeah. Yeah. So, um, you know, we’re fortunate, um, we have, uh, a soccer specific facility, uh, so no extra lines on it.

[00:19:49] We only have to share it with women’s soccer. Um, so women’s soccer generally train in the early morning, we train two 30 to three 30, um, I’m sorry, two 30 to four 30 in the afternoons. And so, you know, generally guys can take the classes pretty much from nine until about, um, usually the class has finished the latest around 1 45, um, the, and it’s opportunity for them to come in.

[00:20:11] You know, I liked them to be in the locker room at least 30 minutes before kind of decompressing getting ready for training BA around all of your, your teammates and your buddies. Then they’ll generally come out a little bit earlier, um, get Rondo’s goings. We have soccer, tennis nets. We even bought a tech Bock tech ball table, which has been pretty cool.

[00:20:29] It’s a little different. Yeah. Um, and so we want them to, we want them to enjoy being around here, being in the environment. Then we’ll generally train to 34 30. Um, Tuesday through Thursday, Mondays are generally days off Thursdays, the lighter day, where it’s either a walkthrough or we’re traveling. We play Friday, recover, do prep for the next opponent on Saturday.

[00:20:54] Play Sunday. And kind of just rehearse that, um, our season’s pretty tight and condensed, um, where we pretty much open up playing games labor day, weekend, and then finish Halloween in general. Um, after that, hopefully you get to play more games. We do have a conference tournament and then hopefully potentially into the NCAA tournament.

[00:21:14] Okay.

[00:21:15] Matt: Well, you know, you, you. Mentioned that you like to generally play the 4, 4, 2 and what you’re kind of looking for, uh, in there, but how, how else would you describe your, your style of coaching, uh, inside that team style?

[00:21:32] Coach: Yeah. I mean, I think energetic, right? I love this game. I love college soccer specifically because it’s one of those few times where you’re 18 to 22 and you get to grow up together.

[00:21:44] You get to go through tough things together. And generally it’s the first time people are out on their own. Um, and so I, I really love the college environment because I think it brings more comradery and, and, uh, the opportunity to be part of something much bigger than, than yourself. Um, You know, I think, you know, this place is set up to be very successful with the facilities that we have, um, the options for different degrees and academic programs.

[00:22:11] And it’s also very affordable when a time. You know, we’re higher and higher academics is getting more and more costly. I think here at MSU Denver, we try and make sure that it’s an affordable, accessible degree. That’s going to help you move in to the career path right away. Um, you know, when it comes to the actual kind of ins and outs of coaching, I like to get to know people I want to, I want to get to know you.

[00:22:33] We’re not professional where it’s clock-in clock-out. You know, everyone has their own thing going on. I really want players to come in and be immersed in the culture and the environment. Um, you know, for us, we want to play at a, at a high level. Um, we want to be great in attacking and solid in defense.

[00:22:50] And so, you know, I kind of usually describe it to recruits as I want to be balanced, but I want to, I want to be. Tough defensively to break down, but I want to score goals. I don’t want to just be good at one thing or the other. Um, and so for that, you know, we have to be fit the type of way we want to play.

[00:23:07] We want to go up and down the field. We want to try and press opponents so that they, that we dictate how they play or when they pass the ball. And I just am a firm believer in taking stuff into our control and kind of honoring the soccer gods and doing things the right way, because I feel like you get rewarded by doing those things.

[00:23:27] So sometimes people think 4, 4, 2, and they think defensive or, oh, they just hit it big. I just think we want to, we want to be prepared and ready for any kind of situation that’s thrown at us.

[00:23:39] Matt: Oh, that makes, makes perfect sense. Um, in terms of. The, the makeup of the team, you know, what is your ideal roster size?

[00:23:47] Um, and does that affect how many recruits you’re usually bringing in on a normal basis?

[00:23:52] Coach: Yeah, it definitely does. I mean, I think I got the job during the middle of COVID. Um, so it was a bit strange, um, timing wise, you know, there were some guys that decided not to come back period. Some guys that graduated.

[00:24:03] And so there was a lot of growing pains. I think now a year out, a little over a year out, we’re in a, we’re in a great spot. We’ve got a good idea of where we’re at. Um, you know, for us roster size, I don’t want to have a massive roster. We won’t ever have like a JV team. Um, we don’t have to fill a certain amount of spots in order to get more funding, which I think is also, you know, crucial and key.

[00:24:24] And so, you know, top to bottom, I want my squad to be super competitive. Um, you know, with that last year we carried a roster of only 24 guys with three goalkeepers. Um, I think, you know, in general, we probably want to be around that 30 range with three goalkeepers. So, you know, roughly that amount of field players, um, I inherited a group that’s really young right now.

[00:24:46] Um, and we don’t have as many upperclassmen. And so. I’ve kind of had a bring in a variety of players. Some guys that could contribute right away, some guys that we think can contribute in the future. Um, you know, right now I think our roster is at about 29 and we’re looking to kind of finish up 2022 recruiting with maybe one to two more guys.

[00:25:06] Matt: Um, it makes sense. Well, we’re, we’re, we’re talking, uh, here in March, so it’s the off season. Um, so what does your typical off season program.

[00:25:17] Coach: Yeah. I like to kind of talk to our guys and say, it’s kind of almost split into three segments. So you got the fall, which is the competitive, we’re now finishing up kind of this winter period.

[00:25:26] Um, so during that time, um, we get eight hours of training per week, four hours or four of the hours vary. Considered, uh, conditioning. So weight training, and we also do a lot of functional movement. Um, that’s helped building one B, one defending motions. We’re not just running up and down. It’s really trying to get that good, sharp defending without the use of a soccer ball.

[00:25:47] Um, and then for the other four hours, we get to use the. Um, and so, you know, each week we at least do one kind of thing where it’s competing, where, um, we, we play for a win. So the winning team, we have a chart in our locker room. They get to put the w up. Uh, that’s been awesome. It’s the first time I’ve implemented it here.

[00:26:06] And you got guys scoring goals and training, and they’re celebrating like their fall games, which is all. Uh, and so we always want to make sure that this is a, this is a period where we’re still growing and getting better. Um, obviously the weights are a huge part of that, making sure that we’re not just getting big and bulky, but that we’re preventing injury, extending range of motion and getting hopefully a little bit, a little bit quicker, a little bit stronger.

[00:26:28] Um, And then, you know, the, the soccer part, it’s usually some smaller group, kinda more functional training. And then in next week, actually we start, um, our spring season where we can play, um, up to five dates, um, of games, more regular training. How it’s set up for us is we’ll basically train Monday through Thursday and play almost all of our games on like a Friday evening AF late afternoon.

[00:26:55] Um, and we’ll do that all the way up until school finishes at the end of April. And then the guys have finals and, and, uh, you know, preparation for finals. Those, those first two weeks of may. Okay.

[00:27:08] Matt: We’ve covered a lot of ground here, but, uh, the last question I like to just give you the blank slate. So what else didn’t we cover or that you’d like prospects, families, anybody to know about the school, your program or anything?

[00:27:21] Coach: Yeah, no, I appreciate it. I mean, I think. Look, I think there’s good programs across the country, across every, every division. And so what I would recommend to anyone looking at, to playing in college is go visit a variety of different programs. Go see it in person as much as possible, you know, watching on TV can be helpful, but it doesn’t really truly show, um, the, the level of quality, the speed of play, um, and some of those kinds of little things that you, that you can miss, but go to campuses, go visit.

[00:27:51] You know, I think for us, we’re an incredibly competitive division two conference, um, where I was coming from and kind of Northern California, I would compare us to a lot of those smaller, um, division one schools, you know, um, here in Colorado, we only have two division one schools and they’re both good programs, but we’ve got a variety of top division to pro.

[00:28:11] And so, you know, I think, uh, for me, my best piece of advice is go visit, go in person, um, attend a camp or two, if you’re, if you’re very interested in their program and really try and learn as much about it as possible. Um, because this could be in an incredible four years of your life and, you know, you want to enjoy it as much as possible for a lot of us.

[00:28:33] It’s the last time we get to play at a super competitive level. Um, before we told were, we’re not good enough anymore, but it happens to all of us at some point. But, uh, you know, for me, I’m just super excited about the direction this program’s going. Um, And, you know, can’t thank you enough for giving small schools like us, a little bit of a platform to, to sell ourselves.

[00:28:57] So really appreciate what you’re doing, Matt, and, uh, you know, hopefully you can continue doing this through the

[00:29:02] Matt: future to awesome. I, I appreciate it, Nick. We wish you the best of luck in the, in the fall and, and with your spring season coming up too. So, uh, appreciate you taking the time and hopefully we’ll connect again soon.

[00:29:13] Coach: Awesome. Thanks Matt. Take care.