Metropolitan State University Women’s Soccer – Coach Kat Mertz

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Kat from the Metro State Women’s Program in Colorado. We talk about the talent in the Denver area and throughout the Western US. She describes the quality of the program as well as the opportunities that Denver presents. Lastly, we discuss the tough RMAC conference and how they train to compete. Learn more about Metropolitan State University Women’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach cat from metro state university in Denver. Welcome coach. 

Coach: Hello, thank you for having me. 

Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. Excited to talk to you today. As mentioned just before, I’ve, I tried to go and see campus a little bit.

The last time I was in Denver, although the school was closed, but we got to see that nice, uh, soccer field. You have there in a downtown environment, which is, which is always good. I went to school in downtown D. C. So I know exactly what that’s like. Um, but But, you know, we’re talking here, it’s, it’s March.

It’s kind of the height of showcase season. Um, so where are you guys at kind of this time of year with your recruiting? Kind of give me your standard recruiting calendar in terms of how much are you done with 24s and Still trying to get a few moved on to 25. So what’s that look like for you this time of year?

Coach: Yeah, absolutely. Um, I think it’s been awesome to be, you know, in downtown Denver, we have a lot of soccer in Colorado. So that’s, uh, easy for us to get on the road and, and hit a lot of the, the regional games, the league games. Um, there’s tournaments that happen over the summer. Um, but you know, with us, with division two, uh, we are very, very Finalizing our 24 class, uh, it was a smaller class for us this year.

So we were really particular on the positions that we were looking for. Um, and, [00:01:30] you know, kind of thorough within that search. And so our goal is to be finalized with that. But we’ll also look at the transfer portal from division 1, when that opens up at the end of May around that time, or the beginning of May time.

So. You know, we’re always going to look to see if anyone can come in and add value, um, this late in the game, but, uh, with the 25 where we’ve identified, we’ve contacted where, you know, this spring, we’re going out to watch them again, um, inviting them on campus, any of the local ones to come around for our spring games.

And then obviously, in the summer, moving into August, um, really trying to get them to come out to our home games and get a feel for what it’s like. To be a student athlete in downtown Denver. And so I think that’s been our priority is getting some of the 25 on campus, uh, identifying them and then really honing in.

So it’s a bigger class for us. So I think we’re a little bit more aggressive in that 25 class compared to our 24 class. 

Matt: Okay. Well, are, are there events that are kind of on your, on your must must visit list? Uh, and any tournaments that you make sure you’re at every single season? Yeah. 

Coach: Yeah, you know, there’s a lot of tournaments in the West Coast.

Uh, you know, we have, uh, MSU Denver. We have the movie scholarship. So we tend to focus a lot of our recruiting on the West Coast teams. Um, I’d love to get into Texas and Kansas, and [00:03:00] there’s some great Midwest student athletes out there as well, but just financially where we are with our recruiting. You know, you have the ECNL showcase, the GA showcase, and then a lot of the, um, you know, local club ones, you know, there’s the real tournament, uh, in Memorial Day.

Um, you have the Players Showcase in Las Vegas. Uh, surf Cup is a big one for us that will hit up, um, because they have a lot of clubs that aren’t in the ECNL or aren’t in the GA league. Um, and there’s a lot of players out there that, that, that either for some reason or the other. Uh, don’t play or they don’t play in the league.

And so it’s important for us to really, you know, find our niche of that student athlete that wants to come down downtown Denver, but also make sure that we cover all the players out there because there’s so many teams out there. There’s so many players out there. Um, and there’s some fantastic. Players that don’t play on on these big teams, uh, for 1 reason or the other, maybe be location where they are, maybe be financially, uh, maybe because their best friend plays on a team that they want to play with.

And so that’s important for us to make sure that we watch all the different leagues out there for sure. 

Matt: Well, if you’re going to be at the players in Vegas, maybe, maybe I’ll, I’ll see you there. We’re bringing our Florida girls up. So, um, yeah, well, you know, Another thing that, that seems to have changed over the last, I don’t know, 10, 15 years is kind of the proliferation of ID camps.

Um, so do you guys offer your own? How important are the ID camps to your [00:04:30] overall recruiting process? 

Coach: You know, ID camps. I’ve been very fortunate to have coached at some different universities as well. Um, they are important every year. We commit, um, 1, if not 2 players from our ID camps and. You know, it goes back to my times.

I was the head coach at University of Oregon for a while, and some of our greatest players that we committed were from ID camps. And so we do, we have a big one that we have in the spring, but we invite other coaches to come in. So we have guest coaches from UCLA. Utah and Hawaii that come in for that 1 and then we have some smaller ones.

1 in the fall. That’s, you know, like, a smaller camp that we’ve invited a bunch of those kids that we’ve already seen, maybe once or twice. And we want to get a better feel for them and we want them to get a better feel for us. Right? Who are we as coaches? What is the training schedule look like maybe in the fall?

We have it around 1 of our games. So they can watch a game in the winter. We have another 1 that’s smaller. But we do, I think it’s important to have the players come in and you get to work with them a little bit more. You get to spend time with them. You get to see what their personality is like, and if they’re having fun and, you know, maybe they’re in a group with mixed levels.

And so, like, how do they handle that group? And are they having fun at the identification at the ID camp? Um, so you get to know their character, and then they get to see you, um, see if [00:06:00] this is the spot for them. And, you know, there are a lot of ID camps out there. I agree. Uh, you know, and I think it’s important.

Um, you know, some of the, the tips that I say with recruits is if you’re going to an ID camp, and you haven’t had any communication with that coach. Email them, right? Let them know that you’re coming to their ID cam. Give them a little, you know, introduction of who you are and why you’re coming to that ID camp.

And then during that camp, go and say, hi, right? Introduce yourself, um, some ID camps, you know, have a couple hundred players. Some ID camps are 30 to 50. And so, you know, just depending on, you know, what you’re looking for, um, in your experience, but I do think it is a tool that a lot of coaches use. 

Matt: Well, whether it’s at an ID camp or any of these events or anything like that, kind of what makes up, you know, your hierarchy of things that you’re looking for in a player, whether that’s off the field attributes or on the field attributes.

Coach: Yeah, you know, it depends on where we are, uh, with our recruiting cycle, uh, this year, to give you an example, we only graduated 3. so we were a little bit more specific on the needs and what we were looking for. But, I mean, it goes back to our principles and what we’re looking for in our player identification.

You know, we’ll go through all the 4 pillars of the game physical. What are they? Like, what is their physical traits? Like, what is their special quality? We always tell it. We always go. Okay. We might be looking at 10 outside backs, but [00:07:30] what’s going to separate them right? Is do they have a huge engine? Do they have a great left foot?

Um, are they a really good 1 V 1 defending artists? And, you know, so we’ll look at. You know, physically, tactically, you know, technically, and mentally, right? What is their attitude? Like, how are they with failure or a mistake? How are their interactions going with their with their teammates with the referee with their coaches?

So there’s a lot of things that we look at, but we’ll sit down once we look at that. Um, you know, we, I like to watch them playing different environments. You know, if I can get to 3 different environments, that would be great. That’d be ideal. Uh, but sometimes it’s not maybe sometimes we watch film and it catches our eye and then we’re going out to watch a game, or maybe we have them come into an ID camp and then we want to watch 1 more time in a gang setting.

So it’s a little bit different. Um, but I always say, like, like, know what your special quality is and and be that. Right. So if you’re a 10, be a 10, right? Try not to be a winger. And what is your special like attributes? Or do you have great feet? Do you have a good engine? Are you a leader? Are you a beast in the air?

Um, and then those are the things that we look for when we’re identifying or we’re trying to separate one player from another. 

Matt: Okay, awesome. Well, let’s, uh. Shift gears a little bit. Talk about the school again. I’ve been lucky enough to visit campus, but I’m sure there’s folks maybe not familiar, uh, with it.

So [00:09:00] you’ve been there a couple of years now, kind of give me, what do you think are some of the awesome parts about the school, maybe some things we wouldn’t know, even just by going through the website. 

Coach: Sure, uh, yeah, I, um, really fortunate to, you know, get this job 3 years ago. Uh, and I’ll be real honest with you.

You know, I, I was a division 1. I was in power 5. I spent my time a little bit all over the place and, uh, this position opened up. And the more research I did on division 2, and the more research I did on Denver, the more I got excited about it. And really, the history of Denver, we’ve won 2 national championships.

And so there’s a foundation of success, but as a whole, you look at the arm at conference, which is the Rocky Mountain athletic conference. It’s a great conference. There’s some great coaches, some great teams, some great players that have come around here. For And as a coach, I wanted to be challenged as a coach to be able to, um, be competitive and continue to grow as a coach myself.

And so I came up to MSU Denver on an interview. Well, it was during covid. So the interview was all over zoom. Uh, but I wanted to come up and see what campus is like, right? It’s downtown Denver. Um, you know, I grew up in D. C. so I know some downtown schools in D. C. I know Portland state. I mean, there’s a lot of schools to pull rice that are in a in a city and I wanted to just go experience it.

What’s Denver? Like, what is the special thing that that makes MSU [00:10:30] Denver so special? And, um, it’s awesome. It’s, uh, you know, tucked in right on the West side of the city. You have ball arena where the nuggets play and abs play both world champions. If you will, across the street, the Broncos play, hopefully they’ll, they’ll be winning a championship soon.

You know, and so there’s a lot of, um, a lot of electricity, a lot of vibrance that comes through the city. Uh, concerts, um, you know, different events that come through the city. And then, of course, you look out West, and you have the beautiful Rocky mountains. You know, you cannot go, uh, you know, without noticing them on a daily basis.

And, uh. That is just a huge background and a playground for tons of people in the summer months for hiking. You have skiing snowboarding. We have a good amount of our players that like to go up to the mountains and go snowboarding in the winter. And by all means, go for it. Right. These players want to go out and, um, you know, enjoy the winter months.

Um, and why not, you know, so I want our players to take advantage of the resources that we have. But some of the things that I’ve learned since I’ve been here. Are the internships capabilities, right? Our players have, you know, real live hands on experience within their majors. Uh, we have a cool sports management degree that you have to do a internship with 1 of the pro teams here.

So we’ve had, you know, softball player in the. The locker room when the nuggets won the national, you know, when they won the [00:12:00] championship, we’ve had athletes that have done internships with the Rockies with the abs and with the rapids. And so that’s really cool that you’re going to walk away with some hands on experience.

And, um, that’s 1 of the things that I’ve kind of looked away with going the, the. The great things about being downtown, or the resources that we have academically, uh, that may be a small college town in the middle of, you know, in the mountains or something along that they don’t have those resources. And so, um, and then the next thing for us, our facilities are fantastic.

We have a brand new turf, brand new led lights, um, our athletic department has invested a lot in our facilities. And it shows and it shows, and that’s something that our players and fans, when you come down, it’s a great game day experience. And we want our players to have that game day experience. 

Matt: That’s terrific.

Well, one of the things, uh, a student athlete has to, uh, You know, contend with is being a student and an athlete, right? So how do your players specifically kind of balance the demands of the classroom as well as on the field? And what kind of support systems does the school offer to help them be successful in both avenues?

Coach: Yeah. I mean, it’s first year student, then you’re an athlete and it’s really important that our players, uh, have those goals and, and getting their degree. And then what is that like after college, right? I think it’s important we practice in the morning. So, uh, it’s really great. Everything we do, we’re done before 10 [00:13:30] a.

m. And then after that, they can go in and do their classes. We have priority registration. So that’s going to help you meet with your academic advisor to kind of plan out what that looks like. Um, study call different tutoring services that are available to our student athletes, um, writing labs that are available, and then You know, MSU Denver is unique in the sense that we have very few classes on Friday as well.

So we don’t miss a lot of classes. So when we travel and we’re going up on a road trip out to Utah or down south to New Mexico, um, our players aren’t missing class on Friday. So that’s been a, you know, an added bonus. But for the most part, you know, women’s soccer players are pretty diligent in the classroom.

You know, they’re they want to get. Uh, that 4. 0 that they’re used to, or or something along those lines. And so we have a pretty decent team GPA, but that goes from our student athletes being committed, but also the resources and support that we have for them throughout their journey here. 

Matt: That’s great.

Well, you mentioned it a little bit. You say practice in the morning, but let’s rewind to maybe October, the heart of that conference schedule. What would a typical week look like for your players in terms of when practices classes, meals, games, all that kind of thing 

Coach: for sure. I mean, it’s interesting ring up October.

I always say October is the hardest month, right? It’s the hardest month. Um, you know, September is fun because it’s new and it’s the grind and, uh, and then all of a sudden October hits and you’re in the middle of midterms. You’re in the middle [00:15:00] of our Mac conference and you, the fatigue factor has set in.

And so, you know, we play majority of our games on Friday, Sunday, sometimes Thursday, Sunday. And with that being said, Monday is typically recovery day day off. You’re, you’re going in on your own to. Um, do some sort of rehab, um, and then Tuesday, we’ll lift and Tuesday we, we try to, uh, we try to push them a little bit on Tuesdays.

And then Wednesday’s our functional training day. Um, that’s usually about, you know, none of our practices go longer than 90 minutes and especially in October, you’re, you’re probably looking at 60, 75 minute long training sessions and then match day minus 1 is important for us. Um, We don’t want it to be an easy session.

We just minimize the minutes, right? The intensity is still hard. So we make sure our players are getting out there ready. But along those lines on Tuesday, we’ll also do film. We’ll break down the weekends games. We’ll show those films. They will lift Tuesday. They’ll do a. Lift on Thursday on the match day minus 1, and that’s a real short, you know, explosive lift.

And then we also do a scanner report. We break down all the opponents. We’ll break that down. But, you know, the typical rhythm is we’ll do a post match analysis, and then we’ll do a scanner report. And then along that week, we’ll have individual film sessions. If those players want that, we [00:16:30] have heart rate monitors.

So the players wear those, and we also have Uh, a huddle, um, camera system that they have all practices and games that are sent to their email and they can have any access that they want with that. 

Matt: Oh, that’s awesome. Okay. Well, let’s shift gears. Talk a little bit more about the team. Um, I know you mentioned, you know, you’re varying, uh, recruiting class sizes and things like that, but is there a roster size overall that you find is ideal that you guys are trying to hit each year?

Coach: You know, that’s a good question. You know, I’m still kind of playing around with that. Um, we, I have found like 28 is a good number, right? You have three goalkeepers, maybe four goalkeepers and inevitably someone, uh, unfortunately gets hurt. And so you’re right down, like, you have 28, you’re 24 field players.

You’re probably hovering around healthy 22 field players. And I have found that so it’s a good number, because now you’re playing full field. We also have male practice players that come out for us. And so that’s fun to add into there. I mean, right now, we have 25 on our roster knock on what only 1 is on the sideline.

Um, you know, we only graduated. You know, 3 last year, so it’s we have all of our heart of our team back. And so the spring has been fun. The winter has been fun, but ideally anywhere in between that 26 to 30 32 is pushing it for [00:18:00] me. I think it’s a lot. Uh, but it just really depends on, you know, injuries. I mean, that’s really why we’re carrying a big roster and then also to prepare, um, for just in case the injuries do happen.

So, 

Matt: well, the other part of a roster is the coaching staff, right? So besides yourself, talk to me about the rest of your coaching staff. How many are there and what roles do they play? Maybe what other support staff help out with the team that are in the athletic department? 

Coach: Sure. We have a full time assistant coach and.

Currently new, we just hired her in January. She’s fantastic. She was a former head coach in the, so that’s really nice to have that. And then we have a 2 part time assistant coaches. We have a former player and she comes out for trainings and does a lot of the individual work, which has been really helpful for us in our development.

And then we have a goalkeeper coach who comes out. Uh, throughout the practices and games, um, and comes out a little bit more heavily in the fall than he does in the spring. So, technically for assistant coaches, we do have a volunteer coach that comes out periodically throughout the spring and, uh, a full time trainer that works with us a full time strength conditioning coach that works with us.

And that’s really our heart of our, you know, community, if you will, uh, from there and the, in the department, we have. Academic, we have compliance, we have full time media, all the staff there that are and that’s the 1 thing that I would say is, [00:19:30] you know, you’re a smaller knit athletic community at the department.

But with that being said, everyone’s there supporting 1 another, you know, our admin is out there and they really do a great job of putting on a game day experience for our student athletes and our players. Um, you know, we have a nutritionist, we have an orthopedic that comes on. We have, you know, chiropractor that’s around there.

So we have a lot of stuff off the field that provide for our student athletes. 

Matt: Hmm, that’s fantastic. All right, well now I gotta ask about you though, a, a, as the head coach, how would you describe kind of your coaching style and the style of play that you’re looking to implement? 

Coach: Sure, I, you know, I like to have fun and having fun is, you know, working hard with the student athletes.

Right? I want to, um, really find a way to develop our student athletes. Right? And that is something that’s important for us in the sense of creating environment where we’re trying to get the most out of them, hold them accountable, but also give them love. Right? I think being a college athlete is really hard.

And the journey that comes with it, there’s going to be highs and lows. And, you know, how do we help them along this way of that development? And so, for me, it’s important to be there for the student athlete, develop those relationships and understand what is their why and how do we tap into that? Right?

Um, as far as our style of play, uh, you know, I think at the end of the day, we want to score more goals [00:21:00] than the other team. Uh, how do we do that varies and, you know, I think our, you know, our principles remain the same in the sense of doesn’t matter what formation and system that we’re playing. But, you know, we value the ball, right?

We want to keep the ball. We want to build out of the back and a pretty ideal situation. But we also want to give our players the tools to recognize how to break lines. Right? At the end of the day, we’re not measured by how many passes we connect. We’re measured by the score of the game. And are we getting around them through them and over them and how and the why behind it?

And I think that’s the part where a lot of people. Younger players need that help in that coaching and understanding the why right of, of understanding why we might play a certain ball versus another ball. And that’s where we do a lot of our coaching. And that’s where we do a lot of our development.

Matt: Okay, well, I’ve got just a couple more for you. The, the, like I said, we are in March and you guys are in Denver where it’s, uh, the weather can be a little bit, uh, iffy, I guess, in the wintertime. So, uh, What is your typical kind of off season spring season look like for you guys? 

Coach: For sure. We, we break it into two different parts.

We have a winter season, if you will. And that’s our eight hours with the ball. Um, and this is the time where we do a lot of our individual work or functional training. Uh, we hit the weight room pretty hard. Uh, so a typical week for us is we’ll play foots all once a week, and we have a running tournament and that’s [00:22:30] been going on for 7 weeks.

We just crowned our foots all tournament turn a champion. So that was fun. A golden boot, but we’ll go inside for that and use the gym, uh, once a week, we will do functional training. So we split the group into 2 different groups. Back 6, if you will front 6, and we do different, uh, you know, just a periodization with that small individual and building that up to team function.

Um, on Fridays, we do a competitive Friday fun Fridays and just having some fun. Right? You’re. 7 weeks, you’re not playing any games. You’re lifting 3 days a week. You’re doing speed school conditioning 1 day a week. You’re only touching the ball 3 days a week. And then you’re doing a leadership, uh, you know, culture talk once a week.

And so that can be a grind for some of these players. We do practice in the morning. So it’s a little cold, but we’ve knock on wood, although it’s supposed to snow this weekend. So hopefully we have been outside. Uh, probably 90 percent of all that time, um, except for the, you know, the foot salts inside. And then in the spring, when we start with our back to our normal hours, we’re allowed 15 hours a week with 2 days off.

We’ll have this spring. We have 6 different games because we’re playing a team from Japan. So that gives us an extra date. Um, and we play also 3 division. 1 teams. It’s really important for us to, you To get out there and play the division one teams. Um, you know, it’s a really competitive spring for us, and we want to be challenged in the spring.

So we can [00:24:00] roll right into the fall and the fall for us. We last year, we play point Loma, who won the national championship this fall. We’re playing Western Washington, who won the national championship 2 years ago. And so it’s important for us to play a really tough non competitive schedule. Uh, non, um, yeah, the.

There we go conference. There we go. Uh, and so we can get prepared for the RMAC, which I think is a great conference. 

Matt: Oh, for sure. Yeah. Those are, those are always a tough conference and some tough non conference games there. Well, coach, you’ve been generous with the time. I just got to leave you with one last question.

Um, you know, you’ve, you’ve coached at a lot of different places, a lot of, you know, the, at the highest levels. Um, If you could boil it down into 1 piece of advice that you would want players going through the college recruiting process to know what would that be the recruiting process?

Coach: Let’s see. Um, that everyone’s journey is different.

Right? And I think, um. Even being at, uh, you know, MSU Denver here and recruiting, um, on a different calendar if you will, um, has really opened my eyes up. I mean, there are some fantastic kids right now in their senior year looking for a home and. Um, everyone’s journey is different, right? You have injuries that pop up.

You have different things, different, uh, events that come through and, you know, some people commit really early and some people don’t realize that they want [00:25:30] to play college soccer until really late. And so I think it’s important to kind of. Um, you know, keep that confidence going and if that’s the goal that you want to do, you want to play at the next level, there is a spot out there for you.

There absolutely is. Division 1, Division 2, Division 3, NAIA, JC, uh, there are, you know, thousands of spots, roster spots out there. But do the homework, right? Do that homework and understand what you want out of that college experience and, you know, make sure it’s the right fit. Fit for you because it is hard, right?

But, um, stay patient, you know, believe in yourself and, uh, do some research along the way and making sure it’s the right fit, 

Matt: couldn’t agree more. Well, coach really appreciate it. Wish you the best of luck in your spring season and wrapping up your recruiting class. And, uh, if you get down to any of the events in Florida, give me a shout, we’ll get together.

All right. 

Coach: Awesome. Well, thank you, Matt. I appreciate it. And, uh, thanks for having me on. Good luck with your, with your team. Sound in Florida. 

Matt: Thanks.