Milwaukee School of Engineering Women’s Soccer – Coach Rolf Zersen

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Rolf Zersen from the Milwaukee School of Engineering Women’s Soccer Program in Wisconsin. We talk about the unique recruiting approach at a specialized STEM-focused school and why Coach Zersen casts a wide net across the country to find players who are the right fit both academically and athletically. He describes MSOE’s small, hands-on learning environment, its location in the heart of Milwaukee, and the academic support and career resources available to students pursuing demanding degrees in areas such as engineering, nursing, and computer science. Lastly, we discuss what a typical week looks like for his players, the collaborative coaching staff, and his game-focused approach to training that emphasizes decision-making and playing “possession with a purpose.”

[00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today, I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Zersen up at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Welcome, Coach. Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for being here, and, uh, appreciate you taking the time in the middle of the season. Uh, you guys are, are in the heart of it now, six games in, eh?

We are, yeah. Trying to figure things out still, but yeah. All right. It’s been, it’s, it’s been a journey so far. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Well, uh, you know, it’s… One of the things I think, uh, you know, it’s the start of the club season too, a lot of games getting kicked off, Labor Day tournaments, et cetera, just, just finishing up.

Um, so for, for you and, and especially for you guys as such a, I guess, specialized school, right? Mm-hmm. Um, how much of your time right now is looking at future classes, you know, class 27, even, even if you’re talking a class of ’28, on the recruiting side of things versus the, “Hey, we’re in the middle of the season, I gotta focus on the team and the season”?

Well, you know, that’s a great question. I think every, every school’s [00:01:00] probably different- different. Um, I would say a lot of my time is on that. Um, I am– I do have assistant coaches. They’re not full-time or GAs or anything like that, so you’re looking at the, the head coach, the recruiter, the coordinator, the hotel guy, the bus guy.

I do all that. Obviously, I have a great staff that’s– that does a lot, um, uh, for me with that, so I don’t wanna say, like, I do it all, but they, they definitely help. Um, but it is a little bit different where I do have to make sure that I’m, I’m, you know, every week I’m, I’m trying to concentrate on that and, um, you know, as far as, like, looking at future classes and how we, how we kinda operate that, you know, we’re always trying to identify players that will fit our school, right?

And that’s twofold: academic and athletic, in that order. Um, so academically it’s gotta fit, and then we gotta make sure that they will be able to help us, um, in some way, whether it’s their first year or years down the road, like we see potential. Um, and then we just try to, like, reconnect. But then you’re always trying to [00:02:00] find new ones, right?

Because there are a number of engineering STEM-related schools that are, are very high academic that they could be looking at and, and that we recruit against, so it’s, it’s always kinda hard that way. I think the nice thing is we’re not dealing with, you know, however many, 300 other, uh, Division III schools which are liberal arts.

We don’t have to worry about that. But, um, yeah, we’re always trying to identify talent and, and communicate with them. You know, like we were gone this weekend and, and I was texting and having recruiting calls then. We’ve got– You know, we’re scheduling visits now. Um, we’re trying to get video. And then unfortunately I don’t get to get out and see as many games as possible right now.

Um, usually that’s gonna be right there at the end of November, um, when I think a lot of those major showcases kick off, whether they’re Surf Cup or ECNL or GA or whatever it might be. Um, but right now it’s probably more local games. Um, I’m six minutes from, you know, a pretty big club that’s a GA club, and there’s a couple of other GA ones.

We have an ECL– ECNL [00:03:00] one about 20 minutes away, and I know a lot of those have fixtures where they’ll play Saturday, Sunday, so then I’ll try to hit those up if I can. Um, yeah, that’s about it right now. Well, a-a-and, um, obviously you, you try to hit, sounds like you try to hit ECNL events, GA events, all the Surf Cup, the, the tournaments, whatever.

Yep. But for you guys especially, ’cause, you know, a lot of Division III, a lot of the schools in your conference, right, they’re very, let’s just call it regionally focused- Mm-hmm … on recruiting, ’cause it makes sense. But for you guys, being such a specialized school and having the great reputation you have, and you look at- Mm-hmm

your roster and you’re, you’re a little bit of an anomaly, I would say, for most D-IIIs in terms of just the breadth of states you represent. Uh, so h- I mean, does that factor into the events that you choose to go to because you can almost really recruit everywhere? Yeah. Oh, 100%. Um, definitely. Well, I mean, you know, to take you through the long story here, uh, you know, one is bang for your buck, right?

Like, if we’re [00:04:00] gonna go somewhere, we wanna make sure there’s multiple, multiple games. Um, it’s really hard because usually I’m there by myself, um, so I have to be really organized. Um, but I also have to be able to keep my eye out for players that I’m like, “Okay, you know, let’s see if that player might be interested in, in us.

Maybe I’ve never seen a team play. I wanna make sure I go see them.” So that’s the first thing. It’s gotta be a, a, a pretty major one, especially if we’re spending cash to get out there, budget money. Um, the second part is, it, you know, I always look at the s- the, the teams that are gonna be there. Where are they from, right?

Because like you mentioned, we have, uh, uh, a big net that we have to cast out there. Um, you know, if you look at our roster, we’ve got girls from, you know, California, Virginia, Maryland, Louisiana. Um, we’ve had international students, not that I go see them play, but that’s more video. Um, so I would say, you know, yeah, we definitely have to cast a wide net.

It’s, it’s hard for a school like ours that is so specialized. If we would [00:05:00] just stay regionally on the women’s side, um, it would be really tough. Um, doesn’t mean that we couldn’t get a roster, but I, you know… And, and o- obviously those players are great, right? Um, but if we really wanna compete at the next level, we’ve really gotta look at all those, those, um, options, those players out there.

I think the men’s side is much different than the women’s side. Our, our men’s coach, who you probably should talk to too, he’s probably got a different opinion on that. The Midwest is a hotbed for them, um, so he can pretty much stay regional, um, not that he does, but he can, um, unlike us. Um, now, you know, one of…

Academics is really important, so the engineering aspect is really important, but we do have nursing and computer science and things like that, and they’re trying to expand, not overexpand, but enough where, um, it will help us out. Um, so yeah, definitely gotta make sure we’re, we’re looking all over the place, which can make it really hard, right?

Like, there’s some kids that, unfortunately I just don’t get to see play live, right? And that’s, that’s really hard. [00:06:00] Um, so then it’s just constantly watching video and talking to coaches and coaches that I know who coached against them, stuff like that, so. That being said, and, and, and you’re at an event, you’re checking out kids.

Yeah. Like, what, what makes up that hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player, both on and off the field? Well, unfortunately, when you go to some of these events, they’ll have their bios, their, their team sheets, and sometimes they have academic interests, like degrees, but many times they do not. Um, so that’s really hard, right?

I mean, if you s- if you looked at my s- mailbox on my email, it’s just chocked full of emails that maybe I responded to or ig- or oftentimes ignored. Um, and that makes it hard. Well, I, and, and sorry. Uh, because, like, I know, I mean, I got a daughter who’s a freshman in college right now, right? Sure. And if you’d have asked her when she was 16, saying, “Wait, wait, what do you wanna major in?”

Mm-hmm. You know, you, you get the I, I don’t know, you know? The, the, it’s really hard. But now, some… [00:07:00] Now, I also ha- helped a girl who was our high school goalkeeper. I mean, she was, it was gonna be engineering. She had it dialed in. Mm-hmm. She knew what she wanted. Mm-hmm. So, I mean, for you guys, it’s like you’re, you’re, you’re almost also fighting- Indecision, or, or the, the lack of even knowing, right?

So- Sure … so you, so what you’re saying is you’re almost sending out, saying, “Hey, I like, I like the way you play,” but i-i- it’s almost the, the flip side. You know, all these kids- Yeah … sending emails out, and they’re hoping for a response, and you’re kind of- Yeah … doing the same thing, right? Yeah, yeah. And I, and I, and I can’t comment on how a liberal arts school would work in terms of recruiting.

My guess would be that anybody they email, pretty much they m- they’ll have a degree for that person, right? So they’re literally going out, I would guess, and going, “Okay, this is a player that we really like. Let’s see what she’s interested in. Let’s get her on campus.” Whereas for me, it’s the introduction of the school first, and it’s always, “Listen, these are the degrees we have,” right?

“If these don’t interest [00:08:00] you, then, then we’re not the school for you.” Right? So that’s, that’s… Well, that’s not the first thing, right? So let’s just rewind. Like, if I’m going to a game and I see players play, you know, obviously if they’re athletic, if they’re fast, if they’re gritty, um, you know, obviously if they’re scoring goals or they’re defending or they’re making saves, right, all the, all the buzzwords, all the things that a coach would wanna see.

And then the other parts, like how do they react when things are bad? How do they treat their teammates? How are they talking to their coaches? I mean, I don’t know how many times I’ve crossed a kid off that, you know, turned around and yelled at their coach. I’m like, “Yeah, I don’t need that,” right? Um, so that’s, like, the, the initial part, right?

And then the next part is, again, like you said, reaching out and going, “Okay, this is what we have.” It’d be am- you’d be amazed. It’s just funny. Like, oftentimes the girls I reach out to on a whim, they want degrees that we want. I don’t know what’s going on with it. Um, now, obviously I’m probably more focused on those, ’cause they did respond, compared to the other 50 [00:09:00] emails that I probably forget about that I sent, um, hoping that they’ll respond, but they don’t.

Um, and then sometimes you reach for the stars, too, where, you know, the kid responds and goes, “No, I’m- I’ve committed to this D1 school,” and you’re like, “Okay, at least I’m identifying talent,” right? I’m, I’m picking the right kids, right? Right. Yeah. Um, so, um, yeah, that’s, that’s really part of it, and then it’s the communication part, right?

Like, we get on a call. You know, we set up a text, or a call through a text. Um, and then we just make sure that when we communicate, that it is an interest, right? Because, you know, there’s a lot of girls out there, right? And I don’t have time to waste on trying to talk somebody into our school, um, for the most part, right?

Um, we- we’re not a school, we’re gonna, you know, say, “Oh, well, you like math. You should do this,” right? It’s, it’s gotta be introducing what it is, having them do some research. Or I even send them stuff, going, “Hey, this is what this is. Um, maybe you’re interested.” Um, it has happened [00:10:00] where they have done that.

But I would say for the most part, most of these girls know what they wanna study. And as a result, um, it’s easier for us to, um, to recruit them. Um, I would say the enginee- g- engineering world is, is big, but relative to everything else, it’s small. So within the circles of engineering companies, we are well-known.

So oftentimes, you know, parents that work at companies that are engineers, oftentimes, you know, it’s passed down through generation. My dad’s an engineer, or my mom’s a nurse or whatever. Um, that really helps out. Um, so Yeah, I think, I think that’s the, the major part. And then, then you wanna get them on campus and have them feel good and, and get to see what the city’s like and what the school’s like, sit in on a class, and all that, so.

Yeah, for sure. All right. Mm-hmm. Well, let- let’s talk a little bit more, uh, about the school. Obviously, we talked a little bit about the majors. But [00:11:00] y- you’ve been there a year or two for, uh, it seems. Uh-huh. So what, what are your some of the, your favorite parts about the school? What’s kept you there so long?

Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know about going through the website. Yeah. Um, well, I mean, with academics aside, you know, we are a small personalized school where you get to know your teachers. We don’t have TAs. The, the professors that are teaching you are either in the field or were in the field, um, so they really know what they’re talking about.

We’re not a research institution, although they have started to expand upon that a little bit. Um, again, that’s why we don’t have TAs. Excuse me. Um, 3,000 students, really low class to, uh, to teacher, student to teacher ratio, so you’re gonna get to know them. Um, a major focus for the university is the ability for those students, one, to have the resources that they need to make it through in a, in such a hard degree, and then two, to, to acquire a job right away.

[00:12:00] Um, so they’re gonna teach you not only the theory, but you’re gonna do it. Um, you’re gonna graduate in four years as long as you stay on track. Um, we have great, uh, what they call career connections, which they will help, um, help you find a job. Um, they’ll negotiate salaries. They’ll do everything for you to help you.

Um, so it’s, it’s really kind of like a very hands-on family atmosphere in a really difficult subject. Um, we’re in the heart of Milwaukee, so I think that’s a really, uh, good selling point, so you walk out your residence hall, there’s tons of stuff to do. Um, your professors oftentimes live in the area. Um, I think the nice thing is we’re not a suitcase university where, you know, everyone’s there during the week and then the weekends they’re all gone, um, especially for the simple fact that we have players from all over the country on our team, so it’s not like they can just go home all the time.

So we have a really good family atmosphere, um, not only on our team, but then all the teams, right? They get to know each other. [00:13:00] And I always tell my girls, I go, “Hey, you’re a soccer player, but be, be more than that,” right? Get to know the tennis team and the volleyball team, but also join clubs, right? Um, so we do have a lot of clubs.

A lot of the girls on my team are in different things like Rocket Club or Society of Women Engineers. I mean, the list goes on. So they can be really involved in those things, which I think are, one, great resume builders, but also helps them to grow individually and professionally, which I think is really important.

Um- We’re an urban campus. Some people want the traditional campus, um, so I’m not gonna say one’s better than the other. I think there’s a fit for everybody. Um, personally, I like going outside and being able to do whatever I want, whether it’s, you know, everything that a city would offer from professional sports teams to, to the music scene or whatever.

But, you know, we have Lake Michigan, and we have skiing 20 minutes away and all, all kinds of stuff, right? If you wanna go do it, it, it’s around. I mean, obviously it’s not Colorado skiing, but, um, it is definitely, you know, stuff to do. Um, [00:14:00] what else would I tell you? Yeah, I mean, we’re, we’re growing. And I, uh, population maybe not as fast as our buildings are growing.

Um, you know, so we’ve got some brand new buildings and some that are in the works right now. They’re always thinking to expand, which is great. Um, so it’s a really exciting place to be, especially as you indicated. I’ve … You know, I’ve been there 25 years. I don’t even know how many with the women, but I was with the men first, and then moved over to the women’s side, so helped to grow that.

But, um, it’s just a wonderful place to be. Yeah. Awesome. Now, uh, we talked about the academics and what that can always be kind of the challenging part, right, is now- Mm-hmm … I, I left high school, but now I’m, I’m a collegiate athlete, but I got collegiate hard academic responsibilities too. So what kind of support systems does the school have there to make sure the kids are successful both on and off the field?

Yeah, it’s a great question. I think that’s one of the major recruiting questions they always ask is, how do they get support? And in Division [00:15:00] III it’s not like an athlete would get more support or less support than a regular student, right? So anything our students get, our athletes get. Um, but it isn’t like Division I, where I’m assuming, like, a tutor comes with you or, or something like that.

I, I don’t even live in that world, so I don’t wanna comment. But for us, you know, number one, you’re in a really hard academic field. And I always tell the girls that I’m recruiting, whether it’s nursing or engineering or computer science, I go, “Look at the roster of the other schools you’re looking at,” right?

How many are engineers? How many computer science? How many are nurses? So remember, when you get on a bus and you’re gone for a weekend, who’s around that you can bounce ideas off? Who, who have done the things that you are doing or going to do? And if there’s not a lot, I’m not saying you can’t do it, but it sure makes things hard, right?

For us, and like for example, we just got back from Minnesota, and it’s really exciting to see the freshmen interact with the seniors and juniors. Um, not that … You know, they’re, they’re getting help from each other. Um, [00:16:00] they’re on the bus doing all their work, right? Um, so that’s the first support I would say I always push, right?

Like, we have 31 girls on the, on the roster, and all of them are STEM related kids, right? The next part is we have free tutoring for everybody. All you have to do is sign up. Um, you can be a tutor even if you want to be. Uh, there’s individual tutoring sessions, group-led tutoring sessions, professor-led tutoring sessions that would be, like, topical.

And then the last thing I would say is, you know, average class size is so small, all the teachers have office hours, so you can go in and meet with them constantly. They get to know you by name. It’s not like they said here, and you’re, you’re, you’re not a number, right? They wanna help you. Um, but again, that, that falls on the girls.

I tell them, I go, “You need to go ask for help. They’re not gonna come to you, right? And I’ll help you, but you have to be willing to get the help.” So- Yeah. Um, you know, they, they want all the students to c- who come there to be very successful. [00:17:00] Um, they’re pretty rigid in who they accept based on, like, what they’ve taken for classes, because they don’t wanna just have somebody come in who, who, “Oh, I love the idea of engineering, but I’m not gonna be successful at it.”

Yeah. Okay. Well, let’s, uh, you know, fast-forward to next month, right? Heart of the conference season. What… Walk me through what’s a typical week look like for the players in terms of winter classes, practices, games, meals, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, for sure. Um, okay. So, uh, I am there as a resource. I tell the girls, like, “Listen, I’m, I’m, I’m not gonna follow you around and, and make sure you’re doing your stuff.

I’m here to make sure that if you need help, I’m here for you,” right? So I’ll, I’ll check it. I don’t want it to sound like I’m not hands-on, but I am. But, uh, they’re also adults, right? So I think part of that is also making good decisions, right? All right. So, um- Because we’re a smaller school, we have oftentimes singlet offerings, so one-time class offerings that, that, you know, players are gonna need.

I’ll give you an example. I have a grad [00:18:00] student right now in perfusion, and as a result she cannot get to practices until 6:30. So ideally for me would be great to go 12 to 2, right? I come in, get everything ready, practice, leave. It would be great, right? But we can’t do that, so what we do, we practice at night.

So this year currently we practice 7 to 8:30 at night to make sure the grad student can be there and have a little time after her class so she’s not rushing. Um, I think it also helps all the players on the team to be able to pick the best schedule for them. Um, is it ideal for me? No, ’cause I have to drive in, drive back, and drive, uh, you know, I’m driving constantly to make sure I’m there.

Um, but I think it works out great. Um, so practice will be 7 to 8:30, um, and, and that depends on, on the situation. For– we have a great schedule. Uh, we’re Wednesdays, Saturdays for conferences. We are in the middle geographically of our conference, [00:19:00] so north is two hours, south is two hours. Um, I wouldn’t wanna be the teams that are north or south because that is a really hard drive.

Obviously they have to do it, but for us it’s great. We’re, we’re out and back in a day. We don’t have to, you know… It’s not like a, you know, a whole day where they’re gone. Um, so that’s, that’s exciting. So typically, you know, Monday is gonna be a harder practice. Tuesday’s gonna be more like a prep for the game.

Wednesday we’re playing. Thursday’s recovery. Friday you’re getting ready for the next game or any. Saturday you’re playing and NCAA-wise we’re off on Sunday typically. Within those they’re gonna have classes and tutoring sessions, and maybe they have a, a little part-time campus job. Um, I have a lot of girls who have internships that they can even do during the school year.

Um, so they’re doing all those things. They’re also being college kids. Um, yeah. I- that– it’s, it’s pretty, like once we hit– I mean, this Wednesday’s our first conference game, and then the grind starts, right? Which, [00:20:00] which is actually nice because I think you get more into a consistent schedule. Um, pre-season Division III, and I’m sure Division I the same thing, you, you’re just trying to fit so many games in, right?

Like we just came back, we had two games. Well, we’ve played six games in two weeks, um, and that’s a lot. Uh, but it’s okay because, you know, obviously I wanna win everything, but I wanna make sure that we are giving people looks, we’re trying to figure things out, we’re trying to move players around, um, because, you know, Wednesday, that’s when everything matters, but more on Wednesday, so.

Yeah. Okay. Mm-hmm. Well, let’s talk about the team. Uh- Mm-hmm … is there a roster size that you’re trying to hit each year? No. Roughly I try to bring in eight recruits a year. That gives me roughly a roster of eight, uh, 32. Um, you always have injuries that are unexpected, not only season-ending, but also, you know, within the, the year.

So you need to [00:21:00] make sure that you have more than one player at each position. And you gotta think about development. Um, right now we’re probably at 31 active, um, 32 if you’re t- if you count, uh, injured. Uh, you know, it’s, it’s a healthy roster. We’re, we’re not told to have a reserve team. Uh, I think, I think the biggest we’ve ever been was 34.

The smallest we’ve ever been is when I started, and I think we were at 14 or 15. Uh, so the, the world has definitely changed. That was a long time ago. So yeah, that’s, that’s kinda it for that. Pretty simple. And then y- talk to me about the, the rest of the roster. Who, who is there on staff? What other people are helping out-

with the team? What roles does everybody play there? Yeah. You know, we have, we have a great situation here in Milwaukee. I don’t know if you’ve ever been here, but there’s a lot of soccer. Yeah. Um, and I’m connected. I wouldn’t say I’m p- you know, like the guy, uh, but I know a lot of people who are the guys and the girls, right?

Um, so it’s just great to know them. [00:22:00] Um, so we have a lot of schools that are really, really close, and their coaches are friends that, whether I’ve coached with them, against them, played with them, whatever it is. So it’s really nice that way to bounce ideas off of them. But if we’re talking about our school, I have two assistant coaches.

Um, one is a gentleman named Dave Schimpf. He’s a retired school teacher, played Division I. I’ve known him since I was… Actually, his, his youngest brother was my best… one of my really good friends in high school. Um, so I’ve known that family forever. So he helps constantly. He’s got a great attitude. He’s, he’s a teacher, which that’s what we’re doing.

We’re coaching, we’re teaching. Um, so that’s great, right? Um, and he’ll help in whatever capacity, whether running, you know, whatever s- parts of a session that I need. Um, the other one is Delaney Pruitt. Um, she played at Carroll University, which is, uh, about 25 minutes outside of Milwaukee. Um, and she’s kind of learning her way.

[00:23:00] Unbelievable player, um, and wants to be a coach and is currently coaching in high school. Um, helps us out and, and great for the team, fantastic. Has great relationships with the girls. Um, gives me her honest feedback. Uh, she’s great. The other really nice thing about our school, and I don’t know how it is at other schools, but our men’s program and our women’s program work hand-in-hand.

So I’ll sit and watch the men train Their coach will sit and watch us train, and we’ll critique each other and like, “Hey, have you thought about this? Have you thought about this?” Their assistant coaches will help us every once in a while. For example, their assistant coach, uh, Ja- uh, a man named J- James, he’s our strength and conditioning guy for the university now, so he- we’re just gonna start ramping that up here because he did just start about a week ago, two weeks ago.

Um, so that’s fantastic. And, and it’s just great. You know, like, we were in Minnesota, got home, and m- one of my first calls was to the men’s coach, right? And we were just talking about his games and my games, and we’re [00:24:00] bouncing ideas off of each other and, and he has obviously a different way to look at the game, you know, because men and women are obviously different.

Um, and then I try to incorporate some of that and vice versa. So it’s, it’s great that way, so. Okay. Awesome. Well, now tell us about you, your coaching style- … and the style of play you guys like to play there. Great question. Everyone asks this, and it’s always hard to answer. I would, I would say my coaching style, I think the game is the best teacher, right?

Um, with 31 girls on the team, you can imagine that every game we can’t get players, all the players in, right? So I need to make sure that they’re playing, okay? I need them to make decisions. I can’t be joy sticking them, if you’ve heard that term before, right? Now, we will give them ideas, um, so we will set up games within our practice that will work on things that we need to be working on, right?

Whether it’s building out of the back, whether it’s the middle third, whether it’s the defensive, you know, positioning that we need, whether it’s, [00:25:00] um, you know, attacking a team that is parking the bus, so to speak. All these things, right? Um, transition games, you name it. And, you know, before we start some of these things, we’ll talk about these are the…

This is why we’re doing this. These are the things we wanna be working on, and then maybe, you know, we’re planning up to a, a score. When that score is reached, maybe, you know, we revisit some of these ideas, we introduce new ones, and then maybe we do it again. Um, I think I’ve come a long way in my belief on how to run a practice.

I think when I first started, every practice I thought had to be new and innovative, um, which I don’t think is good. I think now it’s the more you can do consistency of games that they really like, and you can get out of those games what you want, and they’re fun, I think you just get better at those games.

Um, we have a couple games, like one that the girls love, which we call hockey, literally ’cause I stole it from the hockey team, ’cause we have one and I watched them play it and like, “This is unbelievable,” and the girls love it. We have another one that we call wide, [00:26:00] four V four wide, which is not only attacking from the flanks, but deals with services into the box, and it’s a transition game, so you’re in and out and, and it’s a lot of fun.

Um, so we will do those things, and then we’ll tweak them as we go. Um, maybe it’s w- the, the coaches are serving them, so we’re giving them really bad serves to make sure that they have to deal with it. Um, but that, that’s kinda how a practice will be run. I think there’s nothing… anything, you know, I always tell recruits, I go, “If you come in here and you expect to see something totally unique that you’ve never seen before, you know, soccer is a round ball.

We have 11 on the field.” Um, so we’ll, we’ll adjust those. Uh, as far as, like, style of play, you know, I want possession with a purpose, I call it. Uh, the, the days of what I remember my coaches saying tiki-taka, where you just move the ball, move the ball, move the ball, and you don’t go anywhere, um, not that that is maybe what they intended, but that’s what I got out of it as a young player.

Um, now it’s kinda like, “Hey, what, what are [00:27:00] the openings? Can we go forward? Okay, we can’t go forward. Now let’s move the defense to create lines that we can break, um, and we can get forward.” So if that means we gotta make, you know, 20 passes to get where we wanna get, or if we have to make two, um, that, that’s what we’ll do.

Um, in the college game, you know, compared to club, you know, club’s a lot of building out of the back, go short. I think the college game is, you know, if the other team’s gonna press you, you know, as we call, we’re going route one, right? You’re, you’re, you’re going down the, uh, putting it at midfield and battling for it and hoping for the best.

Um, and every team’s different, right? Um, and every year is different with the players that you have. So yeah, I would say possession with a purpose. Um, formation-wise, um, you know, we’ll play all different kinds. You know, this- This past weekend, we played three different formations based on the teams we were playing against.

Um, and I do that not because I don’t think my team is good, I think they’re very good, but I think it simplifies stuff for them because their roles [00:28:00] are, like, specifically outlined, right? Um, like we played a three-five-two yesterday, and we did that for a specific reason of the other team’s flank players were really, really getting involved, and I wanted to nullify that.

Um, so yeah, and they’re resilient that way. Uh, I think it’s great, so. Awesome. Well, Coach- Mm-hmm … really appreciate the time and all this info. Gonna leave you with one last question, and that is- Yeah … if you had one piece of advice for someone going through this college recruiting process right now, what would that be?

Do your research, right? Don’t, don’t get stuck on division. And, you know, coaches can be, you know, very, um, how do you wanna put it, influential. Um, make sure you put down your pros and your cons. And I would say think not only about the four years of college, think about beyond the four years. Um, not everyone’s gonna go play pro, not everyone’s gonna go be a college coach.

Um, what are you gonna do afterwards, [00:29:00] too? And make sure you’re going somewhere where you’re gonna enjoy it. Um, my former coach always called it the broken leg story. If you’re at a school and you break your leg, would you still wanna be there? Um, I think that’s really important, so. Yeah, couldn’t agree more.

Well, Coach, really appreciate it. Wish you the best of luck the rest of the way out, and, uh, hopefully you’ll be raising that conference banner here soon. Yeah, thanks a lot. All right. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Bye.