Missouri S&T University Men’s Soccer – Coach Rob Cummings
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Rob Cummings one from the Missouri S&T University Men’s Program. We talk about how he likes to recruit personality more than anything. He describes the school’s high end academics with great national rankings. Lastly, we discuss how he has to manage a complex roster. Learn more about Missouri S&T University Men’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Cummings from Missouri S and T. Welcome coach. Thanks. Thanks for having. Thanks for being here. Uh, we were, we were just talking for a second coach and I actually met probably almost 20 years ago, uh, when we were both coaching D two in Indiana, working camps and stuff together.
And, and he’s back on a, on the D two trail there at Missouri S and T uh, opening day to night. So good luck coach. Um, but let’s, uh, let’s talk. Uh, you know, Missouri S and T and, and how you’re, you’re getting your players in. You got a great, great picture there behind you of your roster. So, you know, at, at that school specifically, you know, when are you really starting to hear from players?
When are you going out recruiting, watching players kind of making that list? What’s that timeframe
Coach: look like for you? I think, you know, I’ll say every university’s a little different timeframe. You, you know, you hear some that, Hey, sophomore year, I mean, things are being made, but generally on the men’s side, it [00:01:00] doesn’t really happen that way.
But I would say because of our engineering and in our reputation, it happens a little bit earlier than I’ve had in other schools. You know where a lot of times, junior year, especially senior year, it’s not abnormal to have, you know, a lot of recruiting going on there, but here, you know, I’ve had as early as going into freshman year, you know, um, you know, just trying to get on the radar because of our engineering and our reputation and that department, as well as, um, other, you know, academic degrees that we have here.
Yeah. No, it makes sense.
Matt: When somebody reaches out and contacts you about, you know, potentially coming to school there and playing ball, what, what are some of the things that you like to see in that first communication from a recruit?
Coach: Well, I’d first like to see that they did it, they wrote the email, um, you know, because it is.
The player that ultimately I will be coaching and having in front of me and building a relationship with so nothing wrong with, you know, having someone overlook it. I mean, I have my wife [00:02:00] overlook my email sometimes, you know, in text because sometimes I just, you know, I, I, I get speaking faster than writing, but in terms it has to be as a coach, feel like this came from you, um, maybe that, you know, something about.
Rather than just kind of saying, you know, I’ve had emails where they said, Hey, I’ve watched many of your games, you know? And it’s like, okay, it didn’t. And then I saw you send this up 50 other coaches. So it, you know, I think it has to be personal, just like recruits, want to feel like they’re wanted.
Coaches in the university want to fill their wanted as well. And so do a little bit of your homework that you understand what the school is. Maybe even a little bit about the program and the position specifically that you’re looking at, that maybe there’s a senior in there that shows you did a little bit of homework.
Matt: Absolutely. Well, you know, after you’ve kind of built up that list of, of recruits and, and maybe you’re out on the trail, kind of, what are some of the tournaments that, that are kind of musty on your list? What are some of the leagues you like to, to, to watch and, uh, where do you spend a [00:03:00] majority of
Coach: that time?
Sure. It changes every year, right? I mean, I, since I got here to the Midwest, so, you know, when I was in California, I really liked it because pretty much I didn’t have to leave the state because soccer in high school, there’s in the wintertime. So you, you had the whole spring summer and fall the Watchman club, you know, play and do all those kind of things.
So I really, you know, enjoy that part. So I would say, I try find, you know, the terms that are local first. I’ve seen St. Louis. They have, you know, they host many tournaments in Kansas city, you know, so I try to get on those. And then when I start to broaden my scope, I start to look at errors that I feel like we have an opportunity because our funding isn’t necessarily the best.
I just can’t go everywhere. So I try to find tournaments that make sense where we’ve had players come from that that maybe have errors where there’s not maybe as. Schools and, and those areas that have great tournaments, like, you know, Arizona has great tournaments, you know, lass, Vegas, you know, all, see we get many players cuz of engineering of Texas.
So I, I, you know, I look at those type of tournaments and then I pick [00:04:00] from there, but I’m trying to really be specific so that it’s really, you know, valued to where we go. Makes
Matt: sense. What about, what about camps? Uh, you know, obviously we, we met at a camp many moons ago, but, but how do camps fit into your, your recruiting, uh,
Coach: mix.
So I think for us, you know, our. I mean, I’ve always had a division two level, as you know, we have, we have the ability to try out, I mean, at our level, we, the player could come and try out train with the guys. Um, but our, we have our ID camps. We, you know, we’re not doing overnight camps. We have a two day ID camp.
And the reason why I made a two days was I feel like, you know, over the years I’ve seen players that come in that one day and then they say, well, I wasn’t feeling well, or, Hey, I wasn’t felt nervous. And you know, whatever reason I figure over a course of two. You’re gonna get more touches than I would see you probably in two tournaments worth of, of touches.
And so I’ll get a taste of that and your personality, because hopefully I’ll get a little bit of, of pull, pulling back a little bit of the layers of who you are, and then also for [00:05:00] you to get to know me as well as, um, our players that, you know, worth the camp, because it is only us that are running it because, you know, we’re just interested in trying to find the right players for, um, Missouri S and T.
So your ID. Every year, we’ve had a player recruited from IB camp in many years, multiple players in
Matt: terms of whether it’s at camp or, or tournaments or, or anything like that, when you’re deciding, you know, okay, this is a player we want to pursue, kind of, what does that hierarchy of factors look like?
Whether it’s on the field attributes are off the field.
Coach: Uh, you know, I always, the first thing I looked for and it’s, it was that we were at a college talk and, you know, player asked what a coaches looked for and everybody went through their thing. And I actually said, I look for people like me, Because it has to start with personality.
It has to start with, do you have characteristics that are similar to me? I don’t need you to be like me as a player, nor do I want you to be like me as when I play, except for certain characteristic, personality wise, you know, with grid, you know, mindset, all those [00:06:00] type of things. So I think, you know, like in Indian relationship, I can’t go into a relationship feeling like I gotta be all the changing to build this, but as a player, I am good with you being a 180 from, um, you know, maybe who I was that’s okay.
Because we need diversity to have success. And so I feel like I find, I’m trying to find players that are making our team great. Not just great players that come in and, and aren’t the personality. So I kind of maybe do things a little different. I’m looking at characteristics, I’m looking at, you know, who they are as people.
No, that that
Matt: makes perfect sense to me, you know, looking at your roster there as a, a, a good mix of international players as well. So how does that international recruiting kind of fit into everything for you guys? Yeah.
Coach: You know, I, I think, you know, our, our International’s a little bit different than maybe some of the, you know, cuz when people say, oh internationals, because of our.
Our degrees. And when they’re coming here, you know, we don’t, you know, we don’t have the, the, you know, the fully funded, I mean, there’s a high criteria they have to meet. And so our internationals come in, not only are they good [00:07:00] players, but they come in highly academic and focused and everything. And, you know, I’ve coached for as said, you know, well, gosh, now, 22 years, and I’ve love all my players, but you know, in other places, maybe, you know, cricket.
White as rigorous. So the internationals and what their entry and the type of player you got in. But so I think, you know, it’s a good opportunity for us to learn from them and for them to learn from us. But I would even take a step further that I think our diversity goes so much beyond that because we have, because of our academics, we have players from Arizona, California, and New York, North Carolina, Texas.
So, you know, we sometimes, you know, when I say we’re a diverse group, a lot of first seen people tend to think, oh, internationally. Well, that’s part of it, but that’s not all of it.
Matt: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, when I was in college, I think we had 15 states represented at a 20 player. So it was, but that was fun.
It was, it really added to the, to the feel. Well, let, let let’s talk about the school a bit, you know, so there’s a lot of people I’m sure who aren’t familiar with with Missouri S and T. So, you [00:08:00] know, we can go to the website and learn a lot of things, but, but gimme some, some of the tidbits, the inside scoop of what makes that school awesome that I might not learn just by going to the
Coach: website.
Sure. I, I would, I would think the number one is just. I said we’re a major division one academic university. I mean, we’re division two athletics. But when you look at the numbers and, and, and who we’ve produced, we’ve had astronauts that have come through these doors. Um, the vendor of TWI, uh, Twitter came through here, you know, couple years before going to NYU.
Um, you know, we have had governors, we’ve had people working, Microsoft, Google, and I think for us, In engineering, that is our niche. And I feel every school has their niche and we are the number one public university in engineering in number five overall. And so we are sitting at the table with MIT’s Harvard, Stanfords of the world in, in the engineering field.
We’re just a silent partner. And I don’t think people quite realize that what we’re about until they get entrenched in it. So for here, we’re not selling degrees, nor do I talk about. Here we’re about preparing you [00:09:00] to make high earnings at what you choose to study and wanna go on. And I think the evidence is on the salaries on the back end.
Last year, I lost 10 guys. That all could have came back this year, cuz of COVID year, but all them got jobs, you know, with really good salaries to start their life off. And so I think, you know, when you come here, it’s a unique situation. I mean, you’re not coming here to, to party and, and look at this social.
Not that we don’t have that, but it’s really to look at the next 40 years and you know, so it’s, it’s a different place, you know, so
Matt: no, and. With that being said, how does, uh, the, the school, the athletic department really support the, the student athletes in balancing the rigors of that academic side of things with, with playing
Coach: sports.
Sure. You know, obviously when you look at, you know, funding our funding, maybe isn’t quite the same as some of the other schools in, in terms of things. But I think we, we have a grasp of, you know, who we are, [00:10:00] um, and who we’re not. Um, but I don’t focus on so much on who we’re not, because then that takes too much energy.
I look at who we are, who we can be. Um, but our effort, department’s the same way, you know, for. We, we go several mornings at 5:45 AM to seven 30. Not because, Hey, that’s just what we want to do. It’s because that’s what we need to do for them because of the labs and academic rigors in the study. And that goes on, you know, the time has to be for them.
So right now they’ll have a schedule 5 45. 5:45 AM to seven 30 and then 7 45 to 8 45 for weights. And then the rest of the day is theirs, which is different than a lot of other schools. We go one day in the afternoon because also we play Sunday afternoons. We have to have a day to, at least we mimic what it’s like to be in the afternoon, rather always train in, in the dark.
Um, so yeah, so we do, we do, you know, we get a little understanding. We, we try to, I always tell them I value who they are and what they’re doing at this school. And, and I can appreciate everything, but we just have to come that common ground that we can get what we both [00:11:00] need out of this. No it’s
Matt: can you actually walk us through, you know, you kind of just gave us a snapshot, but can you walk us through what a typical week during the season looks like in terms of, okay.
We were practicing in the morning is what are normal class times that they’re in meals, travel? Sure. Game day situation. What, what does that, all that look like? Obviously you guys, uh, are opening up here.
Coach: Uh, yeah. Yeah. So typically now our conference has changed a little bit. So the landscape’s changed. It used to be just last year where we’d have one kind of open weekend and then we’d start conference, which was Friday, Sundays.
So generally in a typical week, once we get into the meat of, of our conference Friday, Sunday matches and, and today this weekend would be Friday, Sunday as well. We’ll have Monday off. After Sunday, that’ll be the recovery they can choose, you know, it’s their time, whatever they need to do, but it’s mainly for school, maybe rehab getting back in there.
Tuesday, we go 5:45 AM to seven 30 and then they have waits after that till 8 45. And then the rest of the [00:12:00] day is theirs, you know, to, to do classes. So they’ll go from typically, you know, you’ll have some going from 10. They’re done at three. Yep. I mean, so, but it varies, but then we have some that have class till six, you know, but they have a big gap in between just because of the labs and the type of, um, you know, courses they’re taking.
It fluctuates. I have some class, I have some students that have seven to 9:00 PM classes, so we kind of have to make that all happen here. Wednesday, we go ahead in the afternoon. Forward to, you know, route five 30, you know, again, you know, we gotta plan it. I have a lot of players that are coming right at four because they get out at three 50.
So we’re actually not getting started till little. And then I gotta deal on the back end where we have some that have six o’clock class. So I have to make sure that they get in there. So we really have to streamline everything, you know, make sure we’re very efficient at what we do Thursday. We go back to the morning, it’s a walkthrough, obviously, and then they have weights and then Friday, we don’t have anything cuz game day.
And then we play tonight at. And then Saturday becomes a training [00:13:00] recovery for Sunday, you know, starting to move forward and doing all those type of things. And then the day is there’s for studying and do what they need to do. But yeah, you know, we have to plan, we have to work around their schedules at times.
You know, some of them have jobs on campus, like the other campuses, but the main thing is we gotta work around their academics. We’re on the road, many times I’ll Proctor an. because unlike other schools here, when there’s an exam, they’re not able to, to postpone it. They have to take on the day. So I’ve gotta find a time, a way to fit that in and, and get it done.
And then, uh, fax over email, the, the test back just it’s that type of school where they just wanna make sure that there’s no opportunity for anyone to have a academic advantage because they had an extra couple of days of. Oh, wow.
Matt: Okay. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the soccer side. You guys open up tonight, which has gotta be exciting.
Um, you know, I, like I said, we see the roster there behind you, but, but do you have a typical roster size that you’re trying to hit each season? Well,
Coach: you know, it, it’s, it’s interesting [00:14:00] cuz at a school like here, you know, we’re obviously majority males to females just because of the stem, but we’re growing that we’re growing that.
But because of that makeup, this is a unique situation that for instance, title IX is reversed where we actually have to have a bigger roster because we have to. What the population percentage is of male to female. And so we actually have 41 that we have to carry, you know, in order for that. So it’s a big roster and everybody’s always asking me, how do you manage that?
How do you do that? Well, very carefully, um, uh, you know, very. Diligent in terms of making sure there’s not that much downtime, that we’ve got a lot of things going, people active. And so, um, you know, there’s some challenges, but I think the guys, they do a good job cuz we keep talking about their journey, you know?
And that’s the key to understand that there’s guys that obviously aren’t gonna travel. Could we travel roughly around 22 players? So that means about 18 players will not be traveling, but every year they have to realize that we have players that are now [00:15:00] traveling that were on that. That did their time.
They put in the work and then they found their way making the first team. And that could be in one year, two years, three years. I mean, we have a young man that will be dressing that had never dressed until this year. And he’s been here for three years, but he’s put in the work and now it’s his time. And, you know, like I said, that’s what, that’s the challenge.
I think more than anything, to be honest, even more than the Xs of nos in your opponent is just, how do you maintain that mentality with that group to understand that everyone’s valued and everybody’s role is super important. It just. Vary the role that you have on the team for year to year.
Matt: Yeah, no, I can see that being tough.
What do you have, uh, additional staff, uh, that help you manage that? What kind of other staff does the athletic department have to just kind of help, uh, you know, fill all the roles within the, the team.
Coach: Well, you’re looking at ’em and everything. So when I joke, I mean, it’s, you know, that’s part of, like I said, you know, the, some of the things we’re trying to improve here, um, our athletic directors working hard and, and the uppers are trying, [00:16:00] you know, again, they’re slowly, but they’re still that academic thought of, Hey, this is who we are.
And, and we have athletics and they support it, but they just, you know, we’re getting there, we’re getting there. So it is, you know, me and I always joke with other coaches when we’re out sometimes. And you know, I’ll say, Hey, My assistant’s just too lazy to be going anywhere. I mean, I gotta come out here. I mean, but it is sometimes challenging when you go somewhere and you see assistant coaches and then the head coaches are somewhere else.
And so that’s where, when you talking about earlier, the question about where do I go to recruit? I really gotta make sure I’m in an area that I have multiple target players that I’m looking at because I can’t afford to send myself going somewhere for one player. If I, if I had a staff. I could do that, cuz I know there’ll probably be more than just one there, but I can’t risk that when it’s me.
I have to kind of go cause I just can’t waste any opportunity to recruit in numbers. Yeah, no,
Matt: totally understandable. Um, well, you know, again, game day, you know, [00:17:00] with, if I grabbed a couple of your players and asked them, you know, how would you describe, uh, your style of coaching and, and the team style of play?
What are, what are they gonna tell me?
Coach: Well, I’ll say, I think they’ll say personality talks a lot. I mean that, I mean, I’ll be the first, I mean, yeah, I can chatter. Um, but I also think they’ll, they’ll say, I mean, I lead by example cuz I think, you know, One thing I’ve learned and in the recent years has just come to the surface is, you know, uh, there’s a lot of talk.
It’s easy to write things. Things like, oh, we ought to do this, the right words. I just always live my life by the substance, just live it and, and, and breathe it and act on it. And so I think they’ll, they’ll all say that I care. I have passion for them. I have passion for win. I have passion for what I do.
Um, I have their best interests in mind. I understand just like in a regular family, not all will like my decisions every day, but then again, when you’re a parents, you don’t like every decision that they’ve made, but [00:18:00] you respect it. And I think with this group, they’re very close group. An example I use is, and I didn’t even realize this towards the end of the spring.
I was made aware that 17 guys and, and at the, in the springtime, we only had 25 guys, I think at that time, cuz we brought in 18 new players this year. And so we had 25 17 all went spring break together and then the other, I think six, seven went to South Carolina together. So the, basically the whole team went somewhere together and that was kind of unique and, and, and just told me a little bit of how the relationship are with each other.
And to me. Right there. There’s what you need to know because they don’t have to spring break. You’re generally doing whatever, but for them they’ll still wanna be together. So, I mean, I would say, yeah, that would be anything I tactic wise, I would say, you know, like anything we wanna keep the ball, but I also think in college, you know, I tell ’em you gotta be able to be direct.
You gotta possess the ball. I think the main thing is just take what’s given to you. That’s one thing I always try to stress to ’em, [00:19:00] you know, if it’s two touches, it’s two touches. If you can dribble, you can dribble, but again, don’t do any more than what your opponent’s allowing you to do. Just take what they give you.
And if it means we can go direct, we’ll go direct. But if we wanna keep the ball, so ideally of course, we would like to keep. But at the same time, there’s opportunities to go forward. It is about scoring and creating opportunities. And if you can do it in three passes instead of 25, I’m all for the three
Gotcha.
Matt: Well, in terms of the off season, so I know we’re either re rewind or fast forward, however you want, wanna do it. You know, what, what does the typical off season look like for you
Coach: guys? Well, RF season will be once our season’s over. Then we’ll meet. And then by I survey roles, we have to have two weeks off 14 days, but we generally just give ’em the rest of the semester because a lot of them are still trying to catch up with academics.
And maybe they’re a little behind, they’re getting ready for that last push, uh, for finals because [00:20:00] you know, one of the things that are, is kind of a non-negotiable for us is to maintain as a team GPA 3.0 with 41 guys. It’s tough. But at school, like here, We told ’em you didn’t come here for easy. So I think that’s an attainable.
So for us, you know, that’s the thing that we leave em at is, Hey, now we gotta win this part. You know, this is part of our team goals. We talk about wins and all this, this is part of winning right here. So we give the rest of the semester, but individual meetings, you know, kind of tell ’em how the fall went.
um, what we’re looking for in the spring, those who didn’t play, you know, kind of what we, um, you know, I guess what I saw in their progress, you know, through the fall, you know, I always tell people when you’re not playing you tell me a lot of who you are based on your reaction to the decision. Do you train hard and keep getting better?
If you wait till the spring, as you know, you know, former coach there, it’s tough to, um, to also win a position when you didn’t put in the work, you gotta put in the work in the fall. If you’re not traveling. Um, so spring comes. I would usually give [00:21:00] ’em three weeks off at the beginning, they get acclimated a, to the weights again, cuz they’ll be solar.
We’ll do the weight training, we’ll get classes and then we’ll meet. And then we’ll start doing our one hour or eight hours, you know, on the ball or four hours, sorry on the ball that we can get on. And so it’s not very taxing. And then we get into a traditional spring season. Like everyone else we’ll have five date.
We try to play, you know, six or seven games, you know, but because of COVID, you know, things have been living it the last several years, but, um, and then we end it with usually an alumni game, an event, and then we go off, you know, and then, you know, Mays here and then they’re off through their, I said, my guys are unique.
They’re off to internships. Most of ’em where everybody else looking to go play. My guys are on the oil fields or, or working in Mercedes factory. I don’t know. But they’re all generally working at internships, you know, which makes preseason. You know, I say that is how I address it. You know, a lot of people know how I address preseason is different than most where I, I have to realize what reality is and who, what they’re not going to be [00:22:00] coming in based on what they’re doing all summer with their work.
Sure. And so my pre-season looks a little different than some of the others. No, that makes perfect
Matt: sense. Well, coach we’ve, we’ve covered a lot of ground, uh, and talked about a lot of different things. So I always like to end these with the last question of what didn’t we cover. What else do you want people to know?
Whether it’s about the school, the team, the recruiting process college in general, you name it? Uh, the floor is yours.
Coach: Oh, that’s a loaded question. um, I, I mean, I’ll start with the general. Athletes, you know, looking to go play at college, you gotta be proactive. You have to be proactive. I think too many young, young players, and even parents say they expect because they’re paying money with club coaches and all this that, Hey, you’re gonna see me.
I mean, they’ve gotta use their resources. I don’t think enough their club coaches or, or many of them have college to recruit, you know, I mean, recruiters that can help them, the system and all that type of things. And then I would say you. Broadening your scope. Don’t just look at one thing, you know, [00:23:00] look at all, divisions, take a look at the schools, you know, all those type of things, but above all, get the grades, cuz grades give you options.
Whether it’s a school like us or anywhere, it doesn’t make a difference. If you have grades, you have options. Don’t let your grades be the reason why you can’t get somewhere. If that wants you and you wanna be there, but because of grades and for us. I think, you know, what we have the opportunity is you’re coming to a premier university academic university.
That’s going to prepare you to succeed. You know, um, three years ago we had an alumni donate 300 million to our academics would put us a month, just a few that have ever had that amount. So. I always challenge my player. Who’s gonna be the next one to donate that. Now maybe a Porsche could come to soccer.
That’d be nice. Come to soccer. But the point is, that’s what you’re here for. You’re here to get that degree. Ultimately, as we know in athletics, it ends at one point. And so, but this degree won’t and then our conference. Conference is when the premier division two conferences in the nation. [00:24:00] Um, now we keep losing teams in division one.
You know, we just lost two teams with Linda Wood in Southern Indiana. And then, uh, two years ago, uh, Bellerman and there’s rumors of another school after this year. So it’s kind of like, you know, I’d say, boy, it’s a struggle. Cause then we gotta find more non conference games, but it’s kind of Testament to our conference.
I mean, you know, you in this area, Northern Kentucky was part of this. I mean, there’s. Schools that are D one now that were all part of this conference. So that’s another thing you’re gonna be challenged as a player because all these coaches are great in the conference and it’s different brands. That’s what I love about it.
It’s not the same. Oh, this team is this. You’re gonna have teams of mainly all kids that are domestic players, American kids, the ones that are mainly all internationals and then ones that are hybrid between the two. So that kind of makes it exciting.
Matt: Yeah, no, absolutely. And great advice, uh, to the recruits.
And it’s, it will be interesting to see how the landscape, uh, continues to change in the D two D one environment. But coach, we wish you the best of luck tonight. Opening night. Good luck in, in the [00:25:00] conference. It is one of those, one of the most toughest ones out there, for sure. So hopefully you guys can, can stand to top the podium this year and we wish you the
Coach: best.
We wish you the best of luck. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Thank you.
