Northern Oklahoma College Men’s Soccer – Coach Aron Bassoff

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody, welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Aaron from northern Oklahoma college. Welcome coach Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for being here and no folks. You don’t have to adjust your tv You have seen coach before. Uh, he we we had we had the pleasure of speaking I guess it was two years ago at this point.

Uh, but now you’re now you’re in oklahoma. So excited to learn about what’s going on there um You know, you’re, you’re wrapping up the season. I know you got a playoff game tomorrow. So I appreciate you taking the time today, but I’m just curious at this point in the season. I mean, at a 2 year institution, you really, I know 1 year at a time, almost on the recruiting trail, but how much recruiting are you doing?

During the season, or maybe on a percentage basis, or is it all after the season’s over? What does that look like for you? 

Coach: Yeah, I mean, I think it mainly comes after the season. And, and I usually do that anyways, even at a four year school, but I think it’s even more important to do that at a, at a junior college, just because, um, you know, you’re seeing, uh, what players are going to stick around for another year that are first year players, and there’s so much.

Up in the air. I mean, you can pretty much count on the fact that you’ll just keep recruiting, you know, the same player, the same positions over and over again. That’s one thing you can count on your when, when, if a player asks us, well, you’re going to have a need [00:01:30] for this position in whatever 2025 recruiting class, you can pretty much say, yeah, that’s the way it is that junior college, you’re going to always have a need for the, you know, For the position.

So, um, that is one thing that, um, is, is kind of a standard or I would say, you know, a constant that the ability to recruit, um, during the season, um, you know, for me, I always want to kind of wait and see how everyone has played this year, um, and then see who’s coming back. And then before I make decisions about, um, you know, who I’m going to go out and recruit and how, what positions are really, really important for us.

Um, you know, what positions maybe are more important than another. Um, so that’s kind of what the reason why I wait, um, till the end of the season to do it. And, uh, you know, during, during the season, you know, all my focus is, is really on the team and us getting ready for our games and everything like that.

And that does take up a lot of time too, 

Matt: as well. Yeah, for sure. Well, in terms of. I mean, having spoken with a number of junior college coaches, uh, over the last few years, I think I’ve seen rosters of, you know, somebody said to walk into a season with, with 12 players and I’ve seen rosters of, you know, 40, 50 players, uh, what, what’s, what’s kind of your ideal roster size, uh, for you guys there at Northern Oklahoma.

Coach: Well, we, [00:03:00] we had 30 guys this year and I really liked that. That was a good number. We had some injuries and things like that. We had one injury kind of right off the bat where we knew the player wasn’t going to play for the rest of the season. And so that number has been good. Um, you know, for us, I don’t think it’s too many.

Um, and I don’t think it’s too few. We do a lot of our training goes to 11, the 11. Um, so we need to have the players. Um, to be able to do that and work on the things that we do and our roster has been, um, like it was last year, very competitive, very close. So that is good too as well. So, um, when we’re training, we have a lot of competitiveness.

Um, and, and, and guys that are very close to, you know, playing. And there’s a lot of movement on our roster as far as that happens throughout the year, uh, guys go from, um, proving themselves and getting some playing time and, and things like that. So, uh, it’s been a good situation here at Northern Oklahoma.

Matt: Well, when you’re, when you’re recruiting folks out there, where is it that, that you’re looking, I see you got a mix of domestic and international, you’re kind Equidistant from Tulsa and Oklahoma City. So some good hot beds there. What’s your preference when where to find players? 

Coach: And we’ve gone down to Texas and I’d like to get up into Kansas too as well a little bit and see about Missouri.

I got to become a little more familiar with soccer in that area. [00:04:30] And you’re right, Tulsa and Oklahoma City are two very good You know, areas for soccer, um, we’ve gotten some interest also from players in Arkansas. Um, that’s another border state. So you have Arkansas and Missouri and Texas and, um, Oklahoma as I mean, um, Kansas as border states.

And so I think it’s important to get those schools to, I mean, realistically, if someone wanted to come to the school and they were from, um, you know, far away, we certainly would recruit them as long as they were open to coming, you know, that far. We have a good situation with being able to offer players in state tuition, even that are out of state.

So that’s a nice thing to have. Um, and then we can kind of go from there with our scholarship money, um, you know, on top of it, but we’ve got a good, I like our, our mix of players where we have. Um, about 50 percent are domestic players and 50 are international and, you know, each 1 brings something a little bit different.

And I think that we’re actually probably 1 of the few schools, at least in our, our region that that has that. And, um, you know, it, it definitely is something that I’ve enjoyed. Um, you know, having as far as a, as a team to coach. Okay. 

Matt: Well, do you work any ID camps or do you host your own or, or camps a part of your recruiting process at all?

Coach: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so I have an ID camp coming up for our school and we [00:06:00] invite all the, we invite a lot of kids to come out for that. And then, um, there, there is some ID camps that, that I do work. I’ve worked, uh, I worked last year, I worked at Oral Roberts. Okay. Um, ID camp, um, if there’s any other camps that people usually invite me to, there’s 1 that’s going to happen down at Oklahoma City.

Um, I don’t know if it’s being put on by the actual Oklahoma City University down there. I think it’s being done by a company. So I definitely will. I did 1 down in, um, outside of Dallas too as well. Um, for a club, um, and they had a bunch of college coaches come in. So for sure, um, you know, I, I’m at ID camps, um, and, and trying to recruit there.

Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the college itself. Uh, you know, what drew you to it? What have you found to be some great things about it? Uh, you know, now that you’ve, you’ve been there for a season. 

Coach: Yeah, I wouldn’t. I was in that unusual situation as you knew, so it wasn’t actually a draw. It was more of a, um, you know, okay, I’ve enjoyed myself here after the first year I want to stay type of situation just with the late closing of Alderson Broaddus and in July and then me needing another position and being fortunate enough to be given one that was that enjoyable.

So, um, Um, you know, I’ve liked it in, uh, Oklahoma. We have, we have a great [00:07:30] facility here. Um, and that was one of the reasons why, uh, soccer used to be at Tonkawa, which is about 45 minutes north of here. It’s very close to the Kansas border, close to Wichita. And so, um, they used to have soccer up in, at that campus, and then they moved it down to, to Enid.

Um, there’s already, were sports teams here down at the Enid campus. They had basketball, Baseball and softball. So they already had the infrastructure to support having sports teams on campus here. So, when the soccer facility was built off campus, their intention was they wanted us to be using the facility and help promoting it.

And it’s a, it’s a fantastic facility. It’s got a championship field. Um, that’s turf. Um, has, uh, you know, a press box and stands and things like that lights. Um, it’s a fantastic facility and then it also has 6 grass fields. Um, it has an indoor field. That’s about 40 by 40 inside. There’s a conference room where we can do match analysis and have meetings.

And then, um, also we have locker rooms, um, for us a separate 1 for us and the women and then visiting locker room separate for the men and the women too. So, it’s just a really fantastic, um, uh, you know, facility that we have, which is another, uh, [00:09:00] Perk of, you know, being able to coach here. And that was definitely weighed in my decision to want to stay here.

Uh, town of unit is, is a pretty decent size. It’s got about 50, 000. so there’s definitely, um, you know, things to do and things like that. And we’re not too far away from Tulsa and Oklahoma City and even Wichita. We’re only an hour and a half away from all 3 of those. You know, cities, so it’s a good location.

Um, and, uh, you know, we, we have a good thing going for us, um, at the school. 

Matt: Yeah. Sounds like it. Well, do me a favor. Let’s well, I mean, this is a little bit of an odd week because it’s, it’s tournament time, but, uh, let’s say a few weeks back, walk me through what a typical week’s going to look like for a player in terms of, you know, winter.

Classes, meals, game cadence. What’s somebody doing if it’s in season? 

Coach: Well, I’ll say I’ll start off with Monday since everyone thinks of that as the start of the week. So Monday would be usually a day where we’re coming off, um, you know, playing in a, in a game on Sunday. So, uh, we do some recovery work with our guys that are, um, have played a decent amount of minutes.

The guys that didn’t play usually go through a training session with us, and it’s a good time for those guys, you know, to prove themselves, uh, in the group that they’re training with. And that’s the way we frame it. That’s the way I frame it to the guys. You know, [00:10:30] um, sometimes when you get into the season, you’re focused on the group that’s been mainly been playing.

So, um, your ability to kind of pick up and see who’s developing, Um, is a little bit tougher. So it’s a good time for them to do that. And and those sessions are usually pretty good. Um, so that would be kind of a Monday practice for us Tuesday. Um, most of the time we’re preparing for our game the next day, because we generally play on Wednesdays.

So it is a, uh, you know, shorter practice and our focus is on getting ready for our opponent. Um, you know, how we’re going to play versus our opponent sticking within our style of play. Um, we might review some set pieces as well. It just kind of depends. Um, where we’re at with all that stuff, but generally, um, that’s a shorter practice for us.

And then Wednesday we’re playing, um, you know, Thursday is usually the day off for our guys. Um, and we ask them to do stuff on their own, whether it be recovery work for the guys that played a lot, or it’s fitness for the guys that aren’t playing as much to keep their level, um, up. And then on Friday, uh, that’s usually our big practice day because we’re not playing till Sunday.

And so Friday’s a pretty intense practice for us, uh, pretty big on physical demand. Um, tactically, we’re starting to look at what we’re going to do on Sunday. Um, and so that [00:12:00] practice tends to be, um, you know, pretty intense 1 and then Saturday. Same thing as a Tuesday practice would be the day before the game, a little bit shorter, still touching on some things, um, you know, to work on.

We may have worked on the attacking or the defending side the day before, and so now we’re working on the opposite on, on Saturday. And then, um, we’re, uh, getting back at it on Sunday, playing our match. So, um, we practice in the afternoons on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So we’re generally from two 30 to four 30, and then on Tuesday and Thursday, if we practice cause Thursday, we normally don’t, but we usually practice in the morning, the guys.

Prefer practicing in the morning rather than the evening, which is when we would have had to practice. So we practice and our school is a little unusual because we have classes that start at 730. so we generally start practice at about 545 on those Tuesdays or Thursdays when we practice and then Saturday is usually a morning practice too.

Um, as well. So the majority of the time our guys have, uh, either their evening or the rest of the day free to take care of their schoolwork and everything like that. 

Matt: Okay. Awesome. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team. I mean, do you have, uh, any other [00:13:30] soccer staff, assistant coaches or other staff in the athletic department or academically that help out with the team at all?

Sure. 

Coach: Me and the women’s coach are assistant coaches for each other. So, um, you know, that’s what, that’s what we have as far as that goes. 

Matt: Okay. Yeah, I did that back in my day. I totally remember those situations. Yeah, we’re pretty 

Coach: flexible with each other, so it works out well. 

Matt: Yeah, it’s, it can be fun. That way you get a little bit of the guy’s side and the girl’s side too.

Right, right. Um, well, how would you describe your style of coaching, the style of play that you’re looking to play there? 

Coach: Well, we want guys that are really committed and dedicated to the way that we want to play. Um, you know, it’s not a question of, uh, the way I’m asking guys to play being the right or the wrong way.

It’s a question of it being the right way for our team. Um, and that’s probably one of the biggest adjustments. I think that players, especially their first year, go through that that really happens and it really matters. You see players kind of say, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they, you can see them kind of revert back to things maybe they’ve done, um, at another level and on the teams they played at.

And it’s just doesn’t fit into our style of play. So that’s a really big component. And, and I’m very demanding about that and very, um, emphatic about guys doing that because we’re going to work together as [00:15:00] a team, all 11 guys pulling in the right direction. And that’s what that means to me. Is being able to do that.

We do make adjustments and things like that. We’ve played different formations this year. We’ve played different formations, um, from one game to the next. Um, style of play always remains the same and guys always understand that. I expect guys to be student of the game. Um, I send out a lot of information to our guys, uh, video clips of us playing, of the team we’re going to play, playing, why we, you Have, um, chosen a certain amount of tactics that we have.

Um, you know, if we play a team, um, that plays a high back line, we might be a little bit more direct that game. We’re still gonna keep possession of the ball and maintain that integrity. Cause that’s always, um, something we want to do. Cause we want to try to control the control, the game with possession, but, um, you know, from one game to the next.

Uh, depending upon how the other team is going to defend us, especially when we get into our region play, where we’re playing teams twice, um, in the season, which is something that happens with us. That makes it a little more unique. Um, you know, we really focus on how can we take our style of play. And tweak it just enough that we’re going to be able to, you know, um, be able to attack against this team, but not like totally go opposite of what we normally do.

So, um, [00:16:30] and we want our guys to also be able to do that. Um, you know, through the course of the game. So we practice that we’ve, we’ve played against teams that. Played a high line in the first half and then dropped that line in the second half. And so our guys know if the team’s playing a high back line, we’re going to be a little bit more direct.

And then they also know if the team’s sitting back a little bit more, that we’ll, um, play the ball a little bit more into feet at the back line and then try to combine and go forward. So as we go throughout the season, our guys kind of know, um, that’s adjustment we, uh, to make. We anticipate a team doing one thing.

And we’re always ready to make the adjustment, um, to do something else. And so, um, we, I give them a lot of information, not just in training, but outside of training. So I really expect our guys to be students of the game. That’s another thing I think that is kind of new for players. You know, coming from playing at the club or the high school level, you might find an exception to that every once in a while.

But most players are not used to putting that time in off the field, looking at videos, you know, listening to what’s being said and really understanding that the best players that are going to get out on the field are the ones that show that. And that’s really, uh, what ends up happening when you look at a season.

Um, you know, if you probably strictly just Pick the best players based on, you know, skill or something like that, um, [00:18:00] on our team that wouldn’t necessarily be the guys that are going to be our starting 11. You know, the mind I told our guys the other day in training, your mind is the most important, um, thing that you can develop as a soccer player.

And I know probably a lot of people think it’s your feet or something like that, but it’s really your mind. And so that’s what we want from our guys be willing to do. Oh, I love that. Love that. 

Matt: Well, one thing. People are always wondering, okay, this is the soccer season. It’s heavy in the fall. You’re doing a ton.

So what does that non traditional season look like the spring? So what, what, what are your players doing in the spring? What does that look like? 

Coach: Yeah, I’m definitely someone philosophically that believes once the season’s over, the guys need a break mentally and physically and psychologically. I think it’s good.

Um, you know, they, uh, a lot of the guys, you know, are into working out, so they’ll keep themselves somewhat fit, which I encourage them to do on their own as kind of just what they would do in a routine. Normally, um, you know, even if they hadn’t just played like a long season, like our own, um, and then once we come back for second semester, which we start in the beginning of January.

We start getting together and we start doing some running, um, you know, three or four times a week. And we do some lifting too, as well. So we get a little bit of a base before we go out and we start to actually train. And then once we get to February, um, you know, we start actually going out and practicing, um, [00:19:30] and, you know, training, uh, probably usually around four times a week.

We still keep up with our strength training to as well during that time. And then, um, Um, really once we start getting into March, if we can get a game in before spring break, we usually have an early spring break in the beginning of March. So sometimes if we can get a game in early spring break, we’ll do that.

If not, then we wait to play our games, um, in, uh, after spring break. And then we’re playing four or five matches during the spring, which we’re allowed to do. Um, this past year, we played a number of Division 2 teams, NCAA Division 2 teams. We played an NAI team. Um, and so that’s the type of level of competition we want to play.

We want to play other schools that, um, you know, are going to have players returning. Um, you know, at a juco, you could end up with a lot of the kids even leaving at break. So I try to schedule four year teams to make sure we’re going to get a good match in. 

Matt: Yeah. Okay. Well, coach, I really appreciate the time and, and wish you luck in your, your playoff match tomorrow.

But as we leave, I got one last question. If you had one piece of advice for anybody going through the recruiting process right now, what would that be? 

Coach: You got to put the work in. Um, it’s not gonna just come to you. You can be a great player and coaches not know about you. Um, you know, coaches cannot possibly know about [00:21:00] every player.

They can’t even know about the majority of the players out there. If you have a strong desire to play in college, then you need to, you know, figure out Um, what type of school you want to go to location size level of play. I mean, I’ll add 1 more piece in here because I’ve coached. This is my 1st time.

I’ve ever coached junior college soccer as, you know, and, um, I’ve been really pleasantly surprised with the level of play. I mean, I would say it’s very, very close. To, um, you know, N. C. Double a division 2 N. A. I. Level of play. And so I would encourage. You know, players to leave that as an option. Um, you know, 1 of the valuable things that players get out of doing that is generally you’re going to play either your 1st year or your 2nd year.

So that experience that you get, um. Is something that really can help you, you know, there’s obviously advantages and disadvantages to going to a junior college, but I do think in general, that ability to play your 1st, couple of years does end up helping. You more than it hurts you to not be out of school for at four years consistently.

And I know a lot of the good schools, um, like for players to come and go to junior college because they don’t see that player necessarily being able to play their first or second year. So they get a more polished player when they comes in their junior year. And they’re actually more ready to play at that level.

Um, [00:22:30] because of that experience, but I’d encourage players to get out there and do the work and contact coaches if they’re serious. Even if you have your name, like, on a recruiting website, it doesn’t mean a coach is going to know about you and going to go through all the players. I mean, there’s thousands of players on these recruiting websites.

Um, so you really got to put the work in. If you want to play soccer in college and contact coaches and get your video out there and also, um, you know, figuring out from there. A lot of those coaches going to want you to come to ID camps like at our ID camp. We actually bring our players out to play with the guys that are, um, you know, the recruits because we want to see how they’re going to do against our players.

Now, that’s 1 thing. We’re a little bit more fortunate to be able to do at the juco level than other schools are. So NCAA schools might not be able to do that, but we can and it’s a good experience for us because we’re looking at you and we’re saying, okay, this is what it’s like to play against a college player.

How do you do at this point? Mhm. Yeah, 

Matt: for sure. Well, really appreciate it coach. Best of luck. And I’m sure we’ll keep in touch. All right. Take care of yourself.