Northwest University Men’s Soccer – Coach Gary McIntosh
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach McIntosh from the Northwest Men’s Program in Washington. We talk about how players should be recruiting the school just as much as coaches are recruiting the player. He describes the school’s old university campus feel, even with a small student body. Lastly, we discuss how they will adapt their style of play as the season progresses. Learn more about Northwest 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 Gary from Northwest University. Welcome coach.
Coach: Thank you.
Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. I know I appreciate you taking the time. I know you are the soccer coach as well as athletic director. So you got a lot going on there.
So I appreciate the time. Um, you know, we’re talking end of August seasons kicked off just out of curiosity on the recruiting front. How much recruiting for say the class of 25s are you doing right now? Are you doing any 26 kind of recruiting? What’s your timeline usually look like during the season?
Coach: Yeah, we’re definitely trying to nail down our 25s. Um, we’ve got our list together of probably about 60 names or so. Um, and we’re trying to just kind of Start putting offers out to these players and see, uh, who decides they, you know, want to come to Northwest and, and we just kind of work our way down that list, um, for the 25, um, so we’re pretty active and trying to get them signed right now, but we’re not as active right now watching.
We’re just we don’t have the time to get out and watch, watch games and, um, you know, that type of stuff. Um, with 26 is, um, we’re still kind of working on building those relationships and trying to identify, um, the. [00:01:30] Positions and players we’re, we’re looking for. Um, so our, our list on that group is a lot, lot larger.
And in some cases, I mean, we just haven’t even gotten to that, that list where we’re going to start offering, um, scholarships and stuff out to yet. So being, being an AI for us, we can, we can offer 26, uh, scholarships and opportunities now, um, but it’s just a little bit early for that. So.
Matt: You know, it makes sense.
Well, in terms of that identification process you talked about, you know, obviously it’s hard to hard to get out these next few months. Um, but when November, December, January rolls around, where are the places that you like to go? What? What tournaments? What events? Where are you looking at to to find players?
Coach: Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, being here 22 years, As the coach. Um, I have a lot of former players that are high school coaches and community college coaches. So it’s a lot of word of mouth for me right now. A lot of people. Um, I also do some, um, consulting for, for families and clubs on on how to be recruited.
And I often tell people you’re recruiting me. That’s probably a better way to look at it. You’re recruiting me and the school that you want to go play for as much as I’m trying to go out and find. Athletes as well. So I’ll try to sometimes hit some holiday, you know, Thanksgiving tournaments, um, you know, that type of stuff, um, there’s some good ones [00:03:00] down in Portland or some down here at star fire and Washington.
Sometimes I’ve gone down to California, but, um, it’s probably for me. Um, Less and less of attending tournaments, um, in the fall. And it’s more just, um, you know, word of mouth. And I probably average about 60 to 70 emails a day. That some emails have multiple, um, recruits on them. So sometimes it’ll be five recruits.
Sometimes it’ll be two on one email. Sometimes it’s 15 to 20. So, um, it’s, I’m getting so many emails daily, um, with athletes looking for a place to play. Um, and so, um, oftentimes, you know, I I’m getting a small percentage now, probably less than. 30 percent from watching tournaments and, and getting out there and, and just cold trying to identify Um, oftentimes if I go to a tournament, it’s because people are emailing me saying, Hey, I’m going to be at that tournament.
Would you come take a look at me and, you know, give me some feedback and stuff like that. So,
Matt: no, I absolutely makes a lot of sense. Well, what about ID camps? They seem to be growing in popularity these days. Do you guys run your own or do you or your staff work other ID camps? Are they an important part of your process at all?
Yeah, absolutely.
Coach: [00:04:30] Yeah, you know, I’ve got, I have mixed feelings about ID camps. Um, or, um, for a couple of reasons. I mean, the 1 thing I would say about ID camps is it’s a great place to get yourself on that campus. So, if you see yourself maybe going to that school, whether you’re an athlete or not, it’s a great way to get on campus, meet some people, meet the coaching staff, that kind of thing.
Um, but ID camps, I mean, if you’re really, you know, Trying to play soccer for that school. Um, a coach is going to bring you out, have them train in a practice session. They’re going to have you come out and kind of. Do a recruit session just with the team. So it’s, it’s a long shot, you know, as far as like making a team from, from an ID camp, um, and some of the ID camps, um, are fundraisers, they’re just fundraisers for university.
So you just have to kind of be careful with that. They’re not all that way. Um, But, you know, you just got to have to ask the right questions and, and then see, we, we do run ours, but we usually try to identify players that we are interested in. So it’s more of an invitational type of an ID camp versus just a, a blanket email saying, Hey, come out and come play with us.
Um, it’s, it’s more of an invitational.
Matt: Okay. Well, when you’re, when you’re seeing these players play, whether it’s at a tournament, whether it’s through. Whatever method ID camp, anything else. What is [00:06:00] it that, that you are looking for in a player? What makes a player somebody you want to recruit, whether that’s on the field attributes or off the field stuff?
Coach: Yeah. Uh, we’re looking for probably when it comes to the, the play side of the thing is just consistency. What are they consistently doing? Well, um, sometimes athletes think, Oh, I had that one really good play in that game. You know, somebody’s gonna like me. That’s not necessarily the case of we’re looking for athletes who throughout the course of the game are consistently playing good defense, consistently communicating with their teammates, consistently making the right past or consistently making right decision.
So, um, you know, consistency is a big part of, you know, finding players that, you know, will fit what we’re doing here. Um, we’re looking for athletes that, you know, are working hard. Um, they’re not just working hard when the balls around them. Um, what are they doing when their team doesn’t have the ball? Are they back in defensive shape?
And, you know, are they doing the things that the game requires or the moments require of them? Are they doing those things? Are they just watching? Are they arguing with a teammate? Are they arguing with the officials? How are they treating Um, their coaches. Um, and even for us, I think we even take it a step further, you know, we oftentimes will watch how are they getting along with their parents?
How do they get along with the families on the sidelines? So it’s just kind of like, we’re trying to encompass the full athlete, you know, look at the character of the, of the player as well as a soccer piece, [00:07:30] um, of it. It’s kind of everything for us is, uh, Full, full look of the athlete. Um, not just that one or two plays that were maybe brilliant for that game.
Matt: Yeah, it makes, makes a lot of sense. Well, let’s talk about the school itself a little bit more. Uh, you’ve been there a long time. Uh, you have multiple positions there at the school, so you’ll give us some good insights, but what is it about Northwest that you like? What are some awesome things about the school?
Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know just by going through the website.
Coach: Yeah, well, first and foremost, it’s a Christian university. So it’s a faith, faith based school. Um, and it’s not for everybody. I mean, that’s the bottom line. It’s not for everybody, but it has a unique place for those people that are looking to be, you know, at a faith based school.
Um, it’s a smaller environment. Um, so I think, you know, it’s, it’s a good place for students, um, that aren’t looking for that, that big. Massive big campus. Um, it’s a smaller campus and you get to know everybody. All the athletes know everybody. We’ve got about 160 athletes across all the sports. Um, and so it’s a tight knit family.
oriented athletic department. Um, we’ve got great coaches, good, good, solid teams. Um, and on top of that, it’s a really good education to Northwest, you know, puts out where I then top 25 U. S. News and uh, report. Um, so very good [00:09:00] academics, uh, good, good staff and faculty here. I mean, everybody here, um, Really cares about the students, um, and then finding success.
Um, you know, being an NEI school where student athletes 1st here and I would say, um, we have athletes go pro, um, but we’re not necessarily turning out pro athletes, you know, on a yearly basis. That’s just not kind of, uh. The size of school being any I and what we’re about. Um, it’s happened, but we’re, we’re producing, you know, quality people graduating and heading into their degrees and have just.
You know, our learning through being on teams, you know, character and, you know, good skills for life and, you know, that kind of thing. So it’s, um, it’s a small campus. It’s about 90 acres. I think so. Um, but it has that campus feel that old university campus feel. They’ve got these nice brick buildings and campus and stuff.
So it’s got that, uh, university feel to it, even though, you know, we’re under 1000 students.
Matt: Awesome. Um, well, one of the things you mentioned, uh, you know, student athlete first, and there is that student component a lot of times to tough transition from balance to balance, you know, the demands of a college sport along with the new college academic environment.
So, what, what kind of support systems does the school offer to help? You know, new student athletes be [00:10:30] successful both in the classroom as well as the on the field.
Coach: Yeah, um, we’ve got an academic success center that is very supportive of our athletes. Um, and so they, they work with athletes when they’re missing classes or falling behind in classes or.
Um, you know, if you go on a long road trip, you can work through their department to help make things up. Um, they, they’re kind of like the liaison with, with the faculty. Um, and so, you know, just making sure we’re not, no, one’s falling behind. You can get. You can get help writing papers. You can make up your tests there, you know, that kind of thing.
So that department’s absolutely amazing. I’d say though, too, is I think our coaching staff and current, you know, athletes, like returning athletes really step up and take care of the new athletes, help them get acclimated for the academic side of things. Um, and there’s a lot of tutoring that goes on within teams.
Um, you could also use the academic center for that as well, but I think the back of it. Are just so supportive of athletics, um, at Northwest. I mean, it’s just very supportive. Um, as long as the athletes are communicating well with the, the faculty, um, we, we have great rapport with the faculty. They’re always wanting to see the athletes be successful.
Um, so it’s a, it’s kind of a two way street, but, um, as long as the athletes showing up to class and doing what they’re supposed to be doing, um, the faculty here just totally on board with, uh, supporting the athletes and. And then their endeavors. So it’s, it’s pretty cool [00:12:00] place, um, academically for, for the athletes.
Matt: Sounds like it. Well, let’s, let’s fast forward. Say it’s October, middle of October, the heart of that conference season. Walk me through what’s a typical week look like for your players in terms of when our classes, practices, meals, game cadence, all that stuff.
Coach: Yeah, yeah, Monday, Wednesday, Friday is normally a class schedule.
So if you have a class on Monday, you normally have it on Wednesday and Friday, um, Tuesday, Thursdays would be the same to go to class Tuesday. You most likely have it Thursday. Um, you know, breakfast is usually 7 to 830. Uh, lunch is 1130 to 1 and dinners 5 to 630. Practices, um, range starting at 3 o’clock to 5 or 3.
30 to 5. 30 depends on the day and class schedule. We kind of work with the athletes to find out, um, who’s going to miss or who’s going to be showing up late, um, to class. I mean, to practice from class. Um, we are in a conference where we play Friday, Saturday game. So we’ll play Friday. We’ll play Saturday.
Sunday is a full day off. We never do anything on Sunday. We just take the day off. Monday. Uh, for any athlete that played in 120 minutes or more in the two games combined, um, Mondays are still recovery day for them. Um, it’s recovery in the weight room. Um, there’s no practice, no training for them per [00:13:30] se that’s, uh, heavier, hard, it’s just recovery.
And then anybody that didn’t play 120 minutes or more gets a full training on that Monday. So they, that way they don’t fall behind. They keep up their, their, uh, fitness. Tuesday. And it’s usually a competitive day. So we’ve got the starters back out of those guys that played in 120 or more Tuesday’s competitive.
It’s usually small sided go into gold type stuff, smaller, smaller areas. Um, so we have more pressure situations on the field. And then Wednesday is more of a, sometimes we’ll get it out there and we’ll do a 30 minute scrimmage on the big field to kind of. Walk through and it’s kind of like start, stop a little bit about, Hey, this is what we’re trying to do to beat the team.
We’re, we’re playing on Friday, so we work on our shape and some of our pattern play and a little bit of that. And then Thursday is either a game prep day for at home, which is some shooting or crossing. And then if it’s a road game, then we’re traveling on that Thursday. So, uh, that’s kind of what our routine is starting about the second week of September.
Once we get into.
Matt: Okay, awesome. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team. Um, is there a roster size that you guys find is ideal that you’re trying to hit? And do you have a reserve team?
Coach: Yeah, we have a reserve team this year. Um, my roster size this year is 34. Um, I like to keep a bigger roster even if I don’t have [00:15:00] reserve team per se or reserve games.
Um, for the pure purposes, I like to scrimmage a lot in my training sessions and there actually be times where we’ll have 10 guys out on the sideline or for some reason or another. Um, and it’s like, you know, We’re pulling an assistant coach to, you know, help us complete that, that 11 on 11 scrimmage. So I like to keep a bigger roster.
Um, I think it helps the team chemistry. Um, we, we really like to, to, to preach, you know, um, with our starters and our leaders to take some of these younger players and maybe even some of the less skilled players under their wings and, and kind mentor them. Um, so that’s a big part, kind of what we’re doing too with our, we’re kind of with our first team type guys.
So, um, yeah, I, I like that bigger roster, um, but I probably average somewhere between 30 and 35 every year. Just, just depends on the year and, and, you know, who we were able to get in and that kind of thing. So,
Matt: okay. So that includes the first team and the reserve squad total is about 35. Okay. No, that’s
Coach: yeah.
Yeah, we train together. We don’t do any separate trainings. Um, there’s a few times where we have to hold some players out depending on what we’re doing. Um, but we, we train together. We don’t have separate trainings. We try to keep everybody together, which is, to be honest, is not always the easiest thing.
But I think it’s the, for our program, it’s worked well. And it’s [00:16:30] important that we’re always together. And we’re just trying to teach that together. The most valuable person, um, is our, our 34th player. That’s the most valuable person on our program. Um, it’s, it’s not our top goal scorer. It’s not our top keeper.
It’s not our top 10. It’s number 34. Um, so as long as we’re doing that, it seems to work really well. Um, and it just makes, it creates a family, uh, chemistry on the, on our program that we, you know, we’re pretty proud of, we had an alumni game. A couple of years ago, we had 60 alumni show up. Um, we just really try to keep this family atmosphere, uh, with what we’re doing.
Everybody here is an Eagle. Um, and it just seems to work really well for us.
Matt: Yeah, that’s great. Well, besides the roster of players, you got a roster of staff. So talk to me about your staff. What role does everybody play? Maybe some, what are, maybe some support staff in the athletic department that help out with the team as well.
What’s everybody doing there?
Coach: Yeah, this is probably one of the first years I haven’t had all alumni staff for me. Usually it’s all alumni that have played for me or on my staff. Uh, but this year we just, it just didn’t work that way. Uh, my first assistant, his name’s Titus Nixon. Uh, he just happens to be my son in law as well.
He married my daughter. Um, and he played for me, but he’s, um, he, he’s the defensive Coach. He’s our fitness and strength coach as well. Um, he’s a guy that just gets in and motivates [00:18:00] him. Um, he’s played us l two. He’s played at a high level. He’s from Nigeria. Um, so he’s just, he’s fantastic with the guys.
Great motivator. Um, he’s been here, he’s been around the program now about six six or seven years. So guys, guys love him. Picked up a new guy. His name is jet. Um, he came from Whitworth university. Um, so he’s new. He’s a, was a center back. He’s been fantastic with our back line, um, which has been great. Cause we had a lot of new back line players.
So, uh, he’s done a good job there. We’ve got another guy named Gabriel. He’s new, a little younger. Um, coach, he’s 21. So he’s actually the same age as some of the players didn’t play college ball, but understands the game. Just, he’s just got a fantastic mind for the game. Sees, sees the positional stuff, sees where guys should be.
And he’s great. Just breaking down film. So he’s really kind of like my support staff behind the scenes, uh, breaking down film for me. And he’s actually getting more involved, um, on the practice field now, as he gets to know the guys get this first year. So it’s just kind of, kind of a new environment for him.
Also have, uh. Another coach that’s a volunteer coach, um, in Portugal that does a lot of film breakdown for me as well. Um, so he’s supporting us, uh, from over there, does a great job, uh, helps us with some of our scouts and, and film breakdown. Um, and then we’ve got, you know, We [00:19:30] got really good staff. We have good training staff here.
Um, we have great assistant AD. Um, we’ve just got a great SID. Again, it goes back to like I was saying before, everybody here wants to see the athletes be successful. So everyone’s supportive and helpful. Um, again, it, it’s really like, it’s just a big, big family. Everyone’s helping everybody. It’s just not about their department.
It’s, Hey, can I help? Volleyball team, I’m gonna help out. Volleyball coach is like, Hey, can I help the soccer team? I’ll help the soccer team. It’s like, just kind of back and forth. We’ve got support really from, from everybody. Um, it’s, it’s pretty, it’s pretty awesome environment to work in. Just, just to be honest.
It’s, it’s been amazing.
Matt: Yeah. Sounds like it. Well, what about you as the, as the head coach, uh, talk to us about your coaching style, the style of play you’re looking to do there.
Coach: Yeah. You know, um, I’m not a yeller. I’m not a screamer. Um, I don’t. I don’t like to coach that way. I coached that way earlier in my career.
This is my 30th year in college athletics. Um, I’ve, you know, grown from that where, you know, it’s more instructional, um, more about, you know, teaching them this is how the game should be played and trying to create a standard, uh, and show them what that looks like and then encourage them to, you know, elevate their game to that level.
And so we, we, we trained the first two weeks in a, uh, four, three, three offensively defensively at four, two, three, one, and we’ve had two scrimmage games and it just flopped. It just, it didn’t [00:21:00] work. Um, and we had to take a step back on, on Sunday and said, I, I got to change this formation. So on Monday, I put last week on Monday, I put in a new formation, uh, A little bit of a version defensively of a 541, but then offensively, you know, it changes into a 352.
Um, and we put it in on Monday and we played Gonzaga University on Thursday. So it was, uh, it was, it was a risk, uh, for them being a D1 school, um, You know, the guys bought in to it. We did really well. Um, when we play Gonzaga, we only lost four, one, and he was very complimentary of the guy’s discipline and energy and their, and their shape.
So, um, you know, we just, it’s kind of a, you go into a season thinking, okay, these are my players, this is my formation. Um, we gotta play this. And I, I just had to take a step back and say, this is not working. Um, I gotta let that go. What’s what’s the right formation for us. Um, so right now it looks like it could be this, you know, three, five, two.
Um, so we’re going to give that a go this week and see, see how it goes. We got, we got three games this week, so we’re going to see how that happens. And we’re doing that with our reserves too. So we don’t train our reserves. differently per se. Um, so we switched formations. We all kind of try to stay in the same formation because at any point in time we could pull up on the reserves to play with varsity teams.
So [00:22:30]
Matt: yeah. Okay, well, I’m giving us a ton of information. Don’t want to keep you here too long. I really appreciate the time. I know it’s, uh, you got a lot. There’s game day for your reserves, but, um, I want to ask you 1 last question, uh, as someone who’s been in the college game for a long time, if you had 1 piece of advice, or 1 piece of information that you think all recruits or perspective student athletes should know, what would that be?
Coach: If you’re sitting back waiting to be recruited. Um, it’s probably not gonna happen. It’s, it’s a very small percentage. I, I, Was once told it’s less than 3 percent of all collegiate athletes are getting a phone call, uh, or an email or a text. It’s, it’s such a small percentage. I, I really encourage, um, athletes to take a look at the school.
They want to attend, look for a degree they want to get, um, and, and then look for those schools. What are those schools available about, um, you know, kits. Students sometimes want to, they want to say, Oh, I don’t want to, I don’t want to live in Washington. I want to go to California where it’s sunny. Okay, that’s great.
You want to go where it’s sunny, but you also need to figure out what degree do you want to take? Does anyone have the degree you want? Um, and do you want to play? You know, how high level do you want to play? I mean, there’s a, there’s a soccer team out there in college for [00:24:00] Every skill level. There’s junior college.
So the J. C. S. The community colleges. You’ve got D. 3 D. 2 D. 1 N. A. I. I mean, there’s so many places to play. But for me, I can’t get out and see everybody. Um, so I encourage you just to email coaches. Um, and don’t just blanket email though. Find out something about the university, you know, get in there and say, Hey coach, I, I’m a center back.
I see you have two center backs graduating. Um, I saw your season was okay. You guys were like six and seven. Um, Hey, I’d be interested in coming to your school. Um, Hey, can you come out and take a look at me? Or if I, you know, if you live too many states away, it’s like, Hey, here’s some, here’s some game film for you.
Like you gotta kind of. Get in there and engage and look and see what’s going on in their program a little bit. That’ll help with your email because coaches are going to look at your email probably for less than five seconds. You know, if there’s something on that email that doesn’t like spark their interest.
It’s just going to the trash. Um, so quickly put on your GPA coaches always want to know the GPA is because there’s more money in GPA than there is soccer scholarships. So they’re always looking for the GPA. Um, you know, something that you actually know something about the school. I mean, you can’t, you can’t be eagling, uh, email the lions and say, Hey coach, I want to be an Eagle.
When they’re the Lions, right? You just can’t do those kinds of things. You just [00:25:30] got it. It’s got to be an intimate email. Um, it’s got to be a serious email and coaches respond that they will, uh, but they also know which ones are real and are just blanket emails. So, but emailing a coach and recruiting a coach, you have to recruit a coach.
You got to find that coach in school. You want to play for email them. Um, don’t give up on the first email, email them again. Yeah. Email a third time, email them a fourth time. I mean, coaches are, coaches are busy. Um, so it’s not that they don’t want to get back to you. It’s just, they’re busy. Um, especially like right now for me, you know, August to November, we’re, we’re super busy yet I’m still getting 60 emails a day.
With kids that want to play, like how, how am I going to get through all that? And sometimes we just don’t, sometimes it takes weeks or months before we reply back when, when the season kind of starts to slow down a little bit for us. But you, you recruit the coach. That’s my biggest advice, recruit the coach.
Um, there are places to play. Um, you just gotta, you just gotta get in front of the coaches.
Matt: Love it. Love it. Couldn’t agree more. Well, coach, wish you the best of luck this season and we’ll check back in with you and hopefully you’ll be hanging that conference championship banner. All right.
Coach: Thank you so much.
Matt: Thank you.
