Oberlin College Men’s Soccer – Coach Dave Wilson
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Dave Wilson from the Oberlin College Men’s Program in Ohio. We talk about how he has to recruit academics first. He tells me about how their school has a niche for everything out there. Lastly, we discuss their offseason and how it focuses on individual players. Learn more about Oberlin.
[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Dave Wilson from Oberlin college in Ohio. Welcome coach.
[00:00:07] Coach: Thanks
[00:00:08] Matt: for having me. Thanks for being here now. You know, I’m an Ohio kid, so I’m pretty, pretty familiar with Oberlin, although I never did go up that way.
[00:00:16] Didn’t get to visit the school or anything. So I’ll, you’ll have to tell us more about the school itself later, but for now let’s, let’s talk about the soccer side of things. Um, you guys are division three or. The, uh, what’s the name of the NCAC. That’s right. Uh, and, and that’s a really good soccer conference on the boy’s side, for sure.
[00:00:36] Um, so recruiting has gotta be a big part of what you do. What, um, you know, when do you start looking at players? Uh, and, and when to players start reaching out.
[00:00:46] Coach: Yeah. So I I’d say, you know, anywhere from sophomore to junior year, they start reaching out to us. Um, but our big kind of identification period usually is starting in kind of November of, of their junior year and then running through that spring.
[00:01:02] Um, and that’s where we’re going to see guys at showcase events, watching a lot of video, doing those kinds of things, setting up meetings. Um, and just trying to get to know, you know, what our pool of players can look like for the year and, and then building towards the summer where, you know, we’ll keep following up either through ID, camps and things of that nature and getting ourselves set up for, uh, You know, fall official visits and those kinds of things.
[00:01:29] Matt: So at what, you know, right before we got on, we were talking you’re, you’re getting ready to go out to Jeff cups. So what, you know, what are some of those key showcases key tournaments that you guys make sure you get out to each year?
[00:01:40] Coach: Yeah. So, you know, if you haven’t looked at our roster, our rosters has 17 or 18 states represented on it.
[00:01:46] So, you know, no really has a national draw and what’s a conservatory and international draw. Um, so we try to. Kind of where we have a good base of players. Um, we try to get out to the west coast at least once a year, if not twice, um, to where we can see guys in California or the Pacific Northwest, uh, obviously go to stuff that’s more local as far as like blue-chip and crossroads.
[00:02:10] Um, that tend to draw from, you know, a big swath in the Midwest area. Um, we used to go down to the Disney event, although that is something that is changing because it had such a national draw, but it’s a little different now. Um, our focus has probably shifted more towards kind of the ECNL events. Um, that are scattered across the country and we try to make it as many of those as we can.
[00:02:32] Uh, we went down to the one in Florida there’s plans to go to the one in Virginia later on, hopefully getting out to the national finals in San Diego, um, and those kinds of things, so.
[00:02:42] Matt: Okay. And you also mentioned I ID camps. How, how do those fit into your plans? Do you do them there? Do you attend other people’s both.
[00:02:50] How does that work?
[00:02:51] Coach: So in the past and prior to COVID, we were go into a university of Notre Dame. Um, camp, um, and working that, uh, that has, has changed how they staff it and everything else. They’ve, they’ve kind of gone to a little different model, so that’s not something we’re doing currently. Um, and we also used to go to Dartmouth and these are places where we had connections with the coaching staff and different things.
[00:03:14] So it’s a bit of a evolving picture, right? Far as camps and things go. Um, we’ve also hosted from time to time, depending on kind of circumstances and what our facilities, where they are in different phases of construction sometimes. Um, An event for, you know, rising seniors and juniors and, and try to keep it relatively small, more like to what our roster sizes.
[00:03:37] So you get a real training field of how we work and, you know, we got a good chance to see you and evaluate you in that setting too. And you mentioned,
[00:03:46] Matt: you know, connections with college coaches, but how about your connections with like club coaches? Are you talking to a lot of club coaches in your recruiting process and, and you know, how much.
[00:03:58] Players reaching out to you versus you talking to coaches and getting a feel for, for players.
[00:04:03] Coach: So I would say most of our connections with club coaches is typically kind of in the follow-up phase to players that have reached out to us. Um, you know, we’ll, you will get recommendations from guys. We know, well, or, you know, sometimes guys in the area that know us.
[00:04:20] That’ll reach out, Hey, I saw this kid or he’s interested, or I talked to him about Oberlin or he’s looking at it at a school similar to you. Maybe you should check out, um, sort of, you know, this player. Um, so a little bit of a back and forth. Um, but I’d say it’s probably more in kind of the followup stages with a kid who’s reached out to us or we’ve seen and made a connect.
[00:04:42] Matt: Okay. Now when you’re, you know, you’re on the recruiting trail, you’re at camps, whatever the case may be. What’s, what’s kind of your hierarchy, your checklist of, of things you’re looking for in a player for Oberlin, whether that’s on the field or off the field.
[00:04:55] Coach: Yeah. I mean, for us, our focus gets narrowed pretty quickly just based on the academics.
[00:05:01] So if I’m going to a showcase event and looking at a brochure and you don’t have a GPA that’s, you know, in the three, five range or a test score that reflects kind of what’s admissible to Oberlin, it’s not worth my time getting excited about. So that’s kind of where it starts, but then as far as just the playing aspect, I mean, we’re all looking for technical players and things like that.
[00:05:23] And the style we like to play, we’re looking for guys that can kind of adapt to different tactics and our play versatile and flexible and those kinds of things. So those are some of the things we value when we’re watching and looking for, you know, snippets as you watch a half or a full game of a guy at a, at a showcase event, or even at a.
[00:05:42] Um, just trying to get a good sense of whether they could fit into what we do. Um,
[00:05:49] Matt: okay. Makes sense. Um, Unfortunately, uh, the one thing everybody likes to ask about money, um, you know, obviously division three, so no athletic money. Um, what does the overall financial aid picture kind of look like at Oberlin, for players coming
[00:06:07] Coach: in?
[00:06:08] Yeah, so, you know, it’s no secret, Oberlin’s an expensive place. Tuition is higher in a. So you the sticker price, and some people are going to get scared away from it, um, to be perfectly honest. Um, but that said, I think our financial aid office does a tremendous job as far as meeting all what is considered demonstrated need.
[00:06:28] Right. And not in the, you know, sort of that gapping process that some places will go through where. You know, your package is better the first two years than it was the last two years and those kinds of things, which I think people, you know, can be trapped into some times. Um, I think they do a tremendous job just being really kind of forthright and honest with what that package looks like and try to get out ahead of it.
[00:06:50] Um, so when we’re going through the process with a kid and leading into that summer, um, after, you know, Kids identified will take, do a preread. And then we can do a pre-financial rate with, with our admissions office to give you a real sense of what that actual price is and not be scared by what that sticker shock might give you.
[00:07:12] Matt: Yeah. Okay. Um, you, you mentioned you guys represented a whole bunch of states and, and you recruit even internationally. So what, what does. Uh, you know, H how does the international thing fit in for you guys? And what also, what about, uh, any transfers or walk ons? So
[00:07:30] Coach: as far as internationals go, it’s not something that I’d say is a priority in our recruiting process.
[00:07:35] There’s international kids that kind of discover Oberlin, or that becomes part of their process. And then we’ve kind of follow up. Um, like we’re not going. Lots of places searching for players and Iceland, England Germany. Now, if there’s a kid from Iceland that said, you know, fills out our questionnaire, like we definitely will follow up.
[00:07:54] Um, and you know, Oberlin’s draw internationally. It’s where we’re going to get kids that are interested in and kind of follow up. Like right now we have a guy from Denmark. Uh, we’ve had guys for Venezuela, Pakistan, um, Macedonia really all over in China. But I wouldn’t say it’s a big base of our team. Um, and then just the nature of Oberlin, we don’t have a lot of kind of transfers.
[00:08:24] Um, you know, w we have, we’ve had occasionally a guy come through that, that process, but most of our recruiting is done. Graduating seniors guys, maybe they took a cap year. Um, but uh, that process is a little different. It also happens after kind of we’ve set up our recruiting class too. So it makes it a little trickier in that regard.
[00:08:47] But.
[00:08:49] Matt: Well, let’s shift gears. Talk a little bit more about the school itself. Um, you know, we’re lucky you’re, you’re, you’re also an alum, so you got a very unique perspective on the school. And so I was good. So yeah, I can, you know, some people have heard of Oberlin, especially, probably because of the conservatory piece, but, um, you know, besides clicking around the website, what, what’s some of the awesome things about Oberlin that, that you can
[00:09:11] Coach: give me?
[00:09:12] I mean, the, the thing that makes it really tremendous is that there’s kind of a niche for everything. Um, and it also has. You know, sort of the opportunities and resources that you probably wouldn’t associate with, uh, you know, school that’s about 2,700 students. I mean, we have a first-class art museum on campus.
[00:09:31] We have, you know, the number of performances. The conservatory puts on whether it’s operas or Castro or jazz concerts or all those different kinds of things. Like the cultural exposure, that way is just very unique. Um, so, you know, It’s got a niche kind of for everything. If you’re into being involved in research and doing those kinds of things, those opportunities exist for you too.
[00:09:57] And it’s, you know, being purely undergraduate, you get to be involved in all kinds of stuff that you want to be involved in. So you can always kind of find your niche for things. And if it doesn’t exist, then there’s a lot of opportunity to kind of be able to create it, whether it’s, you know, student organization or doing different things like that as well.
[00:10:14] So, um, You know, all that said it can be hard sometimes to get people, to, to focus on one, two priorities and you can have a lot going on sometimes. But, um, yeah, I mean, there’s a tremendous amount of stuff to do on campus. You know, we’ve got a bowling alley bowling center campus that’s, you know, available at most hours of the day.
[00:10:36] So it’s just a really interesting place with a lot of, you know, diverse people from all over the.
[00:10:43] Matt: Cool. All right. Well, you know, you mentioned priorities and, and, you know, division three, it is student first, right. Student athletes. So at your school, Do the players balanced the rigors of Oberlin’s academics along with their, their, uh, soccer plan.
[00:11:00] Coach: Yeah. So I think one thing we’re really blessed with that, not all institutions are, we have a lot of space, so that also allows us to have training at a pretty routine time. And we’re not competing with other programs for spaces and things. So where we’ve got to, you know, practice at 11 in the morning, because that’s the only time we can get the field.
[00:11:16] Um, That and that there’s an academic break in the day from four 30 to seven. So that’s when we train, we get to have everybody together at the same time. It’s predictable. It’s built into your day. Um, So in that way, it’s really great. As far as balance goes, like there’s a real structure to the day that doesn’t make you choose between a particular major and being an athlete and doing those kinds of things.
[00:11:40] Um, so that’s really great. And then, you know, I find for our guys that having that structure of the day helps them be on top of their work. And I think if you look at it, there are GPA’s over the 12 years I’ve been coaching anyway. Um, They’re much better in the fall two or three percentage points, better in the fog, just cause the day’s organized and prioritize almost for you in a lot of ways.
[00:12:07] Um, and there’s not that opportunity to kind of procrastinate or, you know, find a lot of other things going on. So I think the biggest thing, regardless of whether it’s Oberlin or other environments is just making sure that you have. Set yourself up as far as being proactive with professors and those kinds of things in your schedule, just to make sure that you’re fitting in the things you need to fit in.
[00:12:33] Um, and not waiting the last minute or surprise in somebody or a professor that I’m going to be missing class for X, Y, and Z. You know, so.
[00:12:45] Matt: Well, you’ve kind of alluded to it a little bit, but can you walk me through what, what a typical week would look like, you know, each day in terms of waking up to going to bed?
[00:12:52] What, what, what does all that look like
[00:12:56] Coach: in season during the week? You know, Monday typically we’re on a playing schedule. That’s Wednesday, Saturday. Um, so we’ll we’ll train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sundays, typically. Um, so on a normal kind of during the week, you’ll have one or two classes in the morning.
[00:13:14] Um, most of them don’t start before 9:00 AM, uh, depending on kind of subject area and things like that. Uh, you might have a lab in the afternoon that usually runs one 30 to 40. Um, and then it’s, you know, out to practice at 4 45 is when we typically start and then we’d like to get done. You know, I had a six 30, um, six, 15.
[00:13:34] We like to get most of our work done in kind of an hour and a half stretch. Feel like if we have an organized it so that we can, we didn’t really do our job on today. Um, So, and that gives them enough time, you know, get over to the dining hall and things like that. There are some classes that will be after 7:00 PM.
[00:13:50] I’m usually more like, uh, seminars or screenings and those kinds of things. Um, and we find that gives them enough time to, you know, make all those things kind of work structurally in their day. Um, Now we will travel, you know, during a week we’ll have an away game or something where it’s possible. You’ll miss an afternoon set of classes.
[00:14:10] Um, we do our best to set up our schedule. So that’s a bare minimum. Usually it’s one or two at an afternoon, kind of during the year. Um, but that’s kind of the typical schedule. We play most of our games at 7:00 PM. So there’s not a whole lot of rush to your day. Um, and there’s time to come. Find that breaker pause from, you know, being in the classroom to getting ready to compete in those kinds of things.
[00:14:35] Okay.
[00:14:39] Matt: In terms of, you mentioned travel, um, then w what is your typical kind of conference radius, or even at a conference? You guys take a lot of trips. How does that kind of affect everything?
[00:14:50] Coach: Yeah. So early in the year, uh, sometimes we’ll have something planned. That’s a little bigger. Um, and that’ll vary just based on where kids are from in that maybe particular senior junior class.
[00:15:02] Um, like we’ve gone to Roanoke to play Roanoke and Lynchburg. We’ve gone to Minnesota to play St. Thomas and McAllister. Uh, we went to California one year to play Pomona and Occidental. But they usually those kinds of trips happen early in the year kind of either before classes start or like in that first week.
[00:15:21] So there’s not a lot of disruption. Um, and then being in Ohio as I’m sure you’re aware, um, there are so many division three institutions that you can build your schedule around. So, um, We, I would say the rest of our schedule is usually built within kind of a three-hour radius. Um, so that there isn’t a lot of those, um, kind of straining on class schedules and those, those kinds of things, as far as academics go, our conference does kind of bleed out into Indiana.
[00:15:51] So we do have two schools in Indiana, um, DePaul and Wabash. And we play one of those guys away every year, but that’s always on a weekend and we leave on a Friday night and play Saturday morning, and then we’re backed by Saturday night sometime. Um, so that’s kinda typical travel, I would say then if you get in the post-season then you go wherever you can get where the,
[00:16:15] Matt: yeah, I’m probably one of the few people that, uh, you know, outside of.
[00:16:20] The conference that’s actually been to Crawfordsville, Indiana and not gone. Not for no for no reason of Wabash is
[00:16:29] Coach: another reason to go to Crawford.
[00:16:33] Matt: Believe it or not. The largest book manufacturing facility in the country is in Crawfordsville, Indiana. But interesting.
[00:16:39] Coach: So there’s your little nugget
[00:16:41] Matt: little nugget for the day.
[00:16:42] Yep. Um, well, let’s talk, let’s talk more about the soccer side of things. Um, you know, so. W w how big a roster do, do you like to carry our freshmen kind of fighting for time off the get-go or how does that
[00:16:55] Coach: work? Yeah, so I would say typically we like to have a roster right around 27, 28. It’s expanded a little bit with COVID, as you know, everybody’s had to deal with different roster fluctuations through, you know, various.
[00:17:09] Factors in that realm, but, um, that’s where we like to be three goalkeepers, maybe four goalkeepers, um, 24, 25 field players, right in that range. Um, there’s two of us. So, you know, we find that that number lets us do all the things we want to do in training. Still give enough attention to help kids develop kind of through the four years.
[00:17:29] Um, and. Productive. If they’re not productive right away. And as, you know, just get the kind of attention and have the kind of experience that, um, I think is warranted in small college athletics. Yeah. So that’s where we like to be. We like to be balanced if we can. Right now, we’re, we’re pretty imbalanced as a result of some of the COVID issues we dealt with.
[00:17:51] Um, and we’re probably right around, I think we’re going to probably end up right around 30 this fall, um, with some bigger classes. Yeah. Now
[00:18:02] Matt: you mentioned it. It’s the two of you. So you are the assistant coach. You’ve been there a long time and coach Blake’s been there even longer. Uh, one of the, one of the well tenured coaching staffs of, uh, of college soccer probably.
[00:18:15] But, um, yeah. So, you know, with the two of you, kind of, what role does each person play? Is there anybody else involved in the program, whether that’s strictly for soccer or shared services with other departments. What’s that look like. Um,
[00:18:27] Coach: so as far as kinda how our dynamic works, I mean, the head man obviously is making the calls and after answer for him, and I’m looking to me for different advice and different things like that.
[00:18:38] Um, and then we both have our hand obviously, and kind of the recruiting and identifying piece and all those things. Um, I handle a lot of, sort of, uh, Putting together, our fitness components and those kinds of things and warmup and those kinds of preparations ahead of training and things like that. Um, and then, you know, we’ll have different splits to functional areas, but we’re both pretty from.
[00:19:03] Working with either he was a goalkeeper. So he specializes with that. He’s a, he’s a lot better in that realm than I am. Um, but being around him long enough now I at least know what to look for, if nothing else. Um, and then as far as our support staff goes, I mean, we have a partnership with, uh, um, T3, which is a, uh, Kind of athletic performance com strength and conditioning company.
[00:19:28] That’s up the road from us, where they have trainers that come down and work with all of our student athletes in the department. Um, and during a season, they will work with that. One of those coaches, uh, once a week and out a season it’s three times a week. Um, so it’s a really great resource for them to have, uh, we have a trainer that’s dedicated to our team and the women’s team in the fall.
[00:19:47] Um, so she’s pretty routinely traveling with us. Um, so we have kind of that oversight to which. Um, but yeah, you know, from the soccer side of things, anyway, it’s just you and I kind of working through the tactics and the, and making it all kind of melded.
[00:20:05] Matt: Well, speaking of that, like how so, how would you describe, you know, your guys’ style of coaching, the team style of play, kind of the culture of the team?
[00:20:13] Coach: Yeah. I, you know, as far as our style play, I would say, you know, we want to be very much in. Kinda crave and pep school of positional play. And, um, we like to build out of the back and those things. So we like to do to possession oriented attack is probably the phrase that, you know, we try to like to play through layers, um, keep the bottom floor and, you know, really have a good understanding of how to overload spaces and those kinds of things.
[00:20:40] So that’s what we’re looking for. Um, and then as far as how we, we kind of. Put that together. I mean, I think we both really valued kind of the role as a teacher and, and mentor, um, and what we do. Um, so aside from teaching, just kind of the basic concepts of all those things and what we’re looking for, we’re also trying to build a, you know, uh, uh, a culture of where they’re taking some ownership of those different things and kind of working on the mental side of the game as well.
[00:21:12] Um, and, you know, We meet weekly in the off season, kind of with our group and talk about some different books. We’ve read culture code together, spoke soccer tough by Dan Abrams, which is something that pretty interesting sports psychology perspective for the game, um, that we find helpful. And it kind of leads us through, um, Kind of how we talk about how we deal with adversity and do those kinds of things.
[00:21:38] And, um, cause it’s going to be a challenge somewhere along the line for whatever your situation is, whether it’s you’re playing a lot and you’re not performing as well as you’d like to, or you’re not playing as much as you’d like, and how do I get better in those kinds of things? Um, so you put a lot into it from that perspective.
[00:21:56] Um, just beyond kind of the basic tactics and technical work that we’ll do to.
[00:22:03] Matt: Okay. Um, we’re sitting here. In in March. So what is, what is your typical off-season program kind of look like you mentioned a little bit on the strength and conditioning side, but what does that, I guess the full spring kind of look like?
[00:22:18] Coach: So once they get out of season, it kind of kicks off right. In November to be perfectly honest, there’ll be, we have an indoor facility, which is really great. So the captains start running, um, kind of their own sessions, uh, and this Williams’ field house. So it’s about, uh, um, It’s big enough to play like six V 6 77 and kind of small sided, um, which is really great.
[00:22:41] Um, they’ll do that three times a week. Uh, and then it’s probably right after Thanksgiving, they’ll get into work, start working with the strength and conditioning coaches three times a week, um, and starting to, you know, work on those. Things that they need to, as far as getting stronger, getting more powerful, more explosive, those kinds of things.
[00:23:00] Um, then, uh, as we get back for spring. And so Oberlin’s, model’s a little different than most. We have a January term, which is, uh, about five week stretch between fall and spring semester where they do a project. So it’s not always on campus. Um, so sometimes it’s a challenge to kind of build different programs and things for guys that might not have weight rooms and things like that accessible.
[00:23:23] So we do a little bit of that and building those programs for them. And then, uh, in the spring, it just kind of a resumption, um, as the semester starts. And then we have our non traditional season, um, after spring break. So we’ll go five weeks, three times a week, and kind of in that normal training. Time slot that we had in the fall.
[00:23:45] Um, and you know, it’s much more player focused than a lot of the tactics and things we’re working through in the fall. Um, You know, whether it’s getting more reps that are particular skill, whether it’s building on some system, we want to work through a pressing idea, all those kinds of things, but, um, largely it’s how do we improve the individual player?
[00:24:08] Um, more than anything, um, which doesn’t always get its full attention and the rigors of a season where. You get a data, prepare for somebody, you get a data, get back into, you know, ready to play. And then you’re preparing for the next guy. So, um, gives us some space to be able to kind of really focus on the player.
[00:24:29] And then they’ll go into the summer with a 10 or 12 week program to get ready to come back in August to start the whole thing over. Okay.
[00:24:40] Matt: Well, you know, I don’t want to take too much of your time. We’ve covered a lot. We covered a lot of ground, but my last question is always the same for folks. It’s w didn’t we talk about, what do we miss?
[00:24:49] What is it something you want to make sure you say or something you want to reiterate? Now’s the time?
[00:24:54] Coach: Well, I felt like I hit most of the high notes, but I, you know, Oberlin obviously has a really special place in my heart being an alum. Um, and it’s always fun to ratchet up another notch, but, um, You know, I think the diversity of experience and the amount of things you get kind of exposed to in a small town make Overland really interesting.
[00:25:16] And, um, it’s made our team really interesting over the years and it’s been kind of its own education, uh, in lots of ways, um, as far as that goes. So, um, it’s just a really unique and great place. And, you know, it’s worth exploring for, you know, anyone, if you’re rep for the challenges that it has.
[00:25:36] Matt: Awesome.
[00:25:36] Well, coach, I wish you the best of luck in the fall and, uh, thank you for your time and we’ll keep an eye on you and see how you guys are doing all
[00:25:43] Coach: right. I appreciate it. Thanks for the opportunity, Matt. Thank you.
