Pfeiffer University Women’s Soccer – Coach Acasio Roche
In today’s episode, I speak with Coach Acasio from the Pfeiffer Women’s Program in North Carolina. We talk about how he looks for players that give maximum effort. Coach also shares about how the school makes you feel like family. Plus, we discuss what goes on during their spring season. Learn more about Pfeiffer University Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I am lucky enough to be joined by Coach Roche at Pfeiffer in North Carolina. Welcome coach.
Coach: Wow. Thanks for having us. Looking forward to talking to you, sir.
Matt: Yeah, looking forward to, to seeing you too. We, we had the pleasure of hanging out a bit, uh, last year at Jeff Cup and, and Sanford and, and we, we’ve seen each other on the trail, I guess is the best way to put it.
So, um, well, I know you guys had, uh, I believe your, your last home game of the, of the year, LA this past weekend and, and you know, we’re getting to that time of year. And full disclosure, what you, you, you’re, you got two of two of my, my girls coming your way next year, which is awesome. And one of ’em was just visiting.
Um mm-hmm. So how do you balance recruiting for the future during the meat of the season? Like, how much of your time is spent recruiting right now versus doing the, the day to day working on team stuff? [00:01:00]
Coach: Um. You know, obviously our focus ends up being the team in-house right now, but, um, you know, we, we, we don’t shy away from any recruiting opportunities that we can, we can get to.
So I, during the season, that’s really where we bring in the players that we’ve got a rapport with, that have been in contact and, and, and try to give them a good game day experience. Get them on campus, come see a match, talk to the girls. Uh, so it, it, it’s more face to face here at Pfeiffer. But, you know, we’ve got some local clubs where Coach Jamie and myself will go and, and observe practices and, and, you know, any games within, within a, a reasonable distance that we can, you know, see while still getting to our own games on time.
You know, we, we really do try to make it all work. So, um. I mean,
Matt: makes sense. Well, like I said, we, we’ve seen each other on the trail at various tournaments. Kind of what are your, your must [00:02:00] visit events? Where do you like to make sure you get to each year to to see players who’ve you’ve been in contact with?
Coach: I mean, we’ve been pretty good about going to the Raleigh event, the n, the NCFC event. Um, Sanford is always big for us. Jeff Cup. Um. I, I have ties up in Wisconsin, so we, we do go there and, um, we, we’ve, uh, added stops in Texas as well. So we’re pretty much, I would say, we go from Virginia to Florida and then we hit, we hit my home in Wisconsin and then, um, we’ll, we’ll make at least one trip to Texas.
We maybe do two trips to Texas this year. Okay,
Matt: well what about ID camps? Do you guys do your own, do you or your staff work external camps? Are they a part of your process?
Coach: Yeah. We have a camp in February, which coincides with, it’s the week before the beginning of North Carolina High School kickoff. So for a lot of young ladies, they’ll come to our campus kind of like a, a tuneup session.
Um, you know, and, uh, obviously be able to [00:03:00] work out in front of us. And then we’re, we’ve been, we’re fortunate enough to be invited to the Kaaba ID camp on a regular basis, and there are a number of other colleges that invite us to come and, and participate. And whether it be, um, operating as a lead and at an age group or just to, uh, just to observe so.
Matt: Okay, well whether it’s at, uh, an ID camp or at one of these tournaments, kinda what makes up that hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player both on and off the field.
Coach: Yeah. You know, obviously skill helps in every aspect of playing, but I think one of the things that we, we emphasize when we’re talking to our recruits is effort.
You know, skill is fantastic, but we, we tell all of our recruits that it’s it’s effort that pays the bills for us. You know, we want a kid that maximizes the amount of, um, engagement. On the field field. And then we also want a player that maximizes the amount of engagement off the field. So we’re looking for those players [00:04:00] that wanna have conversations with their coaches, wanna have good relationships with their teammates, which spills into great culture.
And, you know, we’re, and we’re looking for people that carry themselves at a high value, are articulate, and, and most, most me, most importantly outside of soccer, that are just a pleasure to be around.
Matt: Yeah, I mean, the cul culture fits such, such an important thing. Um, and at the, at the division three level, you, you generally don’t see as many, uh.
Internationals, you don’t usually see as many junior college kids going into a D three program, and you don’t see a lot of the transfer portal movement, you know? So those are kind of my, the three non-traditional recruits that, that, that I, uh, talk about. But do you guys tend to get any of those non-traditional type recruits?
Or is it usually kind of the standard high school seniors coming into college for the first time? [00:05:00]
Coach: Yeah, we’re pretty, we’re pretty predominant in, in bringing in freshmen. Um, we do operate in the transfer portal. Um, we do have internationals that reach out to us and, um, we engage with them. What we, you know, we don’t wanna shy away from anybody that has any talents.
Uh, I think, I think we, our men’s side is, is much more, um, much more connected with international players and I, I would, I think for our culture it would be fantastic to have three or four on there. But, um, we, you know, we, we know who we are. We’re a team that’s rebuilding right now, and for us, it makes the most sense for us to be bringing in new players right out of high school and, and allow them the opportunity to make an impact with us.
Matt: Okay. Um. One thing that has obviously changed in college soccer is the implementation at the division one roster limits, um, that that has had trickle down effect across all divisions, really, as, as this, over this last year as folks are getting compliant and whatnot. But what about [00:06:00] roster size for you?
What, how many do you like to carry each year and, and what’s that look like?
Coach: Yeah. Fier uh, asks us to carry 30 people on our roster. Um, we bet we are a 26 person roster this year. Um, we do not have a JV team or a reserve team. Uh, I think this season. We have really, we’ve had issues with injuries where players have been, are, are up for the entire season.
And so when we, we give that number to a, a recruit and say, yeah, we wanna be a 30 person roster, we, you know, sometimes their eyes pop open because they’re not used to hearing that type of number. But what we tell ’em is that we want to focus on parity and position so. Saying it’s 30 people on a roster doesn’t mean that there are 11.
You’re not competing with 11 people in that position. You know, you might have four center backs competing for the two starting spots, four outside backs competing for the two starting spots. And then once the injury bug starts to kind of play into [00:07:00] your, into your system, you know, you’ve got to have backup plans.
So that number 30 for us seems very appropriate. And um, you know, it supports the health of the program because. One of the things that we don’t ever want to do is we don’t wanna ask a player to have to play injured, right? We don’t want them to hide that something’s going on because, you know, they’re worried about letting the team down.
It’s always better for us to just have really good communication about that and, and say, look, let’s get, let’s get you to our athletic trainers so they can rehabilitate you and maybe you’re out a week. It’s the ones that hide it and something spills into, you know, a, a worse situation and then they find themselves out a month, or, you know, just make it even worse where they’re out for the entire season.
So, you know, keeping, keeping that fact that we take, we take care of our players and treat them the way that they should be and that that is special and a value to pfe.
Matt: Uh, I like that. All right. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. Uh, [00:08:00] maybe some folks not familiar with Fi Pfeiffer. What are some things that you find are awesome about the school?
Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know just by going through the website.
Coach: Yeah. I think the reason that I chose to, I shouldn’t say, I think the reason I chose to come here was a hundred percent about the, the way that they made me feel, and that was, that was valued. It’s, it’s a, it’s a family environment here.
It really is. It’s, it’s one of those places where everyone knows who you are. They know what team you’re on. You know, your professor will, will tell you he had a great game last night just because they do come to the, they do come to the matches. Um, even our president of our university is at the majority of our, of our matches.
So we are very involved on, on all fronts. The academic staff and the athletic staff work hand in hand. We, we actually are very good at making sure that our players receive the resources that they need. If they miss class or, you know, we’re on the road, they, they just, it’s a very simple process where they can reach out to [00:09:00] them and, and they’re like, Hey, I wasn’t in class.
What did I miss? And, and they make sure that they, they get the information they need. So I think what really makes the athletic side of it is. We are the best Friday Night Lights type of a university that you’re gonna find in the area. Our teams all come out and support each other. Our, our fans come out and support each other.
Our student section comes out. They’ll have cowbells, voo, zus trumpets, they’ll, and they’ll just be having a blast. So when you, when you’re on Pfeiffer on a, at a, on a Friday night match at six o’clock at night, it really is something special to see.
Matt: It sounds like it. I, I’m, I have to get up. Uh, I definitely have to get up to one, uh, soon.
Well, at least ne next season. Uh, yes, sir. For sure. So, um, what you, you mentioned the. To help with the academic side and that it’s always kind of the can, can be the, the toughest thing for kids making that transition into college. So talk to [00:10:00] me a little bit more about the actual support systems that are in place to help students be successful and, and.
Both on the field and off, you know, what’s there to, to help kids to really manage that transition?
Coach: Right. So the university offers all of the resources that every other university would offer, whether it’s a 60,000 student campus or, or a thousand student campus like us. We have writing centers, we have tutors, um, we have computer labs.
We have people that can help as far as health and wellness, um, mental health, um. All of the, the, all of what you would expect to see from a university that cares about their, their student athletes. On the athletic side, full athletic training department, there is a nurse on campus, and then we do, we are associated with a doctor that in case there’s a, there’s an injury that requires, you know, his expertise On our side with the women’s soccer program, [00:11:00] we don’t ask our players to block out any of their, their day to.
Make time for the weight room or, or practices. We balance that out with having morning sessions or evening sessions and, and really allow them to just, you know, go to class, do what they’re supposed to do. Because at the end of the day, it is about the academics here. You know, the, the soccer is what’s complimentary to the educ.
Matt: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That’s, uh, one of the things I loved about playing D three was, was, was that, and you kind of mentioned a little bit there with the schedule, so you know, it’s October, it’s your last week of the season. What, what is, what, what does this week look like for your team in terms of winter classes, practices, meals, ga, the games, all that game cadence, that kind of stuff.
What does it, what does that look like?
Coach: So look, we’ll have practice today at five o’clock. Tomorrow we will have another practice, but it’ll be a little bit gated down, more set pieces [00:12:00] since we play on Wednesday. Wednesday we’ll be on the road and it’s about a three and a half hour drive for us. So we’ll, we’ll kick off a little bit early and um.
Play Brevard and, and, and do our very best. And then on Thursday we will have training, but it’s also going to be the whole team’s going out to a haunted house that night. Um, and then Friday we’re gonna have our, our annual in costume, uh, training sessions. So, um, it’s, it’s a mixture of, of fun and, and, you know, tying it all, tying all the pieces together, especially at the point in October where we’re at.
Matt: Oh, that, that sounds good. Well. Let’s talk a little bit more about team. We talked about roster size, but let’s talk about the, the rest of the roster, your coaching staff, support staff, kind of who else is there helping you out? What role does everybody play? Uh, what, what other folks are maybe in the athletic department that, that you see helping out with the team?
What’s that look like?
Coach: Right. It’s, it’s myself and [00:13:00] associate head coach, um, Jamie Ka. She, um, Jamie was the goalkeeper at Catawba University, so her. Along with planning everything that, that we do pretty much side by side for the, for the program, she is the head of our goalkeeping department. So, um, every practice, she will typically work with them for about a half an hour to 45 minutes.
And then once we get to the point where we’re combining everybody together, we’ll, we’ll get into, it’s, um. As a, as a group and, and both of us kind of, you know, we collaborate on what we’re going to do. It isn’t, there’s no, there’s no traditional like hierarchy where I’m telling her the way that it’s going to go and she’s just kind of doing what I say.
Um, it very much is a, a, a, a big conversation with us on everything that we do, um, behind us. We have, uh, Darcy and Kaylee are in our athletic training department. Kaylee is assigned to the women’s soccer program, so she is at every one of our practices and she is also in charge of, um, [00:14:00] rehabilitation and rehabilitation to all of our players.
And, um, Casey Color is a, uh. Is the assistant athletic director and he is the man in the, in the booth that’s kind of sit, making sure everything’s going the right way and, and game day management for, um, what you hear with announcements, not, not on social media, but actual live announcements. And then the, um, keeping score minutes and working with the referees.
Awesome.
Matt: Okay. Well, what about you? Talk to us about your coaching style and, and kind of the style of play you like to play there.
Coach: Rus. I would say my, my coaching style is I want to be a team that is interested in possessing the ball, but possessing the ball. But in moving forward, um, I don’t, I don’t want it just being played back and swinging around the, uh, back and, and not really moving in an aggressive manner where.
You want them to come to you, we wanna actually be moving it in an opportunity to [00:15:00] try to find gaps and then exploit them as fast as possible. Most of the time we play with a four back system. We do have our outside backs engaging higher play with the traditional six for the most part, and then it’s a flex.
So, you know, our, our central midfielders know when one’s supposed to drop and one’s supposed to go a little bit higher and, and get into the offense. But by and far what we do. It’s two sides of the coin, right? It’s, it’s really a 4 1, 3, 2 for the most part. And then when we’re in, in, when we’re defending, we switch to a double six and we drop one forward and, and then we do a swim press.
Matt: Okay.
Coach: Awesome.
Matt: Well, this season’s ending then it’s Christmas and then we come back in the second half of the spring. What does your off season typically look like? What are players doing in that non-traditional season? Time of year?
Coach: We shut everybody down until after Christmas break. Um, philosophically I think it’s important for all of [00:16:00] our student athletes to rest their body and bodies and minds for, you know, a good 30 days and let everything heal and really concentrate on, on your final exams after that first, that first semester.
So we, we alleviate all of the athletic, um, components to it and just say. You know, do what needs to be done to finish out the season. Um, both with soccer and then, you know, obviously appropriately as far as academics are concerned. After that, we will play futsal in the gym between Christmas and then spring break.
And then after spring break we transition into our non-traditional, um, season. Okay.
Matt: Well, coach, I really appreciate the, the time. You’ve given us some good info here, but I got one last question for you. Yes, sir. And that is, if you had one piece of advice for any player going through the recruiting process right now, uh, what would that be?
Coach: One piece of [00:17:00] advice.
Whenever you’re talking to a coach or somebody that is associated with an athletic, pro athletic program, um, be courteous. Be a good person. Be a genuine person. That’s, that’s all most people want. You know, if, have a good conversation with someone, tell ’em what you like, what you don’t like, and, and, and be mindful of just manners.
They’re simple. Say thank you. You know, it sometimes that’s a, that’s a lost art. You know? We, we as coaches are looking at you in not only assessing what you are as far as a, a soccer player, but we are access, we’re. We’re kind of evaluating the qualities of, of a human being and, and that that’s what we want.
We want good representation for the team and the university ultimately.
Matt: Well coach, thank you for that and thank you for making time to be, uh, a part of the Discover College Soccer podcast and wish you best of luck here as you end up your season, and I’m sure I’ll see you, uh, again along the trail.
Coach: I’m sure I’ll see you very [00:18:00] shortly.
Thank you for your opportunity to talk to you and um, this was fantastic.
Matt: Take care.
Coach: Take care.
