Rider University Men’s Soccer – Coach Brendan Nash

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Brendan Nash from the Rider University Men’s Program. We talk about what it’s like with a team of half American and half international players. He describes the advantageous location of the school. Lastly, we discuss what surprised him about the Rider team as a new coach. Learn more about Rider Men’s Soccer.

[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Nash from rider coach. Welcome.

[00:00:09] Coach: Thank you.

[00:00:10] Matt: Appreciate you being here, you know, for, for those. Not familiar with Rider. You guys are D one program in the MAAC, uh, which is, uh, you know, always, always a tough conference, tough outs in that neck of the woods.

[00:00:26] Um, you know, let’s talk about recruiting a little bit. Um, you know, I think there’s a lot of confusion around when coaches and schools start looking at players. So for you guys, when. In the process. I mean, obviously the, you know, you got the June 15th of, of the junior year, uh, timeline, but when are you really starting to look at players and really kind of get that process kicked off?

[00:00:50] Coach: Yeah, it’s really tough to give a set answer for that, unfortunately, because, um, because of COVID, you know, I was at a showcase this weekend and I sat with some club coaches that I’ve known for years and they’re kind of looking at it as it’s, it’s just different, you know, a lot of guys have an extra year of eligibility, so, um, Guys are using that extra year eligibility, either stay at their school for another year or begin their master’s program.

[00:01:16] And you know, they go to that fifth year. So there’s a little bit of a log jam as far as rosters are concerned. And it’s slowing the process down a bit. Now, certain programs. You know, certain programs, like the ones that are competing for national championships, June 15th, they already have the list ready, and then they’re going to be contacting.

[00:01:36] Um, they’d been watching those guys since they were sophomores, uh, right. Or. At that point with our American recruits, um, you know, we are still putting the finishing touches. We have one spot still open for August. Um, but we’re not, we don’t have a very large list for that. We have about four guys and one of them permits.

[00:01:55] Then we are done with recruiting as far as the 20 threes. Again, we’re a little bit different because we have a very international roster, but, um, this weekend. Really kicked it off for us in, uh, my self and our other assistant. We was at EDP in New Jersey. I was at another showcase in New Jersey, and now we’re starting to look at 20 threes.

[00:02:18] We’re not fortunate off. If there’s a good 24 out there, we’re going to put them in our database and we’re going to keep them there for a year. But the other thing is, um, you know, like we have a clinic coming up this weekend and there’s going to be 23 and 20 fours at that clinic. And just trying to give themselves exposure to the campus and to the writer staff.

[00:02:35] Matt: Yeah. No, that makes sense. And you mentioned you guys are fairly heavy international. Um, what does that look like in terms of, you know, For an American player, what are they, you know, how do they stand out, I guess, at a school who maybe, you know, they really kid wants to go to rider, but understands, Hey, there there’s a lot of international kids.

[00:02:58] Um, I’m kind of fighting against that. I’ve never seen that. I don’t know what I’m up against. Right. How does that work for you guys?

[00:03:06] Coach: Yeah, I want to be honest with you. It’s a challenge for the American kids because the American kids they’re 17, 18 years old, and I’m a lot of the international guys. They are players that, um, their first thought was I want to play.

[00:03:22] So these guys are 19 20, 20, 1 years old. Some guys are even up to 23 years old and they wanted to go to the pro route and then they eventually hit their ceiling and whatever club that they’re working with over there says, okay, we’re not going to offer you a pro contract. So. The talent level that they’re going against.

[00:03:40] And there’s a little bit of an age difference that, that they’re going against too. So as far as preparation, you can’t really prepare. It’s more of, you have to own your, you have to own your college selection process, what it comes down to. So. Um, pretty American kids is not going to, I don’t think the days where you can sit back in the phone’s going to rang and they’re going to be knocking down your doors.

[00:04:02] You have to do a little bit of that salesmanship yourself, and you have to be organized with returning emails. You have to return texts. You have to let coaches know because. Plants are changing, whether it’s changing. Uh, there’s so many things that you say, this is what I was going to do this weekend. And then bam.

[00:04:19] Um, you know, we, again, I was recruiting this weekend and there was miscommunication and a team was two and a half hours late. So the other team had to just sit around and wait for him. Um, but coaches need to know those different things of, Hey, I’m going to be here this weekend. I might be going to this school.

[00:04:36] Camp, you know, like I worked the write-ups in, but I also worked many other college cans too. So I can see guys that are looking at their schools and maybe they’ll jump out to me. But I think, um, when you’re 16, 17 years old, or it’s tough to own the process, but you really do have to embrace it and say, this is a very important decision and I’m going to make, so mom and dad are going to give me some guidance.

[00:04:58] The assistant coaches and the coaches from the different schools are going to give me some guidance, but I have to take charge of this process.

[00:05:05] Matt: That’s great advice. You mentioned camps, you mentioned tournaments that, that you guys recruit at, I guess, what are your must go to events? Uh, and, and how important are camps for a recruit in terms of attending and, and, and really figuring out what schools they want to go to, or even just being seen.

[00:05:30] Coach: To be honest, we don’t really look at it as something that we must go to. You know, I know some schools, they want to go to the MLS playoffs in Frisco and that’s it. That’s a must for them. We may go to that. But when we start looking at our database and say, okay, we have 10 guys here this weekend, but we have 20 guys here this weekend.

[00:05:49] Uh, it doesn’t matter what the name of the showcase is. We’re going to go where it’s going to be most efficient for us. Uh, we don’t, we don’t judge, you know, and say, this is a better one.

[00:06:04] Um, now you’re allowed back on campuses. And when you weren’t allowed on campuses for about a year, how do you make a decision in other zooms and would have virtual tours? That’s not the same as being on a college campus. Um, when you go to the college to the champs, uh, if you do, if you do just a one day, that’s great, but I liked that.

[00:06:22] They encouraged the overnight because when your duty overnight and you get to experience what the dorm life is like, and you get to sleep in a dorm, you get to eat cafeteria food. So you’re not like you’re closer to a freshman experience than just going and playing for three hours and meeting some of the players on a team, meeting the coaches, um, seeing what the coaches are like, seeing what the facilities are like.

[00:06:44] It’s not as all-inclusive as being able to do one or two nights overnight, but it’s becoming much more important. The one thing. That I’ve talked to coaches about. I think we have a responsibility to Trek to try and keep the costs down and the costs continue to rise on it. And I, I’m not in a, a mind frame of, we have to do this to make profit.

[00:07:05] You know, that that’s not what we’re doing it for. We’re doing it to help the process. We’re trying to have. Um, to funnel down our process, but we’re also trying to help the student athletes funnel down their process. Instead of having 10 schools, they might go to three or four camps and they get in a summer and say, you know what?

[00:07:21] I can eliminate those two schools. And I really liked these two schools and it helps out quite a bit, but, um, you know, some people that recruited, they can’t afford a kid, you know, at camp could be close to $600 and. We understand that. And, uh, again, that’s just something that you have to adjust and figure out how it fits into your college search process,

[00:07:43] Matt: for sure.

[00:07:44] Um, well w when you’re coaching at a camp or, or watching players on the field at a tournament or something, what I guess for, for rider, let’s say not, it might be a little bit more broad than just you. What really are you guys looking at in terms of your hierarchy of, you know, we want to make sure that a player checks all these boxes, you know, whether that’s on the field or off the field stuff.

[00:08:11] Coach: Yeah, it definitely is both of those because when, when we go to one, we don’t sit there with the list and say, we are definitely looking for just a number six. Uh, we go there and we’re like, We were the top guys here. And how do you set yourself apart as a top guy, one, you work, rate’s going to be there and that’s very easy for a coach to pick up on.

[00:08:30] Are you working, um, to what kind of soccer brain do you have? And, you know, we put you in a lot of different types of drills that aren’t position specific. So maybe you are a number 10, but we might put you as a center back just to see what kind of soccer mind that you have. Um, th th what checks the box from a sock or.

[00:08:51] Skillset is how’s your first touch? Uh, how’s your first touch and how you looked it over the field. One of the things that’s big for coach ness, and it may not be for other coaches is I want vocal players that are going to help out the teammates and say, Hey, there’s a man on, or you can turn, you have time and space because how many times do you hear somebody communicate after the fact?

[00:09:13] And it’s very easy to communicate. Back, but that doesn’t help your teammate out and that doesn’t help the team out. Um, division one, soccer speed and physical speed are definitely things that check, check the boxes. Um, I think some people are under the mind frame that, that division, when they only want six foot, two guys that can run four or five forties, um, that that’s the perfect world by the, how many people could actually do that.

[00:09:37] So again, it’s, what’s your soccer. How hard are you working and what kind of teammate are you? And, you know, I think we all know that there’s some guys out there that you can pick up on a bed attitude. And once we pick up on a bad attitude, whether you own at a teammate, when you’re yelling at a referee, um, that that’s going to put, uh, uh, a down arrow next to your name, when we’re going through.

[00:09:59] Matt: Yeah, no, uh, I love that. So let’s talk about the school a bit, um, for, though for folks who aren’t familiar with rider, um, you know, obviously we can go to the website and, and get the basic facts, but, uh, give me the inside scoop. What makes rider just a great place for, for student athlete?

[00:10:18] Coach: Yeah. You know

[00:10:28] what? I actually been stayed with New Jersey and, um, whereabouts the school’s located about three miles from right when I’m getting my undergrad and my graduate degree. We knew about writer, but it wasn’t a place that we ever really visited. We stayed on our own campus. We worried about, uh, what we were doing at Trenton state and they’re really ventured out.

[00:10:46] Um, we never mentioned the Princeton either. We’re just kind of we’re self-contained um, when I left Bucknell last August and came back home to New Jersey and the opportunity rose a rider, um, to be honest, I had to educate myself and I had to find out what made it special and, uh, you know, It’s a nice campus, but I think the most important thing is it’s such a good location and the location.

[00:11:10] Um, you know, this is appears that the international guys, but it would also, we’re going to, we’re trying to expand it to add a region. Guys is our location is we’re less than an hour from New York city. Well, less than an hour from Philadelphia, but less than an hour from the beach. So you pretty much, if you want it to get off campus, you have all those things available to you.

[00:11:33] You know, the campus is not a huge campus. Um, it’s pretty self-contained, but there is a bit of a off campus atmosphere. But you know, when we talked to the guys, some of our guys on the team, they live off campus, uh, to try and visualize the campus. It’s really here’s the campus. Um, and then off campuses literally right next door.

[00:11:53] So there’s sets of condos that are located right next to the campus and it’s considered off campus. But you’re pretty much attached. So you do get the campus life of what it’s like on a Friday and Saturday when you don’t have classes, um, walking around the campus, you know, people are just friendly. And, uh, people walk around and they’re going to say, good morning, you’re going to say, uh, how you doing?

[00:12:14] Um, as far as majors, the big major is, uh, our management program is one of our, our best pagers. And again, I think that has to do with our location because we’re close to Philadelphia or close to, to New York city, the financial capital. So guys can go and get jobs and internships in New York city. And it’s a very, uh, uh, attractive one form.

[00:12:33] Um, one of the things I’ve learned about our international guys is they didn’t, they didn’t come over pretty experienced. They came over and they started a new life in the United States. And, uh, again, because of our location, that helps out quite a bit.

[00:12:47] Matt: Ah, that’s great. Um, can you talk about kind of the support mechanisms that are in place to help with both the, the academic side as well as the athletic side for.

[00:13:01] Coach: Uh, well, the good thing is, um, we actually have a great team GPA and, uh, last semester, this year was my first year with Jean. And when the grades came out and I saw that we had a 3.4 GPA, I was very proud of that because I came from Bucknell university, which is a very academic institution, our GPA at Bucknell was not quite that high.

[00:13:23] Um, our guys work now, our guys work and a lot of times they do not. Use the resources that are available, but as soon as the something is happening, um, we can get them to, to a tutor. We have a tutoring service rate in the athletic facility where you can use the tutoring service. But what I’ve learned is, um, Tutoring trying to, you know, it’s like you have a teammate and your teammates usually help you out.

[00:13:48] So if you’re struggling in, let’s just say business one-on-one as a freshmen. Well, a junior senior probably took that course at some point. And when you’re sitting in a locker room where you’re sitting in the bus, um, they can, they kind of act as a tutor to you and they help you through the process. If you have a class that somebody is not very familiar with, then we put you with the tutoring services.

[00:14:09] Um, the other good thing about rider is we’re a division one school and we don’t have football. So soccer is one of the main drivers during the fall. Um, so there’s a lot of resources, but we’re also under the microscope. So if guys are missing class or not doing well in class, uh, the professor’s going to know about that right away.

[00:14:29] And they’re going to get in touch with somebody on our staff. We’re going to address it as quickly as we possibly can. Again, I’ve only been there two semesters and we’ve had, we haven’t had to address it, but coach versus told me in the past that the professors will reach out and say so-and-so is just not doing as they should be doing in class and readdress it right away when we have, okay.

[00:14:50] Matt: Well, you know, what does a, if we were in the season, what would you say? A typical. We have no, there’s no such thing as typical, but, uh, looks like for a player in terms of, you know, what all are they, are they doing in turn, in terms of what time they get up and, and eating, and practice and games and all that kind of stuff.

[00:15:12] Coach: Right. Um, this season coming up, it’s going to be my first season with rider. But, um, if it is first semester, you’re pretty much you schedule your classes. So you figure out if you’re going to take 12, 15, 16, 18 credits a semester, and you’ve everybody puts their schedules together. They give it to the staff and then we look at it and we say to them, you know, guys, we would like you to take three to five o’clock with no classes.

[00:15:35] Most times that works out sometimes that won’t. So that might be a situation where. Joe might have to miss Tuesday practice and we just have to deal with that. Uh, but three to five is typically what we like to, to have as our practice times, um, travel on the weekends. We, we travel by bus. I actually, during midweek games, uh, we try and keep our travel to a minimum.

[00:15:58] And again, our location’s pretty good. Wherever we can get to Pennsylvania schools, New York schools, Maryland schools, New Jersey school. Relatively quick midweek on the weekend. Um, we’ll travel to different tournaments, different campuses, and just trying to give the guys different opponents. So we played different teams during their four years.

[00:16:15] Um, the MAAC is a little bit bigger. Geography, Jackson, geography wise, then, um, the Patriot league was where I was. Um, so we take a flight every year. Um, whether it’s Canisius or whatever one it’s going to be each year, each year, we’re going to fly up to Buffalo for, for one of our trips. Um, lifting is different.

[00:16:34] During the season and versus the off season, we focus on our lifting a lot more during the off season. Um, your time is you have to have a much better time. You have to budget your time much better during the season, because we’re going to have scatter reports. We’re going to have to film sessions, we’re going to have practices.

[00:16:52] Um, so you pretty much need to know that about 20 hours a week, 20 hours. Is what the NCAA maximum that you can put in a week when we fill out our time sheets, it’s usually 16 to 18 hours is what a student athlete puts in each week in the off season. It’s much less than that, but you also do do other things that stay, keep you connected to the program.

[00:17:14] One of the things that we did at rider that I loved is, um, you know, we were watching all the champions and games in the team room together. Um, then when we got to the nation’s league game, unfortunately the semester ended, but with the international. Team that was pretty fun going in there and saying, okay, we’re rooting for this team or we’re rooting against this team just to have some fun with the teammates, but.

[00:17:38] Some schools out there. They like to do 6:00 AM sessions because that way everybody can make it. We’re not a fan of that because they’re college students and unfortunately college students don’t sleep as best they should. They’re not going to bed at 10 o’clock at night. They may be staying up until 12 or one o’clock.

[00:17:54] So getting them up at 5 34, 6:00 AM practice, we don’t feel like they’re going to have the best practice. We want them there a hundred percent mentally and physically. So three o’clock. Uh, hopefully you get to class classroom Madea, and you’re ready to go at three o’clock every day. Uh, I was,

[00:18:08] Matt: uh, I felt the same way as both a player and a coach.

[00:18:12] Uh, the 6:00 AM just didn’t make any sense. You’re not skilled for any games at 6:00 AM, so let’s not practice them.

[00:18:18] Coach: Right. Not a good dress rehearsal. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:18:23] Matt: Well, let’s, let’s talk a little bit more about, uh, about the, the team and the soccer side of things. So do you guys have a roster size that you try to hit every.

[00:18:34] Coach: Uh, we, we deal it’s anywhere from 24 to 28. Um, last year, again, I wasn’t with the team and I made it to the mat championship game, but they did it with. Tape and band-aids and crutch is, uh, so they had a lot of injuries and still somehow got to the championship game. So the staff made a conscious decision to make sure we had more depth this year.

[00:18:57] So we’re going to have right now we have 27. And like I mentioned earlier, have one spot left. So we’re going to cap it at 28. Um, and that that’s a little bit bigger than we usually do. But again, um, what you think. Kids are getting injured so easily. And I think part of that is because they’re playing through my soccer these days and there’s no downtime to really recover the muscles and the wear and tear.

[00:19:21] It just catches up with them over time.

[00:19:24] Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, we talk about the size of the team. What about, what about the size of the staff? Uh, w you know, how many coaches are there? What roles do you all all play and how the everything gets executed?

[00:19:38] Coach: Well, uh, coaching versus though he’s been there for, for awhile now.

[00:19:40] And if people don’t know coach Charlie Inverso, he’s a legend in the game. Uh, you know, he built a, uh, a junior college powerhouse at Mercer community college where they compete for national championships. They won national championships. He put quite a few guys into the MLS and, um, Mercer. Where Ryder is located, so he didn’t have to move when he moved to the division one.

[00:20:03] Um, so coach is pretty much, he’s been around the game so much. He understands the game. He’s head coach. Um, I mean, it’s just a coach. It’s a new role for me. And you know, one of the things that I have actually joked with my parents and my friends about is I’m getting used to the role of. And for 24 years, I didn’t have the role of good cop.

[00:20:22] Um, but, uh, coaching versa gives me a lot of freedom because I was the head coach at Bucknell for 24 years. So he get, gives me the freedom to say, um, okay, go recruiting. You figured out what tournaments are going to be best for us and, and go, and if I tell them. This, this is a player that I really liked.

[00:20:39] He’s going to pick up the phone and he’s going to reach out to that person. You he’ll ask for film every now and then, but you more so notice that I know what a division one player is after 24 years, uh, mark product is our other assistant coach and he, uh, he’s not in the office as much as coach and Verso.

[00:20:54] And I are because he has a full-time job. Uh, and he also works with, with the club team. And that’s very helpful for us because every single weekend he has his eyes and ears. And, you know, he’s working with MLS team, so they’re playing against MLS teams every weekend. And you’ll just send me a text, they’ll say, Hey, coach, email this guy from this team and let’s get the process started.

[00:21:17] Uh, we’ve had a goalkeeper coach LVR in the past and he, he just had a infant. So we were hoping that he’s going to be able to stick with us, but he has kind of let us know that, um, the being a dad becomes a little bit. Julius for him being a dad is going to be more important than, than being a goalkeeper coach.

[00:21:35] We’re not. Um, we will miss him a lot, but coach a versa was a goalie himself and that was his strong suit. So if we don’t have a goalkeeper coach coaching versus gonna assume the goalies, he’s gonna assume the attack. And I’ve always been a defensive minded coach. That’s one of the reasons coach and versatile brought me on because they were surrendering close to two goals, a game last year, and he knows my specialty is tightening up on the defensive end.

[00:21:59] Um, and that kind of, it’s tough to be the defensive minded coach and the good, competent same time because the defensive minded coach has to be very tough on guys. And then when we’re done and we’re getting a water break and I have to go back to being the good cop. Yup. Yup.

[00:22:15] Matt: Totally get that. Um, With all that being said, how would you describe kind of the team style of play and the culture of the team?

[00:22:25] Coach: Uh, you know, I, I did not know much about rider’s talent because we didn’t play them when I was at by now. So when I first started going to the practices, I really didn’t know what, what to expect. You know, it’s easy enough to see that they went to the Mac championship and they’d lost Omarosa and penalty kicks.

[00:22:41] Okay. You’re going to assume that this. Good. Um, but when I started going to the practices and working with the guys, I told everybody when they were like, you enjoying getting back into coaching, I said, I’m enjoying it more than I could have been imagined because she was so talented. They have so much challenge, um, that I’m really excited if, if we get organized and we stayed disciplined and we take care of the defensive side of the things we’re going to be, we’re going to surprise a lot of people, I think, because the talent is there.

[00:23:11] Um, the other thing that I really. About these guys is they are very competitive. And sometimes that means that, you know, I, when we’re in a 5 85 situation, I have to blow the whistle and say, whoa, whoa, this is getting a little too intense comment down. And they’re like, no, we just want to win. I’m like, I know you want to win, but it’s a practice.

[00:23:30] And I think that competitiveness is going to carry over to August and we’re playing some, some pretty good competition. So, um, I’m hoping that we can open some eyes with our non-conference schedule, but. It will prepare us for the Mac games. Um, the atmosphere in the team, you know, it’s something, I don’t know how many teams out there can say after Jean’s international, have their teams American and they learn from each other and they feed off of each other.

[00:23:57] It’s not like we have an American side of the locker room and the international side of the locker room. We have a locker room and you know that the American guys spread to start to learn the different countries, cultures. The different habits that they have, the different types of humor that they have, uh, the different types of traditions that they have and share the American traditions, um, you know, teach the guys a little bit about football, a little bit about baseball, uh, some different things that, that, that just helps with the, with the whole entire experience that you would have at rider university.

[00:24:32] It’s something that I’m very excited about. What the future holds. Yeah. That’s great.

[00:24:38] Matt: Well, coach, I appreciate the time. I, I always, uh, end with the same question, which is what, what didn’t we talk about? What, what did we miss or what, are there anything else you want to let us know about the school, the team, the programmer, or anything else?

[00:24:53] Coach: Um, no, no, not really. I think it’s just one of those things that yet, like I said earlier, if somebody is listening to this interview, um, do your homework, you know, go to go to rider.edu because for some people it resonates with them. So with other people that they’re going to look at it and it’s not for them.

[00:25:07] We’re totally okay with that because otherwise we’d have 75 guys on a roster. Um, the other thing is I probably should have mentioned this earlier, when you said, what, what do you look for in a guy? We want people that want to be part of. So, if we have to convince you. To come to our university or convince you to be part of our soccer program.

[00:25:30] We’re going to have to reconvince you over and over and over again. And that’s not really something that we want to do. We want to be around and coach student athletes that are passionate about. Our school and our soccer program. So as people go through the process, find something that they find that hopefully they find that score just clicks and says, all right, I believe in this.

[00:25:51] And I’m going to have a passion for this every day. And I’m going to love going out to practice every day. And I’m going to love putting on the Jersey that if it doesn’t say rider or whatever sport that say, you’re going to put so much pride, if you’re passionate about where you’re going. Yeah,

[00:26:03] Matt: no, I love that.

[00:26:04] Well, coach, I appreciate the time. Uh, we should the best of luck here in the fall and hopefully, uh, you can use. Redeem a that, that PK loss and the championships are embarrassed and, and bring home the hardware. So appreciate it, coach.

[00:26:18] Coach: Yeah, I really appreciate it, Matt. Thanks for all you do for college.

[00:26:20] Soccer is very appreciated. No, thank you. All right. Good luck to you.

[00:26:26] Matt: All right, coach. Thanks. I’ll uh, I’ll probably have this up later this week. Um, but I’ll shoot you an email. Let you know when it goes live, but we tag all the social media accounts and all that stuff. So.

[00:26:40] Coach: Okay. And I, and we’re okay. Just like once it’s there, we can rotate center that the recruits.

[00:26:44] Absolutely. I will get it, get it as far

[00:26:46] Matt: and

[00:26:46] Coach: wide as possible. Awesome. All

[00:26:49] Matt: right. Thanks coach. Yep. Take care. Bye-bye.