Rochester Community and Technical College Women’s Soccer – Coach Bryan Weiss
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Weiss from the RCTC Women’s Program in Minnesota. We talk about their nursing program’s connection to the Mayo Clinic. He describes top-notch athletic facilities they have, even as a JuCo. Lastly, we discuss how he likes to let his players play. Learn more about Rochester Community and Technical College Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Bryan from the Rochester community and technical college in Minnesota, not Rochester, New York. Welcome coach.
Coach: Hello. Thank you.
Matt: Yeah. It’s a Rochester is kind of like one of those cities, like Columbus. There’s a bunch of them.
You just got to decide which state you’re in, right?
Coach: Right. Well, the other Rochester college, they’re actually the yellow jackets as well. Yeah, that doesn’t get confusing at all.
Matt: I can only imagine. I can only imagine. Well, I appreciate you being here. Um, You know, you guys are a two year program up in Minnesota.
Um, in terms of, let’s start with recruiting, you know, you and I are talking end of July. I’m sure you got a couple of weeks for the season kicks off. But one of the things that is, I guess, notorious about junior colleges is you’re always recruiting, right? You guys got to be recruiting twice as much as everybody else.
So. Uh, is your 23 class locked and loaded for the fall? Are you still trying to close out one or two more before the season starts? What’s that look like?
Coach: I’m still trying to close out like five. We had 23 on the roster last year. Uh, 17 of them are sophomores. So we lost 17 of sophomores. Then we lost three freshmen.
Uh, they had 60 plus credits. So they’re transferring on academically. Um, so we had three returners. Wow. Yeah. So it’s, it was a complete reload. Um, another product to the COVID, right? Yeah. Two classes. [00:01:30] Of students that hadn’t played. Um, so yeah, so we’re, we’re recovering.
Matt: So of that, of those 17 players that are moving on, you know, how many of them who want to go play at a four year program are having that opportunity?
Coach: All of the girls that want to are, um, not very many of them did. So what RCTC is probably most known for is our connection to Mayo Clinic. Which is the number one hospital in the country. So they run all of our medical programs. So I had 14 nursing majors on the team last year. Wow. No, a lot of those girls are not transferring on, um, they’re staying at RCTC and then they’re, they have their foot in the door at Mayo and they’re going to go to Mayo.
Wow.
Matt: That’s a, that’s an amazing connection. I know I’ve, I’ve talked with other coaches and, and parents who ask this question and it seems like nursing tends to be the, the hot button major, right? It seems to, there, there are schools who say. We welcome it. Uh, our student athletes to be in nursing, and then there are schools who say.
We advise against you playing soccer and doing nursing at the same time. So the fact that you guys not only embrace it, but the connection with Mayo is quite amazing.
Coach: Yeah, it is a tough thing, especially for the transfer students, because you’re usually transferring after your [00:03:00] sophomore year into your junior year.
And that’s usually the year for clinicals. Which is the toughest year. So our nursing kids just don’t really transfer on to play and they’re focused, right? They know what they want to do for the rest of their life and they’re focused and you know, it’s a, it’s a calling to be a nurse. Right. So, so they’re, they’re set.
Matt: Yeah, no, for sure. Well, so. What have you been doing to, to help with this reload kind of what are some of the events that you go to? Where do you focus your recruiting on year in and year out?
Coach: So, for events, we stay local. Um, you know, try to hit the local kids. It’s the tournaments and the showcases really aren’t that great for me.
Um, it’s how many high school and local club games can I get to? How many kids can I meet face to face and build a relationship with? Um, so that’s where the bulk of our players come from. Um, but even that switches year to year. It cycles in and out where we’ll have one year where half of our players are out of state.
And then last year, I think, I think we had two kids that were out of state last year.
Matt: So, so whether it’s at an event or a high school game or a club game, what are some of the things that make up your kind of hierarchy of, of traits that make you want to offer a student athlete, whether that’s on the field stuff or off the field stuff?
Coach: Yeah, I mean, all coaches want it all. You know, we want [00:04:30] it all. Um, certainly the red flags will get you dropped off real quick. You know, uh, being a bad teammate will, will get you knocked out of our recruiting immediately. Um, I mostly like to see that they are involved in play, that they’re not, you know, the ball’s on the other side of the field.
So now’s a good time for me to just kind of walk around and catch a breather, right? We’re looking for girls that Can support and pass and move and high effort kids, right?
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Love that. Well, in terms of your just the kids coming into school, you mentioned some in state out of state fluctuates, you know, obviously, as a parent, one of my biggest concerns.
Okay, what’s this? What’s this going to cost me? Right? Um, and but the one thing that’s great about junior colleges is the The affordability, so assuming and I’m not holding you to hard numbers here, but let’s just say my daughter down here in Florida says, Hey, I want to be a nurse. I think going to R. C. T.
C. be great to work at Mayo. This is be great to play soccer. Kind of what, what would an out of state student athlete be looking at from a cost perspective, just in terms of what aid is available, but either academically or do you guys offer athletic money? Kind of just an overall picture of what that looks like.
Coach: So we’re d3, so we don’t have that money. Um, tuition fees and books combined is about 6200 for the year. And that’s whether you’re from [00:06:00] Rochester, Florida or Japan. So we don’t have any out of state or international price hikes. Um, so, so we’re pretty affordable. Um, and then we do have other financial aid, um, academic need based, um, uh, career path based scholarships.
And they, they go unclaimed every year. Wow. So, you know, I tell my team, there’s 80 scholarships unclaimed apply for all of them, you know? So, so I think, I think they average, you know, between 500 to 1500 for, for scholarships.
Matt: Wow. Okay. Yeah, that’s, uh, it’s something that gets talked about all the time, but, uh, for sure, there are always scholarships out there.
And a lot of them, you’d be surprised at how few people are applying, if any at all. Right?
Coach: Right. And I have to track those for the 4 year school, you know, where, where do my players best fit? What is the best situation for them after RCTC? So the, the scholarship situations are different. Yeah. At all the schools, none of them are the same.
Matt: Yeah, for sure. For sure. Well, let’s talk about more about RCTC. Obviously you mentioned the connection to Mayo, but you know, you’ve been there for a few years. Kind of what have you found to be the, the, the great things, the things that make it stand out, maybe some things we wouldn’t even learn by just going through the website.
Coach: Um, well, our athletic facilities are really good. Um, [00:07:30] not just for JUCO, but just for college in general. Um, we have a newer turf field that has a, A winter bubble dome, um, so that’s, uh, you know, unfortunately, it’s in Minnesota. So that thing’s up from November to April, probably. And then we have 14 grass fields on campus, full size fields.
And then we have the, uh. The indoor sports center with the, you know, the all weather rubber surface, and then we can do four foots all fields in there. So, you know, with the weight rooms and the aerobic rooms and all of that, we are never lacking for options for practice, even on the days where you get some lightning, you have to go inside.
Um, and then, you know, tutoring is really, really good at RCTC. So, we haven’t had a problem as a team academically, um, because we have so many nursing majors, um, they have to keep that GPA way up, right? And then with some of our other competitive programs, um, they need high GPAs as well. And then the girls that are focused on transferring, you know, need to keep the GPA up.
But for those that do need some help, um, we have a really good tutoring center. Um, what else? And then, you know, I guess if if our city is a good fit, you know, we’re, we’re a safe city of 130, 000 people. Um, and anything that we don’t [00:09:00] have, Minneapolis has about an hour away. Um, so. I haven’t heard too many recruits say that Rochester isn’t a good fit.
So, it’s not like we’re in the middle of Iowa and everything is. An hour and a half away or my last college, we were in the middle of Alabama and the nearest mall was two hours away, you know, so Rochester seems to fit most people.
Matt: No, it sounds like it. Well, let’s kind of fast forward, uh, a couple of months and assume we’re, we’re in the meat of the season, kind of, can you walk me through what would a typical week look like for, for one of your players in terms of when our classes practices meals, which are game cadence look like kind of what would they be in for during the season?
Coach: Yeah, so, um, after our two days are over for the rest of the year, we just go 3 30 to 5 30 Monday through Friday for practices. Most Saturdays we have games. Usually we’ll have a Wednesday game as well. Sundays are off. Um, that’s a recovery day. Mondays are off. Um, if we’ve had a hard week of games, double games or a sunday game or whatever, we, we really, really focused on staying healthy.
Um, that’s so big in college soccer is it’s way more physical than any high school club game they’ve played in. Um, and our trainers are made of clinic trainers. Um, so they’re in great hands. So we just every day I go through and yeah. Um, what can Jenna [00:10:30] do today? What can’t she do? What can Caitlin do? What can’t she do?
Uh, et cetera. Um, we have not needed team study halls. Um, our team GPS, like a 3, 6. Um, so we don’t have it. Um, I work with kids on a 1 on 1 level for those that need some help. Um, we, because we’re D3 and you go, I have not had a set. Everybody’s lifting at this time as a team. Um, they kind of lift in their own groups.
Excuse me. Um. When, when, when it’s convenient for them, so some girls after practice, some are meeting in the morning. Some don’t have Tuesday or Thursday class. So they go on those days. So, they’re really accountable to themselves. Um, and then our spring season is. Is only a month. So we do three, three practices a week for four weeks and end with a little, um, like mini tournament with NCAA schools.
So we’re the only Juco, um, trying to take on some NCAA D3 schools. Um, and then game days. Two hours before practice. We do a optional fruit granola and music thing. And, um, I think we get 99 percent attendance for that thing. Cause it’s free food, right? Music. And then hour and a half before game, we do the coach chat.
And then an hour is mental and physical prep for the game on the field. Oh,
Matt: [00:12:00] love hearing that. That’s some, some good involvement, both. I mean, you’re, you’re, you’re hitting all the bases there from a nutrition standpoint, the mental side, and, and as well as the physical warmup side. That’s, that’s awesome.
Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the soccer side. Uh, and game day, I know you obviously say you’re rebuilding the roster, but is there, is there a roster size that you find is ideal that you’re trying to hit every year, or is it just always in flux?
Coach: Yeah. So in the non COVID years, it’s 19 is kind of my preferred number.
Um, we like to be the stepping stone for the kids to move on and play. Um, and you’re not going to do that sitting on the bench. So, you know, sometimes it might be a detriment to the team. I don’t carry more than two goalies. Um, the second goalie is not going to play unless the first one gets hurt. So we don’t sub just.
Um, and then same with the field players, you know, I just, you know, 16, 17, we’ll play a game and we have a couple more, you know, for practice players or local players or whatever, um, or injuries happen, um, during the COVID season, we, we cranked it up to 23 because we knew if we lost one kid, we’re probably losing four or five, you know, um, but 19 is our target number.
Matt: Well, what about staff? Is there anybody else on staff besides yourself? Kind of, if so, what role do they play?
Coach: So part time assistant coach, usually I try to find somebody that can work the keepers and [00:13:30] hopefully they can also do some defensive responsibility as well. Um, but mostly just, just to the keepers.
So then I take everybody else. Okay.
Matt: Well, how would you describe your, your style of coaching and the team style of play on the field?
Coach: Oh, I let the players play. Um, they’re not going to hear much from me, um, during play. I’m not, not the screamer coach. Um, if there’s something to be corrected, we’ll sub you off and chat about it and then send you back on.
Um, and then practices. Well, I just try to keep them engaged and we usually usually don’t do the same drill more than once a season. Um, we probably throw in a more than healthy amount of. Team bonding fun drills as well. Um, everything is soccer related. Uh, everything. So we don’t really run off the ball.
Um, if we’re, we’re doing cardio, it’s, it’s with a ball at the feet, you know, um, we have three weeks of practice before our first game. So we can definitely get you game shape, um, without doing two mile runs. So, um, I don’t know if I answered the question or not, but yeah,
Matt: no, for sure. I mean, everybody has their own, uh, spin and the way that they look at things.
And I always like to hear from the coaches with what they’re kind of, what [00:15:00] I, what lens they’re, they’re looking at things through. So, so absolutely. Well, you know, we, we talked a lot about. About the school and recruiting and the soccer side of things. And, you know, I always like to end these with, uh, as a college coach, if you had one nugget, one piece of advice information that you wish every parent player family going through the college recruiting process knew, what would that be?
Coach: Oh, I don’t know. Um,
it just doesn’t happen by whim, right? You have to, you have to put in some work and some mental energy to make it happen. You know, I’ve seen that on any level you can think of, you know, recruiting the high schoolers, sending off the Jiko kids and my kid played for me. And so I’ve seen, I’ve seen the recruiting process on pretty much any scenario.
It’s, you gotta do your homework. You gotta look at schools, meet coaches, see. See campuses and and it takes time. Um, so definitely put in, put in effort, you know, that way. And then there’s a college situation for almost every play. If you contributed to your high school club team, there’s a, there’s a team that will take you for sure.
Um, and I think a lot of kids don’t think about that. A lot of. Fortunately, a lot of coaches are [00:16:30] only thinking about their top kid or two. Um, and not thinking about the other handful of kids that do have an interest in playing on. Um, so there’s an opportunity out there for most people.
Matt: Yeah. Couldn’t agree more with, with both those sentiments.
Uh, it’s definitely something I preach here on Discover College Soccer. You got to put in the work, but it’s not as hard as you think it is. And we’ve got some resources to help you, but you do have to put in that work and, and there is a spot for everybody. So hopefully. Hopefully they can find their right fit and perhaps for somebody listening, your right fit might be up there in Rochester.
So coach, really thank you for your time. Wish you the best of luck this season. Hopefully you can finish that rebuild here with a few weeks left to go and, uh, really appreciate it. And, uh, we’ll check in with you and see, see how things went. All right.
Coach: Thank you, Matt. Thank you.
