Salem University Men’s Soccer – Coach Greg Gilmore

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Greg from the Salem Men’s Program in West Virginia. We talk about recruiting as a new coach trying to turn around a program. He describes how the school has competitive costs with great athletic resources. Lastly, we discuss how he likes to focus on a possession-oriented style of play. Learn more about Salem University Men’s Soccer.

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

Coach: Thanks for having me, Matt. 

Matt: Yeah. Thanks for being here again. I will say you, you, you, you’re not the first though. I’ve got a couple that, that have had a job changes in the couple of years that I’ve been doing the podcast.

So folks may remember you from a little bit this time last year, uh, talking about your program up at Northland, but now you are at Salem university in West Virginia. So, uh, so when did you, when did you start that role? 

Coach: Uh, you know, I transitioned over here kind of in between December and January. Uh, it’s definitely a lot warmer.

Uh, it was 83 degrees here yesterday and I think it was still 35 degrees where I was, uh, in Wisconsin previously. So in that regard, I definitely can’t complain. I’d say we had a, a much warmer, uh, in productive spring season. Obviously when you can, you don’t have to worry about 10 feet of snow. So I’ve definitely been enjoying it.

Uh, got a lot done the last couple months, but definitely a change. 

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I, and, you know, you and I are talking here mid April, uh, you know, it’s kind of the, the, the heart of that, uh, college showcase season, uh, with some of the events having just happened and then a couple more coming up and, you know, FAFSA is really Altered the landscape of timing for this year.

And obviously you’re coming into a new program who unfortunately didn’t quite have the record, uh, that, that, uh, [00:01:30] that it, I’m sure that the school wanted. But so where are you at right now with your recruiting for 24s? How much have you started on your 25s? What, what’s that kind of look like for you right now?

Coach: So 25s, I mean, I’ll be honest, we’ve barely started, like obviously program only won two games last year. So. We had, uh, we had to make some changes with the roster that I was inheriting, which we actually just completed. And we had to bring in a lot of, a lot of new faces. Uh, I think I probably owe FAFSA a little bit of a thank you for them delaying kind of the recruitment process across the country.

I know it wasn’t great for everyone else, but I think it probably helped my situation a little bit here in Salem, uh, delaying the timetables back a little bit. But no, we, we brought in a lot of guys. Obviously it’s been a lot of travel for myself. Uh, we’ve gone kind of all up and down the East coast, trying to find guys that, you know, fit what we’re trying to build here and going to be a very different roster next fall, but I think it’s going to be a very strong roster as well.

So we’re pretty excited for the squad that we expect to have right now. 

Matt: All right. Well, in terms of, you know, you look at that roster from last year and one would notice a heavy international flair, we’ll call it, um, and, and, you know, In a position that you’re in, you know, coming in and in January, trying to turn things around, kind of rebuild a roster, how much are you looking at what I’m going to say then would be the non traditional recruits.

So you got the [00:03:00] international players, junior college players, and then the transfer transfer portal, which, as we all know, has just kind of changed. changed everything as well. 

Coach: It has. And you know, my last institution, as you know, was division three. And I think making the transition to division two, this was kind of my first job where I could really go transfer heavy.

Uh, you know, talk about junior college transfers, obviously transfer portal guys, even grad transfers. Salem has We have a really good setup for grad transfers, where we have an extremely affordable MBA, where you can get your MBA in just one year. So guys, especially coming off probably the last year, where there’s going to be a lot of guys that have that COVID fifth year, we’re really trying to take advantage of that as well.

So, For me, we’re, we went very transfer heavy with this recruiting class. Uh, we do have some true freshmen coming in, but for the most part, we were looking for a lot of guys with college experience. Uh, you know, we have a kid coming in that played in the Juco national championship two years ago, another kid that was top 10 in the scoring for.

The junior college level, uh, we brought in the transfer from Franklin Pierce, you know, kid has two national championships. So for me, I’d say, you know, it’s a lot of non traditional recruiting, getting guys that have that college experience that kind of know what to expect a little bit, understand the grind of the college season.

Uh, But that’s also bringing a lot of those guys in that have been successful already at the college level. That’s going to help the true freshmen that we’re bringing in as well. Because those guys are going to come into an environment where it’s not just the team that went [00:04:30] 2 14, now we have guys that have national championship experience, uh, playoff experience.

So I think it’s kind of a best of both worlds, if that makes sense, where it’s setting up a real positive environment for the freshmen that we’re bringing in. 

Matt: Sure. No, I could definitely see that it, well, in terms of those traditional, uh, traditional crews, the freshmen coming in, you know, you were a Division III coach in Wisconsin, now you’re division two kind of in that, we’ll call it Mid-Atlantic.

I don’t know. Some people, you know, uh, we, I’m still trying to figure that one out myself, how they want to put West Virginia, but I’m gonna call, I’m gonna call it the Mid-Atlantic. Um. Has that changed the events? The, the, that you go to, that you like to recruit at now? I’m assuming it’s a different set.

What, what are some of the tournaments you, you’re, you’re really focusing on for those traditional, uh, recruits? 

Coach: I don’t think it necessarily changes where I go. I think it, it changes how I look at guys. Uh, I think I pay a lot more attention to. The caliber of the opposition when I’m watching kids play at showcase events, whereas before I, I didn’t have to be quite as picky, but now I’m looking for guys that are kind of going up against.

I need to make sure they’re going up against, you know, college type players on a regular basis. Otherwise, otherwise it just creates a very steep learning curve. And, you know, with the way I want to run this program here, like we’re not planning on having a JV team or development team. Like we really want to keep the roster in between 25 and 30 guys.

So if we have a bunch of guys that aren’t used to going up against college caliber players, that creates a learning [00:06:00] curve where they’re not going to be able to really help us probably as quickly as we want. So again, I’m trying to make sure that guys are going up against solid competition on a regular basis.

Uh, your ECNL players, MLS next players, uh, do a couple of NPL guys coming in as well, but. Again, that competition at the club level at events, it’s, it’s pretty important when we’re recruiting. 

Matt: Okay. Well, besides the quality of competition, if, if you had to, you know, give me your, your hierarchy of things that you’re looking for, both on the field and off the field, what is it that that is.

Drawing you to particular players, uh, this go around. 

Coach: I mean, obviously the ability, the talent level is important, especially at the division two level, but I am trying to be a little bit more picky kind of with the rest of the picture, uh, how guys are communicating with referees or teammates or coaches, uh, body language, how do you respond to adversity when things aren’t going well, when you’re part of a club game or a showcase game.

Uh, again, the college soccer can get extremely emotional out there in the field. I was a player myself, uh, I’ve seen it obviously coaching now for eight years. I see it. And we need to be in a position where our guys can handle whatever’s going to happen on the field. And if you can’t handle what’s happening in a showcase game, like to me, that’s a massive red flag right away.

Uh, I’ve had plenty of guys that have been on my list and I’ve enjoyed maybe the first half, something happens in the second half and cross them off right away because that’s not the type of person that we want to bring into our program. So again, talk about body language, how you communicate to your teammates, officials, opposition, [00:07:30] it’s how you handle yourself over 90 minutes.

Uh, as long as you have the talent level or say if you have the talent level, but you don’t have the other parts, uh, you’re really not a good fit for what we’re trying to build here. 

Matt: Okay. Well, and you know, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure it still holds true that the division two, uh, allows you to let players kind of quote unquote, try out or, or practice with the team.

So you’ve got that added aspect, which is. Very different from division three, but then also ID camp. So how, how do those things kind of wrap their way into your overall recruiting process? And what are you, are you using any of those to help you? What’s that look like? 

Coach: [00:00:00] Yeah, uh, you know, having tryouts when guys can do their visits, I think is awesome. Uh, at the same time, I think that’s a, that’s kind of a little bit of a different environment than an actual game. I, I really enjoy watching recruits play for their club games. Cause then I’m sort of getting almost, uh, an unfiltered view, if that makes sense.

Like I’m, it’s more natural. Like I’m seeing them react in games, uh, seeing how they are with their teammates they’ve been playing with for hopefully a long time period. So I think that’s a little bit more telling to me. I do think obviously when you talk about the step up to division two from whatever club level they’re at, I do think that matters.

And that’s something we can definitely take advantage of with the tryouts. But for the most part, like the first thing is watching guys play kind of in their current environment that they’re more used to. I think that helps paint for me a pretty accurate picture. In terms of ID camps, that’s something that probably in the next two years we’re going to start to launch here.

We have a really good setup where basically if you’re part of any neighboring state, or even Indiana, we offer reduced tuition. So I think this can become, whereas previously this school or this program was almost all international, we’re actually going to start trying to bring in. More and more Americans.

We’re still going to recruit plenty of international guys, but we are going to try to dip into the domestic market more and more as well in the next coming years, because I think we have a real good tuition set up where you can make this a very affordable option for guys where this can be a pretty good investment for their future.

Matt: All right. Well, well, let’s shift gears, talk a little bit more about the school. I mean, I’m sure there’s [00:01:30] folks familiar, not folks out there. Not familiar with Salem. It’s not a Massachusetts, right? There’s no witches. Uh, at least that we know 

Coach: how often that comes up by the way. Hey, I get it. Uh, 

Matt: I coached at Oakland city university, which most people thought was Oakland in Michigan.

So, Hey, I get it. Um, But, you know, you’re coming in from another school, kind of what, what drew you to, to Salem? What’s, you know, what have you found so far in the few months you’ve been there that really makes it stick out and wanted, uh, made it a place that you wanted to be at? 

Coach: I mean, for me personally, I really liked the Division II model.

Uh, I think the stuff that we can accomplish in the spring. If you’re, if you want soccer to be a major part of your decision for where you go to college, uh, for me, division two offers you just about everything. Uh, in terms of my career, I think our athletic director, you know, our president here has really set us up to be in a pretty competitive position.

Our resources for the men’s soccer program. I think are pretty strong. Uh, I think our cost as well as an institution in general is extremely competitive. Uh, we have a very unique model. Uh, we don’t do academic scholarships for incoming freshmen instead of Starting at 60, 000 and everyone gets an academic scholarship to cut the cost down, our starting cost is in the 20s, right off the bat.

So, I think we have a lot more transparency where people don’t need to apply here and get accepted to find out how much it’s going to cost. So, for me, I just really like that setup. Uh, the second part of that is [00:03:00] we have a very unique class structure here. I, I’m kind of curious to find out, actually, if there’s any other schools out there that do what we do.

But, Basically, you take one class at a time here for four weeks, and then you move on to the next class. And so for me, I remember when I was a student athlete, I actually struggled kind of balancing everything all at once, five classes at a time, especially as a freshman. So here, I think the chance to just worry about one class for four weeks on the next class.

When you talk about time management, especially with the Division two calendar, I think we have a really good set up to help people get the most out of their student and athlete experience. So I like to set up. I like the resources. So for me, I think we have a lot going for us here. 

Matt: It sounds like I’ve heard, I’ve heard 1 or 2 other schools that have a model if the similar to that, but it’s definitely, uh, definitely not the norm, um, which is, which is pretty neat, but we, you mentioned that it, you know, it can be a struggle, right?

For especially freshmen new coming into college to balance. Their, their sport and their studies. And so, besides the unique class structure, kind of what support systems as a school offer to help ensure success for those student athletes, both on the field and off the field. 

Coach: I mean, obviously being a smaller school, we can talk about class sizes, but most smaller private schools will talk about that.

I think we have a very good ratio where if kids need help, uh, professors are very, you know, accessible. Uh, as a program, we try to set things up where we’re doing multiple study halls a week. Again, when guys [00:04:30] are only taking one class at a time, it’s also much easier for me to keep track of their schedule.

Grades as well. So I think it’s very hard to, it’s hard to fail here. If that makes sense with our setup, I think if you manage your time appropriately and we set it up, so it’s very hard to not manage your time appropriately, and there’s plenty of opportunities where guys are starting to struggle, like I’m going to know, and I’m going to know in plenty of time to make sure we’re taking corrective action to get guys on track.

Matt: Okay. Well, I gotta fast forward, uh, to, to let’s say, you know, October, uh, of this coming year, you’re in the heart of your season. Um, what do you expect a typical schedule to look like for a player in terms of when training is classes, meals, games, cadence, all that kind of stuff. 

Coach: So your classes here are only Monday through Thursday.

And because again, that unique structure, you’re always done by noon, uh, more often than not, you’re done by 11. So we’re able to train earlier in the day. We have two full time strength conditioning guys, so we’re able to work with them a lot more. And you still have plenty of hours in the day to make sure you are getting your school work done.

It also gives us more time to do film sessions, maybe individual sessions as well. But again, it’s Monday through Thursday in class. Usually done by 11. Occasionally it might be noon. This year we’re going to be practicing probably around 2. 30 in the afternoon. And then rest of the day, it’s kind of whatever we need.

Depends where we’re at in the week. Might be film session, individual, strength conditioning. Uh, we got a pool right [00:06:00] on campus. We might be doing recovery work in that indoor pool. So, again, it depends where we’re at in the week, but we have a lot of resources. And we also just have a lot of hours in the day where we can focus on really whatever we need to.

Matt: Okay. Now, in terms of the, the game schedules and that kind of thing, is there a, do you guys have a typical game cadence of like, you know, Friday, Sunday or Wednesday, Saturday, or is it just kind of all over the map? 

Coach: So we play a full mountaineer schedule. We play some of the better teams in the country.

Talk about DNE Charleston. Obviously, I think they won a national championship a couple years ago. I don’t think that I know they did. So we play a pretty tough schedule. I play each team twice. Yeah. And it’s very easy to have a routine year because it’s every Wednesday and every Sunday. So again, you talk about your time management and everything, uh, it’s only one game during the week.

So there’s very minimal missed class, especially when class is always done by 11. So it’s, uh, to me, it’s a pretty good setup and we’re lucky to be having that schedule. 

Matt: Okay. Well, let’s shift gears. Talk a little bit more about the team. I mean, you mentioned your, um, you know, you’re trying to keep that 25 30 roster size with no, uh, JV team, which, which is nice.

Um, in, in terms of just building out the rest of your roster, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re new. So have you built out the staff? What’s that? What’s your staff going to look like? What other maybe support staff? You talked about strength and conditioning coaches, but what other support staff maybe are in the athletic department?

They’re going to help with the men’s soccer team. Yeah. [00:07:30] 

Coach: Oh, I mean, so we have a GA right now. I’m going to be adding another coach to the staff. There’s potential that we might add to, uh, kind of depends how the next couple of months go. Uh, I do think having just, uh, three guys on the coaching staff, given the size of our roster, I think that’s a pretty good ratio.

I think that allows our guys to have the right kind of relationship with our coaching staff, and I think we should be able to give each player, uh, plenty of attention. If that makes sense. Uh, we’re pretty lucky where we have four full time athletic trainers here. So for a smaller school, I’d say we’re school our size.

There’s very few teams that have traveling ATS, like our ATS at every single practice at every single away game, uh, very much a part of the team. Uh, we have one strength conditioning coach that’s assigned to us for the entire year as well. So our players are developing a pretty tight relationship with the strength conditioning coach and athletic trainer, then obviously a full coaching staff.

So I genuinely think our guys are pretty well taken care of. And the other thing is when you kind of add a strength conditioning coach, it’s kind of basically is part of the coaching staff and at that I consider part of the coaching staff that gives our guys more outlets as well. It’s more people to talk to more people to make sure they’re feeling comfortable and just getting taken care of really.

Matt: Okay. Well, Now on to you specifically, uh, how would you describe kind of your style of coaching and the style of play that you expect to implement there? 

Coach: So we’re very big on keeping the ball. Uh, we’ve had a couple spring games so far, and I think we’ve made [00:09:00] a, a lot of progress kind of implementing the style that I want to play.

We’re very big on, you know, moving our opposition side to side in a perfect world, we have the ball 60 percent of every single game we’re controlling the pace. We’re. controlling the tempo and we’re trying to just move our opponents around as much as possible. And then that’s going to create bigger gaps in the middle.

Then that’s where we start to penetrate and start to attack for us. We need guys that can make quick decisions on the ball. Obviously, anytime you want to be possession based team, your first touch becomes It’s critical. If you don’t have a good first touch, then your decision making takes longer. Your chance, your, the time you have to evaluate what’s on the field takes longer, so we need a very high technical ability if we’re going to play the way that I want to play.

And I think we have a recruiting class that kind of meets that standard. The guys were keeping from the returning roster, I think meets that standard as well. I think it’s going to be a pretty exciting fall in terms of how I run training sessions. Uh, obviously it’s a lot of possession based activities.

We try to make it as game like as possible. Uh, we’re trying to simulate a game environment as much as possible. And that just makes playing on Wednesdays and Sundays that much easier. 

Matt: Well, like I said, we’re talking here in the spring. So what, what is your spring off season look like in terms of what players are doing, how often, what are you looking to do there?

Coach: So our guys come back, we’ll just talk about like the whole spring semester. Our guys come back. Early, mid January. And from there, you know, we take advantage of the full eight hours that we get in [00:10:30] division two, uh, right away we’re in the weight room with our strength and conditioning guys. Uh, and then we’re getting our four hours in on the field as well, uh, throughout the spring.

And once we get our full spring season going and we get our 20 hours, uh, we’re always training. Uh, next this year, we only played three spring games. Next year, we’re going to do the full five. Be a little more competitive this year. Again, talk about the numbers situation I inherited. Didn’t want to overdo it.

Uh, but next year we plan on playing the max amount of games in the spring as well. A lot of training again, spring, a lot of possession based stuff. I encourage guys in the spring to make mistakes. Maybe it’s a forward that needs to develop some more one V one skills in the final third. And I’ll tell them straight up in the spring.

Like I want to see you lose the ball a couple of times. Spring is the time to get better. Develop your skills, take chances and kind of see where your barriers are. So try to take advantage of the spring. I treat spring as a, as a tool basically to get ready for the fall. 

Matt: Okay, well, you’ve made the jump from from division 3 division 2 and you talked about a few of the differences, but I guess what what has been the biggest or what are some of the biggest differences that you’ve seen not only in in facilities, but scheduling with.

What you do with your players, how you look at scholarships now that you have them versus don’t, I guess what would have been some of the big changes just for you in terms of making the jump from D3 to D2? 

Coach: I think obviously recruiting is different. I would say, I’d say your typical [00:12:00] division two school recruiting might not be quite as different as it is here because we’re so without academics, where most schools will have some athletic scholarships and stack, like we’re all.

Athletic scholarships here. So that’s pretty big difference, uh, which I personally, I enjoy because I, I get all the say in it. I’m not relying on someone’s GPA or anything like that. So I’ve definitely enjoyed that difference. Uh, I think the calendar is something that I’ve enjoyed a lot, you know, what we can do in the spring that you can transform a team in the spring, uh, in the fall, You know, those games count like you can’t take a whole lot of chances.

You can’t really experiment with maybe a new formation because you lose three points. That might be the difference between playoffs or no playoffs. In the spring here, we’re allowed, we can experiment with stuff, we can try different things, we can see what works, and it doesn’t hurt our overall record or anything.

So I think the development aspect of the off season, that is probably the biggest difference, and I can talk about the difference in recruiting all day, but the way we can develop our program in the spring, that’s been what I’ve enjoyed the most, and to me, that’s probably the biggest difference. 

Matt: All right.

Well, I really appreciate the time going to leave you with one last question, right? And maybe even been the same question I asked you before, but we’re going to see maybe if your answers changed and and that is if you could give, you know, any potential student athlete, uh, you know, if there was one bit of advice through this recruiting process, you want them to know what would that be?

Coach: I would say just. Don’t ever limit your options, I would say. Talk to coaches, uh, don’t be afraid to talk to [00:13:30] coaches that you might think are a reach. And, you know, as it gets later and later, that’s when you start reducing the funnel, reducing the amount of options you have. But reach out to all sorts of schools.

Uh, and I’d, I’d also add, enjoy the recruiting process. It can be stressful. It can be, there’s a lot of unknowns. There’s always going to be a little bit of adversity with it, but try to enjoy it. Uh, The recruiting process is supposed to be fun. It’s obviously a big decision, but enjoy it. You’re playing games in front of coaches and at the end of the day, you’ll, you should be happy when a lot of coaches want, want you to come to their school.

Enjoy the process as much as possible. 

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Couldn’t agree more. Well, coach, wish you the best of luck in, in the new role and, and hope things, uh, work out there. Uh, get you, get ’em, get ’em back on track, , uh, so to speak. And, uh, and really appreciate you reaching back out and jumping on the pod again.

Coach: Yeah, no, thanks for having me, Matt.