South Puget Sound Community College Men’s Soccer – Coach Max Sampson
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Sampson from the South Puget Sound Men’s Program in Washington state. We talk about their mix of domestic and international players. He describes the high academic programs their 2=year school has. Lastly, we discuss their offseason schedule during the spring. Learn more about South Puget Sound Community College Men’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Max Sampson from the South Puget Sound Community College men’s program. Welcome coach. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks for being here. Uh, you and I, uh, Couldn’t be more far apart right now. I’m, you know, down here in Bradenton, Florida, you’re up in the Pacific Northwest.
Um, I’m sure our weathers are a little bit different, uh, currently, although, although it looks like it’s the bright and sunny out where you are. So that’s a good thing.
Coach: Yeah. You know, Olympia, Washington, we have the reputation Northwest having rain, but, uh, summertime’s gorgeous. That’s the reason to live up here.
Matt: Yeah, because, uh, that’s when we always get rain every day. I don’t know what time it’s going to start raining, but I’m sure it will. All right. Well, you know, we’re talking here end of June. Um, you know, the two year college recruiting cycle, you guys got to do double the amount of work than everybody else.
And it tends to be a lot later than everybody else. So. Are you, are you done with your class at 24? Is, are you thinking you still may have one or two, uh, coming in here with a couple of months left?
Coach: It’s funny. So I’ve probably told, told my family, other coaching friends, even my girlfriend, I promise I’m done recruiting.
I, you know, I got my 25, we’re set. I like to keep my roster closer to 25. I know others are going 30 or more. I go 25. I am not done. I’m actually on the phone with two players later this afternoon, some [00:01:30] international players, you know, they’re had a wait and see attitude, wanted to explore their options. I stayed in contact with them.
Luckily, I know guys that have played with them. So, so I know that they’d be a good fit for the program, but yeah, shoot, it’s almost July and I’m still trying to sign a couple more, um, players. Being a JUCO, a lot of, you know, Quality players, players that, that should be at our level. They, they tend to wait before they make a decision, especially on the men’s side.
June 25th is, is way late that, you know, it should be, should be signed, sealed and delivered by then. But I think I can get a couple more.
Matt: Okay. Well, you mentioned international players. You’ve got a handful, you know, on, on last year’s roster and coming out. How, how does that work for you guys? Is there a, uh, A target number that you’re trying to bring in?
Are you just trying to max out the roster at the best 25 you can? Or how does the international recruiting component work for you guys as a two year college?
Coach: Yeah, I think, I think it’s a little uncharted for my institution at South Puget Sound, bringing in international athletes somewhat new, especially for our league, the Northwest Athletic Conference.
Um, and and my school loves the idea of bringing in international students because they tend to work on campus and they had diversity and it’s just really great for our student body. I think my ad mentioned, you know, we want 3 to 6 every single year, but because I’ve had such luck, I’ll call it with bringing in international students on previous [00:03:00] teams.
I have 11 this year, which should be pretty exciting.
Matt: Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, on the domestic side of things, um, recruiting wise, are there tournaments that you like to go watch to, to, to see players or how do you predominantly do your domestic recruiting?
Coach: Yeah, for sure. So, originally from Eugene, Oregon, which by car is about five hours south of here.
So, um. Growing up, playing in that area, coaching that area, my coaching tree was pretty strong. I was able to recruit a lot of local players. Moving up here to the Seattle area, I think the mecca for soccer for us is our Starfire Complex, where the Seattle Sounders train. They have a stadium, lots of youth tournaments, and they’ll put on a number of High quality showcases a bit further south.
You have Portland Timbers with their academies, their showcases. And I was lucky to sign a couple players, but my specific situation is until we carve out results against some of the other strong junior college four year programs, most of the quality domestic players are going to look to sign there first.
So this, this initial push for internationals, it’s to get quality up. And I think I will, and then really trying to bring in players within A two, three hour radius that are high quality, meaning, you know, ODP, ECNL experience, GPAs 3. 2 or above, and just good overall mentalities. Okay.
Matt: Well, you mentioned some, some of those attributes that you’re looking for, but, but right now, what is it when you’re watching an international player or domestic [00:04:30] player?
What kind of makes up the, the hierarchy of things you’re looking for in someone you want to bring in, whether that’s on the field attributes or off the field stuff?
Coach: I don’t, I don’t like highlight tapes that are too generic. Meaning if you’re a striker, I want to see you scoring goals. If you’re a defender, I want to see you, you know, screening passes, winning tackles, helping your team build out from your half into the opponent’s half, the phases of play all need to be there, but it needs to be specific to what you’re trying to market yourself to.
Um, another thing I look for that sticks out to me is the quality of play. Are your opponents fit? Do teams get compact and spread out in the phases of play? Does it look like real football? And even if you’re not, you know, a world breaker at that level, if you’re playing at a good youth level, then I have some degree of confidence that we could develop here at a two year college.
Matt: Well, one of the things that most people, uh, when they’re looking at Potentially a two year college. Uh, one of the things that sticks out is usually the affordability component. Uh, so I’m not holding you to hard numbers here, but just give me an idea. What, and let’s just assume maybe it’s an out of state or even out of country person, what, what’s somebody walking into roughly in terms of what it would cost to go to school there, what’s the room and board situation or their athletic scholarships available, that kind of thing.
Coach: Yeah, totally. So, uh, Northwest Athletic Conference. We’re a junior college. We [00:06:00] offer academic financial aid. Most colleges on this side of the country, you’re going to call them foundation scholarships. You send in one academic, um, application that applies you to all of our academic aid for over 300 scholarships.
Athletically, I’m given 11 scholarships valued at 65 percent of the in state tuition. And an out of state player, such as one from your side of the country out in Florida, tuition’s going to be including, you know, books, housing, everything, total cost looking at 14, 000 per year for a nine month school year.
Students that, that get scholarship have good grades. Maybe they are getting a campus job. Oftentimes costs are much lower than that. I have student athletes paying anywhere from, you know, a couple thousand dollars all the way up to that full cost for the year.
Matt: Okay. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school.
Uh, what is it that really kind of drew you to the position to the school? What is it, what are some of the things that, that you found are awesome about the school that maybe we wouldn’t know, even by just going through the website?
Coach: Yeah, totally. I mean, one thing that you would know by going through the website, because we’re so proud of it, is we’re a top 10, uh, academic JUCO.
We’re a top 10 Aspen finalist this year. We’re hoping to win the whole thing, which is awarded to high quality two year colleges in the United States for transferability, student success, and inclusion. It’s a really diverse area. Olympia, Washington, which is the capital city, [00:07:30] about 150, 000 people, but We’re on I 5, so you go a bit north, you’re in Tacoma, a bit north from there’s Seattle, so it feels bigger than it is because the commuting nature of it.
Our campus is about 5, 000 students, and from an athletic standpoint, we’re really lucky because they built a new complex for us in 2020, including an indoor futsal gym, dressing room, weight room, classrooms, everything that you’d like. Um, what drew me to this place was, Just the, the sense of community here.
When I, when I came in to interview, they really, Uh, value athletics and all of the head coaches are tied in full time with an administrative role. In addition to being the men’s soccer coach, I’m also one of the academic advisors, as I mentioned to you before the, before we started. And it allows me to be in my office here on campus.
I’m available student athletes, not just soccer players, but our basketball, our other athletes that we have. Helping them pick classes. I feel really involved because I am and, and our athletes benefit from that directly. So it’s, it’s a really good, really supportive environment that we have. And it helps that from the conversations from the administration above me, we really want our teams to be competitive and we’re given all the support needed to do that.
Awesome.
Matt: Yeah. You know, one of the difficult components of, of, A student coming into college playing a sport is also balancing the rigors of the [00:09:00] academics. Uh, you mentioned that you’re available to them, but what other support systems are there in place? What other ways does the school kind of help them make sure that they, they get those two years done in a great way to help them push on to a four year, if that’s what they so choose?
Coach: Yeah, another great thing about South Puget Sound is everything’s digital, but also if you prefer pen and paper, we got pen and paper. So when it comes to registering for classes, getting tutoring, applying for financial aid, everything is structured in a way as it should be. Meaning I work in the central building on campus and all of the student resources are here.
So financial aid, veteran benefits, we have mental health counseling. I’m on the second floor and directly beneath me is our library and tutoring center. But everything is structured in a way to make it easy. So when students arrive on campus, they know where they need to go to get the resources that they need.
It’s also the website, lots of technology for those that prefer zoom like we’re on or, or other, other means to get help. Everything’s been digitalized to make it easier. So students or non traditional students from home can get the help they need. For athletes, it’s nice because maybe because we train the mornings, they need online classes and everything through canvas and other means is easy to navigate.
So that’s one thing that I really enjoy helping our student athletes at SPS as opposed to other colleges I’ve been at is how quick and how easy we make things.
Matt: Oh, that’s awesome. Well, let’s fast forward to, [00:10:30] to the fall. Uh, you know, you’re in the middle of the season, kind of walk me through what a typical week is going to look like for a player in terms of when our classes practices game cadence, that sort of thing.
Coach: Yeah. And then whack. We have match fixtures Wednesdays and Saturdays. So we’re training every day on the back half. I give Sundays off, but in the first half of the season, I want to walk them through how to do film film review, identify trends in our opponent, what exactly we want to try to disorganize or exploit to get points from an opponent.
But once I teach them that I give them Sundays off to do on their own, that’s going to be our recovery day. Um, we started August 1st, all of our teams, we have 22 games in our season. So it’s, it’s very action packed, lots of minutes, which is great for players that want to develop and transfer on, maybe seek a USL, USL2 opportunity.
Um, our schedule, I try to get as much soccer in August as we can to be fit. So we’ll train early in the morning. About seven to nine and then afternoon off then we’re back into our complex from four to six p. m for strength and conditioning. Maybe we’re playing futsal. If I see fit maybe we’re going to go back out to the field and scrimmage in the afternoon.
We’ll keep that schedule until classes start in late September and then we just train in the mornings with students in in a classroom from about 10 o’clock till about two or three is typical and then they have the rest of the day off. A lot of our players that are higher achieving though, they’re going to be getting that second session in.
They’re going to be taking difficult [00:12:00] classes, getting tutoring to keep those GPAs where they should be and making sure that they’re at top fitness level.
Matt: Okay. Well, you mentioned on the roster side, uh, you’d like to be around 25, but talk to us about the other part of that roster, the rest of the coaching staff beside yourself, who, who helps out with the team and maybe what other, uh, folks maybe just in the athletic department help out in some way.
Coach: Yeah, I’m, I’m lucky. I have three assistant coaches. We have a goalkeeper coach and two dedicated field assistant coaches helping with travel, uh, practice instructions. The coach to player ratio is really good. So four total to about 25 is where we’re at. And it’s similar across the rest of our programs with many of our coaches working here on campus.
Um, and then we have full office staff and athletic training facilities. So we have graphics being made, social media support, uh, really hyping up our, our home games with photos and videos. And by the time that student athletes are done with us, they have lots of film footage on huddle in our film database.
They have lots of tools that they need to either keep as memories as keepsakes. Of their playing days or to help market them going forward, but it’s very well supported here.
Matt: Okay, great Well, what about you in terms of your coaching style style of play that you’re trying to play there? What’s that look like?
Coach: Gosh, you know, I think at the end of the [00:13:30] day, at a competitive level, it’s about getting points. So recruits and families often ask me, coach, what style do you want to play?
And of course, if we’re able to be a build out team and, and build between the thirds, making triangles and diamonds and the flanks and half spaces, of course we want to have ball retention. That’s when the game is most fun. Other days, maybe it’s a four, four, two, and we’re skipping lines. We’re looking to break on a counter.
Uh, for me, what’s important is that across my back line, I’m athletically superior. And in the midfield line, I want to be technically superior. So my backline is going to look very athletic. It’s going to be like, guys, you want having your back in a fight, right? Midfield, lots of skill. We want to manipulate tight spaces.
And then I, for the finishing piece this year, pretty excited about the nine and the 10 that we have coming in. We got a nine from Netherlands who’s six foot six big, you know, traditional center forward. And we got a kid that I think is pretty special coming in out of Manchester as an attacking mid strikes the ball anywhere in the park.
So that’s going to affect our pattern of play. As I recruit players, you know, I think the game’s enjoyed when you keep the ball. So of course I recruit that, and then it’s a matter of just putting the pieces together, training it and trying to pull it off on match day.
Matt: Okay. Well, we wrapped up, uh, talking about the, the fall, but, but spring still is a component, uh, even at the two year level.
So what does your spring off season kind of look like for your players?
Coach: You know, back when I was playing in 2008 to [00:15:00] 2010, spring was sort of this extra thing and it’s not extra anymore. All the competitive programs we’re training a year round and keeping athletes as busy as possible to keep fitness, like I mentioned, but for us, what that means is Starting after spring break, you know, first of April, we’re going to go for eight to 10 weeks with about five friendlies this year.
It ended up being four because we had one opponent back out, but our league mandates, we can have up to five friendlies. And it’s a good time for player development, maybe trying different formations, different training methodologies, for example, trying to go through my B license and use some of those methodologies to develop myself in the spring as well.
But spring for us is about enjoyment. It’s, you know, I like to co design objectives with players. And, uh, we’d co design this year that they want to do lots of finishing activities, they wanted to get really fit and they wanted to scrimmage a lot. So that’s what we got done.
Matt: Well, I appreciate all the time you’ve given.
I got one last question for you. Sure. If you had one piece of advice for anybody going through this college soccer recruiting process, what would that piece of advice be?
Coach: Go where you’re going to play and have fun. You know, you could pick almost anywhere in the country to play and it’s going to be your teammates or your group of friends that often make or break that experience for you.
If you have the right group of teammates and friends, you could have fun doing almost anything. So make sure you’re going to go somewhere where you’re going to really be part of the team. You’re going to get your minutes. [00:16:30] You’re going to feel like you’re part of a family and the rest of it should fall in place.
So find the good fit.
Matt: Love it. Love it. Well, coach, wish you the best of luck as you wrap up that class of 24 and, and, and get ready for that season and, uh, hope you do well and start, you know, pushing for that conference championship banner.
Coach: Awesome. Thanks, Matt. Matt: Thank you.
