St. John’s University Women’s Soccer – Coach Ian Stone
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Stone from the St. John’s Women’s Program in New York. We talk about how he’s really recruiting 3 different classes at the same time. He describes the New York City location, but with tree lined streets. Lastly, we discuss all the different staff that helps with the program. Learn more about St. John’s University Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today, I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Ian Stone from St. John’s University in New York. Welcome, coach.
Coach: Thank you, Matt.
Matt: Yeah. Thanks for being here. Excited to talk to you. I, I was just telling you, I got a friend who’s an alum of St. John’s, so he’ll be excited.
And I get up to New York a few times a year, but haven’t been on campus yet. So that’s gotta be my next stop. I got to go up in a few weeks. I may have to try to swing by, but, uh, yeah, well,
Coach: right now it’s in bloom.
Matt: Oh, yeah. It’s a good time to be up in New York, right? Um, especially now I’m down here in Florida, starting to get really hot.
Uh, well, you and I are talking it, you know, it’s, it’s early May. Um, couple, couple crazy, uh, things at this point. I’ll talk about the crazier one in a second, but in terms of your recruiting class, I’m sure 24 classes pretty much. Done and dusted. Uh, when is your normal kind of calendar these days in terms of when do you like to have a class done?
How much work have you done on 25s at this point? Do you have the list of 26 is you’re going to try to call in six weeks? Or what does that look like right now for you in terms of timeline?
Coach: Yeah, it’s a great question. I mean, it got to the point where compared to when I started doing this, 30 years ago.
It’s very different, um, in that we’re, we [00:01:30] kind of find ourselves recruiting three years at the same time. Right now, um, which again, you just kind of roll with the punches and you try to deal with it. I mean, believe it or not, I was actually, which I think you’re going to go on to next. Um, I was looking forward to the transfer for opening on May 1st in the, we needed to actually just to kind of fill a gap that we had, um, which hopefully is going to take place in the next couple of weeks.
Then, yeah, then 24 will be done. We are. We’ve got like four or five players for the 25 class right now. I find, which again is a little bit different for us, you must have to over recruit, you know, based upon what’s going on as far as the ease now to get into the transfer portal. Um, yeah, I must admit, I’m not quite ready for the 26s yet.
That’s, we’ve just been so busy in terms of we put a lot of time and effort into our actual players that are here. So we’ve just finished our spring season, which has gone really well. Um, And yet there’s players in the recruiting database, obviously that we’ve seen for 26, but I haven’t got that list together yet.
Um, but yeah, I mean, exciting times, different, definitely different times and has been in the past, but you just kind of get on with it and get it done, right?
Matt: Yeah. And that’s, and that’s, I guess what I keep seeing and hearing from coaches is, is that it really has changed in terms of the timeline now because of the transfer portal.
And. And like I said, it opened yesterday and already the last [00:03:00] number I saw was like 2400 kids of all division, just girls, not boys, just girls in, in it already. And it’s like, okay, well, if you know, like, if you’re a coach and I mean, I don’t know if you had any kids go into the portal and yesterday and today, but like now all of a sudden, You know, if you think your roster set now, all of a sudden you’re, you’re scrambling for one or two kids, or, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re figuring out what, what that number is going to look like.
And then add on top of that, the delay in the FAFSA this year. And, and everybody I’m talking to is so much farther behind, I would say, then what they were say two years ago.
Coach: Yeah. It’s, it’s a really tricky dilemma in the, You obviously, I mean, we’ve tried, probably compared to most programs at our level, we’ll try to most delay the process because obviously so much can change in terms of the player committing to you.
And then if, let’s say that’s a couple of years out, um, what’s changed in their life? How have they changed as a player? Hopefully, there’s a lot of development made, but it doesn’t always work that way, obviously, um, and so that there’s constantly going to be a shift. I mean, so we’ve got to a point which I’ve never really done before compared to the last couple of years where we almost have to have more players on the roster because you’re not really sure as to what’s going to go [00:04:30] on in terms of, you know, You know, obviously, you know, yourself, there’s a lot of injuries going on in club soccer at the moment.
So that can play a big factor in it. But also we, we, we like to think here that our players are going to develop a lot over the course of the spring. And so then it’s just kind of weighing it all up in terms of really what it comes down to now is it’s going to be your recruit. Maybe a couple more players than you used to before your rosters, maybe a little bit bigger than they were before.
And then really all shake that in preseason, um, where it’s a competitive environment. And we’re a bit different in the, like, we’re very rarely gonna. move a player on from our program, um, and obviously unless they’re breaking rules or failing out. And so we’ll try to kind of persevere with the players that we get, but at the same time, we hopefully are going to bring in players that are going to strengthen our program every year.
Um, which I think is going to be the case for the next couple of years. Definitely.
Matt: So what, what is your kind of target roster size at this point?
Coach: I mean, I’ve always found, and again, we’ve made some mistakes over the years with this, uh, like one way or the other, but I’ve always found 27 is a great place for us next fall is probably going to be 30, 31.
Um, just in the way that we do things, we want to invest a lot of time into each individual in the program. And so, um, 27 is proven to be kind of the right number, the optimum number, but at the same time. [00:06:00] There’s so many uncertainties now, you know, um, we, based upon your point, we, um, we’re pretty lucky here have been touched with over the years that people don’t, there aren’t that many people that tend to leave because they kind of feel that they’ve kind of made a pretty good choice and it’s going well for them here.
Um, so that makes it a little bit easier. I’d hate to be in a situation where literally a couple of days ago, you’re having those conversations where people are saying, okay, yeah, I’m leaving and that’s a big bunch of your. players, which tends to be a little bit of the trend. Like if the player is doing really well at a program, they’re going to want to try to move on, which I have mixed emotions about that in terms of, um, I understand that, you know, if you’re doing well, that’s the way of life, right.
That you want to try and move on and up and, you know, take advantage of opportunities, but at the same time that the loyalty piece I think is strong with us and me in particular as that I w I’d want people to persevere and kind of. Work through maybe that freshman year until they can kind of figure it out.
Um, so yeah, it’s, it’s very, it’s a, it’s a different time for sure.
Matt: Yeah. Well, in terms of, uh, let’s say the traditional recruiting methods, right. High school kids come coming up. What, um, you know, what are some of the events that, that you like to, to go to, to scout players, what are your must hit places and, and how much weight do you put in, uh, we call it the [00:07:30] alphabet soup of, of leagues out there today?
Coach: Yeah, I mean, the, the answer would be, we try to get to as much as we can, obviously, to an extent, budget restricted and time restricted. Um, We’re lucky in our location that we can kind of get out and see a lot of the tri state players pretty easily for us, you know, the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut in Pennsylvania areas.
Um, You’re going to get a little bit more kind of bang for your recruiting bucket. If you can go to, for example, some of these events where there’s a lot of good players from all over the country there. So that’s what we’ll focus on as well. Um, I mean, literally, we’ve got to a point now, and this actually happened to the pandemic where there are some occasions when we’re recruiting through videos, which isn’t ideal, but, um, especially with an international player, that’s sometimes the best option.
I don’t love that because that’s a little bit more of a gamble in that a player can look great on video. I’d want to follow up with them live. But now you’ve kind of built up a pretty good network across the world now where ideally then you want to follow up with a couple of coaches and people that know the players pretty well.
And so that’s kind of worked out. Um, for us, I mean, Again, that’s why maybe that, that roster size is going from 27 to 30, because there’s going to be some mistakes or [00:09:00] some, some players that don’t quite work out. Um, and so that’s kind of changed a little bit, but I mean, I think our timeline’s a little bit different.
I maybe proximity to New York City helps with this, but it’s going to, New York City is going to be a big draw for a lot of international players. And so for the most part, we’ll try and get the best American players that we can get initially. And then that international window ends up. Kind of being a little bit later.
Um, and so that’s normally the way that we’ll build out our recruiting class, but obviously some transport kids thrown in there too.
Matt: Okay. Well, whether it’s international, domestic transfer, whatever the case may be, kind of what’s your hierarchy of things that you’re looking for in a player, both on the field and off the field attribute wise.
Coach: I mean, I think that the brand of soccer that we play is a technical brand and that we’ll try to possess. Um, The lofty goal that we kind of set for ourselves is that we’re trying to, if not initially, by the end of the four years, make players as complete as possible. So obviously the more that they can have kind of a well rounded game to begin with, the easier it’s going to be for us.
Um, we’ll be the type of program I think that, and this may, maybe hurts us sometimes, but we’d rather recruit what we would consider a good soccer player than just a good athlete or just somebody that can bring one skill set. For [00:10:30] example, a central defender that can just head and can’t play. That’s kind of, it depends a little bit on the situation because obviously you need to figure out what you’re missing within, within the current team and kind of add that.
Um, but I think again, I mentioned the investment of time that our staff will put into the players. That’s a big factor in what we’re trying to do. We’re going to give people the opportunity to evolve and to change their game to try and be as complete as possible. And I think, to be honest, that’s why we had a bunch of success with players going on and playing after St.
John’s because If anything, I think we’re trying to enhance their love of the game and their, um, game as a whole, as opposed to kind of just fitting them into A specific role, which is going to get our team to win. So it’s kind of a different philosophy, if you like.
Matt: No, it makes sense. Well, one question I get from folks and cause you know, they hear things around football or basketball, and obviously, uh, the, uh, we’ll call it.
The Olympic sports are a little different, uh, in many times in terms of budgets and things. So when it comes to official visits, how, how, how often are you offering those to recruits? How many recruits might. You bring in on official visits in a typical recruiting cycle.
Coach: I mean the way we’re doing again, this is very different again, but the way we’re doing things at the moment for the most part is Say obviously if we’re recruiting an international player and we’ve kind of got [00:12:00] ahead of the game Are pretty convinced that we want that player.
Um My preference would be to bring them on an official visit. So they kind of get to know what they’re getting themselves into. Not always, um, an option based upon the time of the year, obviously, or they’re busy schedules. Um, and then when it comes to the domestic players, it tends to be a little bit further down the line in terms of we are recruiting somebody pretty hard now, um, maybe they’ve come on an unofficial visit if they’re a local kid, then we’ll try to.
Did the official visit right at the end, almost to, to really kind of get to know them a little bit better. So they get to know us better, get, they get to spend time with our players. And sometimes those players are the biggest selling point in terms of, okay, they, they want to be teammates with some of the players on in our program.
Um, it just varies really. It really depends, say, for example, um, We had a need this year because we graduated or both of our central defenders that were starting for us, um, one graduated and one was transferring for her master’s. And so we literally then had to scour the world to try and find the best central defenders and then end up, um, getting their, them here on official visits because it was kind of a need, like we’re going to build our team around our central defenders.
Um, So it, it really depends upon the situation and where we’re at in that kind of recruiting cycle and what our needs are, but they, for us, it tends to be, [00:13:30] I think maybe a little bit. More sparse as far as the official visits, just because obviously there’s only so many dollars that you have, and you want to try and stretch them as far as possible.
And so, for the most part, for example, in coming up, I’m going to the event in May. So that is probably going to be better for our recruiting process, then, you know, bringing in 10 recruits on official visits. Of which we only get 1 or 2 of those.
Matt: Yeah, no, that makes sense. All right. Well, thank you. Let’s, let’s talk a little bit more about the school.
Uh, you’ve been there a day or two from what I understand. Uh, so I think you’ve got some good perspective. Um, so what is it about St. John’s that you really like? What, what’s kept you there this many years? What are some great things about the school that we might not even know going through the website?
Coach: Yeah, sure. I think, again, as I mentioned before, the approximate proximity to New York City, I think. Really, um, kind of sets us apart in terms of if it’s somebody that wants to be near a big city near New York, this may want to maybe one of the better options around. Um, so, with that, obviously, I mean, our business schools really strong, as you can imagine, in terms of the opportunities for internships and job possibilities in Manhattan.
Um. I honestly within our athletic department, I think the reason I’ve been here so long is because of the people that we have in the, [00:15:00] it kind of works for what I want to try to do and my philosophy in the fortunately having been here 30 years. There’s kind of an understanding between myself and the athletic administration that I can do it the way that I want to do it, as opposed to some of my colleagues, maybe they’re under a little bit more pressure of having to get a certain number of wins.
Otherwise, that contact contract won’t get renewed. And so I’ll put enough pressure on myself that I don’t need that added pressure. And obviously, we’re trying to win and we’re trying to be competitive. And we’ve done pretty well with that recently. But, um, I think, you know, I think if there was added pressure on me, I think that would probably filter down to my players.
And so the fact that, you know, I work with people on a daily basis that I have a lot of respect for. And, um, hopefully that kind of works the other way as well. I think makes it a little bit easier for me and for us to run our program the way that we want to, um, as a university. It’s changed a lot, even in the time I was here and that when I first got here, um, it was a commuter school and that there weren’t any dorms on campus.
And so that made it recruiting a little bit more tricky because I was basically recruiting year round. And then in the summer, I was becoming real estate agent to try and figure out where they were going to live. But now that’s kind of that’s definitely been built up. A lot now in terms of, like, the actual student life.
So we have a whole residence village, which is kind of 1, probably 1 of the better [00:16:30] ones in terms of the dorm life. And then I think, I mean, our sciences are pretty strong. Our pharmacy school is really good. Obviously, that’s tricky to do pharmacy and play soccer at this level, but that kind of helps out with your biology and your chemistry majors.
Um. In communications, TV and film are also strong majors and we’ve got some international players that have wanted to come to New York City for that reason. And I think, you know, generally, it’s kind of the best of both worlds. I mean, I’m obviously really biased in terms of being here this long, but you’re close enough to, to the big city where those opportunities are there for you, but we’re in a kind of fairly big city.
Yeah. Rural rural area of Queens, where it’s kind of tree line streets and some right next to Jamaica States, which is a really nice housing estate. So it’s not kind of right in the middle of the city, but you have all those great opportunities that New York City will offer.
Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Well, let’s rewind.
Take me back to, let’s say, October. You’re in the heart of that conference season. Can you walk me through what a typical week is going to look like for, for the players in terms of winter classes, meals, practices, kind of what’s the game cadence look like? What are, what are they doing on a weekly basis?
Coach: It’s pretty hectic, unfortunately, but, um, so we’ll, we’ll normally like our conference games are Thursdays and Sundays. And so, which is pretty normal. It’s controversial in itself, [00:18:00] but, um, let’s not go there right now. So basically normally we’ll have a Monday off, um, and then we’ll get back on Tuesday, kind of fresh to start the week.
And so there we’ve, we’ve figured out that having a practice in the morning makes most sense for us in that when I first got here. It literally, I was actually doing another job as well as this job. So it had to be done at the end of the day. And so with the group of student athletes, we have, they’re very conscientious about their academics.
And so it ended up. You know, the practices weren’t as effective because they were exhausted. But at the end of the day, so we changed that a few years ago to practice in the morning. Um, those brave hearty souls that want to do an early morning class at 7 can go ahead and do that will normally practice around 10.
Um, on a Tuesday and Wednesday, we’ll do some sport performance that’s really more based upon the minutes that they played the week before. Um, and literally will normally start our week. With kind of more small sided type games in terms of we believe in getting fitness with a ball and doing a lot of the work that way.
And then as the week goes on, there will be preparation for the opponent in that Wednesday practice. Let’s say, um, game Thursday, Friday is just more regeneration for the players. I’ve played a lot of minutes and we’ll do [00:19:30] some kind of technical and 5v5. activity with the other players that haven’t played as much on the Thursday.
Try to get them ready and keep them at the same fitness level. Um, and then we go back to the Saturday again, which is more of a game day minus one kind of preparation for the opponent type situation. I think, I don’t know, I kind of go back and forth on this, but we want to try and focus more on ourselves than the opponents.
But I think it’s, it’s an advantage where we’re getting all the games of every opponent and we can watch them almost kind of giving our players a little bit of an advantage, I think, in terms of what to expect based on formation, based upon personnel. We go through a little bit of video of individual players that we play against, um, and tendencies that we might be able to exploit.
So again, it’s, it’s a pretty crazy week, especially in October when the stress is building up a little bit and then we’re kind of right in the middle of the conference season, which is a pretty competitive conference. Um, but you know, it’s kind of that time of year when You feel exhausted, but you’re more alive than you’re ever going to be because that’s kind of what it’s all about.
And hopefully that comes through with our players as well. I think there’s a kind of good. Environment and a good atmosphere amongst the team where they tend to get each other through situations and enjoy being around each other. So that makes it obviously much more enjoyable.
Matt: Yeah, sure. Well, let’s talk a little bit more, uh, you know, kind of about the team and we talked roster size, but, uh, [00:21:00] another part of your roster is the staff.
So talk to me about how big is your staff? What role does everybody play? What other maybe support staff are in the athletic department that help out with the team and who all is there and what do they do?
Coach: Yeah, I mean, I’m really fortunate at the moment in terms of, we have an associate head coach and an assistant coach that actually both played for me and both played for St.
John’s. So that makes a big difference in terms of the fact that they’ve kind of been there, done that. They’re fantastic role models, um, for our players and really can kind of go to them for pretty much anything. Um, so that’s Amy Marin as the associate head coach and Sam Mazer as the assistant coach.
That’s kind of where we’re at at the moment. Um, Ideally, we would want our assistant coaches to move on to other positions. And that’s just actually happened with, um, the guy that was doing our goalkeeping coaching has just moved on to a full time position. So we’re in that kind of time period where I don’t think we’ll get we’re going to end up with a third full time assistant in the near future, but I think that’s down the line.
Um, I mean, we rely heavily based upon what I was saying before about our schedule that on our athletic trainer, who’s been fantastic as well and, um, really makes a huge difference in terms of keeping everybody healthy. So that’s Tricia Fratta. Um, we have a sport performance coach that’s working with a bunch of our teams, but like he’s been working with our program now for 25 [00:22:30] years, a guy called Rob Basil, who, um, I actually, unfortunately for him.
Persuaded him to become a Leeds United fan, like myself, and he’s suffering along with me, especially this season at this point. Um, and then actually we’re pretty fortunate in terms of our sport administrators, a guy called John Diffley that has actually played in the MLS in, you know, you, Very rarely are you getting like a soccer person that is in charge of that soccer program.
So he’s been a great resource for us as well. Used to be an assistant men’s coach here at St. John’s. And so he kind of knows the coaching side of it as well. Um, and our, and our assist, uh, our athletic director is a guy called Mike Craig, who is a very, uh. Supportive of our program as well in terms of, again, another soccer fan that has daughters that played.
And so it’s, it’s a, it’s a great environment for me. And I think our players kind of feel the same way in terms of the support that’s going on for them. Um, and I don’t know, I know this gets thrown around a lot, but it really, again, you can tell by the accent. I came from England and this program is kind of.
My family and that’s kind of the way I think that the players in our team will kind of view as well. Fortunately, they get to go home to their real families in a couple of days and give us a little bit of time to relax a little bit more. But now it’s great having them here. Obviously,
Matt: well, Now, training the guns on you a little bit, uh, talk to me about your coaching style, [00:24:00] style of play, what kind of culture you’re trying to build there.
I mean, you’ve talked a little bit about it, but, but more on the lines of your coaching style, what’s that look like?
Coach: I think it can vary a little bit based upon what’s going on. Um, This, for example, this spring we had a pretty young team and so it was a question of trying to almost like gently, gradually coax them into being able to practice and play at the level that we needed them to play at, the speed of play, the intensity every day in practice.
Um, we were fortunate last fall in that we were a very experienced team. And so, you know, that was more. We gave, we were able to give them more responsibility in terms of decisions on the field and some of the things that were going on. Um, and there was more leadership, I think, with that group than there is with this group.
So, like, pretty much on a weekly basis, Amy and Sam will work with our leadership committee or our captains, and that’s actually going to go on tomorrow. So the way that it’s going to ideally work is the message from the coaching staff is going to get relayed through the leadership committee or the captains down through the team.
I think that’s just the most effective way of doing it. There’s too much time. In college soccer where the, where the student athletes or the players are just with each other, as opposed to being with us when they’re with us a couple of days, a couple of hours a day in practice. So we want to try to.
almost past the culture, which hopefully the juniors and seniors will know pretty well, [00:25:30] down through the team, in that they’re kind of always looking after each other. They, in one of the, which I think I stole from somewhere, I don’t know where I stole it from, one of the kind of sayings behind the program is, how you do anything is how you do everything.
And so we were fortunate. As you can see in this little sign behind me, which is obviously placed strategically, we managed to get to the round of 16 in 2021, which was a huge accomplishment for the program. But at the same time in 2019, I think our program had one of the highest GPAs in the world. In all of division one women’s soccer.
So for us, we’re looking at it, not just to try to develop soccer players, but also people that are going to be successful in their careers, whether they end up playing soccer or not. And so that’s where the academics is important for us. Um, again, we’ll try to play. Attractive good soccer. I think that’s I struggle to kind of do it any other way, to be honest with you.
And it’s more enjoyable. I think there’s a buy in from our players that will get recruited for that reason. And now want to play in that style. Um, but at the same time, obviously, in the competitive trenches of the Big East, sometimes it’s just find a way and dig deep and, um, you know, bring them in.
Defensive intensity and aggression to what’s going on as well. So a lot of it would depend upon the team we have and what our particular strengths are. Like this, this last fall, we really went for it offensively, which I didn’t love. Cause I I’d like to think of myself as being someone that [00:27:00] can organize a team and be good defensively, but we conceded a lot of goals last fall, but we also scored a lot that was more based upon the personnel we had.
So I think generally from year to year, we tend to be pretty good defensively, but we still try and play good stuff. I’ll kind of let. a lot of that creativity flow. I think in the final third, we recruit those types of players. And that to me is kind of less black and white than the defensive third, where it has to be kind of done a certain way, especially when you have like, I think this, this year we have something like four days of preseason before we go and play Penn State away.
So it would be impossible for me to, um, have everything in place defensively. That’s going to be kind of something hopefully our leaders are going to be able to communicate to each other on the field. And I think, I think we tend to be pretty organized and pretty hardworking. Hopefully the passion of our coaching staff comes through on the player to the players too.
Matt: Well, I. Appreciate all your time. I want to ask you one last question before we wrap up. And that’s, if you did have, you know, just one thing that you would want to share with people going through this college recruiting process, one thing you would hope they would know, what would that be?
Coach: I think you hear this kind of bandied around a lot, but I think you just have to Recognize again, this is the cliche apologies for the puns, but, um, the bull is in your core.
I tend, I tend to [00:28:30] find that if you’re in a club team, and a bunch of other players are committing to programs, the pressure then builds on that player and that family to have to commit when in reality. It’s a big decision for you, and you should really kind of take your time and try to figure out what the best fit is for you.
And that, I think, again, like, I mentioned ECNL before, where we’re getting a lot of our players from. It doesn’t have to be a Division 1 program. It can be whatever is the best fit for you. Like, there’s some players, there’s a player I was recruiting recently. Who was interested in being a nursing major and basically, although I wanted her to come here and I thought she was a great player.
My advice to her was that’s really difficult to do in a division. 1 program of this level and she ended up choosing a division 2 program, which is a better fit. To be honest with you, so I think that’s the 1 thing I would and it’s easier said than done because when you’re in that almost rat race of everyone else coming in, that’s really difficult.
Um, but I think that’s what I found over the years. The players that have been most successful in the recruiting process. have got good guidance from the people around them, um, club coaches, parents, et cetera, and have kind of figured out that they’re going to do it in their own time and then what is the best kind of fit for them as opposed to the bells and whistles and the big D1 names sometimes.
That’s I think what I would say based upon my experience.
Matt: I couldn’t agree more. Well, [00:30:00] I really appreciate it. Coach. Wish you the best of luck here, uh, in the upcoming fall season. And if you get to any of the, the girls soccer events down here at Lakewood Ranch, uh, Florida, make sure you let me know and we’ll go grab a coffee.
All right. Appreciate it.
Coach: Nice Matt: to meet you, Matt. Thank you very much. Thank you. All the best.
