St. Leo University Women’s Soccer – Coach Ged O’Connor
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Ged O’Connor from the St. Leo University Women’s Program in Florida. We talk about the 4 cornerstones of player attributes he looks for. He describes how he likes to schedule the most competitive schedule he can. Lastly, we discuss how their off-season focuses on individual player development. Learn more about St. Leo Women’s Soccer.
StLeo
[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach O’Connor from Saint Leo University here in Florida. Welcome coach. Thanks for being here. Uh, coach and I got to work together, uh, probably 10 odd years ago, uh, working camps at IMG and whatnot, but, uh, and, and. I think my, my link to St.
[00:00:24] Leo is my, my aunt used to work in their career services office there at St. Leo. And, uh, and, and I had an intern work for me, uh, at IMG who was a St. Leo grad. So, uh, you’re, you’re you’re, I think you’re maybe an hour about what hour and a half, two hours up the road from me. And Brayden’s in ballpark.
[00:00:42] Coach: About that.
[00:00:43] Yeah. Yeah. It seems to be getting harder and harder with more and more traffic on 75.
[00:00:49] Matt: Yeah. Right. Okay. Well, um, let’s just jump right in and talk about the recruiting side of things. Um, you know, you, you, while you were at St. Leo for a long time left for a few years to coach division one came back. So. W, I guess we’ll, we’ll focus on your St.
[00:01:07] Leo recruiting, but you know, when, when are you looking at players? Like what year in high school does your kind of basic recruiting cycle really start for, for St. Leo?
[00:01:18] Coach: So it’s kind of a strange kind of question just for my individual situation right now. Uh, I remember when I first started at St. Many moons ago, I went down to Fort Myers to a state cup when a down on Kelly road when it was in April and may.
[00:01:40] And we were actively recruiting seniors in high school that were played on the eighteens for that August. And that was normal. Um, and then as time moves on right now, For this coming fall, I am 99% focused on either internationals or transfer students and the transfer portal. Um, it’s, it’s a unique situation just where I am currently in my return to St.
[00:02:11] Leo and what I inherited and so on. But generally speaking, I’ll be honest as a, as a detail institution. I’m not really looking at Jews too much. Um, I think if you were going back to having an elite program and if a junior is that good that they want to commit towards. Excellent. However, there’s a very, very, very good chance that there’s going to be soon.
[00:02:40] The one school that’s going to try and get. So why would I spend all of my time focusing on, on these younger players when there’s literally 1500 players in the transfer portal, now that their recruiting process is so much simpler than that of an incoming kid and a transfer wants to know three things kind of afford it.
[00:03:05] Do you have my degree? But most importantly, there am I going to play? Well, once we have those three questions answered, everything else becomes minutiae, but we don’t really care about the package that you’re going to get equipment, or whether you’re in Nike or D the school, where did you finish in conference and all that kind of stuff?
[00:03:29] Um, so right now, just because of my unique situation, it’s more tailored that. That being said, moving forward, I’m looking to continue to, to improve upon, uh, and generate my relationships with the club coaches so that, Hey, I’m talking to a club coach now about one of his junior sous. Fantastic. So that’s the process moving forward, but just right now, in my unique spots, it’s more focused on, on, on the old.
[00:04:02] That
[00:04:02] Matt: makes sense. So you mentioned going down to state cup right back in the day, but you know, what, what are the events that you you have on your must must see list that you’re recruiting at every year
[00:04:16] Coach: and, and, and moving forward again because of the last five years between Corona and may moving, coming back and so on moving forward, it would be.
[00:04:28] ECNO gal and then Disney is close by or a state cookies this weekend, which is very local. That would be it. And then obviously any international travel, but I’m going to look to make as what?
[00:04:45] Matt: So, you know, obviously you talked about transfer, so, and you just mentioned international. So H how focused, uh, you know, what’s the mix in terms of your international.
[00:04:59] Coach: I’m just looking at my board, uh, this coming fall. We have, we’re going to have Sweden, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, England Sweden, Northern Ireland, Israel and Switzerland. Wow. Yeah.
[00:05:18] Matt: So are you seeing all those players play in person? Some of them, some of them.
[00:05:25] Coach: Really good, but it’s not amazing.
[00:05:27] Matt: Oh, I was going to say, that’d be a, I’m going to come on your staff just to like, do some travel.
[00:05:33] Coach: And I’ve also got my wife at home that she’s just somewhat of the travel agent as well, telling me when I kind of got.
[00:05:41] Matt: I can relate. I can relate to that. Um, so, uh, what about camps?
[00:05:47] Do you guys do ID camps? Do you work at other schools, camps, how to camps fit into your recruiting profile?
[00:05:53] Coach: Uh, I do work up to this point that the only real cam that I’ve worked away from St. Leo, um, has been flooded. Uh, in large part because of the relationship I had with the previous coaches, I can go up there for preseason and learn and watch from some top class coaches, uh, here now at St.
[00:06:13] Leo would we do three ID camps a year? Um, I limit the numbers that come simply because we don’t, we don’t want a hundred kids because I can’t watch and coach and get to know a hundred kids. Uh, so, so we, we literally caught it off at 40 where myself and my staff can really get to know coach, spend time with them, build a relationship with these kids so that we’ve got a headstart on that building process if they do cook.
[00:06:47] Um, and that’s becoming a pretty big part of our recruitment. Well, I need to see you play on campus. I want to be able to see you over the course of it. Uh, so we do that. Um, and then once the kids have been here, they’ve got a much better idea for if they want to come into our environment as well.
[00:07:10] Matt: Yeah, no, I like that.
[00:07:12] So whether it’s at a camp or a tournament or whatever, what, what is, what is your hierarchy, uh, of things that, that check the boxes for, for you in terms of a, a Saint Leo player, whether it’s on the field or off the field stuff.
[00:07:31] Coach: I went numb with it. And the one thing is, is the culture within the squad. Um, you have to be a great teammate and a great teammate is not being nice to everyone. A great teammate is having the opportunity and the strength, to be honest with you. But that means you’ve got to be honest as well, whether it’s to yourself and to everyone else.
[00:07:56] So being a great teammate is key. Uh, and then from there, when you’re in this program, we have four basic cornerstones that every single player needs to have. If they’re going to play the first one is you have to be fit. Um, you’ve got to be incredibly competitive because it’s about winning gold. Um, you’ve got to be very physical, um, because it’s a very, very physical league that we’re in.
[00:08:25] Um, a few years ago St. Leo women’s south, who actually led the nation in yellow cards. So that’s the stuff we didn’t get anywhere. But we got one or two yellows. Um, and then finally, uh, when the other team has the ball, every one is a defendant. Uh, once we have those four criteria within the program, then we’ll talk about formations tactics and that kind of thing, a book.
[00:08:54] If you think it can come and play here and not be fit, or you can play here, but you’re not going to challenge for a header or go and win a 50 50. You’re really going to struggle to, to get into this thing. Okay.
[00:09:10] Matt: Um, So with being divisioned to you, you do have some athletic money there, but you know, most people are just generally curious about the financial implications of making their next steps in choosing a college.
[00:09:24] So how does the, just the overall financial aid picture look at Saint Leo with regards to academic, uh, athletic and grants and scholarships and everything like that.
[00:09:36] Coach: Still a big part of the reason for me to come back was so that we needed to be in a position where we could beat nationally. And obviously that involves having excellent scholarships, whether it was both from an academic standpoint or from our standpoint, from, from a soccer standpoint.
[00:09:52] So we are very, very close to the NCA. With, with our scholarships, but at the institutional scholarships that we offer here are fantastic as well. We’re one of the cheapest schools still, still in the conference. So it allows us to, if we find a white student with the good grades, and then I can compliment that with soccer money, um, I don’t have to give a full scholarship to get a very good play.
[00:10:20] I think the whole package that we have from the location here to that, I mean, the campus is a holiday camp. We’re on a lake. We have a golf course. Like we’ve got all these different things. Um, but yeah, ultimately that the students do need the scholarships in order to be able to attend to it. But in the past we’ve done a very good job of being able to attract the right talent.
[00:10:45] Oh, that’s awesome.
[00:10:45] Matt: And, uh, you know, you mentioned the, the, the, the awesomeness of campus in terms of, of what it offers. So, you know, besides me just going around, uh, and clicking through the website, you know, give me you, you’ve been there a long time. Give me, give me the inside, uh, inside nitty gritty on, on what makes St.
[00:11:05] Leo’s such an awesome.
[00:11:09] Coach: The campus is beautiful. Like there’s a Palm tree, every two yards by the, you know, and that’s how it feels. Um, it’s just such a relaxing place when you’re walking across campus. There’s so much grass, uh, everyone’s welcoming, but the facilities that we’ve got here with top-notch, uh, we’ve got a turf soccer lacrosse, and women’s lacrosse sticks.
[00:11:34] On top of a two-story pocket garbage, we have our hour game stadium and we’ve also got an even bigger practice facility that we don’t even train them. We do everything on the game field. You can walk anywhere on campus. Um, and I think just once we get a student on campus, there’s a very, very good chance that they want.
[00:11:59] So getting the kids here is great. Uh, you know, some of the internationals that I’ve mentioned, one of them is actually coming here after visiting the campus. And I don’t want to talk about scholarships too much, but the scholarship from a soccer standpoint, this particular kid is getting in in the first year.
[00:12:17] Isn’t that big. And I think she was attracted in part by the environment that she’s going to be a part of all day, every day.
[00:12:27] Matt: Yeah, no, that’s great. Um, I know it’s as close as it is. It’s still a still campus. I haven’t been to personally, so I know I got to get myself up there. Um, you know, academics is obviously a, a big part of the experience and want to make sure kids are successful.
[00:12:46] So, you know, how do student athletes at St. Leo balance this, the soccer side with the school side and what kind of support mechanisms does the school offer to make. The kids are
[00:12:56] Coach: successful. Well, I think first and foremost, every single school, who’s going to talk about how good their academics are. Like we can always find some sorts of study or magazine that lacks someone somewhere in the top 100 and we use whatever.
[00:13:15] But all I can say is our team GPA last semester was a 3.65, but when I came up to St. Leo in July, I ended up with 35. And we still got a 3.65, well, I mean high grades, but that’s a hell of a lot of people. Yeah. But I think that what we can say that 99% of other schools probably can’t say is that I had a master’s degree before I started at Saint Leo since coming back of being at St.
[00:13:51] Leo originally, I got another master’s degree from say, So if that doesn’t say how important and how strong the academics are here, I don’t really know what it does, but from the support standpoint, it’s very, very difficult to fail here. Um, you’re going to be given, uh, very, very challenging curriculum, but you’re going to be given every opportunity to be successful within the academic.
[00:14:20] Small class sizes. The technology that we have on campus is immense. You can study and become the best version of you from an academic standpoint here, if you choose to do so.
[00:14:35] Matt: Okay, that’s great. Um, well, you know, in terms of classes and you mentioned practice, um, you know, w can you walk me through what a typical week during the season would look like for a player from like, kind of in terms of when they’re waking up to going to class and practice and how kind of, I know there’s not, there’s no such thing as a typical week, but pick one and kind of walk me through what it would be like for a player.
[00:15:01] Coach: Uh, well, I think if there’s one thing that’s evolved in the time of the world is that everyone has had to become flexible and adaptable. So in a given week in seasons, three, things are going to be consistent with ever with player in the vulgar. You’re going to be busy. You’re going to be tired and you’re going to be.
[00:15:30] Uh, once we get those three things out of the way that they’re going to be consistent, whether you’re in season our season or whatever, um, we then need to figure out how you can manage your time as best as possible. Um, now there’s more and more kids that are not necessarily going into a classroom setting, but a professor is able to do, uh, to teach a class on a zoom call.
[00:15:57] And then you use technology onto a white board so that the student can literally watch the class at a point in time, that’s going to suit them. That’s not to say that we’re going to put our training times, uh, ahead of classes. Um, but if we’re lifting at six 30 in the morning and a kid is meant to be in an eight o’clock class, which is now on a recorded zoom, She made feel welcome stubble and betta watching that class and taking that class at 6:00 PM at night.
[00:16:30] So, so that gives a student about flexibility to just go and study at the time when they feel they can be more. Involved in, in the class, but generally it’s class in the morning and lunch, little bit of downtime. Uh, maybe some study hall. Uh, we don’t have training in the afternoon before dinner and studying at night.
[00:16:52] And then you got two incidents. Lifting, uh, meetings where we watch video, uh, you might be wanting to go out and do some individual work with the coaching stuff as well. And we’ve not even spoke about going to the movies, go, go into the mall dinner, uh, having a snooze and so on. So kids have busy, um, but the, the student athlete’s ability to manage time will only benefit.
[00:17:24] ’cause if, if you got homework in a class on Monday, that’s due on a Friday, if you start that whole work Monday, you’re doing it to get an a, if you start that homework on Thursday nights, you’re doing it. And there’s a big difference there. Yeah, for sure.
[00:17:44] Matt: So you guys are in the, the sunshine state conference.
[00:17:48] Um, you know, it’s a very tough conference. Um, you know, what does your non-conference schedule look like? What is your, your kind of travel? Uh, look like overall
[00:18:02] Coach: this past season we played five top 20 top 25 teams. Uh, so that was outside of the conference schedule. So the program, I inherited it kind of, it was the toughest time for these kids to be in a situation where there’s a new coach coming in.
[00:18:27] Doing things now that we’ve done in the past where we’ve been successful. So it was a really tough year, but it only gave them an experience. So moving forward, we should be much better. Uh, but for the non-conference schedule, I liked for us to play as many good scenes as we can at the end of the day, we’re only playing soccer.
[00:18:49] So whether we’re going to try and play a team that we know we’re going to beat five. Why not try and compete against, against a team. That’s going to be really, really tough because at the end of the day, we’ve each only got a limited number of games. Let’s create an opportunity to have great memories that also allows us to create a culture of a program.
[00:19:11] Was. Well, we can have fun and work with each other. And hopefully from there, move on with the note with, so this coming season, most of our non-conference schedule is home simply because of the way the much OBS were in the, in the past seasons. Um, we’re still working on one or two players and one or two teams that we’re going to be able to compete with.
[00:19:34] And we’re using the schedule to attract. Hey, come, come and playful. As I say, it may have simply because look at the schedule you can compete against. So we’re kind of using the schedule both ways, but it’s still, it’s still a work in progress.
[00:19:49] Matt: No, that’s great. You know, let’s talk more about, about the team and the soccer side of things.
[00:19:54] You mentioned 35 players on the roster is that what’s your target roster size that you’d like to have moving forward.
[00:20:06] Coach: 24 is, is ample. Uh, it used to be 18 and now in time it’s getting a little bit more, uh, we’re playing more and more games in a condensed period. It’s becoming way more challenging physically, and we need more better players. Uh, what, what numbers in the thirties is.
[00:20:33] Matt: Uh, you’re you’re you may or may not be surprised to hear that.
[00:20:37] I think you’re the lowest number I’ve been given in one of these interviews, uh, is 24. So yeah, I think it’s that, uh, I guess if I had to put an average on it, I’d probably say 28 is probably what the average is that people tell me. But, uh, and that’s all, all divisions, all, you know, not including the guys that are doing developmental squads and that kind of thing, but like, yeah.
[00:21:00] Um,
[00:21:01] Coach: I just think, I mean, maybe schools have put, you know, roster minimums a lot.
[00:21:10] Matt: Yeah.
[00:21:10] Coach: Yeah, but again, that’s another great thing about St. Leo is the men’s the former men’s coaches, the D the more players are half the more money that’s got to be spread out over the squad, which is the lesson that the less that each player can.
[00:21:27] And, you know, in that case, I’m spending money on 25, 26, 27 and 28. Could that money be put into data analytics, which is going to benefit one to 10. Yeah. So that the trade offs that we have just from a to on the ball standpoint less is more.
[00:21:46] Matt: Yup. Yup. Well, what about your soccer staff besides you? Who else is part of the team and what role do the.
[00:21:55] Coach: Another great thing, which was a big part of me coming back to Saint Leo. Um, I have two assistants. Um, well, my first assistant, uh, played for me. She was a three-time all American. Um, she was the conference player of the decade as she not only, you know, she played him a no St. Leo, what she automatically has the respect of the players.
[00:22:21] You know, based even simply on her resume. I met my second play, actually played for me at my, at my D one school. Uh, and we bought her back from playing professionally in Spain. So my number one job is to recruit, uh, my most important recruits and my assistant coaches. Um, so from a coaching standpoint, we’re all sets.
[00:22:41] One’s a striker, one’s a more defensive player. I’m a goalkeeper myself. Um, so the whole squad is lot bath going that way. Um, then once our stuff is then my support staff becomes vital, uh, between my, my strength coach, uh, my, uh, certified athletic trainer, uh, my performance analyst slash social media coach.
[00:23:11] Um, those three all provide a vital service to us. There’s no point in having great players. If they’re not healthy or they’re not strong. Well, we can’t look at the data to make sure that we keep them peaking for as long as possible. So I’ve got a fantastic squad around me that I’m only going to benefit the players performance on the pitch.
[00:23:36] Matt: Speaking of performance on the pitch, uh, how would you describe your, your team’s style of play, your style of coaching? Uh, for the, for the squad.
[00:23:47] I’m not pigeonholing you into telling me it’s a 4, 4, 2. And just in general, how would you describe it to anybody who who’d be curious on the soccer side of things
[00:23:57] Coach: we want to go forward quickly? Yeah. Th the goal is in the other half of the pitch,
[00:24:04] there’s no point in possessing the ball if we’re going to give it away in our house, but that doesn’t mean to say, we just want to smack the crap out of it. And when. Um, it all depends on the personnel we have, but again, I go back to the four cornerstones fit physical with, uh, and we all defend and so on.
[00:24:26] Um, that’s vital. Uh, I know I’ve been known in the past for being incredibly physical and incredibly direct boats. At that point in time, I had a six foot forward who was a three time old. The tactic should be, give the best players the bowl. And then we play around that. Uh, so it all really depends on the squad that we have in place at that particular time.
[00:24:53] Um, but yeah, it’s always nice to, to play quality soccer, but I’d much rather win a game playing poorly than lose a game where we’ve been fantastic.
[00:25:03] Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, you know, we’re, we’re chatting here, uh, in the spring. So what. Does a typical off season program look like for, for you guys?
[00:25:13] Coach: Do you mean for the playlist and over summer?
[00:25:17] Matt: Well, yeah, spring, spring, spring, season and summer. What does that look
[00:25:20] Coach: like for players? Spring is all about individual development. Um, I personally make sure that every player gets to play in every single game. Um, I mean, that’s why that. You know, so we want every player to get the opportunity to enjoy the experience of playing and ideally players that might have been lower down.
[00:25:44] The world’s still in fall. They’ll get to start or come on very early in, in spring. Um, but the individual development, which is all down to the players and that desire and attitude is key. Uh, the weight room is also becoming. I’m moving technical part of the player’s development so that they can win. Fit and healthy.
[00:26:07] And then once we get into the summer, the players get, we get given them the summer teams that they can be on as well as the, the summer program that we send to them so that they can maintain their strength sport. I think we obviously understand as well that some downtime is, is really, really. For them as well.
[00:26:28] They need some time away from me and St. Leo and SoCo and, you know, emails and so on. So I think sometimes less is more and we need to pay attention to the things that we can control. And if everything is a bottom, nothing’s important. Yup.
[00:26:44] Matt: Yup. For sure. Well, coach you’ve given us a lot of insight. I really appreciate it.
[00:26:49] I’ll leave you with one final question, which is kind of the catch, all that I use. What didn’t we talk about? What, what else would you want people to know about either the school or the team or the program or, or anything else?
[00:27:02] Coach: I think all the time what’s become apparent is it’s becoming a harder time for kids coming into a college environment because the quite simply.
[00:27:13] Not prepared. They don’t know what it’s going to be like. Oh, the best advice I’d give to any kid is come to the school coming up. I look at the team that you are looking to, to play on an okay. How many players are you better than like what level of fitness, uh, you are compared to them? Because most freshmen now coming in, they just want to.
[00:27:39] But we’re here to win and there’s a vast difference between those two levels. And unless you’re, you’re mentally strong enough to be able to work on that, you’re going to get left behind because the gap is just going to grow. So the more whole work that the student athlete and the parents can do as early as possible in the process, the more knowledgeable they’re going to be.
[00:28:05] Moving forward through, through the process. The last thing we want is to spend hours recruiting a kid for them to get here. It isn’t what they expect and they end up quitting. That’s just not good for the player, the parents, and certainly the schools. So the more we can educate each kid. Yeah.
[00:28:25] Matt: Makes sense.
[00:28:26] Well, coach, I appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck here in the fall. I think, uh, I’ll have to see when the schedule comes out. Hopefully we can get up to a game, uh, and see the school and see you guys play.
[00:28:38] Coach: Um,
[00:28:39] Matt: you guys awesome. Well, I appreciate it. And we’ll talk soon.
[00:28:43] Coach: Sounds good.
[00:28:49] Matt: Okay. Sorry. I can’t find my stop record button.
[00:28:54] Coach: This is weird.
