Swarthmore College Men’s Soccer – Coach Eric Wagner
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Wagner from the Swarthmore Men’s Program in Pennsylvania. We talk about how he recruits nationwide. He describes the gorgeous campus that is near the city. Lastly, we discuss how they like to play a controlled, disciplined game. Learn more about Swarthmore College Men’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I am lucky enough to be joined by Coach Eric Wagner from Swarthmore.
Coach: Welcome Coach. Ah, good morning.
Matt: How you doing? Doing well, thanks. And coach and I were just joking before I, unfortunately, coach Wagner here was at the helm of St. Mary’s. When I. Was defeated in my last collegiate soccer game.
So, uh, even though there’s a little bit of angst there, I’m still happy to, to be able to talk to you today. And, and luckily you’ve moved on from, from St. Mary’s and, and you know, mu much better place now. We’ll just leave it at that. Well, so coach, we’re talking here end of May. Um, I’m guessing your, your 23 class is done and dusted, right?
Coach: Absolutely. Yeah. We’ve been done with the 23 class since, um, really since the beginning of December.
Matt: Okay. Well, so a lot of the division three coaches I talked to, they’re, they’re kind of finalizing more well into spring even. Um, but that’s good. You guys are, are. Are looking that forehead. Now obviously you’re moved on to 20 fours.
Do you even have 20 fives kind of sitting there, uh, in, in the database and that you’re working hard on?
Coach: Yeah, absolutely. W w uh, 20 fours is our focus right now and has been for a few months, but, um, 20 fives are definitely, uh, students we’re looking at, you know, and the thing is, there’s always gonna be some 20 fives playing with the 20 fours, just as there were 20 fours playing with the 20 threes and so on and so forth.
[00:01:30]
Matt: So, yeah, absolutely. Well, when you are. Looking for players. How, how much of it is folks reaching out to you? You know, I’m a player. I’m interested in, in, in attending, uh, your school versus you going out and finding players.
Coach: That’s a great question. I, I think it’s about 50 50 in terms of who we ultimately get.
Um, and the reason being, you know, if a, if a kid reaches out to us, we’re gonna put ’em on our recruiting list and we’re gonna try and see him play at the next tournament or, uh, whatever we’re at. Um, and someone who’s reaching out to us is much more likely to be interested in Swarthmore in the first place.
Um, and so the likelihood of them ending up. Coming to play for us is, is a little bit higher. That said, you know, Swarthmore’s name carries a lot of weight. And so when someone hears from us who wasn’t originally reaching out to us, there’s a really good likelihood that they’ll be interested. Or if they do a little bit of research, they’ll be like, whoa, Swarthmore’s reaching out to me.
I’d better take this seriously.
Matt: So, so how would. A student get that email or phone call from you? Like how are you finding players that aren’t reaching out to you? What are, what are your typical methods? Is it just seeing somebody play at a tournament? Is it word of mouth through, uh, club coaches is, are you getting the random emails from [00:03:00] N Ncsa saying, Hey coach, check out this great player.
Coach: Where’s it all the above. Um, I, I guess it’s a little bit of all the above, but the vast majority of the students who we reach out to are the ones who, um, who we see at tournaments and showcases and, and things like that. We go all over the country, all over the world looking at, looking at kids. Um, you know, we, we’ll be in California and Florida and Virginia and, um, you know, Texas and all over the place, looking at kids at big tournaments, Dallas Cup, surf Cup.
Um, You know, uh, we were, we’re going to the ec n l showcase in a week. We’re going, we, we’ve been to, uh, the ML s next flex tournaments. Uh, just all the big tournaments that we can go to, plus a lot of more regional tournaments as well. Uh, and we, we also do, um, we, we have a big. Id camp here that kids come to just because they’ve heard of it through various means.
Um, and so there are all these ways we find kids, um, and when we like somebody, we’re gonna reach out to ’em. We’re gonna email ’em, we’re gonna text ’em, we’re gonna get in touch with ’em and say, Hey, listen, we’re very interested. We saw you here. We’d liked this, that, that and the other about you. And we’d love to, uh, talk to you more.
Matt: So you mentioned all the various tournaments and things and, and, and. You guys maybe a little bit different than most D three s, cuz you do have that national and an even international reach. Is it what, I guess what decides what helps you decide which tournaments [00:04:30] you’re, you’re going to attend? You know, is the alphabet soup matter MLS next versus ECN L versus Z D P versus God knows what the, the next league is tomorrow.
Coach: Well, for me it’s where the, where the nicest weather and the best food is for my assistant coaches. It’s all that other stuff. Oh, okay. All right. Alright. Fair enough. Now we, we, we determine where we’re gonna go based on a couple of factors. First of all, the calendar really matters. Um, so we’re not gonna be going to tournaments in August because we’re getting ready for pre-season.
Um, And we’re also not gonna be going to tournaments in, in June or early July, because that’s when we’re running our, our, um, big ID camp here. Uh, but the rest of the year, uh, we’re looking for the tournaments where the most. Kids that we are interested in, and the most kids who are likely to be interested in us are typically gonna be.
And so, um, you know, the Surf Cup has always been a big one for us. We, we get several players out of that tournament every year. Um, obviously the, the tournaments that are a little closer here, um, Like the, the E C N L in Virginia is gonna be a big one for us, E D P tournaments because they, they have a lot of, um, mid-Atlantic kids and we, we still get a lot of students from the Mid-Atlantic, even though, um, Swarthmore attracted more applications from California this year than any other state in the union.
Huh? Believe it or not. Yeah. Um, you would think it would be Pennsylvania or New York or New Jersey [00:06:00] and those, those. Three school, uh, states are obviously up there as well, but we get a lot of students from out west. So, um, you know, and if you look at my roster, uh, we got boys from, uh, from the west coast. Uh, two of my best players ever were from Hawaii.
I’ve, I’ve got a boy on the team from Seattle right now. Um, but again, we attract students from all over the country. So wherever they’re gonna be, we’re gonna try and find them.
Matt: Yeah, I was looking at your roster. I saw three kids from Columbus, Ohio, my old hometown where I was this past weekend, and was like, oh, how about that?
Yeah. But um, well, one of the things that’s maybe slightly surprising even about your roster is the handful of, of international players. Usually that tends to be more the D one s two s and nais. You don’t see a ton of international folks at the, at the D three level, but how does that, how do inter, how does international recruiting fit in and, and also do you guys.
Look at the transfer portal at all. Are you getting anybody coming from a D one D two program or other schools at all?
Coach: So, um, we do have a couple of D one students in the team, um, and that’s really more unusual than normal for us. Um, we’ve, we’ve had, you know, over the course of my 20 plus years here, we’ve had.
Three or four Division one transfers. Um, we’ve had very few, if any, division two or division three transfers. Um, so I don’t really pay a whole lot of attention to the transfer portal. [00:07:30] Uh, we’re lucky if we could get one on any given year. Um, and it’s not something that we, uh, it’s not built into our recruiting model.
Um, typically students who come to Swarthmore are gonna stay here for four years. Um, And there are so few students who transfer in because there are so few transfers out of Swarthmore. So it’s not a big part of the college’s model either. But with Covid and everything, um, we’ve recognized the need to keep our eyes and ears open.
Um, we’ve had a couple of transfers, um, during this, this window, you know, this, this sort of post covid window. Um, but typically, no, we’re not gonna spend a lot of time in the transfer portal. Okay. Um, As far as the internationals go, Matt, you started to touch on that. Yeah. Um, for us, again, Swarthmore’s name is worldwide recognized, and if you’re a student who lives in, you know, Singapore or Hong Kong, or you’re a student who grew up in London or, um, you know, Santiago, Chile, which we have a, a student on the team from there now, Uh, the name sticks out because it’s at the top of all the rankings and because if you ask any international, um, guidance counselor, what are the best schools in the United States?
It’s gonna be, you know, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and then, you know, Swarthmore and a few others. Um, and so students who are. [00:09:00] Looking to come to the United States for college. This school’s always gonna pop up on their radar, and so we’ll hear about ’em and we will, um, we’ll do our research and try and find out as much as possible about them.
Um, so right now we’ve got, uh, two boys from London on the team. We’ve got a boy from Chile, we’ve got a boy from, um, a boy from Singapore. Uh, and this. Next class coming in this fall, we’ve got a boy from Switzerland and, um, and another boy from, um, from Singapore coming in. So, uh, you know, it’s just, it’s the luck of, of our name really well.
Matt: For, for better or for worse? Uh, I think one of the other things that comes along with that name, uh, for, for us dads, you know, with a daughter looking at schools, uh, is that tuition bill. Um, so be in division three and, and like you said, it is one of the top academic institutions in the country, but, but also a little bit on the, uh, higher end of the spectrum, I think when it comes to, uh, total cost.
So, But that’s obviously, I’m talking sticker price. So what’s more of, can you just, and I’m not holding you to hard numbers here, but give me a little bit more of the reality of what a student might expect if they were coming in to play soccer. What does the aid situation look like? Or maybe that that cost of attendance look like?
Coach: Sure. So, um, Swarthmore does not give merit aid because if we did, then everybody would be on merit aid. [00:10:30] Um, you know, 90% of the students here are in the top 10% of their class. So, um, they, they have, um, the most generous financial aid. Uh, office that I’ve ever experienced though in several schools that I’ve been at.
And so, um, anybody who qualifies for financial aid will receive it. Um, the only exception to that is international students. Typically international students. There’s a smaller pool of money for financial aid, and that said, I’ve got students right now in my international group who are on financial aid.
Um, but it’s, it’s much harder to get financial aid if you’re an international student. Um, but domestic students, uh, American citizens are going to receive, um, you know, the federal aid and the college aid that they need in order to afford to come here. And so the colleges need blind in the admissions process, which means as they are looking at your application, they’re not looking at your financial aid picture.
Um, and they, they decide whether you, not, whether or not you’re gonna be admitted based on the merit. And if you’re admitted, they will make the finances work for you. They’ll look at that piece after they make an admissions decision. Now, when it comes to international students, they’re need aware, which means, you know, they’ll, they’ll take it into account.
Matt: Okay. Makes sense. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. I know, like I said, we’ve both talked about the the phenomenal academic reputation of the school. But as someone who’s been there a while kind of. Gimme some of [00:12:00] the ins and outs, the, the great things about the school besides just the academic reputation that folks maybe won’t, wouldn’t be aware about or wouldn’t learn about on the website.
Coach: Sure. I mean, unless you visit campus, you’re not gonna realize that, um, Swarthmore. Is situated on a, a working arboretum. So the place is absolutely beautiful. Um, 365 days a year, they’ve got roses blooming 10 months out of the year. Uh, various species of roses. They’ve got flowers all over campus. Every tree is tagged.
So you know what genus and species it is. Um, it’s. It’s a very impressive, um, physical, uh, campus. Uh, that’s one thing, the thing that that drew me to it the most though, other than the reputation of the school academically. And actually when I took over the program, it was one of the worst soccer programs in the country.
Um, just didn’t have a whole lot of support, part-time coach and all that. Um, and so that’s not what really drew me here. What drew me here was the fact that it’s 15 minutes outside of one of the best cities in the world, Philadelphia. By rail or by car, um, is, is 15 minutes away. Um, and so we’re in the perfect sweet spot of suburb and, um, urban access, uh, that I really like.
So I. You know, we don’t get tons of traffic, we don’t get tons of noise. It’s, um, it’s a beautiful suburb in that regard. But if I want the traffic and I want the noise and I want to go see the Sixers or the, or the [00:13:30] Eagles, or I want to go, um, you know, catch a concert, um, Taylor Swift was here a couple of weeks ago, you know, um, we’re always gonna have.
All the biggest names in sports and in, in music and, and everything that’s going on. Not to mention, um, you know, the art museum, the Philadelphia Art Museum, which is famous for the rocky statue, you know, Rocky standing up there like this. And, um, it, it’s an amazing city, one of the greatest food cities in the world.
Um, and, and we just love it. So that’s one of the big things, a big draw to be at Swarthmore. Um, other amazing things, the people here. Are, um, unique. They are internally motivated in a way that I’ve never been around in any other place. I’ve been, excuse me. So if I set the bar for my students here, when they get here, they say, coach, no, we’re going here.
We’re gonna raise the bar on you cuz you haven’t pushed us hard enough. You haven’t challenged us at a level that we’re, we’re comfortable with. We wanna be challenged higher, uh, and. When we ask the students, their input is really important. So they’re not just showing up and going, yes sir, no sir. They’re, they’re showing up and they’re saying, yeah, but can we do this too?
Or, but how can we make it even better? So it’s a, it’s a real collaborative effort between the players and myself, between the students and myself. I’m a faculty member here, so I’m also teaching, um, phys ed to a lot of the, the regular students on campus. And getting [00:15:00] to know them is, It’s a unique opportunity.
Um, and, you know, so for instance, one of the students that, that I taught in my phys ed classes early on, when he left Swarthmore, he started an N G O to, um, try to address famine and, um, And poverty in South Sudan, which was at that time part of Sudan, um, but was under, they were essentially in a civil war before they broke off and became South Sudan.
And he raised millions of dollars and met with people like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, um, and just. Knowing this kid as a, you know, as a young 18, 19 year old, it was really great to get to know him after, after college as well. You’ve got another boy who I taught in tennis class who’s now a regular, um, national correspondent for NPR R News, and I hear his name, you know, couple times a week on NPR r.
So it’s just things like that, that make this place unique to me.
Matt: Yeah. No, that’s fantastic. Well, one of the things. Being such a high academic school students coming in, it’s great. You mentioned that they’re raising the bar themselves, but they really do still have to stick that balance between being a college athlete and succeeding in the classroom.
So just. Quickly, how do your students really balance those two things and what kind of support systems does the school offer to really help them in that endeavor?
Coach: That’s a great question, and it’s one that most students who come to visit, [00:16:30] uh, ask me right away. And the, the first answer is, my students actually do better when they’re in season.
When they’re balancing the academics and the athletics than they do outta season because they’re much more organized, they’re much more disciplined. They have to be, um, on task every day because otherwise things will just spiral away from ’em and, um, they’re. In order to get into Swarthmore, you’ve got to be fantastic at time management.
Um, because you’ve done all this stuff in high school, you’ve proven that that’s your, you know, your experienced record. Um, so that’s thing one. Thing two is the level of, uh, support is pretty thick. Um, and it’s not like they’re holding your hand every day here, but you’ve got your professors and being a smaller school, 17, 1800 students, um, with no graduate schools.
So Swarthmore is, is we specialize in undergraduate education. And so students who are here are going to have direct access with all their professors. Um, so your first level of. Yeah, good, tight. Your first level of support is always gonna be your professors. Uh, your second level is gonna be your teammates because they, you know, the older, the upperclassmen have been through it and they know, you know, which classes work with the, the soccer schedule in the fall and, and how to sort of organize things so that they can get through it.
And then they also, um, they also have [00:18:00] tutors and teaching assistants and. Um, you know, a variety of, we’ve got a writing associates program. There are all kinds of other layers of academic support for students here as well. Okay.
Matt: Well, in terms of switching gears, we’ll, we’ll go to the, the team side of things.
Um, is there a roster size that, that you’re trying to hit every year that you find is ideal?
Coach: Personally, I like to work with somewhere between 26 and 29 students if possible. Um, we typically end up with more than that just because, um, you know, the. The attrition rate in Division three is a little higher than it is in division one or division two, and that’s because we don’t have scholarships.
So students will get here and if things aren’t working out the way they want to or, um, you know, if, especially at Swarthmore, they find so many other things to get involved in, um, that students will often, after a year or two, they’ll decide on their own. They don’t want to, uh, they don’t wanna stick with it.
But that said, we also have. Um, a very high level of, of intensity during the season. And so injuries are a factor and I want to keep an extra player or two or three to make sure that we have enough come late October. Um, you know, students get injured. That’s the way, that’s the way the season goes and you know, when someone.
Does an ankle or gets a concussion or, um, has an [00:19:30] injury that’s, you know, that can be 4, 5, 6 games or more. And so we wanna make sure that we’ve got plenty of depth in the team. So over the last, uh, six or eight years, we’ve tended to keep 29, 30, 31 players Is, is more normal for us. Okay. There’s no, there’s no cap on our roster.
Um, but we do try to keep it so it’s manageable so everybody’s involved. So everybody has a, has a role to play. Oh, makes sense.
Matt: What about staff? How, how big is your staff? What role does everybody play there?
Coach: Uh, Uh, I have four assistant coaches. All of them are part-time at this time. Um, we anticipate a full-time assistant coach in the next year or two.
Um, but I have a goalkeeper coach. I have, um, one who’s sort of in charge of the, the tactics and the, and the technique. So he’s gonna, Take the lead role in training. Um, and I have one who works almost exclusively with our team mentality, our team, um, sort of culture. Uh, he’s actually a sports psychologist.
He’s been with me over 20 years now. Um, and then, um, our other coach, uh, is sort of a jack of all trades. He was a two-time all-American at Shippensburg University. Uh, he’s actually a national champ, multiple national champion in the adult level. Um, and his, uh, value to us is kind of all over the place. He helps us in whatever ways he can, so we’ve got a great staff that’s been with me for quite a while and, and I expect, uh, [00:21:00] they will continue to.
Matt: Okay. Well, let’s talk about your style of coaching specifically. What can, can players expect from you as a coach? Kind of what style does the team play?
Coach: What does that look like? So my style is going to be, uh, very specific to, uh, what we as a coaching staff and what we at Swarthmore wanna do. And that is a, we wanna play a very controlled, very disciplined game.
We wanna make sure that we’re the ones controlling the tempo and determining what’s gonna happen on the field. Um, And that’s gonna require that we possess the ball more often than our opponents do. Uh, it’s also gonna require that we’re incredibly disciplined and organized defensively, um, so that other teams aren’t finding ways to exploit us, whether that’s by playing more direct or by playing, you know, for, for set pieces and corner kicks and things like that.
We wanna make sure that we’re determining the tempo of the game. So we control things. We, uh, impose our style on our opponents. Um, and it, it also requires that our guys are extremely, um, well drilled and intelligent about the game. Um, the first thing I look for in a, in a player is their iq. And if their soccer IQ isn’t very high, then it’s gonna be hard for them to be successful in our program.
Matt: Oh, it makes a lot of sense. Well, coach, you’ve given us a lot of info. I’m gonna ask you for one last piece though. If, if you had one thing to share, one nugget, one piece of advice for any parents, uh, or, or, or, [00:22:30] or players in this recruiting process, uh, what would you want ’em to know?
Coach: Well, um, not Swarthmore specific, but college soccer specific.
I will say that I think it’s really important that the players. Um, take charge of the process. Um, too often we find that the parents are taking charge of the process or the parents are the ones that are doing all the work behind the scenes. And if I find that to be the case, I. I’m not sure that I can trust that the student is gonna take charge of their experience here at Swarthmore with me.
And I know that I’m, uh, our, our families are gonna be involved, our parents are gonna be involved in the program. Uh, but the students are the ones who have to take the lead role. So students get out there, make your phone calls, send your emails, um, contact the coaches, uh, take charge when you visit the campus.
Um, ask the questions you want asked, um, and find out the answers to the questions you wanna know.
Matt: Fantastic. Great piece of advice, coach. Well, appreciate you joining me and, uh, if you get to any of the events down here in Bradenton at, uh, premier I m g, gimme a shout and we’ll, uh, we’ll catch up again.
Coach: All right, thanks Matt.
Great to talk to you today. Likewise.
