Transylvania University Men’s Soccer – Coach Ben Federici

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Ben Federici from the Transylvania University Men’s Program in Kentucky. We talk about their school’s high academic standards. He describes how their program likes to use data as much as possible. Lastly, we discuss their team’s culture of love, discipline and humility. Learn more about Transylvania Men’s Soccer.

[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Ben Federici from Transylvania university in Lexington, Kentucky, not somewhere in, uh, Eastern Europe or wherever, wherever that may be. So we’ll welcome, coach.

[00:00:17] Coach: Thanks, Matt.

[00:00:17] Matt: Appreciate you having me, man. Well, thanks for being here.

[00:00:19] You know, it’s funny. I, I, I grew up in Ohio similar to you and we used to vacation down at lake Cumberland and Kentucky. So I’d drive through Lexington every time and I’d see the signs for Transylvania university and be like, Well, Transylvania is Lexington, Kentucky, you know, uh, but, but, but it is a wonderful division three institution there, there at Kentucky.

[00:00:40] Uh, and we’re happy to have you on the program. You just, uh, became the head coach here not too long ago. So interested to hear more about that and what, what you’re planning to do. So I looked at the roster, didn’t look like a very lengthy roster at the moment. So it looks like you’re probably hot and heavy into recruit.

[00:00:59] Uh, right now. So what, you know, what are the events that you go to? What are you really looking to do from a recruiting side of things right now?

[00:01:08] Coach: I mean, I think, do you want, it was, you know, like you said, getting the roster back up to a number that’s a little bit more comfortable with me somewhere around 30.

[00:01:14] Um, so anywhere and everywhere to start, you know, the big ones are up there, crossroads Bluechip Jeff. Uh, Disney showcase, things like that. But I think, uh, as we get a little bit more intentional and, and drawn out in the process that I’m familiar with and comfortable with, we’ll start to hit those easy and L showcases and regional events, you know, um, whether it’s U S Y S or getting into academy, things like that, I’m fortunate enough that we do.

[00:01:41] Uh, you know, Lexington FC, which is moving over to Lexington sporting club. Uh, but they do some of those clubs con games, uh, on our facility or at our facility here in Lexington. So, uh, kinda anywhere we can go, obviously working a bunch of camps over the summer, trying to get my name out there, trying to, uh, you know, get more and more connections.

[00:01:59] But I would say those big events that you hear from everybody or, or where we like to go, you mentioned

[00:02:04] camp.

[00:02:04] Matt: So are you doing, uh, ID. At the school are you, and it sounds like you’re working other, uh, other camps as well, kind of how important are, do you see camps being in your recruiting mix? I

[00:02:17] Coach: think camps are important from a, a player coach relationship.

[00:02:20] You know, I tell guys a lot when they come on campus that, you know, you may love the school. You may, you may love everything about what our program is doing, but you probably want to know what it’s like to be coached by me too. And so the opportunity, whether it’s an ID camp on campus, Uh, you know, going to one of those exact camps.

[00:02:36] So, you know, I worked at one of the UK camps already as well, or, or different other, you know, collegiate environments is big. Unfortunately, we aren’t going to have any of those this summer. We are redoing our turf. So, uh, you know, that’s going to be brand new this fall, but that kind of eliminates the, uh, the summertime for us to have guys on campus.

[00:02:54] So I’ll be going around doing some things with high schools all over Ohio, up into Michigan and even down here, obviously in Kentucky. Okay.

[00:03:02] Matt: Now. You’re coming from another B3 school. So, so the D three environments, nothing new for you, but so give me a sense of, of your general timeline. You know, when are you really starting to hear from players as well as reach out to players in terms of the process?

[00:03:19] Coach: So it kind of amazes me. I feel like we hear from, from guys earlier every single year, you know, I’ve gotten a lot of emails here from freshmen and sophomores already, but I would say the, the, the process for us really intensifies, uh, in that junior year. So, you know, sometimes end of the sophomore, Uh, but definitely in the junior year, I’m a guy that, you know, I think I’m blessed and fortunate to be at Transylvania where we have a lot to offer, uh, academically athletically the experience as a whole is pretty unique.

[00:03:46] And so for us, we like to get to know these guys over, over a long, long period of time and really then give our raw roster spots our offers out, uh, sometime in the early fall. Uh, that way they know what’s going on and know, Hey. If Lino messies, you know, the phone with me, I’m gonna offer him a little bit earlier.

[00:04:06] Right. Uh, but uh, for me, it’s, it’s getting to know them their junior year and then getting them on campus, hopefully the fall of their senior year doing an overnight and then, uh, allowing them to kind of see it in a normal game day environment. Uh, what are the guys like? What am I like on the field? How do we handle a winter?

[00:04:23] Um, all those things that again is, you know, I think a lot of times as coaches, we get caught up trying to learn as much as we can about the players, but it’s a huge part of the process for the players to learn more about the coaches too. Yeah,

[00:04:34] Matt: for sure. Well, you know, when you’re, when you’re looking at players, whether that’s at Jeff cup or some, you know, anywhere or camps, you know, what, what is your kind of checklist?

[00:04:45] Your hierarchy of this is what I want to see in a player, whether it’s an on the field attribute or an off the field attributes.

[00:04:53] Coach: It’s a tough question to answer. I think it’s a sliding scale. I mean, you’ve got, you know, you want to see some, some obvious technical ability. You want to see some athleticism.

[00:05:00] You want to see decision-making soccer, IQ, all those things. But I think it’s more about the whole package and how those things come together. Uh, there are guys that are elite athletes that maybe don’t have to be elite decision makers. Um, but to me, I like to see some self-awareness and a kid and some mental toughness that, uh, whatever tools they have.

[00:05:21] Do they use those as well as they can? Or are they wasteful and maybe some of the things that they got going on. So for me, yeah, it’s easy to go out and identify somebody. That’s got all the talent world. A part of the reason we like to take a little bit longer to get those offers out is I want to learn a little bit more about this guy, talk to their club coach.

[00:05:40] I want to see them in a game where maybe they don’t have a, a great day, uh, and kind of see how their, their mental fortitude stacks up. And, um, really, I think. The couple of big indicators of success at the college level are hard work. And just how much do you love the game? So that’s, those are two big things that I try to get to know and get out of the guys, but on the field it’s yeah.

[00:06:02] W what can you do with what you’ve got? Um, not everybody’s going to be a six foot five goalkeeper, not everybody’s going to have, you know, four to speed on the wings. So it’s important that we get a good combination going for all of them.

[00:06:15] Matt: No, I love it. Um, be in division three without, without athletic money.

[00:06:20] How does transferring you do with financial aid? Like just kinda what what’s a typical, uh, kinda snapshot look like for a player coming in with athletic student, academic money, grants, uh, scholarships, all that kind of thing.

[00:06:38] I

[00:06:39] Coach: mean, it varies so much from kid to kid, you know, obviously with, with financial background.

[00:06:43] Uh, a goal of ours as an institution is to make it a competitive package with what you look at two to go to a state school. Um, you know, we are a pretty high end academic school, so there’s no secret that, uh, we’re not going to be the cheapest, uh, when you, when you’re looking out there at other schools, but, uh, I’m a little bit of a believer that you kind of get what you pay for in some sense.

[00:07:04] Um, so, uh, we want to make it competitive, but that’s not to say that, you know, if you don’t have great grades, it’s probably not going to be a package. That’s going to be suitable for what you want to do. But, um, you know, that’s a little bit of where, where I have to go with our demographic and no one who’s going to be successful here.

[00:07:19] Um, I’ve seen, you know, kids paying all the way down as low as, you know, $12,000. And I’ve seen kids all the way up in the thirties. So it’s really a case by case basis. Speech to all the guys is let’s just go through the process if at the end of the day, um, whether it’s Transylvania or any school out there wants you to pay a million dollars a year to go there.

[00:07:40] You’re not going there. Right. So, um, it’s a conversation that I like to be open and honest about, but it’s, it’s definitely much more individual than just a around number that I can toss out there. Oh, that makes

[00:07:50] Matt: sense. Well, let’s talk more about the school, cause I’m guessing a lot of folks out there aren’t familiar with Transylvania university, unless you, uh, you know, are probably in the Kentucky greater Lexington area.

[00:08:02] Um, you know, I’m down here in Florida. Um, I can guarantee you, none of the, none of the kids on my daughter’s team have, uh, have heard of it, but so, you know, I go to the website, learn a whole lot, but, but give me the inside scoop, you know, what am I, what do I want to know about transplanting that I’m not going to learn just by, by visiting the website?

[00:08:20] Coach: I mean, I think that you want to, you want to know what the school wants to do itself, right? You want to know what their goals are. So for me, it’s, you know, we were established in 1780, a really, really historic institution. You know, senators and vice-presidents things like that have come through here. Um, we are number one in the state of Kentucky for getting a job after you graduate, which I look, I’m a college coach.

[00:08:41] I want to win a bunch of games, but we got to make you a productive member of society too. So that’s important to me. Uh, but I think there’s a, there’s a connotation, even those that are aware of transplant. Thank God. It’s an older campus, not much going on. Uh, we’re, we’re really, really new facilities here on campus and it’s literally a 10 minute walk from downtown Lexington.

[00:09:01] So I think we’re in a very, very unique scenario. Uh, we’re a top 100 liberal arts school in the nation, but we are only one of nine in that top 100 that reside in a city of 300,000 people or more so when you connect, you know, a lot of people looking for those smaller schools that weren’t on one environment with their professors and really getting an individualized education, but you can also tie it into a city around it.

[00:09:25] That’s. You know, what is now going to be a USL team coming to us, but also UK health systems, all those different entities that can help you, whether it’s insured internships or job shadowing, whatever it might be. Um, a lot of our student athletes go on to med school or to get, you know, we have a former men’s soccer player, get his PhD at Ohio state and in physics and other one is in, uh, since he med school.

[00:09:46] So, uh, all those sorts of things that you can. Um, with quality education, but again, the city around that is really, again what makes us unique. That’s awesome.

[00:09:57] Matt: Um, so you, you mentioned high academics at the school, so what. You know, how did the student athletes balance the, their athletic commitments with their academic commitments?

[00:10:11] What sort of support structures are there on campus to help them help them do that?

[00:10:17] Coach: Um, I think first and foremost, it’s, it’s really cool to see the environment we’ve got around campus where, uh, a lot of our student athletes are really successful in the classroom. Uh, so when you you’re around. A group of people that want to be successful, not just on their, you know, in their athletic endeavors, but also in the classroom, which is important as it for a kid coming in that they’re not going to be alone when they would, they push themselves on both fronts.

[00:10:40] The actual institutional things that we have, uh, we have a great study skills coordinator. Uh, we have great writing center capabilities, and then even our, our library, the study rooms in the bottom set up, so that it’s posted when each tutor is going to be there throughout the week for whatever subject you need.

[00:10:58] Um, we’re going to pair up our guys with some study skills coordinators for, um, you know, once a week, once every two week meetings so that they can get in and, and have those touch points with somebody that’s a little bit more. Integrated into those systems automatically. Obviously we do check-ins with our guys on a regular basis from a coaching staff point of view, but getting them connected into those resources as quickly as possible is huge.

[00:11:19] Um, I think a lot of times. Plenty of resources on campus, but maybe the intentionality is not there on, on getting student athletes connected with them. Um, and really my first thing I did when I was here meeting the guys was, uh, we have the intentionality from our administration. There was a resume building seminar for all of our first year guys that they had to go to.

[00:11:38] So, um, that’s the first time I got to meet some of them. Checking them off the list, making sure they’re showing up. Um, but again, it’s, it’s really well done here by the administration as a whole to push and make sure that our student athletes are having that support. Uh, beyond that, I think we’re, we’re fortunate to even have a couple of sports psychologists on staff that can help you, even if it’s.

[00:12:00] I think sometimes we get mixed up with, you know, athletics and academics and making sure it’s one of those two conversations. Uh, but a lot of the recent news unfortunately has been mental health. And so having sports psychologists on campus that can come in and, and be of value in addition to the counseling staff is even bigger resource for our guys here.

[00:12:21] Oh, that’s

[00:12:21] Matt: great. Walk me through a typical week during the season. Um, I mean, I’m, I know you haven’t had one yet, but, but in terms of, you know, when, when they, from, when they wake up to, when they go to bed, I know you probably have a, somewhat of a cadence of games, whether, you know, every conference seems to do it a little bit differently, but you know, when do you practice and how does that all, what does that all look like?

[00:12:45] Or what will it look like? I guess this upcoming fall for you?

[00:12:48] Coach: Yeah. So, uh, cadence of games is pretty similar to most. It’s a Wednesday Saturday schedule, um, which I enjoy, I used to be in a division two conference that was Friday, Sunday. And that was just a battle on those second games a weekend. So Wednesday, Saturday, or, you know, most frequently our game schedule.

[00:13:04] That means we’re trained in Monday, Tuesday, we’re training Thursday, Friday, and they get the off day on Sunday, uh, which I think works pretty well for most people. We may travel on a Friday. Um, normally our longer games in conference or are on those weeks. So we’re going to do an overnight we’ll leave on the Friday night.

[00:13:21] Uh, maybe have a lighter session really quickly before we leave. Uh, but the, the normal flow of a day is going to be, I tell people it’s, it’s pretty similar to what you’re used to in a high school or club environment where wake up, go to class. Uh, you may finish a little bit earlier here, uh, in college, obviously than what you would, uh, prior to arriving.

[00:13:39] Uh, we’ll sprinkle in a couple of lifting sessions during the week. Normally around those guys class schedule, we have a strength coach that will, you know, have those programs available. We’ll do those guys whenever they can come in. And then we’ll, we’ll train some time between, you know, we’ll say four and eight.

[00:13:55] Uh, that’ll be a little bit flexible there on our field here in the fall, but, um, we’ll train at those times. And afterwards, if, if we’re training through dinner, we have food for the guy. Um, we need to get something else going on or film sessions again, that’s, it’s kind of all on a case by case basis. What we need is a group.

[00:14:11] Sometimes it’s filmed before training. Sometimes I just want to talk to, you know, a position group and maybe that’s done a little bit after training throughout the day. Um, and then Scouts are normally down a little bit later in the evening. Let the guys go get through things now and get some, some dinner, get cleaned up and then come back and make sure that we’re all focused and ready to go for those scattered reports.

[00:14:29] Uh, but yeah. Easy transition. I think for people in the fall, um, going into college sports, you know, there it’s, it’s not the schedule or the cadence of the way things happen, but the intensity and the, the level that I think surprises guys more than, than the, the schedule of events. Hmm.

[00:14:48] Matt: Okay. Let’s talk more about the team and the soccer side of things a bit as we just started to, but, you know, you mentioned you did like to carry around 30 on the roster, obviously.

[00:15:00] Not quite, uh, it looked like maybe you’re 18 ish at the moment, uh, based on the website. But so, you know, are you looking into adding via, via transfers to help kind of balance the, the, the year? So you don’t have 12 guys who’s graduating four years from now and then making it more difficult, you know, what, what’s that kind of roster building mentality look like.

[00:15:25] Coach: It’s I think first and foremost, it’s getting good people to be a part of. Um, you know, uh, I think that obviously we want the best players we can find, but I need to match that with good, good people as well, guys that are willing to work our guys that are buying into the culture that we’re looking for.

[00:15:40] So, yeah, we’ve, we’ve got a couple of transfers on the board that we probably won’t know too much about here, uh, for another few weeks, but, uh, right now it’s, it’s predominantly just a big freshmen class and it makes me a little bit nervous as a coach to have so many young guys that are part of it, but it’s also a great option.

[00:15:56] You know, we’ve spent a lot of time with the current guys, this spring talking about culture and the standard that we want to set and, and goals that aren’t Hey, when the conference or, or gets the NCAA tournament, but goals that are process oriented and how can we become a better teammate? How can we, uh, lead this group of young guys as they come in?

[00:16:15] Yeah, inconsistencies that come with a big freshman class are definitely going to be there. But, um, you know, nobody complains about having 10, 15 seniors that are all contributing is great members of the program. So if you’re going to have that many at the end, you got to start that way at some points. Uh, but yeah, it’s, it’s been a lot of incoming freshmen.

[00:16:33] Uh, a lot of guys. Funnily enough at my previous institution that, you know, had some similar names on the board and, and guys that were familiar to me already. So it’s been a pretty, pretty easy transition for this, you know, first recruiting class. Okay.

[00:16:48] Matt: Well, you know, you, you being a new head coach, uh, do you have new staff that, that you were able to hire?

[00:16:54] What is your overall soccer staff look like and what roles does everybody play?

[00:16:59] Coach: Uh, look, I’m, I’m really, really fortunate to have, uh, the assistant coach has been here for the past couple of years. Matt he’s a graduate of Transylvania, was an all conference guy at captain and conference champion. Uh, so he’s staying on with the program and he’s been fantastic in this transitionary period.

[00:17:14] I give a lot of the, uh, the recruiting kudos to him for, for keeping it together, uh, in the transition period. And he’s been great, uh, helping me get to know, you know, not only the team. The institution as a whole. So he’ll, he’ll still be coming back for us. I know I’m excited for that. We’ll also bring back our, uh, our goalkeeper coach who’s, uh, drew Grisham.

[00:17:35] Drew was also an all conference guide here at Transylvania. And then we’re adding an additional volunteer coach, uh, by the name of Toby Anderson. Toby’s a really, really smart guy. He, uh, was an aerospace engineer for a little bit, but he’s going to be running kind of our load management. So he’ll be taking our GPS.

[00:17:51] Um, you know, all of the different metrics that come along with that feeding in, you know, our wellness, questionnaires, RPS, sleep schedules, things like that to help us make sure that that, again, I’m, I’m big about putting guys in positions to be successful. And I think the more data we have on how they’re feeling and how they’re doing, uh, we can at least come up with some metrics over time that are, that are good indicators.

[00:18:14] Um, is this guy peeking is maybe overreaching and we need to bring him back a few minutes on, on a game. Um, so those are gonna be the four guys that round us out for the most part, but the support staff here, our athletic trainers, our, our administrators are all absolutely incredible.

[00:18:29] Matt: So. I’ve I’ve done a bunch of these interviews and I think you’re the first person to really dive into the technology side of things.

[00:18:39] Um, and which I know is a growing, you know, a huge exploding area. I’ve got buddies who, who work at the various. Companies like catapult and stats and they all, all the different places. And my daughter’s, uh, coach works for trace. Uh, so, you know, I’m all in on it. Um, so w you know, how, how important is it for you guys in.

[00:19:06] And D do you, do you feel the players are giving you good buy-in in terms of adopting, using data and how it, how it, uh, kind of helps manage everything from, like you said, from load management to sleep, to, to all those things?

[00:19:21] Coach: Yeah. I think that, uh, getting buy-in from the guys is kind of easy on that. I mean, they, they love to pull up their phone and see, Hey, you know, I, I sprinted faster than this guy or.

[00:19:31] Since we had a kid come up to us for, uh, one of our spring days here and he said, coach, I’m going to run more than anybody else today. It’s like, okay man, that’s, that’s fantastic. And he accomplished that goal. Um, I’ve talked to a couple of the peer coaches and, you know, they’re guys that when they get these trackers, just start running sprints on the sideline at training when they’re not involved just to get their numbers up.

[00:19:49] So, uh, I think that the competitive, um, drive of a lot of college athletes is kind of fueled by that data. But I think the, the trick that I, by no means masters. Uh, is going to be finding the data that is truly an indicator of what we’re looking for. So for me, I want to use this as a load management perspective.

[00:20:09] Um, you know, college soccer. You’ve, you’ve seen a lot of discussion, especially division three level on back-to-back games, in the national tournament and how, uh, detrimental that can be on a student athletes body. So for me, making sure that we’re aware of the load we’re putting out there, sometimes it’s just, you know, dealing with, with training sessions and realizing man, we were going to do a light.

[00:20:29] Yeah. In reality, those, those exercises, those guys went a little bit tougher and, uh, we covered more ground w it was more intense than we thought it was good. And so I think, and I’ve always been a fan of, of rotating guys through and having a deep roster where, you know, 85, 90% of my top player, isn’t maybe as good as that a hundred percent of that guy behind him and bringing together a group of guys that is okay with that, uh, look at some of the top teams in our region and they rotate through bodies on a regular basis.

[00:20:57] They have that depth and numbers. So for me, the way I’m looking to utilize it is, is just that if we’ve got a kid that’s a starter. Day-in and day-out, uh, unfortunate enough to have had some conversations with some high level fitness coaches and things like that, that you just can’t go Wednesday, Saturday for eight, nine weeks and expect to maintain performance.

[00:21:17] You can’t do it. Um, but I think now with the new generation, they don’t just blatantly trust a coach. I can’t say to, you know, Matt, Hey, you’re looking a little slow to me, man. I’m not going to alert you to that, but if I can. Hey, Matt, guess what you know, based on, you know, your RPE and, and your strain levels over the past couple of weeks, you’re actually now in an overreaching phase where not only are you less responsive to stimuli, so you’re probably not going to play as well.

[00:21:44] You’re actually at an increased risk of injury. So now I’m going to limit your minutes today. It, that conversation. Although some guys may not like it. I don’t expect them to their competitors. Um, but it’s a little bit easier to have that conversation with guys when you have data to back it up. Um, and that’s, you know, the more data, the better for me.

[00:22:02] Matt: That’s great. Um, well, you mentioned a little bit about the culture of the team, you know, how would you describe your style of coaching, the team or the style of play that you want to, uh, to enact.

[00:22:16] Coach: So, uh, I think that the goal of any coach, any sport is to just get that group of individuals pushing in the same direction.

[00:22:24] Um, and I’ve got some different analogies for that, that my guys have heard several times, but, uh, really I want the team to have. Uh, say in what goes on, not from a, you know, who’s the starting 11, but from a culture perspective, I always need to know how those decisions are affecting morale, how those decisions are affecting buy-in and things like that.

[00:22:45] Um, not because I’m going to cater to every whim, but because it’s important to me that this, this is a group of guys, all pushing the same direction they’re all bought in. So, uh, when we define our culture, our guys have come up with three main pillars. And that’s love discipline and humility, uh, that kind of govern everything that we do.

[00:23:04] Yeah. I love the guys you’re around. You got to love the game. You have to be disciplined to do the little things on a day-to-day basis to make sure you know, what’s going on. Um, and you’re, you’re putting in the effort every single day and then humility to me is what unlocks it all. Uh, every athlete, every coach has an ego.

[00:23:20] They want to be really good at what they do otherwise. They wouldn’t be in college. But humanity is something that no matter how many games you win, no matter what goals you score at the end of the day, can you be humble enough to start the process all over? So that’s all, you know, that’s what our culture is about at a really high level.

[00:23:35] And then coaching style is I want to get to know the guys. They’re always going to be people before their players. And that’s, I was fortunate enough to come through with a great group of guys when I played and have been in a few weddings, been a best man. Um, those relationships for through college athletics are absolutely phenomenal.

[00:23:53] They’re going to be with you for the rest of your life. And that’s one of the most rewarding pieces of the job for me is to see these guys come through over four years and maybe five, six years in the recruiting. And go from, you know, 16, 17, 18 year old kid, all the way into 21, 22 year old guy, that’s got a full-time job, maybe a series girlfriend or fiance or whatever it might be.

[00:24:13] Um, those are the really rewarding ASP. So for me, it’s, it’s delving into that person pouring into them and, and hopefully, you know, getting the kickbacks on the way out, winning some games and habits. That’s great.

[00:24:26] Matt: Well, you know, you did get hired in, in December, so you did get a spring with the boys. So what, what does your off season program tend to look like?

[00:24:37] Coach: I think, uh, the division three level, there’s a, there’s a, a, a big focus there on the strength conditioning piece. Just. The NCAA regulations on how often we can get with the guys. So that’s the first piece of the off season program. Obviously we try and get our guys as many touches as they can outside of our purview.

[00:24:56] So whether it’s open fields or, or football leagues or whatever, it might be, that, that they can get, um, have a little bit more fun with it and they don’t have to listen to me talk all the time. Uh, but then once we get those, those set sessions this year was, was a lot of just playing me, figuring out what we had on the road.

[00:25:11] Uh, letting the guys get used to my boys, doing some basic things. I think once we look at a normal spring after, you know, next fall I’ll know what we need to work on. I think that’ll be a little bit easier for me going forward in the rest of the coaching staff and even the team to identify what we need to work on in those gaps.

[00:25:28] We need to. And, uh, that’s kind of what the focus is going to be. It’s, it’s much more about that incremental progress and individual development in the spring. I think, uh, whereas the fall is just, you know, hot and heavy going fast, uh, trying to win games and get scouting reports done. Um, we can’t focus and slow down on, on those little technical details quite as much.

[00:25:50] Matt: Well, you, you, you’ve given us a whole bunch of info. It’s been great. I just got one last question for you, uh, which is. What, what, what didn’t we talk about? What else do you want people to know? What we miss, uh, or, or anything you want to reiterate is kind of the last catch, all where is free form for you to give us anything else you want?

[00:26:11] Coach: No, I think that, uh, you know, we, we see a lot on the, the transfer portal and nightmare stories of kids and things like that. Um, I think my, my big message to guys in the recruiting process, girls for that matters is that this recruiting journey is your own. Um, I think a lot of times we, we listened to advice in a, not that there’s bad advice out there.

[00:26:30] There’s, there’s great advice everywhere. Um, but if a kid, if you’re a kid going through the process, know that it’s your process, run your own race. Um, don’t let somebody tell you how to do things. And, um, if you like the way one coach does. That doesn’t mean it’s the only way to do it. That might just be something you prefer.

[00:26:45] So I think developing those relationships with the coaches and, and going somewhere that you can be successful even without the game. Um, I know that I was guilty as anybody else that I wanted to play. Soccer was a big part in my decision making process, going to school, but, uh, being in an institution that had those support systems for you as a student, as a person and as an athlete, um, you know, I think that there’s a great line.

[00:27:12] Uh, my administrator, Kevin Calhoun gave me that says something to the effect of, you know, if somebody has a plan for you, it means that they want you. And so ask those coaches, what’s your plan for me? What are you, what are you looking to do for me for the next four years? Not just, how do I impact it right away, but do you have a plan?

[00:27:30] Not just on the field, off the field, as a person, as a student, as a human being and how we can get that stuff going. So that’s the one thing I would encourage people to look at as they go through that recruiting process.

[00:27:40] Matt: Oh, love it. Awesome. Well, coach wish you the best of luck and you in your first full season there.

[00:27:45] Um, think you’ll be doing great things and Lexington, and we’ll keep an eye on you and, and, and be cheering from you from, from afar.

[00:27:52] Coach: I appreciate it, Matt.

[00:27:54] Matt: Likewise. Thanks.