University of Findlay Women’s Soccer – Coach Michelle Rick
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Michelle from the Findlay Women’s Program in Ohio. We talk about she looks for players with competitive fire. She describes how both the city and school have a lot to offer. Lastly, we discuss how she empowers players to own their culture. Learn more about University of Findlay Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I am lucky enough to be joined by Coach Michelle Rick from the University of Finley women’s team. Welcome coach. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for being here. I, I’ve, I. Driven that way many times, but never actually stopped off at the school since I, I grew up in Columbus.
My wife, uh, grew up in Detroit. So, so hit that road many a time. But, uh,
Coach: you gotta make a stop sometime.
Matt: Next time, next time. Hidden gym. Next time I go north. We’ll, uh, we’ll definitely make that, make that stop, but, uh, Today, I’m, I’m just sweating like crazy down here in Florida, so, um, well, I appreciate you joining, uh, excited to talk to you and let’s start off first, it’s, uh, we’re talking early July here, so I’m sure you’re, you’re getting ready for, for the fall, but also kind of in full recruiting swing.
Uh, you know, we’re past the June 15th timeline of talking to. At the 25 class. So kind of gimme an idea of your timeline. How much of your efforts right now are focused on 20 fours versus 20 fives? What does that look like for you in a typical year?
Coach: Yeah. Yeah. So it depends a lot on where the player is at their point in the recruiting process.
’cause we get players who come in really, really early and they’re interested in us from like their freshman, sophomore year. And so they’ve got ages of time and we’re just. Staying in touch with them, sending them camp invite invites [00:01:30] and general information. And then later on we’ll take ’em through the whole process.
We’ll have ’em out for an ID camp. We will have them out for a campus visit, get them to engage with the admission staff and get all the academic information that they need, meet with some players. Uh, and that’s an, that can be an extended process if we’re familiar with them really early on, let’s say from right after that June 15th deadline leading into their junior year, I.
So that can be, that can be over a year, um, with players that you get really early. But we get some players who come in really, really late and we go through the recruiting process with them in, in a couple months because they’re just later in the process. We’re really interested in them. It’s a great fit for us.
Um, so, so we can abbreviate things if we need to for sure. Right now, where we’re at with 2020 fours, we, we’ve got some players that we’re staying in touch with to close out a few spots, but we’re, we’re mostly set on our 2024 class and, and moving pretty heavily into 2025. Okay.
Matt: Well, in terms of, uh, And, and this is, I know this is gonna change year to year, but overall, when you’re looking at players, you’re, you’re out at events, whatnot, especially events, let’s say, what is the mix of.
Whether you’re there to see somebody who’s been in contact with you already, versus I’m gonna sit down and watch this game, and because I know these clubs, or these teams, or [00:03:00] these coaches, and I’m hoping I can find somebody. What, what is it like inbound versus outbound, however you wanna describe it.
Coach: That’s a good question. It’s, um, there’s something, there’s something really rewarding about following up on players who are already interested in the school and the program because some of that, some of the process is already taken care of. Right. We don’t, they may have already been to campus or they’ve looked into it themselves and they love it.
The academic fit is perfect. So some of the. The fit piece of the puzzle, whether they’re gonna be happy here for four years, which is crucial, right? Um, is already taken care of. So that can be really rewarding if we’re then now watching them play, uh, and, and it turns out that they look like they’re gonna be a good fit for our program and where we’re at right now and what we need for that class.
Uh, but there’s also a lot of clubs that we just go watch because we’ve got relationships with that club. We trust what they’re doing. Um, we’ve got good relationships with the coaching staff there. They send us recommendations or This player might be a great fit for a D two program. They might be a great fit for your program.
Come take a look at them, uh, and, and we’ll just go watch Good Clubs play. ’cause we like watching good soccer and we’re out at the event, right? Sometimes you just have a bubble in between games that you’re scheduled to hit and you, you find a gem. That you weren’t necessarily looking for.
Matt: So with those events, what’s kind of on your, your hit list, what events do you tend to go to every year?
I mean, looking at your roster, it seems to be fairly, let’s call it regional based right now, but where are you going, [00:04:30] uh, tournament wise and places you like to look for players?
Coach: We do do a lot of regional recruiting. We get a lot of re regional interests, so that’s, that’s a big area for us. And there’s a lot of really good club soccer in the Midwest, so we don’t have to go too far to watch really high quality soccer and, and see a lot of the players that are already interested in this program.
But we will extend that. We’ll go to some E C N L and National League events. And we’ll go to Florida down where you’re located, there’s lots of good soccer. Um, and then things are just expanding constantly there. There’s showcases every other weekend, uh, and the club landscape has changed so much. So I think right now we’re in this zone where we’re trying to balance both.
I. Both the regional aspect and, and getting out, um, and seeing clubs who are a little bit farther away from us because there is players who are interested in, in playing a little bit farther away from home. Maybe the academics are a really great fit for them, or maybe we just find somebody who, who wants to get away and have a different college experience somewhere else.
Matt: Okay. Well, you mentioned camps earlier, so I, I mean, how, how much do camps fit into your recruiting process? Do you, do you host your own? Do you and your staff work outside camps? What’s that look like?
Coach: Yeah, so we will host around four to five ID camps a year, typically one in the fall, one in the spring, a couple over the summer.
Plus or minus one here and there. Uh, and then we’ll also get out to, we’ll go to local combines, run through the [00:06:00] exact has one, um, college soccer camps has one. There’s a bunch of organizations that run them. So we’ll get out to some bigger combines. We’ll go to other, uh, universities ID camps. We will, we’ll get out to anything that’s, that’s within our reach and, and it seems like a good opportunity for us to watch some, some good players.
Matt: Okay, well, whether you’re at. An event or an ID camp or whatever, kind of what makes up your hierarchy of what you’re looking for in a player, whether that’s on the field stuff or off the field stuff.
Coach: Yeah. Yeah. So, so we’re looking for, we’re looking for the typical things, right? Technical and tactical understanding of the game, their, their ability to, to make a difference for us, uh, and fit.
The, the, the holes that we’re looking to fill in that class is, ’cause it’s gonna differ a little bit from class to class based on the position, based on the players that we have outgoing and we already have incoming. So it’s, it’s trying to fit players around that. But aside from the technical and tactical piece of the game, ’cause everybody’s looking for the same thing.
Right. Um, We’re, we’re really looking for players who, who got competitive fire, right? How bad do you wanna win? And what does that look like? Are you trying to get the most out of yourself and your teammates? And what does the character side of things look like? Because in my mind, the culture here is in a really good place, and I wanna bring in players who are gonna enhance that, who are gonna feed into that.
So we’re recruiting character a ton, which means we wanna get to know [00:07:30] players really well. Uh, and the interactions that we have with them out at recruiting events and at camps on visits are crucial for that. Just to get a feel for, for what they value and, and what level of standard they hold for themselves and their teammates.
Matt: Okay. Well, parents like me, one, one of the first things we look at is, okay, what, what’s this gonna cost me? Right? So, yeah, sure. Uh, I’m not, not holding you to hard numbers here, but can you give an idea of. What would an average player coming in be looking at with regards to, you know, obviously the overall cost, but what does the academic scholarship side look like, the athletics scholarship side look like?
Or can you stack, like just gimme kind of overview of what that financial situation looks like?
Coach: Yeah. Yeah, so, so tuition and enrollment, every tuition room and board altogether this year is at 50, $50,000 a year. So we take a very high number, right? And we then add academic and athletic scholarship on top of that, and we can bring that really scary number down to a much more approachable figure that competes or is better than most.
State schools, which is awesome. And, and that’s a testament to players doing their job in the classroom and getting a good academic package. So we, we really preach that side of things. Player. Uh, your, we tell players all the time, your parents aren’t lying when they get on you about doing your homework and staying on top of your grades, it’s gonna pay off.
When you go to apply to [00:09:00] colleges, um, ’cause our academic packages are great and that can take that number down. 20,000 I think is around where our top scholarship is there. Uh, and then adding academic or adding athletic money on top of that academic money can take that number down even further and not, I would say that puts our average player at about 15,000 to 20,000 a year.
Okay.
Matt: Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. You know, folks may not be familiar. So you’ve been there, I think this is about to be your second season, if I’m not mistaken. Right. So what have you found to be some of the great things about the school? Maybe some things we wouldn’t know just by going through the website, I.
Yeah.
Coach: Yeah. So about the school itself, I, I’ve really, I’ve really come to love the town. Uh, it’s a beautiful small city and I think it is kind of a, a hidden gem in between Dayton and Toledo. Um, there’s just, there’s a really nice downtown area that the local Chamber of Commerce has done a really good job of, of bringing some life back to in the last 10 years.
Uh, and it, it’s a fun place to be. There’s stuff going on. Um, honestly, there’s. Things that I have. I’ve been here a year and I feel like I haven’t tried a third of what’s, what Finley has to offer. So I need to get out a little bit more. Clearly. I’ve been stuck in the office too much, but, um, uh, so, so campus life has a a lot to offer players in terms of what the school does to make the student, the student’s experience a really.
Just a fun place to be. Uh, [00:10:30] this, this year they held a big concert, so their young gravy came to campus, which our players absolutely loved. Um, there’s a, there’s a local theater that hosts a lot of, a lot of presentations and. They’ll have concerts as well, they’ll have plays come to town. Um, so there’s things for, there’s things for players to do off of campus, but our players more than anything else, just love hanging out with each other.
So they’re gonna, they’re gonna find things to do on their own. Okay.
Matt: Well, earlier you mentioned the, the academics and, and that, Focus that the school has. So, but for student athletes, sometimes that’s hard, right? Balancing the soccer demands and, and that of the classroom. So how do your student athletes really manage that balance between studies and sport, and what kind of support systems does the school offer to help ’em with that?
Coach: Yeah, so we ask our freshmen to do study tables more than anything else because I like to see them. I like to have them come into the office so we can check in with them, especially in that freshman year, just to help make, make sure they’re getting acclimatized a campus and they’re doing okay. Check in on the academic side of things and help them develop some time management skills.
But after the first semester of their freshman year, we won’t ask that. They continue study tables as long as their G P A is 3.0 or higher, uh, and 90% of the team falls into that category. Average team, g p a last semester was a 3.7, which is phenomenal. They’re crushing it in the classroom. [00:12:00] So as long as I can trust that they’re gonna do their schoolwork, I’m, I’m not gonna chase them around and, and make.
Them do study tables. I trust that they can do it on their own academic support, free tutoring on campus for all classes. And I, I think from my experience as a player and from, from what I hear from our girls, is one of the best parts about being on a team is that you’ve got your teammates to go to for help with academics.
So you can go to a teammate who’s probably taken the same class as you and ask them for help, and they might be better than any tutor you’re gonna get.
Matt: Okay, well let’s fast forward to, uh, the fall. Let’s assume we’re in a picturesque autumn week in October up in Finlay. Uh, what is I. A typical week gonna look like for a player in terms of when are classes, when is practice meals, game cadence, what is that?
What is that gonna look like for him?
Coach: Yeah. Yeah. So typical, once we get past preseason, we’ll have about a week long preseason and schedule’s a little bit different for that. There’s a lot of orientation events going on, and we’ll be training two times a day for the most part. But once we get to that first day of classes, it’ll typically be Monday, Tuesday, they’ll be in classes.
We will train roughly three 30 to five 30 in the afternoon. Uh, and that, that’s a protected hour on campus, so there’s no classes blocked off for that period of time, which makes it really nice First. For scheduling our training sessions, they don’t have to worry about missing classes. Um, Wednesdays and Saturdays will typically be game days, so [00:13:30] we’ll, we might be away if that Wednesday is a, they may miss a few classes if we’re away that Wednesday.
Um, if not, they’ll go to classes in the morning and then, and then get ready for game. Uh, Thursday, Friday would be training again. And then Saturday game day. Sunday is always an off day. And then we’ll typically do, uh, our pre-game session and our post-game session. We’ll typically have some, some element of film, some element of, of game strategy involved.
We might have a, a pre-game meeting. We typically do a pre-game meal that lines up with our scouting report. Uh, and then that post-game session will typically be a little bit lighter just to give us some recovery time. Okay.
Matt: Well, let’s shift gears. Talk a little bit more about the, the team and the soccer side then.
So kinda more of a recruiting question I guess, but is there a roster size that you find is ideal that you’re trying to hit each year?
Coach: Roughly 30 to 35 players is, is our sweet spot.
Matt: Okay. And you guys don’t have like a JV or reserve side, do you?
Coach: We don’t and no plans to in the future.
Matt: Okay. Yeah, there’s just some, it’s funny how some conferences that’s very, very, very prevalent and then in others it’s not at all.
Coach: So it’s, uh, there’s a, there’s two in our conference right now that do Oh, yeah. Okay. I think, yeah, I think Tiffin does, and I think Thomas Moore does, but I think that’s the, that’s, that’s it.
Matt: Okay. Well, besides roster of players, you obviously have a staff roster, so kind of gimme an [00:15:00] idea of what. Staff. Your staff looks like, what role does everybody play?
What kind of maybe other athletic department staff help out with that team? What does, what does that look like?
Coach: Yeah, so, so as far as full-time positions, myself and my assistant Sierra are, are full-time. She helps with everything that we do day to day from, from game day management to, um, making sure that travel itineraries get sent out, gear gets ordered.
She’s on top of. Anything that we ask her to do. And the girls trust her wholeheartedly and can go to her for anything that they need, which is really nice to have an assistant that you trust is, is not only there to help you with anything that you, you might send her way, but that the players trust as well.
She’s also an alumni, so that makes her, that made her for me a really great asset in terms of just getting to know the town. Um, ’cause she knows. Any question that you’re gonna ask her about Finley, she’s a townie. She’s lived here her whole life and she loves it. So she’s gonna, she’s the person I go to when I got a Finley or, or a UF related question.
Uh, we have a goalkeeper coach. Uh, he works with our goalkeepers and we, he comes to us on, he comes with us on most away games. He’s fantastic. Does a great job for us with the goalkeepers. Um, and then we also have a full-time athletic trainer during season. Brett and she, she’s wonderful with the girls.
And then we have a strength and conditioning coach as well, which is something that not all D two programs have as a designated strength and [00:16:30] conditioning coach, Tyler Beckley. Uh, and he is phenomenal with the girls. They, they absolutely love him. They work really hard for him and he goes out of his way to, to really help them develop in the weight room and just as athletes in general.
Matt: Okay. I know it’s July, but let, let, let’s rewind then. So can you gimme an idea of what your kind of off season, what that spring looked like for players?
Coach: Yeah, so, so off season in the, so we’ll be almost entirely off in December. They won’t hear from us too much unless they reach out and, and are looking for training information.
We kind of give ’em a little bit of time to reboot and recharge. They need that break because that’s pretty much the only break from soccer and from training that they get right. Um, and then they’ll come back about midway through January and we’ll start individual and small group training sessions.
We’ll do that inside on our futsal surfaces. We’ll play futsal. We’ll play a futsal league once a week, and that gets really fun and competitive. Um, we were talking amongst the staff, uh, earlier this year and I don’t think we ever had had a bad futsal session. Right. The girls just love it, uh, and they, it’s a just a good opportunity to compete and have a little bit of fun.
I. And then they’ll be lifting four days a week as well. As soon as we come back in January. That’ll continue all the way through the spring. And then when the weather breaks, about midway through March, we will train consistently outdoors. We’ll play our, our, our spring competitive season. [00:18:00] Uh, and that’ll go from March to about the end of April.
We’ll play five game days. Uh, so we’ll be during that spring competitive season. We’ll be playing four days a week. We’ll be training four days a week. Um, and they’ll be lifting four days a week. Uh, and we’ll play five game days. So that’s, that’s what it looks like in the spring for us. And it’s nice to have that, that full spring season.
’cause you get a lot of player development and team development. Development in terms of developing a, a style of play, uh, working on defensive and attacking principles of play that you can carry into the fall. Excited to see all that come together here soon.
Matt: Yeah. Well, speaking of fall and you know, it’s game day, so what, how would you describe kind of your style of coaching and then the team style of play that you’re looking to use?
Coach: Yeah, so, so style of coaching. I, one of my favorite parts about this job is, is being able to empower a group of players to own a culture and own their own development, push themselves and their teammates, and get the most out of this experience every day. And I want them to see it as an opportunity and to take ownership of that.
Uh, so. I describe myself as a very player centric coach, and by that I mean I like to give players a voice in things. I’ll respect their voice. I’m gonna treat them like adults. Now, if they abuse that, that right of privilege is gonna be taken away very quickly. But the, the culture is something we do a lot of work on.
To put, to get it to a place [00:19:30] where we do trust them. We do trust that their, their values, their intentions, their character is in the right place. Uh, and we can give them some ownership over aspects of the program. As far as style of coaching during training sessions and in-game, it’s very conversational.
I like to have a dialogue with. Players. I like to help them with the decision making side of things. I’m not a micromanager as a coach. I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna tell them how they need to do every single, uh, micro action that that’s gonna happen on the field because the game moves too fast for that.
So I wanna help them make the right decision in the moment by themselves, uh, and give them the skills to do the right thing in the future, to make the right decision in the future. Uh, if, if some mistake happens and we need, we need to learn from an experience.
Matt: Okay. Well we’ve covered a lot of different areas, but uh, I like to end these with one question, and that is if you had one piece of advice, one nugget of wisdom that you would want to impart on any parent player, anybody going through the college soccer recruiting process, what would that be?
Coach: That is a great question.
It would be that the difference between between privilege and entitlement is gratitude. And I want players and parents to be grateful for the experience. Being a college athlete is a privilege, and I wanna see players make the most of that experience. And if you look at it with gratitude and you come into it with a, I get to do this.[00:21:00]
Not, I have to do this. And you do that every single day, you will make the most of the experience. Um, and even on the days when it’s hard, you can make the most of it and find a way to get better.
Matt: I absolutely love that I will be clipping that little segment out and posting it everywhere I can find. Well, coach, I really appreciate the time.
Uh, wish you the best of luck this fall and hopefully maybe January when E C N L rolls down to Florida. Uh, you’ll be down here. We can get catch up in real. Let’s
Coach: go. Sounds great. I hope it’s a little bit less hot then.
Matt: Uh, it should be. Yeah, it should be. Alright, well thank you much, coach. Take care.
Coach: Take care.
Have a good one, Matt. You too.
