University of Nebraska at Kearney Women’s Soccer – Coach Rob Breton
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Rob from the Nebraska Kearney Women’s Program. We talk about how he is building his network and expanding his recruiting base. He describes the unreal community support for the program. Lastly, we discuss their tremendous support staff and resources. Learn more about the University of Nebraska at Kearney Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I am lucky enough to be joined by Coach Rob Bretton from the University of Nebraska Kearney. Welcome coach.
Coach: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. You are, the women’s coach guys are division two kinda almost smack dab in the middle of Nebraska, if I’m not mistaken.
Yeah. Almost smack dab in the middle of the country. Yeah. How about that? Well I’m uh, it’s probably not as hot as it is down here in Florida. That’s all I know. ’cause I’m not sure there’s many places that are currently, ’cause it’s just unbearable at this point. But that’s why we have air conditioning.
Well, happy to have you here. Uh, you know, we’re talking, it’s July, um, you’re kind of probably wrapping up recruiting, getting started with recruiting for, for the next year and getting ready for the fall all at the same time. So gimme a little bit about your kind of recruiting calendar. You know, we’re only a few weeks removed from being able to talk to 20 fives.
Are you starting to talk 20 fives? Are you solely focused on 20 fours? How much your 24 class has done? What’s that look like for you guys Normally?
Coach: So we’re still a little bit behind on the 24 class, just because when I got here, I got here in. The middle of April last year, and when I got here in the middle of April, I was still recruiting for the 22 incoming class.
So I spent half the summer working on the 22 class last year, um, which made it where then during season I was working on the [00:01:30] 20 threes, but it was only me during the season. So I was recruiting, running, programming, booking all, like, literally the entire process. Um, so I was, I was a little bit behind on the process.
I feel like I’m finally. Starting to get caught up. We are very focused on our 20 fours. We’ve had a lot of phone calls, we’ve had visits. Um, I actually just got back from going to the US Y S President’s Cup, which is the national tournament. I was there for two days. I got to see some of the 20 fours that we’ve been talking to.
I got to see some great 20 fives. Uh, we’ve even started, you know, the conversations with 20 fives because now having. Um, an assistant coach who’s here with me, he’s able to actually help me in the recruiting process. He’s the recruiting coordinator. So we’ve, we’ve started opening the doors for 20 fives and really starting to plan out, um, how we wanna kind of, like you said, wrap up the 24 class and start getting these official offers in start getting some verbal commits and kids ready for that signing day in November.
Matt: Okay. Well you, you mentioned the U S Y S. Uh, do you have a list of, you know, your must-see tournaments, the places you definitely want to go to each year? What does that look like for, for you in terms of events that you go to?
Coach: Yes. So, um, I personally have, I. Five or six events that I love going to just because from the past I know that they’re gonna produce good players.
Uh, I know that it’s gonna produce good quality. But the other thing again for me is, is I’m originally from the east coast. I spent my first five years of college coaching on the [00:03:00] East coast, so I’m still relearning the entire. Region of the Midwest area and what are good events to attend? What are good camps to go to, who are good connects and clubs?
Um, one of the best things I have though, is I have been. Taken care of when it comes to the network in our area. So far, they’ve been very proactive, they’ve been great in communication. There’s high quality talent. Um, so, so far, you know, we’ve really been focusing on jumping into the Denver network, jumping into the Kansas City network, making our way down into the southern part of Kansas, closer to Wichita, which is where the Ys tournament was.
Um, I still have a lot of connects out on the East coast, so you know, if I could make it to the N C F C showcase or any of the E C N L events that are out there in the Midwest. Um, we went to Mayor’s Cup this year, which was awesome. Got to go to Vegas for some recruiting, which is always fun. Uh, trying to make it out to Surf Cup out in California and see if I can start really expanding the network because we’ve been a very predominantly.
Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska focused of the history of the program when it comes to recruiting. Um, I’m one of those people where I want to kind of expand as well, so that way we can really show how great of a town Kearney is and how great of a place this can be, not just for people that are in the region, but start showing people why, you know, Nebraska’s not just cornfields.
There’s a lot of beauty here and people can come and find, [00:04:30] uh, an absolutely amazing home here.
Matt: Okay. Now, when you’re at an event, I’m just, uh, this, this is a question that always, uh, intrigues me how much of what you saw. Let’s take U S Y S, for example. How much of what you were watching was people you’d already been contact with versus I’m plopping down to see this game because I think I might find some talent.
Coach: So at U S Y S, there were about five kids that I’ve previously spoken to that I’ve watched highlight film. Um, and then the rest of it was just going around and getting to see kids from different states and different regions. Um, you know, I got to see some teams from Jersey, Montana, uh, Illinois. I got to see a Florida team there.
I gotta see a Maryland team. It was great. So I got to kind of see some of these different areas. So for this event, I would say it was more. About 10% kids that I had already been watching and the rest was, okay, let’s just find some kids. Uh, but a majority of the time when I try to go to events, um, I would like it to be about 50 50 unless it’s an event that I’ve never been to before.
And that way we can kind of expand the network.
Matt: Okay. Well, what about camps? Do you guys run your own ID camps? Do you and your staff work other camps? How do they fit into the recruitment process for you?
Coach: So we run two ID camps per year. We had one back in June. We have another one coming up next Friday, actually not this week, but the following.
Um, and then we [00:06:00] do a four day overnight player development camp. So it’s not actually about identification, it’s genuinely about training players and helping them become, um, More capable, more confident, and more qualified as, as players from a technical side of things. Um, from the, the other camps. You know, my assistant coach actually right now is working the Texas a and m camp.
Um, we go to other ID camps whenever we’re invited, as long as it fits our schedule. So any opportunity that I can get to go recruiting, we’re gonna try it. And the way that I see it is, is, You know, we go to the event. Once we look at what the return is, we look at what the level of talent is. We look at, you know, how many kids are we getting interested from these events, and, and then we evaluate, are we gonna go back next year or are we going to maybe every other year, this event, and try and utilize the funding in another way.
Matt: Okay, well whether it’s at an event, at a camp, highlight videos, whatever the case may be, what’s kinda your hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player to to, to make you want to bring them to your school, whether it’s off the field stuff or on the field stuff. Kind of what are you looking at?
Coach: So, just from a, from a player standpoint, you know, I love technically strong players that are comfortable and confident in playing one in two touch, but also have that.
Ability to say, okay, I have the space to turn and try and do some things. Um, I love players that have that creativity to try [00:07:30] something, but also that if they mess up, they don’t fear making that mistake. Um, another big one for me is, is just work ethic and work rate. You know, I, I love a high offensive and high defensive work rate.
Doesn’t matter if you’re a forward center back, all across the board. Um, Just because of the way that our conference is, we’re arguably one of the top three conferences in the country when it comes to not just soccer, but all sports in general. Um, I mean, we, half of our conference was top 25 in the country at one point last year.
Five of them made the national tournament, one went to the elite Eight. You know, the, this isn’t an easy place to play. So athleticism and work rate, definitely. Add to the, the mold, but it doesn’t have to just be that. Um, on the off the field side, you know, grades are huge for us because obviously free money academically from the school always helps.
Um, you know, I, I think players tend to forget the fact that D two can stack money athletically and academically at most schools. So if I can get two to $6,000 of free money from the school to add into your. Uh, to add into your amount to make school cheaper for you. That’s always great. So I, I love seeing that.
And then, you know, the last piece for me is, is I love watching players’ body language and how they react to situations. Um, a lot of, a lot of kids, I. Let their emotions get control of ’em, which, you know, I understand it’s a game. You’re gonna have those [00:09:00] emotions that shows that you got that fire in you.
But how do you react to it if something bad happens? Do you shut down? Do you throw your hands in the air? Do you start complaining to your teammates? Or do you go back to work and do you keep going after it and you show that you can utilize those emotions? And those are two very big things for me because, you know, recently even at U S Y S, There was a kid that I saw technically quality, athletically quality.
Her team was up three one, all of a sudden it’s three, three with five minutes left in the game. She’s standing in the middle of the pitch, yelling at her teammates complaining that she’s not getting the passes she wants. Name got caught, crossed right off the list.
Matt: Yeah, that’s a, that’s a great example. Uh, and I’ll probably clip that and send that to, uh, to some folks, so, so,
In terms of just kind of wrapping up the recruiting questions, you know, what does your school do in re return in regards to both international recruiting and are you looking at the transfer portal at all? Is that fitting into your recruiting?
Coach: Yes. Um, I am, I’m very big on having an open network with Internationals.
Um, I have a lot of different agencies that I work with from England to Iceland to France, couple Japanese companies that I work with. Couple South American, you know, we actually have our first South American player coming in next season. Very excited from that. She’s a transfer from Coach Ice Community College, a Bolivian player.
And I haven’t announced [00:10:30] this yet, and I’m actually really excited for her. She just got invited to go train with the senior national team. So she’s, she’s flying back to Bolivia next week to train with them for the rest of the summer, which is huge. Um, so for me, yes, I, I very much am always open to, to international players and working with them, transfer portal that is open every single day.
Um, and the reason why is just for us, we are in the process of a rebuild. It’s always great bringing in freshmen that can compete and do big things. And you know, this year we had eight freshmen who came in and they played a majority of the minutes, but they also realized how big of a step up it is from the high school club game to the college game and the competition that comes with it.
So sometimes being able to bring in one, two transfers that can really add some. Experience from the college level as well as they have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder if they’re transferring out. So, you know, we had two D one transfers come in during the spring and they absolutely helped raise the standard from the jump and they showed that you can compete, like my players are able to compete with these kids every single day.
But you can also see just the work ethic and difference that. A D one player has, and when they can say, okay, you know what, maybe I’m not getting that experience or that time, or the the desire that I want from that level, I’m gonna play at division two because I, I wanna be that kid again. I wanna be that one that everyone goes to and trust and relies on, and [00:12:00] I wanna be that impact player.
So, you know, I love it because you don’t wanna sit the bench for two years and maybe not even potentially make it into the, the starting lineup by your junior year. Why not play at the division two level and be that stud and be that all star? I always tell ’em at the end of the day, all Americans, all American, doesn’t matter if it’s D 1 23 N A I or junior college just come compete.
Matt: Yeah, no, I love that. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. I’m sure there’s some folks out there not the familiar with uh, U N K. So you’ve been there over a year now, so. What drew you to the job? What drew you to the school? What have you learned about the school? Some things you love that maybe we wouldn’t learn just by going to the website.
Coach: So for me, I’ve never been to a division two institution that has as large of a community support as Kearney. Um, we actually still hold the division two home attendance for regular season game 3,327 fans. Wow. You, you wouldn’t think that in the middle of Nebraska. You’re like, oh no, they don’t support soccer like that.
No, they very much do. They’re very, very committed to that out here. Um, and you can’t drive through the town without seeing our flags, our colors, our logos, whether it’s in people’s yards or in the businesses in town. And the thing is though, if you remove the, the college, the town would still be here.
There’s 30,000 people in this town. It’s a well, Taken care of town, it’s growing. It’s [00:13:30] beautiful. The community is great. Um, the people are awesome. Nebraska nice is a very real phrase that I didn’t believe. But then when I got here, you know, walking through grocery store, just trying to get groceries, they see the logo on my shirt and they’re like, oh, you’re the new soccer coach.
I heard about you 45 minutes later. I haven’t moved because I learned their entire life story. Um, so that, that’s just absolutely brilliant. The, the other things about this place as well is, is it’s. The school is very, very well resourced when it comes to the academic and the student experience side. Um, I mean our fitness center just for the students, not even the student athletes.
We have a fitness center that would rival I. A lot of gyms for college athletes. We have a two floor rock wall that you can just go in and use as a student anytime you want. We have a recreation department that goes on weekly trips all around the region to go camping, hiking, backpacking, kayaking. Um, it’s just, it’s phenomenal.
And then the academic side, we’re one of the top 10 in our entire region. We have over 5,000 students at our institution and. This is in the dead set center of farm country. So like you’re driving down route or you’re driving down Highway 80 and you’re like, oh man, there’s just farmland. And then all of a sudden you see this exit that says Carney, you pull off of it.
Okay, A couple of businesses. But when you drive in, there’s an entire town. That’s just it. It’s magical when you get here, man, I, I can say I never [00:15:00] planned on being in the Midwest. I did not have the best views of the Midwest before I got here. And this place is home. It just, it, it hits so differently.
Matt: Awesome, awesome. Well, you mentioned academics and sometimes, you know, for student athletes coming into college, that can be their biggest challenge, right? Is adjusting to the demands, both the athletics and academic side of things. So what kind of support systems does your school offer to help with your student athletes and, and how do they manage that?
Coach: So one of the cool things that we have right away that I loved and I didn’t know about this is there’s an app that’s called Canvas, which is a live access workbook to your entire grade book for each class. So every single day you can open that workbook and see what’s your grade at that exact moment based on all assignments that have been turned in.
There’s also notes from every single test assignment or anything that you’ve turned in. From the professors on why you did or did not get the grade that you should have gotten. So that, that’s a, a phenomenal tool to be able to have access to. We have a, we have a three floor library and on the second floor of the library, it’s called the learning Commons, and we actually utilize that ourselves for study hall hours for our players.
But when you go in there, you type in your student id, it logs you in. When you leave, you type it, logs you out. I get an email every week of all the hours that my student athletes are in there working. There’s quiet sections. There’s areas that are tutor focused, so you can actually go in, in every single field that’s at the school has tutors there, and that’s open from eight in the morning [00:16:30] until nine at night, Monday through Thursday, and then Friday and Saturday it’s open from eight in the morning until five in afternoon.
The fact that you can go in for over 12 hours throughout the day and have access to tutors, quiet areas, commons, just all that, studying everything that you need it, it’s phenomenal. And then on top of that, the school is actively investing in. Growing. Growing the resources available for student athletes.
Like there are things in the classrooms here that I didn’t even know were a real thing. Like for me, I grew up on projectors and the slides that, right? So like old school overhead projectors. You gotta put the piece of paper on there and then it’s like, all right, you gotta adjust to get it not fuzzy.
Here they have digital versions of those attached into a workstation upfront. They also have where you can hardline directly into it. You can share live information through the students. They have whiteboards that you can literally draw on, and then it’ll translate directly to, or you could do it from your tablet that immediately translates onto the screen.
So the school does a very, very good job at making sure that. Everyone at the institution is well taken care of, and it’s not any one specific field that’s focused and then they’re constantly updating, um, all the buildings, you know, since I’ve. They’ve already built one entire new building. They’ve completely renovated three other buildings.
They have plans for more. The floor that I’m on right now where all of our offices are a year and a half ago, was literally concrete and studs, and now it’s all new [00:18:00] offices for the entire football and coaching staff. Um, you know, the school is constantly, constantly putting the money back into the students and again, from, just from my experience and time.
There’s not many schools that you go to where every year there’s something new that they’re working on to make sure that the money you spend to go there, you’re getting your value.
Matt: Wow, that’s, that’s fantastic. Well do me a favor. Let’s fast forward to October. It’s middle of the season. Kind of give me, what does an average week look like for a player in terms of winter classes, meals, practice times, game cadence, kinda what does that all look like if you’re a player there?
Coach: Sure. So for us, our schedule, um, there’s only one differing day in our schedule and it depends on if we travel on the weekend or not. So if we travel on the weekend, I give players Monday off just because of our game. Travel is anywhere from four to eight hours most of the time. So the last thing you wanna do is get home from a trip at like midnight, one o’clock, have to wake up and go to an 8:00 AM class and then have training in the afternoon.
So, We’ll normally do Mondays off when we travel on the weekend. Tuesdays we’ll train from two to four. We do the same thing on Wednesday and Thursday. Play Friday train, Saturday morning, play Sunday. Um, we’ll do two film sessions during the week as well. So one on Thursday, normally after the practice, and then one on Saturday after the practice.
Just to go through what we went on the. What we experienced in the last game, what we’re looking at in our scouting report for the team that we’re [00:19:30] playing against, what are the cues and triggers of what we’re looking for that we wanna apply when we’re playing in the game? We also do two lifting sessions a week.
Those are just helping. One is about mobility, getting range of motion, making sure that we’re maintaining everything. And the other one’s to add a little bit, you know, can we keep increasing the strength just a little bit as we go, and not tapering too soon. Player schedules very um, Very inconsistent for them just because, you know, being a division inst, uh, division two institution, we don’t necessarily have the same thing that some D ones have where they have eight different times for the same class.
Most of the time, you know, that class that’s offered, there’s only one or two times available and you gotta see what fits your schedule. So a lot of my players will wake up between seven and eight in the morning. Breakfast will be from about. Seven 7:00 AM until about eight 30. They’ll go to class from eight until about 10 or 11, lunch from 11 till one.
Maybe they have another class in that time. After we do training, two to four, they get out of that. They have their own time. Most of the time. They’ll go from that directly to study hall, knock out some of their hours, get dinner dinner’s from five 30 until about seven 30. Then they have their time in the evening to say, okay, do I need to get more study hall hour in?
Do I need to be a kid and have some social time? And, and take your time. Um, and, and I always reiterate, reiterate that to players is, you know, make sure that you’re also taking your [00:21:00] own time and, and you know, we do something that I haven’t. Heard from from many other coaches, but I’m hoping it’s something that’s gonna catch on.
We offer something called Mental Health Days to My Players. There’s two days per semester. You are allowed to take a mental health day, no questions asked. Ultimately what it is, you text me before 10:00 AM in the morning, say, Hey coach, I need a mental health day. Guess what? No training. Don’t have to go to study hall.
You still have to get your hours for the week. You don’t get off just because like that one day. But it allows them to be able to say, okay, let me just be a kid. Let me just be a student and not have to be a student and an athlete for one day. And you know, I can tell you that some of my players, it, it really helped a lot because that workload with classes, man, it, it becomes a, a different beast when you get to the college game.
Like you don’t have. Your parent there taking care of you. You don’t have the people setting your schedule. You don’t have someone doing your laundry. You gotta make sure that you’re eating, you gotta make sure you’re sleeping enough. And again, you gotta have that social, you gotta be able to have that time to go out and spend time with people.
Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Well, let’s, uh, let’s shift gears. Talk a little bit more about the team. You know, I guess more of a, a recruiting question, but is there a roster size that, that you feel is ideal that you’re trying to hit to, to have.
Coach: For us right now, I would like to get between 30 to 33 players max. Um, the reason why is, is the history of our program does not have necessarily the most, um, winning history.
I mean, that’s just, that’s the reality of the program. That’s what we’re trying to fix. [00:22:30] So for me to create a winning culture, I want players to recognize that you have to compete just to be the first person off the bench, not just to be the starter. And so, you know, when I got here, 24, 26 kids, Unknowingly.
If you know you’re not gonna beat the person in front of you, well then you’re just okay with coming off the bench because, well, I can’t beat her, but when she’s not playing well, I’m gonna get my time now. That’s not how it’s gonna work with us. With us, you have to compete just to be that first kid off the bench.
So I want training to be the hardest environment because then when we get to games, light work. So we’re gonna do that for about. Three or four years until we can become a very, very competitive program. And then once that’s become the status quo and players understand that mentality. Then we can start shifting down to maybe not having a full 33, maybe having more 26 to 28, and then we can really, um, we can really drive home that top level talent consistently.
Okay.
Matt: Well, you mentioned your, you have an assistant, kind of what does, just gimme an overview of the staff. What, what does everybody’s role, what kind of staff maybe does, do you have, that’s not soccer specific, but does other things kind of support staff that the athletic department offers?
Coach: Um, so for me, I have myself, I’ll have two assistants and then I have a volunteer.
Um, both of my assistants are part-time, so I try to make sure that, you know, they can work other jobs and make some money and, and have their own life as well. Because, you know, this job can become very, uh, full-time unknowingly. Even as a [00:24:00] part-time coach, you could find yourself working 30 hours a week, and I’m like, no, no, no.
Take time. Go home, like be be yourself. Uh, we also have a strength coach, which is phenomenal. Coach Shane. He does an amazing job with our players. He takes care of our programming. He helps me write the conditioning programs. Um, we also have a dietician and nutrition. Coach, her name is Katie George, and she works for the school.
She’s a professor here. Um, she actually helps, we do something called performance packs before games. So there’s like six different options players can pick and they get a little brown bag that has snacks in it for before the game to give them the energy and nutrients that they need. Uh, and we get all that through Hy-Vee, which is one of the sponsors of the school.
And it’s, it’s phenomenal having their resources available. Um, Then, you know, the school also has a lot of other great resources in the athletic department. We have, um, we do have a psychiatrist slash psychologist that players can go to if they need to speak to someone about, you know, mental health, anything, anything that’s going on in their lives.
They have someone that they can go and connect with. Um, so yeah, the, the resources here are phenomenal and, and the support staff I have are just brilliant.
Matt: It sounds like it. Well, let’s talk about you specifically. Why don’t you give us an idea of kind of your style of coaching, team style of play. What are you hoping to implement there?
Coach: Um, so just me as a coach, I’m probably one of the more enthusiastic personalities you’re ever gonna meet, um, just because I love doing this. Like, you, you can’t catch me. [00:25:30] Not either recruiting, texting, watching videos, watching clips, learning, going to classes. That’s, that’s me. Like I love this. I even have a.
Behind me on the wall over here, I have a bookshelf of probably about 30 to 40 different coaching and soccer books. Um, and sometimes players will come in and they’re talking about like struggles they’re having. I’m like, Hey, why don’t you read this book and bring it back to me in a few weeks? Just for, for resource and knowledge.
Um, I’m a very, very passionate person about what I do. Like I just, I love this. This is my life and this is what I.
From a coaching style, you know, I’m, I’m not someone who’s gonna sugarcoat things. I’m gonna tell you. What you need to hear, and I’m gonna figure out how to say it to you best based on who you are as a person, because some people absorb knowledge differently. Some people are visual learners, some people are audio, some people are, um, hands-on.
And, and then how they receive the information that you say to ’em. You know, some people. Are completely okay with you getting, getting on them and getting after ’em and other people. You gotta pull ’em under the wing a little bit and hype ’em up and boost them, and then you can give them the information that they need.
And other people need the, uh, the compliment sandwich. Give ’em something good. You give ’em what they need, then you give ’em something good on top. And the next thing you know, they’re happy, full, ready to go. Um, from a playing style, we do something that I, I call possession with intention. We don’t just hold the ball to hold the ball.
We’re not just gonna kill the flow of the game, but we’re gonna have an intention with everything that we do. If we’re trying to play [00:27:00] possession, what is the purpose? Are we trying to shift the defense? Are we trying to slow the game down? Are we trying to get the defense on their back foot? Um, we want to be a multifaceted offense.
We wanna have different styles of attacking opportunities, but we will 100% always focus on teaching players how to play the game and not just do a kick and run. Um, You know, growing up as an American player in, in the nineties and early two thousands, very much learned the old style American stocker, which is route one.
We’re going north, south, we’re going quick, we’re gonna drop the ball in behind, and the fastest players go up front or at defense. I believe that’s a tactic, not an identity. And that’s just me. There are teams that use that as an identity and they do it very, very well. But for me, I want to teach a game that is fluid and adaptable and that can adjust based on what’s given to you, just like life.
Um, and that’s one of the things that we preach day in and day out is, is we’re trying to teach people to be the best versions of themselves, which will make them better footballers. It’s not about teaching a kid just to be a great. Sorry I say soccer and football interchangeably. It’s not teaching ’em to be just a great soccer player.
It’s teaching ’em to be a good person and to be a great individual in understanding the little details. And if you can apply that to your life, it translates to to the game very, very easily. But if I just teach you how to win a game, I’m not teaching you how to deal with adversity, how to grow through the problems, how to [00:28:30] become a problem solver, which is what we need in the world when it comes to the workforce.
We want people who can figure out solutions. Don’t just give me an issue, tell me how we can solve it. And that’s a big thing that we preach to our players.
Matt: Yeah. Love it. Well, you’ve been super generous with your time. Got time for one last question. And uh, I always like to end these the same way. And that’s, if you did have one nugget, one piece of advice, something you wish every parent, player, anybody going through this college recruiting process, uh, something anybody should know, what would that be?
Coach: Oh, that’s a good one.
The one I would say would be be unconditionally yourself and sift through everything. One thing I say to every single recruit is at the end of the day, we are car salesman. Our job is to convince you why we are the best, and this is the best spot you’re ever gonna be. But if you’re talking to 5, 6, 7, 8 different schools, They’re all gonna sell you on that pitch.
So do your research. Find out, do your due diligence on your future, because that’s what this is. It’s not just where you play ball, it’s gonna be your home. Talk to the players, not just the coaches. The players will tell you the truth. And me as a coach, I always give recruits, the players that I know that are gonna say good things.
But I also tell them, [00:30:00] look up my roster. You can ask any player on my roster who. You ask any player on my roster, what do they think about the program? Who is coach? What is the environment like? And I genuinely believe a majority, if not every single player on my roster, will tell you pretty darn close to the same thing as each other.
But if you do that at other schools, you might find out from the kids that aren’t playing or the kids that transferred in, or the kids that are looking to transfer. You might find a completely different story than what we say so, so sift through it. Be genuinely yourself because that’s who we want. We want you.
We want you as the person and the player. We’re not just looking for the baller, especially for me here at U N K. Awesome.
Matt: Well, coach, really appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck this upcoming fall. If you get down to, uh, E C N L here in Liquid Ranch in Florida in January, lemme know and we’ll get together.
All right.
Coach: I appreciate it, Matt. You have a great day. Awesome. Thanks. You too.
