University of Pittsburgh Women’s Soccer – Coach Ben Waldrum
In today’s episode, I speak with Coach Ben from the Pitt Women’s Program in Pennsylvania. We talk about how they have created a professional style setup. Coach also shares about the school’s city vibe without being right downtown. Plus, we discuss their unique sport-science resources. Learn more about University of Pittsburgh Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I am lucky enough to be joined by Coach Ben Waldron at Pitt. Welcome coach.
Coach: Thank you, Matt. I appreciate it.
Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here and uh, I had the pleasure of speaking to the former head coach. Uh, I believe he’s now the. Technical director or what, what, what is that?
The, he’s the title he
Coach: has, yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s, you know, Jack of all trades, we can call it. But no, it’s certainly a technical director, so we’ve Okay. Reversed the roles for starting this season. So,
Matt: yeah. I mean, and, and I mean, you and I were just talking a quick second beforehand. Mm-hmm. And, and I would say.
You know, I, I see a lot of the college soccer world right in, in these interviews and, and social media and the research that I’m doing, but it seems like Pitt’s doing things a little bit differently than a lot of schools. So the first of which is the fact that you guys have a technical director, um, and, you know, you’ve seen a lot of college football teams with GMs these days.
Is that kind of the idea? Or, or what does, what does this situation kinda [00:01:00] look like?
Coach: Yeah, it’s, it’s kind of getting a little bit more into a professional model. Um. You know, we’ve been in a really unique situation for the last few years because our head coach has been the Nigerian women’s national team coach.
Right? So he missed, um, pretty significant spells of the season over the last couple of couple of years. So it’s really, you know, I’ve, I’ve kind of had to step into more of a, a head coaching role anyway, and I think our administration with. Some of the legislation changes, roster limitations, the world of rev sharing and NIL and everything kind of coming down the pipe.
Um, you know, we, we just felt like we needed to set up this way. You know, I think the other thing that most people don’t see too, from a. GM or technical director standpoint is, you know, I think the last two seasons, those two teams we’ve produced, uh, 13 professional players. So trying to help educate them in that process too, uh, to help guide them as as well is, is an area that [00:02:00] certainly with his background, he can help in spades and, and, um, you know, really put our foot forward with trying to develop some talent here outta Pittsburgh.
Matt: Absolutely. And, and it’s a nice little pipeline. I, I had the pleasure of, of being in France and actually watching two Nigerian women’s national team games in, in Na and, and Bordeaux. And, and it was awesome to see that stage. And you look at your roster and obviously there’s, there’s a little bit of a Nigerian contingency that’s making its way to Pittsburgh.
Yeah, yeah. It’s a little bit
Coach: of, we’ll, we’ll call it just a little bit of a flavor, right? Yeah, sure. Yeah, definitely, definitely. Well,
Matt: and. So you, you talked about that professional environment, we, and obviously the, the roster limits are now in place. Yeah. Uh, in terms of, let’s just start with the roster limits.
Yeah. How has that affected what you guys are doing year to year and, and the way you’ve approached this particular season?
Coach: Oh, Matt, uh, this may be the whole podcast here. I don’t know. Um, you know, I think. A couple things. One that’s a little [00:03:00] bit more unique to us, and then I, I’ll talk in a little bit more generalities with the roster limitations, but you know, really where we have been, we, we took the program over and I keep saying we, ’cause Randy and I came in at the same time, um, in 2018 and the program had 22 years of history and maybe only like two winning seasons and winning seasons being like.
10 and eight, you know, not 18 and no. Right, right. Um, so we had to overcome some, some history and, and certainly with the conference that we’re in on the women’s side, we’re in the gauntlet of gauntlet of con conferences. Every game’s a top 25 game. Right. So, um, you know, we, we had to grow quickly, um, and really for us with roster limitations, we had been a program that had been building.
Right? And so in theory, what happens is every year you continue to. Get better talent as your team continues to get better. Right. So we probably had, for us specifically last, last go around, we probably had the biggest roster in [00:04:00] college soccer. Right. I think we had upwards close to the 40 range. Right. So really what we decided to do, and again, there was a lot of.
Information out there that, that nobody really knew what was going on. Right. And, um, so we made a conscious effort knowing that we had to go down to 28 players. Um, we let go of a lot of, I think we let go of like 14 or 15 players. Right. And we did it after the fall season in 23 and, and really more. To try to help those players find a home.
Because if with a trickle down effect, if only 28 players can be rostered, you know, where does it end, right? And where can they find homes and can they find homes that, uh, they can go play at and have some success with? And, um, you know, so we, we had to. Make some significant changes to our, to our roster size, just to get down and be compliant with the 28.
Um, you know, and I think we decided to do that in the fall season because of the transfer portal. Right. The transfer portal has two [00:05:00] windows. And, and, and to be honest with you, Matt, I think we, we took a lot of grief for it, um, because we had let go of so many players and, and really when I look at it, you’ve got that fall.
Transfer portal window, it’s a pretty big window of time and it gives them an opportunity to go look around and find something that’s a good fit. Whereas if we would’ve waited until the spring semester, oh yeah, that transfer portal window is 10 days. They have 10 days to find a home. Are you kidding me?
Right. So we basically tried to do the right thing for those players to help them go find a home and, and really that’s, nobody looks at the roster size and what you had and how you had to get there and that sort of thing. You know, we, we were operating off of a, an older model and we had a lot of players here that played a lot maybe early, and then the team continued to get better and now all of a sudden their playing time’s cut and, and those are the ones that we end up having to kind of move on from, um, as we navigated it.
So that’s something specific to us. Now, I think in general, Matt, I’m not sure we’re done [00:06:00] with lawsuits and other things that are happening in the, in the sport. Right. So it’s, um, yeah. It’s an ever changing climate. Um, you know, I think what it does a little bit for, for most I would say Power four programs, it probably actually gives you a little bit of clarity.
And, and what I mean by that is, you know, in years past operating off the old system, if you like to play in the recruiting process, that you go, okay, well I like these two or three things that she does and I think is a good fit stylistically. But I don’t think she’s quite ready yet. You would take on, in essence, a project player, right?
And go on, hey by, by their sophomore or junior year if they, they can be a, you know, contributing player. Then we’ve done our job right in our environment. Where I think now with the limitations on the roster, if a player can’t come help you right away, um, you’re probably not picking up that player in the recruiting process.
Right? So I think that’s probably, in general, that’s probably the biggest significance and the biggest change [00:07:00] with the roster limitations.
Matt: So. And, and, and I’m, uh, you know, I don’t want to get into your pockets here, but, uh, we’ve seen announcements of some of your conference brethren saying they’re just gonna go ahead and offer the full 28 that the NCAA now says they can.
So how has a school like Pitt, who, you know. Isn’t necessarily in the same, you know, budgetary, uh, levels as some of your other conference brethren, have you guys changed? Has your, has the school. Giving you more money, they take it some away. Is it, because I know, I’ve heard schools that they, their budgets are lower now because they don’t have as many players.
Coach: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we, we just got done playing somebody this weekend that, that, that, that was kind of the message that they got. So we have, we have gone through a, an athletic director change within the last. Six, eight months here. And so our athletic director is kind of taking the stance of waiting to see kind of how the landscape shakes loose.
So we honestly haven’t been getting [00:08:00] a lot of information. Okay. Right. Um, you know, as far as the scholarship side of things, you know, I don’t, we’re not gonna be a school that goes to 28. And, and to be quite candid with you, I don’t know if I want 28, you know, if, if we’re talking about a full scholarship player, um.
You can only play 11 Matt. Right. So at some point, does that contribute more to the transfer portal? If you’ve got the back half of your, you know, eight players unhappy ’cause they’re not seeing time, you know, and, and so I don’t know if 28 is healthy, to be honest with you. Um, I understand there’s stance, but those schools too that are going to 28, um, my understanding.
They, they don’t get revenue sharing. Right? Like in a perfect world, if we’re gonna operate under this model, if I can be somewhere 18 to 20 scholarships and revenue sharing, then, then, okay, then we’re. You know, then, then we’re working with something here. Right? And so I think some of the schools too, just kind of what I continue to hear and, and in conversations with [00:09:00] our athletic director, I think some of the, these programs that think they’re getting 28 may not be getting 28.
So I, I just, I think there’s a lot of uncertainty, right? And, um, there’ll be, there’ll be more clarity if we’re six months later and, you know, on down the road there’ll be a little bit more clarity. But, um, it’s definitely changing the landscape so. I, I think where we’ve all had some parody with those that are fully funded, you know, we’ve, we’ve had some parody with, with what we have available to us.
Um, you know, it’s, it’s gonna create the haves and the have nots. So abs
Matt: Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, we can, we can jump away from the, the craziness of NCAA rules and regs and, and you know, let’s talk more about, uh, about Pitt and, and the team there. And so, you know. We talked about the portal a little bit and maybe not taking project players.
So what is it that you’re looking for in a player? What, what makes up that hierarchy of things both on and off the field?
Coach: [00:10:00] Sure. Well, I think we’ve got a pretty specific way we wanna play. Um, you know, we have our game model, what we want it to look like and the game to look like. So I think for us, what’s, what, what’s the first thing we look for in a player is, is certainly.
The technical qualities of a player and players that can play under pressure and in tight spaces, right? I think that’s, for us, that’s probably even more important than the athletic component, although I think you have to have some athleticism, um, to your game, to, to compete in a conference like ours. Um, you know, again, to, to me, soccer, iq, technical ability are the, probably the two biggest qualities that we look for in a, in a player.
Now when in regards to transfer portal and recruiting high school athletes and those kinds of things, the way we’ve looked at the transfer portal, I don’t think we’re ever gonna live and die by it. Right. I, I think you know, it, it’s just too risky, you know, at, at that point if you’re gonna [00:11:00] kind of maneuver your program that way.
Um, so we still are actively recruiting high school prospects and, and, uh, that’ll, that’ll kind of be the bread and butter. And to me, what happens in the portal is if you happen to have, you know, like this past year we had one of our Nigerian midfield players that had played in the Olympics in the World Cup.
She left a year early. Um. And again, I think that’s gonna be more of the norm at the higher levels too, right? Uh, so then all of a sudden you’re late in the process and you’re sitting on some money, well then you may use that for the transfer portal, right? So I almost think it’s, you’re waiting to see, and the transfer portal’s gonna be a lot of last minute stuff, right?
Um, but you’re still gonna go about recruiting, you know, the high school prospects and, and, and what your needs are and what you’re looking for. Big picture. Um, I don’t know if that’s gonna change tremendously, but there are gonna be some schools that live and die by the transfer portal.
Matt: Yeah, well, we, we, we’ve seen that already for this past season, right?
The number of people coming in, uh, in some of the portal folks. But, uh, all right, well, [00:12:00] it, you know, I, you get the question about the alphabet soup of leagues, right? In terms of where, you know, if I’m only playing this league, can I play here or this, that, and the other thing. Obviously you guys have limited time and budget, so it makes sense for you to hit the big events, but where is it that you’re going to see players?
How, how best would a player make themself available and, and get in front of a coach like you?
Coach: Sure, sure. I’ll tell you this, Matt. I, I’m, I’m, I don’t know. I’m gonna tell you, I, I am a proud coach, club coach here in the area as well. All right. Of a, um. A U 12 girls team. Okay. It’s, it’s my daughter’s team. So, uh, yeah, I, we’re in the thick of it right now because we’re, we’re going through that process with, uh, next year and, and the alphabet soup of the leagues and, and where that team will fall and all that good stuff.
So it’s, it’s, look, both the leagues, um, [00:13:00] the ECNL in particular have done an excellent job of marketing and branding themselves. You, you certainly have to give those guys credit for that side. Now, is it positive? Man, I, I, I look at it and I go, it may have been better the old way in the old USYS where there was one entity and we didn’t have this fracturing, you know, people in local markets go, I’m the best team because I’ve got my, my flag here at the ECNL.
And then, you know, it’s, it’s probably not great for the sport, to be honest with you. And, and, um, so we’ve kind of looked at it this way. There’s, when you’re looking for individual players. Sometimes the team stuff doesn’t matter as much. I, I can’t count the number of times I go watch games and I, I couldn’t even tell you the score of the game because I’m locked onto an individual Right.
And seeing what they do and how they do things. So I think for a program like ours, we, we, we tend to hit everything. We hit the ga, we hit the ECNL. Anything locally here that’s, um, you know, USYS and, and those leagues, we’re getting [00:14:00] out to those just to make sure we’re not missing anyone. Um, this is where I think too, if you’re not a, a prospect that’s in one of those teams or you’re in an area that doesn’t have that, that’s when to me the ID camp becomes important, um, to get out in front of those coaches and maybe those schools that you’ve narrowed your list down for.
Um, there’s a lot of good individual players on bad club teams. Be quite candid with you. Right? And so sometimes kids are choosing teams, one for the coach, right? Which I think is vital, vitally important if you find a good coach. Um, I’m, I’m not so sure the club name means a whole lot, right? I, I, I think every club is a business, right?
And, and so I think if you find a good situation for your son or daughter and, and it’s a good coach, I, I would. I would probably steer away from worrying so much about the league stuff. ’cause our job is to find the players. Right? And I think I, if you think about it, if [00:15:00] it, the college coaches probably have a lot of, um, power if they would got, get together as a group.
Because what happens if you never attended an CL event? Right. Does it, does it shift what that looks like? You know, and again, I don’t think it’ll ever happen because everybody’s worried about missing out on something. Right. Um, but it, it’s one of those, if you find a good environment, um, our job is to find you.
And, um, you know, so I feel like we have to, with a program that probably has a little bit more resources, Matt, you know, from that side, I think we have the luxury to get out to see a lot of different. Leagues and, and elements and, and showcase events and that sort of thing. I think where maybe it may hurt, um, is probably the mid-major or the high end division two, that maybe they are a little bit more limited in the budget.
So you’re probably likely going more to a. ECNL or GA event. ’cause it just, the, the talent is condensed and, and to your point, budgetarily, that may be the only [00:16:00] thing you can go to. Um, but I think most club, uh, most college coaches have to really stay in tune to their area as well with the, the clubs regardless of what their league status is.
Um, I would venture to say those that have less budgets are probably on the phone a little bit more often, trying to figure out who’s in the area and, and all that stuff. So I, I would say this, I think. For young kids, make sure your environment’s good. The, the, the, I’ve never seen a league develop a player, right?
And so if your environment’s good, it’s our job to find you. And that’s kind of how we approach it. Um, so we, we attend everything. I mean, we attend GA, ECNL and a lot of regional stuff with USYS. ’cause I feel like we have to.
Matt: Yeah. All right, great. Well, let’s talk a little bit more a about the school. Um, you know, I mean, right there, downtown Pittsburgh.
Um, you’ve been there a number of years. Kind of give me what’s, what’s the one cool thing about Pitt that maybe we wouldn’t know just [00:17:00] by going through the website?
Coach: Sure, sure. Well, we’re about. Three or four minutes drive from downtown. We’re in a neighborhood called Oakland. Um, you know, I think the unique thing about campus, it’s got a little bit of everything.
It’s got kind of the hustle and bustle of, of city life, uh, but it has a campus vibe and a college campus feel. Uh, it’s really only about four, five blocks and then kind of up a massive hill. Um, but right next to us too, we’ve got a 360 acre open park. Hinley park. So you kinda, if you need to get away, if you wanna go for a jog and a run and, and uh, you know, it’s kind of got a little bit of everything to it.
Um, you know, what we find is any of our, like our international recruits, they love it. ’cause you don’t really need a car. You know, it’s not like, you know, I, I’m from, I’m from Dallas and, and from the south and most colleges down south are. On a plot of land that, you know, it’s, it’s its own little city or own [00:18:00] little entity, but to go do anything, you’ve gotta get in your car and drive half an hour somewhere.
Right? And so I think the unique thing about Pitt is everything is right here for you. Um, you know, your student ID gets you on the bus system if you wanted to go catch a Pirates game or a Steelers game, or, or you know, you’ve got the, the, A city feel that there’s a lot going on, a lot to do. So I think that’s.
Probably what, what makes us a little bit unique as far as the campus setting stuff goes. Yeah.
Matt: Okay. Well, let’s, let’s fast forward to October, right? You’re in the heart of this conference, brutal, brutal season. Walk me through what does a typical week look like for a player in terms of winter classes, meals, practices, games, all that kind of stuff.
Coach: Yeah, we’re a team that train, we train, um, during the season in the, uh, afternoon. So, you know, you kind of have that window of time, morning, late morning to, to knock out classes, um, you know, and, and kind of monitor and take whatever it is you, you need pertaining to your degree. And [00:19:00] then really by about two o’clock, most of the, the players are in, uh, facility here.
You know, we’ve got, uh, a three story, um. Facility and building locker rooms. On the first floor, you’ve got your nutrition, your refueling station on the second floor. Then our offices on the third floor, so pretty much by two, they’re all doing some prehab. Work, they’re doing something in the training room.
Um, some of ’em are up here watching film with us and, um, you know, they hit the field by by three and we start training at three 30. And that’s kind of your, your typical day. Now, I will say what’s unique once you get into the, the October and, and our conference is done a pretty nice job of trying to go.
Two game, one game format, right? Because if you’re going two games a week all the way through, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a pretty tough grind on the body. Um. You know, but we do a pretty good job of spacing some of that stuff out. And, um, so we’re, we’re on a Thursday Sunday routine, and then the following week it may [00:20:00] just be the one game.
So you kind of pick which, which of those days the home team gets to pick which one of those days. But that’s. That’s really kind of your routine, uh, for the evening. And then you may, you know, after training’s done, you know, players will go off to study hall or, you know, go get their meal and do some study, study stuff.
And, and, uh, really the fall season, what’s unique, I, I think about our sport really is a fall season. It’s pretty regimented, you know, it, it, it, it’s, it’s almost like a job in some degree. And, um, but the, the fascinating thing I find with the fall season is the team GPA, during the fall. Usually better than in the spring, right?
Because you kind of know your day’s planned out and mapped out, right? You kind of know your routine. You can get into some, some really good habits there. Uh, typically within what happens is the, the spring semester, you have a little bit more players, have a little bit more free time and some decision time.
Do I want to go do something social? Do I want to, you know, do I want to work extra on my craft [00:21:00] and my game or. Do I really wanna open up that book and study? So it’s, it’s, you know, the fall, even though it can be hectic for a player, it’s actually the routine I think helps young players manage their time and, and, uh, make sure they’re taken care of what they need to take care of.
Matt: Yeah, I was, I was four for four in my four years of play and fall semester. Always higher GPA than the spring.
Coach: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.
Matt: Well, you, you talked a little bit about the dynamic between, you know, r Randy as technical director, as head coach. Mm-hmm. But talk to me about who are the other staff? What roles does, does everybody play?
Maybe what other support staff are there in the department to help the team?
Coach: Yeah. Um, the technical staff here, we’ve got Jesse Goldman’s, our goalkeeper coach. He’s also our recruiting coordinator here. Um. You know, we just picked up, uh, picked up, uh, Brie Alene that was at Duquesne University. She’s a, a local kid.
Uh, I call her kid ’cause she’s not that far removed from playing. Um, but she, you know, she’s also a, a staff coach here, uh, on, on the staff. But [00:22:00] we have a full-time, you know, nutritionist that’s with us. We have a sports scientist that’s with us. We have a strength and conditioning coach. Um, you know, a full-time athletic trainer.
Um, and then we have a few sports science interns. I think that’s, as a game, evolves. One of the things that, uh, university of Pittsburgh’s kind of known for is their, their medical field. You know, we have seven hospitals on campus. Um. It’s probably one of the top medical programs in the country and I think we’re like top four in medical research in the world.
Right. So the kind of the last shining thing our outgoing athletic director, Heather, like had, had, had done is we are building a facility, a $250 million facility. That is going to house gymnastics, volleyball, wrestling, but in, in the open spaces, it’s dedicated to sports research. So anything cut, cutting edge, um, with the sports science thing is, is an element that we’re trying to make sure that we maximize.
Um, you know what, we have to [00:23:00] continue to help our athletic development of our players. Um, and you know, this, you know, recovery and, and sleep and, and everything that’s. Molded in around and what a player needs. Um, you know, we, we feel like we do that really well. And, and listen, I think the proof’s in the pudding.
We we’re, we, we tell prospects this all the time. I think this is a great place to come if you want to become and wanna play at the next level. Right? Because I think you, there’s an element, you have to learn how to be a pro. Um, and I think we’ve got resources beyond the scope of just the field. Um. Plus our environment.
I, you know, and playing in the conference that we’re in. I think it’s a great place to, for those, to that, that have ambitions of playing beyond college.
Matt: Yeah, so for sure. Well, what about you? Talk to us about your coaching style and, uh, and what folks can expect, uh, you as the gaffer.
Coach: Yeah, I, I think if you saw Randy on the sideline and, and how we function and operate, Matt, I didn’t have a chance growing up like, you know.
I can’t [00:24:00] do anything else. Like I, I’m the guy that if I change a light bulb with the, the house, I take a photo of it and send it to my wife. You know how proud I am of myself, right? So I, I don’t know anything but the game, um, you know, from a, from a young age, I, I tell people this all the time. You know, I’ve never really had a real job, right?
It, it’s, you know, I went from college soccer, pro player, pro soccer player, and then into the coaching realm. So, um, you know, I’m very, very fortunate, um, that way. But I think when your dad is, is Randy, um, you probably had no chance to do anything else. So we are very similar as far as demeanor and coaching style and, and certainly him being a mentor, I, I don’t, I.
The interesting thing, Matt, is I don’t think our players at all notice anything different than what’s been going on in the last three or four years, right? What we really haven’t changed what we’ve done. It’s just that the titles are a little bit different and, um, so I think you’re gonna see a lot of the same.
I think the [00:25:00] style and what we’re trying to get done is gonna be a lot of the same things. And, and, um, you know, really the, the, the big question’s gonna be how, how does. The external thing play into meaning, you know, scholarships, rev sharing, are they gonna support women’s soccer? Are, you know, what schools in the conference are gonna do that?
I think that’s probably more the bigger question for the future, um, than really what you’re gonna get out of us and, and how we approach things and my style and how we do things. It, it is not, there’s not gonna be a lot of difference between Randy and myself and, and, um, you know, we’ve worked together too.
Um. At Notre Dame, we’ve spent time, um, we both coached the Trinidad and Tobago women’s national team from 2014 to 16, and part of that time I was the head coach. Part of that time he was the head coach. Um, you know, we’ve done some stuff. He doesn’t really talk about it much, but his timeline at Houston Dash, he didn’t have any assistance.
He was the lone ranger there. So I was, the irony [00:26:00] of this is I was working at a rival MLS Club at FC Dallas. And I would be down in Houston helping him with the, the dash and, and, uh, I do remember my owner coming up to me and going, wait a second, did you leave? What, what, what’s going on? You know, and going, no, no, no, it’s my dad.
You know, I was just slipping down to help him. So, um, it’s, uh, we’ve worked together for a long, long time. So, um, I think we see the game very similar. Um, so a lot of the ideas and, and um, just how we interact with people is very similar. I
Matt: love it. Well, Ben, I, you’ve been super generous with your time. Love the insights.
I mean, I could, I’m sure you and I could sit here and talk for another two hours, but, uh, but to be, be cognizant of, of your time, I’m gonna leave you with one last question, and that is, if you had one piece of advice for any girl kind of going through this college recruiting process, what would that be?
Coach: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is it’s their process, right? I, I, I. You know, us college coaches, man, we make [00:27:00] this hard sometimes for, for prospects. I, I will tell you this, but you know, I, we’ve gotta, we’ve got a visit on campus. I’ll just tell you right now. We, we, I was having this conversation with this family last night over dinner, and I, and I said, listen, if you choose to come to Pittsburgh, it’d be great for the University of Pittsburgh.
We would be better. Right. But at the end of the day, it’s gotta be good for the player. It’s their process. Us college coaches are told no more than Yes, it’s part of it. Right? Um, but I think those players really have to find what they’re looking for. You know? Um, you see a lot of kids committing after June 15th and they haven’t even been on somebody’s campus.
Like, take your time. You know, these deadlines and things, and we, we’re not a deadline staff. We don’t put deadlines on kids. But I, I feel like that’s why there’s so many kids on the portal, right? So I, I would encourage families to do your homework, watch the games, make sure stylistically it [00:28:00] fits you. Um.
It’s a place you feel like you could play at, but at the end of the day, it’s your process. And, and I think sometimes we put pressure on kids and, you know, they’re not really ready for a decision, but yet they, they feel like they may miss out on something. So I would have them stay strong on what they’re, they’re doing, you know?
And, and so when it comes to the time of choosing, take your visits. Go explore, have something to compare it to, and then make your decision. You know, if, if, if I know somebody chooses us and has been on multiple visits, then they’re coming back to me for the right reasons. Right? And, and not because it’s.
Fear of scholarship not being there. Fear of, you know, I’m on this deadline, I don’t wanna miss out on opportunity. There’s a lot of good players around the country, but I also would say this, take your time, find the right fit. You know, you want to have a good experience. You don’t want to be going through this process multiple times.
And that’s what’s happening. Kids are, kids are going to places and a year later, two years later, they’re on the [00:29:00] portal, right? And so, uh, I would highly encourage them to do their homework on that end.
Matt: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, coach, really appreciate it. Wish you the best of luck. Was a little disappointed. You, you, you did beat my alma mater ou, but, uh, it was only one.
Nothing. So I’ll we’ll take that as a, as a moral victory. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, there you go. There you go. Best of luck in, in, thank you. The acc and the tournament. And if you get down to any of the recruiting events at IMG or Premier Bradenton, let me know. We’ll get together. Okay. Perfect. Grab a beverage of some variety.
Coach: Alright.
Matt: Sound good? Alright,
Coach: sounds like a plan. I appreciate your time, Matt. Thank you.
Matt: Thank you. Yep.
