University of St. Francis Men’s Soccer – Coach Jake Essig
Today I spoke with Coach Jake Essig of the University of St. Francis Men’s Program, an NAIA school in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. We have a great discussion about how they approach recruiting and talking to players. We talk about the unique advantages his school has with its size and location. Lastly, we dive into their program and what it is really about. Enjoy the interview! Click here to learn more about St. Francis.
[00:00:00] Matt: Well, welcome everybody to today’s interview. I am excited to talk to coach Jake out of the university of St. Francis from Fort Wayne, Indiana. And I see you are, you are at home because, uh, uh, pending weather. But, uh, I know, I know my kids, uh, down here in Florida, they’re they, they keep asking me. And see snow there.
[00:00:23] They’re jealous. Cause we lived in DC for a long time. And when we lived in DC, that was a couple of years. We got those like four foot blizzards. So they’ve seen snow and they miss it. They, they, they they’re mad at me that we, they don’t see it anymore. So
[00:00:37] Coach: they might be waiting a while.
[00:00:38] Matt: Just a little bit, just a little bit.
[00:00:40] Well, Hey, thanks for, thanks for joining me today. Um, so let’s first start. Just talk about your recruiting process. You know, w when do you usually start hearing from players in terms of like, what year in high school are they, and when do you start watching players?
[00:00:59] Coach: Um, I would say the most common year that we start getting emails and correspondence with kids is in their junior year.
[00:01:07] Um, and I think that that’s a good timeline, honestly. Um, I think if it’s too early, then, you know, the coach is going to prioritize older kids and I think the junior year is kind of that right. Uh, timeline to kind of get the ball rolling if you will. Um, so yeah, that’s, that’s what I would say is junior year is the most common.
[00:01:27] And I would say for us, we start watching kids junior year and definitely the fall, um, of their senior year. Now
[00:01:36] Matt: most players who are familiar with, you know, striving for that NCAA division one, you know, top dog. Program and scholarship. They know that NCAA reg say, they’re not the coaches came and talked to him until that junior summer.
[00:01:54] How does is the NAIA a I a different in terms of what you’re allowed when you’re allowed to talk to a player
[00:02:01] Coach: far less rules than the NCAA, um, NAIA is a little bit more. Uh, free flowing and open. So, um, there’s not a ton of regulations on that. Uh, to be honest with you, um, it’s more so just like. What does the NAIA coach, uh, want to manage?
[00:02:18] You know, if they it’s really hard to recruit a freshman in high school for four years, that’s just, you have to allocate your time better. So, but there’s not, there’s not a ton of rules about like dead periods. And, um, you know, you can only talk to this player at this time of the tournament or anything like that.
[00:02:35] And it’s, it’s a lot more frequent. Makes
[00:02:37] Matt: sense. So how many inbound contacts do you think you get? Uh, I mean, pick, pick a time period a week a month. I mean, how many do you think you, you get?
[00:02:47] Coach: Yeah, we’ll just go with the week. I think that’s a manageable amount. Um, I would say domestic, uh, probably 10 to 20 per week.
[00:02:59] And then internationals would be probably 15 to 30 per week. Um, but NAIA is quite heavy with internationals and, um, you know, a lot of these are just email blast, but that’s what I would say I’m dealing with from an email perspective. Uh, So what,
[00:03:18] Matt: what’s something you like to see in that first communication that, that first email from a prospect, th
[00:03:24] Coach: the thing that catches my attention the most is that it’s very evident that they’ve done their own research on St.
[00:03:32] Francis, right? Whether that’s just, they mentioned something unique about us, like our school of business being in downtown Fort Wayne, which is the second biggest. In the state, um, or, you know, they understand the enrollment size or, uh, something unique about our season, uh, where there was a key win or something like that.
[00:03:52] Um, it just tells me that they’ve actually done their research and they’re not, you know, sending this email out to 200 schools and they’re actually genuinely. Interested in and done their homework and, um, just shows a little bit more maturity in the process. And again, if I’m getting, you know, the amount of emails per week that I told you, you know, you, you have to begin to kind of narrow things down and if you’ve done your homework, that’s the way that I narrow things down.
[00:04:19] Matt: For sure makes sense. So, w what’s your personally, what is your preferred communication method with prospects? Is it text, phone, email?
[00:04:31] Coach: Yeah, I think, I think email is a good place to start. Um, for, for both people. I think it’s kind of like. Uh, threatening way for the, you know, the recruit, I think it’s, you know, um, but it’s still, you can make it very personal.
[00:04:44] Um, I’m someone that I, I typically respond within 24 hours, um, that I get an email. So I think email is a good place to start. Obviously, the, the more that I build a relationship with the recruit and the family, I do like to begin to kind of make it a little bit more personal. So I do like, you know, texts, phone, call communication after.
[00:05:03] After we get to kind of know one another and the process continues. Um, so that’s how I would say it begins very, you know, saved through an email and then it becomes a lot more personal through, through phone call, text messaging, things like that.
[00:05:20] Matt: Now when you get a contact from a, from a player, do you like to see a highlight short clips or full game tape?
[00:05:30] Coach: Yeah. You know, again, so I’m, I’m one full-time coach for roughly 45 current players, and then obviously recruiting a ton of incoming players. And so, uh, my time is valuable, just like everyone’s time is valuable. So I personally like to see highlight tapes. You know, three to five minutes because I can, I can handle three to five minutes compared to watching a 45 minute, half or a 90 minute game.
[00:05:57] It’s just a little bit more challenging for me to get through that. Obviously again, if you kind of get through the process with us and you’re one of our key players, we might do that down the road, but I think that initial contact is very much a three to five minute. Make yourself extremely identifiable on the video.
[00:06:15] And, um, and that really helps us kind of understand, um, at least a baseline of who you are as a player.
[00:06:23] Matt: Okay. Now, where do you spend a majority of your time? Uh, on, on the recruiting trail? Like, are you, are there specific tournaments you like to go to, or are you looking at high school games or what’s your, what’s your kind of process when you’re out and
[00:06:38] Coach: about it’s it’s a good question.
[00:06:40] So I’ve been a college coach now for eight years. Um, in that eight years, I’ve gone to two high school games. Uh, it’s just not, it’s just not something that I’ve done. I’m not saying that there’s not value in it. It’s just, it’s very difficult for us to go to high school games while our season is also going on at the same time for most Midwestern states.
[00:07:01] Um, and then just typically, you know, the club environment often is better. Um, the games are better. Um, it’s a better value of our time because we can watch multiple teams in a weekend and things like that. We, we definitely prefer the club showcase environment over the high school environment. Um, but you know, if it makes sense to go see a high school game, we, we will.
[00:07:25] Um, and then, you know, just being honest, we, we we’ve signed players and given good scholarship just based on video alone. And so I don’t think we can underestimate the power of video or the power of, um, you know, a referral from a high school, college or club coach, especially if I have a relationship with them and I trust them and there’s rapport builds.
[00:07:50] Matt: Makes sense. So you mentioned, you know, you have how many players in the roster of 40, 45,
[00:07:57] Coach: 45, somewhere
[00:07:58] Matt: in that range. So how many, I mean, do you have a set number that you’re trying to bring in every year and, and, and of that group that comes in, you know, what percentage would you say are getting.
[00:08:11] Athletic money. What’s the academic money side of things that your school look like?
[00:08:15] Coach: Yeah. So we’ll, we’ll continue to hover around that 40 to 45, you know, moving forward, we have a JV team and we have a varsity team, um, and it’s it’s fluid movement back and forth, kind of like a high school operates. Um, and so we’re very much equal opportunity, the best players going to play.
[00:08:32] Um, but what I would say is, um, I’m sorry, can you ask the question again? No,
[00:08:40] Matt: no. So how many, so if you’ve got 40 to 45, I mean, are you trying to bring in about 10 to 12 players per season and
[00:08:47] Coach: then yeah. Yeah, I would say 10 to 12 per season is, you know, especially, you know, key players. And then we might bring in a few more that, you know, we we’ve communicated, okay.
[00:08:57] You’re going to be a JV player and they just kind of want a college soccer experience. They’re not necessarily striving for that first team minutes. They’re okay. Being a second team player. And, you know, we’ve communicated that honestly and kind of, everyone’s happy. Because it kind of fills our roster, but then they also get that college soccer experience.
[00:09:18] Matt: And then what would you say does your financial aid mix of those incoming students look like from an academic versus athletic money combination?
[00:09:27] Coach: Yeah, it’s St. Francis anyway, um, everyone is going to receive academic scholarship. Doesn’t matter if you have a 2.5 to a 4.0, everyone at our college receives academic scholarship.
[00:09:39] Um, in terms of athletic scholarship, I would say. I would say probably 75% of our, of our student athletes receive athletic scholarship. But again, I’m very transparent. Um, when I say athletic scholarship, it can be as little as, as $500 to as much as a full ride. Um, and so I don’t want to be skewed. And when I say 75% of receiving both academic and athletic, um, cause again, athletic can be very small or it can be very.
[00:10:09] Matt: Makes sense. Um, now you mentioned, um, you get a lot of international, uh, inbound, uh, communications, but you know, and I know NAIA does tend to get a lot of international, uh, Just because it doesn’t have as many rules as the NCAA. Um, so how, how much do you recruit internationally? Um, are you, um, I’m assuming just based on your size and budget, you’re not making many international recruiting trips.
[00:10:40] Um, so how does the international thing, uh, come into
[00:10:43] Coach: play? It’s interesting. Um, when I got to St. Francis, they were about to international. Um, and now we’re at a point where about half of our team is international. I would say moving forward, that’ll kind of be our split. It’ll be half international, half American.
[00:11:00] Um, and there’s a few reasons for that. One is, you know, we do want some diversity on our team. We want some diversity on our campus. So there’s been some opportunities for specific scholarships for internationals to, to come to St. Francis. Um, so it’s smart of me to. Use our resources wisely from that perspective.
[00:11:20] Um, but I also think it provides a very unique experience, uh, for our American players as well that they’re going to have, you know, potentially a best friend from, you know, Germany or Switzerland or, you know, something like that. And, uh, that collabor collaboration between the Americans internationals is something that we really work hard to, to cultivate.
[00:11:40] And, um, yes, we’re know. Coming from all over the world, but at the end of the day, we’re one team and we’re one family. Um, but yeah, our international recruitment is definitely picked up. And, and I would say that, um, we, we do quite a bit of relationship building with agencies and things like that, because obviously, like you said, Our budget, you know, it’s probably a big enough that we can maybe take one or two international trips per year, but you know, I can’t go to Portugal, Germany, Canada, Mexico, you know, all of these places.
[00:12:13] So we do rely pretty heavily on what the agency, uh, is telling us and, and that rapport and that trust that’s built. Okay.
[00:12:22] Matt: And then last question on the recruiting side of things, how do, uh, both transfers and walk ons kind of fit into the mix of what you guys tend to do on an average?
[00:12:32] Coach: Yeah. So when I first got here, we didn’t hardly do any, any transfers.
[00:12:37] It’s something actually, now that we’re going into pretty heavily, um, there’s a lot of really, really good junior colleges that are honestly underlooked. And, um, obviously they can only play there for two years. So they’re actively looking for a four year college to, to finish their bachelor’s degree. Um, so it’s something that we’re doing more and more, um, And I, I think that that will continue, uh, just because they have two years of college soccer experience.
[00:13:04] They’re a little bit older, uh, so on and so forth, but yeah.
[00:13:09] Matt: And then, then do you typically have any, any walk-ons?
[00:13:13] Coach: Yeah, I mean, yeah, we do. We do. Um, I would say it’s maybe one to three per year. Um, it’s a standard.
[00:13:21] Matt: Let’s talk about your school for, for a little bit, you know, again, for all those people who haven’t heard of the university of St.
[00:13:27] Francis out there, and I try to like to get information from you that I’m not going to find on the website. Right. So what would you say, well, let’s start with, what are the three things you think your school is most known
[00:13:38] Coach: for? Yeah, I think the, the most unique thing about us is we’re a private college located in a big city.
[00:13:46] So it’s not very often that there’s a PR a small private school. We’re around 2000, 2200 students. That’s located in a big city. Um, it tends to be, you know, bigger schools and bigger cities. We were a small school in a big city. And so you have all the benefits of that private education. You know, the small classes, you know, your professor’s name, they know your name.
[00:14:06] You can go to their office for help. They’re going to come to your matches, that family atmosphere, but also all the benefits of a big city. Right. And, you know, with a big city, you know, it comes a lot more opportunities for job shadowing internships. You know, job practicum experience, but also just simple things like, you know, better food, better housing, um, you know, better entertainment, you know, we’re, we’re not in the middle of nowhere, um, stuck around cornfields.
[00:14:34] And so like number one, that is definitely the most unique thing about us is the small school, big location, number two. Um, I would say our access to internships. So. Because of that big location, uh, we’re very intentional about hands-on learning. So yes, you’re going to get lectured to in the classroom, but St.
[00:14:55] Francis has made it a point that we want our students to get into the workforce very early on in their career. And so I’m a professor at St. Francis. Um, and a lot of my classes they’re required to do, you know, job shadowing. You know, for example, I teach introductory level to exercise. They have to get into the workforce three times in the first 10 weeks of the semester.
[00:15:19] And so that’s just a way that they can go job shadow a physical therapist and athletic trainer. I’m a personal trainer and they kind of understand maybe what they want to do truly in their career. Um, and I guess another example I would say is like, I have current freshmen. Um, in their second semester that already have paid internships, paid internships.
[00:15:42] Aren’t, uh, a unique thing maybe as a junior or senior, but I would say a paid internship as a freshman is a unique thing. And so it kind of speaks to that, um, that practical experience that St. Francis is really known for. Um, I think the third thing that makes us a little bit unique is the faith component.
[00:16:02] Um, we are a Catholic school. Um, and so if you’re of the Catholic tradition, then obviously, you know, you’re going to be very comfortable in that environment. Um, if you’re not Catholic, that is completely fine as well. I, myself am not Catholic. So, um, nothing is pressed upon you from a faith perspective, but opportunities are presented to you.
[00:16:25] If you want it to be a part of your experience, and if you don’t, that’s fine as well. But those are the three things that I would say is probably what makes us the most unique. Okay.
[00:16:34] Matt: Um, so in terms of, of specifically at your school, how, how does student athletes kind of balance their studies and sport committee?
[00:16:45] Coach: Um, I think every player’s a little bit different. Um, I think the number one way is just, they stay organized with their time management and they actually have a schedule and they follow their schedule, everything from when they’re going to wake up to when they’re going to. You know, study between classes.
[00:17:03] Um, and you know, I, I don’t know that there’s like an easy way to answer this, but I just, I think every player has their own unique way of doing things. Um, but at the end of the day for me, um, I’ve again, I’ve been in this eight years. The teams that I’ve worked with, they’ve always had a higher GPA in the fall semester compared to the spring semester.
[00:17:26] Well, the fall semester is the busiest time of the year for a college soccer player. And the reason why, in my opinion is because college soccer provides structure. It provides accountability. You know, for example, you, you, you know, your classes, you know, your soccer schedule, you know, you have this test that’s upcoming.
[00:17:44] Well, if you don’t study in this period that you have down. You’re not going to get the studying in by the time the exam comes. Whereas in the spring, you know, things are a little bit looser. There’s more time, you know, you can begin to procrastinate and you know, next thing you know, you don’t study and now you fail the exam.
[00:18:03] So to make college soccer provides a great avenue of, of structure and accountability. Not to mention if you really want to be a high level college soccer player in a, in a student. You have to meet certain parameters to stay eligible. And if it means enough to you, you’ll do what you need to do academically and athletically to, to, uh, BLE.
[00:18:27] Matt: So what, what types of support mechanisms. Does your school provide both on the, on the academic and athletic side?
[00:18:36] Coach: Yeah, I would say, you know, we’re fairly traditional from an athletic, uh, from an academic side, you know, we, we offer tutoring, we offer note taking, we have what we call first year advisors where their job is to get our freshmen, um, acclimated to the resources, to the environment, to help them, you know, with any questions they might have.
[00:18:55] Um, and so. Uh, you know, it’s fairly traditional in that route from, from a soccer perspective. I personally do not believe in study tables. Um, that’s just my personal philosophy. I think it’s a waste of time. Um, and the main reason why I say that is because the school that I went to, um, we had them and it turned into scooter races on the third floor of the library.
[00:19:20] And so we had these study tables, but we actually got less work done than actually. Trusting the student athletes to get the work done on their own. Um, so that’s my personal philosophy around study tables. So what I do personally from an academic perspective is I check in three times a semester with my.
[00:19:39] So there’s 15 weeks in a semester. I check in with them at the fifth week, the 10th week and the 15th week. And obviously if there’s things are going well in the fifth week and they send me a screenshot of their grades, you know, I stay hands hands-off and I let them be men and grow into their mature.
[00:19:57] And let them be successful, obviously, if, if they’re struggling at the fifth week and they’re, you know, D’s and F’s or whatever we step in, we provide some resources. But at the end of the day, um, one thing I’m very big on is I do not babysit my players. I just don’t believe in that. Uh, you’re you’re 18 to 22 years old.
[00:20:16] You’re you’re beginning that stage of independence. So we walk alongside them. We present them opportunities. We present them resources, but if you choose not to go get tutoring, If you choose to not go speak to the professor, ultimately that’s, that’s on you and you have to own your own success. Um, academically and athletically,
[00:20:39] Matt: um, How much does your school need to travel for games and whether that’s in conference at a conference and what’s
[00:20:48] Coach: that look like?
[00:20:49] Yeah. So I’m highly committed to keeping my, my student athletes in class as much as humanly possible. So for example, in fall of 2021, um, there was only one Wednesday afternoon where my guys hadn’t missed class, the whole soccer season, and that’s assuming that they had Wednesday afternoon classes. And there was nothing we could even do about that game.
[00:21:11] It was a conference game. They don’t have like. And so the kickoff had to be four o’clock, which means we have to leave around one o’clock to get to the game on time for warmups and everything. So, um, next year I think will be two Wednesdays that my guys would have to miss class. If they have a Wednesday afternoon class, um, all of our practices are scheduled either before class starts, meaning, you know, six, 15 in the morning.
[00:21:36] Or after class ends, um, you know, around 5, 5 30 in the evening. Um, so if there’s ever an evening class, you know, the priority school, you know, ultimately that’s, what’s going to be your career. So, uh, school always comes first and I’m highly committed to that. The nice thing about St. Francis with our conference.
[00:21:55] Is where a tinting conference St. Francis is, is the most centrally located school within our conference. And so our travel compared to other teams in our, in our league is far better. Um, so our conference on average, we travel about an hour and 15. Which is about as good as you’re gonna get. Um, honestly, um, and you being a former college coach, you understand them.
[00:22:20] If, if, if I say on average around 15, you’d be like, I’ll take that any day of the week. Absolutely. So our location really helps us out for.
[00:22:31] Matt: Uh, well, let’s talk more about the team specifically now. Um, so you said you, you know, you, you carry a big roster cause you have a secondary, uh, kind of a JV team. Um, so as an incoming freshmen, you know, should I expect that I’m going to primarily be on that JV team to start?
[00:22:48] Or, you know, I guess what should I expect as a freshman
[00:22:52] Coach: coming in? Yeah, that’s a great question. Um, so we’re very much, uh, equal opportunity, blue collar hardworking. So. Ultimately, you’re going to get what you deserve in this program. Right? And so like, if you deserve to start as a freshman, that’s, what’s going to happen.
[00:23:07] If you deserve to play JV as a freshman, that’s what’s going to happen. Um, so again, I like to give examples, cause I think it helps paint the picture. Um, in the fall of 2021, every game that we played, we had between six and nine freshmen starting, which is a ton of freshmen starting in college soccer games.
[00:23:26] Um, and then we had another four to six freshmen. Um, come in as substitutions and every game. So six to nine, starting four to six coming off the bench. So our freshmen class obviously was very good, right. They jumped a lot of sophomores, juniors and seniors on my team and obviously team dynamic wise. Um, you know, that’s always a little bit challenging when an 18 year old is jumping to 22 year old, but.
[00:23:53] My commitment is to play the best players. And everyone loves that philosophy when they’re on the right side of it. Um, they don’t so much like it when they’re on the wrong side of it, but to me, um, college soccer, it’s, it’s not high school soccer. It’s not club soccer. You know, uh, you know, life isn’t fair, you know, it’s, you’re going to get what you deserve and that’s just, that’s just the way I believe things should go.
[00:24:19] Matt: Yeah, no, that makes sense to me. So you mentioned, um, you were the only full-time staff member, but how, how big is your, is your staff and what roles do the other staff play?
[00:24:30] Coach: Yeah, so we have three other part-time coaches. Um, and the way that we do things is, um, So basically I’m the head coach. We have a first assistant and a second assistant and we have a goalkeeper coach and we really do try to mix it up.
[00:24:48] So it’s not me leading the first team practice every day, because if you hear the same voice over and over again, you begin to tune it out. Right. And so there’ll be times where I’ll have my first assistant. He leads the entire practice and. I take more of an observation role. There’ll be times where actually I’ll actually take a goalkeeper session because it’s important for the head coach to work with the goalkeepers, into, to understand the mindset of what the goalkeepers are kind of going through.
[00:25:15] And so I trust all of my coaches a lot. And I wish that they were on, on a full-time capacity, but you know, that’s, that’s not the reality here at St. Francis. And so we, we adjust and make, do the best that we can. And so we have a rotation within the practices, but I would also say a lot of my coaches do a lot of things off the field in terms of just relationship building and, you know, going to have coffee and, you know, really doing life with our players.
[00:25:43] That’s really important to us. We’re not just soccer. I would say, honestly, we’re more life coaches than we are soccer coaches. Um, and that’s just our commitment to building relationships and understanding the soccer is really just an avenue for something a lot bigger, more important. Um, we’d rather you become a better person, a better future husband, a future leader in the community than a better soccer player.
[00:26:06] And, you know, that’s just, that’s just our commitment.
[00:26:10] Matt: That’s great. So how would you describe, you know, your style of coaching and the team’s style of
[00:26:16] Coach: play? Yeah, my style of coaching, I try to keep it very basic. Um, one is, I really love my players. I really do, you know, uh, you know, we, we don’t have kids, my wife and I, so a lot of times these, these players are our kids in a sense.
[00:26:30] Uh, we really build into them. Um, we, we make ourselves available to them. Um, and we’re, again, we really want to help them in every facet of their life and how you do that is you love them. Right? You love them through hard moments. You love them through good moments. Um, you love them through teaching moments.
[00:26:47] And so, yeah. Number one is I love my players. Number two is I have a very, very high standard for my players. Right. And so I expect a lot from them academically, athletically, socially, spiritually. Um, so like, if you’re not doing what I know you’re capable of doing, um, I’ll be the first one to let you know.
[00:27:06] Right. And, and I’ll also be the first one to. Help guide you, um, to how you can improve in those areas. And so I guess you can imagine just like this high level of law and this high level of accountability, that’s kind of who I am as a coach, right? Like too much love, probably not a good thing, right. Too much accountability.
[00:27:25] Probably not a good thing, but if we can get the balance right. Of may and my coach really loves me, he really cares about me and it’s genuine. But he’s also going to push me and try to make me the best person, future father, future leader, a future player. Then it’s a really, really good thing. Um, do we get it right?
[00:27:44] 100% of the time? No, we don’t. We don’t. But, um, Our commitment to trying is always there for sure. Um, so that would be a little bit about my philosophy. It’s definitely more than, uh, than, than playing games and, and, and winning soccer games and scoring goals. That, to me, that’s the icing on the cake, you know, but there’s, there’s bigger things at play.
[00:28:05] Matt: Nah, I love that. Absolutely. So w what about team style of play? What, how do you, how do you guys like to play when you’re actually on the field?
[00:28:12] Coach: So we’re, we’ve, uh, we’re evolving, you know, when I first got here, the program was in disarray, to be honest with you, they had no way of applying and defensively.
[00:28:21] They really struggled and. Um, I am a defensive minded coach, uh, you know, regardless of what sport you’re gonna play, if your defense isn’t strong, you’re going to lose games. And so, um, we’re very much a defensive minded team. You know, we, we get numbers behind the ball. You know, you have a job defensively, you do your job, you work hard.
[00:28:39] Um, so we’re very compact defensively. And then once we win the ball, we opened. Um, and so defensively, it looks like a four or five one in attack. It kind of transitions into a 4, 3, 3. Um, and so the white players just drop in and then once we win the ball, they, they move forward into, like I say, the 4 33.
[00:28:59] So, you know, that’s highly structured defensively. And then in the attacking third, we call it attacking freedom is what we call it. So we don’t micromanage our players in front of goal. So if you’re in the attacking third and. Honestly, you, you want to take the player? One-on-one. Like, we want you to do it.
[00:29:17] Even if the outside back wins the ball, like we’re not the type of coaches who are going to tell you, um, you know, what are you doing? Or why did you do that? Well, we’re going to say is do it again, right? Because we know if you have a one V one situation in the final third, and you do a molar more than one time, odds are the dam’s going to break at some point.
[00:29:36] And we want our most creative players to have freedom of thought and freedom of creativity. And so. You know, we, we give them that we give them that license. We don’t micromanage Messi or Ronaldo do it. So, you know, why would we micromanage? You know, some of our best players is. Okay.
[00:29:54] Matt: Um, while you’ve been super generous with your time, I don’t want to take too much more.
[00:29:57] I got to two last questions for you. One, just because of, when I’m talking to you here in February, what, what is your off season program
[00:30:05] Coach: look like? Yeah. And so St. Francis is fortunate enough to have a full time strength and conditioning coach. Uh, so we work with him Monday, Wednesday, Friday, um, and then the guys have opportunities for technical workouts on Tuesday, Thursday.
[00:30:19] Um, so that’s what we’re doing kind of in the winter months, January, February, and then once March hits, we continue to work with our strength and conditioning coach, but then we transitioned to, you know, outside trainings. We have some outside competition versus other teams, whether or not it’s ABA or 11 V 11 matches.
[00:30:37] Um, but that’s kind of how our winter into the spring. Okay.
[00:30:43] Matt: And then, uh, last question is just really kind of, open-ended just for you, you know, what else is, would you like, you know, families, prospects to know about your school, your program, or anything else that we might not have covered?
[00:30:56] Coach: Yeah. Uh, you know, St.
[00:30:57] Francis, when I took it over a year and a half ago, it was in disarray, you know, completely, there was no culture, no way of playing, you know, player showed up late, you know, it just, no culture, no standards. And what we’ve done is we’ve come in. Year-and-a-half we’ve absolutely changed everything. There’s not one thing from the old program.
[00:31:15] And so we’re very much an up-and-coming team, right? And so like if you’re wanting a picture, perfect soccer experience, bluntly, we are not for you. And honestly, we don’t want you either. Uh, we want players who are wanting to make a big in. We’re wanting players who are wanting to over the course of their four years built into a championship environment.
[00:31:36] Um, and so right now we’re inheriting those players. We’re recruiting, we’re signing those players and we know our best days are ahead of us. Um, but it takes a, a certain personality to want to go to a program that traditionally had struggled and to make a big impact. We know what we’re doing. I just signed a four year contract, um, which is unheard of for a, for a young coach like me.
[00:31:59] And, you know, it kind of speaks to my commitment to the college and, and what I believe can truly happen at St. Francis. And so if you come to us know that, um, it’s not picture perfect, but if you commit to. Um, I think that you’re going to be pleasantly surprised and have more than a positive experience, both from a soccer perspective, but honestly more importantly from a life perspective, because that’s really our commitment at the end of the day is that we’re trying to take young men from where they are to where they need to be bottom line.
[00:32:33] And we want, we want better, better husbands in this world, better future fathers in this world leaders in the community. Um, that’s really what it’s about. Awesome.
[00:32:42] Matt: All right. Well, Hey coach Jake. I appreciate it. Thank you for your time. We’ll uh, look to see how you guys do in the fall and then see how this kind of program a rebuild happens for you and wish you the best of luck.
[00:32:56] Coach: Thank you for your time. And you know, anyone, please reach out to us. We’re happy to communicate to anyone at anytime. Awesome. Thanks again, right. Thank you.
