Waldorf University Women’s Soccer – Coach Matthew Paez
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Paez from the Waldorf Women’s Program in Iowa. We talk about how they recruit for a player’s fit within their culture. He describes the small-town friendly area. Lastly, we discuss their focus on work rate, accountability and respect. Learn more about Waldorf University Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Paez from the Waldorf University Women’s team in Iowa. Welcome coach.
Coach: Hey. Hello. Thank you for having me.
Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. So, you know, it’s, it’s that, uh, Well, December 1st, the craziness that we’re talking on.
So the, your season’s wrapped up and I’m guessing your, uh, your, your full swing into the recruiting process. Um, so when, when is it that you guys are, are really starting to talk to players, kind of what you’re in high school and, and what are you focused on on now? Is it the 23 class? Is that wrapped up?
What, what does that look like?
Coach: Yeah, so we’re, we’re focused on the 2023 class. Um, we’re constantly recruiting year round, so we can bring somebody in as early as. when they become a June, like from when they finished their sophomore year, all the way up until July, August if they wanted to commit late. So, I mean, we have a, a good amount of time to recruit for
Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, are there tournaments that are kind of, uh, on your, on your must hit list, uh, throughout the year that you guys like to recruit at?
Coach: Um, It depends on like the preference. So this is my first year at Waldorf, so um, there’s nothing specific that we want to go to. It’s more, we just hit it all cuz we wanna be able to provide opportunity to kids that.
You know, might not get an opportunity. So for us, yeah, we want to be [00:01:30] competitive in everything, but at the same time, we wanna provide opportunity to kids that not only want to get an education, but would like to continue playing at a higher level also.
Matt: No, that’s great. Well, and, and you mentioned those opportunities.
I mean, I, I would say, this is just a personal observation, but I mean, your roster, you guys kept people from all over the place.
Coach: Exactly. Uh, and.
Matt: And, and in some instances that’s almost a rarity in, in NAIA women’s soccer, uh, for, to, to have such a wide breadth of, of folks from places. So, so how, how do, I mean, is that something you guys are.
Purposefully looking to do? Is that just kind of how it’s shaken out? What, help me out understand that.
Coach: Yeah. It, it just, it, I mean it all depends on the individual. Like, I mean, you see our roster, we have people from Zimbabwe, we have people from, we have a girl from Brazil, uh, I think one from Columbia who moved to Florida.
Um, we have another, I don’t know if I said Peru, but we have another one supposed to be coming from Canada. We have one from the uk. I mean, we have a few from Hawaii and then all across the us. Um, for us, diversity is extremely important. Um, it opens up the girls to new cultures, new ideas. Um, you know, the more personalities, even as a coach, the more personalities you get to know, the more personalities you can relate to later on.
And you can adjust to situations. So if you’re like, oh, this. This is normal [00:03:00] in, you know, let’s say Hispanic culture. Oh, okay. Well, you can’t treat somebody that’s a Hispanic, the same way that you would treat somebody that’s from the uk. So it all, it, it’s really good because the girls get to learn how to communicate with.
Just a variety of people.
Matt: for sure. Well, in terms of, uh, other places, you’re, you’re seeing players. Do you guys, uh, run your own camps to you or your staff, uh, work other camps? How do
Coach: Yeah, they, how do they fit in? Um, so at the moment we don’t have camps, so a lot of it is us going out and just, you know, we’re, we build a name within the community, which is nice.
The head coach has done a really good job of that in the past few years, um, just by doing little things like community service in town, um, going to, you know, we’ll help work like football games at like, I believe like Minnesota or even in Iowa. Um, just little ways that we can help out here and there. I know like once a month we go and we’ll help like one of the local mom and pop shops in town.
So just to help her clean and it saves her like eight hours of cleaning and we get it done in 30 minutes, you know, so for her, it’s a big deal. Uh, for us it’s, you know, 30 minutes of work. But, you know, it’s little things like that that we do to try to get our name out to the community since we’re. A smaller school in Iowa that not many people know about
Matt: Sure. Well, whether it’s, it’s at a, at a game that you’re scouting or, or [00:04:30] through whatever methods you’re, you’re employing the most, um, what kind of makes up the hierarchy of things that you’re looking for in a player, whether that’s on the field stuff or off the field stuff?
Coach: Yeah, so the first thing, like, you know, being college academics are huge.
Um, you know, you can’t have. Athletics without academics. So if you’re not passing your classes, you just naturally, you can’t play. So for us, it’s like the things that you can control as a player, we don’t necessarily, yeah, we always want those good players, but first off, they have to fit our culture. So, you know, they have to be able to have a good work rate.
And for us that’s, you know, in the classroom, on the field relationships. So if they. Communicating well with their teammates. They’re listening to what their teammates need. If they’re showing up to practice on time, if they’re not missing weights, they’re going to classes. It’s extremely important. So like those are things they can control, you know, they.
their work rate focus, as I was saying, communication, listening. So also a player that’s willing to learn, um, if they’re a sponge and just absorb what we try to teach them, you know, that’s all things they can control. We’re not gonna tell them to go out and score three goals. We’re not gonna tell them to block every shot.
You know, to us, that’s unrealistic. So if they put in their work and their focus and their effort, you know, we as coaches will do the same in return. . Okay.
Matt: Well, you know, one of the [00:06:00] questions on, uh, on us parents’ minds is, is usually what, okay, what’s this gonna cost? Um, so can you, and I’m not holding you any hard numbers here, but can you just give me an overview of what, you know, tuition and fees and, and all that stuff kinda looks like, but also what the financial aid, scholarships, whether those are academic, athletic, kind of what that situation.
Coach: Yeah, so tuition is 22, 20 3000 a year. Um, fees, I think it’s like 1400. And then depending on the dorm that you live at, I would say six to eight K. So, Um, you know, we obviously help out with academic and an athletic scholarship. We combine ’em, which is nice. Um, you know, and then if a kid is in the US and gets fafsa, um, you know, just deduct that amount and how much they’re willing to take out, whether they’re getting pay or loans or something else.
And then, you know, if they don’t, then obviously the AC academic and athletic scholarship will be that portion.
Matt: Okay, well, let’s, let’s talk a little bit more about the school, as you mentioned. So some folks may not be familiar with Waldorf y uh, there in Iowa. So, you know, I know you’ve been there, uh, a year or a season at least now.
So yeah. Besides what I’m gonna learn on the website, what are some really cool things that you’ve found, uh, about Waldorf?
Coach: So, me being from California, um, you know, I’ve grown up in big cities in big areas where everything’s really close and there’s a lot to do. Um, However, with that, there tends to be a drop off in friendliness.[00:07:30]
So, you know, being in a smaller town, it’s definitely a change of pace for me. Um, the way of life is just a lot slower. People are naturally more friendly. Um, for me that’s kind of, I. Enjoyable because, you know, I don’t walk down the street and like no one gives me the middle finger, you know, like , you know, so it’s nice to know that like when I’m driving my car, people wave at me, you know, I’ll, I’ll go to random stores and have random conversations with people.
So it’s just like a different environment that is really enjoyable. Um, you know, which is why I, I like where I’m at. Um, you know, and I think the kids see that as well in the culture. The community, um, you know, and then for Waldorf itself, um, you know, we’re a small school and I would say our class sizes are like 15 to 20 students per class.
It probably dwindles down more when you get into your major, but I mean, that just means a lot of more individual help, which is nice. Um, a lot of one-on-one time, and. The teachers are more than willing, or professors are more than willing to help out as much as possible. You know, they want to see the kids succeed.
They’ll do what they can. Um, you know, they’re always willing, whether it’s extra time or if there’s something, if they do bad on the tests, like just keeping good relationships with them, like that’s extremely important. So the teachers care, obviously as us, as coaches. We care too. [00:09:00] We’re gonna help ’em out as much as possible, whether it’s finding a tutor or helping ’em out with their homework if they need it, or have questions like we’re always gonna.
it’s just a different community compared to like a bigger city. Yeah, for sure.
Matt: Well, let’s. Walk back, uh, a little bit to the season. Um, can you take me through what a typical week would look like for a player in terms of when’s class, when’s practice, meals, travel for games, that kind of thing. Of course.
Coach: Yeah. So classes run seven 30 or 8:00 AM until 3:00 PM We schedule, um, practice around that and our. . So, or try to, obviously, like if we have a game on Tuesday at three o’clock, obviously they’re gonna miss classes. Um, you know, I’ll send out an email, uh, letting our athletic department know, like, Hey, these kids are gonna be excused.
They’re coming to the game. They’ll send out an email. So they’re cleared to classes, so, you know, they’re excused from their classes, which is nice. Cause I know that question. Comes up a lot. Um, but yeah, so for typical days, like we’ll schedule practice around class schedule. So sometimes we’ll have early morning practice at five 30 and the girls will be out by six 30 or seven.
Um, if we’re on the grasp, we’ll tend to practice at like four. So then we’ll be done maybe 5, 5 30. Um, other times, depending on if we’re on the turf in the afternoon, we’ll probably practice like maybe 6, 6 30. So practices are an hour, 10 hour and [00:10:30] a half. It depends on the day. Um, we like to prioritize our schedule, so, you know, if we do have a game, um, we’re doing recovery the next day.
Um, we don’t wanna overdo their bodies, especially with the rigorous season. So, yeah, that’s kind of, I would say how a typical day or week would go for the girls.
Matt: Okay. Well, earlier we, we talked about academics. So how do your players really balance the. The academic side and the athletic side, and what kind of support systems does the school have in place to help them with that?
Coach: Yeah. So, um, I know each kid has a advisor that like, hey, they can go to if they have questions. Um, that’s the first thing is, you know, they have support there from the school itself. Um, for us, you know, we, we have study tables twice a week. So your first year, if you’re a freshman, like that’s always the toughest year.
And so we require them to go to study tables. Um, it’s an hour and a half each day. And so that will also be scheduled around practice, uh, and school. So everybody should be able to make it. Um, if they’re not, they have to communicate it to us and they have to make up, um, the study tables. So, After, I believe a, after a freshman’s first year, they, as long as they’re above a 3.0 overall, um, they are not required to go to study tables.
Some will [00:12:00] still go because, you know, that’s their designated time to get homework done. So it’s nice to see that girls don’t just. Like, skip it, you know, they, they actually enjoy it because that’s their time where they can focus. You know, we put their phones at the front face down on the, on the table. So they, they have no distractions.
They focus on their books. So we as coaches try to do our due diligence to help make sure that they have a set time where they can always get homework done. Um, as I was saying earlier, like if they do make, if they do have questions, , they can always come to us. Like I helped a girl this past season on one of her papers cuz she had questions and didn’t know how to go about it.
It was good to know that. And she ended up getting an A on it. So, you know, we’ll give them advice. We won’t write the paper for them, obviously , you know, but we’ll be like, hey. Like, if I was writing this paper about myself, this is how I would go about it. Now you have to figure out how to fill that in for yourself.
So we’ll give them the direction, you know, as I said, we’ll find tutors for them. We’ll make sure that they have the support that they need.
Matt: Okay. That’s great. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team. You know, in terms of each season, is there a a roster size that you guys find is ideal that you’re trying to hit each year?
Coach: Yeah, so ideally we want a roster of 30, um, this past season, uh, will dictate that and why we do because, so originally [00:13:30] the rigorous of, of, of college soccer is a lot more than people understand . When you have some weeks, when you have four, four games in a week. People don’t understand how hectic that is and the amount of toll it takes on your body and the amount that you need to recover.
So we’d like to have a roster of 30 for a lot of reasons. Um, the first one, if we are able to scrimmage, you know, we can scrimmage a full 11 V 11, um, we have eight subs just in case. Um, from there, injuries, sickness, family matters. Those things happen a lot. And this season was a prime example of, you know, We had just an insane amount of injuries, like we had a broken collar bone, a fifth concussion.
Um, a girl fractured her foot, re fractured her foot after she healed , um, two meniscus tears and a c l tear. Numerous knee injuries, uh, where they were out for two, three weeks. Um, a girl rolled her ankle and she was out for a month. Like, so basically we didn’t have a starting squad. So we need to make sure that we have support in our bench that understands the importance of a bench.
So, Just because you’re not getting minutes doesn’t mean that you’re, what you’re doing isn’t important. So whether you’re starting or not, like we don’t like to play into favorites. However, what you do challenges those better [00:15:00] players. So if you’re not putting your effort in, in practice, as I was saying earlier, things you can control, you’re not challenging those players that are gonna be starting that week.
So we need those players to push themselves every single day. We need players to push themselves the best way they can and push the those top players. So yeah, injuries, family matters, sickness. Like there were other, like a lot of those injuries came from games and those are things as coaches we can’t control.
So , you know, if, if it’s, it was, it was definitely a, a little bit tougher of a season. But as coaches, you know, if girls are getting injured in practice, that’s one thing. Cause then we have to change how we coach. But because of games, , we necessarily can’t control what other teams are gonna do to our players.
So that’s the only, only tough part, and that’s why we wanna carry a big roster. Okay.
Matt: Well, can you talk a little bit more about, uh, just your, your, I know you, you’re have a, a head coach. I don’t know if there’s any other assistants, but a little bit about the staff and, you know, your guys’ style of coaching.
Coach: Yeah. So. Um, so I’m the assistant, um, the head coach, Lugo arenas. Uh, it’s just me and him. Um, our style of coaching is [00:16:30] very, we like to be able to relate, talk to the players, make them understand why we do things. We’re not gonna ever tell a player. Oh, do this because I say so that doesn’t really teach anything.
Um, we like to explain the reason why behind everything. Um, just so that there’s a clear understanding. If it doesn’t make sense to them, then we have to figure out another way to explain it, whether it’s a visual or verbal or, you know, just new, new ways of being able to get them to understand what we’re trying to convey so that they can be bought into our philosophy.
Um, also outside the, outside of the pitch, we understand. There is a lot of mental health that goes into being a student athlete. Um, a lot of us or a lot of the girls will come into our office and they’ll talk to us about everything. You know, whether it be life, things are going on at home. Um, you know, even if it is about soccer, but they’ll come into the office, which is nice because they know they have a place that they can go to.
So we as coaches, like to provide that support to our players. Um, we won’t ever shy away from them. We’ll, we even like to do a lot of team bondings. So throughout the season, this past season, we did. Uh, like a scavenger hunt. We’ll break the girls up into teams and we’ll give them clues and they have to go take a selfie with where that clue is in town.
And then they’ll, when they send that picture over and they get it right, then we’ll give them the [00:18:00] next clue. So then by the end of it, they’re going throughout town, trying to race, obviously being safe, , you know, but then they’ll get to the final destination and we’ll, You know, like a little team hangout for a little bit, or, but then we’ll do stuff like Family Feud, jeopardy, you know, a movie night in the, um, little lounge we have in our office.
Uh, we’ll do barbecues at Coach’s House. So we try to make it enjoyable for the girls and give them a positive experience.
Matt: Oh, that’s great. Well, you know, like as we said, we’re, we’re talking here December 1st, so. The off season has started, although, uh, I, I know everybody’s off seasons are a little bit different.
So can you tell me what you guys just big picture will do between now and the start of next season?
Coach: Yeah, so, uh, we have 12 weeks. Um, obviously we’re off right now, um, that we can use. Um, four of those weeks are gonna come in January. Uh, we’re gonna break the girls up into teams. Uh, they’ll basically play foots all.
You know, no coaching involved. They just compete against each other, get touches on the ball. Um, whoever wins get at the end of the season will, they’ll have the season, we’ll have a tournament winner, gets to sign their name on the trophy. Mm-hmm. . So just a little bragging right for them, you know, makes it fun, makes it competitive.
The girls like the girls love it. Um, you know, we’ll take off February. And then we’ll finish our 12 weeks, um, March and April, [00:19:30] and that’ll be a little bit more, uh, that’s gonna be taken more serious. So we’re gonna do lifting, I think it’s three days a week, and then practice two days a week. So because it’s cold, we’ll be, uh, playing foots all, um, and practicing Mm, just technique and getting touches.
Right. Um, you know, we have foots all balls inside. It’s nice to see a different form of the game for the girls. Um, and then we’re also able to have, uh, four games. So we’ll schedule those for the girls so that they’re still testing their. Skills. Okay.
Matt: Well we’ve kind of talked about a lot of different things, but I always like to end these the same way and that’s what didn’t we talk about?
Whether it’s in the recruiting side, something about the school or the team, or if there’s anything else you wanna wanna talk about. I can give you the last word.
Coach: Um, yeah, for. I mean, I don’t, I don’t have too much. I usually try to go over everything just so it’s kind of clear and understanding. Um, you know, a, a lot of stuff from, I mean, you understand for coaching comes on the fly.
So if anybody ever does have questions, you know, we’re always open, we’re always willing to learn. We’re, we’re always willing to. Know what we can do better as coaches. So, you know, respect for us, like part of our core values. Um, I, I went into it talking about work rate. That’s our first one cuz we call, we call it [00:21:00] war.
So work rate, accountability, respect, um, those are our core values of the team. I went over work, right? Um, accountability for us as coaches is extremely important. You know, if girls, as I was saying, aren’t going to practice in class and everything, um, I mentioned earlier, we don’t have favorites. Um, if they’re not doing that stuff, they just don’t start.
So it’s good because. That gives players that are coming in opportunity. So even if you’re a senior player, they understand like, oh, I need to go to class. Oh, I need to, I can’t be missing practice because then that’s gonna open up opportunity for a different player. So everybody has to be able to do that every day.
The girls will hold each other accountable and like, Hey, you weren’t at practice, you’re not starting. You need to be at practice. You know? So the girls hold each other accountable, so we don’t have to anymore, which is, is great to see because that’s just the culture that. They’re, well, the, I get to be a part of now, since I’ve only been here one season, but the culture that the head coach has created, um, plus it’s not like we’re trying to catch the girls out.
It’s more we wanna hold them accountable and give them life experiences. So if they’re, you know, let’s say they’re working their job and they miss work or show up late, Work’s gonna hold them accountable. And so for us, we wanna relate that to a real life experience and hold them accountable in those situations.
So why should we start? A player that [00:22:30] isn’t going to practice isn’t going to class? Isn’t treating her teammates well, you know, so for us that’s extremely important. Cause we want to give those kids life, life skills so when they graduate they can just hop right in. Like, oh, I have good work rate. Okay, I can know how to communicate to my boss.
Uh, I know how to be on time. You know, just things like that, that it’s not always about soccer, but it’s giving. Kids, the skills they need to be successful in life and which falls to the last thing which respect? Straightforward. You know, respect is for us, it’s a two-way street. So coaches will respect you, you respect your coaches, respect your teammates, respect the culture, respect the community, you know, the environment every, just respect everything.
And at the end of the day, very simple. Don’t be disrespectful, , you know, cause respect is earned.
Matt: Absolutely. Well, coach, really appreciate it. Uh, wish you the best of luck in, in this off season and getting ready for next year and looking forward to see how you guys do in, in the fall and really appreciate it.
Coach: Awesome. Thank you, Matthew. Appreciate it. Thank you.
