West Liberty University Men’s Soccer – Coach Sean Regan
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Sean from the West Liberty Men’s Program in West Virginia. We talk about how appreciates consistency in simplicity. He describes their fantastic soccer facility. Lastly, we discuss how they are evolving as a young program. Learn more about West Liberty University Men’s Soccer.
Matt: Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Sean Regan from West Liberty in West Virginia. Welcome coach. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for being here. Uh, I, I grew up not too far, uh, from you all in Ohio, but, uh, and had some friends coaching back in, in, in that conference back in the day.
So, so good to talk to some, some West Virginia folk. But let’s talk about recruiting. We’re talking here in March, you know, it’s the, uh, The, the showcase season. Uh, so what, are you guys all wrapped up with your 20 threes and, and or, or are you still looking at 20 threes? Kind of what’s your timeline when you’re recruiting?
Coach: Yeah. Um, we’re probably about 75% for, for next year. You know, we’re still looking at maybe, um, bringing in maybe one or two other players, um, at this moment. But, um, you know, at this, but at this timeframe, it’s really just talking to about, you know, the 10 or 11 guys that are between us and one other two.
Other schools at this moment in time? You know, I think pretty much about this time everybody’s kind of made their decision or has already got their top three that’s going on. So, um, showcase season is in and in full force. And, and really right now we’re, you know, pretty much solely focused on, um, the juniors right now.
Okay.
Matt: Well, when you’re looking at players, are there tournaments that are kind of, you know, must hit on your list where you’re going to see players that you try to get to each year?
Coach: Sure. Yeah. I mean, we’re lucky that being situated in the East coast that we are. We’re very close to a lot of the major tournaments.
[00:01:30] Um, you know, in the fall, you know, the Bethesda is a big one. We would go to, we’ll go to the Jefferson Cup in the springtime. The blue chip out in Cincinnati, um, are good tournaments. Um, and then we’ll, you know, we’ll go pretty far, um, around the Christmas time period, we’ll go down to, uh, I m G cup, we’ll go down to the EC and L showcase in Florida.
Um, all the fun ones and the warm weather when it’s snowing up here. Um, but we try to hit about. Anywhere between five to six major college showcase tournaments a year. Um, and then couple that with, um, a lot of the, uh, international showcases, um, that we can get video links for. And we’ll try our best to watch those over the Christmas period as well.
Okay.
Matt: Well, in terms of, uh, other recruiting methods, do you guys, do you do ID camps, do you and your staff work other people’s camps? How do, how do camps fit in?
Coach: Yeah, so we don’t really do too many ID camps here because, you know, we’re lucky at the division to level, you know, we’re allowed to bring students on to train with our team.
So I think it’s, um, Uh, giving maybe the, the student a little bit of a, uh, a falseness in terms of charging them money when we can bring them on for free, you know, so I think it’s, that’s a good way of, you know, putting forward to our recruits that, you know, we want you. Um, so you have the ability to come as an official visit and, and check out the university and actually train with the guys.
Um, in terms of going to other ID camps, um, around the area. Uh, we’ll go to like two or three in the springtime, you know, just kind of observe what there are with, um, depending, you know, we’re lucky that we have a lot [00:03:00] of, uh, big division one universities within the Pittsburgh area and Columbus area that are one to two hours away.
Um, so highly accessible.
Matt: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. Well, whether it’s at, uh, at your, uh, a tryout at the university or camp or, or tournament, what, what is it that you’re looking for in players that makes, makes a player, you know, stand out to you, that you wanna recruit them? Sure.
Coach: Um, you know, basically simplicity is the biggest thing that we really look for.
You know, making sure that a guy is very proficient in his first touch that can ping a ball 5, 10, 15, 20 yards and with accuracy and, uh, you know, doing it nine out of 10 times, you know, that that impresses me far often than guys trying to do six or seven step overs and, and take people on in the wrong areas and making bad decision making.
Cause if, if you have. If you excel in the basics, you know, we can mold you into being a very, very good player, you know, but if you don’t, you know, do those things well, then you’re gonna struggle. You know, so when we do ID camps, or when we go to these tournaments, you know, we’re not really worried about what team you play for or what results are like, or anything like that.
We’re just focusing solely on you and seeing what you can do. Um, and then unfortunately with, you know, for a lot of schools in our position, we don’t have a massive coaching staff. Um, so when we’re going to these big tournaments, We may only see you be able to play for 15, 20 minutes, and then we have to move on to the next game.
So it’s a really small window that you have time to impress us. And if you’re a a forward, the chances you scoring in that 15 to 20 minutes are very slim. You know what I mean? And if you’re a goalkeeper, you might [00:04:30] only make one or two saves. Um, so when we, when we’re there, the amount of times you have the ball and you have possession, if you do the simple things really well, then that, that kind of impresses a little bit more than other things.
Matt: That makes a lot of sense. Well, you mentioned, uh, internationals before and looking at your roster, you got a, a good bit of ’em, so, so how does the whole international recruiting thing fit in? And, and the other big thing that’s everybody’s talking about these days is the transfer portal. So are, are you guys dipping your toe into that water at all?
How does, how does internationals and transfer portal work for your recruiting?
Coach: Oh yeah. Internationals, obviously, you know what Division two it’s is. Dominantly international states, you know, um, in, in our roster world, we’re about a 60 40 mix. So I would say that we’re probably on the higher end in our conference for American players and spec.
More specifically the amount of Americans at play. You know, we probably have about, uh, three to four Americans in our starting lineup and about three or four that come up with the bench, which is unusual, you know, to be honest with you. Um, so, uh, with internationals we’re trying to get the best ones we can.
Um, and really the main difference is when we’re recruiting a player, it’s maybe a less of an ego with the international students, sometimes with the the American kids. Cause of the big club mentality. I would say a lot of these clubs are saying, you know, division one, division one, division one, and then when they don’t get a Division one offer.
They’re looking for very, very high division two scholarships, you know? Um, but they might not be a high scholarship level player where an international student [00:06:00] is just happy to be able to get that experience, you know, and, and they’ll come over without any, you know, real bargaining or, or anything like that.
And, and no chip on their shoulder that they didn’t get the division one off that they were looking for. Um, so it can be a little bit tad easier going the international route. And at times, to be honest with you, a little bit more mature, um, both in the classroom, um, as well as on the field. You know, we don’t have many older international students.
They’re mostly all coming over as true, freshman at 18 or 19 years old. Um, but they’ve been away from home. Um, they’re proficient in English. Um, so they’re betting in sometimes is, is not as long as it is with, with the average American. Um, for transfer portal. I very rarely go into it. You know, I would say that we’re, if we do get a transfer, it’s more from the junior college level coming in.
Um, because you know, from the junior college level, we know what they’re gonna get into with their academics. We know their coach, where they’re playing at, the level they’re playing at. Um, with the four year transfers, I think you’re more sometimes inheriting other people’s problems. You know, they might be leaving for.
You know, didn’t get along with the coach, didn’t get along with their team. They, the grass is always greener somewhere else. So I think your, your better bets, you know, on that thing is with the junior college route or the true freshman, you know. Um, the only time we really try to look for, uh, On the transfer portal might be for, to get more experience, you know, to try to bring in maybe a junior or a senior, or [00:07:30] actually more so on the graduate side where somebody has one year to come in and, and try to make our team a little bit older.
So, you know, in the past two years with the transfer portal, we’ve looked at grad students specifically more so than any four year transfers.
Matt: Okay. Well that makes a lot of sense. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school itself. Um, and first off is the question, me as a parent always wants to know is, okay, what’s this gonna cost me?
Right? So I’m not gonna hold, I’m not gonna hold you to hard numbers here, but if you can, uh, if you could just gimme an overview of what, uh, what the costs are like at the school, what different scholarships are available? Do you guys stack what, what, what’s a normal student athlete walking into?
Coach: Yeah. So we’re, we’re lucky being a state university.
You know that all in with your room board education we’re about 28,000. Um, which right off the top is about 15,000, you know, Less than most private universities in America right now, especially in our area. So that does give us a little bit of a leg up. Um, in term of athletic money, we’re about five scholarships outta 9.1, um, which is kind of the medium.
Um, I would say in our conference specifically. Um, so on the scholarship range, last year we had 35 guys on our roster, um, and a 13 of 35 guys got some soccer money. Um, and it ranged anywhere from. Basically two to $13,000. Um, so even my top player is still paying out of pocket, roughly about $15,000 to go to university.
Um, academic money is very, very difficult, you know, to give out, you know, we’re a [00:09:00] 3.775 minimum with a 1250 s a t score before we even qualify for academic money, and that’s about $2,000 up to 7,500. So, um, It is hope. Hopefully we get away with the S A T because that’s kind of now the n NCAA’s gotten rid of it.
A lot of the universities are now doing away with it. So I think if we choose to go away from the s a t scores, um, to qualify for academically, that’s gonna help us out tremendously because even if they keep it at a 3.75 gpa, a lot of our students can qualify, uh, more so than they do now, which basically is, is free money to us cuz we can stack, um, at our university.
And I think that really could help. Us in terms of, you know, the two or three schools in our league that are fully funded. It can move us a little bit closer to them in terms of our overall aid package. Okay.
Matt: Well you, you, you’ve been there a couple years, if I’m not mistaken, uh, at West Liberty. So besides what I’m gonna find on the website, what have you found to be some of the really cool things about, about the school?
Coach: Yeah, so I was at a small private school, uh, division three called Bethany for 10 years before I came to West Liberty. It’s literally three miles down the street. Um, and I believe we’re the second youngest division two program. We’ve only had the, we’ve only had varsity soccer here, uh, for five seasons now.
Um, so, uh, with that everything is brand new. We have, uh, our own soccer specific field with no football across lines on it. You know, it’s 120 by 80 track floodlights. Grass pitch right [00:10:30] beside it. So, um, that is definitely a massive draw and you can plan your practices by yourself. You don’t have to worry about sharing with anybody.
And, um, you can tell a student that we’re gonna practice from four 30 to six or six to seven 30, you’re never gonna have to get up at 6:00 AM or train at 10 o’clock at night or get kicked off by the football team or anything like that. Um, has its big, big perks. That’s for sure. And then with being such a new, uh, program to the school, the expectations are just to get better every year.
Um, and you know, as of right now, we, I would say we arguably play in the hardest conference in division two soccer. You know, we’re one of only three other uni uh, conferences, five. So it is difficult to kind of get into that top three. But you’re basically telling freshmen. They have the opportunity to play right away because our current seniors started the program.
Um, so every year you’re trying to get better by bringing in better players. Um, so that opportunity for new players to play right away, um, has been really attractive, you know, from our standpoint. From the school stand.
Matt: Yeah, no. So with regards to the academic side of things, um, you know, how do your players really balance the pull between being an athlete?
Making sure they’re doing well in the classroom. And what kind of support systems does a school offer to help them with that?
Coach: Yeah, it’s support systems. Great. You know, we have our academic research center that helps out [00:12:00] anybody that’s struggling. Um, you know, we do our own study halls on campus, um, especially with the freshmen in mandatory.
And any students below a 2.75 has to meet us twice a week so we can keep an eye on them. Um, but being a bigger. You know, big is university of about 3000 students. You know, we offer the same class multiple times throughout the week. So if you’re missing your Wednesday afternoon classes, because we’re away, the chances that they’re offered on Tuesday and Thursday are, are good.
So you, you’ll really very rarely will miss a class. And then I guess one of the good things that came out of Covid is that we’re very, Technologically savvy with our, with our classes now in terms of, um, all of them are recorded. They’re on the kids blackboard, so they can go, um, and review. The class was either recorded or they can log in during the live session and still participate when they’re on the bus.
Um, and our professors are very, Very understanding when, when students have to miss, you know, we’re about 35%, uh, student athletes on campus, so it’s still a big, big chunk, but they’re, they understand that you’re coming here and, and when you miss class, you’re, you’re still representing the university, um, to an extent.
So they’re willing to work with you. Um, so the overall ac dag atmosphere on campus is, is very good. And it’s something that we basically take our pride in. For the first time ever this year, you know, we got the United Soccer Coaches Association Team Academic Award. We were one of two teams in our conference.
Um, so it was something really to, you know, hang our hat on this year, uh, we were very proud of that. And, and even across the board, within our own [00:13:30] department, you know, we’re the second highest, uh, team GPA on the men’s side. So academics, even though, you know, division two, it’s probably a 50 50 balance. You know, it’s still first because 99% of the guys that that play here.
Be a professional in something other than soccer, you know? So we still have to make sure that we drive that, that theory home to them.
Matt: No, that, that, that’s fantastic. Well, in terms of, you mentioned a little bit, but riding the bus and, and schedules, let’s, let’s kind of rewind to the fall. What is a typical week schedule look like in terms of when classes are meals, practice times, uh, what’s kind of the game cadence in the in conference and that sort of stuff?
Coach: Yes. We try to try to balance the schedule as best we can, so, Our schedule is every Wednesday and Sundays are our matches. Um, so we’ll train on, on Monday and Tuesday, play on the Wednesday, Thursdays will be our off day, and then we’ll, we’ll train Friday and Saturday before Sunday games. Um, we try to tell all the guys to, as best they can, to keep it to the, you know, the three courses on the Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and the two courses on the Tuesday, Thursday for their 15 credits.
You know, within that, uh, kind of timeframe, it allows us to do. Some lifting sessions with our strength and conditioning coach, um, throughout the week where they can go into small groups. We have an indoor turf, uh, bubble on campus. So we’ll do a lot of our strength and conditioning sessions in there with the cones, the ladders, the hurdles, and you know, the parachutes and everything like that during the day.
Um, so that we don’t overload them at [00:15:00] nighttime, you know, either before practice or after practice with lifting. Um, and then usually twice a week. We’ll also fill, we’ll throw in a few film sessions where the guys will come in and, and either be individually or small groups, you know, especially, you know, working with the back four or whatever may be, um, go over the last night’s game and we’ll preview, uh, the team that we’re playing.
Um, so all in all, you’re looking at about. Roughly 25 hours in the classroom, you know, 28 hours of soccer a week, and then we expect the guys to, you know, about, do another further seven to 10 hours of, of, of studying a week. So all in all, you’re pretty much dedicated to about 65 hours of your academics and, and soccer throughout the, the course of the week.
Matt: Yeah, no, that, that sounds about right. It, it’s, uh, it definitely takes some getting used to, but, uh, yep. It’s all good. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the, the team. You, you mentioned you had a roster at 35. Is that kind of your target each year that you’re looking to get to?
Coach: Yes. Yeah, we’re, we’re lucky in a sense that, you know, being a state university, we don’t have to have massive rosters.
Um, we’re not. We’re not depending on the athletes to survive. Um, so, you know, comfortably for me, I like to keep around the 32 to 35 mark. You know, that way we have at least, uh, you know, three guys for every position. You know, we have that way we have a decent depth chart where, you know, your first, second, or third choice you can, so you can clearly see where you are in the pecking order.
Um, you know, and then with that there’s always comes injuries and and so forth. So I think that you need, need the ability to. You be able to train and, [00:16:30] and play your 11 side games at night to get ready with shape work and everything. Like that’s minimum. You need 22 guys. Um, so we started off the, you know, the fall of 35 and with graduation and we’re now, we’re done to 23 guys for the spring.
So you have to also focus on that spring number as well. Cause if you dip anywhere below 21, 22 guys and it becomes difficult to do some sort of training sessions, you know, specifically, you know, shadow work and shape work. Um, We’ve also found that, that that size is also good enough that we can have a few reserve team games.
You know, we don’t have a, a JV team or development team or whatever they, you know, most schools are calling it. We just have, you know, a reserve team that if you don’t play more than, you know, 65 minutes and then a first team match, you’re gonna play, uh, against our, um, with our reserves against the local schools.
I mean, we’re lucky that we got. Bethany Wheeling University in Franciscan within all, within about 10 minutes of us. So we’ll just do a little home and away with those universities, you know, so we’ll play about six games in total. Um, and those guys, it’s really used for developing the guys that don’t play too much.
Guys that are coming back from either maybe a red card suspension or coming back from injury. Um, so you can have guys that, you know, have not featured in their first team or, and guys that maybe have played in every first team game, but two because they pulled a hamstring. Um, and that’s kind of where our focus is with that.
Matt: Okay. Well you mentioned, you know, spraying and, and we’re in spring. So what does that off-season program look like for you guys?
Coach: Yeah, it’s, it’s, uh, definitely different from the, from the fall because, um, you know, the games that you play, results don’t matter, you know, so it’s more individual [00:18:00] training sessions and working on player development than it is.
Trying to win games, you know? Cause when you play in the fall, it’s Mondays and Wednesdays, you’re focused on Wednesdays or Mondays and Tuesdays you’re focused on Wednesday’s opponent. Thursday you’re looking back on Wednesday, but then you turn your attention Friday and Saturday to Sunday. Uh, so it’s all about winning matches.
Um, we’re here now. It’s, you’re working with everybody you know, in the springtime. All 23 of our guys are gonna play. You know, we, we try to say that at least you’re gonna play between 45 to 60 minutes, uh, whether you played zero games in the fall, or you played every game and you are captain, you know, they’re gonna get the same amount of opportunities to impress.
Um, and we’ll change it up and we’ll do, uh, Different formations and different tactics and we’ll, and we’ll give the guys the opportunity to try a different position, you know, to see like, you know, a couple guys that say, I’d like to play holding midfield when I, you know, I played center back in the fall.
I think I can give the team a little bit more here. It gives us the opportunity to try that, you know, cause we can’t do that in the fall. Um, so it’s all about basically that player development as well as, you know, kind of focusing on who we think is gonna help us for next season, and then who do we think that still within the squad, um, still needs a little bit of work and what kind of areas we need to focus on recruiting wise.
Matt: Okay. Well you mentioned staff, uh, earlier as well. So what does your staff look like? What role does everybody play? Are there staff that help with the team that, you know, aren’t maybe soccer specific, but are athletic department specific? What’s that look like?
Coach: Yeah, so basically it’s myself and I have a graduate assistant that we change every two years.
Um, every once in a while we’ll get a, [00:19:30] a volunteer assistant usually is a player that, you know, has, has graduated and has gotten a full-time job kind of in, in, in the area. Um, but then we also have a full, we have a really good strength and conditioning program here at the university where we have, uh, you know, two full-time strength and conditioning coaches, plus three GA’s, and they’re assigned to the team specifically.
Um, so they’ll work with the team. Usually two times in the fall. Two times a week, you know, with the lifting and the fitness stuff. And then the springtime, they’ll do it about three times. Um, so that kind of le lets us focus solely on, on the soccer side of things, where they’ll, they’ll take the guys and, and do those little sessions with them.
So all in all, you know, basically, uh, with our athletic trainers that we have full-time at every game, every practice, every away game. We’re operating with a staff of about four.
Matt: Okay, well, You mentioned it a little bit more or a little bit earlier, but, uh, asking a little bit more on it, how would you describe your style of coaching, the team style of play, and just that overall culture of the team?
Coach: Sure. Um, I’d say it’s ever, ever evolving. You know, we’re, we’re still in a position right now being such a young program that we don’t have the luxury of being able to take a system and then recruit based on that system. You know, I’m still looking to bring in. The best players I can bring in, regardless of what position they play in.
Um, and then we’ll look in pre-season, how we set up based on how can I get my best 11 players on the pitch in their most natural position, you know? And that’s, that’s what we look forward to doing. And it could change from year to [00:21:00] year. And same time, we’ve got three teams, university of Charleston, Davidson, Elkins, Notre Dame.
We’re in top 25 and. We just right now can’t really compete with them, um, because they’re just that much better than us. So we have to adapt our, our playing style to try to get the best result we can when we play against them. And then we’ve got another two or three teams in the league that, you know, are probably the same level as us.
So we can focus on is it or we’re playing away, do we need to draw? Do we need to win? Can we need a clean sheet? Let’s play this way. And there’s probably about two, maybe three teams in our league that we are better then, so we can really kind of focus on, all right, what can we do? Within ourselves to be, you know, more productive and we don’t really have to worry about them too much in terms of their tactics.
So it’s, it changes day by day. Um, so we try to do two or three shapes during pre-season, be proficient with that. And, and we know guys that will play some games because we’re playing this way and they won’t play the next game because we’re playing this way. So it really is kind of a, a squad scenario that we try to use the best we can.
Okay.
Matt: Well, you’ve been super generous with your time and I, and I do appreciate that. And as we wrap up, I just wanna ask you, if there was one piece of advice, one nugget of information that you would want to share with potential families or recruits, uh, that are going through this process, what would that be?
Coach: Sure. Um, you know, I’ve been lucky enough that, you know, my, my dad was a coach at Mount Jesuit University for 39 years, so I had a lot of. Wisdom brought down by [00:22:30] him, you know, being through it all, winning championships, losing seasons, and all that fun stuff. So, you know, basically the best advice I had from him was just kind of cherish, um, the guys while they’re here and make sure that you establish lasting relationships, you know, with them.
Um, he says, you know, he’s won many, many, many titles and the best thing he said to me is that I get more joy out of. Going to my former players’ weddings. Um, they gave me emails, but they got a job and, um, going to, you know, christenings for their, their kids and their kids coming back for alumni weekend and, and basically providing kind of a family atmosphere.
You know, and that’s kind of what I’m trying to start here at Westby with a new program is hopefully, you know, 15 years from now when I’m still here, that. The guys that played for me my first year come back and they’ve got their kids with them and, and they’re really appreciated of the, you know, the kind of the family atmosphere that we installed upon them, um, to grow them from basically 18 year old boys into 23 year old men.
And if they do that and they still stay connecting me with me throughout the years, then I think I’ve done my job.
Matt: Awesome. Well, coach, wish you the best of luck in the, in the upcoming season and rounding out your recruiting class. And, uh, if you do get down to IMG Cup, make sure you gimme a shout just a few miles away.
I, uh, yep. You know, used to, used to be my event many moons ago, but, uh, excellent. And if you, and hopefully, uh, you see Elm or, or. Yeah, I think maybe Ecnl boys might might be trying to move their event here to Bradenton, so hopefully, but uh, [00:24:00] we’ll, uh, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll grab a coffee and, and catch up then. All right.
Take care. I appreciate it.
