Wheaton College Women’s Soccer – Coach Patrick Gilliam
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Patrick from the Wheaton Women’s Program in Illinois. We talk about his relational style of recruiting focusing on fit. He describes the high academic standards of the school. Lastly, we discuss his roster size with. Learn more about Wheaton College Women’s Soccer.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi everybody. Welcome to Discover College Soccer. Today I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Gilliam from Wheaton up in Illinois. Welcome coach.
Coach: Hey, thanks Matt. Appreciate it.
Matt: Yeah, thanks for being here. Well, you know, I got the, the soft spot for the D three s in my heart, having played at one, many, many, many moons ago.
Uh, but you know, we’re, we’re here, we’re talking in May. This is probably going out in June sometime. But in terms of your recruiting calendar, um, you know, I’m guessing. Well, obviously probably now your, your 20 threes are done and dusted unless there’s one possible hanging out there. But kinda what does your normal calendar look like?
Is it primarily a year prior? Are you doing kind of two years at once? What’s that look like for you?
Coach: Yeah, I think for me, um, I see recruiting, uh, there’s a couple, I think deep foundational things that probably guide and shape my calendar more than just. It’s kind of like a rigid timeline and, and one is, I would say I see recruiting is very relational.
Um, I think, and maybe actually I should start with the other. I see recruiting as the goal for everybody involved is to find fit. Um, if, if I find fit, I’ve got student athletes who are contributing to the vision that I have for the kind of program we want to have. Both on and off the field. Um, those students are having a phenomenal experience then because they’re like, man, I really belong here.
This is a [00:01:30] place that I can get what I want out of my experience. Mom and dad are happy because their daughter’s not calling and saying, Hey, come get me. I hate it here. Um, the teammates on the current team are happy with the newcomers cuz they see a blend and a fit. So fit is just foundational. So. And I don’t think you get fit with quick fix recruiting.
Um, you just can’t, um, there’s no way for that young lady to know if Wheaton is a good fit for her. If something is hurried through and the process is very quick, um, there’s no way for me to know the, the fit of them and, and the culture and that we’re trying to build. Um, I don’t think mom and dad feel comfortable.
Wheaton has a very national expanse and so I think, uh, You know, we often, right now, when I came, I’ve only been here 16 months, but when I came here, you know, the majority of our roster is not from Illinois. Um, and, and so, uh, you know, moms and dads are sending their daughters, you know, across the country.
They’re not gonna do that, I think if they’re not comfortable with the coach and with the program. And so, uh, for me, I would say, yeah, I’m working on 20 fours and 20 fives. We, we are wrapping up the 20 threes for the most part, like you said, at this time of year. Uh, maybe a transfer or two still talking to, but overall, 20 threes are done.
But, uh, you know, I’ve been, you know, you begin to work on 20 fours and 20 fives, 20 fours more rigidly, but you’re building relationships, getting out and starting to see the 20 [00:03:00] fives. Um, because I, I, I just take it back to the relational component and um, to the fit thing, and I don’t know how that works unless you really do work far in advance.
Matt: Oh, that makes sense. Well, One of the questions I get from folks is, you know, does the league I play in matter? You know, with the alphabet soup continuing to change every year, it seems of, of new leagues and stuff. Is there, uh, is there a league that you tend to look at more than others or, or events that you tend to go to more than others when you, when you’re looking to players?
Coach: Yeah. Um, right. Obviously, you know, the. Like you said, the alphabet soup, you know, of GA and E C N L and and things like that. Um, I think there are players, um, there are probably loads of players out there who can play at our level, contribute, contribute very positively and become high quality division three players, both in the conference regionally, nationally.
Um, who maybe don’t come from an E C N L team or a GA team? Um, I think if you, in your head as a coach, I think at my level in particular, just limit yourself to those events. I think you’re missing some real diamonds in the rough and, um, I just have never been a coach who’s rigidly like the, well, those are the only events I’m going to [00:04:30] attend.
Now, I will say this about those events. When you go to those events, especially I think as a. A division three coach. Um, you know, you can generally assure yourself if I’m gonna spend the money, spend the time, sit at, you know, three, four days of an event. There’s a lot of players who can play, you know, and contribute at the division three level at those events.
And so, you know, maybe return for your investment of time and dollars, um, those events are high quality. Um, and, uh, I can’t say that those haven’t been productive experiences for me. Um, but I, I don’t come with a bias that says those are the only players that I think can play at this level. And I think players need to find fit with their club.
Uh, we have a club here locally, uh, a Chicagoland, really a Wheaton area club that one of their aged groups is just phenomenal. I just love watching them play. It’s just like a joy to go watch them play and probably stylistically I agree with a lot of the things they do and such, but. Man, it’s like, and, and they’re not, they’re not GA or E C N L.
And yet, man, the, the ball movement, the, the literal knowledge of what, almost like what they just know where everybody’s at. And, uh, the triangles, the diamonds, the possession, the, the movement off the ball. It’s phenomenal. And it’s like these players could, could easily play, you know, at that level. But they’re playing for a smaller club and been together a long time.
And the continuity [00:06:00] is very evident. Uh, by how they play. So I just, that bias doesn’t sit well with me. But are those events productive? Um, sure, because there’s just a lot of high quality players there, but I can see players at those events. That’s that sometimes, you know, I’m like, you’re not as strong as a player playing at a small club that I’m looking at back home.
Yeah.
Matt: Yeah. Well, whether it’s at, at any events or any club league level, whatever, what’s kind of the mix of. Players that you’re going to see because they’ve reached out to you initially versus players you are seeking out or you know, or you hear about from other places, coaches, things like that.
Coach: Yeah. Um, I would say when I go to the eec, n l, the, the ga, the larger events, um, probably a blend of the two.
Um, it might even be. More, I don’t know if there’s a good term cold call recruiting. Right? I’m going and I’m just, I’m sitting at matches and saying, who, who stands out to me? And, you know, I’m gonna reach out to that young lady afterwards and introduce myself and introduce her to Wheaton. Um, you know, there are players at those events, I think because of Wheaton’s nationwide reach that have reached out to me.
But I think the larger events, you know, if you go to a, a, a good size E C N L event, you know you’re sitting. You know, with predominantly Division one coaches and, [00:07:30] and your division two coaches and, and you might be one of the smaller schools there. And so the volume of young ladies at those events who’ve reached out to me might not be more than half of what I’m watching.
Um, when I go to other events, maybe smaller events, more local events, um, many times I’m going because. The recruit has reached out to me. You know, we’re, we’re, we’re kind of in the sectionals now for the Illinois State High School playoffs, and so the area around Wheaton has some very good high school teams.
And so, um, you know, a lot of club players playing for their high school and. Just high quality. Some of the best teams in the state of Illinois play right in proximity to Wheaton. And so I’ve been out at a lot of high school games. Generally when I go to a high school game, I’m going, because someone has asked me to come and there is a player there that we’re looking at.
Um, I think again, the, the quality of the, the larger national events can allow me to say, okay, we only have three players that asked us to come to this. But I’m still gonna get value out of this weekend just because of all the good players here and, and it’s fun, right? It, it’s like a needle in a haystack.
But boy, when you write somebody that you noticed on a Saturday at an E C N L event and you know, you share a little bit about your program and they, they get on the web and start looking at Wheaton and they write back and say, Hey, I might actually be interested in coming out for a visit. That’s kind of neat.
You know, the thought of like, God kind of leading, you know, two people to [00:09:00] cross paths like that at, at an event where there’s, you know, hundreds and thousands of people and, uh, yeah. So I’d say at the bigger events I may be doing more, 50 to 75% of just sitting in looking for people. And at local events and smaller events, I’m generally choosing to go to that event because someone’s asked me.
Okay.
Matt: Do you guys do camps or do you or your staff work, other camps? How do camps fit into the whole
Coach: process? Yeah. When I came to Wheaton, uh, in my former school, I had done an ID camp. Um, and, uh, even though the numbers were small, we found it to be very productive. If you looked at each recruiting class, it’d be like, man, half, half our class attended an ID camp at some point in their recruiting process.
Um, when I came to Wheaton, they said they had not really done them or. Even really done them, attempted them much, had much success with them. And I was like, I wanted to be very teachable. I was in an NAI school. This is a division three school, different, you know, everything’s different. And so I was like, okay.
And then I just kept getting asked by players like, when’s your ID camp? When’s your ID camp? And so early about this time last year, I said, I’m gonna have one. And I had to have it in August just to give people time to sign up. Um, because I had decided so late to have one. And we had 48 people come. And, uh, so we decided to have another one this year.
We have one on June 16th, uh, here on campus and still have spots available. [00:10:30] Um, try to keep it small. It’s very inexpensive. Um, I don’t believe in using them as a fundraiser. I’m, they’re, they’re, and I, they’re a chance to identify talent and fit and to introduce young ladies to Wheaton. And so we keep ours very inexpensive.
Um, And I think what it does, it even helps with travel. It’s a one day event, and so I kind of figured maybe we wouldn’t get a lot of people from out of state, but because we keep the cost so low, like it’s less than $50 registration. Oh wow. Well then what happens is they can afford to fly in because if they can get a flight for a couple hundred dollars and the camp is only, you know, less than $50, they’re not, they’re not having to fly and pay for travel.
Plus pay a 300, $400 camp fee to, to get into the camp. And, uh, we keep our numbers pretty small, like under, under 40 or 50. And so they’re getting a fair amount of attention as well. So haven’t gone out. I’ve had opportunities to go out and work on other, uh, camp staffs. I think I use the summer really to, to grow and learn.
I’m a big reader and I want to spend time with family as well, and so I wouldn’t be opposed to that, but, I feel like the camps that we have here are enough, um, for, for me in that area in the summer. And plus there’s recruiting events in the summer to get to as
Matt: well. For sure. Okay, well, let’s shift gears a little bit.
Talk about Wheaton itself. I know, [00:12:00] I mean, I’m familiar, uh, but I’m sure there’s folks out there, especially maybe down here in Florida who, who maybe, uh, aren’t familiar with Wheaton. Um, and I know you’ve only been there, like you said, 16 months, but. But I think, uh, your previous school wasn’t, wasn’t too far away.
Mm-hmm. Uh, from Wheaton. So can you just give me what you found so far to be some, some great things that you found about Wheaton that maybe folks may not know just by going
Coach: through the website? Yeah. Uh, Wheaton is a, uh, division three, as we’ve talked about, institution located in Wheaton, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago, a beautiful suburb of Chicago, about, you know, Huh?
Depends on the traffic, I guess, but, you know, less than 30 miles outside the city. Uh, you can get in on a train ride in 30, 40 minutes. Um, good traffic, 45 minutes or less than an hour. And, uh, and Wheaton’s just a, a beautiful west, uh, suburb of Chicago. And, um, school’s been around since 1860. Uh, it’s an evangelical Christian college.
Um, Uh, some incredibly well known alumni. Probably the most prominent being Billy Graham attended school here. And, um, I think what makes Wheaton really unique is, um, the academic rigor is extremely high. So it’s one of the best academic institutions around. Certainly when you get into, um, smaller liberal arts colleges, this is a liberal arts college.
You get into small [00:13:30] Christian liberal arts institutions. I. Some would say this is one of, if not the best school in the country for that. And so the academic rigor and the academic experience that we can offer a student athlete is off the charts. And I’ve seen that a little bit when we, to relate it to your questions about recruiting.
When, uh, how much is me going out and finding players and how much is players who are contacting us and saying, Hey, I’m already interested in your school and I happen to wanna play intercollegiate soccer as well. I see so much more of that here than at my former institution just because of the incredible, uh, spiritual and academic reputation of Wheaton.
Um, another key thing here, I think, is that there is a resolute commitment to excellence in everything. Um, yeah, in, in the short time I’ve been here, I’m just blown away by like, even just care for facilities. Um, you know, having been in the college game for a while, you know, you just see all aspects of.
Being in higher ed and I mean, everything here, the, the meticulous details, landscaping and caring for facilities and, um, yeah, it’s, it’s pretty impressive. So that, you know, the campus is a beautiful place. The things that our students and student athletes are in from classrooms to laboratories. Residence halls, dining halls, all those things are cared for with just such excellence.
And so, um, but I think, uh, I think, [00:15:00] you know, and that goes into I think too, the commitment to athletic excellence. Like Wheaton wants to put its student athletes and its teams and the position to be the best that they can be. Um, the ability to go out and recruit alone, as I’ve been so impressed by that, like just the way that they have said, hey, You know, we’re making a commitment to you as a coach so that you can go out to these events and recruit.
Um, and then I think what makes it very unique, I touched on earlier, is that it all comes, the school’s motto would be for Christ and his kingdom. And so the idea is that, um, that athletic experience, that academic rigor and academic experience, that commitment to excellence is coming under the umbrella of.
Um, a strong biblical foundation, um, that the school has been, was founded upon and has been very committed to, for, you know, a long, a long time since 1860. Wow.
Matt: Awesome. Well, let’s shift gears a little bit, talk about the soccer side of things. Um, you know, is there, when we talked about recruiting, but is there a roster size that you find is ideal that you’re trying to hit every year?
Coach: Yeah, I would like to be, in my mind, I would like to be 30 to 32. Um, When I got here, uh, we had 18 returners that came in January of 21. Um, and so I came more than halfway through a recruiting year, so we were able to get four that got us to 22. Um, but I had 11 seniors on the team [00:16:30] and so, uh, I had 11 returners when the fall 22 season ended.
Um, we have 13 in the current class coming in and, uh, Uh, with losing four next year, you know, I’m looking at another 10 to 12 next year that I need to get to get to that 32 number. I always saw, you know, if you have 11 returners and you want to be at 32, it’s easy to be like, oh, I need a, I need 20, I need 20, I need 22.
I didn’t want to try to tackle it in one year. I felt like that would water down the product and, and so what I wanted was 10 to 12 this year and 10 to 12 next year. And you know, we’re at 13 right now. Could hit 14. If we get 10 to 12 next year, we’re gonna be at that number, I think 30 to 32. The reason Matt, is you’re never 30 to 32 healthy.
I like to train with mid twenties, minimally. Um, that would probably be an ideal number. I feel with 32 on the roster, you’re generally healthy in the 25, 26, 27 range. Um, because. You’re just gonna have injuries. And, um, and you’re gonna have people out of training for sure. They might play in matches, but your, your training staff says, Hey, you know, we need to hold her out of practice today.
And, and 25 or so for training is just a perfect number. There were times this past season with the numbers I’ve already shared that we were training with 14 or 15 people, and that’s just really hard. And so, [00:18:00] um, so I would definitely, it’s a time at Wheaton. For those that might listen to this. It is a time at wheat where I think opportunity is there for roster spots and I think opportunity is there for even playing time when you look at the fall 2014.
Um, if we can fast forward ahead, you know, three quarters of the team are gonna be freshmen or sophomores, and so, uh, freshman can play. I have always been a guy who says freshman’s good enough, she should play. And we did that this past year, but. It is a lot easier for freshmen and sophomores during playing time when they’re competing against other freshmen and sophomores versus, you know, seniors who have much more college experience.
And so, um, so yeah, it’s a time of building, I think here right now, but, uh, I feel like this class has been a really good start and the relationships that we’ve already forged with 20 fours have us have us looking like we can hit those numbers and get to that 30 to 32. Okay.
Matt: Well, besides yourself, what does the staff make up look like?
What’s everybody’s roles there? How do they interact with players? Kind of talk about them a little bit.
Coach: Yeah. I just, uh, actually had some transition in staff and so, uh, brought in, um, our assistant coach, uh, our full-time assistant coach is Jeannie Nielsen. And Jeannie actually played for me at my former school, but is married to a Wheaton athletic grad.
Uh, he’s a pastor in the area. A lot of the students here, many of the [00:19:30] athletes, uh, attend their church. And so she’s been kind of deeply rooted in the Wheaton community for probably the last 13 years, even though she played for me at Trinity. And so her and I are very aligned philosophically, um, yeah, on and off the field.
Um, she knows Wheaton and, and it’s been really entrenched in Wheaton longer than I have. Um, and so very excited to have her coming on. And then one of our graduating seniors, I mentioned 11 seniors graduating. One of our graduating seniors is going to go to grad school here at Wheaton, and we’ve brought her on as a graduate assistant.
Her name is Molly Thorn. And, um, very excited to have her because I think too, uh, in my first year there, she was one of the biggest, she was, I felt like all the girls really did a phenomenal job of getting on board and buying in, but she was one. But really I think, yeah, really resonated with the vision I had for where I saw the program capable of going.
And so to have two people so aligned, I think with, uh, where we want to go is, is exciting. And, uh, Molly will do a lot of, uh, you know, being younger, being in grad school will probably take on a lot of, uh, areas she’ll work with, uh, you know, our small groups on our team and. Um, do a lot of mentoring. I think she, there’s obviously a close relationship already with some of the players that were on the team when she played, and then she just has a real heart for reaching out to people.
Very [00:21:00] caring individual, uh, Jeanie’s, phenomenal administratively. And then, like I said, I just think there’s such a connection with her and I with her having played for me, her being here at Wheaton. Um, you know, she’s gonna be much more hands-on in the, the day-to-day, um, just because of the full-time nature.
Okay.
Matt: Well, coach, you’ve kind of given us a whole bunch of stuff to think about in terms of recruiting the school, the team. It’s been awesome. But, uh, I like to end these with, if there was one nugget, one piece of advice that you could give players, parents, anybody going through the college recruitment process, you’ve had some great experience both at the N A I A and D three level.
Uh, w what would you wanna share with folks that, that are looking at playing in college and, and hoping to do that in the future?
Coach: Yeah, it’s gonna sound repetitious, but maybe I shouldn’t have said it at the beginning, but, um, I just, I think I would reiterate the idea of fit. I just, I think that, um, and fit in all areas, right?
You can find amazing fit, uh, with a coach and, and with a program. And yet that academic fit, you know, which is really, you’re thinking a big chunk. The predominant chunk of college should be about VO preparation for vocation and life, you know, the 50 to 60 years after college. And, and so, um, I think fit just in all areas, socially, relationally, academically, spiritually, if that’s a component.
Um, Soccer wise, you know, don’t choose a [00:22:30] school on one pillar. Um, choose, uh, a school and a soccer program on what might be the best overall, uh, fit for you. And then I think one of the things that I’m proud of in my time as a coach and, um, I would challenge families to think about this. And I would say this, Matt, with believing 100% that I’m not the only coach in the country who does this.
I’m one of hundreds and more that I’m sure do it. But find a coach who’s gonna care about you as much as a, a person, as a player. Um, you know, I think at the end of the day we coach people. We don’t coach players, we coach people. And it can be very easy sometimes, um, you know, for coaches just to get caught up in a, I’m coaching the player and in actuality, and I think especially in this day and age in 2023, we are coaching people, complex people, dealing with a very.
Complex and I, I would say, much more difficult to navigate world than when I was their age. And, um, even when I started coaching college, even when I started coaching college soccer, the world wasn’t as complicated for our student athletes as it is now. And so you need to find a coach and a program that’s gonna be invested in who you become as a wife.
As a mom, as an employee, um, you know, the, the, a phrase I use a lot is like I’m coaching, uh, you know, for a four year experience, for a [00:24:00] 50 year impact. And that’s what we’re looking to do. And again, I make it very, very boldly and confidently say there are so lots of coaches out there who coach with that mindset.
But I’d be, if I, you said one nugget to give to a recruit and their family, I’d say find a program where that’s gonna happen because, The soccer will, um, eventually go away. And what did you get out of the soccer experience? And then here’s the other reason to find a coach who cares about you as a person is, um, you’re going to spend more time.
I’m a D three coach, right? There’s a lot of limits on what I can do and the amount of time I can spend with student athletes. But if you take a Wheaton women’s soccer player’s four years of college, She will spend more calendar hours probably with me and her teammates than any professor, anybody else on campus.
And so if that’s the person, now, maybe I’m speaking to the moms and dads, if that’s who your daughter is gonna spend more calendar hours with than anybody else, and I have a 23 and a 28 year old, so I, one was a college athlete, so I’ve been through this. Why wouldn’t I want to pick somebody who cares about my daughter as a person?
As much or more than they do as a player. If, if that’s who sh, if that’s the leader that she’s gonna spend more calendar hours with than anybody else in her time at Wheaton, I would certainly wanna find somebody who said, well, that’s, that’s a person I’m coaching, [00:25:30] not just a player.
Matt: Absolutely Coach Lovett, I appreciate your time.
Wish you the best of luck, uh, wrapping up this roster, getting out there in the fall. And if you get to any of the E C N L events or anything down here in Bradenton, let me know and we’ll, uh, we’ll grab a cup of coffee or something. All right.
Coach: Sounds great. Thanks for having me, Matt.
Matt: Thank you.
