Winthrop University Men’s Soccer – Coach Daniel Ridenhour
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Daniel Ridenhour from the Winthrop University Men’s Program. We talk about what he does on June 15th recruiting-wise. He describes the school’s advantageous location. Lastly, we discuss how they focus on their principles of play more than any one formation. Learn more about Winthrop University Men’s Soccer.
[00:00:00] Matt: Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Daniel ridden hour from Winthrop university. Welcome coach. Oh, thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. Uh, you guys are down there in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Lovely part of the country, I’ll be driving through the other, uh, Eastern part of the state here in a week or so driving north.
[00:00:20] But, uh, let’s, let’s talk a little bit about the, uh, the recruiting side of things for you guys as a division one school. Um, obviously today is a big day, so maybe you’ve been busy, uh, picking up the phone to those rising juniors, uh, who are allowed to be contacted today. But. In terms of recruiting.
[00:00:39] When do you really start putting kids on a list, looking at players? What year in high school are they, when does that process really get started for the guys you’re bringing into your program?
[00:00:48] Coach: Obviously today’s June 15th first day that you can contact a junior. Um, I’m a little bit different, uh, in that I think every day for high school, student’s an important day.
[00:01:00] Um, and I think we. I think a lot of coaches and, and a lot of families have circled the state as like, if you don’t get called or you don’t get contacted, uh, you’re not gonna get recruited. So I, I, we intentionally don’t contact anybody today. Um, that might sound crazy. Uh, I think mental Health’s more important than anything.
[00:01:21] And, um, I, I don’t wanna stress people out with. With, with calls and emails, we’re gonna send an email out to all the juniors that, that are in our, or that are in our database that we haven’t been able to communicate with before basically saying here’s a questionnaire and, um, you know, we we’ve, we’ve identified you and we’d like to start some conversations, but it’s not, uh, it’s not the end at all.
[00:01:44] Be all for us June 15th today for juniors.
[00:01:47] Matt: Amen to that. Um, yeah, just what I’ve seen so far on Twitter this morning was just a little bit, a little bit nutty, but. So you, you talk about players that you maybe in terms of identifying and getting ’em in your database. So, right. What are some of the, can miss events that you go to, where are you doing a lot of that identification process and, and how does that all work?
[00:02:10] Coach: So we, we try to attend, uh, as many ECNL events as possible MLS next events. Um, you know, I still think it’s important to try to get to us Y events, um, You know, there’s myself and one assistant. So it’s not like our staff’s massive. Now, uh, we previously had, you know, two, two assistant coaches that were on the road, recruiting head coaches.
[00:02:30] And obviously COVID, there’s, there are things that happen and positions are eliminated for the time being. Um, but I think it’s important to try to get to the EC L events MLS next, and any US Ys event we can get to obviously regionally, locally, there’s a lot of club teams in our area. We try to get to as.
[00:02:50] Uh, games as possible. I’m gonna go to a game tonight. Um, and you know, we, we’re in an area of the country where we get to see a lot of different teams, uh, kind of come through, um, being in Charlotte, being, you know, there’s usually a national event in Greenville every year with, with ECNL, uh, MLS events. Uh, we’re in Baltimore this year.
[00:03:10] That’s not terribly far away. Uh, so we can, we can get, we can get around to see as many players as we can, especially in the, you know, the, the Eastern part of the United States.
[00:03:19] Matt: No. That’s great. Well, what about camps? How does that fit into your equation? Whether they’re your own camps or your staff at, at other.
[00:03:26] Coach: camps?
[00:03:26] So my, my assistant tries to hit three or four certain camps that he, you know, he’s, he’s been going to since he was previously head coach at a junior college. Uh, so he is building relationships with guys where he’s gonna go work some of their camps this summer. Um, we do one day ID camps. Uh, we previously did an overnight camp here, but with COVID they’ve.
[00:03:46] Still not really opening it back up to us, having people in dorms and whatnot, which is fine. So we do one day ID camps. We try to, we try to cap it at 30 and that’s four goalkeepers. And then, you know, 26 field players. I, I, I think it’s important that when you come to an ID camp, uh you’re in our environment, uh, we do a, I mean, we basically put someone, put players to a full training session in the morning, you know, two hours give them a, a long enough break where they get something to eat.
[00:04:17] We do a Q and a session, and then. You know, we come back and we evaluate ’em in games. Uh, we do video both sessions and I think it’s important that we provide that video to kids, uh, where they can then use that as a tool for themselves. Um, so we host four of those throughout the year. We host two in the summer, uh, one in the fall.
[00:04:38] And then, and then one in the, the winter, spring months, um, you know, I think last year we had 31 guys on our roster. 15 of the 31 players we had, we had had it, um, had had a camp. Um, my previous two assistants, uh, Kyle, Kenny, and Phil Heinsen, Phil Heinsen was our associate ed coach. Uh, he did a great job in making sure we would get guys that we’re into camp that we really had a need to see.
[00:05:06] And Kyle was the same way when, when Phil stepped away, uh, we were bringing guys into camp that we had a strong desire to build relationships with. And we had a bunch of guys that would come to, you know, Two three camps. And if they’re investing their time in us and we’re investing our time in them, we’re able to build some, some pretty strong relationships.
[00:05:25] Um, and they got to know us and we got to know them. And it’s, um, you know, when you’ve got 15 guys in your roster that have been at camp that says something about at least, I, at least I hope it says something about what we’re trying to do.
[00:05:37] Matt: Yeah, for sure. Well, you mentioned evaluations, uh, at camp, but when you’re evaluating players, whether it’s at camp or, or an ECNL showcase or anything, kind of, what is your what’s on your, that evaluation list?
[00:05:49] What are you, what boxes are you looking for kids to tick? Whether that’s on the field or off.
[00:05:53] Coach: the field stuff. That’s a, that’s a, that is about the. That is a major loaded question. Um, so we have a, we have a, a recruiting matrix for let’s just say, uh, positions. Okay. So we’ve got, we’ve got the position, you know, specific criteria that we’re kind of making notes of, you know, as a center back, is, are they good in the air?
[00:06:13] Can they defend, um, you know, what’s their PHY, obviously we’re looking at the physical, physical part of the game. Uh, what, how do they read the game? So each position kind of has some, some D. Uh, metrics that we’re, we’re looking at, we’re kind of ranking. Um, you know, we’ve got an internal ranking system that we do within the staff.
[00:06:33] Uh, and then we go back and look at if, if, if there’re games of, if there’re games that have been filmed, that we know they’re, they’re filmed and there’s a kid we made note of we’ll go back and watch them. But basically when we’re watching kids, it’s a lot of, what’s your body language? Like, how do you react ?
[00:06:52] You know, what’s your emotional and mental state like, uh, how do you speak to your teammates? Uh, how do you speak with the referee? Um, you know, what’s your relationship like with your coach? If you’re, if you’re subbed out or you, you know, when people, when players come off they’re, you’re, they’re usually not gonna be happy, but, you know, are, are you, are you, are you positive or are you, are you a negative human being?
[00:07:16] Um, You know, I, I will sit occasionally and I don’t like to be near their parents, but occasionally I’ll sit where I can hear parents and families. And, um, not that we’re recruiting mom and dad. Um, but we’re definitely listening to some of the comments that mom and dad are making. Um, because if I hear some of that from the sideline and I’m, and then I’m not gonna hopefully have to deal with that in a college environment.
[00:07:42] But I don’t want that bleeding into, to, to our environment. So, um, I think it’s, uh, I think recruiting is, obviously watching the player, trying to understand, Hey, do they fit your system? They fit what you want? Are they a, are they, do they technically have the components? They tactically have the components?
[00:08:01] Do they physically have the components? But I think that the human aspect probably is. um, I don’t wanna say it’s, it’s, it’s weighted more, but it’s probably just as important as all the other things combined. Yeah,
[00:08:15] Matt: absolutely. In terms, you know, we talked about camps and, and tournaments locally, but you know, you’ve, you’ve got a handful of international players on the roster right now.
[00:08:27] How does international recruiting kind of factor into your, your overall, uh, looks each year?
[00:08:35] Coach: Uh, basically building, I mean, it’s comebacks to relationships, you know, we’ve built. Our previous head coach, uh, the gaffer rich PA panko. He had, you know, when I came in in 2004, uh, he had had some good contacts and relationships built.
[00:08:51] We, you know, hopefully continue to develop those, build new relationships with contacts and different recruiting agencies, former players. Um, you know, I’m trying to think there’s, there’s not a current player. There’s probably five guys that I didn’t see play live. And that includes international players.
[00:09:12] So we’ve seen most of the guys play live. Uh, the incoming class we haven’t seen, uh, as many of them play live just with the COVID situation and being able to get out, uh, and recruit internationally. Um, you know, our university doesn’t want a whole roster of international players, but there’s a, you know, they, they bring a, a different element as far as, uh, not just being in a, being on the field, but they bring a different perspective to the classroom and a bit different perspective to, um, You know, the, the global, the global view being in a classroom with students from all over, you know, South Carolina, Southeast and international.
[00:09:46] So, um, we’re never gonna have a whole roster of internationals, but they certainly help our roster. They help our team. Um, they’re typically a little bit older, a little bit more mature and they’ve been playing and in some cases, men’s, you know, men’s senior men’s football for, you know, a year to, to two and a half to three years.
[00:10:06] Yeah. Um, Okay. That’s that. Yeah, I mean, and, and we, we look, I mean, I could recruit more internationals, um, and we’ve had more at times from, from different countries, but, you know, I think we have a, a good, uh, a good balance right now within our group. Yeah, no,
[00:10:24] Matt: That’s good. Now the big question that every kid and parent has is, is around the dollars and cents of things.
[00:10:31] Right? So I, I don’t need specifics, uh, you know, anything like that, but can you just give us a sense of what the academic and athletic financial aid situation it is cost of going to win through that kind of thing and what maybe an average player would be kind of situation they’d be walking into from a cost perspective.
[00:10:50] Coach: Right? So the. I’m gonna have to get specific here, just because, oh, go right ahead. Up to you. I don’t, it’s a, it’s a, so wins a state school. Um, there’s different, there’s different avenues that you can find funding, uh, obviously academics, uh, athletics. And then if you’re an in-state student, there’s the potential for you to qualify for, uh, academic money through the lottery system that we have here.
[00:11:16] Um, so the in-state cost is around 27, 28. Uh, out-of-state cost is somewhere between 41 and 42. Um, you know, we recruit in-state students because you know, the recruiting dollars go a little bit further, which we do try to recruit in-state. I think it’s important. Um, you know, there’s nine divisions, one school in South Carolina, you know, there’s four or five major cities, so it’s not like there’s as much talent to go around to nine schools.
[00:11:45] So obviously. It is harder to recruit kids from our own state, uh, at the level that we need to have ’em at. Um, so you could, you, you can meet certain criteria at, uh, academics. So 3.0 certain GPA, certain S a T score. You can qualify for money, both instate and out of state. Um, we are very fortunate, um, that we have a, what we call an out-of-state grant.
[00:12:11] Um, It’s a, you can get that through academics or athletics. Um, so if you get an academic scholarship and you’re out-of-state student, then you qualify for an in-state waiver, an out-state grant, which is essentially about 37% of a scholarship right off the top. Um, and it’s essentially a coupon. Um, we can give one from athletics as well.
[00:12:35] Uh, there’s some, there are some stipulations, as far as scholarship, we have to give a minimum scholarship to, to trigger. Um, but you know, you’re in-state student from South Carolina, they’re, you know, they’re average, they’re probably somewhere between seven and $12,000. Um, and then the inter the out-of-state kids, international kids, you know, it, it kind of varies, but you’re probably, I’ve never really done an average, but you’re probably looking at somewhere between 15 and 25, uh, spend, uh, out of pocket.
[00:13:09] all right.
[00:13:09] Matt: So that’s, uh, that’s not bad at all for a really good division one, uh, academic institution. So let’s talk a little bit more about the school. Um, you know, some folks, you know, may or may not be familiar with, with, with win through. Uh, yeah. So, you know, you’ve been there a, a decent bit of time, so, you know, gimme some of the awesome things about your school that I’m not gonna find just by clicking around a website.
[00:13:33] Coach: Well, I think the first thing that’s awesome about the school is, we’re in a great location. Um, you know, the location is, I mean, I think it’s one of the best places to be in, especially in the Southeast. You know, we’re right outside of Charlotte. Don’t wanna say, we’re, you know, we’re a bedroom community, but rock hill is a, is a growing community.
[00:13:52] Um, I mean we’re 25 minutes from the Charlotte airport. We’re 25 minutes from uptown. So probably our location is. Is a, is a big factor and a big pull, big pull for a lot of students, uh, especially postgrad because they look at opportunities in the finance sector in Charlotte. Charlotte is, um, it’s a banking capital outside of New York in the United States.
[00:14:14] Um, bank of, I mean, there’s, there’s a laundry list of Fortune 500 companies and banks that are, you know, here in Charlotte. So that helps, um, you know, I think the other thing that’s interesting is people wouldn’t know. You know, Rock Hill is a sports town. Um, I mean, there’s, we call it a football city in the USA.
[00:14:33] It’s the wrong football, but, um, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of guys that have played, played in the NFL from rock hill. Uh, the city invests a lot of money in infrastructure for athletic facilities. Uh, we have, we hosted the US disc golf championships every year on our campus last year for the Saturday event.
[00:14:51] Uh, there were 12,000 people on our athletic day. Um, livestream, there’s a hundred thousand dollars purse. So if you’re good at disc off I mean, these guys are pros. I mean, yeah. Yeah. They’re, they’re really, really impressive. Uh, but they’re great people that come and they add a lot to our community.
[00:15:08] Um, so there’s just different things that are in a rock hill that you, you get here and you’re like, oh, they; they have this and that. We have a velodrome. We have a BMX. We’re hosting the BMX world championships this year for the; I think the third time in seven or eight years, which is pretty. Um, you know, we built, uh, the city built an indoor sports and event center that’s, you know, drawn, drawn, big time college basketball games.
[00:15:33] We had Florida state and South Carolina come up and played a game here this past fall, uh, against, uh, thing, you know, rock Hills rock Hill known as a, there’s a, you know, city, no room for racism. There was an issue, an incident back in the sixties. Uh, the friendship nine, it’s a, it’s a really important part of the history of rock hill and.
[00:15:53] You know, there were nine, nine young men that sat at a counter. They didn’t move and they got arrested and they stayed in jail for a month. Uh, but that was during the civil rights movement. And I think that’s, uh, a part of our history. That’s, you know, not something that we can learn from, um, and those gentlemen are, you know, some of ’em are still here in rock hill and they speak quite regularly to groups.
[00:16:14] And I think that’s a, you know, they’ve, they’ve been real. Positive influence in our community, the friendship nine. And, and that, that, that incident is kind of probably brought rock hill at times into the national conversation with some things. Oh,
[00:16:30] Matt: That’s that’s good stuff. Um, well, in terms of, uh, you know, students coming to the school and needing to balance their academics and their athletics, uh, how, how do your players do that?
[00:16:43] What, what kind of support systems are there in place to make sure they, you know, succeed in the classroom as well as on the field.
[00:16:49] Coach: So we have, we have a full-time athletic, uh, academic advisor, uh, Claire Moony, Melvin, and I, I wouldn’t trade her for anybody. She’s unbelief. Um, you know, she’s got a, she’s got a staff of, you know, a couple of grad assistants to work with her and, you know, incoming students, freshmen required six hours of required study hall.
[00:17:09] Uh, that’s pretty typical, probably at most places. Our transfers are looked at a little bit different, uh, depending on you know, how their GPA is coming in. Um, you know, our team GPA this past year was three points. 3.31, um, for the year. So it’s not like, I mean, most of our guys are, you know, achievers or not a lot of guys that are below a three.
[00:17:33] Oh, um, you know, there’s academic support. There’s a math lab on campus. There’s a writing lab on campus. So if you’re struggling, um, You can go to those labs and, and get help from, from other, other people outside of the athletic department as well. Uh, we do provide tutors, um, you know, we don’t have tutors for ancient Sanskrit or anything, but, you know, as long as you’re taking a class that we can get a tutor for you, you can get a tutor.
[00:17:59] Uh, we tell most of the guys when they come in and I’m a, I’m a really just transparent, straight up person. Most of 98% of the professors at this university, they’re gonna give you their cell number. Uh, they’re gonna tell you to call ’em. They’re gonna tell you to text ’em. If you have an issue, um, they really care about students.
[00:18:19] Um, they want to make sure that students are successful. They wanna make sure that they. It’s not just, you know, lip service, the, the, you know, teacher to, you know, faculty to teach your teacher-student ratios like 14 or 15 to one. So you’re not in these massive classes. Now you’re gonna have some classes that are, you know, 40, 40 students, but most of them are smaller.
[00:18:42] Um, teachers are gonna wanna know who you are, that if you’re not in class, they’re gonna know. Uh, we tell most of the guys, like if you’re struggling. Go find a mirror and go talk to yourself and say, what am I doing wrong to not be, to not be successful? Cause everything’s here for you to be successful most of the time.
[00:19:01] It’s um, it’s on the, it’s on a, it’s on a student athlete for there, you know, lack of attempt or lack of, uh, focused or lack of time management. Um, you know, And I, I would, I, I don’t know all our team’s GPAs, but I would say if there’s any student athlete that’s struggling at win it’s, it’s probably them and it’s not the, the, the university or the, the teacher or our academic support.
[00:19:27] Yeah,
[00:19:28] Matt: for sure. Well, in terms of class time and practice time, what, what does that look like for men’s soccer in terms of when they usually practice, when they usually go to class, et cetera?
[00:19:39] Coach: So the guys don’t like it. We practice in the morning. Um, I’m an early riser. So we’re up. And our guys, we train from eight 30 to 10 30 every day.
[00:19:48] Um, it’s once I think they get here and they get into the routine of, of getting to training, you know, 8 30, 8, 8, 8 30 in the morning, and we’re going, you know, you’ve got the rest of the day to get to class. You’ve got a rest day to study. Um, you know, a lot of the times we were prior, we were going in the afternoon and what was like.
[00:20:10] You know, guys have been in class, they’ve kind of had the weight of the day on ’em and then we get to training and it’s not as sharp. Most of our training sessions are really, really sharp in the morning. Um, you know, you have your odd day where, you know, guys are struggling to roll out of bed.
[00:20:23] But, um, so most of the guys are, you know, training from 8, 8 30 to 10 30, and then they start class between 11 and 12. And we have a lot of guys who take classes from 11 to about. There’s occasionally guys that’ll take one night class a week. Um, and there’s, I mean, like we, we’re not the largest university, you know, in the United States, you know, so we don’t have as many class offerings.
[00:20:49] Do we have guys that miss training or have to leave training at times and come, come later? Yeah. That, but we just work around it. Um, we just understand that that’s part of being a student athlete. This is our training block, but it’s not gonna be perfect for every guy. Yeah,
[00:21:03] Matt: no, that makes perfect sense.
[00:21:05] Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team and the soccer side of things. You mentioned the roster size of 31. Is that kind of what you aim for each year or is kind of COVID thrown that off or what’s your normal ideal roster size?
[00:21:18] Coach: It’s funny you ask. So we’re usually around between 28 and 30.
[00:21:22] Um, We’ve, we’ve kind of come into the past 96 hours, we’ve come into like five players that we didn’t think were even in the picture. Um, so we’re gonna have a larger roster this year than we’ll have ever had. Mm-hmm um, I don’t see it staying like that because I don’t have to then, uh, for the 23 group, you know, we were gonna, we have 11 seniors this year.
[00:21:46] Um, The co COVID the way it’s worked out. There’s, I mean, everybody’s essentially got an extra year. Um, most of our guys are gonna choose to. We’ve got a couple guys that have even two years left. Uh, so if they’ve got two years left, we’re actually gonna encourage them to go into the transfer portal, uh, August the first.
[00:22:06] Um, so we can help them get somewhere because they don’t want to get two degrees from the wind. And I have absolutely zero problem with that. I would actually encourage. You, if you’re gonna get two degrees, you don’t wanna get the same degree as an undergrad and a grad school. So we actually had two guys this year that did the same thing.
[00:22:23] One’s going to George Washington. And one is going to, um, James Madison, I think he’s going to Madison, uh, to get a master’s degree. So I
[00:22:35] hope,
[00:22:35] Matt: I hope, I hope Jonesie treats him. Over there at GW.
[00:22:39] Coach: so, um, and he is, he actually graduated in three years. Great kid. Oh, wow. And, um, he’s like, coach, I got, I got two years left.
[00:22:46] He’s like, I wanna go to grad school. And I was like going to the portal and he was like, seriously. And I was like, yeah, let’s get you in there. Let’s start having conversations with coaches. And I mean, we were talking about this in the fall and he was like, this is crazy. And I said, yeah, you’re in the process, you’re having to kind of re-recruit yourself.
[00:23:04] Yeah. Market yourself. And so, um, and I think those conversations are important to have, so our roster size is gonna be larger this year, but I think 28 to 30 is probably where we should be. It’ll probably be 34-35 this year, but when we lose 11 seniors next year, we won’t have to recruit. 10 or 11 guys will recruit four or five guys.
[00:23:26] Um, and it’s, it’s, you know, looking at my, our board. I think it’s right now, the split’s like 11, 8, 8, and six. So there’s some balance apart from that top top group. Um, that’s good. That’s just how it’s worked out. Yeah. So COVID was not, uh, working through all that has not been fun. Everything’s, everybody’s either plus one or plus two or, yeah.
[00:23:46] Matt: Um, it’s definitely thrown things off. Every coach I’ve talked to has had kind of the same. Same issues. So it’s, it’s nothing, nothing unique. You know, you mentioned having the one assistant, um, you know, how, how would you kind of describe both yours and, and his, your kind of style of coaching, style of play, what you guys are trying to do on the field as a team?
[00:24:10] Coach: Um,
[00:24:14] stuff we have, we have, we do have a second assistant. He’s a volunteer goalkeeper coach three days a week with our goalkeepers. Um, He works for, um, a company, a, a major international, uh, distributor. And he can, his, his team’s in Brazil, but he, he lives here. Um, so he’s there, he’s there with that guy, the goalkeepers, three days a week.
[00:24:38] So Zane and I are pretty much positional play guys. Um, I, I, wasn’t a positional play guy until about probably. Three or four years ago. Um, and it’s, it’s, you know, you have different staffs and different ideas. Our previous staff was, I mean, they were great guys and great human beings. And, um, you know, one of ’em went to the club world and one of them, you know, ended up going to an ACC program in a different role.
[00:25:03] And I was really happy for him. So, um, za, Zane’s been a head coach at a division, you know, at a junior college program for men and men and women. He and I kind of see the game similarly. We want to have the ball. Uh, everybody says that, but. We wanna have the ball. We want to run less. When we have the ball, we wanna be able to run more when we don’t have the ball.
[00:25:25] Um, so when we have the ball, it’s kind of our opportunity to rest and create chances. Um, is it gonna be like that every game? No. Um, you’re gonna come against teams that have, you know, better players, a higher level. Um, but, but we try to play. We want to try. You know, throw numbers forward, try to transitionally, be able to press and defend.
[00:25:46] And if not, we try to get back into a mid-block to a low block if we need, I’ve, I’ve gone away from really just playing out-and-out counter attack. Uh, but I think your philosophy, you know, everybody’s like, what’s the system? Do you play? I’m like a system is just a bunch of numbers on a sheet.
[00:26:03] Uh, it’s gonna be kind of fluid throughout, uh, a soccer match. You know you’re, you’re gonna have two guys in the back. Sometimes you’re gonna have three guys in the back. Sometimes you’re gonna have five guys in the back. Sometimes you’re gonna have, you know, four strikers or five strikers, depending on how, how you set yourself up.
[00:26:18] So, um, I think our thing is more like principles of play. Like we want to try to play forward. Um, We wanna have guys running forward. We want to, you know, if there’s, if there’s space, we wanna be able to bounce the ball back. If you’re, you know, if you’re not on the half turn, um, you know, when we defend, we want to make sure that it’s, it’s, we’re pressing as a group and it’s not just one person and the next guy.
[00:26:43] Um, so I think the principles are more important than just saying, Hey, look, this is, you know, we’re 4 30, 3 or 3, 4, 3, or, you know, 4 42. Um, We want guys that are technically able to play that are tactically, have an eye for the game. And they’re that, that physically can obviously do the work. Um, but I think I’m, I’m a play.
[00:27:04] I think I’m a player’s coach. You know, I like to; I like to enjoy training. Like we get to coach college soccer, guys get to play college soccer. It’s a privilege. It’s not right. Uh, so when we go out to training, we should, you know, are there, are there days where that is gonna be more challenging?
[00:27:21] Um, but we want to go out for training and, and actually enjoy it and it should be fun. And, you know, guys should be laughing and when they need to laugh and they need to be serious when they need to be serious. But like, um, I don’t take myself too seriously as a human being, as far as a college soccer coach, like I’m coaching soccer.
[00:27:39] It’s not like I’m. Yeah. You know, it’s not like I’m a doctor and I’m I’m, someone’s on an operating table. Um, I think it’s important that we connect with players as far as you know, on a daily basis where they’re at with their, you know, mental mindset. I think that’s probably the most important thing going on right now in college.
[00:27:57] Athletics is, um, making sure players and student athletes are in the right frame of mind and their, you know, there’s, there are many different factors to, you know, when I wasn’t going to college, we didn’t have cell phones. Not everything, not everything, was recorded. It was you. We weren’t looking for affirmation from likes and yep.
[00:28:19] You know, likes and hearts or whatever it is on Instagram, where you, where you, you know. Yep. You’re just, you know, I don’t want; I want people to be engaged and not just living vicariously through and, a phone or a machine. That’s that’s, that’s not real life. So we try. We try to get the guys into a situation where they can enjoy training.
[00:28:40] It’s a, it’s a space that’s safe and they can have fun. And like, they’re gonna say some things that, you know, privately, they might not say out loud, but there’s, there are things that, you know, we’ll have, I’ll have conversations with the guys that, that they’re gonna tell me some stuff. They might not tell other people, um, and that’s that stays between us, but everything should be set up for us for Zane and I, to be able to challenge guys to get better, but to develop not just as soccer players, but as young men.
[00:29:09] Yeah.
[00:29:10] Matt: Uh, absolutely love that. Well, coach, we’ve been gracious with your time. We’ve covered a lot of ground. Don’t wanna keep you, uh, but the last question, which I always end on is what didn’t we cover? What else is there you wanna talk about? Whether it’s soccer related school related or, or anything else?
[00:29:27] Oh, wow. Floor is yours.
[00:29:29] Coach: that’s that again, you, you, you just open it up. Um, I think everyone needs to realize that the transfer portal is real. And it is, it is changing the way, uh, high school student athletes are gonna get recruited, um, right or wrong. And is it gonna be this way forever? I, I don’t know.
[00:29:51] I can’t answer that. Um, but the transfer portal in a, it, affords coaches the ability to. June 15th for me today is just another day. Um, and I know junior parents are gonna say, well, that coach is crazy. It’s like, look, you’re gonna recruit a junior in high school and you’re gonna start communicating with him, building a relationship with him.
[00:30:14] And there’s a guy that goes into the portal. Who’s 22 years old and has two years of eligibility left and has played 50 games or 40 games in, in a two years. Um, and they have a lot of interest in your school. You have to weigh like, okay, what’s gonna be better for my program at that time. And again, I’m Tru, really transparent.
[00:30:41] Like it’s tough to say no to a 22-year-old kid. That’s two years compared to a 17 year, 18-year-old kid coming in as a young man or young woman. That’s not as far along as theirs, in their soccer development. Um, so I think that’s gonna be an interesting dynamic. Probably in the next three years to see where the transfer portal goes.
[00:31:02] Um, you know, I, I’m gonna be curious to see what happens with, with, uh, name, image, and likeness for, for soccer players. Um, cuz I think there’s gonna be a, you know, it’s, it’s arrived and I think it’s gonna be even more prevalent. I mean, we have guys on our team that have endorsement deals and they’ve got these things and they have to go through the right channels to, to, to get them.
[00:31:28] And they’re doing it the right way within the laws of the state of South Carolina. But I mean, there’re guys that are, they’re not making tons of money, but they’re making a little bit, um, and do I think they should be able to do that? Absolutely. Um, but I think those are two big things. The transfer portal and name, image, and likeness.
[00:31:43] And it’s been talked about a lot from, you know, from, you know, outside, outside of the college soccer realm, but I think it’s even more prevalent, uh, in college soccer and, and. The transfer portal basically opened up what was already happening before. I mean, we are college soccer, we were probably on the men’s side.
[00:32:01] It was probably percentage wise. It was probably always a high transfer sport. Now it’s just out in the open. Um, and it makes it like it’s a little bit easier, so it’s not all the back door dealings. Uh, it’s just, it’s just more transparent. Um, so those are two things that I would say. Um, I mean, I think the last thing I would say.
[00:32:23] Anybody that’s watching this. That’s it, that’s a young, young person that’s gonna wanna get recruited. Uh, you are your own salesperson. I mean, this is your, I don’t wanna say it’s a job interview, but you’re interviewing yourself, but you’re also interviewing the schools that you’re going to, like, you’re gonna come to win or you’re gonna go to school X, you know, a, B or C, and you’re gonna like the coaching staff, or you’re not gonna like the coaching staff and you need to be the one directing your search.
[00:32:48] It doesn’t need to be your mom or your dad, uh, take ownership of. Um, because when you get to campus, we’re not coaching mom or dad we’re, we’re coaching you and we’re developing you as a human and we want you to be invested in it. And you know, the, the, the worst thing you can do is have a mom or dad email or come on a visit.
[00:33:06] And the next thing you know, mom or dad are the only people asking questions and you’re on your phone. Like take a genuine interest in the schools and not every school’s gonna be for. Uh, so I’d always tell people like, there’s the right, there’s a school for everybody, uh, to play at. It just might not be the school that you necessarily wanna play at.
[00:33:25] So you’ve gotta decide, you know, academically, is it right? Is the right fit for me, athletically is the right fit for me socially. Is it the right fit for me? Uh, cuz you know, we, we, we, I mean even on my roster right now, I mean I’ve got guys that are a hundred percent invested in athletics and they wanna play at the next level.
[00:33:43] And then I’ve got other guys on our roster. They’re really great kids and they’re good players, but they’re not, you know, their interests are not just the soccer part. They, they’re more interested in the academic and social part and soccer is part of it. And I mean, we’re at a mid-major division one program and that’s, that still happens here.
[00:34:02] So just make sure that you’ve invested in your own process. That’s what I would say.
[00:34:07] Matt: Great advice, coach. And I really appreciate the time. We wish you the best of luck in this fall season. Uh, and, and. If you, uh, ever get down to IMG or the Bradenton area for recruiting, gimme a shout. We’ll, uh, we’ll grab a beverage of some kind.
[00:34:21] All right.
[00:34:22] Coach: Sounds good. All this, by the way, is not a monster. Yes. Yes. [00:34:26] Matt: Don’t worry. That’s all. I, I, I saw the logo, you know, I’m just making sure I just make it there. Won’t be, there won’t be any issues, uh, when, when this goes, uh, live, so, okay, perfect. Thanks. Thank you very much. Yep.
