Wittenberg University Women’s Soccer – Coach Katie Robinson
On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Robinson from the Wittenberg Women’s Program in Ohio. We talk about how recruiting players with injuries is a challenging process. She describes how many majors have a hands-on learning component. Lastly, we discuss how they look for players who want to compete everyday in training as well as off the pitch. Learn more about Wittenberg 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 Robinson from the Wittenberg women’s team in Ohio. Welcome coach. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Let’s uh, we got that central Ohio connection, uh, which I love, but, uh, let, let’s talk a little bit about recruiting.
You know, we’re here January hotbed of showcase season. Um, As a division 3 school, kind of give me an idea of the timeline that you’re under right now is the class of 24 is pretty much over. You look at 25. what what is your normal kind of timeline that you see in a recruiting class?
Coach: Um, yeah, so I think this year, we’re still seeing a little bit of the.
Like, results of covid and that current seniors, I think, aren’t quite as far along in the process as typically I’ve seen in my years of coaching division 3 by now. Typically, we have our class complete. We’re done. We’re moving on to 2020. Five is looking at that junior class. Um, this year we’re in a little bit of a different boat.
We have some offers out or waiting for some kids to decide. Um, some of that was slowed down because we didn’t figure out what the FAFSA was going to do, um, from the government. So obviously we don’t have any control over that. Um, so being a division three school, obviously tuition is, you know, a concern for families.
And so, um, that slowed things down a little bit where people are kind of waiting to see, you know, what do they qualify for? What is the financial piece to look [00:01:30] like? Um, and then, you know, we’ve got a couple of kids that got injured during high school season that we’re still talking to that, you know, are kind of in a tough spot right now, so.
I’ve got offers out. We’re waiting. Um, we thought we were gonna have a couple fifth years come back and use their covid year. Um, this week, actually, one of them decided to step away and others still trying to kind of dabble in. Okay. How do I make this work? Do I do grad school? What are my options? Um, so that’s kind of changed things a little bit.
Um, I think by this time next year, I think the division three kind of recruiting cycle will kind of level back out. Um, you know, I think typically female, um, High school athletes tend to make their decisions a little quicker. Um, I think a lot of that is they just want to be done with it. Um, we’ve already got our first 2025 commit.
She called me on new year’s day, great way to start 2024. Um, so we’re hoping to, you know, kind of get that class rolling. Um, I’ve always coached club too. So this is the first spring that I’m not, um, so it’ll open up, you know, a lot more time and energy and effort that can go towards recruiting. So I’m excited for that part.
Matt: You mentioned one thing and, and that I haven’t. Asked any other coaches before. So since you mentioned, uh, you’re going to get to be the guinea pig here. Um, when it comes to. To kids who get hurt, right? And girls, especially ACL tears, you know, happen, unfortunately, more often than not. And it could be something simple, like an ankle sprain could be something more serious.[00:03:00]
How do you as a Coach kind of factor in injuries when they happen, how severe and, and how much you’re looking at in terms of offering spots. How does that, how does that look, what does that look like from your perspective?
Coach: So I’ve been on kind of, I think it’s a spectrum, obviously. I think that, you know, there’s the kid that maybe you were already recruiting who gets injured and you already know what they can offer and you know what, you know, what the level they’re going to bring is or what kind of, you piece to the culture they’re going to be and what kind of kid they are and those kinds of things.
Um, and then there’s the complete opposite where it’s, you know, Sally Smith emails me, Hey, I tore my ACL. Unfortunately, I can’t play in front of you this spring, but I’m really interested in Wittenberg, you know, what should I do? So, and then there’s a lot in between, right? Like I was cleared at the end of high school, but I’m not to top form yet.
And I’m a senior and I’m panicking. And so there’s a big spectrum. I don’t think it’s as simple as, you know, I’m injured. What do I do? So, um, we actually are recruiting a girl right now who tore her ACL in her high school season. Um, luckily I had already seen her play quite a bit in her high school season.
I saw quite a few games. Um, so I feel like I have a good sense of her as a player. Um, she comes from a good high school, so I know she’s getting good training. Um, she came from a good club, so I know that she’s played at a good level. Um, and then I’ve got girls on my current roster at WIT and kids that I’m recruiting that Know her.
So it’s able like networking and, you know, kind of doing some digging on my end to figure out, you know, what kind of player [00:04:30] person, right? Like, is she good for the culture? Is she going to work really hard to get back? Or is she going to be kind of okay being injured and just wants to kind of be on the team?
And so. You know, that’s, that’s something that in recruiting in general, we talk about, you know, what, what will be your role within our program? Um, so sometimes that conversation can be tough with a kid coming back from injury because quite frankly, you don’t know how they’re going to bounce back. Are they going to be, you know, back to who they were?
Are they going to come back stronger? Are they going to really struggle? So we just try to be really transparent in that process. And the reality is everybody, whether I could have. for ACLs and they’re all going to respond differently. Um, in fact, in our last two classes, so I have a current sophomore and a current freshmen who both tore their ACLs during high school season.
Um, but both play a really big role for us. So, you know, they were, they were kind of on that positive side of things. I’ve also seen kids try to come back and their bodies just. Yeah. Don’t respond. So it’s just one of those things you just don’t know. So we just talked to them about, you know, working closely with our athletic training staff, our team physicians, trying to lay that groundwork.
So they understand, you know, if you choose Wittenberg, this is what that looks like. Um, and I think that’s something too, that a lot of kids don’t consider is your physician may clear you, but our physician at Wittenberg may say, okay, hold on, let’s. Retest and make sure everything’s looking right before we say, Okay, you’re good to go.
Um, and that can be frustrating. And it adds a layer of, you know, the [00:06:00] recovery process that a lot of kids don’t think about, um, it’s not always the case. Sometimes it’s like, okay, everything looks great, ready to go. Um, but sometimes there is that kind of extra layer that can be, you know, I’ve torn both ACL.
So I know, I know the drill. Um, luckily for me, or unluckily, I don’t really know how to, you know, Phrase it. Um, they were both kind of playing adult soccer. So I was already through my college career. Um, so I didn’t have to experience missing a season, but I do know that physical and mental kind of battle that that it can take on.
Matt: So yeah, happened to my wife a couple years ago, playing adult league too. So I hear you. Um, well, let’s, let’s, let’s move on to happier topics. Um, in terms of yeah. You know, events, places you like to go watch players. You mentioned high school games. Um, what are, what are some of the big like club tournaments that are kind of must hit You know, your must hit list.
And what does that look like?
Coach: Yeah. So I’m really fortunate that I actually live in central Ohio. So I commute out to Springfield for work and it makes the recruiting, especially during our fall season, during the high school season, pretty easy. Um, my assistant coach lives in Fairborn, so he can hit a lot of the Dayton and Cincinnati area.
Um, not ideal when we’re in our busy season and we have a lot to do, but we try our best to get out to that stuff because in the spring season, we can’t be everywhere. So we know there’s a lot of events. Um, we do prioritize anymore. It seems like, um, especially with the development of the ECNL regional league, we, um, attend a lot of the ECNL regional league and ECNL events.
Um, [00:07:30] I, I coached for a higher premier for the last nine years and I’m still involved with the club, but not coaching anymore. Um, so I’m really familiar with that level. And so. A lot of our players end up coming out of those, um, events or, you know, lucky for me again, being in the Ohio Valley area, we can watch a lot of the Ohio Valley teams.
Um, we do get a lot of Midwest kids. Um, we really don’t have to go far. Um, we could honestly probably have a roster fully Ohio kids, which is what the majority of our roster is, um, and be really good because there’s a lot of really good soccer in Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, especially. So, um, But the events that we typically hit, um, we’re talking about going back to the ECNL Florida event.
Um, it looks like a lot of the Ohio teams are going to be headed out there, which seems, you know, silly. It’s like go all the way to florida to watch Ohio teams, but sometimes it’s easier to see everyone in one place. Um, we always hit blue chip crossroads, those big events in the Midwest. Um, I know racing Louisville is having an event.
Actually not this coming weekend, but I think it’s the weekend after maybe two weeks after, so we’ll all be heading out there. Um, my assistant coach coaches for Ohio galaxy. So he’s hitting a lot of the elite 64 national PRO events because he’s already there. Um, so we’re kind of able to spread our wings and hit a lot, which is great.
Um, but we’ll, we’ll try to like kind of hit the ground running, especially February through pretty much. May into June, even, you know, if we can get to the playoffs and all the different locations.
Matt: What about ID camps? Do you guys host your own? Do your staff [00:09:00] work camps? How important are they in your overall recruiting process?
Coach: So I love ID camps. I think they’re fantastic. I think it’s a great tool. Um, I know a lot speaking as a former club coach. I know that kids have a lot of options. And so it’s hard to navigate that of, okay, what ID camps do I attend? Which ones do I kind of like, you know? Put to the back burner, which ones are like, I’m not interested in that school.
I’m not gonna, you know, waste my time, money, whatever. Um, a lot of big schools do it for recruiting purposes and a lot of big schools do it for like making money. So I know like navigating that can be really difficult. Uh, as a division three coach, I love an ID camp at Wittenberg. I think it’s a great way to get kids on campus.
Um, we have state of the art facilities that we’re just, um, Renovated or added in the last 3, 4 years, we have an indoor turf field, which is really rare at the division 3 level. So, especially in December, and in March, we get to host it in there and we don’t have to worry about, you know, 4 inches of snow on a random Saturday in Ohio.
So we have the ability to get them on campus to see things to talk with them to work with them directly. Um, for me specifically, I like to put them through a training session similar to what we would put our team through and then being able to see how players react to the coaching points. If I’m giving you specific instructions, are you understanding what I’m asking?
Are you able to, you know, kind of adjust [00:10:30] things quickly? Is it going to take some time that’ll give us a sense of potentially if we were to recruit this player, what are the, where do they fall in the depth chart? How long would it maybe take them to get on the same page with our style? Um, or our coaching philosophy and those kinds of things.
So I think they’re wonderful. I do think it can be tricky because like I said, there’s so many, um, you know, kids are told make this giant list of 25 schools, 40 schools that you like. You can’t go to ID camps to all of them. Um, so I always encourage kids like make sure you’re, you have a somewhat interest, like do some research before you attend these camps, make sure they have the major you want, or it’s in an area that you’re interested in.
Um, maybe you have a teammate that went there that had a really good experience. Um, and just overall. Getting your feet wet and that can be awkward, right? Like you’re a recruit, you don’t know anyone. If you go by yourself and you’re like, Oh my gosh, I’m with a group of girls I’ve never played with before in front of coaches I’ve never met before.
And our college players are there. So they’re like demoing for the group and like interacting with the girls. And if you’re a sophomore in high school and a senior in college is there, it can be, it can be intimidating. But I think, you know, I always encourage kids. Do it with a teammate if you can, if you, if that makes you feel better, or if you have a club coach that is a college coach, go to their ID camp because you will feel a little more comfortable and, and kind of see what that’s like.
Matt: Great advice. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. You know, there might be some folks out there not familiar with Wittenberg. Um, you’ve been there a few years now, kind of give me some of the, the, Wittenberg that you find are awesome? Maybe some [00:12:00] things we wouldn’t even know just by going through the website.
Coach: Okay. Yeah. Um, so Wittenberg, um, first and foremost is, um, a liberal arts private education. So you’re getting, you know, from an academic standpoint, we offer a ton of majors. Um, majority of my team anymore seems like they’re science based. We have a lot of biology, exercise science, nursing, um, but we have everything.
We have education majors. Our education program offers a licensure that a lot of other schools don’t take the time to, um, work through with students. So if someone comes to Wittenberg and does the. Um, they’re not graduating with an education route. They’re actually graduating with an additional licensure, um, certification.
Um, our science programs are fantastic. Um, we have a great business department. We have an entrepreneurship major, which has been new in the last 4 or 5 years, um, which has made a really big difference with kids that want to get into marketing or think that maybe they want to run their own business one day.
Um, and they, and we very much have a very hands on, um, sort of learning style. So kids that are in the business major and take entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship. We actually have two student run businesses on campus, um, Tiger Fuel, which is a smoothie shop that they sell like energy drinks, they make smoothies, they sell snack bars, they do it out of our concession stand in the athletic building, um, and then they just created a coffee shop in our library called Sips, and actually students at Wittenberg run these businesses.
And they get to put it on their resume when they’re done. Um, so really cool academic opportunities. Um, we are a community service [00:13:30] required, um, campus. So you have to do community service before you graduate. Um, the motto of this school is having light we pass on to others. So we’re very big on the service side of things.
Um, our teams do things individually. We do things as a department. Um, so a lot of kind of community interaction, which is great. Um, and then from an athletic standpoint, you know, we, we have a tradition of winning, we have, um, really good history of championships across a lot of our sports, um, football, men or football, men’s basketball, um, women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, um, have all, you know, competed for national championships.
Um, we are always striving to win that, that conference, you know, tournament or sorry, the conference. Trophy where, you know, it’s an all sport trophy. We want to win as many championships as we can and try to bring that back to wit. Um, but I think the biggest feedback we get from student athletes when they visit campus is just how friendly people are at Wittenberg, whether that’s professors, whether that’s, you know, the workers in our cafeteria or, you know, an admissions counselor, it could be a student, but every time we have, um, Students on campus visiting, you know, everyone’s kind of stopping.
Hey, welcome to it. You know, very welcoming. So I think it’s, it’s a really cool campus. Um, it’s a division 3 school. And I know everyone thinks like, oh, it’s small. It’s tiny. We have a ton of green space, ton of trees. It is small. You can get where you need to get [00:15:00] in a short walk, but it feels pretty spread out.
So I think it allows kind of kids that maybe want a bigger school, but need a smaller class size or want to compete at a, at a lower level. Um, in the sense of division, you know, maybe that’s a better fit for them. Awesome.
Matt: Well, Take me back to, let’s say you’re in conference, uh, you know, middle of the season, what would a typical week look like for a player in terms of classes, meals, practices, game cadence, all that kind of stuff.
Coach: So at Wittenberg, we try to do a really good job of avoiding this class time as much as we can. You know, like I said earlier, we have a ton of science based majors. We have a ton of girls in labs and things like that. So, um, or nursing clinicals. So they’re off campus. So we try to work around their schedules the best we can.
Um, by the time we’re getting into conference play. We’re talking October. Um, we’re really only playing one midweek and one weekend game at that point. So, um, typically we’re off on Sundays. Um, you know, we have to give them one day off every seven days on the calendar. So typically Sundays we’re off, um, Mondays we try to train early cause that’s like not a lab day, so we can typically try to get out to practice, you know, four o’clock, hopefully I try to sneak in.
And before those other fall coaches claim that good practice time, um, we are training, you know, if we play Wednesday, we’re training Monday, Tuesday, playing Wednesday, training Thursday, Friday, playing Saturday. Um, we will balance those [00:16:30] training sessions, how we see fit based on how the group’s holding up.
You know, if it’s, you know, maybe we don’t have a midweek game, so we can afford to give them an additional day off to get caught up on rest or schoolwork. Um, or maybe we’re pretty banged up and, you know, That Thursday after our Wednesday game, we need to give them the day off, or maybe it’s a recovery session, um, those kinds of things.
So we try to balance out the best we can. Um, our players also lift twice a week again, typically one, truly one day of lift, um, which is going to be a Monday after that day off. And then typically a Thursday is more of a recovery session. We do have a full time strength staff. On our campus, which is really rare at the division three level.
Um, we have an awesome weight room. So, um, our, our strength coach, I, you know, it’s a matter of sending him a text on the bus ride home after our Wednesday game and, you know, at Denison and saying, Hey, you know, it was a pretty physical game, they’re pretty beat up. Can you do a recovery session instead of lift tomorrow?
Yeah, no problem. Um, or athletic trainer will step in and do that stuff. So we try to balance that the best we can, especially around october’s midterm time. And again, like our team does really well academically and they’re academically driven. So we try to be really mindful as an entire staff, athletic trainer, strength coach, coaching staff in general of just being mindful of that, you know, they might have For tests in a paper due in 10 days, you know, so it’s a lot that they could potentially be taking on.
So that’s where we rely on our leadership on our team to kind of keep us in the loop and keep the pulse of the team. You know, if everyone’s like super on edge and really [00:18:00] high anxiety, stressed out, that’s probably a time. Maybe we do practice, but a goofy day, you know, maybe it’s juggling ladders and competitions and relays and, you know, making them do.
Silly stuff that makes the coaching staff laugh, you know, um, but we try to manage
Matt: yeah, you gotta, you gotta have those days sometimes, uh, for everybody’s sanity. Um, well, let’s talk a little bit more about the team. And just a second ago, you mentioned staff. So what does your staff look like? Both. Soccer staff specifically and other staff that maybe you utilize throughout the athletic department for things.
Coach: Yeah. So, um, we have, like I said, a full time strength staff, which is awesome. So, um, I mean, each each strength coach works with multiple teams. Um, they try to spread it out. Obviously, we have four full time staff members and then they have interns as well. So, um, Yeah. It could be a student, a student or student athlete who’s maybe in the exercise science program that wants to one day be a strength coach.
So they may, you know, by their junior, senior year, start getting internship hours in the weight room with the strength coaches. Um, but we have, um, Nate is our strength coach. He’s been with us for a few years now. The girls love him. Um, we have a full time athletic trainer with us. She also covers women’s volleyball.
So, um, when we travel or we have a game, she’s with our team, um, and then we’ll get coverage for the volleyball team if need be, but we always have an athletic trainer with our team, um, practice and games, um, whether that’s. [00:19:30] Molly, our athletic trainer, or maybe the men’s soccer athletic trainer, Jason will kind of stick around with us if it’s a double header or something like that.
Um, our coaching staff consists of myself. I have a full time assistant, Austin Blair. Um, Austin joined us in the fall of 2022 as a part time, um, after my full time assistant had actually left right before the season started. So that was a little bit of a challenge. Um, but Austin did a great job and He ended up stepping away from his teaching job and came over full time last January.
So he’s been with me for a full year now. Um, and so he’s in the office with me every day and helping with all parts of the program. And then we have a goalkeeper coach, um, who’s also a high school teacher in the Dublin school system. So, um, we Again, that’s part of practice times is, you know, when can he get here?
And, and, you know, he’s actually been at Wittenberg longer than I have. Um, when I got the job, he was already the goalkeeper coach. And, um, I had a lot of friends that knew him and coached with him before. So we’ve developed a really good relationship. The goalkeepers love him. He pushes them, but he, you know, understands the mental side.
So, um, And that’s it for kind of our, you know, everyday staff and then, you know, obviously our athletic administrators are involved as well with, you know, team meetings, game coverage. Um, you know, they’re at our game. Sometimes our athletic directors stand behind our bench at a game, you know, kind of rooting us on.
Um, And then obviously the game day staff as well is pretty heavily involved in getting to know the girls and watching them play and, you know, all [00:21:00] that.
Matt: Yeah, that’s great. Well, now to get to you specifically. All right. Now I got to give you the hard question as to how would you describe kind of your style of coaching style of play that you’re looking to implement and maybe just more on the culture of the team.
Coach: Um, so I am incredibly competitive. Um, I think anyone who knows me knows that. Um. That might be a result of growing up with two older brothers who, you know, we used to play barefoot, small goal, you know, soccer in the backyard. Um, my backyard growing up actually was a chain link fence away from the youth soccer fields, um, in Grove City.
So Murfin field was my backyard. Um, so I literally jumped a fence to go to soccer practice, which was very convenient. Um, had access to full size goals all the time. Um, but I’m very competitive. And so I really push my players. I have really high expectations for them. Um, but we try to be really clear about those expectations early on so that, you know, if this is the bar, we don’t want to, you know.
Lower that bar. We want them to meet us where we’re at. And once they meet us, we’re going to raise it again. Um, so, you know, I think we saw that kind of play out this year. We had a really good conference season. Um, we basically, you know, in, in the September schedule, I think we. We had the pieces put together.
Um, our leadership was great. We had girls really bought in. We maybe weren’t getting the results that we wanted early on, but they really stayed bought in. Um, and that’s part of the team culture that we’ve really tried to instill in our team. So, [00:22:30] um, I think, you know, we like to build out of the back. We like to play possession.
Um, we want to, you know, With the purpose to go to goal, you know, I feel like sometimes, you know, I have to be like, okay, it’s pretty and you guys are keeping the ball for a long time. But like, the point is to go score goals. Um, and I was a forward. So I’m like, shoot the ball, just shoot it. Um, so very, you know, want to play pretty soccer, but not at the expense of, you know, not getting the results.
So, um, from a team culture standpoint, I would say that was when I got hired. Almost eight years ago now, which is crazy. Um, that was the biggest thing that I wanted to develop on the, in the program at wit was the team culture. Um, I think you can have the most talented team, um, in the conference, in the country, but if your team culture isn’t good, it’s going to be really hard for those.
Those players to stay bought in and to continue to do what you need to do to be successful. Um, I’ve also been a part of teams and coach teams where maybe you don’t have the most talented group, but if the culture is really positive, really special things can happen. So we really spend a lot of time, energy and effort on that side of things.
Um, we do a ton of team bonding. We let our leadership group kind of help us kind of plan that and come up with ideas for that stuff so that it doesn’t feel like, you know, coach has a stupid idea again, you know? Um, so we try to do fun stuff like, uh, last, I know last spring, kind of in the off season coming off a tough season, uh, the girls went bowling [00:24:00] and Coaches stayed out of it was kind of like their thing.
They wanted to do it. We paid for pizza and drinks and all that for them and paid for the bowling. Um, and our preseason, we typically try to do something. Uh, we did like minute to win it games where we put them in teams and they’re competing. We have a preseason trophy, which is actually like. A really, really old school OAC championship trophy from like the early 80s that I’m like, I don’t know what to do with this because we’re not even in the OAC anymore.
Um, so we, we just, you know, um, turned it into our preseason trophy. So now if you win the preseason cup, you get your name on it. So we started that tradition. Um, and it’s always different each year. One year it was soccer, tennis, a tick tock challenge, of course, um, a scavenger hunt, like things like that. So we try to, we try to do team bonding.
That isn’t just soccer based. I think that’s really important. As you talk about a positive culture, obviously, in a college program, your roster size is much bigger than. You know your typical 22 on a high school team or even 18 on a club team. So balancing all of that and keeping kids invested and feeling important and part of the group is is huge.
So we want to do things that have nothing to do with soccer. Um, a player that maybe doesn’t get a ton of playing time. If everything we do revolves around soccer, they’re not ever really going to feel like they get to push that bar or be at the top of the group. When we start doing, you know, we’ve played code names.
Which is a game where you have to give like clues and you have to try to [00:25:30] problem solve when we do stuff like that. Some of those players that maybe aren’t shining on the field are really good at that stuff. And like what a confidence boost for those kids. So we’re trying to balance that. Um, our kids are, they help us a ton even with our recruiting.
When our, when we have recruits on campus, our players are taking them to lunch. They’re getting them from point A to point B. They’re giving tours of our athletic facilities, showing them the locker room, showing them their dorm rooms. Um, you know. Most campus visits, they show you a dorm room, but it’s very generic and there’s not really much in it.
Um, so our players are, you know, they help us in that stuff. Hey, I really think it would be helpful if she got to see my room because she can see kind of what one actually looks like filled. Um, and maybe if she does come here, she has an idea of how she’ll set hers up and things like that. So they’re really heavily involved.
Um, they’re an awesome group. They’re fun to be around. So that that’s huge for us and something that we spend a lot of time and energy in.
Matt: Well, coach, you’ve given us a lot of info want to be cognizant of your time, really appreciate it. So one last question, uh, and that is if you did have one piece of advice, one nugget of information that you wish every player, parent, family going through this crazy college recruiting process, uh, would know what, uh, what would that be?
Coach: Um, I think the, the biggest thing is there is a right fit for everyone. I think any player who plays soccer right now and is. Then their high school ages, you know, you can play in college. It’s about finding the fit that makes the most sense for you [00:27:00] and what makes the most sense for you. Doesn’t make the most sense for everyone else.
So I think a lot of players get sucked into, well, my teammates are going division one, like. Power five or my teammates are going to the big 10 or, you know, those kinds of things, their path is not your path. So it’s about finding what fits you the best. I think a lot of players spend time thinking specifically about the soccer piece and, uh, you know, shiny lights of, you know, but I want to accomplish this, but cast your net really wide and don’t be.
Don’t be afraid to maybe you want to play division one, check out other levels, talk to other coaches. Don’t be quick to blow them off because really at the end of the day, if, if a player starts their process and thinks I want to go D1, you know, maybe it works out. Great. Wonderful. There’s also a chance it doesn’t work out and you have to make sure that you’re preparing yourself for that and looking at, you know, a bigger scale of schools.
And maybe that’s still in division one but it’s different levels of division one or maybe you’re looking at schools and kind of different divisions. I have a little bit of a different perspective on that. I went division one and I ended up transferring. So I feel like, you know, I, I just encourage kids, you know, think about what you want your experience to look like.
And that’s a hard question to ask yourself. Could I see myself sitting a bench and being happy? Could I see myself coming off the bench and being happy, you know? What if I have to sit till I’m a junior? Would that make me happy? Am I going to want to invest all this time? And I don’t, I think that’s something a lot of kids don’t think about.
So when you’re thinking [00:28:30] about the right fit, you have to think about what do you need to be happy? I went to a small Catholic high school. I went division one. I didn’t play as much as I wanted to. I transferred division three and had an awesome experience. So. Little biased in that, that I had a really good experience and so very pro D three.
Um, but I think, you know, there is a good fit. You just have to do your homework and you have to be okay hearing no and just changing your list and continue through the process.
Matt: Fellow D three player here. So I’m with you. Well, coach, really appreciate it. Uh, thank you for your time. And if you do, if you are coming to Lakewood Ranch in March, give me a shout because uh, I’m 3 miles from premier and my daughter will be playing there and I can, I can hook you up with the spots around here.
Coach: Awesome. Awesome. Thanks. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.
