Approach

The academic success of my student athletes has been one of the spaces where I hang my hat.  I have been very proud of the young men I have worked with, and how successful they have been in the classroom.  In my time at Cabrini, we have had over 70 student athletes come through our program that have graduated with honors.  That success does not come without their hard work, but it also does not come without a support network to provide these athletes with the necessary tools to be successful.  I am a firm believer in using the resources that we have available to us to not only make for the best possible student athlete experience, but also to help support our student athletes in any way that they may need assistance.

In addition to the countless players named to the President & Dean’s lists, we have also had players from our program named to the academic all conference team over 200 times since I have been at Cabrini!  All this is to say that I place a large emphasis on the academic component of the student athlete experience.  It is important to me that our athletes are getting the job done in the classroom.  This is what is best for them, and I keep that in perspective when leading my program.

As far as academic expectations are concerned, the coaching staff will work diligently to monitor the academic progress of our student athletes throughout the academic year.  Student athletes who are at risk and not showing signs of improvement or failing to attend classes will be addressedon a case by case basis.  Student athletes who fall into this situation will have benchmarks that they have to meet with the coaching staff before getting cleared for competition again.  All student athletes will be required to meet the institution academic minimums in order to continue as a member of our program.  All first year students and returning students with a GPA below a specific threshold will be required to get weekly signatures by their professors confirming that they were in attendance for each class that week.  These signature sheets not only help with the accountability of our student athletes, but they also help build bridges across campus as it opens the line of communication between coaches like myself and professors.  These forms also help to ensure everyone is on the same page.  Dates and times of all early departures are listed on this sheet so that the professors and the student athletes always have the information at their disposal.

One particular area of our program that I have taken pride in over the years is our constant willingness to try new things.  I have found that it is very common for coaches to get stuck in a certain way of doing things and will often not look to change their approach.  Through the years I have been very proud of the way we have kept the majority of our athletes happy.  It can be very difficult to manage a roster of 28 players.  None of them came to college to sit on the bench and all of them would love to play 90 minutes a game.  One of the things that I feel I have done a great job of through the years is communicating with our student athletes (player interviews are a big part of that), and also being willing to evaluate and promote players performances as a season wears on.

I am a big proponent of the open door policy.  I want to make sure my student athletes know that they can come to see me whenever they need something.  Whether it is athletics related, academic related, or something they just want to talk through, it is important to me that our athletes understand I am here for them.  While the open door policy is there to make sure the student athletes know they have a platform, I have learned through the years that many still do not choose to use it.  Each season student athlete will have a minimum of three scheduled sit down meetings with the coaching staff throughout the season.  These meetings will happen at the beginning of the season, mid season, and then after the season.  The meetings will be to discuss progress with the players.  Things the coaching staff feels the student athlete is doing well, things they can work on, where we see the players in the depth chart, and then an opportunity for the players to ask any questions and discuss what we covered with them.  I developed this process a long time ago with the understanding that while the players may not always like or agree with what the staff has to say, they will always know where they stand and what we are seeing.  I believe this allows for transparency and understanding between the coaching staff and the athletes. 

Attendance Expectations: A benefit of having a fall sport is that the expectations can be set forth for our student athletes in the very beginning of the year.  Barring classes or another conflict that has been discussed with the coaching staff prior to practice, all student athletes are expected to be at team functions dressed and ready to begin on time.  Student athletes who need to visit the training room prior to practice should do so in a timely manner so they can be prepared when practice begins.  Our practices will start right on time, so it is important that everyone understands that being early is a must.  Players who are not at practice on time will not be allowed to train on that particular day (unless they are arriving late due to a class and have already discussed the late arrival with a member of the coaching staff).

One of the areas that I have really focused on over the last several years is our spring season and our overall approach to it.  My primary focus through the off season has been individual technical development.  The recent changes to the Spring season allow coaches to spread out contact points with our student athletes more over the course of the Spring semester.  One of the primary focuses this new model allows us to do is spend more time with specific position groups working on position specific training to help those groups improve individually.  This approach not only allows the student athletes to look forward to the spring term from a soccer standpoint, but also from a technical growth standpoint.  This approach does not work in the Fall as we play upward of two games in most weeks and need to focus on the team as a whole, but in the Spring we have a lot of time to be able to focus on every small area of the game.  It is my hope that this can serve as a major building block for the next Fall season. 

From my time as an assistant coach at Cabrini to the end of my time as a head coach I felt our alumni relations had grown tremendously.  It was a particular area of focus that I had when I was going through the hiring process.  A colleague mentioned how it felt that his alumni were always coming to functions with their hands out asking for things.  This was something that applied to our core of alumni as well.  My focus was changing the mentality to having alums who were not only engaged, but also looking to give back and had more of a supportive attitude as opposed to feeling like the program owed them something.  The growth in this space was incredible.  We put together two regular alumni games (one alumni vs alumni, and the other alumni vs the current team).  In addition to this we put together several alumni social events throughout the course of the year to help with fundraising, building the culture, and of course alumni networking events.

Community Service is something that is incredibly important to me.  Some of the most memorable experience I have had as a coach have happened in this space.  Many of our college students have lived lives where they do not realize how much good can come from giving back.  I believe that having the opportunity to give back can really change the perspective of some of our student athletes and make them realize just how good they have it.  I will never forget the community service we did while we were in Cape town South Africa and how impactful that was on the young men on my team.  I saw a true change in them when we got home.  I believe that experience was transformational for some of them and I hope to continue to be able to offer impactful experiences that not only help our student athletes but also serve our community at the same time.