Speaker 1: Welcome to a one v one where we get to
Speaker 1: catch up with Jay and Luke, the head coach of
Speaker 1: the CU Cougars. They had a busy time last weekend.
Speaker 1: They're gonna be bigger this weekend. Thanks for dropping by
Speaker 1: as you always do. Jay.
Speaker 2: Oh guysh thanks for having me. John.
Speaker 1: Let's go back and we had the preview going into
Speaker 1: rounds one and two. Let's take it a game at
Speaker 1: a time, and what did you learn about yourself after
Speaker 1: that first win to get you into round number two?
Speaker 2: You think you know? I keep saying it over and over.
Speaker 3: Just super proud of this group of young ladies because
Speaker 3: we don't rely on one player and we're getting goals
Speaker 3: from multiple multiple players. Defensively, we're pitching a shutout, which
Speaker 3: is awesome. And you know that that first game it's
Speaker 3: always tricky. You know, you're the highest seed, you're playing
Speaker 3: against an eight seed, and so you don't know where
Speaker 3: the minds are the players. But I felt like we
Speaker 3: deserve to.
Speaker 2: Win the game.
Speaker 3: I don't think we were particularly sharp, certainly not where
Speaker 3: we were on Sunday. Someday was a whole different story.
Speaker 3: We were really really sharp. But again, when you get
Speaker 3: to the postseason, John, it's just surviving advance and we
Speaker 3: were able to do that. We didn't play our best,
Speaker 3: but we won three nothing against Francis Marion. We advanced
Speaker 3: and put ourselves and the opportunity to play against Katabo
Speaker 3: on the.
Speaker 1: Sunday and you could get Kataba on the Sunday and
Speaker 1: you put up six and the win there against the
Speaker 1: number seventeen team in the country. When you looked at
Speaker 1: the scoreboard when this was over, if I had told
Speaker 1: you going in that you were going to put six
Speaker 1: on the board against the number seventeen team in the country,
Speaker 1: what would you have told me?
Speaker 3: You know, it's crazy how the game of soccer worked.
Speaker 3: And it's almost like everything we hit was on frame
Speaker 3: and if the goalkeeper spilled it, we were right there
Speaker 3: for a tap in. We got a couple tap in
Speaker 3: goals that the goalkeeper spilled and so.
Speaker 2: Gosh, it was just everything went right for us.
Speaker 3: I thought we played really, really good soccer in that
Speaker 3: first half and.
Speaker 2: You know, got my hackers off to Kataba.
Speaker 3: They only lost three games all year, and unfortunately two
Speaker 3: of them were to us, but they're a really well
Speaker 3: coached team and I don't think six nothing truly reflects
Speaker 3: the difference.
Speaker 2: Between the two teams. But just on the day, we
Speaker 2: were very, very good.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned the different goal scorers, and it has
Speaker 1: been one of the hallmarks of your season. If my
Speaker 1: memory serves, seven different goal scorers for the nine goals
Speaker 1: on the weekend in these two wins to get you
Speaker 1: into round number three, once again reinforcing the idea of
Speaker 1: the of the collective that you got there at CSU
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it was really cool.
Speaker 3: Back in April, we brought in Christine Lilly, former US
Speaker 3: women's national team player, a good friend of mine, and
Speaker 3: she came on campus to do something called Girls in
Speaker 3: the Game, and we got to spend three days with
Speaker 3: her in Columbus and it was awesome because she kept preaching,
Speaker 3: you know, everything as team first, team first, team first,
Speaker 3: and so we've kind of taken that mantra and really
Speaker 3: made sure that our players realize that we are a
Speaker 3: team and the way that you're going to advance in
Speaker 3: playoffs is if everybody contributes. And so you're right, Jen,
Speaker 3: seven different goal scores is awesome and I feel like
Speaker 3: in years past maybe that could have been one of
Speaker 3: the reasons we weren't ultimately successful. In the end, we
Speaker 3: would have a young lady that would score twenty twenty
Speaker 3: two goals a season, and if that young lady didn't
Speaker 3: play well, we probably lost the game. Whereas this year, gosh,
Speaker 3: it's just awesome to have seven or eight girls that
Speaker 3: have ten goals or more.
Speaker 1: It's it's fantastic because if I'm going up against you,
Speaker 1: you're hard to game plan in that idea because it's like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: so and so has this many goals. Okay, well but
Speaker 1: so and so has this many. Then you've got to
Speaker 1: keep going down the list. Well they've got this. It
Speaker 1: makes it difficult for teams to key on one individual
Speaker 1: because if they try to do the what we refer
Speaker 1: to as positional gravity. Let's just say, you know, you
Speaker 1: want to sit there and oh, okay, Hungerford, well double
Speaker 1: team herb. That means that there's one less person to
Speaker 1: mark everybody else. So it's hard to have this multiple
Speaker 1: choice test every single week. And I'm sure you drive
Speaker 1: folks crazy trying to defend you.
Speaker 3: And no, you're right, John, I think you know part
Speaker 3: of the process this year has been you know, in
Speaker 3: years past, it was like, Okay, Rachel swideguards eighteen goals.
Speaker 3: Like Rachel, don't pass the ball, just you keep the ball,
Speaker 3: don't pass it. I know that you're better off just dribble,
Speaker 3: penetrating and scoring yourself. Whereas this year we're really really
Speaker 3: sharing the soccer ball. And so I think you're right.
Speaker 3: It's very, very tricky because I tell the girls love
Speaker 3: to take one player on then slot it to somebody
Speaker 3: else that's going to be wide open because another player.
Speaker 2: Has stepped over. It's a double team. And so I
Speaker 2: think that's just been a real plus for us this year,
Speaker 2: and super happy that everybody's.
Speaker 3: Buying in and again we just hope it continues. That's
Speaker 3: the that's the tricky part with this little Thanksgiving break.
Speaker 2: You know they're gonna have two days off this week,
Speaker 2: The little tricky John, little tricky.
Speaker 1: How do you navigate a holiday break knowing that there's
Speaker 1: another test that you've got to study for, knowing that
Speaker 1: you've got to pass that test keep going. How difficult
Speaker 1: is it for a staff and players to navigate a
Speaker 1: holiday break.
Speaker 3: No, it's definitely something that that's looming in the back
Speaker 3: of my mind. I do feel like we have to
Speaker 3: give autonomy to our players and make sure that they
Speaker 3: know we trust them, make sure that we value family.
Speaker 3: And you know, we trained Monday after the game. We
Speaker 3: trained Tuesday, yesterday, now today, and tomorrow is going to
Speaker 3: be off for a holiday, so a lot of them
Speaker 3: are home with their families, and some of our international students,
Speaker 3: they've gone home with our current roster players, you know,
Speaker 3: because they're obviously not flying back to Dubai or Colombia
Speaker 3: or Japan. But no, we're back at work on Friday,
Speaker 3: and you know our girls are I guarantee they're not
Speaker 3: just sitting in front of the television right now.
Speaker 2: They're out getting workouts in on their own.
Speaker 3: And again, the culture of this program is just because
Speaker 3: a coach is not present doesn't mean you can't get
Speaker 3: a workout in. So a lot of our young ladies,
Speaker 3: i'd say about ninety percent of them are getting workouts in,
Speaker 3: and then the other ten percent are probably resting because
Speaker 3: their bodies are late in the season and they're just
Speaker 3: kind of shutting down the engine for two days. But no,
Speaker 3: they're getting workouts in. I fully trust them, and we'll
Speaker 3: go back to work on Friday.
Speaker 1: You mentioned something that I want to ask you about
Speaker 1: and it's the foreign players that are far from home
Speaker 1: on a holiday, and you mentioned how they've paired off
Speaker 1: with teammates and they've gone and become part of the
Speaker 1: extended family and they get to kind of hang out
Speaker 1: with their teammates. When you have a situation like that,
Speaker 1: I imagine that it's hard to navigate at times for
Speaker 1: the student athlete because they want to be close to home,
Speaker 1: but they've got a family. What's it like to see
Speaker 1: the family come together like that where they're spending time
Speaker 1: with their teammates and being introduced to family here on
Speaker 1: this side of the planet that they're on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been awesome, John.
Speaker 3: I think that the coolest thing that I've seen this
Speaker 3: year was I picked up Ui Suzuki from Atlanta International
Speaker 3: Airport back in August on the fourth of August, and
Speaker 3: Uhi had never set foot in America and she really
Speaker 3: honestly doesn't speak very good English at all, very little
Speaker 3: usage of words. She can read it, she can write it,
Speaker 3: but very very difficult to speak it well. Sarah Hungerford,
Speaker 3: who's one of our current roster players, she's a junior.
Speaker 3: She met us at Georgia Soccer Park up in Atlanta,
Speaker 3: and Sarah took the time to meet with Uhi and
Speaker 3: drive her down to Columbus and check her into her
Speaker 3: dorm room. And so when it came time for all
Speaker 3: of us to figure out what we were doing for
Speaker 3: the holidays, I said, Hey, if anyone is here, you're
Speaker 3: welcome to come to my house. But Sarah invited Ui
Speaker 3: to go down to Savannah with her. So Ui is
Speaker 3: down there with with Sarah's family. Doesn't speak very good English,
Speaker 3: only knows a couple of words.
Speaker 2: She knows a lot of soccer terms.
Speaker 3: So you know, Sarah stopped by the office yesterday right
Speaker 3: after probably said all I need to bring a soccer
Speaker 3: ball because that's the one thing OUI does now, and
Speaker 3: also that Ui tends to do better with kind of
Speaker 3: visual aids. And so they brought my coaches board with
Speaker 3: him to Savannah because again they're going to talk soccer
Speaker 3: a lot, and it's easier for her to use the
Speaker 3: magnets and so but just sweet as all get out,
Speaker 3: and gosh, oh, he's got nine goals for us this year,
Speaker 3: which is awesome as a freshman. I think she's one
Speaker 3: of the leading goal scorers as a freshman. So that's fantastic.
Speaker 1: Now, let's talk about some of the accolades that have
Speaker 1: come your way. The D two Conference Commissioners Association, the
Speaker 1: D two c c A, as they put in parentheses,
Speaker 1: announced their women's soccer Southeast A Region team back on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Six Lady Cougars were honored, leading the Southeast with six
Speaker 1: Hungerford evelas Croft first team honors, Harris Veto and Avery
Speaker 1: Williams on the second team. In addition, the Peach Belt
Speaker 1: Conference had ten overall selections. When I when I mentioned
Speaker 1: those six, and you can break them down individually as
Speaker 1: you like, but when I mentioned those six to you
Speaker 1: as a six pack, what comes to mind with them
Speaker 1: and what they've been able to accomplish in the ice
Speaker 1: of the D two Double C.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's gosh.
Speaker 3: I hate individualizing players a lot because I feel like
Speaker 3: without the entire team, it is super super hard to
Speaker 3: achieve any sort of accolades. And so, you know, for
Speaker 3: someone like starting in the back with a Heidi Harris,
Speaker 3: who didn't get a ton of minutes last year, sat
Speaker 3: behind an all region kid and Lizzie Hedrick for her
Speaker 3: to start and play the majority of the minutes this year,
Speaker 3: and to give up very few. She's she's been fantastic.
Speaker 3: You know our back line. Gosh, you have to you
Speaker 3: have to give kudos to an Avery Williams. She's coming
Speaker 3: back from three a cl tears, not not one, not two,
Speaker 3: but three in a row. And even though she's list
Speaker 3: as a junior, this is actually the first year of
Speaker 3: college soccer that she's played. And I have so much
Speaker 3: time for a young lady like that to come back
Speaker 3: from so many injuries and so many setbacks, and you
Speaker 3: know that that that, to me is shows a lot
Speaker 3: of resilience and recoverability and just a willingness to believe
Speaker 3: that you can come back from anything. Kelsey Croft crazy enough.
Speaker 3: John kelsey Croft was a walk on for us, and
Speaker 3: you know, we had never seen her play. She came
Speaker 3: to one of our I D camps and we didn't
Speaker 3: really know anything about her, and she stood out at
Speaker 3: the Idea camp and there were forty five kids at
Speaker 3: camp and we said, wow, where is this kid from.
Speaker 3: And at the time, it was February going into you
Speaker 3: know that next year, which was last year in twenty three,
Speaker 3: and so we were out of money. We didn't have
Speaker 3: any money left, and we said listen, we'd love to
Speaker 3: have you, we just don't have any money. So she
Speaker 3: took a chance on us, came in as a freshman,
Speaker 3: you know, in twenty twenty three, and started every game
Speaker 3: as a freshman as a walk on. And you know,
Speaker 3: after that freshman campaign, we were brought in the office
Speaker 3: and it's kind of like one of those Jerry maguire.
Speaker 2: Moments, you know, show me the money. And she didn't
Speaker 2: say it. I said it, so I need to show
Speaker 2: you the money.
Speaker 3: So we we ended up giving her a huge scholarship increase,
Speaker 3: and she's had a great year for us. You know, Gosh,
Speaker 3: Vanessa vili Is what a great story with Vanessa came
Speaker 3: to us during that COVID time and started as a freshman,
Speaker 3: and I believe was named Freshman of the Year as
Speaker 3: a sophomore, had a really good campaign. At the end
Speaker 3: of her sophomore season in the fall, she came in
Speaker 3: and she said, listen, my dad's retiring and he's moving
Speaker 3: out to California, and so I'd really like to be
Speaker 3: with my dad and my mom and my brother, so
Speaker 3: I'm going to transfer. And I said, wow, that's like
Speaker 3: a gut punch. I said, listen, Vanessa. I love family,
Speaker 3: So you go go be a family, and at any
Speaker 3: time if you ever want to come back, the door
Speaker 3: is always open. And sure enough, Cherman did some issues
Speaker 3: with the coach out there, and the coach would not
Speaker 3: allow her to be a nursing major and also be
Speaker 3: a soccer player at the same time. And she immediately
Speaker 3: called and said, coach Jay, I want to be a nurse.
Speaker 3: I also want to play soccer. Do you think I
Speaker 3: can come back? And we opened the door. I mean
Speaker 3: there was a red carpet that went from Columbus, Georgia
Speaker 3: to Loew's.
Speaker 2: Kamonga, California. I mean, we said, come on right. So
Speaker 2: she came.
Speaker 3: Back and has been absolutely this year alone, I think
Speaker 3: she's got ten or eleven goals.
Speaker 2: She's been wonderful. You know, you keep moving up the chain.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 3: You got Emma Badeaux, who gosh, every year, the kid's
Speaker 3: been an All American, All Region, on you know, all conference.
Speaker 3: You know the cool thing about Emma this year, John
Speaker 3: is she's really really become great at getting assists. And
Speaker 3: that's something that a lot of people don't appreciate. But
Speaker 3: if you look at her statistics, I think she's way
Speaker 3: ahead of anyone else on our team and just assists
Speaker 3: and that says a lot about her character.
Speaker 2: And you know.
Speaker 3: I think there was a stretch where I think she
Speaker 3: went almost seventeen or eighteen games where she collected a
Speaker 3: point in every single game. You know, Sarah Hungerford, God
Speaker 3: bless her. You know, all four foot I've reverse she
Speaker 3: She's tiny, but she's a spitfire and came alive for
Speaker 3: us in the last month of the season. You know,
Speaker 3: start out a little bit slow, but you know, super successful.
Speaker 3: But the cool thing about Sarah was she kind of
Speaker 3: took the team on her back in this last month
Speaker 3: and scoring some massive goals. And I'll bet you if
Speaker 3: you look at the majority of her goals, they're all
Speaker 3: game winning goals.
Speaker 2: And I think that's a.
Speaker 3: Really really cool thing and super coachable. And you know,
Speaker 3: even I reflect back on a Lander game. We didn't
Speaker 3: play particularly well in that game, went down one nil
Speaker 3: and after four minutes, and Sarah basically just picked up
Speaker 3: a ball from midfield, dribble, penetrated through about five girls
Speaker 3: and stroked at home. So one to one and we're
Speaker 3: battling back and forth with a very good Lander team
Speaker 3: and late in the game, She's exhausted, and I look
Speaker 3: at her. I said, look, I know you don't play
Speaker 3: center forward. Almost stick you up there, go win us
Speaker 3: the game. And literally the first kick of the ball
Speaker 3: that she got as a center forward went in and
Speaker 3: it was an unbelievable goal.
Speaker 2: I mean like ESPN Top ten. And she came off
Speaker 2: she goes you all right, coach, you know so. But
Speaker 2: you know, I hate.
Speaker 3: Singling out those six because so many other players and
Speaker 3: our roster are deserving. And anytime a team can go well,
Speaker 3: I don't even know what our record is, twenty one
Speaker 3: or twenty zero, one to one or twenty one oh
Speaker 3: on one, I don't even know that that means is
Speaker 3: there's more than six kids contributing. And my heart goes
Speaker 3: out to the rest of the kids.
Speaker 2: That didn't get identified.
Speaker 3: But I understand you can't just take our whole roster.
Speaker 3: But Colby Hale, a good friend of mine who coaches
Speaker 3: at Arkansas, he said it best. You know, these all conference,
Speaker 3: these all region teams.
Speaker 2: You guys, go ahead and make make your team.
Speaker 3: Then I want you to bring that team to Arkansas
Speaker 3: and I'm gonna play you my team and we will
Speaker 3: eat you ten to nothing, And so that's the mindset
Speaker 3: that I have, Like, these teams are great, But listen, John,
Speaker 3: you bring this all star team to Columbus and I'll
Speaker 3: play you with all twenty four of my players and
Speaker 3: I guarantee will win.
Speaker 1: Fantastic stuff here with coach Ja's we get you ready
Speaker 1: for round three. Speaking of round three, familiar opponent, we
Speaker 1: go back to homecoming and un G and you and
Speaker 1: G is dropping by once again. What do you remember
Speaker 1: about that matchup the first time you guys played on
Speaker 1: the one nil win that you got.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll tell you.
Speaker 3: Kaylie Ralton and her assistant JP do an awesome job.
Speaker 3: They're great coaches. We always recruit a lot of the
Speaker 3: same kids, so uh, you know, we get in these
Speaker 3: recruiting battles. It's okay, who else is looking at you?
Speaker 3: Oh North Georgia, Okay, go figure right. So no, listen,
Speaker 3: they do a great job. And I tell people all
Speaker 3: the time, like the NCAA tournament's kind of funny because
Speaker 3: you would think, oh, why are they playing another Peach
Speaker 3: Belt team. Well, take a look at Division IE. In
Speaker 3: the Elite eight. There are six ACC teams and several
Speaker 3: of them are playing against each other in the Elite eight.
Speaker 3: So it just shows how good our conference is. It
Speaker 3: shows that, you know, Gosh Lander went up and upset
Speaker 3: Leonora Ryan, who was the number one team in the
Speaker 3: in the Sack you know conference, you got North Georgia
Speaker 3: who upset Wingate, not upset, I mean they beat Lingate.
Speaker 3: Wingate won the.
Speaker 2: League, so you know, and we beat Kataba. Kataba was
Speaker 2: the three up there.
Speaker 3: So, like, I think it says a lot about how
Speaker 3: the quality of the Peach Belt this year is super high.
Speaker 3: And it goes to show that the schools in our
Speaker 3: conference have recruited the right coaches and those coaches have
Speaker 3: recruited the right players to elevate our league.
Speaker 2: And I'm super happy.
Speaker 3: I love the fact that the Peach Belt is so good,
Speaker 3: and I love the fact that I get the opportunity
Speaker 3: to coach against Kaylee Rolton and Ashley Martin and Ross
Speaker 3: Henderson and Jack Marchant, and I mean the list goes on.
Speaker 3: There's Jacob Crawford, like so many good coaches in our league,
Speaker 3: and that kind of is what makes you go.
Speaker 1: So then let me divide this matchup into two halves.
Speaker 1: What are you most confident about going in and it
Speaker 1: can be on the field or off the field, and
Speaker 1: what concerns you the most about this matchup? And once again,
Speaker 1: it could be on the field or off the field.
Speaker 3: You know, I think coming off of two really good
Speaker 3: results this past weekend, I think it's going to give
Speaker 3: our kids confidence that we have the ability to play really,
Speaker 3: really well and score goals and keep a clean sheet.
Speaker 2: I think that the trickiest.
Speaker 3: Component that pretty much we always talk about at Columbus
Speaker 3: State is you know, it's tough to beat teams two
Speaker 3: times in a row. And so you know, just like
Speaker 3: we looked at the Kataba game going man, we were
Speaker 3: down two to one the first time we played him,
Speaker 3: and we had to come back and score two late
Speaker 3: goals to beat them three to two. You know, same
Speaker 3: thing with North Georgia. It was a battle back and forth,
Speaker 3: back and forth, and we ended up scoring a late goal.
Speaker 3: So you know, it's always always tough to beat a
Speaker 3: team twice in the same season, especially when that game
Speaker 3: was relatively close in nature, meaning I think we played
Speaker 3: them homecoming was about three weeks ago, maybe a month.
Speaker 2: Bet a month bet a month ago.
Speaker 3: I think it was October like twenty second, so It's
Speaker 3: about a month ago that we got to play them,
Speaker 3: and here we are playing again.
Speaker 2: And you know, in the end, if I was going.
Speaker 3: To drop one of those games, I much prefer to
Speaker 3: drop the regular season game versus this one, because this
Speaker 3: is you know, I tell my kids it's win or
Speaker 3: go watch.
Speaker 2: You know, I think I said that last time.
Speaker 3: It's not win or go home, because we are at home,
Speaker 3: you know, so it's win or just watch on the deli.
Speaker 2: Now's it.
Speaker 1: No doubt about it? Win or go watch ti'clock at
Speaker 1: Walden Sunday afternoon the Southeast Regional Championship D two, third round.
Speaker 1: It is Columbus State and it is un g as always.
Speaker 1: Jade's great to see you, my friend. I hope the
Speaker 1: holiday is what it is and that you have the
Speaker 1: dishes that are there that are prepared. Let me ask
Speaker 1: before you go, is there anything that is coach j
Speaker 1: family specific that might not necessarily be in everybody else's
Speaker 1: idea for Thanksgiving dinner? Is there anything in the spread
Speaker 1: that is specifically in Liick that is not anybody else's.
Speaker 1: Are you fairly normal?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think we're pretty normal. You know.
Speaker 3: With the turkey, we've got a ham honey baked ham.
Speaker 3: We got sweet potato cast role, green bean cast role.
Speaker 3: My wife makes apple pie. We've got sister Shubert rolls.
Speaker 3: We've got mashed potatoes.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The only thing that we did differently this year was
Speaker 3: we typically wait until, you know, the day after to
Speaker 3: decorate the house for Christmas, but with everything falling so late,
Speaker 3: we actually did it this morning. So we got all
Speaker 3: our Christmas decorations out. So this will probably be the
Speaker 3: first time, you know, I've been married now almost twenty
Speaker 3: two years, like this will be about the first time
Speaker 3: that we are doing Christmas decorations the day before Thanksgiving. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The boss, the boss in our household is like one
Speaker 1: holiday at a time. We'll get past Thanksgiving, then we'll
Speaker 1: decorate the house. I know exactly what you I know
Speaker 1: exactly what you're going through, and I just defer to
Speaker 1: the boss. It's like whatever she says with the timeline,
Speaker 1: that's where we do it. Be safe, my friend, Betel,
Speaker 1: enjoy the holiday and we'll be keeping an eye on
Speaker 1: your Sunday afternoon down there at walden Is. It is C.
Speaker 1: S U and U n G. Thanks for dropping by
Speaker 1: for a one v one my friend.
Speaker 2: All Right, thank you John, God bless