Speaker 1: Time to get our update and what's going on at
Speaker 1: the sports plex of Matthews and environs surrounding. So that
Speaker 1: means as we try and figure out what's going on
Speaker 1: with the Division two Women's Championship in soccer, we catch
Speaker 1: up with Jay Jay. How is the sports plex at Matthews.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, it is absolutely immaculate. Just what a wonderful
Speaker 2: occasion we had with the girls showing up on day
Speaker 2: one and walking into the stadium, forty three hundred seat stadium,
Speaker 2: beautiful grass pitch, just almost like a dream.
Speaker 3: That was awesome, so cool, so cool.
Speaker 1: Has it sunk in? And how many different ways? I
Speaker 1: guess has it sunk in that you are in a
Speaker 1: final four, getting ready for a national semi final?
Speaker 3: You know, you know, practice was practice.
Speaker 2: Our kids don't think about practice any differently, you know,
Speaker 2: day before, it's it's our normal routine.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: But honestly, as strange as this sounds, when we got
Speaker 2: back to the hotel and we unloaded fifteen boxes of
Speaker 2: NCAA swag, uh, that's when the eyes.
Speaker 3: Just started popping.
Speaker 2: And uh, uh kudos the NCAA. They really really take
Speaker 2: care of the student athletes. And uh, you know, backpack
Speaker 2: and a lu lu lemon you know, fanny pack or whatever,
Speaker 2: and a hat and uh scarf and this little soccer ball.
Speaker 3: And a brand new backpack.
Speaker 2: Oh and the girls were just going create a speaker,
Speaker 2: brand new speaker, like one of the Bluetooth. I didn't listen.
Speaker 2: I'm a dinosaur. I don't even know how to use brother.
Speaker 1: I get that completely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think that's when they're like, oh my gosh, coach,
Speaker 2: like this is amazing, and I go listen, this is you, guys,
Speaker 2: the ones that deserve it.
Speaker 3: You, you are the winners, and see he wants to
Speaker 3: take care of you.
Speaker 2: So I think that's when it kind of hit like, Wow,
Speaker 2: this is really special.
Speaker 1: You mentioned how practice is practice, but because of all
Speaker 1: of the demands on your time, whether it's public appearances
Speaker 1: and itineraries and meals and coordinations, I mean, this is
Speaker 1: one of those high powered road trips. You have road
Speaker 1: trips in conference, but this has that extra meaning attached
Speaker 1: to it. How difficult is it to maintain your normal
Speaker 1: thought pattern, approach itinerary but it's a national semi final.
Speaker 1: How difficult is it to be yourself in a situation
Speaker 1: like this?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean this you know, it sounds like it's tricky.
Speaker 2: You just got to make sure you navigate and you
Speaker 2: get your bus driver or the itinerary.
Speaker 3: You know. For example, on day one, we.
Speaker 2: Went to an elementary school to have what's called a
Speaker 2: community engagement event. And it was interesting because we were
Speaker 2: prepped to read to children. So we were prepped to
Speaker 2: go into the classrooms two different you know, sets of
Speaker 2: two sets of three and you know, read some Christmas books,
Speaker 2: hand out some candy canes. And we got there and
Speaker 2: they said, well, we're going to scratch that. We're going
Speaker 2: to do a clinic and we said, oh okay, So
Speaker 2: instead of reading, we quickly redirected to the gymnasium and
Speaker 2: we did a clinic with.
Speaker 3: With kindergarteners and it was awesome. I mean, our girls
Speaker 3: are great with that. And so again.
Speaker 2: You you are it's a lot of moving parts and
Speaker 2: you know, but yeah, honestly, John, practice, once we got
Speaker 2: out on the pitch, it was fine, normal practice.
Speaker 3: You know, you got some people watching.
Speaker 2: You know, you got six or seven NCAA reps and
Speaker 2: you know, one of the coolest things was they you
Speaker 2: only get an hour. Okay, so when you're at these
Speaker 2: these tournaments. Uh, they set the clock and the NCAA
Speaker 2: Reps it's okay, fox started, you start going, going, going,
Speaker 2: and you kind of not really ever stress about time,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, this person over on the
Speaker 2: sidelines like.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, what is this a movie script or something?
Speaker 3: And uh. And it was interesting because we typically do
Speaker 3: a lot.
Speaker 2: Of the same activities, and so we ended up playing
Speaker 2: the Red team versus the Blue team and a finishing
Speaker 2: activity and they ended up tying, and and I said, well,
Speaker 2: we can't leave on a tie. I mean, tying is awful.
Speaker 2: So we got to finish and I see this woman
Speaker 2: over on the side going and I'm like, that's somebuddy.
Speaker 2: We're gonna we're gonna get a winner here. We're going
Speaker 2: to figure this out.
Speaker 3: But yeah, So it was really cool.
Speaker 2: At the end end of the the session, Uh, the
Speaker 2: NCAA reps there were seven of them. They brought us
Speaker 2: in and they actually made a really cool special announcement
Speaker 2: to one of our players, naming her the Elite ninety
Speaker 2: Award winner, which goes to the young Lady.
Speaker 1: And young Man.
Speaker 2: There's a month's tournament as well. The young Lady that
Speaker 2: has the highest grade point average that's attending the Final
Speaker 2: four as a participant, but also has the highest amount
Speaker 2: of credits. So you know, we have several girls. I mean, honestly,
Speaker 2: John arm Or overall grade point hours I actually just
Speaker 2: got it today is a three point seventy eight. We've
Speaker 2: got like four or five kids that have four point zeros.
Speaker 2: But Avery Williams was named the Elite ninety award winner,
Speaker 2: and she had the most credit.
Speaker 3: She has one hundred and fourteen credit.
Speaker 2: She's actually graduating early, going to medical school, and actually.
Speaker 3: Just got named she doesn't even know it yet.
Speaker 2: It literally just came out, got named second team All
Speaker 2: American by United Soccer coaches. So really really special day
Speaker 2: for her for a kid that gosh, this is her
Speaker 2: first year playing. She's had three acls back to back
Speaker 2: to back, and what a special year for her to
Speaker 2: come back, start every game, long significant minutes. Named first
Speaker 2: Team All Region, second Team All American, Elite ninety. I mean,
Speaker 2: just a tribute to resilience and belief that you know,
Speaker 2: don't let anything beat you down. You can come back
Speaker 2: from anything.
Speaker 1: Studying biology, going to further her education, pursuing med school
Speaker 1: after graduation. With the four point zero and Avery getting
Speaker 1: the Elite ninety not the only award. And I know
Speaker 1: that you like to talk about the team as the
Speaker 1: whole and how successful they all are as a group.
Speaker 1: You had five student athletes get Soccer Coach All Region nods.
Speaker 1: You had three get d two CCA Women's Soccer All
Speaker 1: Americans in Hungerford, Velis and Croft, And so the awards
Speaker 1: are going out to different folks in a bunch of
Speaker 1: different places, in a bunch of different ways, whether it's academic, athletic,
Speaker 1: or both. But that speaks to what you and I
Speaker 1: have been discussing all season long. That's a part of
Speaker 1: the DNA at Columbus State. It's about everyone contributing in
Speaker 1: a bunch of different ways and you end up getting
Speaker 1: what we had in the last couple of days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the other awards that just came out today,
Speaker 2: obviously mentioning Avery Williams with second Team All American. Sarah
Speaker 2: Hungerford and Emma Badeaux were named First Team All American
Speaker 2: by United Soccer Coaches and so, you know, honestly, John,
Speaker 2: something like that, you're talking about those two being recognized
Speaker 2: as one of the best eleven players in the country
Speaker 2: and top eleven and that's pretty special. And what's even
Speaker 2: more special a big shout out to young man named
Speaker 2: coach David Schuman. I met David probably about eight years ago.
Speaker 2: I was teaching a coaching course for US Soccer down
Speaker 2: at IMG Academy and he came up to me and
Speaker 2: he said, he said, Jay, I hope you remember me,
Speaker 2: you know, because I got some young kids. I'm coaching
Speaker 2: young kids now, but I got these two kids that
Speaker 2: I think are special and in a couple of years,
Speaker 2: I sure hope you recruit them. And one of them's
Speaker 2: name Emma Bideaux and one's name Sarah hunger For.
Speaker 3: And I have that happened to me all the time.
Speaker 3: It's kind of a regular thing.
Speaker 2: I worked for US Soccer, and you know, I always
Speaker 2: got these coaches that say they got these studs.
Speaker 3: And a lot of time it kind of goes in
Speaker 3: one ear out the other.
Speaker 2: And it was interesting because I followed up on these
Speaker 2: two because they were both Georgia kids, and I was
Speaker 2: amazed that this guy was actually right. And I literally
Speaker 2: John literally about thirty minutes ago when the announcement came,
Speaker 2: I sent him a text and I said, David, I'll
Speaker 2: never doubt you again, and it was cute. He sent
Speaker 2: me a picture of his newborn and he said, here's
Speaker 2: the next Savannah kid coming your way.
Speaker 3: So you know, great stories and super proud of this team.
Speaker 2: But I texted him, I texted Avery and texted Sarah
Speaker 2: and I said, listen, regardless, I'm super proud of your
Speaker 2: individual accomplishment, but ultimately, please remember it's team first. That's
Speaker 2: our mantra. And you wouldn't be where you are today
Speaker 2: without your teammates. So make sure tonight at dinner you
Speaker 2: thank your teammates and you let them know that this
Speaker 2: individual award is not going to change your behavior, change
Speaker 2: who you are. And we got to go out tomorrow
Speaker 2: and get a result.
Speaker 1: You know, So that would be the class of twenty
Speaker 1: forty six.
Speaker 3: If I'm still coaching that, I'll probably be in a wheelchair.
Speaker 1: You know, you can see with the megaphone and just
Speaker 1: like you know the way that you're on the sidelines
Speaker 1: and have another folks to it. But yeah, Emma with
Speaker 1: her time coming out of Saint Vincent's and Hungerford coming
Speaker 1: out of the hill, and we've seen both of those
Speaker 1: programs grow in their different classifications. But once again It
Speaker 1: speaks to where you find folks and where the sport
Speaker 1: grows and where it's growing from here in the state
Speaker 1: of Georgia and in the southeast, because as much as
Speaker 1: it could be Saint Vincent's or the Hill, it could
Speaker 1: be Vidalia, could be Northwest Georgia with what's going on
Speaker 1: up there the mountain region and how they're growing, and
Speaker 1: folks are reaching out to you because I venture to
Speaker 1: say that you know, what kind of a mentor you
Speaker 1: can be, how they can continue to get better and
Speaker 1: they're in an environment where they can learn, they can grow,
Speaker 1: and you can learn and grow just as much as
Speaker 1: well with this next generation and this next class that's
Speaker 1: coming through. In that case, yeah.
Speaker 2: John, I tell every recruit that sits in my office,
Speaker 2: you know, but please don't come to Columbus State unless
Speaker 2: you're willing to be coached. And I think that's just
Speaker 2: what we do. We want to coach kids, we want
Speaker 2: to develop and and we want to give information. And
Speaker 2: we hope that if you're coming to our university, you're
Speaker 2: open minded, you're you're willing to accept the information and
Speaker 2: and a lot of times I say it like this,
Speaker 2: you know, accept the information disregard the tone, because again,
Speaker 2: sometimes coaches have a very very sharp tone and they
Speaker 2: kind of sound like they're mad. But oftentimes we try
Speaker 2: and project our voice because we've got to get it
Speaker 2: all the way across the field. Yes, but but no,
Speaker 2: we we tell kids all the time, like, if you're
Speaker 2: not interested in receiving feedback, please don't come here, because
Speaker 2: feedback is a major component of what we do. We're
Speaker 2: very solution based. We're very uh, you know, we want
Speaker 2: we want kids to not only you know, grow every day,
Speaker 2: but they are going to get better if they put
Speaker 2: in the extra work.
Speaker 1: When it comes to the extra work involving a national
Speaker 1: semi final, how much when did studying start for you
Speaker 1: and the staff and when did studying start for the
Speaker 1: players from the information that you guys took from the
Speaker 1: top level and wanted to bring to the rest of
Speaker 1: the rest of the group.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so as soon as we won the game last
Speaker 2: week against West Florida, it started pretty much that minute,
Speaker 2: and we were able to watch the Minnesota State versus
Speaker 2: Grand Valley fixture and we were able to go back
Speaker 2: and do all of our scouting early on in the week.
Speaker 2: One of the trickiest components and again the modern nature
Speaker 2: as a crazy way of getting in the way of
Speaker 2: some things. We did have a considerable amount of rain
Speaker 2: this week, so we weren't able to be out on
Speaker 2: the field as much as.
Speaker 3: Maybe we wanted. But we're hoping that that could be
Speaker 3: a good thing in the end.
Speaker 2: Our last practice on Tuesday out on the pitch and uh,
Speaker 2: it was a soaking, soppy, wet just mush. But but
Speaker 2: you know, long story short, you know, we are who
Speaker 2: we are at this point. We would prefer to dictate play.
Speaker 2: We'd prefer to have teams kind of adjust to us,
Speaker 2: so to speak. And and I think ultimately that's the
Speaker 2: message is.
Speaker 3: You know. I was telling one of the site.
Speaker 2: Reps, a good buddy of mine today, you know, Gary
Speaker 2: at wind Gate, and and I just said, you know, Gary,
Speaker 2: we are who we are. We're going to play the
Speaker 2: same way we've always played.
Speaker 3: We we we.
Speaker 2: Want to dictate things. We want to keep the ball,
Speaker 2: we want to open players up, and we want to
Speaker 2: find little half spaces and scenes and and we want
Speaker 2: to go at you. And heck, if if we lose
Speaker 2: six to five, I'm happy we scored five goals, you know.
Speaker 2: And again we might give up a lot of goals,
Speaker 2: but I love scoring goals, and uh, you know, I
Speaker 2: think the challenge to our group was, you know, last
Speaker 2: game against West Florida John was the first time all
Speaker 2: year we had been shut out, and so the message all.
Speaker 3: Week has been, hey, that's not good enough.
Speaker 2: You know, that's that's unlike us, who right now is
Speaker 2: the leading team in the country with cold scored in
Speaker 2: Division one or Division two, And we got to get
Speaker 2: back to that.
Speaker 1: What are you the most confident about going into this
Speaker 1: matchup at three o'clock against Minnesota man Cato And what
Speaker 1: are you the most concerned about going into this matchup
Speaker 1: with Minnesota man Cato.
Speaker 2: You know, I think confidence is built around a belief,
Speaker 2: and I do believe in this group.
Speaker 3: I think kind of since day one.
Speaker 2: I've talked to the seniors and I had dinner with
Speaker 2: them last night with the team, and I got to
Speaker 2: sit with all the seniors and I said, when when did.
Speaker 3: You realize we are who we are?
Speaker 2: And they said, in the very first game And when
Speaker 2: we be Carson Newman six nothing, we realized we had
Speaker 2: something special.
Speaker 3: And so I think, honestly the confidence.
Speaker 2: Stemmed from that very first game and just the simple
Speaker 2: belief that we are pretty darn good and we're pretty
Speaker 2: darn special. I think, obviously, if you talk about any
Speaker 2: sort of concerns, you know, this is the first time
Speaker 2: in the history that we've ever played Minnesota State Mencatta,
Speaker 2: and so we don't have any sort of history with them,
Speaker 2: we don't have any sort of rivalry that there's nothing
Speaker 2: to kind of go off of versus in previous final
Speaker 2: fours or previous competitions. We kind of knew a lot
Speaker 2: about our opponents. We have played those opponents before, and
Speaker 2: so it's kind of nothing new for us. So I
Speaker 2: think there's that kind of sense of Wow, we really
Speaker 2: don't know this group, and we don't know the other
Speaker 2: semi final group either. We don't know Franklin Pierce, we've
Speaker 2: never played them, we don't know cow poly Pomona. So
Speaker 2: I think it's kind of a fun experience that we're
Speaker 2: not coming here going, oh boy, it's the same team
Speaker 2: that we've already played, played them last year.
Speaker 3: Like that's kind of cool. John, I'm taking it.
Speaker 1: As as a positive, you know, and we will be
Speaker 1: looking at it and we'll be seeing what's going on
Speaker 1: three o'clock as CSU takes on Minnesota man Cato National
Speaker 1: Semifinals D two up there at the Sportsplex of Matthews.
Speaker 1: We will find our servers and find ways to watch
Speaker 1: and have it on as many screens as possible and
Speaker 1: in as many rooms as possible and office HD and
Speaker 1: keep an eye on you. As always, it's great to
Speaker 1: catch up with you. Thanks for dropping by. I know
Speaker 1: that there are a lot of demands on your time
Speaker 1: and the fact that you get to carve out some
Speaker 1: time with us. It's always tremendously cool to see how
Speaker 1: things have gone this season. National Semifinal three o'clock. Looking
Speaker 1: forward to seeing it, Looking forward to catching up with
Speaker 1: you on the flip side. Thanks for dropping byes. You
Speaker 1: always do all right.
Speaker 3: Thank you, John, appreciate you.