Episode #79: Brett Parker on Recruiting

🎙️ Significant Recruiting: What College Coaches Are Really Looking For – with Coach Brett Parker

In this recruiting-focused bonus episode, Matt Rogers sits down with Coach Brett Parker, Head Men’s Soccer Coach at Saint Leo University, to pull back the curtain on what really matters in the recruiting process. From evaluating talent and character to how COVID reshaped the recruiting landscape, Coach Parker offers honest, practical advice for families navigating the journey to college athletics.

Whether you're a student-athlete or a parent trying to figure out where to start, this episode is packed with insight from a coach who’s been building successful programs for over 15 years.

📘 The Softball Recruit’s Journal and the Game Day version are now available on Amazon!
⚽ Journals for volleyball, baseball, soccer, and basketball are coming this summer.

💻 For free resources or to schedule a free 1-on-1 recruiting session with Matt, visit coachmattrogers.com.

Transcript

0:09

Welcome to Significant Recruiting with Matt Rogers, the bonus segment where we focus on helping families and student athletes navigate the college recruiting journey the right way. Today's guest is Coach Brett Parker, head, men's soccer coach at St. Leo University. Coach Parker brings over 15 years of experience building programs at the college level, and in this episode, he shares what he looks for in recruits. How the recruiting landscape has changed and what families should focus on if they want to stand out. Before we dive in, I'm excited to announce that my new book, the Softball Recruits Journal, along with the game day version, which I think a lot of families are gonna love, is now live on Amazon. If you have a child who wants to play college softball, this journal walks them through every step setting goals. Organizing communication with coaches, preparing for college visits, and making confident decisions. It even includes templates for emailing and calling coaches the right way. Journals for volleyball, baseball, soccer, and basketball are coming later this summer, so stay tuned. Now let's jump into my conversation on college recruiting with Coach Brett Parker. Coach Parker, so great to have you. We just had a fantastic conversation about coaching and your great history that you've had as a coach, and you've just got a fantastic mindset as a coach and how adaptable you are and how much you love your kids, and I can't call'em kids. They're 23 and 24 years, but how much you love your guys and your staff and the really great relationship you have. In your community. So it's been a lot of fun. I wanna dive into recruiting with you. Yep. And we started doing these segments'cause we have so many parents and student athletes. Are listening to this and high school coaches that are listening to this. So I wanna give them as much truth about recruiting as possible. And we talked about before we even started our conversation today, how much changes every day with recruiting and how much the world of our, of college athletics is changing every day. So I know some of this. Six months could be different answers, but we'll go with what we know today. Yeah. Alright. When you watch film or you go to a showcase or you're going to a high school match, is there something that just instantly makes a player jump out at you? Is there a standout quality that you just, that you connect with? You're looking for different, right? Looking for different things all the time. And you need variety and diversity within your team, no matter what sport it is or what position or whatever it is. I think they're probably, I. Maybe the word aura, it could be used. There is something about a player that has that that just has a presence that has, whether it's leadership or physical presence or, in soccer, a technical presence. But that's a difficult one for me because there is. There's no exact formula. We need this, and this type of player. And no player is the same, right? So we're never, you can't go, Hey, we lost Johnny. We need to go find another Johnny. You're probably never gonna find that player. So it's just looking, I think with anything, and I always tell, recruits or ones that are starting the process is try to be special at something, right? Have something about you as a player that, that is special and that could be. A physical characteristic that could be a technical characteristic, that could be a, a psychological or leadership characteristic. But if you have something you do that's special, that's gonna stand out, right? And somebody's gonna see value in that and somebody's gonna find, a role for that. Because if you're just pretty good at everything, there's. 10,000 other, possible recruits that are gonna be okay at everything. And it's that special quality of something that, that can really set you apart. I'll piggyback that with this, I'm a freshman in your program. I just got there. We're three weeks into practice. We're play, we're about to play our first game. What do I gotta do to get on the field with all these older guys, these experienced guys. Maybe I'm not the best player yet. Maybe I'm not the guy you're gonna count on to score your goals, but what do I gotta do to get on the field? Yeah. I typically tell those first year freshmen that having, being consistent is the first thing right? Is consistency day in and day out. And if you can start to show that consistency, you're gonna get opportunities. And, you could say, I'll take it. A player that's seven outta 10 every single time over somebody that's nine outta 10 sometimes, and four outta 10. The other time. I think, I was I've had countless conversations over my time, is the first step is I need to trust you as a player that I at least know what I'm gonna get, right? I know what I'm gonna get in a pressure situation and in a moment that matters to the team. So developing that, that consistency and that trust and relationship. Ship that in those moments, that's you're gonna, it does. It starts typically, at least in, in soccer. It's gonna start in practice in those, in our shortened preseason practices. And then if you can show that you're gonna get some opportunities in some preseason games and then hopefully, you can show that you're ready for it at that point. Soccer is, we all fall sports, I know there's a few others where we have such a short window for freshmen to. To be ready to compete. Yep. You have to be, you got a couple weeks to do it and that's it. And it's, it's not it's not fair. It's not right. And it's, it is high stress and, and every aspect and some aren't ready for it. And it's okay. I tell'em all the time, it's okay if you're not ready for that. And. I know, my experience is I never could, I can never project who's gonna be ready. I could, you could give me five incoming freshmen and I could pick two that are gonna be ready and the three that I didn't pick are probably gonna be the ones that are ready. So you never know. That, that, that's where I was gonna take you backwards. If you and I were sitting at a field, we watching a really high level travel club game and. ECL, whatever it may be. Can you see that consistency on the field? Is it spacing? Is it pace? Is it how quickly they get the ball off their foot is there some things that you're just like, I wanna see more of that. You, you're never gonna know if they're ready for a college soccer game. It, and it's, if you watch, if you were to watch a high level youth soccer game club, soccer game, and then the next night you were gonna go watch a high level college soccer game at any level, any ai, D three junior college, D 2D one, you're gonna see a different sport almost. It's gonna be so much different. So there's. It's, I, it is, to me anyway, hopefully there's some coaches out there that have figured it out, but I, there's no way to know truly when they go into that environment that they're gonna be ready in all aspects. They're, you can tell if somebody's gonna be physically ready. You can tell if somebody's gonna be technically ready. You can tell if they're gonna be. Probably if they're gonna be psychologically ready, but all those combined to to know if when they're put in that moment, if they're gonna be ready to go. It's, to me it's the hardest part of the recruiting process. I agree. Where does c because of your sport, where does conditioning and physicality come into play when you're watching a kid? Does that jump out at you? It has to it, it has to, soccer has always been a sport. You have to be a highly conditioned athlete to, to play in. And then the modern game even more the ability to cover ground, to recover, to, to do it at a high level, at a high speed is it's everything in a lot of ways. So you have to have a certain amount now. Not every player on our team and how we play is, has to be that elite. Conditioned athlete that can run eight miles, nine miles in a 90 minute game and do it at a high intensity. But it's, yeah it's important. It's important, it's it's one of the, one of the components you need to be good at now, soccer, getting into call. You have to be, you have to be, have to have an elite level of, fitness and physicality. You have. To have an elite level of technical ability, you have to have an elite level of psych, psychological, the psychological side has to be at a high level. So there's, yeah, every pillar of the game has to be, that's what's gonna get you, one, get you into college, and two, gonna make you successful in college. I, I just, I've had a couple of conversations with some Hall of Fame college baseball coaches and basketball coaches over the last couple of weeks, and it's, it was, it jumped out at me how they both talked about strength training and how important Sure. Strength training was to being at a play at that scholarship level you're at. Is it the same for soccer? Probably not. I'm definitely not the same. And it's, I think it's becoming more of a regular part of youth soccer players, both domestically and worldwide where it's, you are in a strength conditioning program, whether, whether you're club provides it or you do it on your own. Certainly like our freshmen student athletes are that first semester in, in the weight room with the strength and conditioning staff are gonna be. Treated differently. They're gonna be, make sure that they're doing the right things. They're gonna, they almost have to be coached and taught how to do it in a lot of ways. So it's certainly compared to every other sport, certainly basketball, certainly football, certainly probably baseball, it's not as important the strength training side. But it can help. It certainly helps. And it's, it can be something that has you more prepared. I. For as a freshman, we talk about the, freshmen not being prepared and struggling to, to make an impact early on. That's something that can make you more prepared, as when you're gonna play a against a 24-year-old, whether they've been in a strength training program growing up or not. They're 24 years old and they've developed physically different than, the 18-year-old has. It's certainly something I would recommend. Absolutely. I. Can I play division two soccer As an 18-year-old, let's say I run a sub five mile and I've got, I'm in great shape and I've got great, two great feet. I got a boot on. I can boot it from either side. Can I be an impact player if I've never seen the weight room, if I haven't? Can I be 18 and be an impacted at D two without that? Absolutely. Without knowing how to squat and bench and Yes, you can. Yeah, absolutely. You see it all the time. Yeah. It's not uncommon. It really is not uncommon for some of our freshmen to even ones that can contribute to have not ever really truly been in a, in a sustained strength program growing up. Absolutely. Yeah. It can happen. I wanna lead kids a little bit too. You've coached the National player of the year. You've had the guy that was the best player in all of Division II soccer on your roster, and you developed him. What did that four years for that kid look like from the time you brought him in to being the best player in the country? What does that work ethic look like? What does that mindset look like? So I only had him for two years. Okay. Unfortunately, and only one where he was eligible to play. He, he has a long story, but he did, he was, he played at a very high level growing up. He played for a professional academy in Texas with FC Dallas, and was close to being in their first team, but he, when. When I, we took him in, I guess it would've been in 2018. He had to sit out a year as he was transitioning from a different school and coming in. But even in that year where he's not playing and competing, it's every day is his competition, right? He's coming in every day with a, with a mindset of, competing and beating guys out and playing at a high level. Yeah, I think the training habits of a player like that. You can certainly see it, and that's, don't care how good you are. You can't just flip a switch on game day and be the best player. He, he did it day in and day out and practice and every, there was a com competitiveness and a level of really battling and wanting to be the best player in everything he did that, that you don't see with every single player. And then physically, yeah, he was I. He was not, by, it's, by the time he came to us, he was, he was 20 years old and was physically developed and was but he, he had special physical qualities that certainly were not, he didn't just wake up one morning in half, it was a combination of speed, technical ability, strength. He had everything. Yeah. I it really comes down to that kid, if you wanna be great you have to come in and compete every day. You ha Yep. I just saw some Instagram posts where Craig Hodges said that in four years playing with Michael Jordan never lost a wind sprint. Yep. I, that mentality is so tough to get to, so tough to buy into. So tough to make it a part of who you are. Yep. But, I think there's a. That we have to talk about from a recruiting standpoint.'cause I'm assuming you tell me if I'm wrong, you'd probably wanna see every kid you sign at least once or twice live and then you're watching a ton of film. Absolutely. Yeah. As many times live as possible. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, you're gonna, you're gonna see'em multiple times. You watch a lot of film and you can make a highlight film. You can make a three, three minute highlight film look really good. You can make your effort look really good, really consistent. Absolutely. And when you watch a 90 minute match and can things change really quickly for you when you see it live. No doubt. I think that's. You the film to me is only going to pull your interest in pulling your interest in. So you, to me anyway, will rarely will we sign off for scholarships and really pursue a player that we don't see live multiple times. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that really is everything to. That 90 minutes, you can see good habits, bad habits, you can see how much, how much it really means to them. And that is the, you talk about the really the competitiveness and wanting to win and everything you do. You don't see enough of that on the recruiting trail, whether it's, a showcase or, and that can be the motivation maybe for the player might not be there. And from a competitive standpoint, it might be, I'm gonna go show and do everything I can, but. To be honest, a player out there that's giving everything for his team to win is gonna stand out much more than a player who, walks around for 75 minutes and then scores the game winning goal. We'll take the guy who's competing and really putting everything into it and showing that it really matters to him. It goes a long way in your brain, at least for me. It always was. I'm not gonna have to coach him, that I'm not gonna have to coach the heart. The heart's already there, right? Yeah, the, I want to coach motivated players, not motivate players is, is certainly that's paramount. I don't, I think probably my least, least enjoyable thing about coaching is having to motivate and, I want to coach and teach and inspire. I don't wanna, I don't wanna motivate you to to work hard and practice today. I want to, I wanna make you the best player I can. I love that. And it all starts with them wanting to be the best and wanting to put the effort into it. So I love that. Coach. What advice would you give a kid considering multiple levels, D two, D one N, ai, D three? What advice do you give that kid in their family a about, I don't know if there's a better way to say it. Fit over fame or fit over level? Yeah. Never in my coaching career has it been more important to find fit? And I've coached at every I've never coached at division one, but I've coached, D or n ai, D two. I've never coached D three, but I've, I've been around them so much and I've, obviously I've been around the division one game a lot and. Especially in soccer, and I know every sport is the same. There is high level play at every single level, right? And it is, now with the transfer portal and the older players at and in every sport you see it I used to think it was unique just to soccer, but there's, 24, 25, 26 year olds at every, in every sport now. That's a big challenge to overcome for an 18-year-old. And now there's roster, caps and limitations at division one, where it's become even harder. So there's nothing about the recruiting process for prospective student athletes, 18 year olds, that is getting easier. Getting to the highest level is getting harder and harder and harder. But it's also giving you the, the new climate is giving you opportunities that you don't have to be there. Day one, right? You can find the right fit for you in the present. And then if the universe calls for you to get to that level at some point, then you have other pathways to get there. But fits, fits everything fits everything. And making sure you find a place where. It's always a balance between what's gonna push you and develop you and get you to be the best player in person and athlete and student that you can be. And also giving you the reward that you pro you want, you want to be valued and you want to have a good experience. Most people want to play and get on the field, so finding that is, is the most important thing, right? Is finding that I. You can never go back in time. If you were able to and you made the wrong decision and went to a school where you brought, it was probably unrealistic. You were gonna play just because it was this name or that name, or this level or that level. And you could, I. Do the other where you went somewhere where you were valued and they really wanted you and wanted you to be a part of it, and you made an impact. You're gonna choose the impact and valued route 10 times outta 10. And I think more people like you and I would, you and I would, but I'm not sure every kid would. No, they wouldn't. And that's sometimes they have to, learn and grow from mistakes and make those mistakes and. Yeah, we can probably, countless times everybody who's been a coach in college, not at, not in at a Power four division one has probably had those thoughts in their head where, oh, they should have, they're making the wrong decision. But every, everybody's path's different and you have to make those decisions sometimes of yourself. I'm curious. Coach is if I'm an 18-year-old and you're meeting with me and my parents and I tell you. You either ask the question or it just comes up. He's okay being the 24th man on your roster and getting a scholarship, he's okay with that. Is that a red flag? Being okay with it, I don't think is a red flag. I think being content with it maybe is a red flag. Maybe they just, they really, everything else about. School and the program is, it's their dream place and they wanna fight and battle for it. It can be okay initially. You don't want that person to come in on as the 24 player and that's where they want to be and stay. And they only want work hard enough to be the 24th player. You wouldn't want that one, but the one that. Understand where they're at, knows they have to fight and to develop and grow and compete. And if they want anything more than that, then I think that's okay. And that there has to be, every program has to have a bottom of the roster player, right? Yeah. Every program does. So as somebody has to be in that role and has to be a developmental player that hopefully, beyond that gets to where they need to be, but. I don't see it as much as a red flag, as as long as they know this is your experience, you're gonna have to work. Very hard to get beyond that. And you're gonna have to do a lot of that has gonna have to be self-motivated. You're not gonna have every rep in practice, every opportunity to do it. You're not gonna be able to develop on the field like you might in a different situation. Yeah, it's it's not for everybody it's definitely, I guess not a red flag in every case. Last question, I'm gonna make you put your dad hat on. You've got an 11-year-old son, right? 12. Yep. 12-year-old son. Okay. We got boys that are same age. Yeah. So he's 18. He's got multiple offers on the table to play college soccer. He can go be. A guy that's got a lot of work to do at St. Leo to, to ever see the field, but they like him and they want to bring him on the roster, or he could go to a D three or an NAI and they love him. They think he's gonna be a primary player right away and a starter. What advice do you give in that situation to your own son? It, everything else is equal. Yeah. Let's say the financial aid package is within a couple thousand dollars. They both have the major, both really good coaches. Yeah. I'm telling'em to go to the other one. I'm telling'em to go to the one where you can contribute right away without a doubt. Why is that such a big value?'cause I'd give the same advice. Yep. Yeah. I think. Now again, it, there's something to be said about the other way of going and earning it and Yeah. And really and you hear we hear it all the time of, I, I can do it, I can get there. And a lot of times, more often than not, it doesn't happen. But it's, not for a lack of effort, but I just think the experience is a little bit better. You're gonna have a little more connection. You're gonna feel. Four years down the road, and as an alumni, you're gonna feel, in my opinion, you're gonna feel a stronger connection to that program where you have really impacted it, you really impacted it on the field. You're probably gonna become a leader. You're gonna, you're gonna learn a lot that, you know more than just on the field stuff. Yeah, I would I would push'em the other way without a doubt, and I don't, and I wouldn't care about telling. Our friends or family or whatever would not make any difference to me. Yeah. Because I think ultimately it's the experience and I when I was a player, again, Montana was a, is and was a, a recruiting exile. In soccer you're on an island, you have to do everything yourself. Nobody goes there. There's no, it's difficult, but. In a roundabout way late in the process I went to a junior college in California. I found the best junior college, the defending, the best team that, that looked like where I wanted to be. And I went and we won a national championship. We were very good. I wasn't a starter. I didn't, I played some and, but I wasn't the man. I wasn't the best player. I was a small fish in a big pond, and I loved that it was. I was a teammate that could do that. And I, loved that experience. And then I transferred to a school in Kansas, an NAI school where I became the big fish again. And I was an All American and we won a championship and I'll take that route, that experience and that side was, would win out 10 times, outta 10 for me. I love it. I'm gonna ask you one more'cause you, you just brought up something I think is really valuable. Okay. You're that kid in, there's a kid in Montana and he wants to play at St. Leo. What does he do? H how does, how do you want that kid? He is the captain of his team. He is a four year starter at the high school level. He's all conference all state, but he wants to come to Florida. He wants to go to Saint Leo. How does he reach out to you? How does he let him himself know that you're, or let you know he is interested? He has to, obviously persistence and getting in contact and emailing and using every connection and every way you can get into that coach's ear is first and foremost a player like that where it's unique and it's not somebody in our backyard or somebody that in our traditional recruiting pipeline or area, they gotta find a way to get in front of us in person, if they think that it's truly the, where they want to be in their dream spot and realistic, right? You've had enough advice. Enough direction that somebody has told you, yeah, this is a realistic place you should be pursuing. I think once, sending film and once, in my case personally, if it was that player, I would wanna make sure watching them on video, that it was realistic, right? That it was, I see something that sparks the interest that I need to see you play live. With, division two budgets and division two staffs and those things is probably gonna, put the onus on them to come down here. To come down here. Whether, maybe we're lucky in Florida that a lot of people, a lot of club teams and a lot of people travel here in the Yeah. The winter months to play. So maybe we can see'em that way. And if not, I have to see him at a camp. I have to get him to our camp to see campus and to do it. But I would want that to be a special case where I. You know, Hey, you're good enough. We wanna see you here. And just to confirm and then move forward. But but that's a good question. Really good question. Are you and your staff comfortable with that kid calling you and saying, Hey, I'd love to come to your camp. It's gonna cost my parents and I about a thousand bucks to do it. We don't have a lot of money. Would you gimme a two minute evaluation based on my film? Just, is it realistic? Thousand thousand percent? Yeah, that's, that is, camps, we use camps tremendously for recruiting. But we also don't want it to be it, it's not meant just to, bring everybody in every situation to come to camp. The majority, it's a. It's a drive, it's an easy situation. You come there for those ones. Yeah. We'll 100%. Do as much PO like either tell'em, Hey, it's probably not worth your while. Yeah. But, or Yes, please come. And a lot of times in those cases, we wouldn't even mention camp until we, did think it was a realistic possibility. And we would do everything we could. Through other avenues to see'em play. But yeah, I think that's tho those can happen and those are but yeah, we're gonna make sure it's a realistic one. Absolutely. Coach. So thank you so much for all this time you've given me today. Your advice is fantastic. Of course. I love your energy, I love your passion for this and your guys are lucky to have you and St. Leo's lucky to have you. So we'll be cheering for you guys and thanks again for All right. Appreciate it, Matt. Thanks for having me. That wraps up our recruiting conversation with Coach Brett Parker. Whether you're just starting out or navigating the final stages of the recruiting process, I hope today's episode gave you real insight into what college coaches value and how to approach recruiting the right way. I love Coach Parker's approach to teaching, mentoring, and building strong long-term programs. And don't forget, the Softball Recruits Journal and the game day version are now available on Amazon. These tools. Walk your student athletes step by step through the entire recruiting journey with space to set goals, track communication, prepare for visits, and make confident decisions. Journals for volleyball, baseball, soccer, and basketball are coming this summer for free recruiting tips. Tools and resources, or to schedule a free coaching or recruiting session with me. Head over to coach matt rogers.com. Thanks for listening to significant Recruiting. Keep leading with purpose and I'll see you next time.