Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Welcome to Kendall speaks. I'm Dr. Brian Stewart, Kendall campus president. And today's guests are our men's soccer team, which I'm really excited to have. I had the pleasure of spending last year at the national tournament with these men, and hopefully we're going to return again this year. But with me is our head coach, Giuseppe DePaul. Welcome.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Thank you, Dr. Stewart.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Assistant coaches Juan Rivera and Mungo, how are you?
[00:00:28] Speaker C: Happy to be here.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: Glad to have you guys here.
This is really an appropriate time to have you three guys here because you started your season with your first scrimmage last night. And talk a minute about that, if you don't mind. Before we get to know you, I know you had a few players sit out for coaches reasons, and it was a 11 tie that might could have been a 10 win. So you want to talk about that first.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: It was a decent start for us, you know, getting to know the new guys and learning what works, what doesn't. We left a few guys out, as you mentioned, due to some disciplinary reasons, trying to educate some guys on off the field behaviors that we think if we can correct those things now, they'll be beneficial toward us later. So that's part of the learning process.
So, you know, from, from a technical standpoint, it's a little frustrating that we, we didn't have our full allotment of players, but we also, it was an opportunity to see some extra guys that maybe might not have played as much had we have had everybody so controversial. Equalizing goal straight from a corner that the officials gave us a goal that our goalkeeper caught. They said it was over the line. Who knows? We watched the video. Pretty inconclusive. You can't tell if it was or wasn't, but it doesn't matter. The important thing, what does matter is we learned we have some hungry guys that are ready to compete and it's going to be an exciting group again.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: And I heard you fought for that, so I'm glad to hear you were out there. So the players could see you fight just like they need to be fighting.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I didn't argue it too much.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: No, I know.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: I questioned and made sure the official was convinced, and he was. And that's. That's how it goes. So.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Well, it was their preseason too, so let's hope they get it in gear. Well, let's, let's go around the table and let's talk about your journey, certainly in soccer, but to Miami Dade College. And we'll start with you, Coach Giuseppe. Tell us A little bit about your background.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I played in college at Franklin Pierce University up in New Hampshire. Played Division 2 college soccer.
It was a great, great time. Different time than what the game is now. It's evolved a lot over the years. That kind of brought me into professional football. I played three years in what's now the usl, the second, second tier, as MLS was starting.
I was finishing school just as MLS was starting, and so never had the opportunity. Probably wasn't good enough, to be honest with you, to play in MLS at that time.
It was a very small league. Concentrated and played a bit three, three or four years, and then had an opportunity to get into college coaching. And I thought, you know, that was a great chance for me to kind of make a career out of the game.
Started at Embry Riddle University in Daytona Beach. I spent two years as an assistant, then ended up getting the head coaching job at Nova Southeastern down the road here.
Ended up coaching Juan, recruiting Juan and coaching Juan Munga was actually one of the coaches at NOVA prior to my arrival.
So we kind of almost crossed paths and I had the chance to coach Juan for four years at Nova, and then he became an assistant coach and spent five or six years with me after that. So, yeah, I coached in college for many, many years.
And then towards 2015, 2016, my contract ended at Nova and I had an opportunity to start work in the professional game. Took a job out, well, first with Miami fc, the team we played last night as an assistant coach, and then ventured out to Seattle. Worked with Seattle Sounders briefly and kind of made my way back to Inter Miami and now here at Miami Dade College. So it's been a long and winding path that has been very educational. Met a lot of people, learned a lot. Still learning a lot. And yeah, it's been a blast.
And I still enjoy it as much as I did on the first day.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that coaching path can be difficult. And we're glad to have you at Miami. Dave, what was your position, position that you played in college?
[00:04:18] Speaker B: I was a central midfielder mainly.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: A lot of running.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Defensive midfielder. Yeah, like my son, who's now, now a freshman here. So Mateo's on the squad last night?
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Oh, I didn't know that.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Played his first game, had the assist on the first goal and played the same position as Matteo does. So it's nice to get to watch my boy play.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: What's his number? Song page.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: He's number 11.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: Number 11. All right. That's awesome. Well, we're glad to have you, Juan. Heard a little Bit about your background, but tell us some more if you don't mind.
[00:04:44] Speaker D: Yeah, so I was, I was born in Colombia, moved at the age of eight or nine to South Florida. Basically been, you know, in South Florida ever since high school.
I went to American High. Then as Giuseppe was mentioning, he recruited me to play at nsu. I was there for, for four years. Then after I graduated, kind of spend about a year just trying to make it into, into the pro environment.
That didn't work out. So the opportunity opened up once our assistant coach, Matt Perry, he decided that he was going to go his own way at the nsu. So you know, Giuseppe called me, we spoke about the opportunity to come in as his assistant. You know, for me back then, I think that was the best choice and that's how I started, you know, on the college side I was also starting club soccer and coaching. So I started there with, with Davey Davey Sharks, which was kind of like a partner program for nsu. So I was there at Nova for five, six years as an assistant coach, then moved south to the Kendall Pinecrest area where I started coaching at Pine Crest Premier. I had a couple of teams on the boys side, on the girls side. Then I moved over to Miami, Kendall Rush, where I've basically been there now for the past four, for five years. And then once Giuseppe got the position here as the head coach, the phone call came again. You know, it's just a full, full circle. Reunited, reunited, Sharks again.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:06:21] Speaker D: So you know, it's again no brainer. Worked, worked with him before in the past as you know, as a player, as an assistant. So you know, it's a comfort level within the coaching staff. So you know, that's how my full circle into mdc.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: That's awesome. In position, what positions did you play?
[00:06:37] Speaker D: I played as a left back. Left defender. Yeah. Okay, so up and down, up and down the middle. Kind of see the, the Jeremy, Jeremy in me.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: Jeremy Levivier plays in the. Our current position where Juan played.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: All right, so well, I watched a lot of soccer growing up. My son played goalie. He was a basketball player but they convinced him to play goalie and they. I forgot who his coach was, but he came over from England. It was, was a top team there in Texas and so I got to fall in love watching him play it. So. But you guys play it at a higher level than he does. So last with us, Munga, tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you to mdc.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: Well, it's probably pretty much going full circle. Believe it or not, I was supposed to play for Miami Dade.
I was initially supposed to go to Clemson, but few things happened. So I came to Miami Dade, met the coach at the first practice, and unfortunately back then everything was hard copy. So at the end of practice, coach brought me to his office, gave me the application and say, fill everything out and you know, come back in a couple of days with everything filled out so we can get you enrolled.
And that night I ran into a friend from back home who was attending fiu.
So I kind of got hijacked. Yeah, but, you know, everything turned out for the best in the sense that I played at FIU for four years and half of the team came from Miami Dade.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: Okay, there you go.
[00:08:00] Speaker C: From mostly the Kendall campus, and there were a few from the north campus and even a few from the downtown campus. Okay. So we ended up winning a national championship and everything. So very lucky in that regard. And in the off season, we played on those field almost every afternoon. Pickup games.
That was pretty much back then. That's what we used to do. We used to come here around 5, 5:30, and you play until it gets dark. And there will be probably 60, 80, 100 people.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: Just pick up games.
[00:08:28] Speaker C: Just pick up games.
And those fields were immaculate.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: Well, we'll talk about our fields in a minute. What position did you play?
[00:08:35] Speaker C: I play forward, forward. Nothing better than scoring goals.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: By the way, Dr. Stuart Munga is a very modest gentleman, but he is this fall going to be inducted into the FIU hall of Fame as the very first men's soccer student athlete in the history of the.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: Well, we need to go. We need to support that. So congratulations. I have a celebrity in the audience.
Well, I'm pleased that you're here. I'm pleased that you're with our Miami Dade Sharks because. Because I got to see last year's success. And we'll talk a little bit about what we think this year will be. Let's first talk with our assistant coaches a little bit about what your day to day responsibilities are. I know the big thing about programs like this is we all have our roles. Juan, you wanna start? What are your responsibilities when it comes to getting our athletes ready?
[00:09:15] Speaker D: I think, you know, we compliment each other pretty well. I think, you know, set duties we don't really have. But on our end, myself and Munga, we compliment Giuseppe and recruiting, if it's prior to the season starting, getting everything ready with the current squad, everything with logistics, planning our preseason, what training sessions would look like. I take a different role with Giuseppe and helping him on the field in terms of any session that we might have to split the squad depending on sessions and things that we want to work on. But also in the office, I work with Moonga in the logistical part of it with travel and making sure that everything just runs smoothly for our players when we're traveling.
[00:09:58] Speaker A: So that's great. Munga, what. What's your role?
[00:10:01] Speaker C: Well, it's mostly a logistic, and then also take care of the. The international, the apartments, because that's another department in itself. And then also everything is regarding travel, hotels, and all that stuff.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Good. Let's switch to our goals. What are some of our goals and values? Coach? What do you try to instill in our players?
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think first and foremost, we try and create positive behaviors in the players in terms of respect and treating their fellow students and teammates the right way and being on time. I mean, basic things that you would think should be already instilled in everybody. But believe it or not, they're not.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: They're college students and international students who don't.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: They're still kids, and we help mold them into men, into adults. I think that's probably.
When you. When you talk about college coaching, that's probably the thing you do most. And everyone thinks, oh, you're a college coach. You just coach soccer all day. And that's like you. The coaching aspect of it is maybe 20, 30%. It's managing people, it's educating, it's help helping mentor. It's all the little things off the field that. I mean, the. There's probably 100 things I can list, but that's the first objective, is getting them to exhibit proper behaviors. You know, beyond that. Yeah. Then we get into the soccer, and our goals as a team are clear. I mean, we want to be the best team we can possibly be. We want to try and win a conference championship. We want to try and win a regional championship, and we're hoping to get back to the national tournament to have a crack to win everything. I mean, it's ambitious, but if you're not going to compete to try and win, what's the point? I mean, the school. The school invests a lot of money in us and the players and in the facilities, and we're very grateful for that. But at the same time, we're like, if we're going to do it, let's do it right. So, yeah, we have lofty goals and I don't know. I mean, I think you shoot for the sky and hopefully you hit the stars. And the star we want to hit is the third star.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: We have two national championships here, two yellow stars. We, we would like the third one.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: That's nice. That's cool. Well, before I get into other questions, I want to talk about recruiting because I know you spent some good time recruiting. You have a lot of returnees. So let's take this moment. Any of you can jump in here. Let's talk about your recruiting and then the guys returning and kind of give our audience a feel for what we're looking like this year.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, obviously last year was the first year we were back and we kind of had a great year. We managed to put the team together in six months from when I was hired in early January to August. It's pretty incredible what we were able to do. Proud of the fact that we had three All Americans in. Facundo Ochoa was a first team All American, Eduardo Duchini was a second team All American, and Samuel Cabo, our goalkeeper, was a third team All American. And, you know, that's wonderful. Those were great individual accolades, but, you know, this is a team sport, so I'd much rather have no All Americans and win some championships, you know. But having said that, we were also realistic and, you know, we won, I think 13 games, lost five and drew two, which is a great first season after the program being dormant for so long. But, you know, we also were realistic with our needs and some of the positional holes that we needed to fill and improve. And I think we did that. We brought in, I don't know exactly how many players, but I'm going to venture probably 12 to 15 new faces.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Oh, wow. I didn't realize.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: So half the roster, we graduated a couple guys and, you know, a few guys, we, we moved on or they moved on. And, and so, yeah, we've added. And we feel like we've really, really improved the, the depth of the team. So it's pretty solid in every position. We, we feel, you know, we're too deep in every role. We've got two guys that we think are starting level players in every position, which is amazing. I think that speaks to the quality of South Florida players. You know, we managed to get a few local players like Lucas De Paula, who's a Kendall kid, Matteo DePaolo, who's, you know, my son from Weston, Martin Jaramillo, South Florida, Javi Preto, Sean Byard. I mean, we've got a whole host of South Florida kids that really improve the level of the squad and, and obviously the international Players help because they're coming with a different view of the game and they're adding their experience. And so it's a, it's a very complementary group of players that, you know, Munga helps.
He has his contacts, you know, with some of the French guys and some, some players in different parts of the world. And Juan has some connections in South America and I have some connections in Italy and here. And so, as Juan said, I think, you know, we complement each other well as a staff and we all try and bring, bring our strengths to the table.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: Mungo, talk about your recruitment and if.
[00:15:02] Speaker C: You don't mind, again, just like Giuseppe, I mean, been coaching for almost 30 years for me, so I've been quite around the block throughout the years. We have so many international players and that's what sets up the contact.
What is different today is that almost every day you get emails from agencies that are popping up. So now you need to navigate that web. But at the end of the day, it's people that you've met in the past that you, you really connected with that you know, you can fully trust that pretty much pay dividends.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: And I understand you all get calls regularly from community people wanting to try out and be a part of our team. Juan, how do we handle that?
[00:15:40] Speaker D: I mean, it's like you said, it's every day, it's phone calls, it's emails, it's players that just pop up to our office just wanting to have their, their share of a tryout.
So at times it's tough because sometimes it's a lot that it's coming in. So we have to filter and try to make the best, the best decisions. If, if it's a player that it's worthwhile, then we'll invite them into a tryout or if it's an ID camp that we're having. So I think we do a fairly good job in that sense of, you know, filtering what players are going to be a positive impact for, for our program. But still is, it's a lot of players that, you know, probably do fall through the cracks that, you know, I.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: Mean, our, our goalkeeper Jaime Guerrero, who played one of the games in the national tournament, was a walk on for us that we found at our very first open tryout. And I think it was in like March of 2024, you know, so there are players out there that occasionally you can find and we're willing to do it. I think it's, it's, it's more like, to Juan's point, it's a question of timing because like a lot of players even this week are sending us messages, oh, coach, I see your season is starting. Do you need a. Do you need another striker? And it's like six months ago, you should have contacted us, you know, and it's like, so I don't think everyone really understands the timeline and that this is, you know, recruitment for us. It's not two weeks before the season. It's a year long job. I mean, I traveled to, I went to Japan. We signed two players for 2026.
We have two players committed. I shouldn't say signed, but committed.
One will be signing in November and is coming in in January.
Another one's coming in in August of 2026. But I traveled to Japan, we went to Africa.
Mungo's been to France. I traveled to Italy. We went to Colombia together. Like, we're literally traveling the world scouring for players, looking for people with the right character that can help.
[00:17:41] Speaker C: Also, the game has changed back to the first national championship teams. Here at Miami Dade, everybody was pretty much local.
Now the international players have impacted the college game for sure.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
Before we leave, last year's team, last year, as you said, was our first year. What did we learn in our first year? What are things that. I know we learned some things at national with cold weather, but what are some of the things you guys learned that will help us this year as we go into season two?
[00:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I think we learned that the college game is very demanding because it's, it's short, it's, it's basically a sprint, you know, for 120 days you're playing 22 games and it's like training game, recovery day, training, light play. Again, there's not a lot of training time. And I think our squad depth wasn't quite good enough last year. And we realized that when the accumulation of games happened, because it's one thing in August and September when everyone's fresh, right? But then you hit October and November and it's like now they're coming off 15, 20 games in a two and a half month period.
That accumulation of games, it just, they're just not as sharp, you know, so we were cognizant of that and we said, you know what, we need to balance out the squad a little bit and have more depth so that we can rotate players a little bit. So the idea this year is maybe some of those Friday, Sunday games, it's like you're not going to see the same faces all the time that you see on Friday in the Sunday Game, you know, we're going to be able to go, okay, you went 90 minutes on Friday, you'll go 30 minutes on Sunday, you know, and hopefully in the long run that helps us.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: It's not the same, but it's kind of like in baseball where you're a pitcher, you got to give those days off. So when the playoffs get here, you're fresh. So I think that's great. Anything either of you guys learned you want to share with our audience comes to mind.
[00:19:36] Speaker C: Probably last year for preseason, we went two a days and we kind of paid a price a little bit on the back end. So this year we're just going once a day because we understand that two months from now you need to be.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: And tell our audience what time of day you're practicing.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: We're training at 4:30 in the afternoon. So I mean, I'm not sure it's. I don't know what's more advantageous. You know, going early in the morning, it's bright, but it's also hot. And sometimes your focus isn't great that early in the morning.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: So 4:30 works for us. And you know, the problem is we get the thunderstorms and we had delays at 4:30 and it's very humid at 4.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: Very.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Yeah, so it's South Florida.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: Well, but they'll be in shape. That's the point of that.
Well, let's go back to some other questions about the team. Let's talk a little bit about some of the behind the scenes things you guys do to prepare our players. As we're right in the middle of the first of the season, we've been here, what, a week with our players. What are some of the things behind the scenes you do to get our players ready?
[00:20:37] Speaker C: Well, we have to prepare them academically. Okay. So, you know, especially the international players to get them registered. Now we have to prepare them for the daily life of a student athlete, which most of them, this is the first time they're going to be facing. Also a lot of them, it's the first time away from home, first time they're living on their own.
So we kind of have to juggle all those situations. And also being an athlete in itself.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Juan, what about in practice? What are some of the things you do in practice to get them ready?
[00:21:09] Speaker D: So just depending on, I guess, what our schedule looks like during the week, if we have a game, let's say on a Wednesday, you know, we kind of do like a backwards planning in terms of, you know, the workload and all that.
If it's two days, three days before, before a game, that kind of dictates what sort of sessions we're, we're trying to organize.
You know, if it's closer to a game day, it's more about, you know, how sharp we want to, we want them to be, you know, speed, agility, all that stuff. So when it comes to 24 hours before the game, they're sharp in everything that they're doing. Defenders, you know, they're working on, you know, the defensive side of the game.
Our strikers, our wingers, they're working on finishing, crossing and different things like that, just all depending on how we are on that, on that schedule for the week.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: Did our players come in good shape into the season? How's that look?
[00:21:59] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty good. Pretty good. I think no matter how prepared you are, it's like, you know, guys live in Europe and guys live there and there and it's just no matter how prepared you are, when that South Florida humidity hits you in the face, it's, there's nothing like it, you know. So yes, they're prepared, but I think it's Nothing that in 10 days, two weeks, we can't kind of iron out the kinks. And you know, they need to play, they just need to play. And we get our, we do a good job of getting most of our conditioning and fitness through the game. You know, nothing we do in training really, I mean, I shouldn't say nothing, but most of the things we do in training are with the ball and they're ball related activities that mirror real soccer. You know, we want them to get good at playing soccer. There's no point in getting good at doing sprints and then you throw a ball at their feet and they're bouncing off their knees, you know what I mean? So we, we try and incorporate, incorporate the ball in everything we do. Even some of the activation, fun, agility stuff that one does at the beginning of training to kind of get their bodies ready for, for sprinting and for high intensity movements and yeah, it depends. It's very, very difficult to periodize the, the college season to plan out, which is a heavy workload day, which is a recovery day because like I said earlier, the games come thick and fast and there's not many opportunities where we can go, oh, today we're going to do running because you know, everything you do on the Monday impacts your performance on the Wednesday and then the following Saturday. So you have to be really, really careful to not overload players physically and mentally as well, you know, and There's a lot of travel. I think this fall our schedule, which is, isn't something we've chatted about, but our schedule we made really demanding intentionally. We're basically, we haven't shied away from anybody. We're playing like three or four nationally ranked teams that were at the national tournament in the first four or five games of the season. I think in the first 30 days of the season we're on the road for 16 days.
[00:24:08] Speaker D: Wow.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: We basically go to Iowa for the first four games. The first two games, sorry, four days. Then we come back, we're in class Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday I think. Then we go away to like Texas. We play Richland and Angelina.
Then we come back here for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, travel to New York, play Monroe and Monroe Community College. And so it's, it's that back to back to back four weekends in a row. So it's, it's going to be torture and it's going to be hard for them academically and in terms of recovery and in terms of focus. But yeah, hopefully we'll learn some good lessons in the first part of the year that will benefit us at the end. I mean, last year we had a great start and kind of like found it tricky at the end.
I'd rather take some head on challenges and maybe have a few bumps in the road in the first part of the season and be able to peak later in the year. So that's what we're trying to do.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: That's awesome. Coach Munga mentioned student athletes and you kind of did too. Let's talk a little bit about our student athletes. What kind of support do we have and how do you work with them? You know, because you're just talking about all the travel, what's our, what's our strategy and talk about some of our supported students.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, first of all, we were mildly surprised, I mean impressed that we had a team GPA in the fall, during the season last fall of 3.2, which was exceptional.
It was outstanding. But that doesn't come by accident a little bit. We also make, make sure we recruit good students that we know can, can do the job. But also we have a great support network with Ivanya and Anya.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: Right.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: Who really are fantastic. And they're a huge, huge supporting cast that really doesn't get a lot of the credit and, and they're on top of the guys making sure that they're in the right amount of classes and never dropping below the minimum standard and, and I'm in communication with them. So it's very, very helpful. The school really provides a lot of tutoring services. And yeah, so far it's been a good experience in terms of being successful on the academic side, and hopefully that'll continue. But like I said, it's. I think it's also a testament to the support network and the quality of the kids that we bring in.
[00:26:28] Speaker C: You know, also we received yesterday the envelope with all the academic certificates.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So we had. I think maybe it was like eight or nine guys that, you know, received honors in terms of high GPA in season.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: So that's great. That's great.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: Junior college.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: That's the success we want.
Talk a little bit about community involvement. How do we want our players giving back to the community and how do we involve the community?
[00:26:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I know there was a few events held on campus that we were involved in. The Community Community Fest, which I forget the exact name of it, but the Community Fest in the Circle, we were well involved with that and helped with setup and tear down, and we try and do some community clinics and camps. We did a free clinic for the community in the spring.
We also. We try and bring local clubs to campus, and we kind of do a joint training. We offer that to most of the local clubs, like, if local clubs contact us, obviously age appropriate. So, like under 18, under 19, you know, we want to give opportunities for their players to be seen and for them to have an opportunity to train. So in the spring, we, I think maybe six or seven times, we did joint training with local clubs where we invited in Athletum and Miami Rush and Pine Crest and West Pines and as many local clubs as we can kind of get our hands on and say, hey, take a look. Here's our campus. We have so much to offer. If you're a good player, maybe you're not ready to go play in D1 right now. Maybe you need some time. Maybe you just don't want to go away from home.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: We're the players.
[00:28:04] Speaker B: Yeah. So we try and offer that to make. To make the local clubs feel like they're part of this as well, you know, and obviously our expertise is on the soccer side, but.
[00:28:15] Speaker C: And we also do a recruiting seminar. You know, we explain or to get recruited for college and stuff.
[00:28:20] Speaker A: That's good. That's good.
Let's talk a little bit about our facilities. I know last year you had to play on a temporary field, and now I think we've got some pretty good facilities. What do you want to talk about? So our audience knows what kind of Fields they're playing on and the support they have.
[00:28:33] Speaker D: Yeah, I think towards the end of our fall season, we were able to finally get into our new soccer complex, which is, you know, I would say now within South Florida, even most of Florida. I think it's one of the best playing surfaces all around. I think just going back into my playing days, I think Barry, FIU were kind of like the standards.
And just comparing to that, I think we're at par with those facilities. And I think in terms of recruiting, I think that it's a huge help. They come in and then they see perfect carpet or plain pitch. Practice facility is the same, the field, it's in perfect conditions, stands, all that that we have to offer now. I think it's a huge help for us.
[00:29:20] Speaker C: When I was at fiu, the top recruits, I always made sure they had their visit when I knew the US national team was training or big European clubs were training. And hopefully we can reciprocate duplicate the same thing here in Miami Dade. Okay. Because when the recruits come to town and they see Real Madrid training here, if Real Madrid can train here, I definitely would like to be on this field.
[00:29:45] Speaker B: We had FIFA in this summer, which was huge. They did a bunch of their referee education here for the World Club cup. And we're also talking to a few professional clubs about maybe doing some training here in January.
We're excited about that. We're excited about the new facility. And like Munga says, I think bringing some sort of international level teams that can bring some great notoriety to campus and to our program and to our athletic department, it's just going to benefit everybody, you know, and hopefully we can maintain the standard of the facilities year after year so that it stays at a high, at a high level. But our players are super excited. So are we.
Honestly, I think we have pretty much everything we need to be successful. And the school's done a great job in you, I know, have been a big supporter, so thank you. And Mike Bellotto as well, our athletic director. And just it's been a fast kind of year and a half where everything's moved quickly, you know, so the facilities have been great. You know, Christina as well in. In facilities has been very helpful. So we're excited about the future.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: Yeah, we're blessed with a great team. And I'd like to shout out to our college president who got us on a really fast track to get at the stadium.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: Yeah, Madeline's been amazing.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: She's a rock star.
Tell me a little bit what you would say to Somebody in our audience that's maybe a future athlete, student athlete here. What would you tell them? What do they need to do? How do they need to keep their career going to play college athletics? Yeah, you all three played it, so.
[00:31:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I would tell.
[00:31:19] Speaker A: We all four played it. Let me put that in there.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I would say, you know, shoot. Be ambitious and shoot for your goals, you know, and college athletics is, is a different pathway, especially for soccer players now. The professional game is developing, so there's a lot of players that, you know, 10, 15 years ago all came into the college system and now that's not the case anymore. The best of the best at young ages are kind of going into the professional pathway. And so what that, that's basically, you know, creating some other opportunities to play college sports that in soccer that maybe didn't exist before because everything was concentrated only in athletics. But I will say, you know, I also spent time in MLS and have worked with professional clubs and, you know, college is a great pathway there. There are some players who need time and need, you know, to learn differently on either an academic path while also pursuing sports. And, and so, yeah, I would just say take advantage of the opportunities you have here and see where it takes you, you know, and sometimes you find your goals change as you're progressing through your journey.
[00:32:33] Speaker A: That's great. Juan, anything you'd say to someone listening?
[00:32:36] Speaker D: Yeah, I would say, you know, especially on a, on a recruiting topic, you got to make your, your name known, right? And how do you do that? You got to reach out to, to the coaches, you got to send emails because, you know, a lot of players, they know that they're good, but they're not really doing much to make themselves known in, in the market. So, you know, they do fall through the cracks. And you know, what I always tell, you know, if it's working with clubs or younger players, is you got to reach out. You might be a good player. But if we don't know about you, then how do we know?
[00:33:08] Speaker A: How do you know?
[00:33:09] Speaker D: So, you know, get your, get your profiles ready. You know, everything now it's digital. Keep your grades up, grades, everything. So it's, get your profile. You know, if it's YouTube, whatever it is, because it's easier now to send a highlight video. Takes two seconds before, you know, you had to drop off a CD. And we will have CDs in, in the office. You have to view it, mail it, it gets lost. So now I was just, you know, get the three, four minute highlight, send it and Just blast it out to as many coaches as possible.
Someone's going to hit.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: Yeah, someone. That's good. Munga, your advice, coach?
[00:33:44] Speaker C: Well, I was in Madrid, Spain, a few years ago, and the captain of Real Madrid made out a good point. He goes, munga, you guys do things right in the US and coming from the captain of Real Madrid and the Spanish national team, I was like, what do we do? He goes, in the US You've understood. Get your education first and then try to go pro. He goes here at Real Madrid every year for the past 10 years, you know, in June, I see about 15 to 20 players being let go because they're not good enough to get that professional contract. And most of them have been at the club since they were six or seven years old.
And just like that, they've got nothing to fall back on. And his son was pretty much playing in the event. Okay, so here, you know, you have the opportunity to get your education and still play athletics. That is priceless. And the fact that at Miami Dade, you've got two sports that have done it at the national level, so you don't need to go far if you want to compete at that level either.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: That's a pretty good advertisement for Shark soccer.
Anything else, guys, that I should have asked or did you want to say about our team before we go?
[00:34:54] Speaker B: No. First home game, I believe.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: Great question.
[00:34:57] Speaker B: Monroe, I believe, again, we. We opened last season at home against.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: They were number one, too.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: They were number one.
[00:35:05] Speaker C: Defending national champ. Defending national champ.
[00:35:07] Speaker B: But they've rebuilt and I'm sure they'll be very, very good.
That'll be our first home game, I believe, on the 27th of the month of September. But, yeah, like I said, we're on the road for the first month or so, so yesterday was our only opportunity to get to know our new stadium field until that game against Monroe. But, yeah, hopefully we can get some. Some support and. And do the school proud.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Well, if it's okay with you, we'll do another cookout whenever you're ready. Just let me know to get them out. One more question. What are some of the teams from Nationals that you're playing this year?
[00:35:42] Speaker B: We might remember Iowa Western.
[00:35:44] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:35:44] Speaker B: I believe won. Won the national championship last year, if I'm not mistaken. We play Indian Hills.
We play Monroe, obviously. Eastern Florida, Daytona.
So it's a very challenging schedule. Richland is always very good.
[00:36:01] Speaker C: I believe they won the Division 2 National Championship.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: So, yeah, it's a very challenging schedule, but taking it head on. And let's See where we land.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Well, we'll definitely have you guys back and maybe bring some players toward the season. I want to thank you for coming. We do like to end our broadcast with turning the microphone around on me. So if you want to ask me any questions, you can ask me anything you like.
[00:36:24] Speaker B: What position did you play? And you played basketball, right?
[00:36:27] Speaker A: I did play basketball.
[00:36:28] Speaker B: What position did you play?
[00:36:29] Speaker A: So I played. I could play every position but point guard. I would guard the best score on the other team, whether it was a shooting guard. I've guarded seven foot centers, but I couldn't guard the point guards. I wasn't fast enough to stay with most of them.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: So I've got a question. So I watch a little bit of basketball. I love basketball. It's probably my other favorite sport sport. And I always get in arguments and conversations with. With Mateo, with my son.
For you, the NBA better 10, 15 years ago or nowadays?
[00:37:00] Speaker A: Well, when I was growing, the NBA was really very physical. A lot of fighting.
You know, Michael Jordan was the king and I still think he's the best player ever. I know people will say LeBron is.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: I agree with you.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: LeBron has just been there a long time. He's a great player, but Michael is the best.
I missed the game a little bit. We don't play so much inside anymore. It's three point shooting. There's not a big man. I loved banging inside with people.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: There's no movement.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: No, it's not the same. Yeah, you were constantly moving and I missed that same game. And when I play, I run all the time. Will say, will you slow down? I'm like, no, you just gave me the best compliment you could. And that's not the way it's played. It's walking up the floor, it's shooting the threes, lazy on defense, you know, and.
But just like you guys said in soccer, basketball changed at the same rate. And who knows five years what it'll be now and who knows what soccer will be.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: Yeah, they're both sports are kind of going in the same direction. It's just becoming athleticism. Very vertical, direct as fast as you can, as often, you know, shoot, pass, get the ball up court, up field. And soccer has gone the same way. And I'm not sure I love that. We're a little bit more on the traditional side. We like the passing game.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: And you know, as I watch World Cup, I love the passing. It was awesome. When I grew up in Texas, we didn't have a lot of soccer. And I really think I could have Played soccer because I could, I could run all day, but there was never the organized soccer like it was now. So I've always won. Both of my kids played high level of soccer and both played college athletics. But I respect the sport. I think in a lot of ways it's like basketball because of the running.
[00:38:36] Speaker B: A lot of similarities.
[00:38:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
And when I coached it to a lot of select clubs and I would coach soccer like a basketball game, try to pass it, move it around, get it going. But I was never at the level of you guys.
[00:38:48] Speaker C: What part of Texas are you from?
[00:38:49] Speaker A: Well, I was born in West Texas. I grew up in Tyler, Texas, but spent my academic career in Fort Worth, Dallas area. So I know Texas is like the back of my hand. But now I'm a Floridian. I've been here seven years and I like it here now, so.
[00:39:01] Speaker C: And then question for you. I mean, I know in the past a lot of national championships were host here. Can you expect to be hosting national championships?
[00:39:10] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great question.
[00:39:12] Speaker C: It's not fun to go. I mean, it used to be Mercer, New Jersey or even Wichita.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: Where were we last year?
Freezing Ours.
[00:39:22] Speaker C: I'm pretty sure the whole country would love to have it down here.
[00:39:25] Speaker A: Well, it'd be a huge advantage. We get them down here and sweat their little tails.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: I believe the men's is in Daytona this year. This year?
[00:39:32] Speaker A: Oh, it's not back up there?
[00:39:33] Speaker B: No, no, no. Daytona's hosting, so we should probably put a bid for the fall. We would love to host in the future, so.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: Well, I will say munga to your. To your question is, you know, we have seven great programs and I have an idea maybe adding an eight one day soon or ninth.
And I would love to host national championships and certainly state championships in all our sports. And we certainly have the field and maybe could partner with fiu.
And I've worked with some of the high schools to talk about basketball and other things. So I would love to do that. And I think we start with state regional and ultimately let's get that national tournament here. Let's do it and let's win it first.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Hopefully we'll bring you some trophies.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: There you go. I love it. I'll be there supporting you. Well, thank you guys for being here.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: This has been awesome for having us.
[00:40:14] Speaker A: Seriously. We'll have you back maybe whenever it fits in the season. When you're home for a little while, let's bring a couple of your athletes in and let's interview them. And I'm still waiting on my shoes.
[00:40:22] Speaker B: COACH oh, my God.
Put the order in today.
[00:40:25] Speaker C: 1.
[00:40:26] Speaker D: We'll get that sorted out, all right?
[00:40:28] Speaker A: Kidding. AUDIENCE well, I want to thank everyone for being here today. I want to thank our head writer, Christina Signs, our executive producer, Paul Klein, our producer, Alex Bellows. Thank you for being with us today, and goodbye for now.
Sam.
