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S2 E2 - Shamus John A College Pre Special
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On todays episode we talk to Shamus John who has a wealth of knowledge that can help a player, their families and their travel coach navigate though the College preparation landscape. If you are a coach, player or a parent of a high school child this is a must listen too!
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Instagram: @Coach_Shamus
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X: @CraigBirtwistle
Facebook: sessionshare.net
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Background
00:00:17
Craig Birtwistle
Hello and welcome to Session Share, The Coaches Podcast. My name's Craig Burtisall and I am joined by Seamus John this week. I have been fortunate enough to work with Seamus on and off for a few years now. Seamus has his C license, multiple years of coaching experience, but the main reason I wanted to get Seamus on the podcast is due to his expertise knowledge of the college landscape.
Seamus John's Dual Coaching Roles
00:00:40
Craig Birtwistle
Seamus is head women's soccer coach for Union College of Union County, in New Jersey.
00:00:45
Craig Birtwistle
He's also head coach and college recruitment officer at Princeton FC. As a coach myself who works with players prior to going into college, I know this can be a real difficult time.
00:00:57
Craig Birtwistle
So this episode is all about how players, parents and travel coaches can help prepare the player for college. How are you doing today, Shamus?
00:01:05
Shamus Matthews
um Great, how are you Craig?
00:01:07
Craig Birtwistle
Doing well. Really looking forward to delving into this episode because it's a real important time for players and parents and I know um as myself as a ah as ah dad of three who are all under the age of 13, I know when my time comes it's gonna be very daunting even though I've been in and around the game my whole life. So speaking of being around the game, tell us a little bit about your background.
Seamus's Soccer Journey and Passion
00:01:33
Craig Birtwistle
What got you interested in football?
00:01:35
Shamus Matthews
Yeah, so my mother was a women's college soccer coach in the United States. She started at Ocean County College and was there for five seasons. She went 69 and seven there. She's in their Hall of Fame, National Coach of the Year, all these great accolades.
00:01:50
Shamus Matthews
um And then she went on to coach at Rider University. And so this is all during my early childhood. So my earliest memories as a kid are on a pitch with women in football, traveling the country, seeing all these great things, having these wonderful experiences. And I was at training sessions. I was at every game. So that was like my formative years. And that's where I kind of always wanted to be in this space.
00:02:16
Shamus Matthews
And so that's where I got into the coaching aspect. My mother and I started a coaching business together. We ran it together until she passed. And so when I talk about soccer and I talk about college, and it's impossible for me not to talk about it without bringing up my mother Peggy Graham, who was an amazing coach and amazing person. So it's kind of full circle for me. So it's really exciting to do what I'm doing now.
00:02:39
Craig Birtwistle
That's fantastic. So like basically you've been in and around college literally since birth basically,
00:02:46
Shamus Matthews
Yeah, and so like my family friends are all either current or former college coaches, people I grew up working with at the Korver camp when I was a kid, high level high school coaches and college coaches. So I kind of was like this little sponge absorbing all this different information about the game.
00:03:01
Craig Birtwistle
That's amazing, that really is. And like I said earlier, I've been a coach for like... far too long now, 20 plus years, of big coaching. And I have three boys, but all under the age of 13, I didn't grow up in America. So I haven't got the experience of college in America and it's extremely different in England. Um, due to this, my knowledge to like pass on to our listeners is like very limited when it comes to college. So how do you help players and their families understand how to handle the college landscape?
Player Recruitment Insights
00:03:38
Shamus Matthews
Well, I think the first thing I like to do when working with players who are just starting their recruitment process is to figure out a few simple things because in America, yeah, there are so many colleges and there are so many teams. And, you know, I have this mentality that there's, there's a team out there for everybody. There's a level out there for everybody. If they want to keep playing the game they love, there's a place for them. We just want to find that right fit.
00:04:02
Shamus Matthews
So there's a few things I like to do to help determine that right fit. And the first question, and it catches people off guard is how far are you willing to be away from your family? So if you're a college soccer player and you're playing on a program that the division one, two, or three, or even junior college level, and you're on a really good team, you usually don't come home for Thanksgiving. So are you okay?
00:04:26
Shamus Matthews
potentially not coming home from August till Christmas and then not being home again until June and then potentially taking summer classes and training at the school in the summer. So you really are moving.
00:04:38
Shamus Matthews
for four years to where you're gonna be playing, that's a possibility. So are you okay with your parents and family not coming to your games because you're in California and you're from New Jersey and it's our flight. These are things that you start that conversation because once we start building that radius of where you're willing to travel, then we can start talking about the schools and the level of competition.
Understanding College Soccer Divisions
00:05:00
Shamus Matthews
But until we don't know how far you wanna be from home, we can't have that conversation. And that that that question is usually hard for kids to answer Cause sometimes they're like, yeah, I just want to go and play. And it's like, well, hang on. You know, your mom comes to every game. Are you okay with her not coming to any games? And then like, well, and then that starts a deeper conversation about what they're willing to do and where they're willing to go.
00:05:23
Craig Birtwistle
Wow, that's fantastic advice because that's that already is something that I wouldn't have thought about um Obviously as a parent I think about my boys moving all the way so far that like obviously they've lived in my house their whole life that that is a scary daunting thing for the for the parents and as you see for the player when they start realizing how far you need to go so That's really good stuff. You mentioned earlier as well about finding that level. Can you touch base on the different levels? Is division one, two and three and dispel any myths about them?
00:05:59
Shamus Matthews
Yeah, so the NCAA, the National Cleveland Athletic Association, there are three divisions for college soccer and for most athletics. Division one um is the top level. And within that top level, there are even varying degrees of levels based upon the conference that you find yourself in. um Division two, so division one and division two offer scholarships. That's the biggest difference between them and division three.
00:06:25
Shamus Matthews
um which means it's not academic scholarships, these are athletic scholarships. This is the college giving you money to attend school there in exchange for playing soccer. So that's the division with one and division two difference between division three, but then in America we also have the NJCAA, the National Junior College Athletic Association, and we have the n NAIA, two separate divisions outside of the NCAA. The National Junior College Athletic Association is two-year schools. These are comprehensive community colleges and community colleges all over the country, and the NAIA is predominantly in the Midwest, which operates at a separate separate set of rules from those two conferences. The NJCAA
00:07:09
Shamus Matthews
is similar to the NCAA in terms of its eligibility requirements and its structure and within the junior college athletics association there's also three divisions for athletics one, two, and three and division one and division two the junior college levels also give scholarships. So we really have for talking just the NCAA to junior college we have six levels of collegiate soccer.
00:07:33
Shamus Matthews
So that's kind of the broader aspect of it. Your top division one schools, you know, we're talking about like in our home state Rutgers University, um talking about Villanova and ah Pennsylvania. and these are These are big schools um that are very serious about athletics, and that plays a part into it too.
00:07:54
Shamus Matthews
because a smaller school at the Division I level might not have the same funding as a bigger school at the Division I level. And that's where your scholarships come from. And so we talk about these fully funded, non-fully funded programs. So there's a lot of nuance in there. I'm afraid if I'm letting you on a little bit about it.
00:08:12
Craig Birtwistle
No, it's it's very important stuff and all these different like already feels confusing at times when you hear so many initials being broaded all over the place. Are there restrictions that prevent you from going or is it all about academic?
Academic Achievements and Recruitment
00:08:29
Shamus Matthews
um So the base requirements to get into a university are usually like what allow you to play at that school. So every school has an admission standard. um So the higher academic schools are harder for students to get into already and most of those higher academic schools like Princeton for example, they don't lower their academic standards for athletes where some schools might have that wiggle room where you know we want to get the best athletes in here and we're willing to I don't want to say take a different type of student but they're a little more open-minded towards different students if they have an athletic incentive for the university so academics are the one of the most important parts like if you're going to college especially if you're going to play soccer in college
00:09:10
Craig Birtwistle
Correct.
00:09:18
Shamus Matthews
you know, academics have to be number one. And if your GPA is below a 3.0, it's going to be very difficult for you to get recruited um and to become eligible. The eligibility is between 2.0 and 2.5. But most college coaches want to have high academic achieving teams. So they kind of always ask kids when they first meet them, like, what's your GPA right now? Because if it's below a certain thing, they're probably going to say, your grades aren't good enough for us to get you into our university.
00:09:49
Craig Birtwistle
Understood. Very important stuff. James, we'll be back after a brief message from Zencaster where we would like to talk about colleges and how best we best fit into those.
00:10:43
Craig Birtwistle
Welcome
Finding the Right College Fit
00:10:44
Craig Birtwistle
back and we're going to continue our talk on players and their pathway into college. So Seamus, parents just want to find the right place for their child and players just want to find that but they fit in. How do you define the right fit? and What do players focus on and how do they find the score that's right for them?
00:11:04
Shamus Matthews
Yeah, I think this is really important. It's something I like to talk about a lot like finding that right fit for each kid. Um, because sometimes kids end up going to the wrong schools for the wrong reasons.
00:11:14
Shamus Matthews
Over 60% of freshmen college athletes stop playing or transfer after their freshman year. So we want to try to change the conversation with kids and help them find the right place for them.
00:11:20
Craig Birtwistle
Wow.
00:11:26
Shamus Matthews
And there's a lot of different varying factors to help them do that. You know, the first conversation is that distance conversation. The next conversation is, what's your budget? Because most college soccer players, even at the Division I level, will end up having to pay some amount. So understanding like what you're willing to pay, what loans you're willing to take out, what you might qualify for in financial aid.
00:11:49
Shamus Matthews
This also plays a factor into it. And then figuring out your course of study. you know What careers are you interested in? What what excites you? What do you feel you want to learn more about to become a more well-rounded adult? um And then I think the soccer decision comes in. I think you need to understand how far you want to go away, what you want to study, and what you can afford. And then I think we start thinking about, all right, well, can I play at this level? Or or am I better than this level?
00:12:17
Shamus Matthews
um And they kids really need to go and watch the game in person. You watch games on TV, sometimes it's hard to gauge the level. um But when you're there in person, you can kind of feel the speed of the game, the level of play, and put yourself there. So I recommend players to go through that questionnaire almost of how far you want to go, what's your budget, what are you interested in studying. And then we start talking about the soccer level. And so once we have that,
00:12:44
Shamus Matthews
ah that menu of items figured out, we can start looking at schools and we can start comparing and contrasting. um If we have a good you know for players at a good level, you know, playing higher level soccer, they can start looking at the division one schools in their area and then see who they're playing and maybe start basing their interests off of that and start looking into those schools more. But I think it's really important for students to understand their budget and what they're interested in studying first before they even think about like the level of soccer because
00:13:18
Shamus Matthews
Most 99% of the players aren't going to turn this into a career. So what's their career after soccer? We're going to get you to play soccer. You're going to continue playing the sport you love. What's the next step for you? So that's the thing we have to figure out first to build that right fit. Because if you're going to school just for soccer, then it might not work out the way that you're hoping it will.
00:13:42
Shamus Matthews
And then when it doesn't, you don't really have anything to fall back on. You don't have plans. So we kind of have to think of all the scenarios before the soccer scenario.
00:13:54
Craig Birtwistle
On a day-to-day basis, you're constantly working with players who are either in college or aspiring to get into college.
Getting Noticed by Recruiters
00:14:04
Craig Birtwistle
As someone who's there on a day-to-day basis, ah what's the biggest advice you can give a player? What things should they be doing when they start looking for colleges?
00:14:17
Shamus Matthews
So I think the first thing they should do when they start looking, or they're already in college, I'm sorry, could you?
00:14:24
Craig Birtwistle
So it mainly for when, um like, for example, if you're talking about being a freshman in high school or being a JV or whatever, um what steps should they be going through in order to make sure they're being seen, if you will?
00:14:39
Shamus Matthews
Oh yeah. So getting noticed by colleges, right? A lot of kids feel like they just have to perform and they'll get recruited. There's a lot of colleges in this country, there's a lot of coaches, they have varying resources. So if you're hoping that your town alone will get you noticed, you're putting yourself in a very deep hole, you want to start utilizing resources that are available to you. And I always go, go with the free resources first, right? So like Instagram is is a great resources
00:15:10
Shamus Matthews
Most almost every college soccer team has an Instagram page. It's monitored by a graduate assistant or by the head coach, depending on the program. And you can make a soccer specific Instagram account and on your bio page, it can be.
00:15:23
Shamus Matthews
you know, your name, your graduation year, your commitment status, your intended major, and then your email. And then you can just post, you know, little highlight clips that you make to that Instagram page. And you can start using strategic hashtags or you can even like at colleges you're interested in. And it might pop up in their feed and they might gain interest in you. It's another way to get noticed. It's not going to cost you anything. Because in this college landscape of recruiting and different services, there's a lot of companies looking to make money.
00:15:51
Shamus Matthews
So before you invest, always try to take the free options first. I think that's something a kid can do right away, right now. they can make their own player Instagram account. um And it's just for you know your soccer recruitment. And you update that when you make clips. There's other services like sports recruits, which we utilize at the club I coach at. And then there's new emerging technologies like Dark Horse Sports AI. um And NCSA is another platform for recruitment. So there's a lot of ways to get gain exposure online. And with coaches' time and resources,
00:16:30
Shamus Matthews
There are more apps to use some online platforms to start doing their base recruiting. Another thing a player can do is they're going to attend a showcase. You know, their team's going to a showcase. They should look up all the colleges that are going to be there and figure out, oh, am I interested in any of these schools? And make a list of those they're interested in. And they email their coaching staffs with their schedule, maybe links to their recruitment profiles. So even if they don't get to see them, you can start a conversation.
00:16:58
Shamus Matthews
The next thing we can do is we talked about, you know, making that list of, you know, how far you want to go, if you want to study, and you start doing that and you start finding schools. Every school is an athletics webpage, and they have these phone call groupies. So it's a questionnaire. It's basic information, but it generates notification to the coach, and then that, again, can create dialogue with the coach, so they recognize you before. But a lot, most players aren't gathering the highlight-reeling stats.
00:17:27
Shamus Matthews
20 goals a season, most players are going to get a couple assists, a couple goals, go down with the player. And teams really need guys like that, but they're not going to shine on stat pages. So they have to kind of do this leg work to get more focused, if that makes sense.
00:17:44
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah, it makes perfect sense. And you you spoke about advice for a player. um I know parents are trying to help their child get through the all the college recruitment and everything. And up till that point of like high school, and some may be a little bit too long in high school, parents have always stood a big part in the sports act.
00:18:07
Craig Birtwistle
a sports part of their career and basically every part of the child's life. I know as we get to that point, you would encourage players to take more control. ah It shouldn't be like a parent, for example, emailing a coach. So what advice would you give a parent in order to trust their son or daughter to like go ahead and start pushing for themselves now?
Parental Support in Recruitment
00:18:33
Shamus Matthews
I think they parents should be supportive and hold their child accountable. like If your kid has a dream and and they and you know they want to work towards that dream of playing college soccer and you see them wanting to do it, you have to maybe hold them accountable. Like, hey, did you email coaches today? Did you edit your highlight film? Did you update these things? And just taking interest in what they're doing instead of like being like, you need to do this right now.
00:18:59
Shamus Matthews
There's that fine line. I mean, you know, as a parent, like that, that, that relationship of like guiding and directing, you know, and sometimes when we guide, you know, the kid, they might fail, but they might learn a little more. Um, where if we direct, they're going to do it, but they might not have their heart into it.
00:19:16
Shamus Matthews
So if a kid really is passionate about this, they do need to take ownership of it because college coaches, they're not going to call your parents. They're not going to email your parents when you're there. You're an adult, you know you're 18, you're going on your way to being a full member of society and they're going to treat you like an adult. So if they're getting emails from mom or you know when you're on your recruiting vision and your parents are doing all the talking and you know, they're going to be less interested, I feel, than an assertive, confident young person who has, you know, a keen ambition of what they want to do. So I would always, if I'm advising a parent, you I had a recruitment counseling session the other week, and the parent did talk a lot, and I take notes on everything. That's my big note to them, like the kid has to be more vocal. This is the child's dream, the child's ambition. I want to hear from them.
00:20:08
Shamus Matthews
And then I can ask you the parent a couple questions, but I really want to have the dialogue with the player because that's what the college coach is going to expect. And these kids are going to have to go on, you know, recruitment trips and they're going to have meetings with these coaches and they're going to have to be able to have conversations. And I think this is a skill that kids can practice and parents can encourage, but they shouldn't be doing the work for them. So support and hold accountable, but don't do or direct.
00:20:34
Craig Birtwistle
fantastic syup so Fantastic stuff. So in a nutshell, it's basically the players should take command, take control. um Basically, the the parents should be there to support and encourage.
00:20:46
Craig Birtwistle
ah But ultimately, it's now the players responsibility to contact coaches and get out there and understand all the information, correct?
00:20:55
Shamus Matthews
Yeah, 100%.
00:20:55
Craig Birtwistle
Yeah.
00:20:58
Shamus Matthews
Long story short, my mother was coaching at Rider. I used to go on her cruise trips there because you know single parents, so we spent a lot of time together. We were at this big tournament, and there was this big player that Rider University didn't have a lot of full scholarships.
00:21:11
Shamus Matthews
She was going to give this girl a full scholarship. She was a star. And my mom went, just going to talk to her after the game. you know And the girl walked across the field, dropped her backpack, and said, dad, get that.
00:21:22
Shamus Matthews
My mom walked away. And then sent the girl ah called the girl later, like, yeah, we're no longer interested. And the girl asked why. And she explained it to her. you know Character matters. And you know you're always being evaluated on that. When kids are attending showcases, they worry about like not performing actions and doing certain things. But their character assessment, I think, is very important, especially when it gets to that higher level.
00:21:46
Shamus Matthews
You know, they want to evaluate how you handle setbacks, how you handle bad situations. You know, are you a positive teammate? Are you a hard worker? You know, yeah, you turn the ball over. You took a guy on that happens. But did youuly you solve these or your hands in the air? Or did you turn sprint and win the ball back or try to at least your teammate made a mistake? Did you badger them or did you support them? So these things are people are paying attention to.
Evaluating Player's Character
00:22:11
Shamus Matthews
And you have to be mindful of that. And things like your parents doing things for you, coaches notice that. They notice a lot of things. They're going to have to work with you for four years and be responsible for you for four years. And if you're not mature and displaying maturity and your parents are kind of feeding into that in a public setting, it's ah it's a big red flag for a lot of programs and coaches.
00:22:35
Craig Birtwistle
that's really good stuff and I remember speaking to a college coach not too long ago as well where he would say that he would actually evaluate a player based on the warm-up and sometimes not even stick around for the game because if they were messing about in the warm-up if they didn't seem to be taking it seriously as you mentioned it's it shows a lot about your character and sometimes that lack of character can cost you that place and on another note as well and that is the fact that what some players need to understand is a coach will look at you just like an employer will look at you on every different level they'll they'll google your name they'll check your social media accounts everything like that so if you've got some inappropriate stuff on there that could be as shamer said a massive red flag so make sure you clean that stuff up the piece of advice i would always uh give someone when it comes to social media and everything
00:23:13
Shamus Matthews
Oh yeah.
00:23:31
Craig Birtwistle
Post what you think you your mum would be okay with reading and ah as simple as that.
00:23:34
Shamus Matthews
yeah Yeah, I got a great bit of advice a couple years ago from a coach and he said you kind of want you want to live your life like there's a documentary crew filming you.
00:23:36
Craig Birtwistle
That's the
00:23:46
Shamus Matthews
For the first couple weeks it feels silly but then you start like acting the way you feel like you should. It's like players, you should feel like you're under a microscope, like everywhere you go.
00:23:53
Craig Birtwistle
yeah
00:23:54
Shamus Matthews
um There was this famous college basketball coach, she was at Michigan State, and she used to her last test for like before they offered a full scholarship. but She would go to a game where she knew the kid's team would blow the other team out.
00:24:06
Shamus Matthews
Like she knew they were gonna win by like 50. And she would she wouldn't wear any of the gear, she'd sit off and just watch how the kid acted, because you know the kid's not gonna play a lot, because they're gonna be up by a ton. and watch how they interacted with their teammates, where they engaged and stuff. and so That was kind of her final assessment before they offered a full scholarship to someone.
00:24:24
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic stuff. Seamus will be back after a short commercial break.
00:24:44
Craig Birtwistle
Welcome back. We've had a great conversation so far with advice strategies and the right preparation with getting into college. We have a lot of coaches that obviously listen to this podcast that teach high school players.
Advice for High School Coaches
00:24:56
Craig Birtwistle
What advice, Seamus, would you give the coaches as they help prepare that player for college?
00:25:02
Shamus Matthews
I think twofold, the coach can be very supportive and have an impactful role in terms of you know mentoring that kid. And they're going to ask them questions if they've built a good rapport. So I would say you know don't be a gatekeeper in a way. like Don't think you know your team is better than a certain level of college play. you know If a Division III coach, a JUCO coach is emailing you asking to you know for contact information on a player and they want to get in touch,
00:25:29
Shamus Matthews
You know, be supportive. Don't, don't keep, don't stand in a coach's way of connecting with your players because they're interested in your players and you ultimately want your players to go where they're wanted. Um, so we we ran into that a bunch where it's like, it's hard to get in contact with players because club coaches aren't answering emails or texts and it's, it's infuriating. And what club coaches need to realize is the coaching world is very small at the collegiate level. Um, and people move up.
00:25:59
Shamus Matthews
And so you know if you you know aren't willing to talk to this coach now when they're at. you know, a JUCO or division three school will in a couple of years, they might be at a division two, division one school, and then they're not going to return your emails asking to come look for a player. It's a relationships business. So I think building strong relationships with coaches that try and contact you something club coaches can definitely do. One thing I encourage um and I do for the club I work at is before every showcase, I send an email to every college coach that's attending just with our club schedule, with our players contact information, with
00:26:34
Shamus Matthews
uh, myself and the coach's contact information, just so we're very transparent. Like if you saw someone you liked, like and you can't get home, let us know, you know, we're, we're very eager to support our players. So being supportive is huge. And then I think staying on top of your players, you know, if, if you believe your players have the ability and the drive to play at the collegiate level.
00:26:54
Shamus Matthews
you know push them you know inspire them check in like hey did you update your recruitment website did you email those college coaches that you're interested in did you respond to these things um because kids tend to really respect their coaches and want to hear from them so if your player sees that you're taking an interest in their college process they're going to be more keen to progress in their work for it. um I think remind remembering of dates and and applications as well is important, you know making sure the kids fill out their FAFSA, making sure that you know they're doing well in school, you know taking an interest helps a lot.
00:27:35
Craig Birtwistle
You mentioned there about building travel coaches, like club coaches, building relationships with um college coaches and with that communication back and forth.
00:27:47
Craig Birtwistle
What advice would you give that coach that wants to, that is concerned about like, for example, if I was going to promote you as a player, I was going to talk to a card coach and I start singing your praises,
00:27:55
Shamus Matthews
Hmm.
00:28:00
Shamus Matthews
Hmm.
00:28:01
Craig Birtwistle
but it's not exactly accurate. So that way they then take this player based on your recommendation, but then they see that you you were talking rubbish and now they don't want to recruit from you and your team again.
00:28:11
Shamus Matthews
and
00:28:14
Craig Birtwistle
How do you find that balance with obviously doing right by your player and praising them enough to be able to get the coach interest, but also either holding back or actually giving criticism to that college coach?
00:28:28
Shamus Matthews
yeah It's a fine line.
Honesty in Player Evaluation
00:28:30
Shamus Matthews
um you know You don't want to squander a kid's opportunity, but you don't want to create a negative feeling towards your club or your team for the future because you want to send more players on to the next level. and so I think you have to find a way to be as honest as possible while highlighting the kid's um attributes. you know whether you know if If the kid has limited role capabilities, you know listen, they're they're a hard worker. They can get the job done on the wing. They're very coachable, you know but their technical ability does need some improvement. you know We've been working on their receiving on the back foot. We've been working on their driving into space, but they're still holding back, and maybe that's something you can improve with them. The kid has potential.
00:29:16
Shamus Matthews
but You know, I just want to be honest with you. You know, this kid's not going to be a world setter for you, but they're going to be a great addition to your team. And also, if the kid is is a bad character, I think it's good to to not comment on that. You know, I think you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.
00:29:32
Shamus Matthews
um
00:29:32
Craig Birtwistle
Hmm.
00:29:34
Shamus Matthews
because you don't want to create, you're talking bad about your players. You just want to say, listen, I don't want to comment on that. I can comment on their playing ability. I can comment on their attendance and their factual things instead of the feeling things. So I think it's a very fine line because you do want to do what's best for your players if you're a compassionate coach that cares about their future, which most coaches are in my track record.
00:30:00
Shamus Matthews
so I wouldn't be afraid to be honest, but, you know, highlight their positive attributes before talking about their deficiencies, if they're asked, if the coach asks him about their deficiencies, because they might want to know for varying reasons, you know, whether that's ah building their player profile for their their team at the college level, or whether that's, you know, the decision between one player or another. If they know that this kid is, you know, has other attributes,
00:30:30
Shamus Matthews
such as he's a great teammate. He's, he's a great character. You know, what he might lack in his athletic ability, he makes up for in his work ethic. He's become such a better player in the two years we've worked together. I know that in three years time, he'll probably be one of the key members of your team if it's that type of kid, you know, so knowing your players, knowing their positive roles, I think is important when having those conversations with college coaches and then knowing how to navigate, you know, the criticism part and having that conversation with the coach.
00:31:01
Craig Birtwistle
Fantastic. And Seamus, to end the episode, I always like to finish on a lighter note.
Memorable Coaching Moments
00:31:06
Craig Birtwistle
um I'd like to know what your favourite moment is in sports. It can be anything as a player, a fan, a coach.
00:31:13
Shamus Matthews
Yeah, so as it was as a coach. um I was that coach at Allentown High School for a number of years, and we had a tragedy happen. My first year when I got hired, a number of players were driving to school, and they got struck by a drunk driver. Two of them were life flighted to a major trauma hospital, and they went under surgery after surgery, and they were they were done for the year. We didn't think they'd ever play sports again. And then the next season,
00:31:42
Shamus Matthews
The one had graduated, but three of them were back and were able to play and they played their way into shape, which was a miracle in itself. And then we were playing a memorial game for a former player who had passed a number of years ago, the Brody's Honor Memorial game. And this young man, Jordan Duffy, I can shout him out here. He's a wonderful young man.
00:32:03
Shamus Matthews
He charges in after a free kick and bashes in the rebound and we win the game in overtime. It was almost a year to the date from his accident that he ski scores his game winning goal.
00:32:12
Craig Birtwistle
wow
00:32:14
Shamus Matthews
And it's just like, i even get I get goosebumps talking about it now. It was a wonderful, full circle moment of like triumph and overcoming impossible odds. And I know his his parents were all emotional that night.
00:32:26
Shamus Matthews
It was wonderful. So right now, it's my favorite moment in ah football.
00:32:31
Craig Birtwistle
Wow. I think that's going to be my favorite moment of all the podcasts I've asked as well. That is a fantastic moment. I can see why you like that. So, well, that's about all we have on today's episode of session. Share the coaches podcast. Thank you Seamus John for joining me.
00:32:48
Craig Birtwistle
ah Be sure to get in touch across all our socials to offer your opinion on all we have discussed. You can find the social media platforms we use in our podcast description and we will also include Seamus' information that you can reach out to him to learn even more. So thank you once again Seamus. I really do appreciate your time. This has been Session Share, the Coaches Podcast. Thank you for listening and thank you for coaching the beautiful game.