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