Extracts of this interview are courtesty of the Elon University Athletics website: http://www.elonpheonix.com/
Explain a bit what it is like for you as the assistant soccer coach at Elon during the summer. What are the main goals for this time of year?
CL: It’s busy. We obviously have our camp programs going on that take up a lot of time. Our Elite Camp has now become a big recruiting camp for us, so it’s a lot of work to facilitate and encourage our recruits to come to camp. Also, summer has now become a big recruiting period for soccer. It makes for a busy summer with recruiting in full-swing, camps and then all of the preparation work for the season: our equipment, travel, all the items that need taken care of ahead of time to make the season runs smoothly.
What are the goals for the Elon players throughout the summer? How much contact do you have with the group in these off months?
CL: We have quite limited contact. Obviously a lot of the players go home, but there is a growing group that will stay and do summer school, so we obviously get to see them.
The summer is their preseason, because our season starts very early in August. The guys have conditioning packets they have to follow, and they really have to work very hard over the summer to make sure they are in the right shape and the right condition when we start in early August for the season.
Some of the current players are playing with PDL/U23 teams, such as the Carolina Railhawks and Carolina Dynamo, or their respective U19 club teams this summer. How does that experience help their development as players?
CL: Obviously it’s good to get the guys some games over the summer. Our main season is in the fall, and in the spring we are only allowed to play on five dates, so the guys haven’t played a great number of games. In the summer if they can go back to their U19/U23 team or a PDL team and get games and train on a consistent basis, that is the best way to get them sharp and ready for our season. We’ve got a good core number of guys that have done that, and then we individualize their training plans based on what they’re doing, as far as playing games and training in the summer.
