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Recruiting Insider: UMass Boston coach Jake Beverlin on transfers & more
Jake Beverlin has more than 140 career wins with UMass Boston. (Courtesy photo)
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to college recruiting.
Just ask Jake Beverlin, who is the winningest coach in UMass Boston men’s soccer history. He’s also heavily involved in club soccer, now with NEFC, after previous stops at Valeo and New England Surf.
A major takeaway from talking with Beverlin about recruiting? The region has a big college soccer ecosystem, which continues to evolve and create new challenges for families to navigate.
What’s a non-negotiable when you guys are recruiting, whether it’s on or off the field?
We recruit a lot of Brazilian kids, and kids who are really comfortable with the ball. They can’t just be an athlete. I think a lot of schools do well with some really high-end athletes, but not as good of soccer players. We’re a little bit the opposite and try to meet in the middle with athleticism.
Another non-negotiable for us is that they kind of have to be soccer junkies. The amount of stuff we make them do year-round, if they don’t love playing soccer, it’ll never work out.
We have full-time strength and conditioning coaches, and they’re with them three or four days a week during the offseason. Our training block is usually at 8 a.m., so the guys are up early. The first thing they do in the morning is get up and play. They also have a game marker they have to hit in the summer, and if they don’t, then we would not welcome them back. With how short the preseason is, they’ve got to come in at something close to 95%. That way, we can hit the ground running.
On the flip side, what are some areas in the recruiting process that could be a deal breaker?
We don’t make any time for players whose heart isn’t in it. If you don’t want to be at UMass Boston, that’s totally cool. We’ll move on. We’re going to ask a lot of you when you’re here, so you really need to have that desire to be part of things.
What about a timeline for the recruiting process? It can look so different that I imagine it’s hard to speak generically.
Everything’s different for every player. And at the end of the day, if an All-American falls out of the sky and it’s August 15th, we’re gonna take him or make room for him. We also get a lot of transfers, so the timeline is different depending on them coming in the spring or fall.
Nowadays, Division 3 schools probably aren’t committing high school kids super early in their junior year. Maybe in the summer going into senior year is when some kids will start to commit to schools that do early reads. Yes, the process has sped up in some ways. But it’s probably slowed down in many ways because of transfers.
The transfer part is interesting. What makes that such a big focus for you guys?
Full honesty, we don’t want a ton of freshmen. We have a roster cap now and are going to fill it with transfers where we can because, at the end of the day, I’d rather have a kid when he’s 22 to 24 than an 18-year-old kid. Nine times out of 10, it’s more of a sure thing and there are fewer uncertainties. They’re a little bit more of a man and more mature, whether that’s physically or emotionally.
It’s so rare for freshmen to play every minute of every game. It’s not unheard of, but it takes some time to really settle in. They’re going through an emotional and social roller coaster of sorts — moving out of the house, adapting to things, training in the morning, and having to show up consistently. College soccer asks a lot of them and it takes time to truly settle.
But are transfers necessarily a sure thing? I don’t ask that to disagree, but they’re probably not a guarantee either.
I think back to when I was 21 or so. I was still young, but I could navigate life a little bit more than when I was 18. I wasn’t as much of a wild card, be it in soccer or something else. Now, these older transfers can do silly things as well. But they’re able to get through the season and whatever comes their way. It’s not always perfect, but you have more predictability on and off the field.
That makes me think of how you inherently have transfers for fewer years. They graduate “faster” because they’ve already been in college. Could that be a problem when assembling a team?
I think it doesn’t matter too much. However long they’re here for, you try to get the most out of them and ensure they get the most out of UMass Boston. I’d rather get somebody for a really good two years versus a mediocre four years. Say we get a graduate student for a semester who’s going to come in and do really well for us. I’m probably taking him over a freshman who’s likely a role player for four years. We’re also not bringing in a kid who we don’t think will start for us at some point. It just doesn’t make sense to.
Zooming out, how has this transfer dynamic impacted Division 3 soccer overall?
At the Division 1 level, I think kids are sometimes a little unrealistic about where they can play. But I think Division 2 and Division 3 have gotten better, and will continue to get better, because some of those players who were going to Division 1 are now going to Division 3, because they’re not getting the roster spots they might have in the past.
I would say 25 of our kids could, at some point, have been on a roster at Division 1. But are you actually playing? Or are you just making up numbers and training all the time? That’s what we’re seeing kids weigh, and then they’re falling to schools like UMass Boston.
One more transfer question: What do the most successful transfers tend to bring?
It’s the ones who were at Division 1 programs and maybe weren’t playing as much as they thought they were going to. They’re still talented and are determined, so we’re making sure they can fit the mold of a UMass Boston player.
Changing gears: How much do you all emphasize club vs. school soccer?
We don’t ever go watch high school games. Kids should play high school if they want to, and a lot of programs will watch the prep schools, but that’s not really our realm. But the high school level just isn’t all that strong and indicative of what you’d encounter here. There are still good players and an overall experience they’re part of, but it doesn’t offer a ton of value for who we’re looking at. Club gives a better baseline.
Even for us, the freshmen we are recruiting, most are coming from MLS Next and doing a year-round academy. The number of high school and club kids we’re seeing is dwindling.
Another one: Say you’re having a more intimate conversation with a prospective recruit or transfer. What advice would you give them?
Don’t go into debt.
What I mean is people want to post on social media that they’re going to a Division 1 school and see that validation on TikTok or Instagram, or just to say they’re going to this type of school. But they’re not realistically going to play and it’s going to cost them a lot of money. What’s all that for? You might not even be with the first 15 players in a training session or traveling to away games.
Kids and families can get wrapped up in the social media pressure of it all. There are a lot of kids who can get a roster spot at a Division 1 school, but they could instead come to a Division 3 school and play. It often can be more cost-effective, too.
We’ve covered a bunch of ground. But if you had to boil it down, what are the recruiting conversations you all are having most about UMass Boston soccer?
We try to tell guys it’s the real world. You’re going to get a good education, compete at a high level, hopefully make a run at the NCAA Tournament and get an affordable degree. Guys aren’t going to be handed anything — they have to work and earn it, just like they would for anything else. We want to have those open and upfront conversations, not sugarcoat anything.
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Recruiting Insider: UMass Boston coach Jake Beverlin on transfers & more
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