Ian Scheller: Transformative Teamwork

00:00:00 Sumer Beatty: Welcome to Tomorrow Makers, where we explore how we learn, live, work, and play now and in the future. I'm Sumer Beatty. 00:00:11 Carlos Ramos: And I'm Carlos Ramos. Hey Sumer, how are you? 00:00:14 Sumer Beatty: I'm doing great, how are you? 00:00:15 Carlos Ramos: It's, I'm, I'm good. But, man, this semester, it's gone. 00:00:19 Sumer Beatty: I can't believe it. It's, it's just, yeah, it flew by. 00:00:23 Carlos Ramos: I mean, this will be the last episode of the semester for us. We're recording this a little bit before Thanksgiving. So there's a little bit of gap in time, but I'm looking out at this big tree that's in front of the library. And I'm like, that's like, that's like summertime quality tree right there. 00:00:38 Sumer Beatty: And the sun is banging. Like it's just, it's crazy. 00:00:41 Carlos Ramos: I know I'm taking off this afternoon. Cause I can't stand being in here when it's this bright. Perfect. 00:00:46 Sumer Beatty: That's nice. I hope you have fun. No, it's all good. It's good. Yeah, we need some snow. So maybe when this comes out, there will be some white stuff on the ground. 00:00:58 Carlos Ramos: All right. So just pretend we were talking about snow. 00:01:01 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. 00:01:02 Carlos Ramos: Who do we have today? 00:01:03 Sumer Beatty: So we have Ian Scheller with us. He is the head women's soccer coach. And he is,, we couldn't have planned this better. I mean, he's coming off an undefeated season. His team did so amazing this year. 00:01:16 Carlos Ramos: The level of preparation, if he's bringing the preparation that he brought to this podcast to every single one of those moments with the girls for the, the soccer practices and games, it's no wonder why they're just nailing the season after season now. 00:01:30 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, he has a business degree from Penn College. And as he's speaking, I thought, Oh my gosh, how similar is managing a team to managing a business? You know, and managing employees and keeping people motivated. There's so many parallels that I, it's just never, I never thought about that before, but it was really insightful. He's the perfect guy for the job. 00:01:51 Carlos Ramos: Yeah, definitely. So, I think we've got something we want the audience to do here, right? 00:01:56 Sumer Beatty: Yes, so after you listen to this, take a moment to reflect on the coaches that you've had, and if you're not an athlete, you can even think about maybe a mentor you had, and we want to hear from you. So, send us an email, podcast at pct. edu, tell us about this coach that you had and why you selected that person or mentor. You can write it, you can type it up in the email, or you can send us a voice memo, and you never know, you might get mentioned on the next episode. 00:02:25 Carlos Ramos: And you've got a few weeks to do this because we're not going to be back now until January 14th. We've got Nate Lyon. 00:02:31 Sumer Beatty: He graduated here with a degree in welding and he's teaching at the Milton Hershey School. So yeah, he's going to come back to town here and visit with us. Yeah. 00:02:41 Carlos Ramos: Yeah. Whole, whole roster of awesome guests for the, the spring semester. And we have a, a little special treat coming, which we'll announce on that January 14th drop. So don't miss that episode. 00:02:52 Sumer Beatty: It's going to be spicy. 00:02:55 Carlos Ramos: All right. Here we go. Tomorrow Makers. 00:02:56 Sumer Beatty: Enjoy. 00:03:04 Ian Scheller: That's why I don't really know what to expect. The fortunate thing. 00:03:06 Sumer Beatty: Neither do we. It's just a surprise every time. 00:03:08 Ian Scheller: Well, fortunately for me, I say, well, I talk for a living, right? I sit across from people and say, you should come to Penn College. Do you realize how great I am? Oh, then that's kind of how I go. 00:03:15 Sumer Beatty: Okay. So this is just another recruiting session. 00:03:18 Ian Scheller: We'll try. We'll see if you guys want to come play for me. 00:03:20 Sumer Beatty: Recruit us. 00:03:21 Ian Scheller: We'll try, right? 00:03:22 Sumer Beatty: What are you going to say? What makes me want to come to Penn College to play soccer? 00:03:26 Ian Scheller: Oh my gosh, there's a lot of reasons to want to come to Penn College and play soccer. 00:03:29 Sumer Beatty: Okay. 00:03:29 Ian Scheller: This, I know, the podcast, Bright Shining Face, right? Every morning. You get to see me, right? Get to hang out? Or every evening I guess? 00:03:35 Sumer Beatty: Downfall, we have no video today. There will be a photo on the cover art though, so. So there's that. 00:03:42 Ian Scheller: Yeah, I mean, Penn College is very, it's a very unique place in a good way. So for me, in recruiting it's nice because especially being here as a player and now coming here and working here as a coach, I can kind of speak from that perspective and I say all the things that I liked and all the things that I enjoyed while I was here and then turn it into, a little bit more of now from my perspective of having, of being other places and doing other things and go, this is unique for these reasons. One thing that I notice at Penn College that I really enjoy is I can create a team atmosphere here like no other. Because it brings in a certain type of person, especially with most of the majors I recruit. It's, it's unique. blue collar people who like very, have very close relationships with their family. So when they come here I always say, Oh hey, this is what we do. We do a lot together. We do pumpkin patch, we do holiday parties and stuff like that. Things away from the field that aren't just, hey can you come kick a ball for me? I think people have, find value in that. And so, I, I That's one of my big selling points, and that's why I like Penn College, because sometimes, so I was working at another school previously, and a lot of times, when you have a place that, when they offer different things, and it's driven by money, sometimes you can get people who are out for their best interest. Whereas I find a lot of times people who I recruit here want to be here for the reasons that I can recruit them for and things that we can offer. So. 00:05:04 Sumer Beatty: You're right about the type of students we have here. I talk to people about that all the time. I mean, we're often at video shoots and photo shoots and you know, this is the public relations and marketing department. We have students who thank us. They want to participate. I mean, what, they're volunteering their time and then they thank us for asking them and then they offer to carry gear or clean stuff up and we're like, no, no, no, you're the star. You can just leave. But it's that. You're right. It's like that hardworking, they know if they put the time in, they're going to get something out of it. 00:05:36 Ian Scheller: Yeah, I can't really explain it because, don't get me wrong, I think one of my qualities that I find that makes me successful is my relationship building. I take a lot of time, I mean, I, I say all the time and, my colleagues will say the same. I have players in my office constantly, but it's not about soccer. They don't come in and say, Hey, well, how do I play left center back better? They say, Hey, I've had a tough test. Hey, when are we going to go do the community service where we work with the kids? Or when are we going to do this or that? They'll text me and say, oh, I got a good idea for something we can post on Instagram. Like they're very involved in the process. And it's one of the bigger things that I would say, when you come and play for me, you become one of my girls or one of my players. And I like that familial thing. They're my children. And I look at them, and I say you're as much a part of this process as I am, because when I bring recruits in, they meet you and I want them to have, what I usually do is I speak to the recruit for a while. Then I ask a group of my players if they want to have lunch with them, and then I leave. And I say, this is your opportunity to make sure that you can be honest as possible, because some days I'm sure I'm hard to deal with, right? I'm passionate. I mean, I can sometimes be intense, I'm sure. And I think, that goes a long way for parents, because I trust my team to, I always say, don't lie. Tell them everything. Tell them anything. If you think I'm unfair in certain ways, tell them. Because I don't want someone to think that I sold them a bill of goods that I can't deliver on. And, I think people value transparency, and they value honesty. At least if I tell you some days I'm going to be intense, because I like to win, you at least know that when you come in, I'm not going to come in and go, well, every day is going to be the greatest day ever. Well, some days are going to be bad. It's just kind of the way that these things work and the challenges that come with athletics, but also balancing an academic life. A lot of my players, they, they are nursing students, they are welders, they are, PA or going to be PA students. So I understand there are bigger things that go into it than just how fast can you run and how hard can you kick a ball. So I try to help as much as possible and I, I try to be someone that my team can lean on. And I think, if I have 32 players, I would say on a weekly basis, I see away from the field, probably half of the team, even if it's for a minute, they usually stop by and say, Oh my gosh, I just had a test. I don't feel good about it. Or I got a really good grade on my test. or this is happening at home. And I think those types of conversations are what make our team successful because I've, I know being in the business, I know a lot of coaches that don't build that bond. And I think sometimes the players feel that, if you don't care. 00:08:06 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, sure. So you mentioned success and you have a pretty impressive record this season. Is it the best the program's had so far? 00:08:15 Ian Scheller: Yeah, so this season, we set the wins record. Obviously, we didn't lose in the regular season. We were regionally ranked in the National Power Index for the first time ever. We had a record setter by the name of Megan, Megan Kurian. She, as I was talking to Alex about her before, she's just amazing. She's incredible. She came in, she broke the single season goals record, single season points record, and tied the single season assist record as a freshman. She also was just recently named player of the year and rookie of the year. So in terms of the things we've done in the season, it's been incredible. Defensively, we had the best clean sheet record or shutout record. We had 13 shutouts this season. We only gave up, I think, eight goals, something to that effect this year. It was, for me, it is the best season, not only record wise, not only the things we've done, but it is the best season talent wise as well. The one thing I really like is, and I tell, I tell my team this all the time, I do think that when we have good sports programs here, I get a lot of people saying, oh, I keep up and they, oh, congratulations on this and that. And I think another thing that makes Penn College special because it's not a small school, but because of the way things are kind of broken up with cohorts and small classes and things, I think it can feel small at times, but you don't realize how many people are actually paying attention because it has that small community feel, even though there are a lot of people here. And I always say in recruiting, you might be in class with 30 people, but you might walk down the mall or down the center of campus every single day and see a new face every day because you don't see the welding students. You don't see the biomedical science students. So that's, what's cool. And having people actually keep up and reach out and say that is nice because it means. Hey, people care, and the success is all down to the team. The team have put the effort in, this is my third recruiting class coming up, so next year will be a team entirely of everybody that I recruited. But fortunately this year, I had two captains, Cassie Johnson and Nicole Lichtinger, who were both seniors, and they, from, day one have been so bought into the process because it's hard when you're recruited by a different coach. You don't choose me. Nicole was actually in my hiring process because you meet the players. And she said to me, like, it was one of the best things that I had done as a person because her and I have a very close relationship. And so it's really down to them. And I'm grateful for what they've done for me over the past few years. And I'm looking forward to kind of seeing what we can do from here and how we can springboard off of the season. 00:10:43 Sumer Beatty: So you had mentioned earlier you played here at Penn College, and you live just down the road in, or you grew up just down the road in Sunbury. What initially attracted you to Penn College? 00:10:52 Ian Scheller: Well, I was probably like a lot of kids at this age, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I sat down, I actually, my first year I went to a community college because I, I wasn't the best student. I didn't always apply myself the way I should have early on. I ended up going to a community college. I thought I wanted to be a history teacher, but I always knew that soccer was in my future. So most of what the things I was going to decide to do were based around soccer. So in the recruiting process, I had a few offers and I said, don't feel good about that one, don't feel good about that one. For a lot of different reasons, whether it was campus fit, whether it was. How does this spin academically into what I think I want to do? And I met the old head coach here who had just come in at the time. And he told me that Penn College at that point was going to be going to become a division three institution. And for me, That was important, because I think when I first looked at Penn College, they were USCAA, and I had always had a dream of, I knew I wasn't going professional, but I wanted to compete. And one thing that really drew me here was, on the soccer side, was the fact that I could build something here with a program. I could be one of the first people to do that. To be in the first recruiting class for the Provisional Division III. I thought that was really cool because you can go to a top school that wins a lot. You just become one of many. Or you can come to the beginning of something and say, oh, I was here at the beginning of this. Like during my time here, we won our first playoff game under Coach Mensch. And that's a memory I hold really dear. I could have gone somewhere else, maybe been, had a smaller role in that team, and been a little bit more, had a some, a team that was a little more successful from the beginning. I don't ever want to discount the things that I've had here. And that kind of was the cool to me, the open up and, oh, you can be the first to do it. Then when I got here, I always say in my recruiting pitch, Penn College is Williamsport's best kept secret. When you get here, it just feels different. And when I get people here, usually I have phone calls with recruits and then I tell them, hey, come to campus, meet me in person, feel my energy, feel the energy of the campus. And usually when they come here, they go, wow, this is beautiful. And I go, yeah, it is. When you get people here, people want to come as long as it checks their academic major box and as long as it suits them financially, it is a big, big draw. The campus is beautiful. When you come here, it just feels different, and I felt that as a player. And the person who was here previously pitched me on an idea. Hey, come do this, this, and this, and I bought in. Now, I wasn't the best student, as I said. When I got here, I actually came here to try to be a radiographer. That didn't work. But I also didn't even know college soccer coaching was even an option. That felt so far fetched. I was just a kid from Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Why would I be able to run a college team? And I figured, okay, what's the best path for that? So after my first semester, I changed the business, went to business admin, knew eventually I'd go on to my MBA, get a coaching job somewhere and then go from there. But I would have never figured that out if I wouldn't have met the likes of Coach Mensch, and if I wouldn't have met the people along the way here to find out that college coaching is an option. And what ended up happening after I left here, was I went across the road to Lycoming and met my mentor there, Kenny Fern. And that's kind of how this whole thing happened, where it's like, you're from Sunbury, I never planned to stay in Williamsport, and now I'm here all these years later. And I've made a life for myself and it's kind of, I mean, it's very interesting how things work, but I couldn't be more grateful for kind of the way everything panned out. And me being a bad student actually put me in a good position. And then I was able to kind of turn it around and say, you need to buckle down here, here, and here. And Penn College was a huge reason for that because of the class sizes and the availability of the professors. That to me helps me get through. And that was one of the big draws to me about the school. 00:14:34 Carlos Ramos: That makes me wonder, you say you were a bad student, but you were also picking paths while you were a student that didn't align with, I think, where you wanted to end up being. You talked about history, you talked about radiography, you ended up figuring out, oh, I want to be in sports, I want to do the administration part, I want to do that coaching part of it. Did things light up for you at that point? 00:14:59 Ian Scheller: I think, and I have this conversation with my players all the time and with recruits. I, I think as kids, we have these ideas of what a professional job is. Like, well, I have to be a doctor. I have to be a nurse. I got to be a lawyer or I have to be an astronaut, right? Like these things, these are the things that you go into it because you don't think about, well, I could be a college soccer coach when I'm 14, because I just assumed those people I've done something. How did they get there? How cool is that? But it seems like pie in the sky. I think that when I got here and I felt the different things with seeing how Tyler had run the team and seeing how, seeing his path to kind of get in there, it made it more realistic to me. And I think being in the wrong, I guess, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole really cost me because I wasn't a science person. I like to think I'm very good at writing. I like to kind of speak. I mean. Presentations, right? It's pitch, recruiting pitch is a presentation, and having conversations, and doing the things like that. Those are my strengths, which is kind of why I thought that I would maybe want to be a teacher. Stand in front of a classroom, and have conversations with kids. And then also, it just didn't seem to align with where I wanted to go at that point. And kind of the things that had laid themselves out for me. So that is a good point. And I think once I found my, my true path where it's like in the business world and some of the classes I took, it was more about writing and it was more about getting in front of people and saying, here's my portfolio, here's my pitch. That's where I really noticed, you could do this because if I wouldn't have been a college coach and I wouldn't have found this path, I probably would have gone into marketing or gone into some kind of sales because that to me is fun. I like creating bonds and connections and trying to talk to people about what interests you. And I think from my perspective, It did take me to make some mistakes along the way academically to understand, well, this is important and that's important. Well, so if I put these together and I go this different path, I can use my strengths to try and to put myself in a better position. So I think that's a great point. And I think that is probably, Inevitably, why I ended up the way I did because I was more suited to my strengths and I kind of turned it around a little bit as an academic. 00:17:12 Sumer Beatty: It's powerful too. It sounds like you have that connection with students. They're coming to you with questions about tests or worries or whatever. Have you had an opportunity to take that background that you have in a student situation and, you know, realize, well, maybe you're not where you need to be. And it's so important, especially when you've had those mistakes, you know, to say, hey, I'm I, I had this happen, and it's okay. These things happen. You don't need to know exactly what you want to do all of the time. Like, you know, lots of our journeys up and down, all around, it happens. 00:17:48 Ian Scheller: Well, I think that, those, that time period in my life, has given me a very good perspective on what it's like to be them. Now, hopefully I don't lose that as I get older, but I've had a few players sit across from me and they'll be in dental hygiene, for example, which is rigorous. They have to go through a lot of clinicals. They cut down that class very much. And it's very, very tough. If that's not something that you're very passionate about, it's going to be difficult. And so I, I usually have them sit across from me. At the end of each semester when they're scheduling and saying, Are you happy? Do, do you think that you, if you did this for the next 35 years of your life, would you be content with that? Or would you say, I'm doing this because I think it's a good career path, which is also a very, it's, that's a fine way to choose what you want to do. But it's not the best way, because if you have to drag yourself to work every single day, that can be very difficult. And I don't think people realize, especially at the age of 18, how long 35 years is of just going in and saying, oh man, this is kind of brutal. 00:18:53 Sumer Beatty: Right. 00:18:54 Ian Scheller: So I do think it's given me a very unique perspective. I also can sit across from my very, very, academically strong students and go, you're doing very well because I know how difficult this is and I understand how difficult this is but at the same time when I have someone who is struggling we can lay out the options. What are your strengths? What do you have passion about? I had a player who was focusing on health science and she had struggled. And I had mentioned to her what do you like to do and she goes well I'm really creative and I said why don't we look at graphic design. Why don't we try to use some of these things that you see as your strengths? I mean, it may not be for you, but let's take a class. Let's see how you like drawing. Let's see how you like going through the process of some things that, for some people, like myself, who's not very artistic, can be tedious, right? Drawing different lines and understanding what different fonts look like. But as soon as she got into those classes, she realized, this is where I belong. And she mentioned it to me because now she's, she's a semester behind and she goes, I wish I would've listened to you when I was a sophomore. And I said, but you had, you had to figure this out on your own. I can't give you advice and you, oh, that's right. Because I remember if when someone older than me gave me advice when I was younger, and a lot of times I was like, you don't know me. I'm different. Right. That's how we think. But I think a lot of times when you build the trust and you build the understanding and I sit there and I level with my players and say, Hey, I wasn't the best academic and I know what you're feeling. You're way too intelligent to ever say that you can't do these things. Maybe you're just not taking your strengths and using them in the right way. And I think that's a good point. I do think that my perspective on that does give them a little bit more reason to believe me. 00:20:33 Sumer Beatty: So you've been coaching here since 2022. When you stepped into the head coaching role, what were some of your initial goals in the program and how have they evolved? 00:20:44 Ian Scheller: That's tough because there's a lot. When, when you first take over, so I've been a head coach of high school teams. I run a club. I do the different things. When you take over a college program, it's very much a long term plan, because you can only recruit players so fast, players can only graduate so fast, people have to be looking at the school, people have to be interested in the school, people have to be willing to come here if even we weren't on their radar at first. So I started when I first got here, There was a little bit of a transition where they had graduated a really big class, so the returning class, the returning numbers, was very small. So the big, the first thing was finding stability in numbers. And so it was finding people who were willing to have the college athlete experience to come in and have to balance the academics as well as the athletics. And I think, when I first started, it was just about, let's find the foundation. My first year here, we only had 18 players. So it was a very, very, very small roster. And in that does not provide you a lot of flexibility because if you have people missing for classes or clinicals, you have people who are injured. It can be, it can be very tough. And fortunately in that first year, we were able to make a big jump. So went from six wins to nine wins, which for the, for the team really showed us, okay, this is the right direction. We're doing the right things. After that, once the stability was found and we realized, okay, we have enough numbers for a team, we can, whether or not the results are there, they'll come on their own, right? Just believe in the process, follow it, and continue along the way. The short term goals were keep the team numbers high, to the point where people can learn and progress, and you could have players who are more projects, in terms of, maybe you're not exactly the finished product as a freshman. But by a senior, you're going to be a very, very positive contributing player, because you'll have culture. You'll have the ability to understand what it's like to be in this team and be a leader. And that's one thing that comes from building a program. The long-term goals for me, were, at the time, I never in a million years predicted this kinda season would happen, and hopefully the team aren't listening to this one , because... 00:22:42 Sumer Beatty: They're going to. 00:22:43 Ian Scheller: Because that's the thing, I mean. You sit down at the beginning of the year and you, and the team says, we want to win 13 games. And you go, okay, right. Sure you do. Right. 00:22:51 Sumer Beatty: He just gave us a thumbs up. Yeah. 00:22:53 Ian Scheller: Sure. Sure. Sure. You want to win 13 games, but do you really want to win 13 games? Are you willing to do the things that are necessary to win 13 games? And if you asked my team two years ago that I took over, they would have been like, hey, let's just have a winning record. Right? So one of the things that we do in the team is we set small goals to get to our big goals. So each game I go, I put on the whiteboard. We want to get 10 or more shots. We want to hold the team against us to eight or less shots. We want to get five corners. We want to swing the play and that will lead to this result. So at first, when I got to the school, I was saying, hey, if we do these things, we'll win. But the team were having trouble visualizing that and they couldn't understand. Okay. Well, if we get a lot of shots. That doesn't always mean we're going to score, but it means we have a better chance of scoring. Now, it is something we do. We're going to do these things to get to this result. And it's really put an emphasis on that because the team will go, okay, how are we doing on crosses? How are we doing on corners? Well, are we forcing them into the areas we wanted to? And it gives them check, check, check. We check boxes along the way. And it's kind of the same for the overall long term success of the program. When I came in, I said over the first four years, I would like to make playoffs twice. I wanted to have a winning record twice. I wanted to have above 10 wins twice. And I wanted to make a conference final. Well, we've been to three semifinals. We've had a winning record every year in the regular season. We were 500 my first year after we lost in playoffs. And now we made it best record, all these different things. So clearly the step by step does work. I think people like, it's always hard to say, how do I get there? What is the journey that gets us to the destination? And I think when you say, Hey, if we do these things, it'll be easier for them as players to kind of understand. 00:24:41 Sumer Beatty: Are they involved in that goal setting? 00:24:43 Ian Scheller: Yes. So when we sit down, when they first get back at the beginning of the year, we sit down and we set team objectives. I have my own objectives as a coach and we predict our season. So there are a number of websites that will tell us as, as a college where we're predicted to fall. So they'll say, okay, we predict the fall. This website will predict where you win. Are you going to lose? Are you going to tie? And we can kind of have an idea of where the other teams we play against are in that way. So we have an idea of what the outside thinks. We, on the inside, know our progress. We know where our freshmen go to sophomore, sophomores to juniors, juniors to seniors, how they've progressed because of our spring season. We know roundabout what our recruits will give us. So it gives the team a very realistic idea of where can we fall and how can we do. The team love the goal setting process. They're almost a little too excited about it because sometimes they're like, well, we're not gonna lose any games! And then you have to kind of bring them down to earth and say, I love this. I hope you're right. But going here on a Wednesday when we know we could be missing two or three players for classes, that could be tough. Or, okay, you didn't think we were gonna win this game, but I actually think you guys are better than you're giving yourself credit for. So I like to try to be realistic, much like I do in the recruiting process. Same with the team. If we're, if we get too big for our britches, I kind of try to bring us back down to earth and say, you got to stay focused. You have to understand that just because we won 15 games last year does not mean you're not guaranteed that. You must earn it every single day, every single day. And I talked to fellow coaches in the office. How do you keep your team focused? I talked to Jordan Williams about it all the time because he's someone that is really good with that kind of stuff. He sets things in line for people. He goes, each year, this is my goal, this is my objective. I think it's something that I've taken from him. I like that the way you set your team up for those little things. Putting people into positions to succeed. And I think when, when they can see the first year, they didn't think we're going to win nearly as many games. Now they're coming in thinking we're going to win 10, 11, 12 games each year. That to me is a mentality shift, which goes more toward our long term goal of winning a conference title. We got knocked out of the semifinals. During the final game, I had players texting me, we should be here. We should be here. And I like that because although maybe you don't want to be overconfident, you need to have a level of confidence to know when we get on the field next year, we want to be there. We want to understand what it's like to play with the pressure and that you can't, you honestly can't just make that up. Experience cannot be rushed. I can't put it in the microwave and say, here we go. now all of a sudden my freshmen or seniors, it doesn't work. You have to develop it over time. And I finally think our team feel like we're as good as I think we've always been capable of being. 00:27:22 Carlos Ramos: I'm hearing an implementation of a be, do, have strategy where before you can achieve the things you want to achieve, you have to be the type of person who achieves those things. And it sounds like you're molding your players to do that. You've got that end in mind. You've got that goal of the number of wins, the championships, the winning seasons, the things that you're doing, that process that's getting them there. What are the things that you're seeing from your players that they are changing to be in order to achieve those goals? 00:27:59 Ian Scheller: You have to earn the right. You have to earn the ability to say you are these things. And that comes in the offseason, that comes in every phase of it. It's not just I show up here in August and then I stop playing in November and then come back. I think one of the things that really lacked, I say lacking isn't the right word. It's, I think the drive sometimes can get lost. And it happens to me too. I'll be really motivated and then I'll, and I'll have a few days where maybe I had a bad day and maybe I feel a little bit more down, but I have to get back up. I have to continue. And I think. It was hard for them sometimes to see the end because it felt so far away. And once you have a little success, I think it gets a little bit easier. But that first year to try to translate that and to say, okay, we have to do this to get to here. We have to do these little things. Well, it starts with, you need to run in the off season. You need to practice your skills. You need to do these things. My first year, I think we were a team built on athletes. So players that were good based off their athletic ability. Now I think there's players who maybe, I would say, if you put them in two pots of a more technical player and a more athletic player, those athletic players do so much work in the off season to get to this technical side and try to improve their ability. One thing I learned from my mentor, who was the head coach of the previous institution I worked at, is, people aren't animals. They're not cattle. They're not sheep. You can't just say, okay, everyone, we're going to go do these things. Every single player requires a different level of care, requires a different level of relationship with me, and also is going to require a different level of coaching. And I think when I try to set aside The different, the end goal of where we want to be, it's looking at you and saying, Hey, this is what you need to do to get a little bit better each day. This is what you need to do to get a little better each day. And I think that's important because it also allows people to understand that you actually are taking an interest in them. Oh, he, he noticed that I'm a little bit, I lack confidence in the center of the park, or I don't feel comfortable taking players one on one, and telling people, these are your single objectives on top of the larger objectives on top of the end goal, is kind of how we've been able to turn it around, and when we, as, as a team, try to implement that in us as coaching staffs, it comes from, a place of trying to understand you and what makes you tick and what makes you tick. And every single person is going to be a little bit different. And I might know that you might need a kick in the butt. You might need an arm around the shoulder, right? Everybody's different. And I think anytime you goal set in anything, I think that's one of the most important things. I always tell the players, your responsibility is to play soccer and get good grades. My responsibility is to figure out how to manage you. So a lot of my relationship building comes down to how can I get the most out of you when it comes to setting these goals? So I can, can I be a little bit more critical? Is that okay? Or are you somebody who needs me to have a little bit, Hey, this is where we can go. This is what you can do. Or, Hey, you need to do this. You need to make sure that we're, we're pressing in these areas or we're, or even we're studying harder in the classroom, right? Cause it goes beyond that. My coaching goes beyond the field and as much as we set the goals in the field, we set goals in the classroom. And I think having that accountability and each person just wants to know you believe in them and having that level of accountability and saying, he's watching me, he understands. I think that makes that strategy of trying to put people in a position to get to where we want to go a little bit easier. 00:31:36 Sumer Beatty: What is the off season like? How much, how intense is that? 00:31:41 Ian Scheller: So, I guess a typical year for us is we get in here in August, we go through the season, we play around 20 games, that's August to November. I tell the team, hey, from November until January, it's your responsibility to rest up and do what you want to do. If you want to get back in the gym, by all means, but we can't really have any, we can't have any interactions with them in that way. I can't say, hey, you need to go to the gym today. Obviously, would it be better if they did? Of course it would, because you get bigger, stronger, faster, you're working on your technical skills. Once we hit February, we start a non traditional season. So the non traditional season is, a little over 20 practices. We're on the field, we're working on different things, and we have one match day. So that's a chance to kind of work on some things that may be, may be overlooked. Over the course of time. So maybe one player needs to work on their passing from this position into these areas because we know it's an area of weakness for us. Or is it we, hey, we want to work on something tactically. We want to make sure that our shape is a certain way. This is what we do in that time. We watch a lot of film. We do a lot of different things like that. The girls are also asked. to be in the gym three times a week if they can. Obviously in our off season where it's our non traditional or traditional season. I can't mandate them to be there, but I think everyone knows the harder you work, typically the better, the more results you get and the better you'll be. So our nontraditional season usually runs from February, mid February until April. We play our game, we get some film on that, and then we have an idea of what's the progress like, especially for freshmen to sophomores, because a first semester freshman and a second semester freshman are completely different people. If you talk to them, they get here, they're all scared, oh my goodness, it's so scary, and then they turn around and, Second semester like, oh, hey Ian, how's it going? I mean, what kind of personality? Where'd this come from? Right? And so I think in the offseason That's what we really we really work on is getting that comfortability in the team and understanding that when I bring in my next batch of 10 to 12 freshmen. They are comfortable enough to be mentors and leaders. Building leaders is what we try to do. We try to make it as good as possible because if I say, hey, I need you to go and I need you to talk to this under this, first year about she's struggling in one of her radiography classes and she doesn't know what to do. I might have been a radiographer at one point, right, or in the major at one point, but that didn't go well. So you have a much better idea of how to how to say, hey, this is what you can do. Here's some things that I do to be successful. we also have this, I call it the Mama Bird, Baby Bird program. So, when I have a group of first years come in, they often will have an upperclassman who is their mentor. And they'll do, opening events with them. So we'll do a bunch of team games and icebreaker games and different things. And it gives them one connection because what I don't like is a group of freshmen, a group of sophomores, a group of juniors, a group of seniors. I want everyone to feel comfortable in every single one of those. And I think that's one thing we've done really well. And I think that is, I think that helps people when they get here. I think that really helps them because I do think it can be daunting. And that progress, like I said, from one semester to the next is huge. So the off season is massive because when you get here, you're an 18, 17, 18, 19 year old, then you leave to get to the field and you're playing against 22 year old women on the other team and they're hitting you and you're falling over. Well, hopefully by the time that you're a senior, you're the same thing, right? You're sturdy. You're when, when a smaller player bounces off you, boom, there they go. Right. And that's the importance of the off season. It shows me one, it shows me how hungry everybody is because that's where a lot of the gains are made, but also. At the same time, it gives them something to, to strive for, and it gives them the ability to focus on themselves, because during the season, a lot of times, it's maintenance for the team. Hey, we're weak at left mid, we're weak at right mid, we're weak at striker, I need to find an option, I need to find a better way to make use of those players, or we need to do these things different. It's more small fixes and tweaks. Whereas in the offseason, we can do a lot more. We're a little bit deficient in these areas. This is where we can start to work. 00:35:42 Sumer Beatty: So you had a lot of away games this season. How are those bus rides? 00:35:47 Ian Scheller: I think they're great. because it's one of my favorite parts about being a, about being a player. As a coach, it's a little less enjoyable. No, I think it's great. We have, usually, It's a good, it's an even split of 10 and 10. This year it wasn't. we travel usually around three hours. So we get very used to a bus. We're kind of in a weird area where a lot of teams we play are Philadelphia, Lancaster. We go to New York a lot. We, we make our way out to Pittsburgh. So we're almost in no man's land and everywhere we go is pretty much a similar travel. Being on the bus is fun. I think, you know, Much like a locker room culture, that's where a lot of the things are made, right? Funny things happen on the bus, like, I'll get pictures of people sleeping at the back of the bus, like, mouth wide open, snoring, right? One of my players, she sleeps with, like, one eye open, it's like, freaks me out. Yeah, so it's, it's one of those things where, like, that's where the funny things happen. Because that's how team building is. And that's why we do so much away from the field. And a bus is the extension of that. And I think locker room culture, bus culture, shows you how close your team really is. Because it's going to get heated on the field. You and I may have a disagreement, and maybe it comes out in an aggressive tone, right? You might be upset with me and say, I need you to hit this pass, I need you to do this. You're not marking that player, you're not doing the thing that you're supposed to be. But when we get on the bus, and we're, we're there, and people are joking about something either with me, or they're joking about something with a teammate. You hear a lot of laughing, you hear a lot of loud voices. People will be watching Netflix on the bus now or that we like taking a nap together or it, it shows me exactly how close and connected my team are. So it's kind of like a proud parent moment. I would say, would I rather not be on a bus six hours for a day? I think I would, but I don't trade those memories for anything. It's some of the best memories I remember as a player. And it's some of the best memories I've had as a coach so far too. 00:37:35 Carlos Ramos: Couple of the players sent us some questions. 00:37:38 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, that was one of the questions. 00:37:40 Ian Scheller: Oh, no. 00:37:41 Sumer Beatty: Are you playing? Are you playing any board games in the bus? Do you find yourself looking out the window often? No, go ahead. Yeah, you can comment on that. 00:37:51 Ian Scheller: Okay. 00:37:51 Sumer Beatty: The bus rides, I just I hear there are some stories to tell about these bus rides So maybe we need to dig into this a little bit more. 00:37:57 Ian Scheller: Okay So funny enough, I mentioned her already. There's Megan, who is our freshman, who has had a very good year. I don't know if strange is a polite thing to say. She's a little strange sometimes. She's a little strange. 00:38:11 Sumer Beatty: We heard all our stats. You can say whatever. I think she's got the game. 00:38:14 Ian Scheller: Yeah, yeah. She's a little strange. So she does this thing where, So, you're familiar with a banana. She peels the banana. She will take her pointer finger and she will split the banana by pushing it down the top and split it into thirds and then she'll eat it in pieces. Now, is that potentially something that's going to have a Netflix documentary on it later because of the things she does? I don't know. she's, yeah, it's probably one of the most interesting things that I've ever seen. And we have a video of everyone just being very confused about what she's doing. She's also the same one who will look out the window without music and just enjoy the moment. And I'll say, are you okay? She goes, yes, just looking out the window, enjoying the ride. And most people are just like, yeah, I'm in here listening to some heavy metal and I'm trying to get pumped for the game. You're looking out of the squirrels out the window in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Right. And It's a very interesting group of people. One thing I will say is my freshmen this season have a ridiculous level of personality. Ridiculous. In the best possible way. They give it to the upperclassmen, they, they laugh at each other, they give it to me. It's, it's, I like a little bit of banter. it's fun because it shows your level of comfortability. Like I'll walk up and maybe I'm bald, right? So they'll say, Oh, your head looks a little shiny today. I go, thanks. I'm not self accomplished, conscious about that at all. but I like that because it means they're comfortable and it feels familial. but they still have the level of respect that when they hit, get between the lines, they go, yes, coach. Good. Let's do it. We'll get this done. That's the. That's what the bus ride gives us. We also have people who will bring chess to the bus, which feels very, inconvenient because you hit a sharp turn and now all of a sudden you don't know where your, where your rook was at, right? You have no idea. But we have a few people who make these bus rides worth it. And most of them, I think, are, they're the core of the team because they're the, they're the people that are at the center of the social part. They're the people that go out and they're the most outgoing. And they're very, they're very much the heart and soul of what we're trying to do here because they've been recruited and they know how important it is to be a part of the team. And I know they don't like the bus rides, except for some of them. I know they don't enjoy the bus rides. But, unfortunately that's part of the game. And I always say, you could be on a yellow school bus. 00:40:39 Sumer Beatty: Yeah, that's true. Those look like very nice buses. I saw one the other day. I mean they're... 00:40:44 Ian Scheller: Yeah, when you roll up, when you roll up in the Penn College bus in an away game, it's kind of cool. It's kind of cool. You just need to hope that, the team are not in a bad mood, right? Okay. All right, guys. I know it was a four hour bus ride. It's all right. That, it does, it can be tough. I get it. Especially when you have like a test or something. I understand where that is, but people study on the bus. It, it almost takes them away from some of the distractions here, which is nice. It's fun to have a fun culture. It's fun to be a part of a good group of players. Because even when they complain, which happens from time to time, right? Even when they complain, they usually see the good in things. And so, yeah, although they do some strange things like split a banana into three, or they bring chess on a wobbly bus where it's sometimes hard to sleep, let alone try to play a game of intense thought. There's, there's a lot of things. We also have a player who crochets on the bus. She made all my seniors blankets for senior day this year. I'll tell you what, I didn't realize that was a thing that 20 year olds did, but I'm just waiting for my blanket. That's all I'm saying. 00:41:49 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. Hint, hint, if you're listening. Well, it sounds like you just facilitate that ability to just be yourself. And I know there's a lot more research now about mindset and all of, you know, the Ted Lasso belief and everything. And it sounds like you have a good mix. You've got a good thing going. 00:42:07 Ian Scheller: One thing that I say, and it's huge in my recruiting pitch, there are three aspects of being a college athlete or just being in college in general. There's the athletic, which mostly is what I'm looking at at the beginning. Well, then there's the academic because, well, we're a school. Imagine that, right? You need to be good. You need to try your best in school. How well you do comes down to the level of effort you put in, and as long as you're doing your best, I appreciate that. But the third is social. Social is just as important as the other two. Because if you do too much of any of those, the other two suffer. So if you are somebody who studies too much, and you don't hang out with your friends, and you don't build the connections, you're going to leave college probably with some regrets. You can overstudy. There's plenty of time to study. If you do too much on the soccer field, well maybe you're neglecting your studies. And if you're doing too much socially, these two might suffer. So, it's huge to balance that. And one thing that I like to do is try my best to give us as many opportunities to do that as possible. So, we do a holiday ornament painting, we've gone to the pumpkin patch, we've done corn mazes, we do a Halloween party where people come dressed up and, sometimes they do it in two, three, or four. Sometimes they do it as an individual. We've gone to amusement parks, and we've done art museums, and the Museum of Illusions. We stayed overnight in Pittsburgh this year. The reason we do that, it is very stressful to set it up, but it's because I understand these are the, these are the things that people remember. And those are the moments where your team actually bonds. Because it becomes less about, can you pass me a ball? And more, what do we have in common? Or, what can I learn from you? That maybe, oh, I didn't realize I was interested in art until I met you. I didn't realize that I was interested in this kind of music until I met you. And so the social is massively important. And I think that is one area where, and I'll be bold enough to say, I think it's where it sets us apart. You can go to a lot of programs and win. That's not something that's unique to this place. There's a lot of good programs. There's a lot of good programs with some of our majors. I always say to my recruits, spend a night with their team and then spend a night with my team. That's the difference maker. And that is why I tell the team, you are a huge part of this because I work hard, or at least I try to work hard and to give them a good experience so that they can pay it forward and tell someone else, well, these are the things we've done. These are the things that as a team, I really like. And one thing that I get feedback on is In my end of season meetings is there's always people that say I'm very thankful for the team's environment. I'm very thankful for the things that happen and as a coach, there's not many better things to hear because you can win with a miserable team but to win with a team that actually enjoys each other is something that's completely on its own. 00:44:43 Sumer Beatty: Coaching is a job that requires a lot of passion to be successful. So that passion, you know, can be seen through encouragement and cheering. It can also be seen through anger and frustration. Has there ever been an event during a game that made you so passionately frustrated that maybe you kicked something? 00:45:01 Ian Scheller: Okay, there may have been an incident where instead of, okay, as you know, there are officials on the field in any sporting event. I may have had some choice words that I wanted to keep to myself because I had maybe a disagreement with one of the calls that was on the field. There is a trash receptacle behind our dugout where we sit, and I had, I got frustrated, and instead of yelling at a ref because I'm responsible and I'm an adult, I may have gone behind my desk. and kicked a trash can, figuring no one would have saw it. And then it was unfortunately on film, and the players on the sideline also saw it. Actually, later that year, my players came to our Halloween practice as trash cans, and they taped trash around like the rim, and then one of them laid on their side, and the other one was just there. So it was really clever. It is probably one of my better... It's a bad moment and time, but it was cool because it gave me like a moment where I showed my human side. I think, I do think that helps. we have frustration and I said, well, I could have yelled at the official and gotten a, gotten a yellow card and I didn't. So, see, sometimes these things happen, but no, I mean, I am, I always say I'm a soccer nerd. I'm very passionate. I, I like to win, but I also like the process. Sometimes you get it wrong, right? Every now and again, you get it a little bit wrong and you kick a trash can, but. Once again, didn't yell at a ref. 00:46:29 Sumer Beatty: No, and it does come full circle because your athletes showed up. They made light of it. They called you out. They're like, hey, this wasn't cool that you did this. This isn't our culture. And, you know, and now we can laugh about it. 00:46:41 Ian Scheller: Yeah. I was going to say, it was funny because in, in time, it was more, they were surprised. They were like, what was that? And then almost the next day, they... a bunch of people in the office obviously knew, so they'd be showing me trash cans and they'd walk up and they'd go, whoa, watch out. Don't, don't do that. So it kind of was, no one was ever really upset about it, which was fortunate because in hindsight, I don't really like it, but at the day, it's when you make a mistake, when you make a mistake, you own it and go from there. And it shows, hey, I'm human too, right? When I made a mistake, I walked forward and said, apologize for that. Shouldn't have done it. But at the end of the day, Laugh at me at my expense and you take, you're the butt of the joke. That's all right. 00:47:21 Carlos Ramos: Sounds like you've got a phenomenal team. Any parting words you'd like to say to them now on the mic that you've never said to them before? 00:47:29 Ian Scheller: Well, I, I guess this is the time to announce that we're gonna up our standard on the Beep Test. No, that'd be funny. it's, it's their biggest fear. The Beep Test is their fear, but. 00:47:37 Carlos Ramos: What is the Beep Test? 00:47:38 Ian Scheller: The beep test is our fitness test that we run when we first come back. And the first question everyone asks me is, are we going to have to do the Beep Test? Are we going to have to do the Beep Test? And I go, yes, you have to do the Beep Test. But then I kind of always like loom it over their heads. Like you better behave because we might do the Beep Test. Ooh, but no, I, I have a great bunch. Unbelievable. I couldn't be more thankful for them, honestly. So if they're listening, I guess now they can at least admit that I've said something nice about them once. They're an unbelievable bunch. I'm thankful for this year overall. And at the end of the day, I'm thankful for this opportunity to get here and talk about a team that I'm really proud of. 00:48:13 Sumer Beatty: Awesome. 00:48:13 Carlos Ramos: Thank you, Ian. 00:48:14 Sumer Beatty: Yeah. Thank you so much. 00:48:15 Ian Scheller: Thanks for having me. 00:48:18 Sumer Beatty: Thanks for hanging out with us today. 00:48:20 Carlos Ramos: Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. 00:48:24 Sumer Beatty: Check out our show notes for bookmarks to your favorite sections and links to resources that we mentioned in today's episode. 00:48:31 Carlos Ramos: You can also find past episodes and see what's on deck for upcoming ones at pct.edu/podcast. 00:48:37 Sumer Beatty: And of course, we are open to your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. So send those over at podcast@pct.edu. 00:48:46 Carlos Ramos: It's been real. 00:48:47 Sumer Beatty: Catch you next time. It's funny that we don't just have this prerecorded and we just do it once and then we just use that But we're doing it every single time.