Baker and Fuller give inside word on soccer

ON THE RECORD with Patrick Baker, Rudy Fuller: Daily Pennsylvanian sports editors Kent Malmros and Josh Callahan sat down with both first-year Fuller and fifth-year women's coach Patrick Baker yesterday. The two coaches, who could be mistaken for brothers and have developed an obvious friendship, shared thoughts on their recruiting process and thoughts on the future of the soccer programs at Penn. DP: The Ivy League moratorium (on contacting recruits) ended last week, the week before, campus visits were restricted. How have you approached your recruiting the last couple weeks, in terms of preparation, and how does that affect the next two or three weeks? Rudy Fuller: I was in a difficult situation coming in because I was kind of behind the eight ball with recruiting. A lot of kids had been left hanging, and I had to tie up a lot of loose ends. I think we have been very successful at nailing down some good kids for next year. We are looking at bringing in four to seven kids, kids that feel very comfortable playing-wise and as young men. So I am excited about next year. i was surprised when we started playing in the spring, because we have a good core of kids coming back. DP: In terms of the actual process, are you going to be on the road next week, or will you work from here? Fuller: The recruiting for this coming fall is pretty much finished. We are working on financial aid right now for the kids coming in. In terms of deciding who we'd really like to have come in, that's pretty much done on our side of things. We're really in the thick of it for the following fall now, we are really trying to get our hands on the [high school] juniors. Patrick Baker: Darah Ross was our lone senior for the women's program. This is our first year that we had been able to in the recruiting process have identifiable needs where we are looking to place a person in the right position. Where as in the past it has been, "we need a goalkeeper, a midfielder, a defender, a frontrunner, we need wide, we need central." So it has really tapered down. We went after a whole different type of player than we had ever really gone after, it is a very elite group. We've been able to land our number one recruit again for the third year in a row. Last year it was Kelly Toland, the year before that it was the Callaghan twins. And the way we've been playing this spring, I hope we keep going in the direction we've been. DP: Both the soccer teams had strong recruiting classes two years ago. The men's team made immediate improvements before having an off year this year, and the women's team came into their own this year. What was that you had to do similarly and differently based on the core group of players you have with two years left? Fuller: From what I understand, we had a few seniors that had important roles on the team last year, but that it was a young team. Young players really filled in keys spots. The core group that we have returning now is a year more experienced, a year more mature, has been through the wars of the Ivy League more and that will make us better right from the start. In term of how we recruited this year, I think coach Baker hit it right on the head. This year we had a very wide range of players we were looking at. I didn't have the ability to narrow it down by position, I had to take the best players available that I could get, regardless of what position they played. I think next year we'll get more specific with who we recruit. DP: If you are going after a specific, elite player, how do you go about selling the program to that player? Baker: Number one, our players are great recruiters. When players come in they are not treated as a high school senior, they are treated as a fellow soccer player. Number two, that the school itself has moved into the top ten in the country [academically] is a huge sell. We finished number seven in the mid-Atlantic region, second in the Ivies and we were probably one of the next two or three teams to be considered for NCAAs. Players see us as an up-and-coming situation, and we sold the fact to our top five recruits this year, that, "hey, here is a situation to come in and potentially play right away and be a part of something special." Fuller: I am looking for a special kind of player. A guy that wants to come in and take on the challenge of turning this program around, or be a part of this changing program. Not someone that wants to walk into an established program and be another good player. So we are looking for kids that want to come in and make an impact. DP: Rudy, this is your first year recruiting, and you came here in the middle. What challenges does this particular process and what special interest as a learning process does this first recruiting effort have for you? Is this your true first recruiting class, or will you look ahead to next year? Fuller: I think that I came in at a time when I wasn't able to fully evaluate all of the prospects available. I feel good about what we got out of this year, but I look forward to this coming year where we have a full year or year and a half of correspondence with the kids, really getting to know who the kids are, who the families are. As far as looking at my first true recruiting class, I will look at next year as my first one. But I am not disappointed in the least with what we got this year. DP: Patrick when you came the players you brought in were of different caliber, and a lot of the players that had played and were on the team did not stay with you. Rudy, do you expect the same situation could occur again? Fuller: I truly felt coming into the position that there was a good core of player. I knew there was a discrepancy between the level of talent we have here and the record last year, but I didn't know how much of a discrepancy there was. And I was pleasantly surprised by the level of players we have here now. It ties into what I said earlier about the younger players needing to step up and fill some major roles. Two years ago they go 8-6 and finish second or third in the Ivies; they return the entire starting lineup from that team and go 4-12-1. Something happened. I think it had less to do with the actual soccer-playing abilities and it has to do with the psychological side of things. I have told the players that I am not looking to win in two or three years, I am looking to win next year, because I really true believe that we have the players to do it. Baker: Rudy is going to have it easier, because there is a tradition, there is name of Penn men's soccer and there is a very rich tradition of successful alumni. It wasn't that Steve Bauman or George O'Neil haven't been recruiting. The problem on the women's side was that we were the last Ivy program to have women's soccer, and we were the last Ivy to have a full-time coach. The coach I took over for was the mother of two children. They were practicing out here on Franklin Field at 8-10 o'clock at night. The situation was so not conducive to a quality program. There wasn't training gear, there wasn't anything remotely representing a good Division I program. As Rudy was pleasantly surprised, I was equally unimpressed taking over and seeing how everything was one and of the field, and we have slowly tried to change it year by year. I would not be surprised if they made a challenge this year. It is all psychological. A lot of it has to do with confidence and team confidence. We didn't have it two years ago. DP: Both of you have or will have soccer camps in the summer. How does the camp help your program and your recruiting efforts? Baker: It's huge. I forget what the stat was from the men's team from Indiana in the final four, but the number of players in that program that had gone to the IU camp as a youth was a pretty high percentage. We have the Baker Soccer Camp for Girls at Rider (where Baker's wife coaches the women's team). We try to get as many potential prospects to come to camp. That way we can evaluate them and they can get a feel for us as coaches. Especially if you have your players employed as counselors, sometimes there's a great rapport with a particular player, and that can be the difference in the recruiting process. I gotta feel like the more people you can bring to your camp is a good thing. Fuller: I think it depends on what type of camp you have. The facility they have at the Baker camp is an exceptional one that lends itself to being a fantastic camp atmosphere. At Penn with the limited facilities we do have, I think it would be difficult to have a similar-type camp. The camp I was previously director of was more of a younger camp, with kids from 7-15 years old, and the level wasn't as high as coach Baker has at his camp. We would target more the younger kids and get a personal touch with them to have them come out to our games. It's a different reason to have a camp.