Episode #54: Stef Ewing

Join Matt Rogers as he sits down with Stef Ewing, the new head softball coach at the University of Montana. From her historic playing days at Oregon State to her remarkable coaching achievements at Cal State San Marcos, Coach Ewing shares her journey of turning programs into champions. Discover her insights on building a winning culture, advancing women in sports, and balancing life on and off the field. Learn more about Coach Ewing at her official bio.

Transcript

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Welcome back to another episode of Significant Coaching, the podcast where we dive into the journeys, philosophies, and insights of the brightest minds in sports coaching. I'm your host, Matt Rogers, and today we have an incredible guest joining us. She's a trailblazer on the softball field. A transformational leader, and now the head softball coach at the University of Montana. Coach Steph Ewing has a storied history, from her days as a collegiate standout at Oregon State, helping her team reach their first ever College World Series, to coaching success at Cal State San Marcos, where she turned the program into a national contender. And now she's poised to mark in the Big Sky Conference with the Montana Grizzlies. Here's my conversation with the incomparable Steph Ewing. coach, let's talk a little bit about what you've gone through the last six, seven years. You were a top assistant at two really good D1 programs. You jumped to San Marcos and you took over a program that was at the bottom. Year two, you run into COVID. Year three, the season's canceled. And then you come back in year four and you're in the super regionals. You're five. You're in the World Series. You're six. You're back in the regionals. How the heck did you make that happen? when I got to San Marcos, the first thing I always remember is I'm like, man, nobody knows about this place, but this place is great. Southern California, it's in North County, San Diego, beautiful field surrounded by palm trees. You get the ocean breeze. And I'm like, Why are we not successful here? You're in the mecca of softball, right? And it was just a lot of recruiting, and getting people to believe in a vision. And, it just, to me, it all comes down to the players. I'm fortunate that I had a group of girls that really bought in. And were passionate about softball. They were passionate about each other and being good teammates. And that group that really changed the program is seniors this year. There's 13 of them. They were all freshmen. The year games. They were all freshmen. That is a thousand times more impressive coach. It's a great group of young ladies. I still text with them and just say, Hey, I'm just really looking forward to seeing what amazing things you guys do this year. This is how special of a group it was. I took the job here and not one kid went in the transfer portal from Cal State San Marcos. That is such a sign of what you created there in terms of character and believing in the university, believing in their education. that's so great coach. I don't quite know what we put in the water to make such a big change coming out of COVID, during COVID, we weren't even allowed to practice. Some schools were allowed to do like a virtual practice. We were allowed to do this zoom and I had one on one zooms every week with every player on team. And we just talked, how are you doing? What, how's your family? What's going on? How are you staying busy? We didn't talk a lot of softball. Had a team meeting once a week. And the girls would play catch and we would be, I'd put them into small groups so they'd be able to catch up with each other and I'd update them on what's going on. And those updates usually weren't fun. They weren't what anybody wanted to hear because it just continued to go on and on and then we didn't even play the next year. And it was just a lot of explaining to them, you know what, life isn't fair. And sometimes some people get to do things other people don't get to do, and this is, the hand that we're dealt. but having those conversations and it being way more about life than about softball is why that group was so special and they continue to be a really special group, because they loved the game so much that they wanted to come back and they came back hungry. But it was just about, getting them through the COVID years, because for us, it was years at San Marcos. It wasn't just the one. And it was tough. I went and started coaching club softball because we couldn't do anything. And my assistant coach, a longtime assistant coach, AJ Robinson, he, the second year he went and volunteered at San Diego state cause they played and he ran a club team in San Diego. He ran, it's now team San Diego, but it was the East Cob Bullets of San Diego. I went and I was coaching 14 and 16 under softball as a head coach at a D2 school. I was doing it because I needed the game and I wanted to be around kids. And, that was just a special group. I liked it so much that I even did it again the year that we started playing in the fall. That was crazy. I don't know what I was thinking. every Tuesday and Thursday I was leaving Cal State San Marcos to go home to change my hat and put on my bullet stuff and then, go to hitting on Tuesdays and then we had our defensive practices on Thursdays. And we combined them with the 18 so it was really beneficial for me because man when you're on the field and you're working with kids, you understand speed of the game. At the 14, 16, 18 under level and then you understand the speed of the game at the college level I think it just really helped me as a coach to be like, okay, that's going to continue to play at the next level. That's too slow. And, just really helps you as a recruiter. Cause I, for me, I think one of the hardest things for me as a recruiter is. You just go through your whole entire season in college, and then you go to zoom into June, and you watch high school level softball, It's slow compared to, so you're okay, how slow is slow and it's, you have to make that adjustment Exactly. It's not torture, but it's just, it's a different speed of the game. It really is. Yeah. I tell everybody, I'm like, anybody can recruit Ferraris, right? Anyone can show up to a field and find the Ferraris. And I've never been a coach still. I haven't recruited a Ferrari because the programs that I've been to, cause we've, it's just, that's the cream of the crop. But man, Do I find a lot of kids that become Ferraris and that's just the thing that I specialize in and just feel like, getting to know people and really getting into the trenches and, I love working with kids at camp. It's one of my favorite things. And, for me, I think that's just the biggest thing that I've been able to do as a coach is recruit very well. When I sit down and I tell a family it's more than just softball, like softball is what we do, but it's not who we are. And when your daughter comes in place for me, the biggest thing that I want to make sure that happens is that she gets her degree in that when she does graduate, she feels prepared to go out in the world and have conversations and do what she wants to do. Cause I ask every kid what do you want to do after this? Do you want to become a teacher? Do you want to become an FBI agent? What do you want to do? And my job is. To help you get there. how can I help you get there? How can I help you with the life things that you need to do to be prepared? Because the reality is And it's not a knock on softball that, becoming a professional softball player is not a profession that's going to pay your bills, right? We're not there yet. I hope we get there. And, there's a new league that's forming and I sure hope we get there. But the reality is for us. 99. 8 percent of the girls that play college softball is that this is setting them up for the rest of their lives. And that's the most important thing to me is when I get the texts and the phone calls of when they're done playing of, hey, guess what? one of my girls who she tortured me for two years at San Marco and she texted me and was like, Hey coach, guess what? I'm now LAPD SWAT. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, like that's amazing. I'm so happy for you and I hope you never come to my door. But you're going to be great at that. And those are the cool things as a coach, right? Is that you get to see, you get to have those four or five years with those players, but then. They become. Women who just excel in the world. And that's to me what it's all about. That's my why that's why I'm here. And I think that's why we get wins on the field is because my relationship with a player is never going to be dependent on what they do for me on the field. It's all about, the whole holistic part of what this is. Anybody listening and doesn't understand what significant, passionate coaching is all about coach. You just knocked it out of the park with how you go about your business and why you love the game and why you do what you do. So that makes me so happy. I'm going to go on a real strange tangent on you because I loved what you talked about with how important that those zoom calls were during COVID. My wife and I started, we went on our first date. And literally the next day she moved to Denver, Colorado, and I moved to the Quad Cities in Iowa. So the next six months, we wrote letters every day, and we would talk on the phone at night. And I proposed four months later, we got married six months later, and we've been married for 27 years. And people ask, we got married so young. How did you make it last? I think those first six months where we had to become friends and had to listen to each other and had to have high level conversations for me, that was the reason our marriage is so strong. And it's just, it hit me. You got to know your girls over COVID. At a level that most coaches never get the time to do never take the time to get to know their character, get to know their families, get to know what scares them, what excites them. So I find that fascinating. That might be the greatest lesson of this podcast is how important it is to build those relationships with your kids and figure out what kind of relationship they want with you. I'll say this. I can do a much better job at talking to my players more, because it's really important for me, like every day when the girls come to practice that they say hello to me. And if they don't, I literally go up to them and I'm like, you didn't say hello you just walked right by me. I was like, did you miss me? Did I have an invisibility cloak on? What's going on here? And because I like, I like to check in on them. When we went into individuals, our eight hour weeks, we went into basically 30 minutes a day, four days a week. And I told them, I said, we're doing that because I want to see you every day. I don't all of a sudden want there to be a misconnection. I want to be able to see you guys every day and connect. And it, I think it's something. That young adults, it's a phase that they go through during college is being able to know when they need help or when they need assistance in something and feeling comfortable enough to ask for it. You step in the classroom for the first time and you look at the syllabus and you're like, Oh man, this class is going to be tough. How long is it going to take you? To decide to go ask for help from the professor or get some help. Is it going to be at the beginning and be proactive? Is it going to be after you fail the first test? I think those are those life things that are so important. That when you are recruiting someone or you're getting to know somebody. I have to be able to establish that trust of I'm here to help you, but I can only help what I know, and I can't help what I don't know. So please, if you need something, come to me, because I'll move mountains for you. But I can only help what I know, and I think it goes back to, what you were talking about with your wife and being able to establish that trust. And be vulnerable that, you really feel like, okay, I can go to this person when I need something. Luckily for me as a softball coach, I get it, I get all realms of it, right? You get the athletic part and usually it's that athletic part. But then, I talk to'em all the time about the social and how hard it is for freshmen fall of their freshman year. It's the hardest six months of anyone's life, right? I called my parents and cried every week like, I wanna come home. And they were like. Yeah, me too. Yeah, I just wrote a blog last week and I, It's about learning how to live without your parents umbrella or net. It takes a year. The talk I have with every recruit that comes in, as I say, this is going to be fall of your practice when you're all in the same day, you're going to have no money on a gas, you're going to have the worst practice you've ever had. You're going to fail a test. You have to do laundry. You have no food. And then you call your person. And they don't answer. And it's all going to happen on the same day, and you have to be able to find that moment and be like, you know what, the sun's going to come up tomorrow, and it's going to be okay. And that happens to every single student, not just student athlete, every single student who goes to college. Fall of their freshman year just life hits you in the face so hard. Yeah, and you're just like, oh my gosh What you know, how am I gonna handle this? Feel alone and you I mean you want to talk about that feeling of being on an island it happens and And that's where you need people to feel comfortable enough to know. Hey, I'm gonna wake up tomorrow morning and It's going to be okay. Today doesn't define me, doesn't define my experience or my decision and I'm going to be okay. But man, when you're going through it, it's hard. You just feel like. You are rolling downhill and nothing that can stop you. And you get it. It's so funny because every kid thinks they're going to be the one that's not going to go through it. Everyone thinks I got this, by the time they get there and then they realize I have to go through this and that's why, and you tell me if I'm wrong, you talk about the average student and then the student athlete, that's what's so great about playing a sport, whether it's junior college, whether it's D3, whether it's a Christian college, whether it's D2 or D1 or NAI, when you're on a team, you are built into a support system that you don't have when you're not an athlete. You have sisters, you have brothers, you have coaches, you have people watching you and you don't even know they're watching going, Oh something's not right there. So what are some of the things you have in place with your program where you're helping those freshmen, those newcomers. Just transition into being an adult. Are there things that you guys are doing in terms of academics, whether it's study halls, grade checks, things like that, are there things that you're just making sure you're checking the pulse every week or two? So we have a mandatory eight hours a week of study hall for any newcomer, whether it's a freshman or a transfer. They get those hours in our academic center. They get an hour a week credit of study hall if they go to a home sporting event, because I love to encourage them to go watch other teams. if you want people to come to your games, you got to go to theirs. Luckily when I came to the University of Montana, we have a huge support so we have someone who works in academics who is meeting with, our young ladies every week and checking in on them. And then we do something called a tracer, which basically it flags if someone's starting to struggle in a class. So that we know, for me as a coach, when these girls show up to practice, you can just tell if it's a, Hey, You're like, she's doing good. If it's like, Hey, all right, I need to check in with her. Or, if it's even less than that. And for me, that's something that I pick up on right away is just people's body language. And I know when they come to softball, it's the best part of their day. And we talk all the time about, Hey, whatever's going on outside of softball. We need to leave it outside of the gates. But when you talk to someone every day and see them every day, And all of a sudden the hay's in a different tone or it's something completely different to me. That's when you've got to check in. I was very much so like when you come to practice, you have to be this way. And I wasn't. Just being a person at that point, because sometimes I show up to practice and I'm in a bad mood and maybe it's just going to take me 20 minutes to get rolling in it, but I think through getting to know my players more and being more understanding and listening more. That now all the information that I need to get them to be able to perform successfully on the field is all about how are they doing, right? It's just like anybody. If you're struggling with something, you're not going to be able to perform highly in what you're doing. It's going to affect you in all areas of your life. So for me, the more authentic that I can be and the more authentic they can be when I see them to be able to gauge that, Hey, how are we doing? Oh, hey, what's going on? Tell me what's going on and be able to know that the quicker that I can become aware of that And just talk to them as a person is the quicker I can get them to be able to perform better in the classroom be able to have them perform on the field Because that's what it's all about when things are going good And people are rocking and rolling, things are going good. But all of a sudden when something happens and you hit a bump, it starts to affect you in all areas. It's not just one. And so being able to have those touch points, check in with the girls is great. I'm a lucky coach. I sit in my office and my door's open. And I have people popping in all the time and they're popping in, not cause they have problems all the time, but they're just popping in because they want to say hi. Hey coach, I was over in the academic center. Your office is right here. Just got done with study hall. Just wanted to say, hi, how are things going? And to me, that's the kind of environment that, that I try to create and foster. This year for me, it felt like I had 21 freshmen, coming into a new job. The very first thing that we did was have team dinner at my house. And literally in my kitchen and I was like, can you tell me your name, where you're from, why you love the University of Montana, and what positions do you play like I just, I want to know, because I told the team I intentionally did not watch film. I wanted every kid to have a clean slate. So there was no preconceived notion on my part of, Oh, she plays here and does this and it's like this. It was a clean slate for everybody. our first team meal went great. And then this fall, it turned into basically weekly team meals. At my house where it got to the point where the girls would be like, Hey, can you make fajitas again? and I bought industrial size to go container. So I'd make extra food so they could take food to go. all fall, it was an open invitation. You didn't have to come. There was, and you didn't have to stay. You could literally come and go container and leave. And it turned into me having to put time stipulations on it because there was a playoff game between the Dodgers and the Padres and me living in San Diego. All of a sudden there's 20 Dodger fans on my softball team. And they're all in my house rooting for the Dodgers while I'm cooking them dinner. I think it just speaks to, how comfortable they, they started to feel being around me and each other and our coaching staff, and my family that, they feel like they can come over to my house and lay on the couch and just relax. to me, I want that for every student and every player that comes to our program. I want them to feel comfortable. I want them to feel like we're here for them and we're here to help them. And, my job is to, help them navigate the four or five years that it's going to take for them to go through school and softball is just part of it. And not the only part of it. And it's great to see, even during our recruiting process, we changed how we were doing our visits and started bringing families, to my house on the visit and wow, does that really impact people I'm going to make you dinner and let's just talk because I just found, when you take people to a restaurant. It's, if it's a big group, it's really hard to talk to everybody. And so being able to be in an environment where people just felt like they could mingle and move around, I just felt like I was able to have way better conversations with parents, and with the recruits, and, then we'd have girls from the team come over and it was just a way for them to all just be like, okay, it's not just order our drink, order our entree and leave, it's. Let's just have real authentic conversations and this is what we do. So I've become quite the cook. I think that's my way of handling stress. And this new job is cooking for the team. Cause it just takes my mind like completely away from softball and all the things that I need to do. And it's okay, now I need to do this. My mom was flying in to help cook for the team and it's become this whole thing, yeah, January 11th. We have our return team, first meal before we, we start practice on the 12th. Oh it's, I don't want to say it's going to get crazy cause it's been crazy, but at least now we're going to start playing games that count. It's, it, I think all the warm and fuzzies are, going to be over from the fall and it's okay, let's go coach. I've hired as an AD, I've hired so many coaches and done so many interviews. I'm telling you. They, Montana must have known that you were the coach for this position within 10 minutes. Because you're so smart and you're so creative and you really care about the kid above and beyond. Anything softball related and that's, it just makes me so happy to hear, there's so many things I'm gonna steal from you just in our first 20 minutes here talking. one of the things I've always done and probably much more in my later years as a coach, is I always talk to the kids about. What relationship do you want with me? It's not about what relationship I want with you. You have to decide what you want that relationship to look like. And it sounds like you've created an environment for your kids to really figure out how they want to be with you. Is it just, Hey coach, let's watch some film, let's do practice. And then I'm gone. Or do I want this to be family? Do I want this to feel like you're my mom, Do you have those conversations? Or do you press them? Because I'm worried about this generation. I'm worried about the text, Twitter, TikTok generation that they can't connect because they don't know how. So I'm really intrigued by that. I, for me, it's organic. I don't try to force it. It's funny, the girls, they were asking me if I was on TikTok and I looked at them and I was like, no. I'm not on TikTok. I don't even have the app on my phone. And they're like, won't you be in our TikTok? And I was like, sure. And, so I think part of it is meeting them where they are, meeting them in the middle a little bit. We have a, an expectation on our team that one meal, every road trip, there's no phones. They pick the meal, I don't care what it is, and I just tell them the reason that I want you to do it is I want you to talk to the people who are around you and have a conversation, and we have an expectation in our program that if there's an issue, it's a face to face conversation, it's not over text message, and we do at our first team meeting, I talk about, and I give examples, Of texts and how I can send a text and it's coming this tone out of me, but you're reading it as a different tone. And that it's just so easy for messages to get misunderstood when it's always being typed or texted. And, we just really encourage them to have those one on one conversations. And I know it's intimidating for them. It's hard. But it's just encouraging them to have that conversation and being able for them to feel like, they can have them and don't get me wrong. On my team, my assistant coach is telling me all the time, they're like, girls are scared of you and I'm like, what are you scared of? did I wear a big bad wolf costume today? But I think, when you sit in this chair as the head coach, there is that, there's that intimidation a little bit for the players. Yeah. But I just continue to be me and joke around with them, and hey, how you doing, what's going on, and even if I've sensed they're a little intimidated by me my favorite thing to do is go up to a player and be like, Jojo, and have him come up, and just look at him and say, That was a great job and find them doing things well and good instead of them thinking like, Oh no, what did I do? And the girls have caught on to it now of I'm going to find you doing something good. I'm not going to humiliate you because people do not perform well at all when that happens. And that's a big difference from how coaches were coached. 30 years ago. There was a lot of intimidation, fear based stuff. For me, I just, I try to find them doing stuff well. And if they're not explain it to them and find the way that they learn to be able to explain it to them. I think that's one thing that I've evolved as a coach is I just used to always be like, I'm going to show you. A lot of people don't learn that way. So being able to learn, learning traits and what works for people, do I need to show them on video? Do I need to put them in that position? Do I need to add weight, and maybe hold them in a, with a band so that they can really feel what's going on? How can I make the light bulb go off for them? Is really, I think, the key to being a successful coach right now in today's world is learning your students because our athletes are students and learning how to teach them in the way that they understand. And not in the way that works for me, but what does it work for them? We all have had it, right? You've got that hitting coach that's got the magic word. So I always want to go to that hitting coach and I could be saying the same words and it just isn't resonating. But respecting that and understanding that and really leaning into it instead of, getting upset by it and being like, okay, then, let's go there and let's talk about that. That was one thing at Cal State San Marcos. I had several players on our team who continued, they asked me, they coach, can I still go to my hitting coach? And I told them, I said, you can still go to your hitting coach. as long as we're Not working against each other and we're not oil and water. I said that's fine If you want so and so to throw you front toss every wednesday because you think it's gonna help you I'm, not gonna take that away from you. We're all in this together, right? Your goal is to become the best softball player that you can My goal is for you to be able to perform at the highest level that you can And if that works for you, then you know, that's fine And I know that's way different than a lot of programs do it. putting people in the best position for them to perform at their highest level. And if, for me, if a kid is coming to me, cause it's very intimidating to come to a coach and say, Hey, can I do this? If they're coming to me and asking me, that tells me all I need to know about how important it is for that young lady, to be able to have that. And a lot of times I'll be like, what are you guys talking about? Just talk me through that and maybe, they're just, if they're just connecting in a different way than I am. And, for me, I'm one of those people who I'm like, maybe I don't have all the answers and I'm just going to steal it from that person. And if it works for you, then let's do it. And at the end of the day, We're all striving for consistent results, consistent ability. So however we can get you there where you can go up and make consistent contact, you can throw consistent strikes. You're getting the glove on the ball. You're making good throws. We've won. I love that philosophy. I want to talk a little bit about intimidation because you use that word that you kids, the coaching staff thinks the kids are intimidated by you. How much of that comes from the fact that you speak with conviction, you say what you mean what you say. And I don't see an ounce of insecurity in you coach. And there's a lot of coaches is. That have that insecurity about wins, about what losses about, showing they're too tough, showing they're too soft. I don't see that. I see an authenticity in you. Don't you think that's what's intimidating to a 17, 18 year old coming out of high school when they're just loaded with insecurities, when they have someone that doesn't seem to have any. It definitely could be. For me, I've always just been like I hope I'm not. Scaring them because of the things that I'm saying is putting them in fear. But you may be right and hitting it on the head. I always tell the girls, I don't have to talk about myself and my playing career. You know what I mean? I'm like, it don't matter. It's over, but it's about, what you can do. I know this, my players have always told me like, coach, like, where do you get your energy from? And I'm like, I don't just wake up like this. I'm sorry. I'm like, I drink my same coffee every day and I order a large and I only finished about a third of it. So they're definitely making money on me. But, I love my job. I love what I do and I'm passionate about people and softball is my platform. And I want to be able to give my energy to you and to them. And maybe that is, intimidating because they're like, man, I got to have three lotuses in order to even be like at a quarter of your level. that could definitely be it. I think it's, I believe in what I'm doing. And I think anybody, as long as you believe in what you're doing, that can be intimidating for people because, they may not be as confident. It's obvious to me, and you go back to your St. Marco's days, it's obvious to me, your kids are drinking your Kool Aid. They're seeing your confidence. They're seeing. How comfortable you are in your own skin and how you coach and that you love it. And you're not afraid to share, you're sharing your home with them. You're bringing them into your home, your wife, your dogs, your food, everything you're sharing with them. I think it's such a great example for young coaches to understand that the winds will come if the kids trust you, if the kids believe in you. Absolutely. I do not sit up at night and wonder how many wins we're going to have or how many losses we're going to have. Because to me, it's just, it's all about the team, getting them to feel comfortable, getting them to believe, because when they believe, then when they're in the moment where the game is on the line or the water gets a little hot, they don't feel it. And that's where you see success in teams. Yeah, absolutely. Talk to me about The transition you're making from D two to D one, and I know you were a D one assistant, but so many of my friends in the last two years who are longtime division three coaches, junior college coaches and AI coaches, D two coaches I must have five or six friends that have gotten that D one job after years of grinding at lower levels. What has that been like for you? You talked about the support staff. What's that been like for you from moving from that D two to D one level? For those that don't understand the difference? Some of the biggest things are, at the D2 level, your scholarship amount is a lot less Cal State San Marcos. I had three scholarships. So there was no such thing as a full ride. If I get 5, 000, that was like me giving them my car. How many kids do you carry on your roster? Just so we at Cal State San Marcos, we were anywhere from 22 to 24 and only three rides. that you had to break up. break those up into doll State University, there i that anybody is getting. just I was being able to their cost of tuition and maybe, yes, maybe depending upon the family's, financial situation. And and then they got to get housing in San Diego in North County, San Diego, which is not cheap. But it was me explaining and being honest with families. This is what we have, and this is what we can do. And, if that meant that something came up and I could find 500 bucks to help give a kid at a semester, I would do that and they would, jump for that. So you definitely have less scholarship money. Now I was playing against some division twos that were fully funded, and they had the 7. 2. We went my last year at San Marcos, we go play Western Washington at Western Washington. I'm laughing with Cheryl. Cause I'm like, you should beat us. You have twice as many scholarships as we do, that, that was just lower tuition, right? I was fundraising basically for team travel, for bats, for, just all those things. Anything that the team was getting, we basically were fundraising for, and for me as a coach, I wasn't hitting up our parents and saying, Hey, we need 500 per like we weren't doing that. It was trying to find things other ways. I was fortunate in my time there to be able to meet some people who were really big supporters of the program and wanted to get behind that. The biggest thing I tried to do at San Marcos was never make the girls feel that like they just I just want you to come and play and I'll take all this other stuff. I had one assistant coach, he was part time he was, he started off as halftime and then my last year he got up to point seven five. So he was not even able to work 40 hours a week. Staff was small. The athletic department was small. You had a lot of people who were absolutely willing to help in any way that they could, but, it was them and 300 student athletes. Instead of, being here at, the University of Montana, I've got, I have an athletic trainer who travels with us. Our athletic trainer did not travel with us at the D2 level. Our athletic trainer is at every practice. She's available and she only has one other team with us. That's really nice for our players to be able to go in anytime they need to and get that. We have, our academic services here. We have three ladies who work in academic services at Cal State San Marcos. We had one gentleman who worked in academic services, but he also had seven other titles. So being able to get into him was tough, especially when you're going to register for classes and do those types of things. Both places have priority registration for classes, which is great because you need that. Here are weight room and our strength coach, our weight room here can compete with any power five weight room at Cal State San Marcos. I made that thing sound amazing, but we you were working out outside with six squat racks and it was. You have to see people working out in there to understand people can work out in there. At Cal State San Marcos, there was one strength coach for all the teams. Here, we have four strength coaches on staff, so it's divided up, for, when we can go, we were always traveling by bus at the D2 level, but our conference was all in the state of California. Every other year we'd have to do a fly and then drive up to humble. Cause it's at the very top and we were at the very bottom of California. So your travel is a little bit different, right? The D2 level is regionalized for post season. So there's always going to be one team out of the West. You're never going to cross bracket. It's super regionals where at the division one level, we do some regionalization, but then when you get to the NCAA tournament, it's not there's only one team from the West. That's going to make it, or only one team from a conference is going to make it. That's not how it is. So the championships are set up a little bit differently. More people attend the games here. And we had good attendance at Cal State San Marcos. I think the facilities here at the University of Montana are unreal. The softball field is awesome and we've got our own indoor that has four K tunnels that you can pull back and have a full infield. We just opened up a bubble so we can have a full. We could do everything we need to in there for the weather, There you go, 28th. That's freezing, but it's not that cold. It's not that cold. It really isn't. I live in Denver, Colorado. There's people outside with shorts on today. And in fact, I was looking at the extended forecast and like the day that we might have our first practice, it's going to be 40 degrees outside. my dad was asking me, he's you guys didn't go outside. I was like, no, are you kidding me? Simon's 40 degrees. I was like, if we have a game and I'll go out there in that, I was like, we're going to be in a climate controlled environment of our bubble. And of our indoor, as we do that, which is no different than any Northern school. A big fan of the division two model. It's life in the balance division two, just a couple other things. I'll note 15 hours in the fall. Is the max with a mandatory two days off. Yes. 20 hours with one day off when you're in your championship segment. So That's full time. That's three hour practices, right? Yeah. Six days a week. Absolutely. Definitely a little bit of a different time commitment. the 15 hours in the fall is tough. As a coach, because that also includes your strength and conditioning. So if you're lifting three times a week, then you have 12 hours of practice at the D two level, which, you know, that, that can really start to be interesting. Yeah. D2 though, now it's a great rule for them, that their coaches can give lessons, so that's going to really help at the D2 level because I think you'll be able to see more programs have more assistant coaches because they can supplement by being able to give lessons. That wasn't a thing, when I was at the D2 level, that was a new rule that just changed, they couldn't be of a PSA age and you could give lessons to them, so that's a great thing for D2. The division one level, the budget is bigger. There's more support staff. You're going to travel a lot more. Like for us, we're going to travel the first six weeks of the season. We're going to leave every Thursday at six in the morning. We're going to come back every Sunday at midnight. So the travel is intense. You have a recruiting budget now, right? I do. Oh yeah. When I was at San Marcos, I could be at hunting to be sports complex from my house in an hour and 10 minutes. So that was nice. But it also meant I would just jump in my car and go recruiting all the time. Now it's, I gotta, we're planning. We've got to make a trip, in a flight. Although this summer I plan on probably living in SoCal for at least a month, just because of how I like to recruit and do camps. Yeah. It just makes sense. Why wouldn't you? Yeah, absolutely. And so many teams too, from these areas are going and traveling there to be able to play and get, in, at Cal State San Marcos, I really only recruited, California kids. We had a couple kids from out of state, but that was very uncommon. We're here, at the University of Montana. We can recruit kids from anywhere. We're a WUE school, so we really focus on those WUE states, which is Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, because basically, Is that in state tuition then for those kids? Yeah, it's really close. Really close to that? Okay. But here you have to be a 3. 9 to be able to get that, which is a lot. Wow! Yes. all right, kids, Are you listening? Gotta have a 3. 9. So that doesn't mean that we won't recruit kids from Louis states because we certainly will. But the Louie is a big deal. If someone can get that, because it really reduces the cost. It takes tuition down from basically 30, 000 down to 8, 000 if you're a WUI kid. So that's a big deal. And so if you've got two kids, one's got a three, nine, and one's got a three, four from those States and you love them both, your first offers going to the three, nine. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That was something that I didn't really need to worry about at the D two level when I was coaching, because the amount of money that we could give was little. And then out of state, for me, I was like, you, The cost is what the cost is. There's nothing I can do about it. So definitely, more recruiting, as far as, I would say this, I thought I was getting a lot of emails at Cal state San Marcos to get 200 a day recruiting. If I don't look at my email one day, it's Mount Everest times two. recruiting's changed, right? Everybody's sending you a video. They're also messaging you all the time on Instagram and on X. I want to make sure I say the right name and not Twitter, because I'm old if I say Twitter. I'm with it if I say X. I've accepted the old. I can't go to X. I know it sounds weird to me, but there's just, there's so many ways and so many contact points that people are reaching out to you, to be able to, try to get in front of you. And, in a sense, we're talking on the recruiting talk, I'll say this for current student athletes, recruiting is changing, right? Every day. It's also changing every day for the coaches. We're sitting here and roster limits are looming, we're waiting for the house settlement to make some decisions on if players are going to get paid. And there's going to be a trickle down effect with that for all levels. I'm sitting here wondering if I'm going to have a roster limit. And what that's gonna do. I know everybody thinks, Oh, 25 softball players on a team and they're all gonna get full rides. That is a myth. That's not going to happen. There is going to be about this many schools in the country that can afford to do that. So what you could end up seeing is people have a roster limits. And then that means that people like, let's say a school has 30 kids on their team, but they have a roster limit of 25. That means five kids that are currently on a school aren't going to be on that team anymore. And there's a trickle down with that. He got his junior college years back by a judge. So could you imagine if six months from now, every junior college kid who's used two years of eligibility now gets that eligibility back. That hasn't happened. That was very much so a one off for him, but that could be, the trend, which means if you're a high school player right now, that just means the pot of who's available is getting bigger and bigger. you've seen it with the transfer portal, right? You've seen some programs who are basically only recruiting from the transfer portal, which has really slowed down recruiting. Shoot, six years ago, right? Every eighth grader in the country was verbally committing and they wanted to slow down recruiting, which recruiting has slowed down now with the new rules. But now with the transfer portal, you just. You don't know, what's gonna happen, and, there's so much unknown. I'm sitting here, and I'm like, okay, so if we have roster limits I'm really concerned that this is going to happen. I have my end of the season meetings, my seniors graduate. Let's say I have 20 kids returning and I have five freshmen coming in. So I'm at 25, right? And then let's say a pitcher goes into the transfer portal. And I'm like, I really need a pitcher. Six, two thrown 70 mile an hour, right? Let's go to the country weather, right? You cou Missoula. Yeah. And it's options. Number one, can I'm at my roster limit or to call one of the kids w coming back or coming her I'm going to go after the is some major stuff that And it has to be figured out for everybody and nobody knows the answers to these right now And you don't even know what's going to happen with title nine with everything that's going on with all this you know the thing I just want to put out there to everybody is it's unsettling. Yep. It's uneasy for everyone. And if you are someone who's trying to get recruited my Advice to you is you do you and you keep working and you cannot let these outside factors You bother you. Because they're out of your control. Completely out of your control. You have to keep doing what you're doing. I'm a big proponent of if you find a program that you really you should go to their camp. Get in front of them. Go see that campus. That doesn't mean families go to 10 camps, because that's really expensive. If you have two or three schools you're really interested in, go to their camp. Get in front of them. Ask questions. If you're talking to coaches and you're talking to them on the phone and you have questions about this stuff ask them You know someone could ask me i'm going to give them the same answer that I just gave you about What's happening in recruiting because it's always changing. And you have to project the unknown so you might have to say, you know That 25 number is going to be a hard cap. we're only going to lock in 23 kids because we need to go into the spring knowing that if there's somebody out there that we want, we've got to have that space. We've got to have that scholarship. Exactly. And, there's. It's just, it's so crazy because we just, we don't know. And so we are trying to project, like I'm looking right now, because we're bringing a ton of kids in next year, as just part of getting things rolling here, and we're graduating six seniors. But, when I came and took this job, I was like, hey, I'm recruiting the 25 class at the same time, just with how, Everything works with September 1st. And keep an eye on 27 and another eye on 28 while you're going through it. You have to. But now I'm like if we have a roster limit, I'm like, maybe the amount of 2026s I think I can bring in is less. than what I thought originally, so you're just you're like, okay, if this happens, then this is what I'm going to do, and if this happens, then this is what I'm going to do, and you have to be prepared for about 17 different scenarios, all while you've got people who are very stressed trying to get recruited, because let's face it, Anybody right now who's a junior or senior in high school is very stressed because they feel like they should know where they're going to school and they don't, and it's really stressful for them and for their families. And you want to talk about how we talked about earlier. That people have to be in a good spot in order to perform well. Can you imagine how many kids are out there right now? So stressed because they have this weight on their shoulders of this expectation of, I should know where I'm going. How do you think they're going to perform? Every time they go out and play when they have that weight on their shoulders. We're asking so much of them and it's, it is so hard. It's why you see so many kids not continuing with sports. And, for me as a coach, I think the biggest thing that we have to remind every student athlete with who's at the recruiting age is you play because you love it, not because you want to go play in college because you're leaving it up to somebody else. You play because you love the game and whatever is going to happen is going to happen. There are so many levels. It doesn't have to be the Division 1 level. Division 2, NAIA, Junior College, Division 3. There are so many options out there. As long as you love the game and you're playing for the love of the game, you're going to be able to find your spot. And maybe that spot is You don't play at the next level, but then at least, when you're hanging it up, you're hanging it up because you loved it. And it was on your terms and you're not leaving it up to somebody else. And I think there's way too many families out there that are, leaving their happiness on someone else instead of just go play, just play. Don't worry about who's at the game and just, just go play. I can't tell you how many times I've had a colleague call me and say, you need to go watch this kid. And I'm like, okay. And guess what? That kid never saw this university show up at that game, but I trust that person. And I'm like, all right, you know what? I will go swing by and watch that kid. That happens all the time. Coaches talk all the time, just because you have a great game and you don't think anybody's there. That's not true. You never know who's watching. And i'll pull up on my phone the game and pull up game tracker you know who's up and be like oh who hit that who struck her out? That kind of stuff happens all the time us When you got the sickness like I do for softball, that's, that's what happened. You sit in your car, like all of a sudden, what game is that? What field? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Let me check that out. And I was notorious for never wearing my school colors. I didn't want to be pestered. I didn't want people wondering who I was. I just wanted to go watch the kid play. I liked them. I was going to stick around and talk to the coach and the kid. If I didn't want that kid to ever know that I made a decision or I, there was something that I didn't like. I didn't want to hurt their confidence. And I don't think parents get that, there's people watching all the time. Coach, I know you got to go to a meeting. This has been. I may have to convince you to do a part two because this has been so good. I could talk to you all day about this stuff. Real quickly, two quick questions. You just took a D1 job. You're in staff meetings for the last six months. We've got changes to roster caps, scholarship caps, NLI, NIL, portal. What is the messaging from your AD and your president? about how you guys should be perceiving all this. Is it patience? Is it, hey, here's the facts. Here's how we're going to handle the National Letter of Intent. Here's how we're going to do this. And. What is the message that you're getting from the people above you? A lot of it right now is that it's at the conference level. So your conference in the schools and your conference are probably all going to be doing the same thing. You don't have anything definitive yet. Our ADs came in and talked to me and has asked me, he's like, how would you feel if we had a 25 person limit? And I'm like, I would feel like I wish I knew this. It's a long time ago, but if that's what we're going to do and we're going to, go into the revenue share and see what's going to happen, then, just tell me what I need to do so that I can start to leave my program that way. it does sound though, like for us in the big sky conference that we will all either do it or not do it in, so it's a fair playing field, the scholarship thing. I know this, if we go to 25, I'm not getting 25 scholarships. My scholarship number is staying the same. So I think a lot of it right now is weather the storm, continue to do what you do day in and day out. And when the change comes and we have the hard decisions and the facts, and when they come, we will let you know. But for now, it is, I'm getting ready to have my first practice January 12th. Our first game is, in February and we're going down to GCU. And those are the things that I'm worried about. I'm continuing to have conversations with the recruits. I'm not changing how I'm recruiting. But we're having those conversations of things may change. And That may mean that I'm not making any more offers at this time. I may just be continuing that relationship, but I'll tell them why, not because I'm dragging my feet and I don't want you to be here, but I don't want to have to, make an offer and then have to retract it, because of things that may happen. So I don't know how many coaches are going to lead with that type of integrity. I'd like to think it would be a hundred percent, but I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of coaches that are going to dodge and duck instead of confront. Yeah. It's uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable to sit in this seat. And, I certainly don't want to, make an offer and then take it away because you want to talk about ripping the rug out from a family. It's heartbreaking. Yeah. And it does happen. it could happen in a large amount, with everything that's on the table, our scholarship contract now, our scholarship agreement, that's what has replaced the national letter of intent. And those went out, in November, those are very similar to what they were before. And just as far as the language and everything that was in it, it just no longer has the N I L, up on the top. So our scholarship agreements are very much so the same, but I've heard that there are some schools. that are putting language in their scholarship agreement, that if there is a roster limit that, that is put into effect by the NCAA, that all of this is null and void. I would just say, the thing you can learn with that is to read those agreements very carefully and to ask questions. And, again, that's not the coach putting that in, that could just be the school putting it in or the conference putting it in. It's all right. But, I think a lot of things are going to change between now and when summer recruiting really opens up for softball in June. We'll have a lot more answers, you're going to see a huge shuffle, but, I still believe what I said earlier is you just have to stay true to you. And know that there's so many good options out there and holy cow there are so many great junior college options out there like that is not a bad option. It's a great option so many of your states you can go to JC for free. For two years and then be able to transfer instead of going somewhere and racking up a ton of debt. So please do your homework. There's great junior colleges all across the country who placed kids into the Division One, Division Two, NAIA, D3 level after they've gotten their AA and there's just so many options. I just can't stress enough, how great JUCO is for so many people. And it's not a step down. It's a great way to prepare you, for what you need. And financially, it could make really good sense for a lot. I typically ask you to give me one piece of significant advice to give my families, but you've given me an hour of it. So I'm not going to make you come up with something new. It's been a whirlwind of an education for me, coach. I'm so thankful that you and I got to talk. I'm so impressed. I'm going to be a huge Grizzlies fan. Moving forward, anything I can do to support your program, you've got me as a fan and as a supporter. just thankful that we have you in the world coaching. You're the epitome of what I call significant coaching and, just impressed. Thank you for joining me today and being who you are. Hey, thanks for having me and go Grizz. That wraps up this episode of Significant Coaching with Matt Rogers. A huge thank you to Steph Ewing, head softball coach at the University of Montana, for her grace, her leadership, and her mission to be a truly significant coach. If you enjoyed the conversation, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us bring more meaningful content to coaches and athletes everywhere. If you're looking to take your recruiting to the next level, you can schedule a recruiting strategy session with me, purchase my book, or even book me to speak at your school organization. Just head over to CoachMattRogers. com to learn more. Until next time, take care and stay inspired.