Kerry Edwards is the Assistant Women’s Soccer Coach at the University of North Alabama. North Alabama is a NCAA DI institution that is located in Florence, AL up on the Northwestern part of the state near the Tennessee border.  Fun fact: they moved from DII to DI after the 2017 season.  North Alabama is a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference or ASUN along with Florida Gulf Coast University, Lipscomb University, Liberty University and University of North Florida. 

Kerry was a standout Goalkeeper at the Dallas Baptist before moving onto coaching at Southwest Oklahoma State. She worked at the high school level as well as multiple divisions at the college level. Transitioning the North Alabama team from DII to DI and finding success has helped to shape her coaching style and is a big part of her coaching background. Throughout our chat we discuss things that make DI unique but also how many divisions can offer up a positive experience. She digs into some tips to stay physically and mentally active during this COVID shut down and discusses what makes a team most successful. Kerry also shares a fun story about a successful team she’s coached and the challenges and positives that they’ve faced during those times. 

Coach:

Kerry Edwards

Topic 1: Kerry’s Coaching Background:

Kerry began thinking that college coaching could be a good career during college. Unfortunately, her ma wasn’t on board until the 2015 Women’s National Team gave her a little assist. Kerry talks more about how she got her start and how she ended up at North Alabama.

Topic 2: Challenging Aspects to Collegiate Coaching:

In this clip, Kerry talks about some of the challenging aspects of coaching and what she’s done to work through those challenges.

Topic 3: Rewarding Aspects within Collegiate Coaching:

Some of the most rewarding parts for Kerry is to see players grow throughout their 4-5 years and do great things like move onto Med school or get careers that they have worked for throughout college.

Topic 4: Why Does Kerry Think DI is Unique?

Having played and coached at the DII level as well, Coach Edwards talks about some things that make DI unique and it boils down to the thoughts that there are no “easy teams” because the competition level is strong.

Topic 5: Tips to Staying Physically Fit in Your Off Season/Downtime:

Coach Edwards talks about all the resources out there on the web that can assist in keeping you active during this time.

Topic 6: Tips to Staying Mentally Active in your Off Season/Downtime:

Top tips from Coach Edwards on what you can do to keep yourself mentally prepared during this time which includes a routine or schedule to stay on top of things. She also has another strong tip that any athlete can utilize.

Topic 7: Recruiting Tips and Suggestions:

Kerry shares some strong tips to keep the recruiting process going and keeping communication with coaches. She shares a few other tips that athletes from freshman to seniors can utilize.

Topic 8: Coaching Story of Success:

Coach Edwards talks about her 2018 season as the first season moving from DII to DI. She gives some insight into what made that a fun year and how they continued to grow including what made that team fun.

Topic 9: Finding Success: Mental Toughness vs Talent:

Kerry shares her opinion on what made her most successful teams...most successful! She talks about the mental toughness of the players as well as the talent that allowed them to be successful. Listen to her thoughts here!

Kerry's wisdom and experience has allowed her to have such a success career on and off the field. Her advice on all things soccer and success will surely make a difference in any athlete. 

Jess Gregory  

Hello, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me today. I have coach Kerry Edwards with me from the University of North Alabama. How are we doing today? Kerry? I'm pretty good. How are you? Not too bad now to get I'm stuck at home which is a it's been a challenge but what it is right? Yep, absolutely. How are things with you and being stuck at home?

Kerry Edwards  

Um, they're, they're not too bad. I think I feel like I'm doing my part by staying at home and trying to, you know, keep it from spreading and that way I can get back to Season and Season The girls and what we like to do every day. So

Jess Gregory  

awesome. Absolutely. All right, well, we'll go ahead and get started because I want to learn some more about you as a coach. Um, so if you want to tell us how you got into college coaching and you can start from wherever you started your your coaching career.

Kerry Edwards  

And so I would say when I was about a sophomore in college, my freshman year winning it and I really wanted to be a physical therapist that requires Really, really good grades all kinds of extra hours and about a semester and I was like, Oh, I don't know if I can. I'm going to get into PT school. So I may want to rethink what I'm doing. And I had a really, really great college coach, Michelle Leonard, and she, you know, I just really saw her as a role model. So my sophomore year, I kind of decided like, oh, wow, like, I think I want to coach and I told my mom and Mom, I want to be a soccer coach. And she said, Carrie, there is no career in women's college soccer for you. Like, that's not a viable career. Now, I was like, Well, I think I'm gonna do it anyway. So flash forward a little bit. And when I was a senior and the 2015 World Cup happened in the US women one and there was all this press and publicity. My mom was like, Hey, you know what I actually think maybe, you know, coaching is a cool career. And so shout out to the US women's national team for making my mom believe that I could actually go So, yeah, I decided to get into coaching because I loved the game. And I've had a lot of really good positive coaches. And so I wanted to maybe be that for somebody.

Jess Gregory  

Nice. Awesome. Well, it sounds like it's worked out for you so far. And yeah, shout out to the national team for helping you out there. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. So since you've been doing this for a little bit now, can you tell me what one of the most challenging parts of coaching has been for you?

Kerry Edwards  

I would say that, like, when other people ask me about coaching, and they're there, they're like, oh, wow, it's probably a great job you just coached the game is and then you just like kick your feet up all spring and, and do whatever. And so I think there's a lot more traveling, recruiting those types of things. But I think what people also don't see is that when parents send their kids to come play for us or for any school, they're entrusting us to you know, help guide them and so, sometimes being there for the student athletes The off the field things are some of the biggest challenges we see, you know, helping players through significant events in their life is probably the bigger challenge than than the on the field stuff. So I would definitely say that is something that most people don't really think about, but is a big part of our jobs.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, absolutely. On the flip side of that, then what has been the most rewarding part for you? And it can even be combined with the most challenging part.

Kerry Edwards  

Yeah, so yeah, sometimes seeing the girls through some of those events is is rewarding at the end. But I think one of my favorite things is when the girls graduate and they're in the career that they love, and then they come back and they're, you know, successful and you know, so I think, like I said, seeing them kind of fulfill their dreams later. It's great seeing players achieve their their goals on the field, but really like kind of their life goals at the end of day they come they play, they get their education and they they have something that they want to do like I wanted to be a soccer Coach some of them. I've seen girls go on to med school into things like that. And that's really, really fun to see.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, it's awesome. Well, it's definitely kind of like a teacher, right? You guys are helping to guide these these girls and guys in that next chapter of their life. So it's pretty great that you can do that for a living.

Kerry Edwards  

Yeah, yeah, we watch him grow up a lot in there four or five years. They can play. Yeah, absolutely.

Jess Gregory  

All right. Well, that being said, I'm kind of curious as to what you think makes Division One unique. I'm not sure if you did other divisions, but if you can kind of give us your thoughts on what you think makes playing division one soccer cool or unique or however you'd like to

Kerry Edwards  

I actually played Division Two level and I've coached at both division one and two. And I think something that's, that's great about the division one level is is also kind of a challenge as a coach, and now there is no there are no easy wins. There are no easy games. It's when you're in conference, when you're Out of conference, every game was not given. And so you're having to prepare the team and prepare, you know, scouting reports and do all those things really meticulously there is not a game that you can be like, Oh, it's okay. We don't have to worry about that one. That's an easy team, like, you know, as a whole, it's very physical, very competitive. So, you know, just the competition level every day and in kind of dealing with them.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. Awesome. All right now all of us are at home or we should be right. We're kind of staying away from the issues out there in the world right now. So are there any tips that you could offer to the players that are at home, to stay physically active while they're there?

Kerry Edwards  

Yeah, for sure, I think. And I think I've said you can learn anything on YouTube. You can learn how to speak a different language you can learn to play an instrument. There is so much on YouTube out there if you have three yards of space. There. Probably a YouTube video that you can get a ball and do XYZ with if you can get out and go for a run, you know, do your hour of exercise or whatever get in your backyard, use your little sister to pass, find a wall find, you know, your dad or whatever I think can be using those little resources and then finding maybe a YouTube video, some kind of skills challenge. So I think there's kind of no excuse if if you're looking and you want to get better, like the best players are going to get better right now. Whether they don't even have a soccer ball and they have to like, you know, be resourceful or whatever. So,

Jess Gregory  

yeah, awesome. Can you give us some tips for how they can stay mentally prepared? Because I know it's probably easy to not have a routine sleep in all day. So we'll see. Yeah. first couple days. Yeah, there. Yeah,

Kerry Edwards  

yeah. Yeah, like you said, I think getting getting a piece of paper and In physically writing out a schedule, okay at 10am I'm gonna have already been up and had my breakfast, you know, 1030 I'm gonna watch a soccer game and maybe think about the player who's playing my position and watch what they're doing. You know, maybe at noon, I'm going to do 30 minutes of ball work. It doesn't have to be a lot, but just getting out and getting with the ball. And then, you know, like I said, planning your day, maybe 1pm you go for a run or whatever that looks like so just sticking to your schedule, and then do I think, you know, it's really really healthy. Like you said, from mentally like, keep a diary keep right right to how you're feeling, right? How this quarantines affecting you get that out on, you know, get that out on paper, I think is super healthy to do as well.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, absolutely. So kind of the first tips that I've heard from that about journaling and just kind of keeping your feelings in check, because it's such a crazy time and it's unprecedented, but we're all in it together. So I have those great tips for those kids. With that being said, recruiting is kind of on a weird halt at this point. So can you give some tips it doesn't necessarily have to just be seniors but for the kids that are at home now, some general tips that they can keep that recruiting process rolling.

Kerry Edwards  

Yeah, coaches, I mean, they're still looking. And we can't go out to, to watch games. And so we're still reading our emails and still looking at video. So put together old video put together old highlights. keep in contact with those coaches as much as you can. You're not bugging them. They literally have nothing else to do but sit at their computer and read your emails and watch your videos. So you know, if you're looking for a place to play, and you know you're willing to put in the work in a bit of effort to reach out and to put those things together. I think you know, you will find something for sure because coaches are looking.

Jess Gregory  

Absolutely. Is there any tips For if they don't have any video for some reason, maybe they're like younger kids, is that okay? That they can't send those things over?

Kerry Edwards  

Yeah, absolutely, if they're, if they're younger just kind of getting on coach's radars telling them a little bit about yourself include your high school coaches email or your club coaches email and maybe even have one of them write a letter you know, kind of endorsing you as a player or just you know, let them know you can reach out to my club coach and ask them a little bit about me since I don't have film and you know, as soon as we get back up to playing I'll send you my schedule and so you can come watch him you know, play in person.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, awesome. Now with that also being said, I feel like seniors are probably freaking out right now, especially if they haven't signed with anyone yet or don't really have that next step set up. In general, can you maybe ease their minds a little bit on on what they can keep doing here because obviously staying in contact, but you know, they might be worried that Little bit.

Kerry Edwards  

Yeah, be persistent. And keep your head up, there's a place for every single player to play, you will find it, the right door will open up when it's supposed to, and it'll be a good fit for you. Just keep emailing those coaches and keep your head up and stay positive, you'll find somewhere, every coach, you know, we're on recruiting hold. So eventually we won't be in we'll be able to talk and you'll find somewhere but you know, the coaches, they're not like okay, shutting it down forever. So it'll happen, just

Jess Gregory  

give it a little bit of time. So basically, you want them to stay consistent and reach out and also try to stay as active as possible. Absolutely. Yep. Awesome. All right, let's switch gears just a little bit and kind of talk about some successes that you have had at your coaching level. Two, tell me about a time when you had a really successful team Just kind of fun fun story about one that's off the top of your head maybe?

Kerry Edwards  

Yeah, so in our 2018 season was the first ever division one season for us. So we transitioned from Division Two to division one. And we actually made it all the way to our conference tournament championship game, which was really really fun for us and the girls just in ourselves, we didn't know what to expect making that jump as a team, you know, we were like, Okay, are we going to be able to step up or are we going to kind of have a year where we you know, struggle and in the girls like the team chemistry and just like every game was on it, like the girls just had brought energy and we had a lot of fun and and i think that led to some work success is that like, we didn't know what to expect, but you know, we just got up and went and challenged and we were like, hey, okay, we can fit in this division one level made it all the way to our final and had a really like I said, we had fun team traveling and it was 20 2018 for us was Really funnier.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. Well, that sounds awesome. So yeah, so you've only been in Division One then for two years going in. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Cool. Did you see a kind of interesting transition with the kids wanting to go from division to division one? Was there any sort of like, ah, Gary, I don't want to do this.

Kerry Edwards  

Yeah, I think, I think even as coaches, we were like, who's going into the unknown, right? Like, it's, you know, change is scary for everyone. And but I think the players, they just kind of were like, Okay, this is what we're going to do. And we're going to work and prepare our hardest harder than we've ever prepared to get ready for the unknown. And just kind of embrace the challenge and embrace the journey that we're gonna go through over the even the next four years because obviously, there's a transitional kind of period. So there's going to be growing pains and so we just kind of embrace those as a team within our team culture and you know, just grow in But yeah, we were all a little bit nervous, I'm sure. And

Jess Gregory  

I'm glad it was a smooth transition and hopefully going well for you guys. Cool. Um, now you can think of a different team for this question. But even looking at that 2018 team that did well, if you look at that success, would you attribute it more to the talent level of the the girls or the mental toughness of the girls?

Kerry Edwards  

So I think it's, you can't have one without the other. I think in order to win games, you have to have talent, especially at the level that we play in every day in every, you know, day in and day out. If we have really mentally tough girls, we're gonna hang in a lot of games. But, you know, to win and be successful at a really high level, you have to have that mental toughness, and that talent. That being said, if you have the talent, but you don't have the mental toughness, you kind of have a ceiling. So combining those two together, really kind of let's go reached what, you know a much, much higher level than than they would with just one or the other. And I definitely said I typically coach goalkeeper so the mental side of goalkeepers is like massive if you have a really really talented goalkeeper, but they're like, excuse my language but a mental basket case, right? They're not going to be as they're not gonna be as successful. So you want to you know, you have to do some mental training alongside that training to help them reach their their top.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, it really does kind of depend on the team and and hopefully, they can combine both of those together. I always like coaches think that's a trick question, but I really just like your guys's thoughts on on what makes a mix that success? So I really appreciate those answers there. 

Kerry Edwards  

I think as well. If you have that kind of grit in that mental side, you're going to gain talent as well. So That will push you to grow as a player.

Jess Gregory  

Nice. Kind of a nice circle there, right? Yeah. Absolutely. Alrighty, Kerry Well, I really appreciate you sitting down and chatting with us today. Um, hopefully you give some some great tips for some kids out there and they take that to heart and kind of run with it. But we appreciate you sitting down and I will see youlater. 

Kerry Edwards  

Thank you so much.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai