Nate Lie is the head coach for women’s soccer at Xavier University. Xavier University is located in Cincinnati, OH and is a NCAA Division I institution. Xavier University is a member of the Big East Conference alongside other schools such as: Georgetown, Butler, and Villanova. 

Nate Lie came to Xavier in 2017. His second season with Xavier as head coach (2018), Lie led Xavier in a break-through season, with the Musketeers posting a 10-8-3 record. The Musketeers' .548 winning percentage in 2018 marked the first winning record for the program since 2013. Xavier's 10 wins in 2018 were the most for the program since 2003's 12-win season.

Nate has an abundance of experience coaching at all levels. In this interview Nate shares his best tips for athletes to stay active physically and mentally during this pandemic, recruiting tips, and his do’s and don’ts for communicating with coaches. He also shares with us his 'Mount Rushmore' of Soccer. Lastly, Nate shares some of his favorite coaching stories from successful moments as a team, to laughable moments. Enjoy!

Coach:

Nate Lie: Head Coach for Women’s Soccer at Xavier University.

Topic 1: Tips on Staying Active:

Nate says the biggest advice he would give high school athletes right now is the same advice his players at Xavier are following: to do the best you can. He recommends players do the best they can and get creative with their workouts. He also encourages athletes to share their workouts with each other and to take advantage of motivational workout apps. 

Topic 2: Tips on Staying Mentally Prepared:

Nate reminds players that it is okay to struggle during this time and encourages players to not run away from their problems, but try to make the best of the situation currently. He also encourages athletes to work on self improvement and set goals they want to achieve in the next 30 to 60 days.

Topic 3: Recruiting Tips:

Nate’s biggest recruiting tip is for athletes not to panic or stress about the recruitment process. Nate says coaches are going to keep in touch with athletes during this time. but they are not going to make any decisions right now. Nate suggests that when this is over athletes should use every opportunity they can to get coaches to watch them play at events such as camps and club games. 

Topic 4: Do’s and Don’ts When Communicating with Coaches:

Nate’s biggest “do” for coach communication is for athletes to get creative and make yourself stand out to coaches. He says that he has received a few videos from athletes showing him how they are staying in shape during this time, which has caught his eye. He also recommends adding some personal information about yourself, while including information specific to the school you are in contact with. 

Topic 5: Success - Talent or Mental Toughness?

Nate says he believes the most successful teams have both, however if he had to pick he would say that mental toughness is the key to success. Nate has coached 11 seasons and 3 championship teams. He says that the one thing all these teams had in common was their incredible teamwork and sacrifice, along with having some great players. 

Topic 6: Mount Rushmore of Soccer:

Nate’s picks for his 'Mount Rushmore of Soccer' is Cristiano Ronaldo, Eric Cantona, Zinedine Zidane, and Brazillian Reynaldo. Nate’s second pick, Eric Cantona, was chosen due to his unapologetic personality. Zinedine Zidane because Nate would like to be the kind of player he is. 

Topic 7: Coach in 100 degrees or 30 degrees?

Nate says he would prefer to coach in 100 degree weather because he hates coaching/ playing in the cold weather. It is better to sweat, rather than have players unable to feel their body.

Topic 8: Favorite Coaching Story:

Nate says one of his favorite moments of coaching was from this year, they won the regular season big east championship and played in the conference final against Georgetown, who was just coming off the final four from the previous year. They ended up beating Georgetown 2-0. Nate says the best part of the game for him was the second half of the game, where he saw his team stay disciplined and mentally tough throughout the entire game. 

Topic 9: Not Top 5 Moments:

Nate has a player on his team currently who is a great athlete, and thinks she will go pro. During a game against Seton Hall, she went to kick a ball, but ended up completely missing it and falling backwards. Someone ended up finding the clip and posting it in the team group chat, and eventually uploading it to her social media. The video ended up being shared by her friend who's a very popular player and ended up getting a lot of attention online.

Staying physically active with the limited resources at this time, can be challenging and less motivating. With Nate Lie's tips and tricks, it is important to not lose hope and think of the long term picture. 

Full Transcript:

Jess Gregory  

All right, everybody. Thanks for joining me today. I have Nate Lee from Xavier. How are we doing today? Nate?

Nate Lie  

Doing great. Just hanging out my minivan doing a little shout while the kids are running around outside.

Jess Gregory  

Perfect. It looks like it's nice and sunny at least I don't know if it's warm out there.

Nate Lie  

It was it was we took a little trip up north like an hour to just get out in the open and it cooled down and the wind picked up. Sunny skies, sun blue, sunny skies. That's nice.

Jess Gregory  

Can't beat that for sure. How else is everything else going? You're doing all right in lockdown.

Nate Lie  

Yeah, well, I mean, we have we have three little kids. So three, five and seven years old. And that presents a challenge. Particularly on like the cold rainy days. So those days we really try to keep them busy with schoolwork and, and and then these nice days we try to get out as much as we can just stay away from people and all three all three of our kids have Learn to ride bikes without training wheels in the last month. Oh, nice. Yeah. So that's the fun thing right now.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, exactly. See, there are some positives. So this for sure, exactly. Now, let's kind of talk a little bit about some players that are at home and what they can do to stay active. So you said that your kids get to run around and ride bikes and such. What are some tips you have for these high school kids that you know need to stay active at the time?

Nate Lie  

I think that the tips I would pass along to anyone high school aged or younger or older, is very similar to what our players and Savior are currently doing. And that's, that's essentially just the best they can and you know, everyone has a different situation. Some people are lucky enough to have fields in their backyard or home gyms. Other people live in apartments and can't really get open space and all we tell our players is just do the best you can be creative. A lot of the best workouts and solutions that we've got Seen have come from other players sharing with each other. So if you can get a little bit of open space, you can be productive. And that you don't have to worry about being in tip top shape right now. Yeah. And when people resume playing, and hopefully that soon, there'll be a period of a climatization. And getting back to soccer speed, but just get on a ball as much as you can try some tricks, or pick up a couple moves that you wouldn't have time for otherwise, like, be creative. Get on YouTube. And then I think like now they're there. He's running apps that can kind of motivate you while you're running. I think peloton and Nike have free ones going on right now. Yeah, I just found out yesterday. Have you heard about this zombie app?

Jess Gregory  

No, I have it. 

Nate Lie  

Okay. So there's an app you can download that when you're running. You can use Hear, like, in the distance, zombies coming after you. And if you slow down, it gets louder. And if you slow down a lot, they start like, chasing you and potentially eating you. So our players have had a fun time with it. Yeah. Just trying to avoid the zombies. And so I think, you know, in these times that it's not perfect and, and everyone's struggling to some extent, I think it's also an opportunity for creativity. And I know a lot of people have taken that opportunity. And so you young people, especially, I think the world small and they find things that that motivate them.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, absolutely. Now that zombie thing sounds pretty fun. I'm not a runner, but I think I might try it, anyway.

Nate Lie  

I like to think I could run a little bit and I don't know, I don't know if it's gonna scare me or not, but I'll give it a try. So I can at least have something to talk about with our team.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, absolutely. We'll have to connect later. So you can you can tell me how it went. I'll tell you out with nice All right, so now that we have some good tips for them on the physical side, do you have any tips for them on the mental side and how they can kind of stay mentally prepared during this time? Because it is just, you know, it's unprecedented and it's, it's awkward and no one knows what's going to happen. So any tips for the kids on that end?

Nate Lie  

Well, what we try to talk about is it's okay to struggle. I think it would be hard to be human and not not struggle with this. Some people are losing their senior seasons or graduation. Most good players have worked very hard for something and then have had something taken away. So we talked about not not running away from your feelings, not compartmentalizing them, talking about them, but then trying to find a solution of Alright, if these are my challenges right now or my constraints right now how can I make the best of it? And so like I said, creativity is great at this this kind of time. We Did a little activity of like, making artwork of our feelings and expressing it. And, you know, I like self improvement. Like we're not that far away from our new year's resolutions. I think this is another time where I know some of us coach on staff and some of the players have like, asked each other to help you to hold each other accountable on things they want to work on, or improve or goals to set in the next 60 days or something like that. And I know for me if I operate better when I'm working towards something, and so setting little goals or, or goals out 3060 days, I think could be real helpful.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, absolutely. Now what about on the recruiting side? So if some of these seniors maybe haven't signed yet, um, you know, or the the younger kids maybe aren't sure where to go from here because they're not with their teams and all that stuff. Can you give us some some general recruiting tips for them?

Nate Lie  

Yeah, I mean, my biggest tip right now would be not to panic and not to stress about it. I think most colleges right now have essentially shut down recruiting to a large extent. Now, like, the rules dictate that we can't go out and watch games, and we can't host people on campus. But I think we've taken it a step further, we'll keep in touch with people, but we're not making any decisions while this is happening. And because we weren't ready to make a decision beforehand, then no one's watching anything new. And so I think we're just going to take the timeline that existed and just move it back however many months. But I don't see why that's bad. You know, I think if anything that'll allow people who use this time effectively to try to improve to show it once we get back to games. And like, there's no timeline or deadline of when's the right time to commit. You know, even before any of this happened. Our device was always like, you you try to find the right fit the right school. As colleges. We're trying to find the right recruit. Yeah, it's best when it happens organically, you know, and that's still my advice. I just think the organic fit might happen a little bit later, but I don't see any, any real downside to that.

Jess Gregory  

That's good. Um, we see keeps it positive. Right. So they know that it's, it's not over yet they still have some time to figure it out.

Nate Lie  

For sure, for sure. And then once we, once we get back to action, you know, I think use the opportunities you have for for people to see you play. And so whether that's camps, the big ones like like you guys, whether it's the ID camps, whether it's their club team, their high school team, I think communication is going to be really important. And we're going to have to make decisions about who we want to play. So the more that we that we know where we're at when you're playing, the better, it'll be.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, for sure. Now, do you have any kind of fun do's and don'ts for them on the communication with coaches side because I know you have to have seen some interesting emails or gotten some interesting phone calls. So any kinds of do's and don'ts there for them? I think

Nate Lie  

I think it's similar My two my general advice is you want to within some guardrails, like, stick out, is there anything you can say or do to, to differentiate yourself from the other emails we've, we've received. I know I've received a couple videos of people what they're doing creatively, to stay sharp during this time. And honestly, we've actually, like sent some of those along to our team for ideas. You know, I think little anecdotes about what people are doing with our families to try to stay positive and stay safe and anything that's personal, personal to the recruit themselves and then personalized towards the school. It just I think it just, it makes us pay a little bit more attention.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. Well, it's definitely a good way to build a relationship too. So it's not just a one off email. You're trying to say like, this is why I want to be a part of Xavier's program. This is why you should like me, that sort of thing.

Nate Lie  

Yeah, and I think You know, if there's a dunk, and every school is different, every coach is different. I know like my situation personally is a lot different than the other coaches on staff. And so, you know, the a lot of players have wanted to schedule phone calls with me during this time because they have extra time. And like we were talking about right before this, I personally probably have less time now than I did before. Because before I had office hours where I could take phone calls now, I'm always walking away from three kids whenever my phone rings and they're chasing me around my house. So like we've adjusted a little bit of, you know, shifting some of the calls to some of the other staff and I think just being flexible like right now you just have to be flexible. Go with the flow. Do the best you can.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, those are some great tips for sure. Now, did you play in college or? I did. No.

Nate Lie  

Yeah, Yeah, I did. I played for Miami University. Okay, so the what a lot of people call Miami, Ohio. Yeah. And Interestingly enough, we actually lost our program back in the 90s to title nine. So I, I played my junior year, my first three years and I was captain of the team and then didn't get my senior year because of that. And so like now with what's happening around the country and some people kind of experiencing not getting their senior season I actually can kind of empathize and how that might feel.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, you can definitely relate then because you lost that as well. Yeah. And see it turned out perfectly fine. So

Nate Lie  

most things in life do. Do and the older you get more life experience that is under your belt, the more you realize that you can't control like, that's one thing we talk about a lot is I think people like to have control or feel like they have control and and we can we say control it you can control the controllables but I think the people who are most successful in life are able to do Just pretty quickly when something goes against plan. Yeah. And, um, you know, I had kind of a winding road to where I am now. But if I think if I would have made certain choices, which some of my teammates did when we lost our program, I'm not sure I would have the opportunity I currently have.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Now that makes me want to ask the next question here, then, um, since you did talk about overcoming adversity, if you think back on one of your most successful teams that you've had, do you think that the talent or the mental toughness stood out more?

Nate Lie  

Oh, boy, it's a tough question. I mean, I think the most successful teams are gonna have both. Um, but if I had to pick I would say mental toughness or sacrifice teamwork, those kind of things. The the intangibles. In my I've coached 11 seasons now. And I've I've coached like three championship teams at three, three different programs in three different conferences. Those three teams, the one thing they had in common was that those players, they competed. And they, they were selfless. And they they worked for each other. And they won. They consistently won those games that could have gone either way. And I think I think it was a lot because of character. Yeah. We have some really good players too.

Jess Gregory  

Right? Well, that helps. It definitely helps. But um, yeah, I think a lot of times people think oh, and I have mental toughness, you're just always zoned in but you also, you know, know your role. You want to be a good team player. You're coachable. Like those are all, you know, cases of being mentally tough as well. It's not just one specific thing. So if you can have all of that and be talented, I think you're a step ahead there.

Nate Lie  

Well, mental toughness is an everyday thing.

Jess Gregory  

Right? 

Nate Lie  

Yeah. I mean, mental toughness. You can't fake it. The old adage like it's, it's what you do when no one's watching. It's how you respond to adversity. It's how you play when you're tired. It's what happen. In response when your team goes down a goal or the opponent ties it up in the last five minutes and going back to those teams, we had those moments consistently, where we were challenged, you know, as a team or, or certain individuals like change games. Because of because them being different mentally.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, for sure. Now, I want to ask some fun questions. So we'll get away from the serious stuff here for a second. I want to know your Mount Rushmore of soccer players. So this is going to be your top for all time favorite players. And then just a little, a little tidbit on why you picked them. Okay, Mount Rushmore. Um, they're not going to be the best necessarily. Okay,

Nate Lie  

so I'm a Manchester United fan. Okay, I will try not to let that get in the way too much. But I'll start off with one at least one legend Cristiano Ronaldo. So, you know, there's the there's the debate, who's better him or Messi and that's not one I really It draws me in because they're both amazing. They're both all time greats. But I've always gravitated more to Ronaldo. And I think a big part of that was that he played for my favorite team for a stretch, but I've, I continue to choose for him cheer for him after he left. And I think the thing that stands out for about him is one is he's, he is brave and confident. And he, brazen, almost, right. So he, when he started, he was not afraid to do tricks. He was not afraid to be like, I'm the best player on the field or I think I am at 17 or 18 years old. People would kick them in for doing that kind of stuff. And you just get back up and score and like, he never had to sacrifice his own personal confidence because of age or different country or whatever it may be. He just, he had that about him. But I think the thing that is overlooked about Ronaldo is his work ethic is Legendary. You know, it's a lot like Kobe Bryant in basketball that he outworked. Everybody stayed on the training ground later, he made a commitment to his personal fitness more than more than most players. And he continues to do that, you know, into his 30s. So, I love watching Ronaldo play and he's always going to be there. I would say if I'm if I could stay with United the person who, who made me a United fan or was one of the like the most influential player when I started was Eric Cantona. Okay, that is so Cantona wore his collar popped is the guy who struck around the field as a center midfielder. And like was always always, you know, in controversy, but then always showed up and delivered at the biggest moments and like had the fans at all tried for in like the palm of his hand and score Like some ridiculous goals in the most crucial times and like, again, it's one of those people who is different is has a personality and is unapologetic, but it's not show, right? Like, yes, they back it up. So Cantona was like the front end of my united I would say, Ronaldo was kind of like through and I was like, really into my playing career. And then I would say Zenaden Zedan. Okay, another French player. He's the kind of player that I wanted to be, like, if I could, if I could be a player, it would be him. I think you'd have a certain skill set. He was so calm. The game looked so easy to him. It looked like he was just playing at once speed and everyone else was rushing. And he just kind of controlled everything. He was his skill wasn't as the show off he as others but it was just always getting out of pressure. He just he just carried himself in a certain way that that I thought was just, it just stood out. If I had to say a fourth, I'll stay away from United.

Jess Gregory  

You don't have to. I mean, it's your Mount Rushmore actually. so, um,

Nate Lie  

number four, what is your number format right now? Number four, I would say the Brazilian Ronaldo, who came back before Cristiano. And that was again when I was kind of first getting into soccer. You didn't get many games to watch. You couldn't just go watch from all the leagues in the world. So a lot of it was World Cups. And he was just like the most magnificent player I'd ever seen. Strong, talented goal score had the tricks like most Brazilians just stood out completely. And I think if he hadn't got hurt, he might be in the conversation for the best ever. So yeah, those are my four.

Jess Gregory  

Okay, nice. That's a solid Mount Rushmore for sure. I gotta tell you I've seen two Manchester United games live. So I feel like

Unknown Speaker  

there you go

Jess Gregory  

to I don't know.

Nate Lie  

Do you have a favorite?

Jess Gregory  

I don't, no. Now I just I took my I went when I studied abroad in college, so back in early 2000s and then I took my nephew's to go see them when they came to Soldier Field. Oh, nice back in like that had been like 2010 or something like that they had a friendly against the Fire. Yeah. So yeah, it was pretty cool.

Nate Lie  

Yeah, it hasn't been very fun. Being a fan for the last eight years or so. But yeah, you got to go through the bad times. friggin enjoy the good times.

Jess Gregory  

Exactly. Hey, I'm a Cubs fan. So I get it. Go through the bad times again.

Nate Lie  

I know I don't. I was trying to decide if I should say I'm an Indians fan. I'm from Cleveland. So your guys one moment of glory happen to be against my team.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. It was pretty great though. I'm not gonna lie.

Nate Lie  

I'm sure it Was Yes.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. All right. So now my next Rapid Fire question I have for you would you prefer to coach in 30 degree weather? or colder? Or 100 degree weather? And why?

Nate Lie  

Yeah, this one's easy. I would say 100 degree weather. Okay, I hate coaching in the cold. I hate playing in the cold. My feet freeze my hands freeze. And I actually liked playing in the heat. Okay, that was one of those things. I'm kind of a weirdo, but I thought I was more fit than other people. I thought it was mentally stronger. And so those games which are like games of attrition, I felt like were advantages for, for me as a player and then honestly, like, how we like to coach and the character of our team. Will will. We like those kind of games? Yeah. Or at least I do. I can't speak for the players.

Jess Gregory  

All right. Next question that I have for you. If you could think of your like, number one, top five moments of your life. I only need one though of coaching like your favorite story. Do you have that? One of those, this is gonna go on our exact top five. 

Nate Lie  

Oh, gosh, um, I would, you know, we were lucky enough and fortunate enough to win to win a couple championships this year. And after one of them like after our conference tournament, one of the coaches asked me like, how does this compare to any other moments and, and there are a lot the same, you know, like special teams. There's just something about them and so I've as a player and as a coach, but honestly more as a coach, I think I've been lucky enough to have a few special moments. I'll choose the most recent maybe the recency effect here this year. We we won the regular season biggest championship and then played in the conference final against Georgetown in the tournament, and Georgetown was just coming off the final for the previous year. So they were just like, a program we have the greatest respect for and I remember when I first started coaching at Xavier was only a couple years ago. They didn't It seemed like, you know, we could play him 100 times for 100 years and never give them a game. But we went out there and if the game was on national TV, which was the first game, I've coached on national TV, and went out there in one to zero, but like the the best part of it, for me was the second half. We were winning to nil at halftime, but we had, we'd had the wind at our back and you know, things kind of fell in our favor. But the second half, you just knew it was gonna be one of those, like on slots where you can hardly get out of your own half. And it's hard to sort of like, enjoy those moments or not just dread them and look up the clock every 30 seconds, but our team just showed like, in my opinion, and I'm hard on them like I don't give them enough credit sometimes but they just showed remarkable character like to stay disciplined and organized and selfless for 45 minutes. And like, it's one of those things that seeps into you. Like as the halfs going along that like oh my God, we might do this and then like, it just kind of culminates and you know, you I think honestly, as a coach, it's almost like now that I'm a parent, you get more satisfaction out of like watching other people that you kind of work with Get, get the reward than then getting it yourself. And it's just, it's a moment and it's also the first. This is my first head coaching job. So I don't know if that matters, but it was a really, it was a really, really cool moment.

Jess Gregory  

Nice. Okay, so you guys were underdogs. And you had the wind at your space to finish the game and came out on top.

Nate Lie  

Yeah, and it was like 45 minutes of just getting pelted like I get we I think we like connected one pass and the opponent's half in 45 minutes, but it wasn't it you know, we we executed our game plan like as much as we as much as we could against that kind of opponent didn't allow them like it wasn't one of those. We were clearing the ball off the line every 30 seconds. It was like we were doing all our job throughout the whole like field and our bench was just electric and like the way they were supporting their teammates and even like You know, it's not like we weren't a neutral site. So it's not like we have thousands and thousands of fans. But like, I think our fans appreciated the effort we were giving. Yeah. And you just, you know, you could do that and lose, but like to actually get the payoff was was fun.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah, absolutely. All right. On the flip side of that, we have our not top guy. So this is gonna be a moment where there was just something that doesn't always happen in a game and it just made you laugh or whatever it was. So that's gonna be I don't know if you're familiar with the ESPN not not top 10. Yeah. So that's kind of where we're going with this one. 

Nate Lie  

Okay. Are we allowed to use people's names or no,

Jess Gregory  

you can if you as long as you don't think they'll care?

Nate Lie  

They don't care. I don't think. So. We have a player on our team who's an awesome, awesome player. I think she's gonna end up playing Pro. All conference, all that stuff. Her name is Grace bar. And she is like, everything you like about people. She's confident. She's got a big personality. She's like the person who leads our pregame. Here. And she, you know, like she watches tons of games. Very, very skillful. And we were playing at Seton Hall, and on the far side, she wants like, kick a ball. And you know, the old like, tap it with a toe of your plant foot, and the ball goes away. And so then when you try to hit it big, you completely miss 400 your backside. So she did one of those, which I think we've all done. Yeah. The funny thing is like it was on the Big East network. So there was a pretty clear shot of it and someone found it. And in the replay, yeah, I posted it. In our like, team group me. I think grace thought it was funny. You know, she's pretty good about something self deprecating. Yeah, yeah. She posted on her social media. Well, Grace is good friends with rose Lavelle. Okay, they played together. And so we're like rose, who is now like a pretty big personality in soccer retweeted it. So like races moment that like started off, you know, a couple hundred people saw it live and maybe like expanded to like, you know a couple hundred more now I think got like thousands and thousands of hours from this for her for like plant foot tap swing this fall. And

Jess Gregory  

now I'm gonna ask if you still have that clip somewhere and want to share it I can

Nate Lie  

obviously ask Grace's permission, but I think she'd actually be up for it.

Jess Gregory  

Okay, that would be awesome, because that'll really add to thetopic. 

Nate Lie  

quite funny. All done. It's just like, memorialized. Yeah,

Jess Gregory  

exactly. That's hilarious. All right, Nate. Well, I really appreciate you sitting down and chatting with me today and taking some time out of your day to talk shop. So yeah, hopefully we'll get to see you back out on the field soon, but if not, maybe we'll have to sit back down again.

Nate Lie  

We'll figure it out.

Jess Gregory  

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, take care. We'll talk to you later. 

Nate Lie  

See you later. Bye.

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