Podcast: Loomis Chaffee’s Scott Halpern on building the program in the offseason

Loomis Chaffee boys head coach Scott Halpern joined 'The Goal.' (Photo by Stan Godlewski)

The latest guest on New England Soccer Journal’s “The Goal” podcast is Loomis Chaffee boys soccer head coach Scott Halpern.

The 2024 season will be Halpern’s third at Loomis. He guided the program to the NEPSAC Class A tournament last fall and finished with a record of 12-6-2.

Prior to arriving at Loomis Chaffee, Halpern was an assistant coach at UConn from 2017-22.

He joined host Matt Langone to discuss his Loomis team, the importance of the work that goes into the offseason and building the program for the future. This month, New England prep schools will officially begin welcoming new accepted students for the 2024-25 academic year.

The full podcast can be accessed below and is available on all major platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review.

Here are some highlights from our discussion with Halpern:

On the 2023 season:

Halpern: “Obviously, making the Class A playoffs is a great accomplishment in itself. There’s almost 30 teams in that class and to be in that top eight is difficult. We went 12-5-2 and got in as a six-seed. The margins are super small between all of us — those eight teams. For us, we had a really, really young group. We graduated 13 players after the 2022 season and it wasn’t a rebuild, it was more of a retool year for us in the 2023 season. And I think a couple of guys were shocked with where we ended, but I think within our culture and in our group, we were just about on par with where we thought we could end, and, obviously, you’re pleased but not satisfied.”

On the current college recruiting landscape:

Halpern: “The older player is staying in longer. Recruiting the older player to stay relevant in the game is just making it harder for a pure 18-year-old to come out of prep school and make an impact in a way that a college coach needs them to. I think the college coach’s job is to look at our players and put them in their environment and see what that looks like, and it takes time. Everyone needs to adjust even at our level. But, 100%, we’re seeing that topple down effect.”

On the process of recruiting and adding new players at Loomis:

Halpern: “You have no control over what the (financial) package looks like, whether they get accepted or denied. It’s really all on (the players). It’s really all on what that picture looks like. You take a year-and-a-half of your time and you invest in that relationship and it can fall short for you, at the end of the day. That’s just something that you have to live with, and for that reason I’ve casted a wider net than ever before. I’m constantly trying to recruit, because I know I’m not going to get them all.”

On battling for the same players as other New England prep schools:

Halpern: “Obviously, you’re tighter with some (coaches) than others in the league. For example, I’m very tight with Carl Stensland over at Avon Old Farms, but we don’t talk to each other about a lot of details in those things — probably good for the relationship. At the end, maybe we’ll talk about those. It’s kind of like on game day when we’re leading up to that. But it’s from all the way to Exeter and Andover down to the south and into (New) Jersey with some of the prep schools there. Every fit is different for every player, for every student-athlete and their family. But we think our opportunity and our offering is very different to some, and I think right now we’re rolling in a really good place.”

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