Podcast: Tufts’ coach Kyle Dezotell on his program and the NESCAC

Tufts players huddle up before a game last season. (Tufts Athletics)

The latest guest on New England Soccer Journal’s “The Goal” podcast is Tufts University men’s soccer head coach Kyle Dezotell.

Dezotell was hired in March of 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to greatly impact the world. Last season, he led the Jumbos to a record of 8-3-7 and a trip to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Tufts has captured four Division 3 national championships since 2014.

Dezotell was also previously the head coach at Ithaca College, Manhattanville College, Norwich University and at Johnson State College. The Middlebury grad was an All-NESCAC and All-New England selection in soccer, and was also a member of the Middlebury Nordic ski team. In high school, he was the Gatorade Vermont Player of the Year in soccer.

He joined host Matt Langone to discuss his program and what it’s like competing in the mighty NESCAC.

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 Dezotell:

On the 2022 season:

Dezotell: “2022 was always going to be an interesting year for our team. We were incredibly talented in 2021, but also very senior-heavy and fifth-year-senior heavy. I think we had seven or eight guys come back for an extra year in 2021. So, we always knew 2022 was just going to be kind of a changing of the guard for our program, and just a little bit of a new generation of Tufts men’s soccer. In a lot of ways, I think our year was quite successful. There’s high expectations and high standards here at Tufts. Coach (Josh) Shapiro (now at Harvard), for the good and bad, set us up with multiple national championships and the expectation that national championships are a possibility within our program.”

On what makes the NESCAC so strong:

Dezotell: “I think one thing that makes us really unique and helps all of us out when national tournament time comes around is the teams in our league playing in such a variety of ways. There’s teams that play direct. There’s teams that possess the ball. There’s teams that play off set pieces. There’s teams that are super defensive. There’s teams that play on the front foot. There’s teams that press. The coaching is really, really good in our league. I think there’s a lot of really good coaches out there in the country, but I think some of the top coaches in Division 3 are in this conference and it’s only getting better.”

On strong academics helping NESCAC programs:

Dezotell: “For whatever reason in the Division 3 athletic world, typically the better the students, the better the athletic programs. I think we get some incredibly smart kids. We just had two recruits here this morning. You’re having those conversations of the other schools they’re looking at are Division 1 schools, but why they are giving us a look is because of the incredible academic opportunities and experience that they can have as a student at Tufts, combined with the opportunity to play for a really good soccer program that competes in arguably the best Division 3 conference in the country, against some of the best teams in the country, and kids want that experience.”

On what he looks for in a player:

Dezotell: “For us, you have to be able to play soccer. I think I really value soccer players, and you have to have a certain level of technical ability. You have to have the soccer element more than just the size or the athletic element. I think a second piece for us, and this is where pandemic recruiting was tricky, it’s we’re now kind of back to normal recruiting where we see a kid five or 10 times before we actually potentially talk to them about coming to our school. It’s really identifying players with incredible competitive spirits.”

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