Episode 144: Kicking Off a New Season

It is a new season for athletics at UConn and it all starts with the women’s soccer team hosting an exhibition game on Wednesday night. Head coach Margaret Rodriguez is our guest for this episode as her Huskies won the Big East tournament last season and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. “Mags” played at UConn and was a long-time assistant coach before taking over the head coaching reigns. She talks about the culture that she has built in the program and what that culture is all about. Rodriguez gives insight on how parents can guide their children in the college recruiting process. The Huskies open the regular season on Sunday, August 17, against Stony Brook. For the complete schedule and ticket information visit uconnhuskies.com.

Listen to Episode 144 on Podbeam

Mike: Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the UConn 360 Podcast. It’s Mike Enright from University Communications, along with Izzy Harris from University Communications. Hello, Izzy.

Izzy: Hey Mike.

Mike: Izzy, doesn’t it seem like the spring sports season just finished?

Izzy: It does, and I also feel like I haven’t been here for an episode in a while because Jacie was here last week.

Mike: Jacie was here. You were away in the Canary Islands and had some other things to take care of. Jacie came in and did her usual great job as my sidekick. But yeah, welcome back.

Izzy: Thanks. It feels great to be back in the podcast studio.

Mike: We’re happy to have you here. But as I was saying, doesn’t it just feel like the spring sports ended?

Izzy: Yes, it does. Sorry, I got distracted.

Mike: That’s okay. Well, guess what? The fall sports are about to begin, right around the corner.

Wednesday night, August 6. If you’re listening to us on the day the podcast drops, it’s tonight.

So, the women’s soccer team opens the athletic year with an exhibition game at six o’clock against the University of New Hampshire. And we are really lucky to have Margaret Rodriguez, our head women’s soccer coach, as our podcast guest today. She’s entering her eighth year, which I can’t believe, her eighth year in charge of the Husky program this fall.

She’s been part of the program for the better part of her life. Before becoming the head coach, she was a ten-year assistant coach to the legendary Len Tsantiris. She played for the Huskies from 1995 to 1998. She’s the fourth all-time leading scorer in UConn history. In 1997, she led UConn to the national championship.

Speaking of the NCAA Championship, last year was a breakthrough for her Huskies. They won the Big East Tournament Championship and went to the second round of the NCAAs. She grew up in Huntington, New York, and is a member of the Long Island Soccer Hall of Fame. So, we’ve got a Hall of Famer with us.

Izzy: Whoa. I think this is our first Hall of Famer, right?

Mike: I think it is.

Izzy: Oh my goodness.

Mike: Mags, thanks for joining us on the podcast.

Mags: Thank you for having me. I appreciate you guys thinking of women’s soccer.

Mike: Absolutely. So, tell us a little bit about last season. The team got back to the national stage, and we know that culture is a big part of building the program. Talk about that culture and how it was part of the success last year.

Mags: No matter what team you have, even if you have the most talented group out there, you still need culture. You can’t expect wins if you don’t have a team that’s willing to fight for each other and push through. Because at the end of the day, when we get to Big East semifinals, finals, or the NCAAs, you’re playing against a lot of talented teams.

The thing that separates teams, in my opinion, is culture. Players stepping up, leading in ways you didn’t expect. Players who show up and get the job done.

Culture has been my backbone since I took over the program. When I became head coach, I had three things I focused on. One, recruit players who I felt fit into our program. Two, change the culture to suit my style. And three, develop from within. We recruit players, instill them in our culture, and develop them once they get here.

Culture was the biggest thing we had to start with. I was an assistant coach stepping into the head coach role, and I already had players in the program. I had to quickly change hats and make it mine.

We had to lead the culture at first, but it only took one year for the team to buy in and understand how we were going to do things: discipline, commitment, accountability.

After that first year, the team took off. I became a passenger on the bus of our culture. Now, heading into year eight, we have three fifth-year players who have been part of that culture for five years. For them to lead us to a championship was the crowning moment.

Izzy: It sounds like you probably can’t even remember what life was like without UConn soccer. I mean, you’ve been a player, an assistant coach, and now a head coach. How has UConn and the program changed since your time here?

Mags: How has it not changed? The dates seem so far away now. Every time I talk to a recruit and say I played here, and I mention the year, it sounds like I’m talking about the 1900s. Most of them weren’t even born when I was here.

The infrastructure is similar. A lot of the same buildings still remain on campus. But the whole landscape of the university has changed, not only within athletics but the university itself. There are buildings I still don’t know the names of. Housing on campus has changed tremendously.

When I was a student-athlete, they kept talking about downtown. We didn’t have a downtown. Now there’s a real downtown that we can actually recruit to. It brings a lot more life to the university.

I don’t even know where to begin to tell you what hasn’t changed. The facilities, the resources we have for student-athletes today, it’s mind-blowing compared to what we had when I was a player.

Mike: Everybody’s reading about the changes in college athletics, the NIL, the transfer portal, revenue sharing. You hear a lot about it in sports like football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, but I imagine it affects sports like women’s soccer too. How do those things impact your program?

Mags: It’s affecting us greatly. We live in the portal just as much as football and basketball programs. The Power Four conferences in women’s soccer are just powerhouses. They’re a pathway to the pros. The big football programs bring in more money, and that trickles down into every other team in those schools.

Power Four schools are stretching themselves. The Big East is hanging on. UConn is an outlier, and I’m proud to be part of that. But the portal, the NIL money that bigger programs are offering, it’s becoming a matter of who has it and who doesn’t, and who can use it to separate themselves.

Unfortunately, we’ve got to keep up with the Joneses. We’ve got to get into that market.

Izzy: How does this year’s team look, and what’s the schedule like this season?

Mags: This team, it’s funny, we graduated ten players from last year’s group. The biggest thing we lost was experience. We had six seniors and four fifth years in that mix. You just can’t replace experience. You can’t replace the maturity those players brought to us.

So, I knew we were going to be a younger team, but we are returning the core infrastructure. We’ve got Chioma, and I’ve been saying her name wrong for four years. It’s actually pronounced Okafor, so I need to get that right myself.

Mike: So, the UConn 360 Podcast is the official debut of the correct pronunciation.

Mags: Yes, we’re going to say her name right, and I’m probably still not doing it justice. But she’s a two-time All-American for us. She’s just lethal in our attack, so having her back is instrumental to how we’re going to build this year.

We also have Anaya Johnson in our center midfield. She’s so dynamic for us. She’s technically injured right now, so I’m praying she’ll be okay. She’s a returning junior, and she was crucial in our postseason games last year.

Our back line is pretty veteran. We’ll likely be starting a new goalkeeper, so that’s where we’ll be a little young and inexperienced. But having a mature back line in front of her is going to help.

So, yes, we lost a lot of leadership and experience. But we’re gaining a very talented group. And we have the spine of the team intact. Hopefully we can make another run for the Big East Championship and go even further in the NCAAs.

Mike: I want to go back to what we talked about at the beginning, culture. We talked a little bit about how your team has it. Can you define culture and what a Margaret Rodriguez culture-inspired team looks like? What are the tangible or intangible things you want your players to have?

Mags: You do a lot of the work in the recruiting process. You bring in players who are committed, disciplined, and have high standards not just for themselves but for the players around them. You want kids who can hold each other accountable. Typically, we recruit players who had leadership roles on their club or high school teams.

They’re not the type of players you have to beg to do the work behind the scenes. We know they’re going to live up to the standards we’ve set, the commitment and the discipline needed to be part of this program.

When it comes to culture, I’m not the kind of coach who is going to force it. I’m not going to say, “Let’s sit in a circle and talk about culture.” I want it to happen naturally. And for that to happen, you need leadership.

We build leadership from freshman year on. We give kids the confidence to be themselves. To me, that’s the most important thing about our culture, if they can be themselves and feel comfortable in our environment. I like personality. I want them to feel like they can let their personalities shine.

So, they’re dancing in the locker room, they’re loose, they’re relaxed, but they know how to flip the switch and be competitive. They have the mentality to get the job done.

I’m not going to sit down and tell them what culture is. We bring in the right kids, create an environment that gives them confidence, let them be themselves, and make sure they feel valued. When that happens, you’ve got a team that runs like a well-oiled machine.

Izzy: Word on the street is that you have a twin sister who coaches at Central Connecticut. What’s it like when you coach against her?

Mags: I do have a twin sister. It’s funny. When I talk about my playing days or my upbringing, I always say “we.” Sometimes people don’t realize I have a twin, and they get confused. So, I always have to say, “Sorry, I have a twin.”

My sister and I have been inseparable. We grew up together, played together, and we always knew we would play college soccer together. We never even considered going to different schools. The first time we were apart was when we were drafted into the professional league. She went to Philadelphia, and I went to San Diego. That was hard for us.

Since then, we haven’t been on the same team. We played against each other in the professional league. Then she went to Central Connecticut, and I was at the University of Hartford for four years before coming back to UConn.

When we play each other, it’s funny. We usually talk five times a day, sometimes more, sometimes less, but the week leading up to the game, we barely talk. It’s tough not to talk about each other’s programs or players. Every now and then, she’ll ask me, “What formation are you playing now?”

We actually stopped scheduling games against each other. It’s a tough matchup. It’s an in-state rivalry. I think the last two times we played, we beat them pretty heavily, so they backed away. We’re okay with that. It’s an early-season game, and our teams compete hard. I want UConn to win, but I also don’t want to beat my sister too badly.

We’re not the type to trash talk each other. I’ll say, “Let us win three nothing, and then we can relax.” One time, we had a bet where the loser had to host Thanksgiving dinner. I had a really great Thanksgiving that year.

Mike: That is a big bet, especially for coaches. Hosting Thanksgiving is no joke.

Mags: It’s a lot of work.

Mike: What’s her name?

Mags: Jen Prozzo.

Mike: And this year the family tradition is continuing because you told me her daughter, your niece, is coming to play for your team?

Mags: Yes. Her daughter, Riley Prozzo, is with me now. She transferred in from Boston College last winter. This is her first season with us. So yes, I’m coaching my niece, who is like a third daughter to me. I already have two daughters of my own, so someone at home is probably wondering whether they still count.

Izzy: You have a lot going on. It’s okay to lose count.

Mike: Is that hard to do, seriously? Can you treat her like everybody else?

Mags: We weren’t sure how it was going to go. I want my daughters, and I want Riley, to have their own paths in this world of soccer. So, I was nervous about the dynamic.

I actually asked the team, “How do you think it’s going to be?” Because you have a player in the locker room who is my niece. I’m sure they joke about me or say things about me. So, I asked them, “What do you think the dynamic will be like?” They said, “We got it. It’s going to be great. Riley’s a great person. Don’t worry about it.”

The dynamic has been great. I treat her just the same. It’s still weird for me to see her in our team spaces all the time, because I’m used to seeing her at family functions. But now that she’s part of my world every day, the transition has actually been great. I’m really happy about it.

Izzy: What advice do you have for young soccer players and their parents who want to see them play in college one day?

Mags: Where do I even begin? I have two daughters. One is going to be a sophomore in high school. The other is going into seventh grade.

I’m a parent on the sidelines for club and high school games, and I see the stress and anxiety that parents are putting on their kids. A lot of that comes from how much money they’re investing in training, clubs, and travel. They want to make sure they get something in return, like a scholarship.

My biggest advice is to be in the moment and let your child grow and go through the process themselves. If they want to play in college, that has to come from them as they get older. Stop trying to keep up with what everyone else is doing. Stop trying to schedule extra training all the time. They need rest. They can’t be doing sports every single day.

Let them be kids. If they love it, it’ll come through, and time will tell when they’re ready for that next step.

Izzy: Follow-up question, do your girls play soccer as well?

Mags: They do. They both play soccer and basketball.

My older one is a sophomore in high school now. I asked her the first big question: “Do you want to play in college?” I wanted her to answer that for herself. She said yes. So now we need to figure out what level is right for her.

Honestly, I’ve been hiding from the recruiting process. I don’t want to rush it. I don’t even want to be a part of it yet. But it’s coming. She’s recruitable this year, so it’s going to be part of my future soon.

They both love playing. It’s pretty cool to see.

Mike: Speaking of other sports, did you play anything besides soccer growing up? I’ve heard coaches say they love athletes who played multiple sports. What about the players on this year’s team, did they play other sports in high school? What’s your view on that?

Mags: I love multi-sport athletes. Basketball and soccer complement each other really well. The athletic IQ that comes from playing another sport is unmatched compared to kids who only played soccer.

I played multiple sports. I played soccer, basketball, and volleyball. On Long Island, volleyball was a spring sport, so I was able to do all three.

Here’s a little fun fact. My senior year at UConn, my sister and I walked on to the volleyball team during the spring season. We were invited to join the team for the fall, but we chose instead to be graduate assistants with the soccer team.

I loved volleyball. Basketball was great too. But back then, it was easier to play multiple sports. Seasons didn’t overlap as much.

Nowadays, youth sports have changed. There’s so much pressure. So much money involved. Coaches want to make sure they’re delivering value to parents who are paying a lot. That’s why kids are training three, four, five times a week with games on the weekend, year-round.

But if I had the choice, I would take a multi-sport athlete over a single-sport athlete any day.

Mike: Interesting.

Izzy: So, as we just talked about, there isn’t a ton of free time as a head coach. Do you have any hobbies that you enjoy in your spare time, maybe something not related to sports?

Mags: Hobbies. That’s a good question. Soccer is a hobby for some people; they go play pickup. For me, it’s work.

My free time is all about my family and my kids. When you’re juggling a full-time job and also being a parent, it’s not easy. You have to find balance.

Whenever I do have free time, I try to go to my kids’ games. I drive them to birthday parties. I take them clothes shopping. So, any time I get to spend with them, that’s what I consider my free time.

If you’re asking what my personal hobby is, I love to run. And lately, I’ve gotten into walking a lot more. I had surgery this summer, so walking has become something I really enjoy. It’s like a new interest of mine.

Mike: So, finish this sentence for us. The 2025 UConn women’s soccer season will be successful if…

Mags: We stay healthy.

Mike: That’s the key to everything, huh?

Mags: Yes. Right now, a key player I mentioned earlier is already out, and that changes the complexity of our midfield.

I really believe we have the makings of another championship team this year, and I don’t say that very often. But we have to stay healthy in order to make it happen. Otherwise, we’ll be relying on freshmen and younger players who are good but who we haven’t seen in those moments yet. We just don’t know what they’re capable of yet.

Mike: As I mentioned, the team starts their season Wednesday, August 6, with an exhibition game against New Hampshire at 6 o’clock at Morrone Stadium, at the Rizza Performance Center.

Then this Sunday, August 10, they’ll have another exhibition game at 7 p.m. against UMass.

And then the real games begin Sunday, August 17, at 1 o’clock against Stony Brook.

You can find the full schedule and ticket information at uconnhuskies.com. Go out and see a game. It’s a great way to spend some time with your family.

Mags: Thank you so much, guys. I appreciate it.

Mike: Izzy, thank you.

Izzy: Of course. Thank you, Mike.

Mike: See you next time.

Izzy: See ya.