May 15, 2008

By Mike Sheridan

Villanova Media Relations

He has been on Villanova's campus for less than 12 months and earned a promotion to his current role in January at the age of 31. Yet in many respects new Villanova men's soccer head coach Tom Carlin has had more than two decades to absorb the many nuances his sport has to offer.

While his fellow first and second graders in the mid-1980s generally trudged off to all manner of summer activities, Carlin was spending his time away from school at soccer camps. His uncle is Charlie Duccilli, who in 1984 became the first women's soccer coach at Rutgers University. Over the course of Duccilli's 15 seasons at the helm in Piscataway, his nephew watched closely and filled a variety of summer time roles, including counselor.

"It was pretty exciting," he recalls. "Rutgers really enjoyed a lot of success then and to be around that in the summer was something I really appreciated."

The men's and women's program ran their soccer camps simultaneously so Carlin was exposed to not one but two successful programs. One of those he worked with as a counselor then was Alexi Lalas. It helped plant the seeds of a playing career that helped make him a Division III All-American from 1995-98 at Arcadia College and stoked the soccer fire in him.

"In my junior and senior year it clicked that this was something I wanted to do with the rest of my life," he says now.

While still in college he earned the proper certification to begin coaching at the club level. Once he graduated, fate moved quickly. After serving a semester as a graduate assistant with the women's program at his alma mater, he was named head men's coach. It offered him both an exciting opportunity and formidable challenge.

"When I was at Arcadia, I learned how to be a leader," he says. "When you're 23, you're coaching guys who were your teammates and you have to separate yourself from that."

In fact, that was literally so. Carlin's roommate and close friend was an Arcadia upperclassman on the 2000 squad. Not longer after he accepted the position, he moved out.

"I told him that we were friends but that our relationship had to be put on hold for the time being," he says. "At that point it wasn't possible for me to have extraneous relationships with the players on that team. I couldn't sit and chat casually. When you're that young as a coach, you have to separate yourself so that you aren't mistaken for one of the guys."

The results indicate that the transition went smoothly. From 2000-06, Arcadia posted a 99-23-9 record under Carlin that included three Pennsylvania Athletic Conference titles and three NCAA Tournament appearances.

"We stayed organized defensively and were fortunate enough to recruit three All-Americans and it just went from there," Carlin states. "At Arcadia for us it was mostly about energy and motivation.

Not long after the 2006 season ended, Carlin went to Chicago to work the Northwestern men's soccer camp. Not long after the camp concluded, Carlin and Northwestern head coach Tim Lenahan, a Philadelphia-area native and the former coach at Lafayette, posed a question.

"Do you want to come out here to be an assistant?" Lenahan asked.

Carlin did not hesitate in accepting.

"I knew nothing about the Midwest," he says now. "I just went out there and lived in his basement for a year. Tim had done a great job building that program and I knew I was going with one of the best managers in Division I. And what I learned at Northwestern was how to manage a program."

Each day, Carlin soaked up all he could from his friend. As associate head coach he saw what it took to recruit in a conference as competitive as the Big Ten and how to navigate all the elements that constitute a successful program at this level.

"I saw how he managed his scholarships, the marketing of his brand, how he went about fundraising and reaching out to his alumni," he says. "I did all that stuff at Arcadia but never knew why. We never put it together as a plan of attack the way Tim did at Northwestern."

That knowledge acquired over 18 months proved invaluable when he was named as an assistant coach at Villanova in June of 2007. It was understood then that the upcoming campaign would be the final one for longtime head coach Larry Sullivan and Carlin hoped to be a candidate to succeed him. However, there were no guarantees. He simply pressed forward with his customary energy determined to let the process play out.

"When I got to Villanova, I hit the ground running," he says. "To be at Villanova, where the school sells itself and people in the community recognize the academic quality here, was amazing."

Carlin says he absorbed much from Sullivan, who guided the Villanova program for 17 seasons.

"Getting a chance to work with a guy that I have a great deal of respect for and is a legend in the Philadelphia area was the final step for me," notes Carlin. "His persepective on leadership and coaching opened my eyes a great deal. Larry has a certain demenaor and way of handling situations that makes him truly a great coaching mind."

Carlin made a quick impact. Several players made note of his technical contributions as the Wildcats jumped out to a 9-2 start, which included a victory over No. 1 ranked Duke in September. And though a taxing schedule took its toll in the second half, the impression left by Carlin was resoundingly positive. Following a national search, Villanova concluded that its best option was already on campus.

His one year spent on the Villanova staff offered him a welcome snapshot of the program he inherits.

"It gave me perspective," he says. "It was almost like a case study. You are able to go in, look around, and see what you need. Now, when you are going in to put a plan together you have a feel for the areas you want to work on. It was a huge advantage for me."

In his new role, Carlin has been busy. He added Ian Clerihew and B.J. Callaghan to complete his coaching staff and worked quickly to implement a training schedule. Its most notable feature includes regularly scheduled 6:30 a.m. in-semester workouts.

"The guys have made a decision on where they want to go," he states. "Now we're keeping them committed to it. They have all put on paper their opinion of where the program wants to go. So now it's a daily challenge of building good habits. We want to keep them organized and focused.

"We want our niche to be player development. We want to be better at player development than anyone in the country. In order to do that we have had to create a player development plan. We are putting a manual together now of every single practice session we will run this spring by position. We want to show each player the way they can develop their specific skill set.

"And one of our challenges is getting them to realize it's a lot of work. 6:30 a.m. practices each spring will be a staple of our program. That gets them to deal them with time management. If you have to be up at 5:45 a.m., you can't go to bed at 2 a.m. or wait to do your homework until midnight. "

Carlin is upbeat about the course ahead.

"It's going great," he says. "What an awesome thing to be able to help give young guys good habits they will use for the rest of their lives."

There are no dramatic words about what lies ahead from VU's new men's soccer mentor. His coaching staff likes its crop of 10 newcomers and also welcomes back veterans that include seniors Joe Taylor and Adam Brazitis along with junior scoring leader Mike Seamon. The 5-1-1 record in spring action is encouraging as well.

"We want to make sure that when people watch us they see that we are as prepared and ready as we can possibly be," he says. "We want our players to be in the best possible situation to succeed. How the game goes will be how the game goes. We want our players to play with a confidence, energy and a passion. We want to do it the right way with character kids who represent the mission statement of our university. Those are the things that are important to us right now.

"We've seen a ton of progress. Now we want to get better every day. There isn't a time table per se. It's one day at a time, one commitment at a time. The way we look at it is that success is measured by other people. Excellence is measured from within."

It's a pursuit Carlin knows well from his earliest days and one he is eager to meet fully in 2008 and beyond.