005: The Progress of College Goalkeeping with Dan Blank

Today’s guest spent 24 years of his life coaching women’s college soccer, from creating and nurturing programs at small private colleges to orchestrating the defenses of elite programs in the SEC conference. In addition to his accomplishments on the field, Dan Blank is also Amazon.com’s all-time best-selling soccer author, operating from his website at SoccerPoet.com.

In today’s episode, Dan details his successful coaching career, beginning as an assistant at Wheeling Jesuit College in West Virginia, and culminating in several of the top defenses in the nation at Ole Miss and Georgia.

Along the way, he outlines the major advancements in goalkeeping that he’s seen, specifically in the women’s game. He also lays out three areas of collegiate goalkeeping where there is still room for improvement, and he challenges young keepers not to specialize too soon, and to spend as much time as possible playing in the field.

It’s a packed 30-minute episode, and there are over 20 minutes of additional discussion in the Outtakes segment below. I hope you enjoy it!

Special thanks to Dan Blank for joining me!