Inside the Dragon's Lair: Podcast Transcripts
2026 Fall Preview & Championship Mindset
Tuesday, September 22, 2026Intro
[upbeat music playing]
RYAN RECORD:
What is up, Dragon Nation? And welcome to Inside The Dragon's Lair, your podcast for everything Howard Community College Athletics. I'm your host, Ryan Record. And I'm really excited to be joined by Sports Information Director Isaac Donsky and Coach Phil DeRosier for our first-ever video recording in our brand new state-of-the-art podcast studio.
ISAAC DONSKY:
Woop woop.
RYAN RECORD:
So, Isaac, the space is still coming together. But what do you think?
ISAAC DONSKY:
I like it. It's giving very much Between Two Ferns, which I like. So I'm loving this. We're live on video now. This is awesome.
RYAN RECORD:
Right on, man.
ISAAC DONSKY:
Yeah,
RYAN RECORD:
And yeah, today's episode is also special because with summer wrapping up, we have some fall sports to look forward to.
ISAAC DONSKY:
Let's do it.
RYAN RECORD:
We have soccer, volleyball, cross country meets. Am I missing anything?
ISAAC DONSKY:
I think that's everything. I mean, it's crazy. The summer is almost over at this point. It literally just feels like yesterday that we were wrapping up spring sports. And now boom, fall sports time.
RYAN RECORD:
Right on, well, with that, let's send it over to you, Isaac--
ISAAC DONSKY:
Let's do it.
RYAN RECORD:
--for our Fall Sports Preview.
ISAAC DONSKY:
All right, well, fall sports are going to be a lot of fun this year. And I want to start and preface this by saying that all sports are going to be awesome because HCC has the chance to do something that I don't think any major community college has ever done.
I'd have to check back through the record books. But there is a chance that Howard could win a region championship in every single sport. I'm not just talking fall sports. I'm talking every major sport that we have, with the exception of a couple that are still starting out, like women's flag football, e-sports. But all of our major sports have a legit shot of winning a region championship.
Cross country and track and field, both are positioned really well to win. They've been contenders. Women's soccer's got a new coaching staff. And with what's looking like to be a weaker region 20, there's a good chance that they could go on a miracle run. Men's soccer are the favorites to win the region.
Men's basketball, women's basketball are both favorites to win the region. Lacrosse are the defending champions. So of course, they're the favorites to win the region. And then softball is coming off their best season ever. They went on a recruiting bonanza in the offseason. They've got themselves one of their most talented teams.
And with region 20 getting blown wide open in the offseason because Cecil knocked off Potomac state, who has won the last five region 20 championships. And now it's like, oh, anybody can win this region now. We're good, guys. So there's a chance for softball.
So there is a very high chance that every single sports program here at HCC could win a region championship this year and compete at nationals. But this is going to be a very fun year for Dragons Athletics. I'm super excited for it.
So let me talk about women's soccer real quick because they went through the most amount of changes in the offseason. Women's soccer has a new coaching staff. Last year head coach, Amanda Elvidge, stepped away from the program. She had done a good job recruiting some players for us, but ultimately, decided to step away to focus more on her family.
So taking over is our softball coach, Shannon Riley, who is also a very good soccer coach. She was a head soccer coach for the women's program a couple years ago before stepping away to focus on softball. And she is going to essentially be in charge of getting the program back on track.
Women's soccer the last couple of years has kind of been going from a consistent contender for the region title to-- I don't want to be mean-- but reaching rock bottom. We were winless last year. We only scored two goals the entire season. It was a rough year for the Dragons.
We had our moments. I think scoring a goal against the eventual region champions and Arundel was awesome. But that was the only real highlight I can say for our entire season. So the goal this year is just to get better.
And we honestly are probably going to be a lot better. Coach Shannon has plenty of connections in the soccer recruiting world. She's brought in a lot of girls who can make the program better. She's gotten us a pretty solid schedule. We're playing a lot of region 20 schools. But we're also playing some NCAA D2 schools.
I think we're playing Kean University. We still got to figure out if that's confirmed or not. But if not, if it is, we will be playing an NCAA school, which, fun fact, we're allowed to play NCAA schools. That count towards our record. We don't count towards their record.
That's a scrimmage for them. But we can count it as a game for us. So that is one of the perks of being a junior college is that we can technically have scrimmages for four year schools be considered games for us.
But the team is expected-- Coach Shannon, I talked to her. She said, I expect us to win like three, four games this year and get back to the playoffs, which would be a really big step in the right direction. Like, oh, we're back because we missed the playoffs the last two years.
I think we honestly could be a dark horse because I know Shannon is an amazing recruiter. And I also know that women's soccer in region 20 is probably the weakest sport in region 20. And that kind of sucks, honestly.
For whatever reason, a lot of programs, women's soccer is the first one they'll chop if they realize they're not going to have the budget to run all of their athletic programs. It's one of those sports that deserves a lot more respect. But I'm excited for women's soccer. I think they'll be good.
I'm very excited for men's soccer. Men's soccer are the favorites to win the region. Last year, they came very close to winning the region title but lost to CCBC Essex, who won I think their 15th straight region 20 crown, which, there are dynasties. And then there's whatever is going on over at CCBC Essex. My God, they are good.
They also went to the national championship last year. They lost it to Phoenix College. But the fact that they went to the national championship, and we almost knocked them off during the playoffs, and we did knock them off in the regular season, tells me that, yeah, we can compete with them.
But we're returning almost our entire starting lineup, with a couple exceptions. We've got a bunch of new international players. So we're going to have a stacked lineup. And the goal for men's soccer is, win the region, make it to nationals. And I think we can do that.
If we knock off CCBC Essex, if we are the team to knock off the Knights and end their dynasty, oh, I mean, the Dragon finally eats the Knight. It would be perfect.
But we got two more fall sports to talk about real quick. The first one is cross country, which I was actually just talking with Coach Phil before we came in to record about his upcoming season and some of the stuff that they're planning. They're going to have a full women's team, something they haven't had the last couple of years. That was one of Phil's goals was to get the women's program back up and running.
And the last couple of years, we've had a couple women's runners, but not enough for a full team. This year, we do. We're going to have a full team. Last year, our men's team had a good season. They weren't able to win the championship like they had done in 2024. But that's OK. We were able to work on rebuilding the program.
And it's going to be tough this year. Our big rival, Pot State, who has really become our biggest rival in all sports, outside of CCBC Essex, but yeah, Pot State won both men's and women's cross country titles last year. And the goal this year is, all right, let's reclaim our crown.
We can win this in men's. We did it in 2024. We can do it again. We're going to have a legit cross country squad with legit cross country runners. As always, Coach Phil is going to bring in the best track guys who are best at distance running. It's like, go do it.
Mike Petro, he was an assistant coach with track and field last year. He's stepping in now as an associate head coach for cross country. So he's really going to focus on molding the program and getting them to the point where they can compete on the same level as some of the other region 20 schools.
And our women's team is going to be good this year. We got a full women's team. And that's something that I know Phil has been working to get up and running the last two years, as long as I've been here. So the fact that we actually are going to have a proper women's team competing alongside the men, there's a good chance that we could win the region in both. And I think we're going to have a good shot at that.
One last sport, volleyball. Women's volleyball last year was one of the big surprises of the year. They were coming off a season only three wins. It was like, oh man. Well, they're working. But I don't expect them to take a big jump yet. And then all of a sudden, they win 12 games and knock off the defending champions Halford and make the playoffs. And it's like, well, where did that come from?
They were the little team that could. They didn't have a big roster. They didn't have a lot of super high-profile recruits. That's nothing against the girls. It was just, it was none of their recruits were ones that had been like highly sought after at four year schools. But Coach Jay believed in them. She was like, we're going to make this work. And they had a great season.
The goal this year for women's volleyball, I would say, is just to keep their numbers together and to also advance to the next round of the playoffs. The crazy run we went on last season was great. Beating all of those schools late in the year, winning all those tough home games, qualifying for the playoffs, getting to host a playoff game, it just didn't end the way we had hoped.
We lost in the first round of the playoffs to Allegheny, a team that we had beat in the regular season rather comfortably, I think. And it was just kind of along the lines of, OK, now we know what we need to do. And Coach Jay's been working hard recruiting. She's got a bunch of new girls jumping on board along with some of our returners.
We got a big international transfer coming in from Germany, who's going to be a lot help. The schedule this year is going to be a tough one. Region 20 volleyball is extremely competitive. There are five or six teams that could all be competitors. We're going to be hosting the defending champions of the region again in Montgomery. They are a team that, to be frank, kind of whooped us in the regular season.
We're also going to be hosting a very, very, very interesting opponent. So we are hosting one tri-match this year. And that one tri-match is going to be against Ann Arundel, who is a team that we usually take care of business against, and then Butler County. Butler County is one of the five schools based in Western Pennsylvania in the Pittsburgh area that are part of region 20.
Butler County are a D3 school. They are the best volleyball program in all of region 20. They are absolutely unstoppable. We have not played them before because they are a D3 school. Playing them doesn't really help us out with our record or anything.
But they are the number one D3 school in the country, basically. They are one of them. And they have dominated Division III volleyball. And the mindset of Coach Jay is that-- and this is kind of a mindset that every coach shares. If you want to get better, you got to play the best teams.
We're not going to have a lot of opportunities to play them going forward. They're going to probably be leaving region 20 the NJCAA. That's the rumor, at least. But let's play Butler and see what happens. Let's see how we can perform against a team ranked in the top five.
So volleyball, they've got high expectations this year. I think that they're going to do very well. I think that they could be another dark horse competitor for the region. If they get past the first round of the playoffs and get to the quarterfinals, we will know for certain.
Fall sports, if you can't tell, I'm really excited about fall sports. I am so excited about what's going to happen with fall sports. I think that we have a really golden opportunity to find success and win in all of our fall sports teams.
It's going to be awesome. I can't wait for it. And yeah, that's all I got. I'm glad everyone can finally put a face to the voice. But I'm going to throw it back to you, Ryan. And we'll get on to the next part of the show.
RYAN RECORD:
Excellent, well, pleasure as always, Isaac. Really appreciate the in-depth fall sports preview. No one has the chutzpah to break it down--
ISAAC DONSKY:
Don't quote me on everything I said. Some of what I said, double check. Keep it in mind.
RYAN RECORD:
No quotes taken.
ISAAC DONSKY:
No quotes taken.
[whimsical music plays]
Moving on, we are absolutely thrilled to be joined by someone who has earned six NJCAA national championship titles. He was inducted into the NJCAA Hall of Fame in 2014, someone who became a four-time NCAA Division II national champion and a 10-time NCAA Division All-American, someone who is proud to represent Dragon Country as an alumnus.
He's our cross country coach, our track and field coach, as well as HCC'S Athletics Manager of Fitness and Recreation, Phil DeRosier. It's an honor to have you on the pod today, man. What do you think of the space?
PHIL DEROSIER:
It's an honor to be here. I mean, the space is great. I love what y'all are doing with it. I look forward to it growing and adding more to it in the future. And I'm also thankful that you pronounce my last name correctly. A lot of people stumble there.
RYAN RECORD:
It's a good thing you told me how to say it before we started shooting.
ISAAC DONSKY:
Ah, he gave the secret up. [LAUGHS]
RYAN RECORD:
Yeah, we break the fourth wall here at Dragon Podcast.
PHIL DEROSIER:
I can dig it.
RYAN RECORD:
And I know that was quite the introduction. It was a mouthful for me to say as well. But for our listeners out there who are hearing about you for the first time, who is Coach Phil? Could you describe your background, both as an athlete and a coach? And what's your motivation, your mission in athletics? And just for fun, what's your go-to bulk-up meal?
PHIL DEROSIER:
My go to-- maybe I'll start there. My go to bulk up meal-- I'm a big soul food person, I tell you. I love me a catfish. I love me some candy yams, some macaroni and cheese, some collard greens. I love eating like that. So if you're talking about bulking up and pigging out a little bit, that's what I'm going to go to.
RYAN RECORD:
So yeah, jump into a little bit about your background and athletics.
PHIL DEROSIER:
So my background, I actually started as a, I would call it a neighborhood superhero. I was always a great athlete within the neighborhoods. But I never had the access to organized sports the way maybe some of my friends did. And I'll tell you, by the grace of God, Clovis Thomas, who was my first coach in high school, basically built a relationship with me, developed the relationship. And he was able to, I would say, just turn my life around in short.
So with saying that, I was able to, in just one year of running high school track, become a two-time state champion.
RYAN RECORD:
That's crazy, man, one year?
PHIL DEROSIER:
One year.
RYAN RECORD:
Two-time state champ?
PHIL DEROSIER:
Yep.
RYAN RECORD:
And you went to Long Reach, correct?
PHIL DEROSIER:
I did.
RYAN RECORD:
Class of 2002?
PHIL DEROSIER:
Class of 2002.
RYAN RECORD:
Yeah, man, Howard County, it's a great place to grow up, for more reasons than one. What would you say your motivation or mission in athletics has been?
PHIL DEROSIER:
Honestly, is just to continue the work, that my coach, Clovis Thomas and Eric Hanlon, who was the coach here, did for me, is to find those diamonds in the rough. It's to find those kids that have those hidden talents. But they just don't have the exposure. They don't have the access. They don't have the people that are looking over them. So I want to continue to do that work and just provide as much resources to these kids as possible.
RYAN RECORD:
Absolutely, man. That's wholesome. I dig it. So as a former longreach reach and HCC student athlete, what did it mean for you personally to return here to HCC as a head coach and help grow these programs?
PHIL DEROSIER:
I mean, I'm just going to add to the mission. It meant a lot. It was like a full-circle moment just to be able to, again, provide my experience and give kids something to believe in, which is themselves, and give them that belief that, you know what? You can achieve some great things out of this institution.
You can come in. You can have the worst grades out of high school. You can have the worst record as a youth. You can have all of these bad things that went against you. But all it takes is one person who sees the light in you. And it can switch it all the way around. That's what I'm all about.
RYAN RECORD:
Awesome, man, yeah. As you also mentioned, you learned under some legendary coaches like Clovis Thomas at longreach and Eric Hanlon here at HCC. How do their coaching philosophies influence the way you lead these Dragons today?
PHIL DEROSIER:
I would say the biggest thing I picked up from them, outside of just the workouts-- workouts are just workouts. Everybody does the same thing. But you know what? They cared. They cared. Simple. They just care.
They're going to see it through with you. They're going to deal with you on the bad days. Everybody talks about the good days. You just said a lot of good stuff about me. But growing up, there was a few bad things as well too. But what they did was they cared and they stuck with me all the way. I'm just going to do the same thing.
RYAN RECORD:
All your accolades, that's what people see. But it's the work behind the scenes that people don't see. How do you bring their mentality, perhaps, through your coaching philosophy to these students today? Because you grew up doing this, what, 20 years ago? It's so much different from back then.
PHIL DEROSIER:
It is. But I think the philosophy still applies. It's just to get these kids on the straight and narrow. It's to give them as much data and information as possible so that they can make some conscious efforts to change their lives. And as long as I can provide them with the data, that's not fake, that's totally objective, at least they have the information in front of them to make the best decisions that go towards what they want out of life.
RYAN RECORD:
Great answer. How would you describe the culture that you've helped build here at HCC over the past few years, both in cross country and as a track and field coach, but also as the manager of fitness and recreation.
PHIL DEROSIER:
I'll start with the track. I would honestly say-- and this is why Mike hired me. I would say the program was very low level when I came in. They accepted mediocrity and things that contribute to that. It was a choice to go to practice on a lot of days.
For me, it ain't no choice. You got to go to practice. You got to maximize all of these opportunities to get better. I would say that's what I brought. And hard work, I mean, they'll tell you in the department. I like to just be involved and work all day, all night.
Sometimes people think I don't take a break. I mean, I do. I do. I really do. But I just like to-- just it was when I was an athlete. I pushed the limits in everything I did. I wasn't a mediocre athlete. I wanted something. I desired something very bad, very, very bad. And I want the people that are under me and around me to feel that. I moved with my heart.
RYAN RECORD:
Right on. You're raising the bar over here. There's. a reason Mike brought you in.
PHIL DEROSIER:
Yeah.
RYAN RECORD:
He saw the vision. And you're like, let's take it to the next level. So both you and athletes you've coached have competed on the national stage. Can you speak on the preparation required and maybe some key lessons from competing at that level?
PHIL DEROSIER:
I would say, number one, to compete at that level, one, you have to desire it. It's almost as if you have to already have seen yourself achieving the medals, the wins, before you even step foot on the first day of practice. It's one of those feelings where you won't be denied. You won't stop until you get what you believe is rightfully yours.
RYAN RECORD:
I'm a huge believer in that as well, like, self-fulfilling prophecy. You got to imagine it and bring it into existence.
PHIL DEROSIER:
Manifest it. Some people say that's crazy. You know what I mean? But I think you're just driven by something that's probably a little bit bigger than yourself.
RYAN RECORD:
Yeah, man.
PHIL DEROSIER:
You know what I'm saying?
RYAN RECORD:
Manifesting, it's half the battle.
PHIL DEROSIER:
Absolutely. I think it's all the battle.
RYAN RECORD:
All the battle? OK. OK. With your background running prolific performance and as a certified strength and conditioning specialist, how do you structure year-round training so athletes peak when it matters most?
PHIL DEROSIER:
I remember starting out in the industry. You really give exercises, and you give workouts and structure based off of your experience and what you've experienced. And you basically just copy and paste it to these student athletes. And then you realize, maybe it only worked for one athlete. And you broke everybody else.
I think every decent coach went through that, right? But again, I think it honestly-- and I want to keep things simple as much as possible. And I really do. I want to keep them repetitive. And I want to do a good job at providing athletes with a lot of data and teach them as much as I can about progressing in that data and the exercises that you have to do to build up your capacities to go to the next level.
So in short, I would say in the preseason, which starts in two weeks, it's a lot of low intensity volume, if you will. And then as we follow the continuum, the workouts get a little bit more complicated. The volume comes down. The intensity goes up, blah blah blah blah. And I think it's just a massage throughout the season of these things, based off of the readiness of the athlete.
RYAN RECORD:
And talking about old school, new school approaches, delving into the data, the analytics, that's something you're bringing today that maybe your coaches back then didn't have. They had a stopwatch. They could count how many reps you could do. But the technology today is just vastly improved.
ISAAC DONSKY:
You want to know what? Again, it's that word access. Back in the day, when I was an athlete, only a Power Five schools had these coaches that had the access and the budgets to that information. But with social media and YouTube and YouTube University-- you talked about that earlier-- there are just a lot more coaches that have the information available to them. So yeah, again, it's just increasing that access.
RYAN RECORD:
Amen to that. So after establishing the Dragons as a dominant force in region 20, what are the primary goals heading into the upcoming cross country and track season? And then what are some long-term goals for you?
PHIL DEROSIER:
I think the primary goal always is to win a regional championship. We're in region 20. And we compete against, I believe, six schools. I made plus or minus 1. And I think our immediate goal is always to win the region.
We've fell short the last two years. We won in 2024, the first year. Lost by the slightest of margins in 2025. And then this past season, we lost convincingly. But we did some good things in the process.
I would say that's the short to medium term goal. I would say the long-term goal is to one day win a national championship. Any coach worth his whistle, that's what they think about, the national championships. And we're in a sport where really, the national championships and the big races are the only ones that matter.
RYAN RECORD:
True, but yeah, setting the base, win the region 20 first. The bigger things will come. And then the growing pains that have come with it, like you said, by the slightest of margins you lost back in 2025.
PHIL DEROSIER:
I did.
RYAN RECORD:
A lot of opportunity for growth right there. You can always keep improving.
PHIL DEROSIER:
Absolutely, always.
RYAN RECORD:
Keep climbing those steps, man. You're going to hit it. I know.
PHIL DEROSIER:
Thank you.
RYAN RECORD:
And last but not least, what is one fundamental mindset that you emphasize to every athlete?
PHIL DEROSIER:
I mean, I say a lot of stuff at practice. But I do define a champion. And I say this is my three C's-- commitment, consistency, and courage equals champion.
RYAN RECORD:
Three Cs equals one big C.
PHIL DEROSIER:
That's right.
RYAN RECORD:
Champion.
PHIL DEROSIER:
Champion, baby.
RYAN RECORD:
Coach Phil, everybody.
PHIL DEROSIER:
My man. I really appreciate you, dawg.
RYAN RECORD:
Thanks for coming on.
PHIL DEROSIER:
Thank you.
RYAN RECORD:
Thank you.
[music playing]
Outro
RYAN RECORD:
That wraps up this episode of Inside the Dragon's Lair. Want to give a big shout out to Isaac Donsky for his Fall Sports Preview, as well as Coach Phil DeRosier for coming on the pod to share his expertise.
And we're just getting started down here at our new studio. So keep your eyes and ears peeled for new content soon. Also, be sure to subscribe, share, and stay connected. You can find Inside the Dragon's Lair and all of Dragon podcast content wherever you get your podcasts. Just search Dragon Podcasts. Until next time, thanks for tuning in. This is Ryan Record signing out.
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2026 Fall Preview & Championship Mindset