Folks, those of you who have a little time, read this article on the Randy Waldrum era at Notre Dame. It starts off with a some background in Waldrum's upbringing in early years in Texas, his influences, family, former coaches, and early playing and coaching resume. It goes into some good detail on seasons, formations, change of formations, preparations for matches like UNC, it talks about the players that went through the program, the laughs, the despairs, the wins, the losses, the victories, the tribulations, the relationships and about the man himself in his most human form. As I read this history article of the last 15 years of Notre Dame women's soccer, I often drifted into my own remembrance of those 15 years watching games at Notre Dame. I felt part of this story. As a dedicated fan, I rarely missed a game in these 15 years. I saw countless games at the old alumni stadium and still remember like it was yesterday the wins and thankfully saw few losses. I lived in the late 90's and early 2000's in Hammond, IN. What many Indiana folks know as the "region". Notre Dame was only 1 and a half hours drive from my home. It is a little longer drive now that I live in Chicago. But I can remember hardly waiting for Sunday to come so that I can get up at around 9 am, take a shower and head east to South Bend. South Bend is EST while northwest Indiana is like Chicago in CST. So I had to make sure that I didn't leave my house too late to make it by kick off. So as this article proceeds from one generation of ND players to another, I can still see Anne Mackinen with her dominance in the midfield, Jen Grubb rock solid in defense, the great Monica Gonzalez (who we see on ESPN sideline now), Meotis Erickson, Melissa Henderson, Kerri Hanks, Jen Streiffer, Jen Heft, Vanessa Pruzinski, Brittany Bock, Kerri Hanks, Erica Bohn, Melissa Tancredi, Katie Thorlakson and the list of memories just goes on. I remember the cold Thanksgiving weekend when Santa Clara lead by the great Aly Wagner came into town where it snowed so much in South Bend the shoveled mounds on the side of the field were as tall as your hip. I left dinner without even telling my family where I was going and got to Notre Dame jus in time to watch the final 15 minutes of the first half. I was fortunate to see both National Championships live in Cary, NC six years apart. Hanging out on the same sideline but with a different group of parents. And of course I will always remember the countless Notre Dame vs. North Carolina games that I have seen both in South Bend and in Chapel Hill. The greatest rivalry in college soccer, folks. No doubt about it. I think even UNC fans who may not have liked Waldrum or players like Kerri Hanks will probably admit that the rivalry between these two great soccer schools was unmatched. So as a true Notre Dame fan and a religious follower of the Notre Dame women's soccer program, I want to say: Thanks Randy for the many memories, for the countless victories, for the NCAA Championships, but most of all for recruiting good kids, instilling honor and character in the program and for caring that when your players leave Notre Dame they leave with future in hand. http://www.und.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/020314aaa.html
I hope we can hear something soon on the new coach front. The women's soccer landscape has changed considerably since Randy Waldrum interviewed some 14 or 15 years ago. There are more women's programs now in the NCAA Div 1 and Div 2. There are many more qualified coaches out there. The talent level now is more evenly distributed among schools. You have more powerhouses now then just UND and UNC. Notre Dame is in the ACC On one hand it may not be as easy to pry away a coach from his current comfortable position, but on the other hand there are more quality coaches to choose from. UND is now in the ACC - to some coaches that could be a magnet, to others it may be a negative. Some coaches may look at coaching in the ACC as going against the best week in and week out and knowing that you will always get to recruit among the best talent in the country. Other coaches may look at it as why should I leave my comfortable position in my mid-level conference school where all I need to do is keep my team above .500 and I get to keep my job - to the ACC where any game could be a win...or any game could be a loss. With now more talent in the women's college game there are more quality programs around the country including in "better quality of living climates/areas". Although many of us feel that Notre Dame is a special place, the winters can be difficult in Northwest Indiana and it may not be as easy to lure a coach and his family away from a comfortable job in let's say Texas, Florida or Southeast. I still feel Notre Dame is a special place and there are many good coaches out there. Randy Waldrum was pretty much an unknown back in 1998/1999. Go out there and get another Randy Waldrum.
How much risk would you be willing to take, if you were doing the hiring? That's what I ask myself when wondering about a new coach. So far, it seems like ND has gone with the top-down, no-risk approach. The allegedly serious contenders were each somebody that one could feel 100% confident that they could take ND to the championship game at some point. After exhausting names in that group (if that's what happens), it's all about taking a risk. There are lots of coaches that could win a majority of their games in the ACC, but would not make one feel confident that they'd get ND to a title game. IMO, many of the name thrown about fit into this group. There are also lots of coaches that one would feel are as equally likely to get to a tile game as to have a losing record. IMO, this would include professional coaches, college men's coaches, and young up-and-coming stars. I'd be surprised if ND hires somebody that we all feel can't get to a title game or can't win a majority of their ACC games.
I can see this being a difficult process for Notre Dame. For example: What have they told their recruits? For example, did they promise they would bring in a "big name"? Did they promise someone ND knows is capable of coaching to a win in the College Cup? Or someone who has coached players on their way to the National Team? How does the move to the ACC factor in? For many years, there was complaining that the Big East was a fairly soft conference, as a whole, and that Notre Dame benefited from this in NCAA Tournament seeding. To their credit, their record in the Tournament was a good response to the complaints. But now, in the ACC, they may have poorer records and rankings and get poorer treatment from the Women's Soccer Committee because of that. If I'm a coach, given Notre Dame's history, do I want to be taking over a situation (get blamed for a situation) in which it looks like the program has tailed off when really all that has happened is a shift to a much, much stronger conference? Recruiting has gotten more and more difficult. This may become even more true if the NWSL remains successful, as players with professional aspirations will be going where they can get playing time starting with their freshman years. (I suspect this may have had something to do with Jerry Smith's willingness to at least consider Notre Dame -- his experiencing, at Santa Clara, how hard it has become to recruit at the level he once was used to.) And, with the pool of excellent players growing, it is becoming harder for any team to greatly differentiate itself from the pool of top tier teams. This in turn has made it more and more difficult for any team to stay at or near the very top for a prolonged period of time; and it's likely this will become more the case in the future. This is another factor a potential coaching candidate might consider -- do I want to be remembered as the one who coached Notre Dame as the program tailed off when in fact it had nothing to do with my coaching but rather was part of the evolutionary growth of college women's soccer? I know a lot of coaches have big egos -- they have to -- but wouldn't a lot of them think twice before taking on this situation, notwithstanding the level of the program and the Notre Dame cachet?
I have no problem imagining that there are a lot of coaches (maybe even a majority) on ND's wish-list that would not want to take the job. For example, they might be happy where they are currently working or it might just be a bad time to uproot a family. My guess is the coach ND hires will leave a good job for one of these reasons: (a) they're just no longer happy where they are right now (it could be a personal reason or a change in administration) and ND is as good a place to land as any other top-tier school, (b) they believe they will be happier at ND than anywhere else (it's their "dream" job), (c) they want to win a national title (or otherwise prove themselves at a very high level) and believe that their chance of doing so is much greater at ND than where they are right now, or (d) they would like more financial security and ND's offer isn't matched by their current employer.
So no word yet. They haven't even announced their Spring Schedule yet. I know that they play the Chicago Red Stars on April 2nd but only because it's on the CRS web site. How long will this search for a coach go on?
As long as it needs to I suspect. Realistically given the unexpected nature of Waldrum's resignation this hasn't been all that long.
I have a feeling that someone like an Erin Chastain or Marcie Jobson may be hired for this coaching job
Well, Notre Dame has 12 male head coaches for men's sports for which the NCAA has championships and 0 female coaches for men's sports. It has 6 male coaches for women's sports and 5 female coaches for women's sports, not counting soccer since the head coaching position is vacant. That's 18 male head coaches and 5 female. So, is it going to be 19 male and 5 female? Or 18 male and 6 female? If I'm a Title IX attorney, the Notre Dame AD has got to explain to me why women can't coach men's sports at all, but men are at least as good as women at coaching women's sports. And, the AD isn't going to be able to say that men are better objectively at sports than women, because the question isn't who is better at playing but rather who is better at coaching. Interesting question: Is it legally valid to argue that women can't coach men's college sports because male high school recruits won't sign letters of intent to play for a woman head coach?
Would you be happy with Jobson? Have you ever seen Baylor play? Extremely hard to watch if you like the beautiful game. Easy if you are a MMA fan.
One would think if Randy is publicly supporting Dawn that she deserves a shot. Dave Nolan would be great but if he not going to move the why not Dawn? Randy would know if she is ready.
No. In terms of hiring a coach, the issue would be discrimination, not the ratio of male to female coaches. A 12-0 ratio does not provide a reason to believe that qualified female applicants applied to coach the men's teams and were not hired because they were women. When comparing men's teams to women's teams under Title IX with respect to coaching, the issue would be if one of the sexes got a different level of quality. There is no reason to believe that any ND coach (male or female) is a poor quality coach.
You're partly right and partly wrong. The issue definitely is whether there is discrimination. The first step in the process is to determine the sizes of the pools of potential coaches -- since, for example, there may be more in the pool of potential male coaches than in the female pool or vice versa. The second step is to determine if either group is underrepresented, which is based on the pool of potential coach sizes. If I'm a female coach who believes a school is discriminating against potential female coaches, I have the burden of showing that female coaches are underrepresented. I use statistics to show that. If the statistics show female coaches are underrepresented, then the burden shifts to the school to show that there are good reasons -- other than discrimination -- why female coaches are underrepresented. I suspect a good number of schools either don't think they can meet this last burden or they don't want to have to go through the process of meeting it (it can be an expensive process). It's one of the reasons I posed the question whether it would be a good legal defense for a school to say, "Women are statistically underrepresented because high school males won't sign letters of intent to play for female coaches." That might be an explanation a school would want to give and perhaps it would be factually correct. But, it might not be sufficient legally.
Dawn.... No. Nice person but has never lead a team. Not club, not odp, not even at their summer camps. Again, I love summer camps with her but would not bea leader.