It about that time of year !! Who's in - Who's out in college coaching !!

The thing is , you are in essence signing professionals and/or players who couldn't make it as pros. I lived in Italy and worked in the Serie A, B & C and I do not believe any of those 21-24 year old players are far more superior to our American born players. Its just not true, unless they are professionals and if they are in fact pros, then they shouldn't have anything to do with the NCAA. Also, how can a foreign player that age not have flirted with or been a pro at one point or another? If you are that age and playing abroad that means you are playing in division 1-6 and these are in fact professional divisions. If that is the case, then coaches are going against NCAA rules! The NCAA rules are so strict you can't even take a kid out to dinner and pay for it without breaking the rules and you are telling me these so called 21-24 year old's never made any money playing soccer? You can't even have our players play in the PDL without gong against the rules and then they can sign these dudes? How would or could you know if they were ever pros or not and what are they doing at that age if they haven't tried to be a professional?

I mean maybe American players have different skills , styles and to a certain respect and different training regimens but I do not believe players 18-22 in this day and age are any better or any worse than their counterparts from abroad and no one will convince me of this either. This isn't 1970's and early 80's University of San Francisco where Steve Negoesco had to sign all foreigners, this is 2012! We have so much talent in our youth systems its not even funny! Way more in my opinion than anyone from abroad.

 

The foreign player route works for a lot of college coaches for 3 reasons:
1) It is easy. They just have their contact in the foreign country come up with a list of players and positions and then the school often helps by having scholarship money available for foreign nationals. This is easier then actually getting out there and scouting / recruiting US born players.
2) Athletic directors and university officials often know very little about soccer and thus often believe that getting foreign players means they are getting higher class players. So it makes the coach look good in these person's eyes getting these supposedly superior players as recruits.
3) The NCAA does very little checking into the background of foreign soccer players so unless someone files a complaint, you can recruit semi-proferssional foreign players with little risk. Of course some schools have been caught at this (West Virginia, Virginia Tech, etc.) but as you state above, there is very little chance a 22 year od freshman from a foreign country has not been paid at least something for playing soccer (unless he is not very good and should not be a recruit to begin with)

I personally think there should be a limit of say 3-5 foreign born players per team roster. That would open up many more opportunities for US born players and help soccer overall in the US.

 

I'm surprised the NCAA does little checking when it comes to foreign talent because the point is, if they are scouting players 19-23 in a foreign country, what types of players are they scouting if not professionals? No other nation on earth really has amateur players beyond the age of 17-18 and if they are amateur, they aren't as good as the NCAA collegiate players are and nowhere near the level our Dallas Cup Youth players are as they IMHO are far superior to those players. The rules the NCAA have in place clearly state no professionals so if that is the case, they are breaking every rule they created and are in violation of NCAA rules. Don't see how they can continue to get away with it in this day and age of easy access information. Very sad....

 

Alot of the top british players who come here have been at a proffesional club, the best ones do a YTS (youth team scholorship) from 16-18. After that you get a proffesional contract or you get released. The guys who do the YTS are exposed to the top facilities, coaches ect. They get to train and player reserve games with proffesional players. So to say these kids are not ahead of their us counterparts is crazy. They train everyday, and they do get paid but its only around $150-200 per week which for the sake of the ncaa can be written off as expenses, it does not make them proffesional. The truth is they have a place, smaller d1 schools arnt going to get the best americans but they can get international players that are just as good as the top us players and would be willing to their school. Off the top of my head here are some examples, dan stratford, andrew wright, tom dywer, matt watson

 

Not necessarily as I've seen many of these Euros and they aren't all that great. Either way, my point was mostly the 20 -23 year old's as opposed to the 16-18 year old's. Still whether they are better or not is besides the point because if as you say the foreign players are exposed to the top facilities, coaches and get to train and play in reserve games with and against professional players, then they are in direct violation of NCAA rules regardless because their American counterparts, are still not allowed to compete that way. From what I was told only a few college players get invited to train with pros and its on a very strict and limited basis, not more than 5 times a year otherwise they would lose their college eligibility and/or scholarships. Therefore, I don't see how signing these foreigners are within the rules.

 

Aslong as they do not sign a proffesional contract they are within the rules.

 

That isn't the only rule you have to abide by or follow but either way, how can anyone know if they aren't breaking the rules in other ways? I worked there and I know exactly how things work and we paid all the under 20's who were reserves in cash as well as their rents and other kick backs and yes they were better than our college players but that doesn't mean they aren't in violation of every NCAA rule imaginable.

My point is, there is no way that a foreign youth , reserve or academy team player especially one who has ties with a pro club has not already by the age of 17/18 broken an NCAA rule and/or made any money playing soccer. My cousin here at Cal had to follow every strict guideline in the book that the NCAA set forth and if he violated any one of those rules, he will have lost his scholarship. He couldn't even offer to take a teammate out to dinner without being in violation of NCAA rule so I have a hard time believing these Brits, Africans, French , Irishmen or whatever are not or have not already been in violation of at least one rule by the ages of 18-22/23. Its just not possible. You can argue there is a double standard because you have one set of rules for foreign players and another for domestic or that they lie and cheat their way onto a college program but either way, its still very wrong.

 

Before Caleb Porter took over at Akron, nobody believed they could get the best Americans. And not only did he get them, he got herds of them.

Now, I'm not arguing that every coach can do what Caleb Porter did, but at the same time, if you look at who a lot of the top Americans are, they're not that hard to land. The best American rookies in MLS this year included Nick DeLeon (started at UNLV), Austin Berry (Louisville), and Matt Hedges (started at Butler). Coming out of high school, none of them was an elite recruit, but some of the better coaches went out and found them.

 

or improved them them to raise their game to the elite level ....

 

Unfortunately, my - and most of the rest of us here - source for All Things Trask is someplace where my phone and Internet don't currently reach.

So, I hadn't heard that rumor. But, it's a good one and it makes a lot of sense since John and Caleb know each other well and John has the MLS experience that Caleb lacks.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Trask never slept on my couch.

 

I wonder if Seamus McFadden, the second-longest active tenured coach in D-I men's college soccer, will use this run by San Diego as a swansong and go out on a high note.

To be clear, I've heard nothing to suggest he is stepping down or USD is looking to replace him. I'm just thinking out lout, as it were.

But, he's pretty long in the tooth and several of his starters, including his son, are seniors so the odds of a repeat run anytime soon are, realistically, pretty slim.

So, maybe he sees this season as a nice final lap around the track and walks away, especially if they upset Georgetown this weekend.

 

His assistant is Brian Quinn, who would be a logical choice for head coach anywhere, but who is unlikely to leave San Diego.

 

Does Quinn have a degree?

It's completely possible he has earned one but he didn't play college soccer and his USD bio doesn't reference his education so until I hear otherwise, I'll assume he doesn't.

In this day and age, where many coaches have graduate degrees, there are very few colleges that will hire a head coach without at least a bachelor's.

I'm pretty sure the only head coach in D-I without a degree right now is Ed Kelly at Boston College.

Now, Quinn has a good pedigree as a player and decent pedigree as a coach. But it's still college soccer and almost every school is going to want its head coach to have a degree.

 

He was a below average coach with the San Jose Clash. He was hired to calm Eric Wynalda down but Quinn didn't do anything and Waldo ended up leaving and he compiled a 35-41 record over nearly three seasons and then was fired right before the end of the 1999 season in favor of Lothar Osiander. His son Aodhan Quinn is playing for Akron. Not sure what type of player he is though...

 

His son is quite good. However, I wonder if Christmas dinner will be forfeited from Brian taunting Aodhan.

If the game doesn't go into OT, I'll ask Brian if he has a degree or better yet, Sandon why don't you bike over.

 

Quinn elder played many seasons indoor for the San Diego Sockers, and was good enough that they retired his jersey and hired him as coach for a few years.

Quinn younger was a standout youth and high school player, and kind of a scrappy-midfielder nemesis for my sons. I was surprised he went to Bradley out of high school, and more surprised when he transferred to Akron.

Brian currently wears 3 coaching hats - Assistant Coach at USD, girls varsity coach at Bishops High School, and Director of Coaching at FC San Diego club. He also does some youth soccer work for Adidas.

An interesting situation for any young man and his parents being recruited by USD would be to ask why McFadden's son plays for USD and Quinn's son does not. I'd like to be a fly on the wall of the coach's office to hear their responses.

 

I remember Quinn when he played for the Montreal Manic in the NASL 30 years ago. Good outdoor player. He was contracted with the USSF from 1991-1994 as Bora Milutinovic was trying to build a cohesive unit in time for WC USA 94. He was cut from the final 22 man roster though and then was supposed to play in MLS but never did. He trained with the team in San Jose and looked good in training but never played in a game. He was an ok to below average coach but it wasn't all his fault as the team was pretty bad in those years and weren't really allowed by the league (who owned the franchise) to sign many top or even good players. The league was a little different then though as they only wanted NY & LA to win. Well maybe not that different.

 

Back on October 9, here in the BS WCC thread, Sandon Mibut called out Seamus McFadden for sitting on meager laurels:

Obviously, this critique stirred his Irish up, because look what happened!

Humor aside, this San Diego team obviously has plenty of talent--what it has lacked was putting it all together and driving it forward, and now they are doing that. There is no doubt a good story behind this, and I'm close enough to at least guess some of this story, but for that very reason I should hold my tongue. Independent journalist required!

 

As a USD fan, are you OK with one good run every 20 years followed by years and years of underachieving?

 

As a family member of a current player rather than an alum, I don't feel right making public comments about this. But I'm thrilled with what is happening right now and I'm very interested to read the comments of others.

 

Aodhan is and was a talented player. He is technical in both short and over range, covered a ton of ground, and had very good movement off the ball. His decision making on the ball was very good as well. He was on a lot of colleges recruiting radar. I could be wrong here, but I am almost positive he was an Adidas ESP kid. BQ did not want him to play at USD. It was a little too close to home. As for McFadden, he too tried to get his son to go somewhere else, the problem was, little McFadden played for a little known team (Rancho Panasquitos...am I making this up, I might be???) coached by Seamus. Seamus could have gotten tuition exchange for Connor at a number of schools, but there weren't a lot of takers. Connor is a fiery player. He competes hard, but in youth soccer lacked workrate off the ball. On the ball, he was a bit of magic. He really could make some things happen. Watching Seamus coach him was hilarious. Both hard headed and fiery!!!! It was fantastic!
On a personal level, I know both BQ and SMcF. Both are very warm personable people that are very intense competitors. It is my understanding that perhaps some players do not respond to it, but their teams always play hard. Playing against USD is always going to be a battle.
In fairness to USD (and all of the WCC schools and no I am not defending USD, USF, LMU, Gonzaga (dont even get me started there!!!), and SCU), the cost of tuition is difficult to deal with. All schools are fully funded, yes, and they could all do a bit better recruiting, yes, however, the real problem is depth. All of the schools have a decent enough starting 11, but the college season is long. An injury or two proves to be a very difficult thing in the WCC. The conference is also very direct, making the games very physical. Playing that way in a home and away conference is VERY demanding.
I am sure I will get slated for writing this, but whatever floats your boat...

As far as coaches in the WCC and West Coast in general, rumors are Einar is going to be out in GU, Viss is/was supposed to be on his way, but it looks like he has one more year (even that seems surprising). New AD as USF had given them an ultimatum before the season, should be interesting. Krumpe has one year left on contract at LMU, interesting to see what happens there next year.
If any of the left coast jobs open, I can almost guarantee you that it will be a hire from the Midwest or East Coast in almost any of these schools. Many E coast and MW schools were always chomping at the bit to get out to the west coast when I was on the recruiting trail.

 

If the Visser rumor is correct, it wouldn't surprise me if he sticks around. Next year's team should be the best they've had in a long while.

Perhaps it's still too soon to start discussing Pacific, but that's another WCC opening for the future. They're starting games in 2014, then joining the WCC in earnest in 2015.