This is a fact, he's wanted to be closer to family, but they live in Iowa.. Great news for Mike, he's been a finalist for several jobs and actually had a HC option recently that he passed on. He's been working hard to be a HC and think he will do well at ND, definitely deserves this chance. His biggest challenge will be to see if he can keep that MN Thunder connection going.
I’m sure that has something to do with it but not sure how much closer North Dakota is to Iowa compared to Indiana. Yes I am speculating there may be another reason he may have wanted to leave based on what I have heard about Amy and what others say. Another positive Mike will bring to that position is his recruiting connections from being in the Big Ten. I can’t imagine North Dakota is the easiest place to recruit so he will need them.
Agreed. He will be a good hire for North Dakota State. Mike did a very good job at Drake and Indiana will miss him. The MN Thunder connection I agree is important. Cook built his team around the kids from that club so keeping the relationship with them will be massive.
Congratulations to him! Two good final candidates and he must have done a great job to beat the Minnesota assistant to the job.
I hear that Minnesota coach has applied to several jobs over the past 2 years and when the pool goes down to the finalist asks to be removed from consideration. I can name at least 6 jobs she has applied for and been in final pool.
Wow. Did not know it was so many. Cold feet? Not really interested? Family? Not good for her to pull out so often. From what I see online it looks as though the new coach is very excited to be there and grow the program. Looks like it was the right choice then.
Elon is open...he took the assistant job at Arkansas. Another successful mid-major (non-FBS football) coach leaves for a P5 assistant job...definitely a pay increase, too! Does anyone have any insight into what is going on at UNCW? Coach Cairney has been on administrative leave since December. Hope for the best for all involved.
Jessica Hiskey...played for them just a few yrs ago before a few yrs in Europe professionally. Pretty nice apprenticeship for no previous coaching experience, but always happy to see a former athlete stay at her Alma mater and get a start in coaching!
So, this coach clearly did not get the W&M job and was not retained by the new W&M coach as an asst, but the AD at W&M says glowing things about her? http://www.umbcretrievers.com/sports/wsoc/2017-18/releases/20180119mia1ze
There's no way the W&M AD doesn't see W&M as a higher level than UMBC; therefore, she might feel that the coach will be fine there, but is not ready for W&M. In any case, that public statement of support is just a decent thing to do.
Wait, what.....Ark hires an asst with 13 yrs D1 experience as a HC, plus 8 as an asst and Ole Miss hires an asst with 0 yrs coaching experience?
Word on the street was that Ole Miss had to hire a female and less than 10 out of the 100 or so applicants were female...
As a men’s and women’s HC I have hired for a few different positions over the past 10-15 years. I’ve been on a few search committees helping hire Women’s heads and have also hired my own assistants on the women’s side. I can say that this number is pretty standard. Usually less than 10% of applicants are female, but never any more than 15%, in my experience. I’m sure some jobs get more/less than others but this seems to be standard. Same with coaching courses. Usually 10 but no more than 20 percent of attendees are females. Would be interesting to see others experience with this. Not sure what the situation is at Ole Miss...but seems like a convenient hire. Last time they hired an AC, they had the position “filled” (as many schools do) before they posted nationally, don’t know what happened here, but not altogether surprising. A little different than the hires at MS State and Arkansas, but at least she knows the program.
Didn’t someone say above that she just got back from playing overseas for a few years? 3/4 of college coaching is recruiting. Maybe part of a hire like this is to open recruiting pipelines wherever she was playing. Not saying she isn’t or can’t be a great coach, I don’t know her. But that’s where my first thought when when reading about the hire.
If I remember correctly, his last female hire wasn't even a soccer coach. She had never coached soccer before. She was a color analyst and strength and conditioning coach. Their are certainly some really talented, experienced and competent female coaches out there.
musical chairs soccer "HC experience" = prior failures/terminations. Red flag. It's partly why several mid-level HCs see the light and apply for P5 AC.
There are a lot of talented coaches male and female but sometimes talent goes out the window and admins just want a female. What they don’t realize is at times making these hires just based on gender can kill and program and the experience of a student athlete. The Incarnate Word hire I believe is just an example of the appalling nature of just hiring someone based on gender rather than abi
Lity. This can also apply to assistant hiring too. I’ve never been shy about my perception of the Texas staff and always felt they hired Sanchez based on her career and gender rather than ability. One of my buddies said the North Dakota coach and Northwestern coach were at a camp with her and ‘couldn’t believe’ she is a college coach.