I expect Ian will not win it since his competitors won their respective conferences. In fact I expect the Phoenix coach to win it even though Ian's success is the greater achievement since he was trying to serve 2 masters.
Good point. One could definitely see how an approach that involves only longer loans than "show up on the day" could work better. To me it would actually seem better for the players trying to develop too. I don't have any stats to back this up, but this season did feel like that although the team was still quite good, the quality of the performances was more all over the place because who was in the 18 and the 11 was a bit all over the place.
If it's true that Reno will be remade in Almeyda's image, and they sack Ian (which I would expect, because he doesn't run Almeyda's scheme), I expect Chris Leitch to go as well (or be sacked). Which means that a clever club can hire both Ian and CL giving them a GM and Head Coach combo who work well together and have a decent track record. I think it would suck for Reno 1868 and their fans if the Quakes take more control of the team. If the Quakes just bail out and affiliate with a new Monterey team, then Reno could carry on, if their owner is willing (or has his arm twisted into it). This is a messed up situation. Leitch more or less built Reno. That's been his project. He picked their staff, put Ian there, organized them and got them going. All of that pre-Jesse. So I guess it comes down to what Jesse thinks is best for SJ. The rumors aren't pretty. So, I expect that both Ian and ChrisL will either leave the organization or get the boot. If they go somewhere together it could be very good for wherever they land. Crap! Go Quakes!! Good luck Reno!! - Mark
I don’t believe either one will be fired. I can see Ian being lured away with a job offer from another club, but he will not be sent packing. Chris Leitch has completely overhauled the academy with the departure of Paul Holocher. The number of quality players he had been able to recruit with advice from Bruno Costa is extremely impressive. The best players from previous academy seasons were quitting and joining rival academies because of Holocher’s bungling. Look at the boy’s programs now. All age groups are on fire, from U-19s all the way down. Chris Leitch is delivering results at least as impressive as Ian Russell. Almeyda says he wants to tap the best players in Northern California and build the first team through them. Leitch is doing just that right now.
Paul Holocher wasn’t there long enough to screw up the academy. He got fired in 2014 from Cal Poly , went to Hawaii , came back in 2016 and lasted until Doyle or Kinnear got canned. I think he was gone when Stahre took over or at least soon after.
Not arguing, just looking for explanation... What is the evidence for this? Do you have insight into the talent at the academy? I don't think you can use signings of 14 year olds to the Quakes as evidence so you must have more information about players.
I do have connections to the academy. I watch every U-17 game either in person for home games or on tape for the away games. I can say that I’ve seen Bruno Costa and Chris Leitch at every home game and they seem to be there for the 15,17 and 19 games. That’s a huge time commitment of close to 6 hours of watching youth soccer live. Some weeks the teams will play back to back Saturday and Sunday. I’ve talked to parents that have returned with their sons after having left the Quakes Academy because of how poorly it was run in the past. They told stories of players being sent to anger management classes because they were screaming at each other in the middle of games and threatening to come to blows. I’ve heard that Paul Holocher was personally coaching some of the teams and they said he was very disorganized at practice, game plans were incoherent and in-game management and subs were a disaster. If you look at past academy results, you’ll notice that the De Anza Force has been one of the best academies in the country for results. This year several of their players have decided to play for San Jose. The best player I saw at Silicon Valley Soccer Academy has also joined. As have top players from Santa Cruz Breakers and even as far away as Sacramento Republic. Maybe it’s the Almeyda announcement that he wanted to use 80% of his player pool from the academy, but for whatever reason the Quakes have recruited by far their best talent in the academy’s history.
Chris Leitch was involved near the beginning of the academy and players and parents were happy with his structure. Thing is, Chris stated to get promoted quickly through the ranks, eventually even filling in as coach and GM for periods of time. When Holocher was hired Chris had already phased out of the academy operations and Holocher got busy creating affiliations with local club teams and coaches. New players from these partnerships came into the academy and they were not as good as players that were departing to other local teams. I saw instances where top local coaches were advising parents to send their sons to Seattle, LA Galaxy, or even RSL instead of playing for the Earthquakes.
Sounds good. On top of better organization by Chris, I'm sure the pull of Almeyda is strong. Particularly in the hispanic community as he is a well known as a great coach.
you realize that the Quakes' scouting method still consists of just one scout? That's pretty much the same as no scouting at all, these days.
That is very true. The Hispanic initiative actually was lead by Jesse and Chris right after Holocher left while Stahre was coaching. The Quakes started to really focus on building relationships with the Salinas area in particular. This was prior to Almeyda and the Vamos campaign. I think they took a look at the affiliation pipeline that Holocher had set up and realized the talent level was too low to be competitive. It still took a good year (and Almeyda’s arrival) for that pipeline to start to pay dividends. Emi Ochoa was playing for the Santa Cruz Breakers (Salinas legend Ramiro Corrales coaches there).
This might be someone to keep an eye on as a potential late bloomer at the forward position. He's the Pac-12 all-time leading scorer from Stanford. Just got released after two years as a homegrown player in Portland, where he only made two brief MLS appearances but scored 21 goals in two seasons for T2 in USL. We'll see how he does in Reno, but I think he's someone the Quakes will be looking at as more than just someone to fill out the USL squad. 2️⃣1️⃣ goals over the last two years, and he's joining the 2020 Reno attack.Welcome to Northern Nevada, Foster. Let's torment some keepers 🔥📰https://t.co/LKT2wnRcCP#AllForOurCity | #VamosAzules pic.twitter.com/wqgv13zsFJ— SK Holdings (@SKholdings_) January 24, 2020
I'm not going to say I think Donovan always behaved in ways I approved of. However, asking loyalty of a professional athlete is an extreme misplacement of expectations. And seeing how fans turn on players for nothing all the time, it's not as if we deserve that loyalty in the first place. Team owners sure as heck don't deserve it either.
Aiden Apodaca is back. He was solid as a forward last year. Will be good depth at the position I believe. https://www.reno1868fc.com/news_article/show/1081254
Ian Russell is a master of player acquisition. The Quakes lean heavily on him in Superdrafts. He does his own scouting and knows which players are most likely to develop into professional talents.