That's a great refreshing perspective. I hadn't thought about it in those terms. Thanks for the insight. I should try to get on that train and not worry. (I was more concerned about the commitments which would keep this player in Northern Ireland until at least the 18th and possibly the 21st and the not get to campus here in NC until after the academic semester had already started and also already missing soccer practices since early August. Is such a schedule normal for these European players? My concern was for her adjustment to college life. I guess it will all work out one way or the other.)
A number of years ago, I did not like all the non-USA players in USA college sports. Then, one of the tennis players I coached in high school went to a DI school and was on their team. They had a good number of players from other countries. She told me it was a wonderful experience being on a team with players from other countries. Ever since then, I've thought about how great it is for college students -- in this case athletes -- to spend a significant number of their formative years in close relationships with students from other countries.
We got an official list. 9 new players this year, including two English internationals. Tar Heel Women's Soccer Adds Nine Newcomers For 2017 https://t.co/tJyS0uF0X2— UNC Women's Soccer (@uncwomenssoccer) June 21, 2017
I do believe that June 21 sets a new record of the latest date of UNC class announcement. (Recently, they've typically been in May or early June. This year it appears that they were waiting to finalize a back up keeper and after failures to locate anyone in the transfer market, settled on Sam DiSantis who was already an honor student at UNC and who played keeper at her high school in Hickory. The coaching staff was desperate to find a second keeper for this fall. However, if Sam Leshnak avoids injury, Sam DiSantis will see very little time in 2017, but is hugely valuable as keepers get injured more than field players. So welcome to Ms DiSantis. In 2018 Caludia Dickey arrives who will likely be the back up keeper, and in 2019 Marzia Josepheson shows up as Leshnak's eventual successor, and DIckey may actual end up playing in the field. I'm actually counting Taylor Otto as a member of this class. She matriculated in the spring of 2016 and now has attended two spring practices and scrimmages but hasn't as yet played in a varsity game as she as with the U20s las fall. Consequently, she has four years remaining. So counting Otto, this class should produce 4 starters although it may take until 2018 to get all of them on line at the same time. Defenders Wubben-Moy, Otto Taylor, and Emily Fox will all be competing with established defenders Julia Ashley, Maya Worth, and Jesse Scarpa who had a spectacular spring season at center back. However Scarpa and Fox may be moved up field which would leave four solid choices in the back. There's going to be a lot of positional experimenting throughout the season. It's going to be a fun and exciting season to see how the Heels gel come tournament time next November.
that's an almost impossible question to answer right now, probably even for Anson Dorrance himself, but I'll have fun with it. I'm making the assumption that the only injury that UNC will have to contend with come season start is Maggie Bill (ACL). I'm still hoping she recovers in time for the season, & if so she'd be my starting CB & Otto would probably shift over. \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Leshnak / / / / / / / / / / \ \ \ Ashley \ \ \ Otto / / / Worth / / / \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Fox / / / / / / / / / / / / / Russo \ \ Boyles / / Buckingham Andrzjewski \ \ Scarpa / / Redei
That's a good shot at it. I like Scarpa upfront, rather then on defense. You really think Boyles will be that good? I don't think one recovers to their old self after 2 acl tears.
tell that to Thomas Davis Sr. ... I firmly believed that not only will Joanna Boyles return from her ACL injury, but she will do so stronger than before and will give whoever has the first pick in the NWSL draft something serious to think about before they pick Andi Sullivan.
Like Babranski, I really don't know either. That question will NOT likely be decided until November with lots of experimentation before that.. One key question is where Scarpa will play. The smart money has her up front, but she has experience all over the field, and she is extremely effective at center back or in the midfield too. The answer to her position may eventually depend on how she plays with others around her. Will she better compliment Bridgette and Zoe, or will she be more effective interacting and communicating with the defense? We all say her on defense in her freshman year, and let me tell you I as very impressed at how she handled herself this spring a center back. I thought she was brilliant against the Courage in that role. On the other hand I liked her at holding mid as a frosh. However, to start the experimenting to open the season, for Palladino and Dorance's preferred three back I'll go with: ******************Sam Leshnak******************* Julia Ashley***Lotte Wubben-Moy***Otto Taylor **********Alessia Russo***Jesse Scarpa********* Emily Fox*********Jo Boyles****Megan Buckingham ****Bridgette Andrezjewski********Zoe Redei**** And when four backs are required: ******************Sam Leshnak******************* Julia Ashley***Otto Taylor***Lotte Wubben-Moy***Emily Fox **********Alessia Russo***Jesse Scarpa********* *******************Jo Boyles*************************** Bridgette Andrezjewski**Zoe Redei**Megan Buckingham From the very first game and as the season progresses we will, of course see other front line players. First on this list will be Dorian Bailey, Maya Worth, Annie Kingman, and Madison Shultz. We will also see a lot of Morgan Goff and Abby Elinski. These six should be part of the regular rotation, and have a chance of ending up starting by the end of the season depending on how they show up and whether the early season starters falter of are injured. For specific duties Ru Mucherera, Alex Kimball, and Kasey Parker will come off the bench. It will be interesting to see who else steps up. Some of the rest of the freshmen may surprise or maybe red shirt, and then there is the possibility that Kate Morris will blossom this year. (Unfortunately, I don't think that we'll see Maggie Bill this fall.)
Everyone is assuming that the English girls are going to be game changers. I would be careful with getting your expectations too elevated with these two. There are lots of English girls playing in D1 that you never hear about because they just aren't that good relative to the American talent. Let's hope they are the real deal! Also, Anson loves Annie Kingman. I have a very difficult time believing that she will not be in the starting lineup even if Jo Boyles is back.
I'm convinced Anson will want Scarpa on the front line after what happened last year. They won't feel the need to bring up Elinsky or Worth for their "fight" except maybe to spell Scarpa. I'm really hopefully that Kingman gets a look at right midfield. Castleberry's old spot will probably be the most competed for starting position on this team. Russo? Fox? Kimball? Kingman? Elinsky? Goff?
Point well taken. I originally had Dorian at right half before I learned of Russo's identity. I am led to believe that she is the "real deal' as you say. It may be that Wubben-Moy may be the weaker of the two. But my first instinct that Dorian would start may yet prove to be correct. And your point here also strengthens what I have said many times in the past, that it is always a wonderful surprise to see in the fall who, over the summer, has somehow (athletically, mentally, or with fitness) dramatically improved and just comes into the fall like gang busters and nails down her starting spot! We just don't know who that might be. Of the six players I listed as clearly part of the on field rotation, all have the potential to be that player, or players. (Remember last year when from the first whistle of the pre-season game against Missouri it was immediately obvious that Lindsey Harris had surprisingly jumped up over the summer to be a dominant force --which she remained for the rest of her spectacular senior season? It does happen!)
Holy Bleep, Bat Man! The UNC Nike classic is now featuring Grambling State University. So the rumors were apparently true that due to the HB2 kerfuffle UCLA backed out of their agreement to come play with UNC and Duke for the weekend. Grambling was apparently still available late in the process and UNC finally now has a schedule. So its Duke vs UNC and Xavier vs Grambling on Friday and Duke vs Xavier and UNC vs Grambling on Sunday So in terms of rpi considerations, either UNC lost the arm wrestle with Duke, or just graciously decided to take on Grambling on the second day. (It's their tournament, after all.)
The schedule in general, even before this new wrinkle, was pretty weak. On one hand, it makes me think the UNC coaching staff were so confident in the team they will have this year that they won't have to rely on RPI.
Before UCLA pulled out, the non conference schedule was not all that bad with Duke, UCLA, Penn State, as potentially top ten teams, Auburn will (hopefully) be a top 80 and yield the bonus points too. (They were a rpi top 20 last year, but lost a lot of firepower.) So as it stands now, Duke, Penn State, and Auburn may help and UCF and UNC-W will hopefully be rpi neutral, and Grambling will hurt. There is a non conference slot on the schedule which may yet be announced. The Heels ACC schedule is missing Pitt, NCSU, and Duke this year.
If you can remember, after the season remind me to run UNC and Xavier schedules without Grambling and I'll give you a comparison of the two teams' RPIs with and without Grambling. It will be interesting to see how they compare.
Yes, that should be interesting --especially if some of the runs include a comparison which includes a win, loss, or tie with UCLA.
As a Californian, I apologize and am thoroughly embarrassed that UCLA was dropped from your schedule. Political garbage has no place in NCAA sports.
@Glove Stinks At the risk of getting in trouble for posting, I humbly disagree. Sports has always been a platform to affect political change. UCLA is the school that Jackie Robinson attended. How different things would be if politics didn't get involved with his case. I'm pretty sure the players are good with it. What has no place in NCAA sports is discrimination. Both schools knew this in advance as the law went into effect at the end of last year so nothing to be embarrassed about. The team is all about equality as I would imagine your daughter's team is all about too. With all due respect, if I was you I would worry about what $C is going to do about them on November 3rd. Please don't apologize for something that you clearly are against. If you have a problem with the California rules there are plenty of red states with archaic laws.
I'm all for equality. And I am not knocking UCLA. I am simply saying the idiots in our state capital should not have a say in where collegiate sports should or should not be played. Doesn't politics rear its ugly, rediculous head in enough things already? It doesn't belong in college athletics.
First, let me note that I personally have appreciated both Really? and Glove Stinks for their many posts over the couple of years. Good work on that, guys. Nuff said. Controversial changing social issues and resulting political maneuvers using sports as a platform have been around for at least 150 years. We who populate these forums are primarily interested in sport, but have to deal with social issues from time to time as they affect our favorite sport. In this case, I think that we can all agree that the three schools involved in this little scheduling triangle are all innocent pawns. Bear in mind that UNC and UCLA have for years been scheduling each other on an alternating home-and-away basis. This year it was UCLA's turn to come east and the scheduling was done in good faith way in advance probably thinking that California would remove NC from the banned list after the "repeal" of HB2 was complete. And then it turned out that the NC legislature forced a "compromise" for their willingness to get rid of the unpopular bill by continuing the portion that bans any county or municipality from passing it's own anti-discrimination bill and consequently California continues its ban of travel to NC. Was this a surprise that UCLA and UNC could have predicted? That is debatable, but the consequence was that UNC had to do some very late scrambling to find a replacement team that was free that weekend. I suspect that Grambling was not the first choice, but that is how things have worked out. (UCLA picked up Long Beach State and SanDiego State for that opening weekend which worked out OK for them rpi-wise.) Bottom line, there are no villians in the soccer scheduling end of this adventure here. Cheers!
No public entity and, ahem, "non-profit" (tax-shielded NCAA) has a right to impose a private boycott, As far as (semi)private schools. If they don't accept >0 dollars via Federal grant and student aid, fine, do what they wish. how many seconds would it take the Supreme Court to rule "unconstitutional" if the public library stopped rentals to a certain demographic because return rates were low/late for that demographic? Regarding Grambling, it's a great opportunity for them, real treat. Dorrance is like Coach K, soft spot for the unheralded. But he's going to have to keep the dogs off somehow. RPI, schmar-p-eye. UNC will get a first round regional cupcake (Big South, etc.) then RPI means zilch during >2nd round penalty kicks.
Clearly you don't understand what you are talking about. The state of California will not pay for travel to 8 states for any of it's entities. The University of California and Cal State systems are included. It has nothing to do with a non-profit. So whatever nonsense you are spewing it is completely untrue, off topic and irrelevant. Please stop trying to use legal justification because you clearly aren't an attorney.