Old topic, but talking to some RSL fans, they were quite disappointed with Waibel's departure, but a lot of it was tied into the Mike Petke situation. Waibel didn't want to fire Petke, but suspend him instead and put him into a tolerance class. Their owner is a jack ass though from what I've heard. I would take Waibel as our GM with open arms.
Loved the guy! We were season ticket holders at Spartan when he played. At first, didn't think the skill was all that, but, his corazon was his ticket! We all grew to love the guy. Someone in our section started yelling "WEYYYYY-BELLLLL!" and that became the chant when he kicked ass. At one point, he was the guest speaker at our MHYSL opening day ceremonies. All the teams and families were gathered on the fields at Chaboya Middle School when he was introduced to the crowd by our president. As everyone applauded and as he walked to the podium, I instinctively yelled out (to the amusement of the two teams I coached at the time), WEYYYY_BELLLLL! He immediately looked over in our direction, laughed, then went into his speech. Afterwards, he made a beeline towards us and gave me and my wife a big hug! Said he loved hearing that chant when he played! I truly hope he has a position in MLS for some time to come and would be honored to have him end up with the Quakes. I fully support former players in FO positions. They are (especially Craig) they real deal...
Anyone have an update with the investigation stuff that was going on with Petke/RSL 2 years ago? Waibel had to testify last I heard.
I used to teach at Laurelwood School in the Evergreen School District in San Jose and brought EQ players in for assemblies every year. One we can learn a lot about their personalities from their public appearances. Craig was one of the best. He is one of the guys who sincerely believe that players get as much from the appearances as the audience does. He said that some players don't realize how short their careers are and that interaction with fans during that time is fulfilling and makes everything so much more worthwhile. Here is a photo from one of his appearances with Ching and Mullan at Laurelwood school. You'll note that it is Waibel who has the emcee job, which also tells you something about him.
That's awesome. Those 3 were always tied with each other, I assume it was the LA connection. I also love reading old stories about people that were apart of this team.
May 23, 2003. In post #108 I'm wearing a dark blue EQ cap and shirt which say 2001 champions. In the other pictures you'll see a teacher from our staff I talked into participating, because she had played at USC.
Waibel is an HOFer for the Huskies. Wish he was here long enough to enter ours. He was a true Quake. Also a Jamie Clark Cameo in the video
Wish Leitch is composed like Waibel and more direct. I like everyone on our staff but damn Leitch. A nice little interview. He talks about upgrading every position from what they have and identifying players who provide depth and competition at every position. He also talks about the absolute need to find left sided players as their hard to come by that are quality. He talks about the need to develop youth players, loan them out and get them game time and development plans. They don't want exits for them as the end goal, but the end goal to bring them back and have them be highly important parts of the 1st team. I really wish we had an opportunity to snag him as a GM. He's very accessible to the fans and media. A lot of Sounders fans seem to say he's an upgrade over Lagerwey which says something. He's a former Quake legend, and sadly he's working for Seattle, but I do wish him nothing but success except against us. He talks about the Club World Cup. It's a really nice interview to listen to.
Interesting that the Sounders dumped left footed homegrown center back Eric Kinzner. There was a time not that long ago that Kinzner was considered better than the Quakes’ Casey Walls. Seems shortsighted to give up on a big guy that young. Left footed guys are not that easy to find.
But as with a lot of guys if they aren't developing at the rate you need and they feel progression isn't there then of course you let them go. It could have been mutual as well. Not sure. He also left the Defiance on a free transfer, he wasn't apart of the senior squad.
Hey! I’m left-footed! But, kind of long of tooth, and slow, and not terribly skilled, even when I was young.
I am left-footed, too, and fastest and fittest guy on my team when young. But I was truly terribly skilled.
LooooL I had to go back and re-read this 3 times to make sure it didnt say 'Fattest and Fittest in the same sentence.