Whether or not COVID was a significant catalyst (it likely was/is), coaching at any collegiate level has evolved to take over one’s life. It is not the same job it was a decade ago. I wouldn’t blame any specific entity (I.e. players or administrator), the job has just evolved - or maybe devolved - as higher education has, into a very different position. As is pertains to golf, might I humbly recommend Bay Harbor and the lesser known Boyne Highlands resort!
SIU just needed someone to rebuild the program, they don't really care about violations. The previous AD was recently fired, partly for hiring the Akron Compliance guy that had a NCAA show-cause penalty. Also, Matt Kupek the current interim AD has had his own scandals. While at UNC he had to reimburse 16k... apparently he used some of the foundation money to travel while having an affair.
You're a Michigander. I've picked up on a few things you've written in the past and thought that you might be. Your "Sledhead" moniker now makes a lot of sense to me. Boyne Highlands is where I learned to ski. I've skied a lot at Boyne Highlands & Mountain, as well as Nubs Nobs, all in that same area. I've also spent long days at Caberfae, Crystal, and even on the hill on the old landfill at Mt. Brighton. I now prefer to go up through Wisco to the ski areas in the UP like Mt Bohemia, Blackjack, and Porcupine. I wanted to go to college at Michigan Tech in Houghton because all students could ski Porcupine and there are miles of mountain biking trails nearby. Isle Royale is one of my favorite areas to backpack. The roads around Sleeping Bear and in the Leelanau Peninsula are some of my favorites to put a lot of miles in on my road bike. My family has had a cottage on Higgins Lake for years and that is where I learned to swim and water ski as a 5 year old. When we bought a place a while back I thought of getting something around the Petoskey/Harbor Springs area but we ended up getting something in the Colorado Front Range. Michigan is still my first love, though. It's like a giant playground. I hope that my kids' families and many generations after them get to spend as much time in Michigan as I did when growing up.
I know that.....but I have to agree that cpthomas is one of the people on this post whom I enjoy reading every day. Wanted them to know that.
Coaches come and go pretty often there. Petrucelli lasted 8 years even though he had only two winning seasons in the AAC, but the four coaches before him lasted 3, 4, 4, and 5 years.
Yeah, In rereading it I see that now. I probably would have been quicker on the uptake if it were in quotations.
Southeastern Louisiana filled https://lionsports.net/news/2022/3/...athan-gillespie-head-womens-soccer-coach.aspx
OPEN Southern Illinois San Jose State (2/6) Lamar (2/9) LIU (2/17) SMU (2/18) UTRGV (3/2) Sam Houston State (3/2) Grambling State (3/14) Holy Cross (3/14) UNC Charlotte (3/15) Filled Louisiana Tech - Steve Voltz (previous interim) Pacific - Danesha Adams and JJ Wozniak (previous interims) UK - Troy Fabiano (UW Milwaukee head) Georgia - Keidane McAlpine (USC head) Villanova - Samar Azem (Campbell head) Missouri State - Kirk Nelson (Missouri State associate HC) USC Upstate - Sharif Saber (Mount Olive HC) Maryland - Meghan Ryan Nemzer (Rutgers associate HC) Oral Roberts - Austin Risenhoover (Cal associate HC) Baylor - Michelle Lenard (Dallas Baptist HC) Austin Peay - Kim McGowan (Miami OH associate HC) Troy - Robert Lane (Georgia assistant) App State - Aimee Haywood (Queens HC) Wisconsin Green Bay - Julie Grutzner (previous assistant/interim HC) Tulsa - Jim Rhein (previous interim) Loyola Marymount - Chris Chamides (Cal State LA men's HC) Colorado College - Keri Sanchez (Illinois Wesleyan HC) UCLA - Margueritte Aozasa (Stanford assistant) Idaho State - Dustin Downey (former UIC assistant/interim) Texas A&M Commerce - Ashley Gordon (FC Dallas director/coach) Bellarmine - Paul Babba (UK assistant/interim) Saint Francis - Sara Yunez (St. Bonaventure assistant) Morehead State - Chris Fox (High Point associate HC) USC - Jane Alukonis (UCLA assistant) Campbell - Jeff Gross (UNCG associate HC) Mount St. Mary - Melissa Sherwood (Northwestern State associate HC) Lehigh - Lauren Calabrese (Lehigh associate HC) Texas State - Steve Holeman (Lamar HC) Fordham - Magnus Nilerud (Bridgeport HC) Western Illinois - Josée Primeau (associate HC) Houston - Jaime Frias (Virginia assistant) Albany - Sade Ayinde (Yale assistant) Air Force - Laura Busby (LSU assistant) Louisiana Lafayette - Chris McBride (Southeastern Louisiana HC) Wisconsin Milwaukee - Kevin Boyd (Washington State associate HC) Chicago State - Mario Felix (Southern Utah associate HC) East Carolina - Gary Higgins (Lenoir-Rhyne HC) Northern Illinois - Michael O'Neill (Saginaw Valley HC) Southern Illinois - Craig Roberts (Grambling State HC) Southeastern Louisiana - Nathan Gillespie (Southeastern Louisiana assistant)
OPEN Southern Illinois San Jose State (2/6) Lamar (2/9) LIU (2/17) SMU (2/18) UTRGV (3/2) Sam Houston State (3/2) Grambling State (3/14) Holy Cross (3/14) UNC Charlotte (3/15) Arkansas Little Rock (3/18) Filled Louisiana Tech - Steve Voltz (previous interim) Pacific - Danesha Adams and JJ Wozniak (previous interims) UK - Troy Fabiano (UW Milwaukee head) Georgia - Keidane McAlpine (USC head) Villanova - Samar Azem (Campbell head) Missouri State - Kirk Nelson (Missouri State associate HC) USC Upstate - Sharif Saber (Mount Olive HC) Maryland - Meghan Ryan Nemzer (Rutgers associate HC) Oral Roberts - Austin Risenhoover (Cal associate HC) Baylor - Michelle Lenard (Dallas Baptist HC) Austin Peay - Kim McGowan (Miami OH associate HC) Troy - Robert Lane (Georgia assistant) App State - Aimee Haywood (Queens HC) Wisconsin Green Bay - Julie Grutzner (previous assistant/interim HC) Tulsa - Jim Rhein (previous interim) Loyola Marymount - Chris Chamides (Cal State LA men's HC) Colorado College - Keri Sanchez (Illinois Wesleyan HC) UCLA - Margueritte Aozasa (Stanford assistant) Idaho State - Dustin Downey (former UIC assistant/interim) Texas A&M Commerce - Ashley Gordon (FC Dallas director/coach) Bellarmine - Paul Babba (UK assistant/interim) Saint Francis - Sara Yunez (St. Bonaventure assistant) Morehead State - Chris Fox (High Point associate HC) USC - Jane Alukonis (UCLA assistant) Campbell - Jeff Gross (UNCG associate HC) Mount St. Mary - Melissa Sherwood (Northwestern State associate HC) Lehigh - Lauren Calabrese (Lehigh associate HC) Texas State - Steve Holeman (Lamar HC) Fordham - Magnus Nilerud (Bridgeport HC) Western Illinois - Josée Primeau (associate HC) Houston - Jaime Frias (Virginia assistant) Albany - Sade Ayinde (Yale assistant) Air Force - Laura Busby (LSU assistant) Louisiana Lafayette - Chris McBride (Southeastern Louisiana HC) Wisconsin Milwaukee - Kevin Boyd (Washington State associate HC) Chicago State - Mario Felix (Southern Utah associate HC) East Carolina - Gary Higgins (Lenoir-Rhyne HC) Northern Illinois - Michael O'Neill (Saginaw Valley HC) Southern Illinois - Craig Roberts (Grambling State HC) Southeastern Louisiana - Nathan Gillespie (Southeastern Louisiana assistant) UTRGV - Mark Foster (Arkansas Little Rock HC)
Very strong contender for most questionable hire of the year. Only 2 yrs as a D2 GA ... < 3 yrs as a D1 AC ... winning record in only 1 of those 5 seasons ... now a D1 HC. Guess nobody at SLU cares about soccer.
All I can think of is he is already there and the team and admins like him. But yes on paper this is very underwhelming. There must surely have been better candidates that had applied.
OPEN San Jose State (2/6) Lamar (2/9) LIU (2/17) SMU (2/18) Sam Houston State (3/2) Grambling State (3/14) Holy Cross (3/14) UNC Charlotte (3/15) Arkansas Little Rock (3/18) Filled Louisiana Tech - Steve Voltz (previous interim) Pacific - Danesha Adams and JJ Wozniak (previous interims) UK - Troy Fabiano (UW Milwaukee head) Georgia - Keidane McAlpine (USC head) Villanova - Samar Azem (Campbell head) Missouri State - Kirk Nelson (Missouri State associate HC) USC Upstate - Sharif Saber (Mount Olive HC) Maryland - Meghan Ryan Nemzer (Rutgers associate HC) Oral Roberts - Austin Risenhoover (Cal associate HC) Baylor - Michelle Lenard (Dallas Baptist HC) Austin Peay - Kim McGowan (Miami OH associate HC) Troy - Robert Lane (Georgia assistant) App State - Aimee Haywood (Queens HC) Wisconsin Green Bay - Julie Grutzner (previous assistant/interim HC) Tulsa - Jim Rhein (previous interim) Loyola Marymount - Chris Chamides (Cal State LA men's HC) Colorado College - Keri Sanchez (Illinois Wesleyan HC) UCLA - Margueritte Aozasa (Stanford assistant) Idaho State - Dustin Downey (former UIC assistant/interim) Texas A&M Commerce - Ashley Gordon (FC Dallas director/coach) Bellarmine - Paul Babba (UK assistant/interim) Saint Francis - Sara Yunez (St. Bonaventure assistant) Morehead State - Chris Fox (High Point associate HC) USC - Jane Alukonis (UCLA assistant) Campbell - Jeff Gross (UNCG associate HC) Mount St. Mary - Melissa Sherwood (Northwestern State associate HC) Lehigh - Lauren Calabrese (Lehigh associate HC) Texas State - Steve Holeman (Lamar HC) Fordham - Magnus Nilerud (Bridgeport HC) Western Illinois - Josée Primeau (associate HC) Houston - Jaime Frias (Virginia assistant) Albany - Sade Ayinde (Yale assistant) Air Force - Laura Busby (LSU assistant) Louisiana Lafayette - Chris McBride (Southeastern Louisiana HC) Wisconsin Milwaukee - Kevin Boyd (Washington State associate HC) Chicago State - Mario Felix (Southern Utah associate HC) East Carolina - Gary Higgins (Lenoir-Rhyne HC) Northern Illinois - Michael O'Neill (Saginaw Valley HC) Southern Illinois - Craig Roberts (Grambling State HC) Southeastern Louisiana - Nathan Gillespie (Southeastern Louisiana assistant) UTRGV - Mark Foster (Arkansas Little Rock HC) Just needed to clean it up a bit, noticed I was a little sloppy not removing jobs. Traveling did that to me. Sorry.
I've coached in that conference before, and the big schools just bailed the last 2 seasons. Soccer is the last thing on those schools mind's.. this was an easy hire in a place that no one really knows about soccer. All the good teams The 6 schools that stayed will most likely play most SWAC nonconference schedules again... I think a reason maybe Tom Brown stepped away...
Wouldnt Little Rock be a better job? Guess I’m not too familiar with the locations of either school but Little Rock being in a better conference perhaps makes it better?
He wasn’t pushed out. He left. There’s a difference. School is a disaster. They don’t fund the programs, AD left. New one just came in and they bow to pressure from kids and families. KB decided he had enough. Job to avoid at all costs.
Lots of bad departments around the country and schools that struggle. I would say you can still win more than 1 game in a season regardless of funding and poor admins. Holy Cross is a good school with a good reputation academically.
They have very little funding and need to match need based aid if recruiting a player. Meaning, if a kid qualifies for 40K in need based aid, even if you only think she’s worth 20K, you have to give 40. Nowhere near fully funded (I think 9). No academic money. It’s a terrible job when you look under the hood, which is why their best year was a semifinal Patriot appearance along with a boatload of draws. The guy didn’t even have one recruiting class in, so it’s pretty tough to judge based on the previous coach’s players. Guess we won’t know now.
Ya'll saying its a challenge and hard to win almost makes me want to take the job Ya double dog dare me?