Haven't seen anyone comment on the recent addition to the staff announced last week. Thoughts? Tracey Bates Leone Returns To UNC As Women’s Soccer Assistant Coach https://goheels.com/news/2024/4/11/...turns-to-unc-as-womens-soccer-assistant-coach
I think that this is potentially a great move for UNC. Tracy is a highly experienced D-I college coach with decades each of head coach and assistant coach (and also a USWNT player for 5 years.) She is in the Clemson Hall of Fame for establishing the Women's team and has been awarded Coach of the Year accolade Coach of the Year while in the CAA. She is married to Ray Leone who also has been coaching for decades at various colleges. Ray is taking a coach position starting this year with the "United States Sports Academy" in Alabama, so her tenure at UNC may or may not be a long one.
If they are good enough to be a top level player in the NWSL, they will be even better after 1 to 4 years in a competitive college program. They will be highly rated and drafted at that time with what will surely be much better money. If they are not that good, they will have a college degree in hand with little to no debt. AGain forward thinking parents/recruits. Love your take on this, Tom, and will root for it happening, but I'll not be surprised to see the top players continue to be seduced by the prestige and money to go pro when they are 18.
Some no doubt do not like school and simply want to play soccer. Say goodbye to them. To those who are reasonably good at school, you hope that they have parents who can see the long game. Hopefully more will than won't, but we'll see. When they see a Jaedyn Shaw or Trinity Rodman succeed, they think they are that, but only a very small subset of them are!
I believe that Aven Alvarez is shown in an NCFC photo of graduating (‘24) seniors on FB on April 7th. I just grabbed a screenshot, but it seems to be too big to upload here. If you see it, I think she’s the one in the upper left (back row).
Brain fart..... Of course Olivia Thomas! Olivia has a place for sure. I'm trusting that after healing she has been focused on training to maneuver through a couple of good defenders at close range or feed a runner. Maddie Dahlein is a fast slashing type and may be the top scorer and Bella may fire away from her midfield place. And yes Liv Migli...her 4 years a Duke are an enigma. She was a 5'4" defender in club soccer and entered Duke as a forward for her freshman year. The Blue Devil's roster then showed she was a midfielder for her 2nd and 3rd years, and and then a defender in her 4th year. In her freshman year at Duke she scored 6 goals, one goal in her sophomore year and 4 goals in her junior year. She might shine for the Heels if she is 100% healthy and rearin' to go.
Players, parents, recruits, alumnae and donors, We had our final day of spring training yesterday. We played an 11v11 match against ourselves. I want to publicly thank the young men (Ross Butler, Cam Dinkenor, Keller Fraley, Jacob Franke, Kofi Jack, Quin McGuire, Odil Nazirov and Jonathan Sinclair) that jumped in to help us this spring. The 11v11 was women against seven men (Cam could not make it), Tierney McConnel and three female pros (Amber Brooks, Ade Gay and Libby Moore) … with liberal officiating, the barn burner of a game ended up 4-4 with the men winning on penalty kicks. Jonathan ran through the entire team a couple of times to score two; Jacob, free of goalkeeping responsibilities because of Ade Gay, scored two. For the women Maddie Dahlein, finally healthy after congenital bone issues in her foot was solved with surgery, scored two; Kate Faasse scored one; and Bella Sember scored one. The young men were not allowed to clean out the young women, so we stayed healthy ALL spring … thank you gentlemen! M’Liss hosted an end of spring party for EVERYONE, Nikki Nahas and the Brunners provided the deserts …. Thank you Nikki, Michelle and M’Liss! Finally, by the end of the spring season we got healthy, we had Tessa Dellarose our U-20 Nat’l Youth Team Player returned to us and we are now poised to embrace a fantastic collection of new and talented players this summer. The fall is all about team development. The spring is all about individual development. AND THIS SPRING’S INDIVIDAL DEVELOPMENT WAS RECORD BREAKING!! As a team we got faster and more technical. Nine players improved their vertical jump; eight players improved their agility; twelve players improved their acceleration; seven players improved their speed …. and these were all PERSONAL BESTS!! In technical testing … trapping, passing, shooting dribbling and heading … in fourteen different tests we had 106 personal bests. We are striking the ball with more power and serving it over greater distances. I want to thank Damon for the technical platforms he set up for us this spring (that were also incredibly fun!!) and Greg Gatz and Elena Cantu for helping us drive a great culture in our strength training. I also want to thank Brandi and her staff for keeping us healthy and helping us get healthy … we had only three young women out of practice yesterday. I know you will enjoy scrolling through everything below. Obviously, following our pros has been so much fun and now we can see every game it seems; and not just in the NWSL but also abroad. Our game is exploding!!! In an extraordinary recruiting moment for us, Tracey Bates Leone returned to Paradise. She left a head coaching position to return to Chapel Hill. If you look at her resume, she is off the carts … 3x collegiate National Champion, World Champion as a player AND a coach … tell me if there is anyone out there that can match this amazing young woman’s resume!?! On a personal note I want to thank the wonderful leadership at UNC that will honor my daughter at this year’s commencement. She gave the Eve Carson Lecture on campus and as her proud father, when that room embraced her I can’t tell you how excited I was. I want to publicly thank our chancellors and members of the UNC Board of Trustees who embraced her as well. Thank you!! Anson
Spring training is over which means prep for the new season starts!! Also I’m pretty sure UNC scrimmaged another NC school something State not NC. I saw it in a UNC Player’s instagram story. Aven looks the most likely to reclassify, knowing she already posted abt smth like it
Aven Alvarez & Trinity Armstrong will join UNC next season. Both great 2025 defenders who have reclassified
I hope I'm wrong or she's multi-positional, but ... I thought I saw Alvarez play in midfield for the Courage U23's?
I believe that in her YNT call-ups she has been a defender. The Heels will need two new defenders to start in the fall and it looks as though they will be Armstrong and Alverez. I'm assuming that DellaRose and Elgin will also start. Back-up on defense should be frosh Caitlin Mara and possibly Wojnovich. It will be real interesting to see who appears on the roster. Other than the expected 7 frosh and Migli, there will surely be several other new names.
Seems a bit crazy to speculate on, but considering the roster right now and June 15th coming up, any 2026s that would be great adds that could potentially reclassify and strengthen the 2025 class?
You have hit the nail on the head. I can't imagine that the staff hasn't been looking at that option. For the 2024 season, I would also expect that 3 or 4 more players will show up on the roster in August. Right now 12 players on are on the roster of which (in my opinion) 8 will likely start or play a significant role in the fall. From the incoming freshmen for sure, the two defenders (Armstrong and Alvarez) will certainly start and a midfielders (Pennie and Ullmark) will also see good PT. Gaetino, Ligli, and Tongberg will also see some time. But one never knows who will excel and surprise. Assuming that the above players will be healthy, Even with a small handful of losses in the ACC, I do not think that the Heels will have a losing season. Go Heels!
And a 2026 YNT player just reclassified and announced her commitment to FSU. Wouldn't be surprised to see UNC announce similar news this summer/fall.
We are most likely getting a goalie since it would be weird not having a backup GK, especially if Abby got injured or doesn’t deserve the starting spot
Wouldn’t be surprised if Anson goes for Kamryn Fuller which is Kennedy Fuller’s sister. 4 star recruit, good midfielder and is in 2026. Would be a very good pickup and maybe could reclassify like Kennedy did.
Projected Starting Lineup with current roster: Dahlien Thomas Sember Fasse Shores Pennie/Ulmark Alvarez Armstrong Dellarose Elgin Gundry Off the bench: Migli, Alexa W, Dominguez, Mara, Ullmark/Pennie, Reserves: Gaetino, Tongberg, Means, Smith Looks like a strong starting lineup but the bench could struggle
Certainly agree with your view of starters.... but I think that Ullmark will be a regular starter with Pennie coming off the bench. Looking at the starting forwards, no doubt that Dalien, Sember, and Thomas will be regular starters, but I am not sure in what formation. Dalien will be making runs from the left side while Thomas will be posted up on the right center looking for a feed. Sember has improved year after year and if she is now even better, she will certainly get time but in what formation I am not sure. What we are sorely missing is a good #10. Someone with top foot skills and a vision for sending in through balls. Maybe that will turn out to be someone like Migli or a new player we will only see in August, or, as I often say, to see someone like Libby Moore or Morgan Goff, who quietly went about sharpening their game and by their Senior years secured a starting spot and then went on to play pro... Perhaps this fall we'll see more than we imagined from dedicated UNC players?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15S05qg4X9R-OfNi7XUvy0DnvXL0rXiTih-HKMMFqdtg/edit Here is a link to a document I created with the unofficial roster for next year (it gets updated monthly) and shows the players who left from last season.
Thanks uncfan for this summary listing. To put into numbers regarding the 2023 soccer team roster: 10 signed pro contracts .....7 to the NWSL .....3 to international teams 9 to the portal and signed with other college teams .....6 made good moves to get playing time which they would likely not get if they stayed (2 are graduates) .....1 3-year starter went to play with her twin sister at Wake Forest .....2 made moves to top teams 12 remained on the roster and will be playing in the fall 1 known transfer in With regard to the 2024 class: 3 2024 UNC signees went pro (sigh) 7 are coming in with two top players who were 2025s who are now 2024s and will likely start as defenders 2 midfielders who should see significant PT.
Wouldn’t be surprised if we got a UNC club player knowing there was at least a player from club training with the team