Maryland shouldn't be on the hot seat. They absolutely botched their last hiring process and because of the wait lost all their recruits. This is a sport that recruits sophomores and freshmen. So if you come in and have no recruits for the next 2-3 years you're screwed. I'm not a Leone fan, he did all right at Harvard obviously, but kind of a standoffish guy. But in his defense I will say more time is needed. I believe he got a 5- or 6-year deal and he can't be judged until year 5 given what he inherited. That administration that did that process have shown over time how foolish they were to let it drag on like that and their lack of success is on them rather than the coach. That was a disaster Leone took over and they're still dealing with the effects. Speaking of disasters: Syracuse. Should they just get rid of women’s soccer? They have shown they don’t care a bit so why keep it. Looks like they don’t carry baseball which other ACC schools do have. Maybe delete women’s soccer as a sport Syracuse shouldn’t carry since they don’t give a damn about it. They are so far behind and as the Maryland debacle has shown they will fall even further, which somehow is even hard to imagine given where they are right now. Syracuse offered the gig to the Western Michigan coach which was asinine. And then she turned it down making the administration there look even more foolish. Then it was offered to the Northeastern coach which would have been a decent hire on paper, but she turned it down. No idea what they do now. Absolutely clueless in the whole process. Been 3 ½ months now and no end in sight. The other direction they could have gone is done what Pitt did which I can respect. Go for a big name, a male, and pay big $. But that won’t happen at Syracuse it appears. Pitt actually cares and will pass Syracuse in stature simply because they give a damn. And Pitt has a record of 1-28-1 in the last 3 years in the ACC (!!!) and they will still fare better than Syracuse simply because at least they have a plan in place. Pitt will still struggle to win and their incoming recruits are well below ACC level but their administration is allowing for them to at least make an attempt to win. They have recruits for 2020 and 2021 – not ACC level, but can at least field a team which is ridiculous that is even a “thing”.
You have every ACC coach gasping with excitement. A goalkeeper coach, who since joining Mizzou has seen the program digress. Only previous college experience was the 2nd assistant at a horrible N Florida program and volunteer at Mizzou. Sounds perfect to make things better at Syracuse lol. If this is the case, Syracuse stuck to their guns of hiring a female and the 27th one they called finally accepted the job.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/new...coach-derek-leader-ruling-by-fear/2550530002/ Very interesting read about GCU
Here is another article from the same publication: https://www.azcentral.com/story/new...s-allege-abuse-coach-derek-leader/2821897002/ This is worth noting in the article that I posted: Some current and former players disputed the criticisms of the coaches in interviews and emails to The Republic. They said Leader and Rutledge are caring and professional and that they pushed players to become better student-athletes. “My experience was all good," said McKenzie Cook, who played on the team from 2015 to 2018 and recently graduated. There are two or more sides to every story. It would be interesting to look at the stats and see how much playing time the accusers received vs those that stated there was no issue and supported the coaches. Other variables may have gone on "behind the scenes" and were things that all were not privy to. Things like parents being overbearing and meddlesome, etc.
Agree with play simple there is 2 sides to the story, players and parents do have a tendency to ‘cry wolf’ when they don’t get there own way. But I can’t imagine Leader will escape the axe when it comes time for to renew his contract.
I read the WHOLE article and watched the video. While the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle, and I don't get the sense that Leader's actions fall too far outside the norm for D1 women's soccer, I think Leader's biggest issue is that GCU is a Christian University. Regardless of whether or not some things are acceptable in the bigger world of D1 athletics, I have a hard time believing that some of that behavior doesn't run contrary to the Christian mission of the school.
Remember...they fired the previous coach the spring after he won COY in the WAC. Also, they pay Schellas a ton of money on the men's side...TO WIN!! $2 million soccer stadium, need I say more!
Shocking. Just the fact these coaches would do things to these girls such as make them run hard, tell them how they need to be better, hold them to standards, and speak the occasional expletive (although the ******** you guys was a bit far) shows they cannot coach DI soccer. Let’s just allow the kids and parents to coach the GCU program. What a joke of a complaint from these people.
While I understand the sentiment in this post, saying "every ACC coach [will be] gasping with excitement" is dead wrong. It is in every conference's interest to have every conference team be successful in non-conference games.
Are you really that judgmental of a situation you know nothing about? If my daughter was forced to play or condition through injury when a doctor said she should not, I would have serious issue with the coaches. I have no idea if any or all of this is true. But if it is true, the coaches both need to go. Their word choices as alleged are not just 'cursing'. They are degrading, bullying, and immature. Totally lacking in leadership. The conditioning in 100 plus degree heat after a 6 hour bus ride after they lost a game is a sign of a coach who lacks emotional control. The university's embarrassing attempts to whitewash everything is what gave me great pause. Again, I have no idea what is true or what is not. But the athletes and parents were not wrong IF their allegations are true. Collegewhispers I thought you were better than that.
It’s BS. As college coaches we are not able to make someone run/play soccer if they haven’t been cleared by a doctor. If a trainer tells a coach an athlete is not medically cleared they simply can’t do anything. The article seems to state more people support the coaches than don’t- basically the majority don’t think anything unreasonable has occurred and you have the whiners who can’t deal with some adversity complaining.
Shameful response. You judge a situation you know nothing about. The article said they had to play through injury. You choose to disbelieve that, yet believe the supporters. You pick and choose. You do not work there. Doctors are not a training. Doctors do not travel with the soccer team typically. So you do not know if that situation occurred or not. As a coach (or perhaps friend of this particular coach) you are defensive. None of us know what happened. You are naive though if you think the players are not under pressure to publicly support the coaches. The coaches have power over them.
On the Grand Canyon situation, looking at past playing stats, some of the complaining players may have had their playing time reduced under Leader. Two of them, however, were regular starting players although at least one of the two appears to have had her career cut short by an injury.
lets start a different thread for the GCU story. Obviously he is safe according to the school so the story has nothing to do with this topic. Its fine to discuss just start a new thread
It's 2019, not 1950. He deny them water and give them salt tablets too? Way to many "Nice" coaches out there in 2019 to put up with meat head coaches...
CW is actually pretty accurate in what they are saying. A lot of these accusations are false or exaggerated. And just because a doctor is not present if the athletes haven’t been cleared they cannot participate as they have these people called athletic trainers as practices and they don’t/can’t let athletes do anything if they aren’t medically cleared. As has also been pointed out seems like they are safe- if there were more to this the dept would have removed the staff.
The ACC does not need Syracuse to be good. They already had their 11th place team make the NCAA tournament this past season. I doubt Mark and Anson are losing any sleep over who Syracuse hires. In other cases I would agree the conference wants the best coach to be hired for the bottom team, just don't think that is the case with the beast that is the ACC.
You are not accurate. And, incredible that you would declare the accusations false or exaggerated when you were not there. Perhaps you both are too close to the coaches in this situation to observe objectively. A coach can certainly force a player to train against a doctors orders if no one is there (or has the backbone) to stop it. You act like everyone follows directions and rules. Again, I have no clue if this is true. But for you and CW just to assume every coach follows protocol is absurd. You hear this happen all the time in sports where coaches ignore trainers or doctors. Look at the trainers who have looked the other way in the deaths of football players at workouts. See Maryland football as Exihibit 1. As for the university, they have financial reasons to stand behind the coach. His multi-year contract, and the threats of legal action by the families. The AD may also be a buddy of the coach. To say they would get rid of him if the allegations are true is naive. Again, I have no idea if any of this is true. But I certainly do not take a side when I was not a part of the situation.
Yes let’s move on before someone bursts a blood vessel in defense of these poor athletes! Staying with Grand Canyon, aside from this incident I do think this seat it fairly hot as they have massive expectations to win there and the staff haven’t produced. So I would perhaps add them to the hot list for this fall unless things improve or the coach has a long contract.