I was shocked when I saw this, as I thought this year was a good one for them. But then I read the release, and this tells the clear story: Lesesne spent seven seasons as head coach of the Bulldog soccer program, compiling a 43-64-18 overall record and 18-41-10 mark against Southeastern Conference opponents. Lesesne was in the final year of his contract.
The interesting thing is the whole staff at Georgia is gone. Don’t know if the assistants made the choice or the school did, but I can’t remember the last time I saw that. They list an associate AD as point of contact and have a director of ops still listed on the website, but other than that the cupboard is bare.
I don't know much about Bakersfield but I don't think the culture is good there or the coach is well liked or they wouldn't have double digit girls in the portal.
Yes they let all 4 coaching staff members go. National search is on for the next HC right now. I would think that a few big names might like to try their hand in the SEC. Will def follow this one and interested in who they hire.
not sure 100% some of those players on the portal are looking at graduate school, which many teams are doing, not bringing back those who have finished their undergraduate degree. This often has nothing to do with culture but with finances or a better player has been identified..or the player themselves wants to play her graduate season at a different university.
Other possibility, player is looking at grad programs for specific careers after college and their current school doesn't offer it. Not always about the soccer for those 5th years!
Looking at the portal, all but a few are underclassman, mostly upcoming sophomores that just had their first seasons due to no Big West play in 2020 or Spring. That is what leads me to believe that there is more of an issue. Their record was poor as well.
So is Graham at Arizona State going to survive another, subpar season after bringing in all those overseas players?
She was deemed eligible based on falsified records. According to a HC in the same conference, it later came out that she is 26 years old.
Has it been 3 seasons? Built a dynasty at USA that's still winning. Think he gets a few more years. Also have met him and talked to some of his players and coached against him, sharp guy and will find a way to be competitive.
I can’t really believe this - how would they figure it out? A player can be 26 and still be deemed eligible - if she can demonstrate she did not play any soccer between the end of her gap year and the beginning of her college start. There simply has to be more to this story - someone must of reported him with some sort of proof - like video of her playing in Brazil during the time she claimed she was not, something like that- or he must of known she had submitted information to the ncaa that was false. I just don’t see how it is possible to have her cleared through compliance, play a bunch of games and then all of a sudden boom ineligible.
But that's exactly what happened. Nobody is entirely sure why, but there was no legal challenge over the forfeited games, so safe to assume they were dead to rights.
Legal challenge? C'mon now. Who truly fights the NCAA (in this case, the conference made the decision anyway) and then, who fights the NCAA and wins? Again, insert Sun Belt since that's who this falls back on initially. Conference commissioners have so much power, and it's hardly ever challenged, and basically never won when challenged. Then, add into it that ULM admin (like many others) are mid-majors who have other more important things to be concerned about instead of fighting for a student-athlete. Same goes for any legitimate refereeing decisions. You can have all the video proof. You can have referee assignors agree that things should have been done differently. But, at the end of the day, the NCAA Soccer SRE holds all the power and makes zero decisions that benefit the student-athlete. NCAA, conferences, and institutions have many people in power positions who sit by and collect paychecks. It's rather embarrassing and disappointing.
The claim is the kid is 26 years old and had received money (beyond expenses) to play before enrolling in college. That makes her ineligible & results in forfeits. Are you saying someone just made this up, and it somehow stuck and resulted in forfeits, and ULM just accepted it?
NCAA ruled eligible. Institution ruled eligible. Conference made a decision. These are all facts. ULM filed an appeal. But, appeals are nearly never accepted by conferences (or other powers that make these decisions). I know. I’ve done it several times. It’s all trash how these people in power positions operate.
The appeal wasn't accepted because the NCAA and Institution ruled her eligible BASED ON FALSIFIED DOCUMENTS. The truth came out that the player's age was falsified in order to hide her participation as a pro player. I'll once again ask if you're disputing this. Because it sounds like you're just saying that part shouldn't matter, and that all that matters is she was initially (wrongly) ruled eligible.
1) it’s pretty clear that poncho is the ULM coach. 2) you are correct. Ncaa and institution based eligibility on what they received by falsified documents by the sounds of things. 3) maybe the ULM coach and the admins at the time were not aware of the falsified documents. However based on previous discussions about the shady behavior of this coach you could draw the conclusion that he perhaps knew and decided to try and push it through anyway. A lot of these foreign coaches that take the step to DI from other institutions seem to have the same issues. The Brits for some reason seem to think rules in college sports don’t matter.
The appeal is through the conference. This didn’t even make it to NCAA, because she was eligible through NCAA — done twice. Also, declared eligible through institution. Are you both forgetting the fact that 2020-21 was exempt and didn’t count against eligibility to essentially extend everyone’s eligibility regardless of the obscure “26 years old” that is being touted (a number that never appears in the DI manual). Also, if ULM would have known this would have happened, why play her? They won 7 of last 9 games they played without her. Including wins over the 2-seed (South Alabama) and eventual tournament champs AND regular season conference champions (Arkansas State). It makes absolutely no sense that a coach or institution would knowingly jeopardize a season like this. In terms of falsified documents, this is news to anyone regarding the situation. News to the conference and institution too. Her age (well, DOB) is found on their website, that’s not hidden or falsified.
Who says they knew? Who says any of this was done knowingly? I'm saying that once the facts came out, the conference acted appropriately. The falsified documents were in relation to her amateur status.
Its ULM... who cares... kudos to their coach because his program is now known and people are talking about them. all press is good press