2021-22 Hot Seat

A question about the environment for hiring a new head coach, these days.

As we all know, school athletic department budgets have taken a big hit the last few years due to the fallout from Covid. This has shown up in soccer by less long distance travel by schools -- which probably has to do with the dual impacts of fewer travel dollars being available and schools wanting to keep their players in Covid-free environments to the extent possible. For the 2019-2020 season, out of region travel was way down. For the 2020-2021 season, it still was down though not by as much -- although teams from the West states played only 10% against teams from non-West states, which is way down from what used to be normal. (Schools also may be losing income because of changes in the NIL compensation rules for college athletes.)

The question is: Are schools reducing their staffing budgets and is this affecting what schools are willing to pay when hiring new head coaches for soccer?

 

Shocked this came from you. I actually had some respect for you. Why are you not calling out the poster who called her the worst hire in the world 'because he had never heard of her'. Scroll up. He exists. I am not a woman, and shame on your failure to see that men can advocate for women. You are a male in the women's game. Have some faith in them. I am willing to defend hires with factual information. It makes people here uncomfortable because the age of the white male dominating coaching positions is a changin'. Get used to it.

By the way, as for your list, I am pretty confident she has dealt with many of those things. Club coaches alone do many of those things.

Finally, other people on this forum like my posts. So speak for yourself, not the entirety of the forum.

Signed,

A white male

 

Heard it from a friend who
Heard it from a friend who
Heard it from another that Bruce Erickson was looking at Idaho State

Not sure if that's who was hired but those were the rumors

 

YTRS is certainly not a male. I agree with one of the previous posts that she is likely the Arizona coach since she gets so triggered when that coach or the hiring of a female coach is brought up.

 

The big man would be a great get for Idaho State, and the endless fields of potatoes mean the vodka production would never run dry. However he isn't in the running from what I have heard.

 

Very humorous. Helped change the topic off of UCLA for a bit.

 

OPEN
Idaho State (supposedly filled)
Morehead State
Bellarmine
Saint Francis
Southern Illinois
Fordham
Texas State
Mount St. Mary
Air Force (retired)
Northern Illinois
Wisconsin Milwaukee
USC
Chicago State
Campbell
Texas A&M Commerce
Western Illinois

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 (Asst- previous interim)
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)

 

Texas A&M Commerce is expected to announce their new head coach tomorrow. No clue who it is though

 

Idaho State filled: https://isubengals.com/news/2022/1/...wney-named-idaho-state-soccer-head-coach.aspx

 

This is actually kinda hilarious. If you are not a woman, you act like many I know! Took time to try to scold me on an anonymous forum where you have to have the last word. Real waste of time but def funny.

Now, if someone comes on a discussion board and says:

"I am willing to defend hires with factual information."
followed by, "...because the age of the white male dominating coaching positions is a changin'"
Then signs their post "a white male"

Does this person deserve any credibility? Just maybe this person has an agenda? Just maybe this person needs help.

Now, anyone reading this could try what lots of committees will do. Take off the name of the applicant, even use a substitute school name. No demographics.
Would this person have been among the best applicants just looking at the resume and experience? For ucla or any job?
Could Aozasa have been the best assistant coach from the Pac-12 or wcc or P5 with West coast ties to apply? If ucla decided they wanted low key hire at the low end of the salary range, then I guess maybe. A funny thing about not having much experience is having less time to have screwed up!

I think alot of folks are just stunned when someone that is not more clearly in "the next best coach out there" category doesn't get these premier jobs.

Now, I have stated here many times, I think experience really matters, leadership experience and I've always favored that over some kind of "pedigree" as an assistant. But I understand it.

 

Can we please just get back to the topic of hot seat-not my body part is bigger than yours? Look I just like the college game and every hire may not be liked or agreed with but at the end of the day it is the hired made and it will not change. Can we just get over it sooner than a long self monologue.

 

I don't need help. No need for personal attacks. Ignore everything I post and attack me. I will hit the ignore button on you. For the record, you are not the forum moderator even though you present yourself as such. Check your ego dude. Unlike you, I do not trash or attack others. Doing so doesn't make you a bigger man. In fact it does the opposite. Your idea of the best hire is not everyone else's. The person hiring at UCLA did what they thought was right for their program. If you read the So Cal soccer forums and UCLA forums there is not a single person disagreeing with the hire, and everyone is applauding it. Those who are so bitter about it on here are ones who wanted the job themselves. With a personality like yours, you will fail every big time job interview. You like the rest of the negative posters have not presented a single candidate that you believe should have gotten the job. Curious indeed. Nice attack on women there in your first paragraph - and you coach women. I dare you to use that line with your team. Last word is all yours, jacka*s. Hitting the ignore on you.

 

https://isubengals.com/news/2022/1/...wney-named-idaho-state-soccer-head-coach.aspx

 

Folks I don't come on hear and flame out on people personally. But I do absolutely call out people who have terrible takes or make ridiculous or inconsistent statements. We're all soccer fans here and I think we'd all have a beer together and rip each other for saying stupid things at the bar. It is not personal when you're opinions are crap. You just have crap opinions sometimes. We all do. That post #863 speaks for itself. I'm not going to tag the person who just said "no need for personal attacks" and then personally attacked me. I hope they take a break.

I always try to add some value when I post. I don't just complain about complainers. So here goes.

I don't really care about UCLA specifically but we can learn from it and discuss it. Someone has said several times, "name a coach" and many folks have done that.

Another simple experiment- let's take 10 seconds to look at the "coaches of the year" around your region or conference. The USC guy left. What about the WCC - Make Rockwood at BYU a great offer. National coach of the year. Go get her. Last year it was Jerry Smith and Chis Watkins at Gonzaga. You're not getting Smith so make Watkins an offer. Tim Ward at Pepperdine has been a WCC COY. Are these not "safer" bets....can't believe I'm going to say it.....regardless of gender?

This took me about 3 minutes. This simple experiment happens all the way down the food chain. Go get the next best coach you can. Period.

[edit - a few posters like soccerdad06 and that holmes guy have gotten me fired up so I may have gotten a bit excited with them in the past. they are on ignore for me now and I do apologize to the regulars here for antagonizing some of these folks over the years. Always hopeful to do better next year!]

 

As others have noted, pay has to be a big reason why UCLA did not hire a proven winner. Soccer is a non-revenue sport, the pay is far below that of the big revenue sports, and no school, I wouldn't think, is going to break the bank to hire a new coach. And no proven coach is going to leave a good, stable situation--and an established program-- to take another job, even with the supposed luster of UCLA, unless there are significant enticements, starting with a major boost in pay. I'd be curious to know what the UCLA job pays compared to, say, BYU or Pepperdine. I'm equally curious to know how McAlpine's salary at Georgia compares to his pay at USC. The SEC job probably pays more, though it doesn't seem that pay was the main reason for his departure from Southern Cal.

 

Change coming for the Ragin Cajuns. Expect to hear some news in the next week.

 

Fired or taking a different job???? I'm still waiting for Oklahoma by the way

 

https://lionathletics.com/news/2022...er-coach-at-texas-am-university-commerce.aspx

 

Ashely Gordon leaving FC Dallas for Commerce. Probably a good fit for Commerce. Has good college experience and been in the club scene in Dallas. Lets see if that helps her get some of those FC Dallas kids to Commerce. If her husband stays at FC Dallas which I assume he would, creates a nice little pipe line

 

Agreed. Good hire she will use that pipeline well and has the experience to help the program with the DI transition.

 

Yeah did really well at Mississippi State.

 

Will he take the Hardin Simmons Job and go back to D3?

 

Anyone know what happened at CSUN?? I thought he got canned?