Depends what he is looking for. If he is looking for a HC position without leaving the area, then this works for him. But if he is looking for security, probably better to stay at GTown. They’ve done enough there that Nolan is there as long as he wants to be. I’m guessing the pay between the two is similar.
OPEN: Toledo (10/28) Coastal Carolina (10/28) Troy (10/31) Abilene Christian (10/31) St. Bonaventure (11/1) Belmont (11/11) Louisiana Monroe (11/22) Alabama A&M (12/2) Indiana State (12/2) Marist (12/2) UAB (12/7) Davidson (12/15) Mississippi Valley State (12/15) Eastern Illinois (12/16) UIW (8/1 - interim) FILLED: Delaware - Kelly Lawrence (Penn State assistant; 10/24-11/14) Tulsa - Jim Rhein (Tulsa interim for 2 years!) Nevada - Vanessa Valentine (Cal assistant;11/7-11/22) South Carolina State - Liz-Amanda Brown (interim; 9/24-12/6) Chicago State - Aulani Fernandez (interim; 7/1-12/6) Cincinnati - Erica Demers (UAB head; 11/14-12/7) Northern Arizona - Alan Berrios (NAU associate head; 10/7 - admin leave; 11/18-12/7) UTEP - Gibbs Keeton (Texas Tech associate head; 11/1-12/7) Jacksonville State - Sean Fraser (Louisiana Monroe head; 10/24-12/7) UMBC - Rick Stainton (Georgetown assistant; 10/17-12/14) Richmond - Adam Denton (Davidson head; 10/27-12/15) Dartmouth - Taylor Schram (Boston Collegr assistant; 11/6-12/15) Questions: Southern Illinois (10/18 - admin leave)
Getting closer to the end of 2022 and schools are starting to fill. Anyone hearing any updates on the open spots that have been open the longest? Would think they are getting closer to filling/interviewing
OPEN: Coastal Carolina (10/28) Troy (10/31) Abilene Christian (10/31) St. Bonaventure (11/1) Belmont (11/11) Louisiana Monroe (11/22) Alabama A&M (12/2) Indiana State (12/2) Marist (12/2) UAB (12/7) Davidson (12/15) Mississippi Valley State (12/15) Eastern Illinois (12/16) UIW (8/1 - interim) FILLED: Delaware - Kelly Lawrence (Penn State assistant; 10/24-11/14) Tulsa - Jim Rhein (Tulsa interim for 2 years!) Nevada - Vanessa Valentine (Cal assistant;11/7-11/22) South Carolina State - Liz-Amanda Brown (interim; 9/24-12/6) Chicago State - Aulani Fernandez (interim; 7/1-12/6) Cincinnati - Erica Demers (UAB head; 11/14-12/7) Northern Arizona - Alan Berrios (NAU associate head; 10/7 - admin leave; 11/18-12/7) UTEP - Gibbs Keeton (Texas Tech associate head; 11/1-12/7) Jacksonville State - Sean Fraser (Louisiana Monroe head; 10/24-12/7) UMBC - Rick Stainton (Georgetown assistant; 10/17-12/14) Richmond - Adam Denton (Davidson head; 10/27-12/15) Dartmouth - Taylor Schram (Boston Collegr assistant; 11/6-12/15) Toledo - Mark Batman (Ohio Northern head - 10/28-12/19) Questions: Southern Illinois (10/18 - admin leave)
didn’t see that one coming. Got to know him over the years on the recruiting scene and seems a decent guy. Don’t know if it’s a good hire or not
I don't know much about him but 250 wins and consistent success as a HC means something. Someone was critical of the UMBC hire here (and others) since they did not have winning records as a head coach. Well, here's one. Another path to take and I think it's awesome to see leaders, successful head coaches, move up a level. Soooo many hires of assistant coaches w/o HC experience get these jobs since ADs think there's some kind of D1 pedigree. I think Mark Batman knows a "D1 player" when he sees one and I'm sure can train them to a high enough standard. Some will decry the "d3 guy" getting the job bet lets see. I wish him all the best. The "d2 guy" at Mich State has certainly proved some folks wrong.
Agree with this. A lot of underqualified/unqualified assistants, not to mention some d1 head coaches with losing records often getting these jobs. Refreshing to see someone different get a job. Though, to be fair, it seems like a pretty competitive, qualified, hiring cycle to this point, though I have a feeling that may change lol
Maybe I am naive, but at the end of the day, aren't the game and tactics the same at all levels? I get there are differences in terms of rules, division specific regulations, recruiting, talent level, speed of play, etc.., but I will take a proven winner just about every time.
Batman is a good hire for Toledo. The school he is coming from, Ohio Northern, and Toledo, are only about an hour apart from each other. He is very familiar with the club coaches in the area and throughout the Midwest. Some of the same players he ended up coaching at ONU would have also been recruited by mid-major programs like Toledo. At the very least, the club coaches that he knows well in that part of the country routinely have players recruited by larger programs. Ohio Northern was ranked pretty regularly in the top 25 D3 programs in the country. Even in a down year, they're probably top 40. They more often than not were in the NCAA post-season tournament. Also, and many forget this, the top D3 programs would be very competitive in a mid-major conference. Some of the UAAs, NESCACs, and programs like JHU would contend for titles in conferences like the MAC, American East, Ohio Valley, Atlantic Sun, and some others. The disparity between the top D3 programs, and the players at those programs, is not nearly as large as many think. ONU to Toledo is not going to be a huge shock to a coach like Batman. I look to him to make a big improvement in the Toledo program. Interesting that you're posting this now. In a post from cpthomas a few weeks ago, he looked at how coaches that finished up their 5th year and how they performed. The coach at the top of that list is Dave Barrett. Barrett is now at D1 Fairfield and took that position after being the HC at D3 Illinois Wesleyan for 18 years. When he was at IWU he regularly had them in the NCAA post-season and often had them in the top 25. Here is a link to that post: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/2022-23-hot-seat.2120941/page-27#post-41036286
Batman is a good coach, very hard worker and will certainly do as well as anyone else they had in the hiring pool (I'm assuming). I disagree about the top D3's to mid-major comparison in terms of competitive level - but I'm sure this isn't a debate that has a definitive answer
Perhaps you misunderstood the point I was trying to make. I am not suggesting that all of the top D3s would be competitive in all of the mid-major conferences. But in most years a program like WashU, Chicago (an off-year for them this past season), JHU, Williams, and others, most certainly would be competitive in some of the mid-major conferences. Additionally, some of the players that are going to those D3 programs, particularly those programs that are academic powerhouses, could have played at some of the D1 programs. It really is a no-brainer for a kid that can academically qualify and has the chance to go to an academic heavy hitter like Chicago, Wash U, or just about any of the UAAs, NESCACs, or some others to choose those schools over a mid-major that has academics that are not quite at the same level. Also, keep in mind that most of the top academic D1 schools are going to be in one of the P5 conferences. 99 times out of 100 a kid that can qualify at one of those D3 schools are going to pick that over a mid-major that may have offered substantial athletic aid. I'll give you a good example from this past year. Gabbie Cesarone of Chicagoland and the Eclipse was recruited heavily by D1 programs coming out of high school. She's a smart kid and chose D3 WashU. At WashU she excelled, was an All-Ameican, and was a 4-year starter at center back. This past year she was a grad transfer to Minnesota. She led the team in minutes played and had 6 goals and 2 assists from the center back position. Additionally, she earned All-Big 10 2nd team. I'll agree that there is no definitive answer to this debate but to say that the top D3 programs would not be competitive in some of the mid-major conferences does not seem realistic to me. Even St. Thomas, a program that was recently D3 and made the jump to D1 and is in the Summit, has beaten some of those teams. They are getting beaten more often than not but they are transitioning and, additionally, while St. Thomas was a decent D3 program, they were not generally considered a top D3 program.
You may be right - especially for a school like JHU, who had something like 9 grad transfers +/- from D1 schools. The D3 national championship game should have been titled "D3 Grad school championship". Some of those transfers played a lot at their previous D1 school and some played very little. And Case Western having the Cincinnati transfer helped them tremendously this year - but compare her stats at D1 with her stats at D3, certainly a difference. I just know that a school having 4 or 5 players that would (or was, in the case you referenced) be vgood D1 players doesn't necessarily translate to being "very competitive" collectively. I may be wrong though. I've been a HC at both of those levels you reference and from my anecdotal experience I don't see it. Tying it back to the Toledo hire though - I do agree with a previous poster - he knows what a D1 player looks like, has the club connections which provides inroads to those players and he will work hard to get those players. - it isn't brain surgery. That isn't the challenge. The challenge will be that the margin of error becomes smaller the higher the level you go, most other schools in the conference are funded relatively (I said relatively) the same and, once again, relatively speaking, there are no programs like Muskingum in the MAC
Agree with you that a winner is a winner. Ivy coaches have gone to Power 5’s all the time and they never worked with scholarship money either. And yes, the level isn’t that much of a jump, especially not if he has coached club as well. With regards to CpThomas’s post, I saw that as well. It’s a bit deceiving. Probably better to look at his most recent post on another thread. How have the 5 year coaches done on average compared to the 5 year average before they arrived? What is the trend of their schools RPI? Up and down? Up only? Down only? All of that info is on his new post.
OPEN: Troy (10/31) Abilene Christian (10/31) St. Bonaventure (11/1) Belmont (11/11) Louisiana Monroe (11/22) Alabama A&M (12/2) Indiana State (12/2) Marist (12/2) UAB (12/7) Davidson (12/15) Mississippi Valley State (12/15) Eastern Illinois (12/16) FILLED: Delaware - Kelly Lawrence (Penn State assistant; 10/24-11/14) Tulsa - Jim Rhein (Tulsa interim for 2 years!) Nevada - Vanessa Valentine (Cal assistant;11/7-11/22) South Carolina State - Liz-Amanda Brown (interim; 9/24-12/6) Chicago State - Aulani Fernandez (interim; 7/1-12/6) Cincinnati - Erica Demers (UAB head; 11/14-12/7) Northern Arizona - Alan Berrios (NAU associate head; 10/7 - admin leave; 11/18-12/7) UTEP - Gibbs Keeton (Texas Tech associate head; 11/1-12/7) Jacksonville State - Sean Fraser (Louisiana Monroe head; 10/24-12/7) UMBC - Rick Stainton (Georgetown assistant; 10/17-12/14) Richmond - Adam Denton (Davidson head; 10/27-12/15) Dartmouth - Taylor Schram (Boston Collegr assistant; 11/6-12/15) Toledo - Mark Batman (Ohio Northern head - 10/28-12/19) Coastal Carolina - Jo Chubb (Arizona State assistant; 10/28-12/20) UIW - Jake Plant (Eastern Illinois head; 8/1-12/20) Questions: Southern Illinois (10/18 - admin leave)
Persistent bullying, most recently in the form of calling another poster by the name Sean--when he is not that person--rather than engaging in reasonable conversation.
The Wildcat athletic department announced Tuesday that Stephen Salas will return to ACU as the second-ever head women's soccer coach. Salas was the associate head coach at ACU from 2013-18.🔗 https://t.co/ucVO6XQRmo@ACU_Soccer | #GoWildcats pic.twitter.com/JcdkWSHtT8— ACU Sports (@ACUsports) December 20, 2022
OPEN: Troy (10/31) St. Bonaventure (11/1) Belmont (11/11) Louisiana Monroe (11/22) Alabama A&M (12/2) Indiana State (12/2) Marist (12/2) UAB (12/7) Davidson (12/15) Mississippi Valley State (12/15) Eastern Illinois (12/16) FILLED: Delaware - Kelly Lawrence (Penn State assistant; 10/24-11/14) Tulsa - Jim Rhein (Tulsa interim for 2 years!) Nevada - Vanessa Valentine (Cal assistant;11/7-11/22) South Carolina State - Liz-Amanda Brown (interim; 9/24-12/6) Chicago State - Aulani Fernandez (interim; 7/1-12/6) Cincinnati - Erica Demers (UAB head; 11/14-12/7) Northern Arizona - Alan Berrios (NAU associate head; 10/7 - admin leave; 11/18-12/7) UTEP - Gibbs Keeton (Texas Tech associate head; 11/1-12/7) Jacksonville State - Sean Fraser (Louisiana Monroe head; 10/24-12/7) UMBC - Rick Stainton (Georgetown assistant; 10/17-12/14) Richmond - Adam Denton (Davidson head; 10/27-12/15) Dartmouth - Taylor Schram (Boston Collegr assistant; 11/6-12/15) Toledo - Mark Batman (Ohio Northern head - 10/28-12/19) Coastal Carolina - Jo Chubb (Arizona State assistant; 10/28-12/20) UIW - Jake Plant (Eastern Illinois head; 8/1-12/20) Abilene Christian - Stephen Salas (Hardin-Simmons associate head; 10/31-12/20) Questions: Southern Illinois (10/18 - admin leave)
Yes - but maybe he had good season previously - you can’t say a coach is a bad hire just because one bad season - although I haven’t looked up his record, I would assume a coach who had a bad season one year has a record of winning season in previous years or a title or something.
Can I interest you in 18-42-21 for a career HC record? I know Eastern isn’t the best funded and is a hard place to win, and the connection to the men’s coach at Incarnate Word is obvious, but I’m hoping the folks that ridicule under-qualified females (or extremely successful d3 coaches) that get jobs give equal treatment to this one—even if it’s a job no one wants. How do you justify the hire to the players? That’s the wild thing to me.
For me personally there has only been 3 good hires so far: NAU, Toldeo and Richmond. The rest in my opinion are either 50/50 or very suspect.