When was Longwood last in their Conf Championship game? When did they win it and get an NCAA bid? Just curious. I think Todd is a good hardworking coach frankly but to say "one bad season" is also not accurate. They should be in the mix in that pretty winnable conference at least as often as Radford is. Don't you think? VA is loaded with talented players.
He was in the championship in 2017 and finished third in 2021 with a record of 6-2-2. I would hope that after founding the program and working there 28 years he would have a heck of a lot of rope. It looks like he knows how to keep the program competitive there. Having said that it's 2023 and AD's seem crazy so who knows.....
Have you been to Farmville? Radford is in a much better location and the town offers a lot more than Farmville (and only 20 minutes from Blacksburg). Let's be honest, they've done a really great job at a school that should struggle. If anything, Longwood has overachieved with limited resources in a tough location in a good mid-major conference.
(Emphasis added.) Longwood has been pretty consistent over his years, but did have its poorest ending RPI rank of his tenure this year. But, that is in the context of also having the strongest non-conference schedule of his tenure this year. History suggests they will do better in 2023 than in 2022. There certainly does not appear to be an overall big change, rather it looks like 2022 probably was one poor year. However, for soccer the Big South is not a good mid-major. In 2022 it was #26 of the 31 conferences according to the RPI, and was overrated at that. From 2007 to the present combined, it is #28.
Todd is a good coach, been there forever and is pretty consistent. Agree with the assessment of Farmville, not exactly the greatest place. I also agree however about the Big South - it is a bad D1 conference.
It's not a good conference. Any half-decent program is going to win more than half their conference games, because some of the worst programs in the country are in the Big South. Campbell leaving hurts them at the top end, too. USC Upstate's improvement means there's one fewer guraranteed win, but you still have Hampton, Asheville, Presbyterian, Winthrop...all would have a hard time in a good D2 conference.
To be clear, I am not suggesting Todd should be on the hotseat. Clearly, it looks like he will retire on his own terms and has earned that. This started as a criticism of his full time gk coach bringing in 3 keepers when they had 2 already. What pressure are you under in the Big South on a 5-win (or even .500) team to have 5 keepers? I think bringing 3 in a time is irresponsible and why 1 is in the portal already. There are other examples- Jacksonville has 5. You hope recruits are doing their research. Now, if RPI 283 in the 26th ranked D1 conference is good enough for that AD, given the staff's tenure, then maybe there is such a thing as job security in D1 women's soccer. Other than 2017, Longwood has been about a .500 team in a weak soccer conference....and is an affordable state school in a terrific soccer state. Maybe he doesn't want to leave after that 2022 season. That's understandable, but I would suggest there is no "good time to leave". Someone has to objectively evaluate what is best for the program and players going forward, sometimes regardless of the personal circumstances.
Hampton isn't in the Big South. It is making the CAA the most unequitable conference in the country since not all teams play them.
In addition to Massey from the previous post, here is a link to the 2022 NCAA RPI Final Ranks for Conferences.
How many people do you really think applied for that job, make or female. either that is the best candidate from 5 applicants or the only female that applied. You can look at it either way.
If you're an HBCU and this is the best (or even, the only) applicant for a head coaching job, you keep looking. Not gonne lie, a bit surprised by the responses. Unless, of course, one doesn't believe HBCUs are real programs that deserve good coaches. In which case, applaud away. I, on the other hand, see this as a shameful abdication and borderline betrayal of the original and continued mission of HBCUs. But hey, what do I know? My fault for commenting on a topic I already noted (twice) gets ignored. Carry on.
You can keep looking, but at some point, you do the kids a disservice since they are all coming back this week and will start training again. No one is saying they don’t deserve good coaches. They are saying that they are hard to find and harder still to convince to go to a struggling program.
OPEN: St. Bonaventure (11/1) Alabama A&M (12/2) Indiana State (12/2) Marist (12/2) UAB (12/7) Davidson (12/15) Eastern Illinois (12/16) Northwestern State (1/4) Alcorn State (1/10) 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 College 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) Incarnate Word - Jake Plant (Eastern Illinois head; 8/1-12/20) Abilene Christian - Stephen Salas (Hardin-Simmons associate head; 10/31-12/20) Belmont - Kelsey Fenix (Trevecca Nazarene head; 11/11-12/22) Troy - Stuart Gore (Northwestern State head; 10/31-1/4) Louisiana Monroe - Will Roberts (ULM Assistant, 11/22- 1/12) MVSU- Kayleigh Lambrechts (John Melvin U head 12/15-1-13)
I disagree with this statement - has nothing to do with the fact that it is an HBCU - it has more to do with funding, facilities, location and administration. Some HBCU programs are in a much better situation and don’t have MVSU problems. The MVSU job was not nationally advertised - so if you knew you knew that it was open. Secondly, who would be better? - a good D2 or D3 coach is not leaving that position for that particular type of job, very few are brave enough anyway to make such a leap. So then you get a young coach who now has a chance to prove herself. She is taking advantage of the circumstances and maybe she will succeed.
Is Roberts at SIU officially off administrative leave and back in the saddle? I noticed he fell off the list at some point. Apologies if I missed an earlier post.
Interestingly enough, I actually agree with every single point you made except for this. We seem to understand context and the importance of fit when it comes to P5, Ivies, D1s, and for many of us, women's programs in general... All I'm saying is, let's bring that same energy to respecting, understanding, and promoting what's different and special about HBCUs. First and foremost, they are not PWIs and don't have the same history or mission. It is, in my opinion, disrespectful to attempt to measure them with a PWI ruler or fit them into a tidy little box to make it simpler for others to understand. Again, everything you wrote can be true while also respecting the history and mission of HBCUs. The school has not done that by selecting this coach as their next hire. Don't know her. She could be a great person. Statement stands. To answer your question though: Just about anyone would be better. It's not like they set the bar very high. I mean, if the new hire had tons of experience (even a speck of verifiable experience will do) but didn't fit the HBCU profile, then OK, let's move on, good luck to them. They didn't do that. They didn't even hire a hot shot club coach. If they only received the 5 applicants that were joked about earlier, they should've kept looking. Did they tap into the coaching community for recommendations? Wouldn't the Black Soccer Coaches advocacy group have a list of interested parties? Schools do these things all the time when they tap into the Old Boys Network or are specifically looking for a female candidate. The school couldn't possibly have done all this and come up with this as their strongest candidate.