Hot Seat 2023-24

Though not addressing the central point in your post, it is worth noting that Akron has had 7 coaches in program history dating from 1954.

 

Happy New Years everyone

What's happening with Drexel and Fairfield? Both been over a month (understandably, because of the holidays?).

 

I heard drexel bringing people on campus this week and they are back channeling the operation after having to do a head coach search 3 times in tthe last 3-4 years. They want someone that will bring longevity.

Fairfield i havent heard a peep but i have also heard that AD is a piece of work.

 

Just to close the loop on this, Corey Kirk - the coach Bluem hand-picked as his successor at Muskimgum and then left after one season, was just announced as the new head coach of Capital University men’s soccer. Kirk is from the Columbus area, so this may be better for him and his family, but Capital is also a better program than Muskingum, which is a really difficult job in which to succeed.

https://athletics.capital.edu/news/...ey-kirk-chosen-as-mens-soccer-head-coach.aspx

 

Found myself thinking about the longest-tenured coaches in men's DI soccer and was trying to come up with a list of coaches that have been at the same gig the longest.

Here's what I got.

Michael Linenberger, Sacramento State - 1989
Dave Masur, St. John's - 1991
Sasho Cirovski, Maryland - 1993
Tom McIntosh, Tulsa - 1995
George Gelnovatch, Virginia - 1996
Jim Barlow, Princeton - 1996

Anyone been at their current gig longer than these dudes?

 

https://unhwildcats.com/news/2024/1/4/rich-weinrebe-08-named-mens-soccer-head-coach.aspx
Nailed it!

 

Tony Martone, Merrimack 1982
Richard Nuttal, Hofstra 1989
Dean Koski, Lehigh 1991
Doug Allison, Furman, 1995

 

Heard Jeremy Bonomo from Green Bay, Steve DeMatteo from Penn, and Jonathan Potter from Robert Morris are finalists for Drexel.

 

the first 2 are correct, the 3rd is not, taylor thames from lasalle and castellanos from chestnut hill the other 2

 

If that is true, then Jeremy Bonomo should be top choice. They won a D1 Conference Championship at a tough place to win. They may want to save or relocation costs with the other guys but not much winning in that other group as head coach. Penn has been good in the Ivies for Matteo as an assistant and pretty much the same campus. Either of those two should be the finalists.

 

Jeremy is the best candidate in the pool hands down, he has done well at Green Bay in a tough place to win. However, they are fully funded and the school is cheap but hes done well for sure. Matteo has been in the mix for a ton of jobs but hasn't gotten them or taken them not sure what to believe, something to be said for that. Thames was a player at Delaware and knows the CAA well and the area. I tend to believe its Bonomo or Thames are the front runners but maybe its finally Dematteo's time. Castellanos applied before fetrow got the job and didnt get it, dont see him getting it this time either

 

You mean cheap in terms of student cost? When you say fully funded, do you mean he has a full complement of scholarships to work with or just that he has a healthy overall budget (or both)?

 

Yes cheap in terms of student cost, its 24k per year with no academic or scholarship money, scholarship wise they are funded well but i believe they have some limits on stacking academic and athletic money together like alot of smaller and mid major division 1's and they have a good budget school wise cuz its a state school

 

Maybe particularly not in the case of Green Bay. I don't know much about them (beyond my son being loosely acquainted with a couple of their players over the past few of years). But I Googled their budget out of curiosity and saw this: https://fox11online.com/sports/coll...ki-tennis-cuts-defunding-minimum-requirements

I know UW System schools in general have also had to deal with some budget turmoil related to state politics for a decade or so, but I have no idea how or if that touches athletics at any of those schools.

 

https://drexeldragons.com/news/2024...xRx-lM-28mN38omhVXUElKDLo4TxBKTwMkU9fAjQNCePY

Safe hire, to avoid getting burned again. His D1 experience of leading the team will come under the microscope.

 

Castellanos' DI experience is limited to his own playing days at UConn and being an assistant at Drexel for a couple of years, but he has deep recruiting ties to the Philly area. Before Chestnut Hill, he had a 14 season tenure as head coach at PSU Abington in DIII, leading them to several NCAA tournament appearances.

 

Some of these Division 1 hires are terrible. New Drexel coach won 4 games in one of the worst D2 conferences.

How is Oliver Twelvetrees not getting these calls? Successful every year. Daniel Smee at University of Charleston consistently very good. Dean Johnson at Loyola Marymount has won at every level and into Elite 8 at D1 this year.

So many better options.

 

2023 was his first year at the school. Not everyone comes in and wins right away. He has ties to the university and the area and maybe Drexel administration wants a coach that will stick around for longer than 3 months this time. Maybe the names you mentioned didn't want the job?

 

Also this guy was a fairly successful D3 head coach for a number of years, won a National Championship at UConn in their heyday, had a professional career afterwards, and has previous experience with the university . Like Drexel is a decent job and this may be a bit of an unconventional background, but he has an appropriate level of experience.

 

Always good to see another minority added to the D-I head coaching ranks. There's an absurdly low number of Black and Latino head coaches in college soccer so increased representation is definitely a good thing.

That Castellanos is the only minority hire this offseason demonstrates just how problematic this issue remains.

 

Perhaps the Drexel AD wanted a local guy who's connected to the school and team, adds diversity to the athletic department, and has demonstrated winning leadership (148 wins as a head coach).

Safe is the idea behind the hire. Rather than somebody foreign who's potentially going to jump ship, after temporary success.

Previous head coach, Fetrow, got the job at Drexel end of July. I would guess he just walked into a good team inherited from Michael Marchiano (the head coach prior), which propelled Fetrow getting the Villanova job (no way that job goes to him on 1 win, as associate head coach).

Perhaps that't why DeMatteo from Penn didn't get it (which is a surprise to me, maybe not).

Based on their bio, coaching stops:

Twelvetrees (Minnesota -> Nebraska -> Kansas -> Florida -> Colorado)

Smee (Pennsylvania -> North Carolina -> West Virginia)

Johnson (Texas -> West Virginia -> California)

Doesn't scream stability to me.