Hot Seat 2023-24

Has anyone heard any early rumblings about Northeastern? Also ETSU been open for a while now, no?

 

no it's not but i know it to be true at that school

 

This is it, this is the end of the convo, well said.

 

So you hire mediocre because they won't leave.

The great mid-major dilemma. Do you hire a mediocre coach who will stay over a great coach who may leave? Sometimes you get lucky and the mid-major wins and stays. Usually on a nice campus, tuition exchange for their kids, and some knowledge of security. Drexel is not that school. Urban campus and an expectation to win. Getting a Philly guy who is tied to the area certainly helps keep the coach local but we shall see the level of success he has. Time will tell.

 

Old Dominion - Tennant McVea (ODU associate head; 8/15) - (North) IRISH, WHITE
Evansville - Robbe Tarver (Evansville interim HC - 10/9) - AMERICAN, WHITE
Bradley - Tim Regan (Bradley assistant; 11/2-11/2) - AMERICAN, WHITE
Villanova - Mark Fetrow (Drexel head; 11/16-11/16) - AMERICAN, WHITE
Mount St. Mary’s - Brett Teach (VCU assistant; 11/2-12/1) - AMERICAN, WHITE
North Florida - Jamie Davies (UCF associate head; 11/6-12/6) - ENGLISH, WHITE
UAB - David Lilly (ETSU head; 11/7-12/8) - SCOTTISH, WHITE
NC State - Marc Hubbard (New Hampshire head; 11/3-12/9) - AMERICAN, WHITE
Marquette - David Korn (Maryville head; 11/1-12/11) - AMERICAN, WHITE
Le Moyne - Callum Donnelly (Le Moyne interim; 7/5-7/18-12/12) - SCOTTISH, WHITE
Grand Canyon - George Kiefer (former NC State head; 12/1-12/20) - AMERICAN, WHITE
Longwood - Paul Gilbert (Indiana Tech head; 11/29-12/21) - AMERICAN, WHITE
New Hampshire - Rich Weinrebe (Northeastern head; 12/9-1/4) - AMERICAN, WHITE
Drexel - David Castellanos (Chestnut Hill head; 11/161/11) - AMERICAN, LATINO

Just to circle back to how bad college soccer is at diversity hiring, we've had 4 head coaching hires this offseason who are from the UK and one hiring who is a person of color. This, in a sport that features countless Black and Latino players at every level.

 

Thanks for posting this and I’m glad this sort of commentary is appreciated here. Good luck trying to make a point like this on the women’s college forum.

 

Not sure I understand your use of mediocre. He helped revitalize a bad Drexel team and created the team that got Fetrow a job that may be as big of a stretch as people are claiming this one is. I get its not some ACC/Big time assistant but come on.

 

agreed. He deserves more credit than he’s getting here and has earned this chance at Drexel

 

Very true, and I don’t think College Soccer News help with their articles on “Top Assistants” either. They could do far more research and dig into assistant coaches both white/minorities body of work before writing articles an 8th grader could research.

 

I suggest that you reach out to him and volunteer to help write the next version. I'm sure that he would be happy for your input.

 

As mentioned, time will tell.

 

Have to wonder how important winning is to Fairfield when the finalists for the position were 3 successful head coaches who've been in numerous NCAA Tournaments and have won numerous conference Championships, and 1 assistant coach who's never been in an NCAA Tournament, never won a conference Championship, and has coached teams that are only occasionally above .500...and they hire the assistant coach.

 

Any news or context on this?

 

If I was an AD I'd hire Smee in a heartbeat. Hired by Chris Grassie at UC 3 months before he took the Marshall job, worked under Dan Stratford (WVU HC) for 3 years and took over UC and have kept the a national contender in D2.

Not enough D2 HCs get a chance at the DI level.

 

I dunno.

I bet I could name 20 former D-II men's soccer head coaches who are now in the same position with a D-1 men's program.

Bryant, Cal Poly-SLO, Central Arkansas, Cornell, Dayton, Drexel, Fordham, Holy Cross, Marshall, NC State, Northern Kentucky, Pacific, Providence, Saint Louis, San Jose State, Seton Hall, Stanford, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego, West Virginia, Xavier.

There's no conspiracy towards or bias against D-II head coaches. There's just lots of different paths to becoming a D-I head coach. Clearly, being a D-I assistant gets the most opportunities, but D-I HCs have come from the JuCo, D-III, NAIA, MLS academies, HS and youth club soccer and pro soccer.

 

Any idea what happened to the coach at Oakland? The release on the school website doesn't say much at all. Their record wasn't great, but Oakland finished at the top of the Horizon table.

 

The coach at Oakland had mental health issues which he made public last year when he took a leave of absence. Interestingly they make a change soon after he comes back from that.

 

Ah, I feel for him. I hope he's OK, or will be be at some point.