Xavier and Elon's coaches will not be back next season. Anyone know of other positions that are open? I think Xavier would be the better of those two positions.
I don't know. Xavier's a BIG basketball school without much of a recent soccer tradition (except losing seasons). Artificial field with bad lighting and otherwise mediocre facilities. Urban campus, in Cincinnati's backyard, as well as A-10 Dayton. Pretty tough place to recruit good players to. It could be competitive, except I think the administration would be satisfied with .500 seasons. With SLU and Charlotte coming into the A-10, the conference will be better than Elon's. (FWIW, Xavier terminated both its men's and women's coaches.)
Xavier University Elon University Loyola University of Chicago is the most recent addition to the list. Their coach resigned.
Ray O'Connell had been with Loyola for 25 years and was the only coach the program ever had (198-239-26). His resignation was listed as a retirement. Along with DePaul and UIC, Loyola has continually struggled for respectability, primarily I suppose because for as many high quality players as come from the Chicagoland area, a good many of them pass over those three schools. Like Xavier, a tough school to recruit to.
The different between Loyola and Xavier should be the conference. Xavier seems to play in a better conference, and a coach could use the "Lets build something special at Xavier" speech seemingly more effectivly at Xavier. I did not realise that Ray O'Connell had been there for 25 years. That is a nice tenure. I imagine the focus for the new coach will be getting the Chicagoland players to take a second look at Loyola.
The conferences are probably about a toss-up right now. Loyola has the benefit of an automatic league tournament spot (all teams play), while the A-10 allows only the top 6 teams (although I'm guessing it will increase to 8 with SLU and Charlotte). The smaller Horizon League also has more schedule room for non-conference opponents by comparison to the much larger A-10, so a coach looking to improve their schedule strength has an easier time doing it.
Another Horizon League coach gone (both Chicago schools). UIC's Sasha Begovic. In an earlier thread about coaches being on the hot seat, he was one of those I suspected would go in the event of another poor season. This could well be a year that sees a number of "Old Guard" coaches gone.
Add Navy's Greg Myers to the list. He is stepping down but will remain at the Academy as an instructor in physical education. A national search will start soon. This should be interesting as AD Chet Cladchuk has brought in some up-and-coming coaches in other sports at Navy, most notably Paul Johnson in football and Billy Lange in men's basketball. I'd expect another promising hire, maybe not a huge name, especially it being the Naval Academy and all, but Gladchuk has put tons of money into renovating the facilities and hiring quality people. Navy has a beautiful new soccer stadium and Annapolis is a great place to live with lots of good, local soccer. Plus the Patriot League is a solid mid-major in NCAA soccer, so we'll see! http://www.navysports.com/sports/msoccer/release.asp?RELEASE_ID=16928
I wonder if Jim Gabarra will apply for the position. He's done a pretty good job coaching both men and women before.
Xavier University Elon University Loyola University of Chicago University of Illinois - Chicago United States Naval Academy
If you're making a list, add LSU women and UGa women - both pretty good jobs. Also note that South Carolina (men) and KY are joining a soccer conf. with UAB and some others next fall.
Eric Ronnig - Northwestern Assistant - for either the Loyola or Naval Academy jobs. Both would make a good deal of sense. The Naval Academy plays in the Patriot League (he was formerly with Colgate), and Loyola is in his backyard at NU. He'd be a good pick for Xavier as well. Good recruiter for private school programs with recruiting challenges.
Ronning, good option...what about Anderson/Coleman at UWM...Ruzzo at Bradley...the current ass't at Loyola?? UIC does not have an assistant I believe...What does Akron have for an assistant these days? Some of the club coaches that are prominent in Chicago...Sockers/Magic, etc...
Add to the list: Longwood University That makes 6 schools. This seems to me the most difficult. A transitional D-I school, no conference for the moment, and a very poor season in 2004. I guess it can only go up.
Agreed. So now the list is: Elon University Longwood University Loyola University-Chicago University of Illinois-Chicago US Naval Academy Xavier University
I'm really surprised Longwood's coach left, unless he was fired. He seemed to be the kind of guy who relished the challenge of building Longwood from the ground up, a real "rah-rah, we can do it" type. Anyone know the story?
I think Longwood needs to try and talk Rich Posopinko at Winthrop into coming back. He was the man at longwood and has been successful at Winthrop in South Carolina. It is going to be a difficult place to have success.
The Longwood website does not mention the fact, but there is only an assistant coach listed. NCAA.com had the posting. Longwood had 17 freshman on the team this year.
Losing Coach Ruzzo would be a huge loss to our program especially after Adrian Cox left just last year. I hope Ruzzo stays. I'm just wondering, but why do you think he has a chance at the job, I'm not saying you're wrong just wondering why?
http://www.collegesports.com/sports/m-soccer/stories/120604aad.html Joe McGuigan retires after 20 years at Sacred Heart.
So now the list is: 1. Elon University 2. Longwood University 3. Loyola University-Chicago 4. Sacred Heart University 5. University of Illinois-Chicago 6. US Naval Academy 7. Xavier University
I know Erik Ronning had been mentioned as a candidate for one of the Chicago jobs. Might Mike Avery of Notre Dame be another? His bio says his wife is a coach at Valpo, so they'd be working a little closer together if he moved to the Windy City.
You can add: Manhattan http://www.gojaspers.com/article.cfm?doc_id=5599 Northeastern http://www.gonu.com/msoccer/