That was my freshman year. Stephanie Zeh lived in my dorm, I remember talking to her when she was juggling a ball on the lawn outside. Shame she did her knee and had to give up soccer. She ended up dating an acquaintance of mine and playing coed softball. She was a competitive little so and so, I remember that.
Since I posted earlier about the importance of the "program" from year to year, as distinguished from the players coming in and going out, I also should post a note of something to watch for. This is not about Nahas as a coach, who I understand to be really good and very much liked by his players and their parents. Rather, it is about the institutional good will that programs have and how long that can carry a team along, as distinguished from the coaching. My observation from going over the data for many years is that institutional good will -- "the program" -- can carry a team forward for a significant number of years, to a good extent with little regard for who the coach is. It is not until quite a while after a coach change for a very top program that we really know how good or not good the coach is. So in that sense, all credit to Nahas this year, but we really won't know how he is as a coach for a good number of years, after which the program really will be "his" program. I got to see this first hand at Portland, with what followed the untimely death of their great coach Clive Charles. Clive's only national championship came in 2002, the year he died. His assistant Garrett Smith took over for him and had a good run of years including a national championship in 2005. But observing how the team was doing year after year, it became apparent that he was not a good coach and he was let go after the 2017 season. That he was not up to the job has been confirmed to me by some national championship star players' parents. The point of this is, it took a long time for the program good will that Clive Charles had built up to wane. This makes it really interesting to me to see how North Carolina will do in the future. If Nahas can keep it going, say for 10 years, then, "Wow!" UNC will have struck gold twice in a row. I am watching Florida State, UCLA, and Southern California for the same thing. It makes for an interesting study.
UNCs 2025 and 2026 recruiting classes don't look as strong some other top programs, but with UNCs success this season (and many returning starters!) next year should be a great season and Damon should be able to easily attract some top transfers to fill in. It will probably be the norm that schools like UNC and FSU, etc. have 2-3 reclassified players each year going forward, too (both have 3 in 2025 recruiting class).
except that the bulk of coaching and recruiting was already being done by Nahas. Was more of a change in title, but not much behind the scenes
That suggests that the timeline for drawing conclusions might be shorter than in other cases. On the other hand against that is the Anson Dorrance "good will" effect, which most likely is the largest such effect ever for DI women's soccer. For me, that all makes it interesting to see what happens over the coming years.
Soccer Wire After leading UNC Women's Soccer on their 2024 NCAA National Championship run, Damon Nahas has been named head coach of the Tar Heels, removing the interim tag.
First year coaches at Carolina are expected to win a national championship (see Erin Matson, Nahas) or at least get to the championship game (see Hubert Davis). Bill Belichick should be on notice.
Top Drawer Soccer has Kate Faasse as their top player in the country at the end of season. She's a finalist for MAC H Award along with Duke's Maggie Graham and Wake's Caiya Hanks. Winner is announced January 3rd. https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/col...womens-division-i-postseason-top-100_aid54191 https://machermanntrophy.com/2024-womens-mac-hermann-trophy-finalists-announced/
A visually strange quirk of awards. TDS has released their best XI squads. Kate Faasse is rightly in their first team, while Trinity Armstrong, Tessa Dellarose, and Clare Gagne are on the second team. They also released their end of year best freshman, and Linda Ullmark and Bella Gaetino made the first and second team, respectively. There must be some rule that says that Trinity Armstrong can't make the first or second "best of freshman " XI after making the second best overall XI. That just looks strange to me.
After 25;years of watching the team closely, I lost contact with them for a couple of years. When I picked back up this fall, I was completely baffled by what had happened over the past months. I know the group doesn't want to dwell on this, but could someone please tell me what happened? How/why did 2/3rds of the team leave and the greatest ever (?) coach resign?
It's likely not any one particular reason, but a combination of them. The biggest one is probably a story that broke during the summer. A lot of it is speculation and unsubstantiated rumors, with it starting with a pro reporter coming in and throwing a big fuss over a technicality involving a player dating a former player who was hired by the team to act as a personal trainer for some of the players. From a purely technical standpoint, yes, coaches dating players shouldn't happen... but anybody who actually understood the dynamic of the relationship and the power the coach in question had would have understood it was a non issue. Power dynamics and the power coaches have over players is the entire reason why those relationships are taboo, but the power dynamic between these two as I understand it did not exist in a way where the coach could hold it over the player. It was the same as if the player had hired any personal trainer. I would even argue that the player in question probably had more say and power than the coach did, given her status on the team. Similarily, I'm not even sure if can call the "coach" in question a coach. She had a "Player development" title of some sort. What followed was a rollercoaster of interviews, dramatics, and a big ruckus created by this pro reporter who wanted to build on the name she made for herself by breaking the news about the Red Stars coach Rory Dames. She was so focused on if she could add to her legend of investigative reporting that she didn't stop and ask if she should. I think the UNC powers at be recognized it as the non issue it was, but they had to do their due diligence. It fractured the team locker room. Again that's all speculation. There's probably a lot more to some of the transfers, some of them may have just been coincidental ... but I suspect that was the biggest reason for everything that happened... just nobody will admit it one way or another. Unless you're on the inside of the team and their dynamics, we'll never know for sure. as for Anson, I think I remember it was just simply a matter of not having the energy that the players deserved, and he realized it kind of late right before the season started. Age it seems finally slowed him down.
The only real article I've seen about player unhappiness is this one: https://www.theassemblync.com/cultu...occer-anson-dorrance-investigation-transfers/ Some comments by Nahas after the championship made me think he used the piece as motivation...
Emily Murphy could have scored or assisted 3 times against Wake Forest. She was ferocious! Does anybody know why Dorrance stopped playing her two years ago? Injury? Academics? She was rooting on the sideline and seemed okay. One of my favorite players. Never did get an answer--and may never. By the way, it sounds in the myriad interviews after Dorrance retired that he attended every practice because he "stepped back" this season to being the third assistant coach as Nahas moved up. He's talking recently as if he was part of this championship-- which of course he is anyway because he and Damon assembled the team. Of course I could be hallucinating again in the glow of victory! Heels!
Thanks for filling me in and pointing me to information about "what happened." It was and still is a glorious program - producing the most successful D1 coach in any sport. But, it has moved on. I am still trying to understand what has changed and what has remained the same. After watching this year's College Cup, I'd like to post a few questions and/or comments and hope someone can help me understand what I thought I saw. Is Nahas using the Competitive Cauldron concept or is he running a different practice strategy? If different, anyone know what his approach is? Seems like he is using only 13 or 14 players most of the time. No more platoons at a time. I assume this is because of a lower number of players available with the skills set and athletic abilities to be competitive. But this brings up an issue of strategy - Is it better to play a superior player who may be a bit tired than a fresh one that is not quite on the same skills/physical level? I assume the answer this year was determined by available talent, but how about in general and going forward? I thought the three forwards were the strongest trio as a whole i have ever seen at UNC. One speedy, an aggressive 1-v-n penetrator, one very speedy with an incredible shot (her game winner against Wake was the best shot I have ever seen by a female soccer player), and one a goal scoring machine in many different kinds of situations. Seems like recently we have not had the truly outstanding forwards we had in the past, but then again, I never remember having three of them at one time. Strong in the back - both back line and goal - but weaker that usual in the midfield. I thought we were consistently dispossessed in the middle. Seemed like a lower skill level with our midfielders. Any stats on this available? Simply talent or something that can be built? Playing the long ball has always been a knock on the Heels, but in theses two games, seemed like we emphasize this. Might have been the result of losing the ball so frequently when we tried to play through the midfield, but didn't seem like we were particularly accurate or successful with the alternative. If you have thought on any of these issues, would love to hear them.
Seems like a long time no see on this UNC thread. Welcome back. Reading up from the bottom of your queries... I don't see the long ball being used much in the last 3 or 4 years. UNC used to use that tactic a lot in former years when opposition defenses were higher and leaving themselves vulnerable. The defenses are getting more sophisticated and so we're doing less long balls, although in this last year we may have launched a few more than our recent delivery. The style of play is clearly trying to take is as far we we can to a corner and launch it across the goal about 6 yo 8 yards out for our forwards or to a specific target. Regarding midfield, I think that we did a pretty good job. Arai Nagai Started off slow this year, but was fabulous as the season went along and Tessa Delarose was excellent in the midfield dispossessing the opposition and feeding our offense. Evelyn Shores was a little behind when she came back after her healing but at the end settled in well, and was Linda Ullmark. Hopefully they'll be back next year and more poised. I agree that our front line was very good this year...once all three of them were playing well down the stretch... and I do agree that your defense was quite good (again, once Trinity Armstrong was back from the U19 world cup.) It will be interesting to see if we can be as good on defense next year as we were this year. Cheers!
To finish off the 2024 season for the Heels, Kate Faassee took the 2024 MAC Hermann Trophy. The machinations for the next year are already in swing on the UNC 2025 thread.