Weiss recruiting

Consider this

Well it looks like Va Tech is well on it's way to being an affiliate team for Germany's national team. I'm sure it won't be long until they are all decked out in Adidas strips also... Anyway, I hate talking about recruits until December, when they've actually had a chance to do something. And besides, any release from a school is going to make it sound like they got the best kids in the country. This is going to be a great situation to keep an eye on for the next 3-4 years...

Fix'R

 

Oli is an excellent recruiter. I agree with what the others have said concerning the potential in this program over the next couple of years. I believe he was one of the biggest reasons that UNC won it last year, look at the recruits he brought in. Now that he has left UNC look at their recruits... No offense to the guys that they are bringing in but look at the ones they lost.

 

cosmo, Who did they lose, and what facts do you have to support your assertion that if Oliver had stayed they would not have lost these recruits?

 

This is what's wrong with college soccer, IMO. Weiss has "little" time to recruit, so he grabs some 24 year old guy from his homeland? Gimme a break. I know regional pool players who contacted him about playing at Va. Tech and he had no interest...even players that he was recruiting at UNC!

Come to think of it, why the hell are so many college coaches recruiting overseas? Don't tell me we don't have enough quality players in the USA. Are coaches from Germany and England, etc., biased against USA players?

At UNC, Bolowich was telling people that he was probably going to have to recruit a foreign player to play center back since Gray Griffin snubbed him and went to Furman. Again, gimme a break.

I'm really sick and tired of seeing American college coaches recruit overseas, when quality players in this country are forced to go to lesser schools because some 24 year old dude from Germany decides he wants to college soccer for some reason.

Call this a patriotic rant if you will, but reading that Va. Tech recruiting class release ticked me off big time.

 

Simple...foreign kids don't play all the recruiting games. US kids play one coach against the other, make a HUGE fuss about a 80% from one school and a 75% offer from another. Foreign kids are usually very excited about coming to the US and being given the opportunities to play AND get an education. US kids think it is their birth right. I've heard A LOT of coaches comment that it is just easier to recruit foreign kids and that they are more appreciative.

I don't like this, but it is VERY believeable...

 

Many coaches make their own beds here by stringing quality players along while they're trying to close the deal on the ones they actually want. As such, the recruiting road is a two way street. American players want the best deal they can get and collegiate coaches want the best players they can get.
This is relatively a non-issue with foreign players, due largely to the culture difference. To Americans, the collegiate program is the most important. To foreigners, coming to America is the most important, and everything else is secondary. Under these conditions, it's relatively easy to enlist foreign talent since there is little recruiting competition, and the recruit would be predisposed to matriculate on the basis of a single offer.

 

Here are the ones that I had heard of. Gray Griffin, Justin Moore, Phillip Long, Ryan Kerlew, and a guy from California(?) that didn't sign.

 

effect of Weiss leaving UNC

Cosmo, UNC's key targets were a keeper and defenders to replace Ueltschey, Jackson, and Leitch.

They got the keeper they wanted in Ford Williams, who committed early and was recruited primarily by Elmar.

You're right about UNC wanting Griffin, but he and Chefik Simo wanted to go together, and I don't believe Elmar could offer Simo what he wanted. And Griffin's parents were totally against UNC (which included Oliver at the time UNC was after him).

Phillip Long took an official visit to UNC during the season, but I'm not sure what was offered, particularly relative to potential PT as a frosh since UNC is loaded at MF and F.

The kid from CA was Chad Marshall, and I know they went after him real hard. But he was almost a lock for Stanford from day one, and it was going to be very difficult to get him off the left coast.

Don't know anything about the recruiting of Moore or Kerlew.

Of the four I know something about, I'm pretty sure that Oliver's leaving had absolutely nothing to do with three of them going elsewhere.

Let's wait and see how this class and season develops before we conclude that Oliver was the primary reason for UNC's recent success.

 

follow up

I haven't been following Oli that much at VT but have been watching UNC. With the exception of Soffe and Williams I don't see any of the freshmen contributing anytime soon. In fact Wilcox and Lange have already been cut because they couldn't pass the fitness. Bringing in guys that can't pass the fitness is pretty bad in my opinion. I am not saying that Oli would have definitly brought in the other recruits but it sure wouldn't have hurt.