UConn Soccer: #2 in National Attendance

[Dooley]

More good stuff from #UConnNation...

UConn Men's Soccer‏@UConnMSOC
As we finish off 2015, we'd like to thank all the great #UConn fans out there who helped make this year great.

 

[FDNY99]

Nice job Dooley!!!

 

[Pudge]

Am I the only one who thinks this is a Legacy that Ray Reid is squandering?

I don't see the Winning we are used to. I don't see the Energy that we should demand. I see very little promotion or marketing of this. I am thrilled that we have a great Program and Venue; but ... let's not take this for granted.

 

[Dooley]

Nice job Dooley!!!

Credit goes to you for the idea, sir.

 

[FDNY99]

Credit goes to you for the idea, sir.

I think that's pretty impressive...makes me think back to when I was a kid and they sold out on Sundays...a lot more people there than at football games on Saturdays..

 

[UConnDan97]

Am I the only one who thinks this is a Legacy that Ray Reid is squandering?

I don't see the Winning we are used to. I don't see the Energy that we should demand. I see very little promotion or marketing of this. I am thrilled that we have a great Program and Venue; but ... let's not take this for granted.

Well, you're not the only one because ASweet feels the same way. But I have to say that I disagree.

Ray Reid is a top level soccer coach, and has been for quite some time. Not only has he sent a bunch of people on to the professional soccer ranks, but this is his record of tourney appearances since his arrival in 1997:

1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015

He made it at least to the quarterfinals 7 of those years, and of course, won it all in 2000. He helped to produce the Hermann Trophy winner twice (soccer's Heismann, for those who don't know) with Gbandi and White.

As for the knock against his promotion or marketing of UConn soccer, I'm not sure I can blame him as much as the parties responsible in the athletic department. He does a bunch of camps and clinics. He's on the radio a lot with Joe D'Ambrosio. Not sure what else he can do there...

 

[Pudge]

Well, you're not the only one because ASweet feels the same way. But I have to say that I disagree.

Ray Reid is a top level soccer coach, and has been for quite some time. Not only has he sent a bunch of people on to the professional soccer ranks, but this is his record of tourney appearances since his arrival in 1997:

1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015

He made it at least to the quarterfinals 7 of those years, and of course, won it all in 2000. He helped to produce the Hermann Trophy winner twice (soccer's Heismann, for those who don't know) with Gbandi and White.

As for the knock against his promotion or marketing of UConn soccer, I'm not sure I can blame him as much as the parties responsible in the athletic department. He does a bunch of camps and clinics. He's on the radio a lot with Joe D'Ambrosio. Not sure what else he can do there...

Same ol' thing.

DO you want to just make tourney appearances - which seemingly (given our appeal and Brand) is pretty easy OR do you want Wins. National Championships? Final Fours? We are one of the premier programs in the US. I am certain Indiana or UCLA would not respond the way you just did.

 

[UConnDan97]

Same ol' thing.

DO you want to just make tourney appearances - which seemingly (given our appeal and Brand) is pretty easy OR do you want Wins. National Championships? Final Fours? We are one of the premier programs in the US. I am certain Indiana or UCLA would not respond the way you just did.

Here we go again.

What I've shown you is direct evidence that we are one of the premier programs in the US specifically BECAUSE Ray Reid is our coach; not despite it. Some people on the Olympic threads act as if you simply wish to win a soccer tourney and then it happens. And this year was an especially nice coaching job to get to the tourney when considering how young the team currently is, and the fact that we lost Cyle Larin, the MLS Rookie of the year.

It's easy to just want national titles every year, or worse yet, to think you deserve one every year. But that's not on the coaching. Spain and England, for all of their collective soccer greatness, have only won the World Cup once each...

 

[UConnDan97]

To put some more perspective to it, let's talk about the legendary Joe Morrone, for whom the stadium is named:

1) Joe Morrone didn't make the NCAA tournament for his last eight years (1989 - 1996).
2) Joe Morrone didn't make the NCAA semis for an additional 6 years prior to that (1983).
3) When Joe Morrone won it all in 1981, soccer wasn't even close to being the national sport that it is today (we beat Alabama A&M 2-1 in the final.....yes, they are a college).

And THAT'S the guy that we consider a legend. We play in the tourney almost every year and produce top talent every year, so what do you think we should consider Ray Reid then?

 

[Waquoit]

And THAT'S the guy that we consider a legend. We play in the tourney almost every year and produce top talent every year, so what do you think we should consider Ray Reid then?

Embarrassing. Post that is.

 

[UConnDan97]

Embarrassing. Post that is.

Really???

Okay. I'd love for you to elaborate as to why, but I'm guessing you won't. As good as Morrone was at UConn, Reid has been better. And all of the facts support that opinion. And I'm not sure why Ray Reid is hated so much on this board, when he is one of the most respected soccer coaches in the country...

 

[Stainmaster]

Really???

Okay. I'd love for you to elaborate as to why, but I'm guessing you won't. As good as Morrone was at UConn, Reid has been better. And all of the facts support that opinion. And I'm not sure why Ray Reid is hated so much on this board, when he is one of the most respected soccer coaches in the country...

It's the "all or nothing, give us a championship or bust" mentality that defines UConn athletics. I blame the women's BB program and its fanbase.

 

[UConnDan97]

It's the "all or nothing, give us a championship or bust" mentality that defines UConn athletics. I blame the women's BB program and its fanbase.

There's some real truth to your statement. I love Geno for all that he's done for this university, and I never get tired of watching our ladies win by 50. But Geno, and many of the other UConn coaches (Calhoun, Ollie, etc.), have created a standard for athletics that they can barely keep up with themselves!

If Geno had lost to Maryland the other night, stopping his current win streak at 46 (instead of now being 48), people would have said, "He's lost his touch," or "He hasn't played KLS enough," or fill in the blank for whatever other complaint. And that would be after 46 wins in a row. Because it's only our third best streak in women's bball! That's the standard that has been set here.

I love that we continue to have and maintain an extremely high standard of athletics along with our academics, but sometimes, I think people just flat out lose their minds...

 

[Stainmaster]

There's some real truth to your statement. I love Geno for all that he's done for this university, and I never get tired of watching our ladies win by 50. But Geno, and many of the other UConn coaches (Calhoun, Ollie, etc.), have created a standard for athletics that they can barely keep up with themselves!

If Geno had lost to Maryland the other night, stopping his current win streak at 46 (instead of now being 48), people would have said, "He's lost his touch," or "He hasn't played KLS enough," or fill in the blank for whatever other complaint. And that would be after 46 wins in a row. Because it's only our third best streak in women's bball! That's the standard that has been set here.

I love that we continue to have and maintain an extremely high standard of athletics along with our academics, but sometimes, I think people just flat out lose their minds...

There's a difference between having an incredibly high standard and promoting feelings of entitlement among the fan base. The latter is what I see spreading to other sports in the AD besides WBB.

 

[dbmill]

Am I the only one who thinks this is a Legacy that Ray Reid is squandering?

I don't see the Winning we are used to. I don't see the Energy that we should demand. I see very little promotion or marketing of this. I am thrilled that we have a great Program and Venue; but ... let's not take this for granted.

While I am not a big fan of Ray Reid, I am not quite as down on him as you are. Still, I definitely agree that there is a lot more that could be done in marketing and publicizing the men's soccer program. For instance, Reid and UConn never issue a press release on the new players coming into the program, like most college athletic programs in most any sport do. The folks on Bigsoccer.com get on him something awful for this. The only other program at UConn that consistently doesn't issue such a release is baseball.

 

[sportsart]

Embarrassing. Post that is.

I know Pudge is your buddy but Dan's post is pretty eye opening. What part was embarrassing?

 

[Gurleyman]

To put some more perspective to it, let's talk about the legendary Joe Morrone, for whom the stadium is named: 1) Joe Morrone didn't make the NCAA tournament for his last eight years (1989 - 1996). 2) Joe Morrone didn't make the NCAA semis for an additional 6 years prior to that (1983). 3) When Joe Morrone won it all in 1981, soccer wasn't even close to being the national sport that it is today (we beat Alabama A&M 2-1 in the final.....yes, they are a college). And THAT'S the guy that we consider a legend. We play in the tourney almost every year and produce top talent every year, so what do you think we should consider Ray Reid then?

Soccer isn't all that much more national now. Back then Alabama A&M was a power. Now it's Akron. When Reid won, his last three wins were over Brown, SMU and Creighton.

Women's Soccer, due to the Title IX era, is much more national as all the big money schools added it. Men's soccer is pretty much same as it ever was - SEC and Big 12 don't even have it at all and just over half of the Big 10 schools sponsor it. Just the names of the random powers are different.

 

[UConnDan97]

Soccer isn't all that much more national now. Back then Alabama A&M was a power. Now it's Akron. When Reid won, his last three wins were over Brown, SMU and Creighton.

Women's Soccer, due to the Title IX era, is much more national as all the big money schools added it. Men's soccer is pretty much same as it ever was - SEC and Big 12 don't even have it at all and just over half of the Big 10 schools sponsor it. Just the names of the random powers are different.

There is no way that soccer is the same as it ever was. I'm sorry, but there's no way. In the early 80's, it was difficult to find soccer on tv. Telemundo and RAI were my choices up until the World Cup, and both were in different languages (ones that I could understand, thankfully). Town teams were the norm and travel teams were a great exception. If anything, soccer was made fun of by the "sports" channels.

Now, it's everywhere. Not only can I see every major game in every major league, but kids are on multiple teams in multiple leagues. Many more colleges are competitive at a higher level, and many more colleges are competing not just for American youth talent but for international youth talent; one of the areas that I believe Reid has done a great job at, by the way.

No, I'm sorry but there is no way that soccer is in the same realm today that it was back then. It is far far more competitive...

 

[Gurleyman]

There is no way that soccer is the same as it ever was. I'm sorry, but there's no way. In the early 80's, it was difficult to find soccer on tv. Telemundo and RAI were my choices up until the World Cup, and both were in different languages (ones that I could understand, thankfully). Town teams were the norm and travel teams were a great exception. If anything, soccer was made fun of by the "sports" channels. Now, it's everywhere. Not only can I see every major game in every major league, but kids are on multiple teams in multiple leagues. Many more colleges are competitive at a higher level, and many more colleges are competing not just for American youth talent but for international youth talent; one of the areas that I believe Reid has done a great job at, by the way. No, I'm sorry but there is no way that soccer is in the same realm today that it was back then. It is far far more competitive...

If your argument is that there are more sports on television now, yes, that's true. But that's a different issue. Alabama A&M was largely international players in 1981 - to get to the Final Four, they beat Duke, Clemson and West Virginia. Philadelphia Textile (a DII that played DI soccer back then) beat Indiana in one of the other regional finals. Many of the same power schools were there then that are here now, it was just some odd schools became powers alongside them, often due to their international pipelines. Now it just happens that the mid major powers are UC Santa Barbara, Creighton, Santa Clara and Akron, instead of Hartwick, Textile, SIU Edwardsville and Alabama A&M. Seattle was a seeded team this year. UMBC was seeded a couple years ago. There's always some random schools who break in among the big names in soccer, largely because half of the P5 schools don't sponsor the sport and it creates some openings.

I'd concede that a few more P5 schools that do have it take it a little more seriously now that they have things like the Directors Cup where there's incentive to try harder to win in everything (and there's a bigger chance of a bug school poaching a successful coach). But the sport hasn't grown the way it has on the women's side - when the SEC and Big 12 started fielding teams back in the 90s and throwing tons of money at it.

 

[Stinger92860]

There's some real truth to your statement. I love Geno for all that he's done for this university, and I never get tired of watching our ladies win by 50. But Geno, and many of the other UConn coaches (Calhoun, Ollie, etc.), have created a standard for athletics that they can barely keep up with themselves!

If Geno had lost to Maryland the other night, stopping his current win streak at 46 (instead of now being 48), people would have said, "He's lost his touch," or "He hasn't played KLS enough," or fill in the blank for whatever other complaint. And that would be after 46 wins in a row. Because it's only our third best streak in women's bball! That's the standard that has been set here.

I love that we continue to have and maintain an extremely high standard of athletics along with our academics, but sometimes, I think people just flat out lose their minds...

We won, just sayin....are you trying (real hard) to find negatives? I've never seen this from you.

 

[UConnDan97]

If your argument is that there are more sports on television now, yes, that's true. But that's a different issue. Alabama A&M was largely international players in 1981 - to get to the Final Four, they beat Duke, Clemson and West Virginia. Philadelphia Textile (a DII that played DI soccer back then) beat Indiana in one of the other regional finals. Many of the same power schools were there then that are here now, it was just some odd schools became powers alongside them, often due to their international pipelines. Now it just happens that the mid major powers are UC Santa Barbara, Creighton, Santa Clara and Akron, instead of Hartwick, Textile, SIU Edwardsville and Alabama A&M. Seattle was a seeded team this year. UMBC was seeded a couple years ago. There's always some random schools who break in among the big names in soccer, largely because half of the P5 schools don't sponsor the sport and it creates some openings.

I'd concede that a few more P5 schools that do have it take it a little more seriously now that they have things like the Directors Cup where there's incentive to try harder to win in everything (and there's a bigger chance of a bug school poaching a successful coach). But the sport hasn't grown the way it has on the women's side - when the SEC and Big 12 started fielding teams back in the 90s and throwing tons of money at it.

There's no doubt that the woman's game has grown more. By far. No argument here.

But believing that the men's game is the same that is was in 1983 is just not true. Many of the mid-majors that you mentioned, like Creighton, are strong teams every year now. And as you also mentioned, some of the P5 have grown as well. The teams are more technically sound, even than they were when I was watching them in the late 80's and early 90's. The point is that Ray Reid has an even greater task than Morrone had, and he's doing it better by all metrics. That's all I'm saying...

 

[UConnDan97]

We won, just sayin....are you trying (real hard) to find negatives? I've never seen this from you.

???

I think you've misunderstood my post. You were right to assume that I would be positive instead of negative, because I AM positive. I was positive that we were going to come away with the victory in the Maggie Dixon Classic against the Twerps. I only brought that up as a hypothetical to help demonstrate the type of attitude in CT that goes beyond hoping for the win or even expecting it. The type of attitude I'm talking about is the one that demands it. And when we don't win "the big one", some members of Husky Nation act like petulant children (I'm not calling out any Boneyarders in this thread, because I don't think they fit the bill).

Geno Auriemma has commented on that numerous times. I'm just reinforcing the message. But I'll never be negative on UConn. You can take that to the bank...

 

[whaler11]

It would be impossible to deny that some fraction of the fanbase sees what happens in women's basketball and somehow think it should apply to other sports.

Hell a percentage of fans of the men's program don't seem to understand no matter how many you've won the next championship is still very difficult to obtain.

This is how we end up with people not understanding how good of a job Randy Edsall did - or how well Bob Diaco has done in 24 months.

 

[husky8273]

While I am not a big fan of Ray Reid, I am not quite as down on him as you are. Still, I definitely agree that there is a lot more that could be done in marketing and publicizing the men's soccer program. For instance, Reid and UConn never issue a press release on the new players coming into the program, like most college athletic programs in most any sport do. The folks on Bigsoccer.com get on him something awful for this. The only other program at UConn that consistently doesn't issue such a release is baseball.

It's not the head coach's responsibility to issue press releases. Heard Ray earlier speak this season - "little did I know when Lew Perkins told me after the 2000 championship that we would get a new soccer stadium that it would take 15 years and that I would have to raise all the money".

 

[FDNY99]

It's not the head coach's responsibility to issue press releases. Heard Ray earlier speak this season - "little did I know when Lew Perkins told me after the 2000 championship that we would get a new soccer stadium that it would take 15 years and that I would have to raise all the money".

Ahh another coach who has had to deal with Hathawayitis...8 years of no fundraising or facility upgrades.