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Wake Soccer Coach Jay Vidovich Gone

OMG. Devastating. Don't we have any former assistants/players working in the US Soccer system? I thought we did.
 
So one of the best coaches we had left (who Wellman didn't hire ironically) has to be replaced. That being said, the program has been on the slow decline since 2007-08 and maybe a fresh change will be good. I had heard that Coach Vidovich was pretty abrasive to work with/play for. We still have the advantages of Spry (a solid if not spectacular facility), great fan support (given our school size), history of putting players into the MLS and a winning tradition. We will be fine IMO
 
Wow, tough news -- I've known Jay for almost 30 years; I was 5 or 6 and my mom was signing me up at Walt Chyzowych Soccer Camp as a day camper, and while she was filling out paperwork I guess I wandered off, started talking to Jay, and the next thing she knew Jay came up to her asking her where my bags were for overnight camp. I went to at least one session every summer until I was 17, helped out in the soccer office while I was at school, and fanatically followed the team after graduation until just a few years ago when I guess I felt like it had played out for me -- I probably invested way too much emotionally in it all. Both he and Walt were like father figures to me, and by far the biggest influences on my appreciation of the sport and beyond; I could not have asked for a better introduction.

I could probably write a dissertation-length post about all of it and what he, Walt, and the program have meant to me, but he, his staff, and a lot of the players over the years always welcomed me and included me as part of the program when they very easily could have seen me as just some annoying hanger-on/wannabe/annoying kid, and for that I will always be grateful.
 
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wakephan09 said:
OMG. Devastating. Don't we have any former assistants/players working in the US Soccer system? I thought we did.
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Of the top of my head John Hackworth was U-17 coach for a spell and Philadelphia Union coach, Mike McGinty is the coach at St. Louis, Rob Vartughian has been an assistant on both the college and professional level, but I would be very surprised if a former player or assistant came back, unless this all went down on good terms. I think Jay always felt as if he had to fight for support from the athletic administration and everyone would be aware of this; it has always struck me as a pretty tight knit group, I'm not sure any alum would want to step into that, but I don't know. He will be tough to follow, regardless, but yeah the last few years, what few games I saw, the level had dropped significantly, and though we seemed to always have highly rated recruiting classes, he was frustrated even on the back of the National Championship season about the guys he could get in and was getting in.

ETA -- we've got a lot of guys who do youth soccer coaching around the country, some of them with pretty big programs.
 
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palmab03 said:
Portland sure as shit is to winston.

What does a soccer coach at wfu make?
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As long as Jay was here and as successful as he was, he was probably up to making decent scratch, but I would be surprised if his base salary was that much, if at all, over 100k. I'm sure he'll be making more, even at the second highest level.
 
I think you're right, Chupe, in particular, about fighting for support. I remember that I had once very personal -- and very frank -- chat with Vid in our lockerroom, of all places, about that very issue. At the time he was trying to leverage the 2007 Natty to fuck my team out of something, so I was kind of pissed and told him that, but I certainly don't blame him for trying.

I think someone from "outside of the family" would really have to buy into "The Wake Forest Way" that Vid has so vehemently promoted -- 'Earn the Jersey', treat college soccer like you are a professional and it is a job, etc. I think that our program would suffer from someone coming in and starting completely anew. And I don't think our vocal alumni would like that either.
 
wakephan09 said:
Wait, Vid has been here for more than twenty years, and his supposed departure now is Wellman's fault?
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Although upon further reflection, the fact that he's taken a job that doesn't exactly seem like a promotion may suggest otherwise.
 
wakephan09 said:
Wait, Vid has been here for more than twenty years, and his supposed departure now is Wellman's fault?
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Sorry to just write post after post, but Wellman did not want to hire Jay initially (probably understandable as Jay had no head coaching experience and was like 30 years old), but there have also been a few times over the last 10-15 years where it looked like Jay could be leaving, and I don't know that Wellman particularly cared all that much.

I'll add that, though in a vacuum, Wellman not wanting hire Jay initially makes sense, after what he and the program went through that first year, Jay deserved a shot. Fortunately we had some big donors make some emphatic suggestions. Spry probably would not be here (or we wouldn't have had a soccer specific stadium for a while) if Jay had not been hired.
 
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Well, I do know for a fact -- as in, Wellman told me to my face on more than one occasion -- that he really doesn't care about the non-revenue sports as long as the athletes stay out of trouble.
 
So can we get rid of Wellman already? Revenue sports are clawing out of a mess Wellman made. Our second most successful coach bolted for a minor league gig.
 
wakephan09 said:
Well, I do know for a fact -- as in, Wellman told me to my face on more than one occasion -- that he really doesn't care about the non-revenue sports as long as the athletes stay out of trouble.
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He also doesn't care about the revenue sports.... Sooooo......
 
And what is wakephan doing having all these head to head wars with everybody in the AD?!?!
 
Some people within in the soccer world say this is almost a step down. He had to be offered a wagon load of cash, or was pushed out. Either way, it's clear that he was done at Wake.
T2 is below USL Pro (carolina railhawks).
 
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