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Wake Soccer Coach Jay Vidovich Gone

siff said:
Thanks, Jay, for an incredible run. All the best. Enjoy the PNW.
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This really should be the only sentiment around here. He owes WF absolutely nothing. Maybe he just wants a change. You folks on the whole "step down" front have little clue what you are talking about. He absolutely WILL be surrounded by much greater soccer talent 24/7 (the club as a whole - it's not like American minor league sports where the major league team is X number of miles away - they all work together). I know personally that Jay loves WF and loves coaching collegiate soccer. Who can blame a lifelong soccer coach w/n an education system, however, for wanting to work with players a step away from the (help me here, soccer gurus) 8th (guess) best league in the world?

Jay has been invested in the bureaucracy of an academic institution for a very, very long time. More power to him for seeking out professional opportunities (in a great part of the country, no less). No more NCAA regs. No more following the academic progress of his players (of which he cared deeply). Perhaps he's ready to just be a coach. Hooking up with the Timbers? Awesome opportunity.
 
West End Deac said:
This really should be the only sentiment around here. He owes WF absolutely nothing. Maybe he just wants a change. You folks on the whole "step down" front have little clue what you are talking about. He absolutely WILL be surrounded by much greater soccer talent 24/7 (the club as a whole - it's not like American minor league sports where the major league team is X number of miles away - they all work together). I know personally that Jay loves WF and loves coaching collegiate soccer. Who can blame a lifelong soccer coach w/n an education system, however, for wanting to work with players a step away from the (help me here, soccer gurus) 8th (guess) best league in the world?

Jay has been invested in the bureaucracy of an academic institution for a very, very long time. More power to him for seeking out professional opportunities (in a great part of the country, no less). No more NCAA regs. No more following the academic progress of his players (of which he cared deeply). Perhaps he's ready to just be a coach. Hooking up with the Timbers? Awesome opportunity.
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Great post. This is less about the league in which this team will be playing (in fact, it probably has nothing to do with the level of the league) than the direct connection to the Timbers and MLS, and a chance to do what he does best, which is coach and develop. He has been here 30 years and had other chances to jump before. I don't think he would move across the country if he didn't feel this was the best opportunity for him, rather than him just trying to get out and get anything that was available. It's more akin to a reserves/youth team in Spain or Bundesliga, where the "B" teams play in the lower divisions, often two or three levels lower than the first team.
 
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Bummer. Wish him the best. His teams have been incredibly fun to watch. It will be very interesting to see who we get to replace him.
 
Wellman has announced that he will be hiring Roger Espinoza to coach the team next year.
 
Thanks for what you did for the program Coach. Watching the team beat OSU for the Natty in 2007 is one of my best sports memories of all time. Best of luck to you in Portland!
 
El Chupacabra said:
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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Spry was already in the works before Walt died. Summer training was delayed in 94 due to the fields not being ready bc of pre construction.

Not a fan of Jay but that's just my opinion.
 
I might not be remembering the specifics then, but there was definitely pressure from supporters of the program to stick with Jay and that Wellman did not want to make that permanent hire, I know that for sure. I was pretty sure it had to do with Spry, but could be mistaken. Was it fully funded at that time?
 
El Chupacabra said:
I might not be remembering the specifics then, but there was definitely pressure from supporters of the program to stick with Jay and that Wellman did not want to make that permanent hire, I know that for sure. I was pretty sure it had to do with Spry, but could be mistaken. Was it fully funded at that time?
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Don't know if it was fully funded yet but construction had started. Can't imagine big guns backing an assistant coach with no hc experience and who was abrasive at the least. Can't blame Wellman for not making him a permanent hire at first. I also, don't give Wellman credit for Vid's success. Hackworth was a great pipeline for access to the USMNT.
 
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HowBoutDemDeacs said:
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
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Having worked with Jay for many, many years, I can confidently say that you couldn't be more wrong about Jay being abrasive. He had high expectations for his players and his staff, which isn't the same thing as being difficult to "work with/play for". He demanded the best from his players, yes, but because he wanted them to become better men and soccer players. I can't think of another coach who almost always put the welfare of the players OVER his own. Coach Jay is an incredible coach, but more importantly a great man. This is a huge loss for Wake Forest.
 
Thanks, Jay. The program you helped build was part of what made my time at Wake special. I'll never forget those games.
 
Stan Gable said:
Don't know if it was fully funded yet but construction had started. Can't imagine big guns backing an assistant coach with no hc experience and who was abrasive at the least. Can't blame Wellman for not making him a permanent hire at first. I also, don't give Wellman credit for Vid's success. Hackworth was a great pipeline for access to the USMNT.
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The soccer boosters with pull definitely backed Jay, of that I am certain. It definitely did not make sense to make Jay a permanent hire at first considering Walt died the day before the season started, but after that first year, as I have heard from people involved in that situation, he still didn't want to, and that is when some people stepped up. Maybe it's tough to imagine, I can see how it would be, but it is what happened.

As a coach, you are always going to piss people off, and I know the transition from when he was an assistant to being the head guy was tough for him and a lot of the players, but most of the complaints I heard from ex-players had to do with communication and perceived favoritism towards certain players (often justified, IMO), rather than any abrasiveness. Now Paul McDonough was really abrasive when he was an assistant, but he pulled in some studs.

I also think you are overstating Hackworth's influence on our recruiting after he left. We got some u-17 guys over the years for sure, but most of our best players weren't residency guys in that program. That being said, Jay was at his best when he had a good recruiting assistant, and I don't think any of the guys who have stepped in after Muuss have really been up to it and it has showed -- though I liked Jon Lowery a lot, he was a good dude.
 
But yeah anyway, the circumstances of his hire isn't really important to this thread, I guess, it should be focused on what he meant for the school -- Jay's a great guy, a tremendous representative of the university and the program, took over and held the program together in extremely tough circumstances, and I hope he does very well. Really one of my favorite people in the world, so I am biased.

Maybe Ron fucked this up, I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if ultimately Jay was just tired of playing the politics game.
 
So he leaves us for one of our biggest rivals and all you PUSSYS want to talk about is how great he is?!?! HE IS A TRADER!
 
TenaciousKory said:
Thanks, Jay. The program you helped build was part of what made my time at Wake special. I'll never forget those games.
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Yep. National Championship still the best sports moment of my lifetime.
 
El Chupacabra said:
As a coach, you are always going to piss people off, and I know the transition from when he was an assistant to being the head guy was tough for him and a lot of the players, but most of the complaints I heard from ex-players had to do with communication and perceived favoritism towards certain players (often justified, IMO), rather than any abrasiveness. Now Paul McDonough was really abrasive when he was an assistant, but he pulled in some studs.
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That was what I was getting at. Abrasive was not the right word. I don't think you would find a guy from the mid to late 90's that would label him a "players coach". Can't argue with his success though.
 
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