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Wake Soccer Coach Jay Vidovich Gone

CHillDeac said:
The dude has been here close to three decades. Personally I think that warrants more than four sentences in a standard press release.
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TBH, Wake ought to consider naming something after him. Nearly 30 years, 21 of which were as HC? Four FFs? A national championship? Hang it.
 
I'm sure he's happy as hell to get away from Wellman, since whoever the fuck is in charge of him is still asleep at the wheel.
 
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siff said:
TBH, Wake ought to consider naming something after him. Nearly 30 years, 21 of which were as HC? Four FFs? A national championship? Hang it.
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Nah, you don't name something after somebody who left for greener pastures. If he had finished his career here, then absolutely, it's a no-brainer. Besides, we no longer name anything after anybody unless they show Wellman the money.
 
I got to know Jay pretty well while I was at Wake and working as a member of the Men's Soccer support staff. On a personal level he was a tremendous person who treated me extremely well, I also thought that he treated his players, staff, and support staff with complete and genuine kindness. As opposed to football, basketball and some of the larger sports where trainers, managers, tutors etc are treated as servants, Jay treated these people as well as he treated the players. As a result, the players then adopted the same attitude towards these people. I have always thought that you can tell alot about a person by the way that they treat those who could be seen as "below" them. While he was tough and demanding on the players and staff, he was never personal and always put the team before himself.

From a soccer standpoint, his success speaks for itself. By no means was he the only one that got the program to where it is today, but he was the constant that built it in his vision. A game on Spry on a fall Saturday night with a packed house against Carolina or someone like that is a truly special environment for soccer in the United States - granted that is not saying much, but anyone who has been there knows how fun those nights can be. You see different interviews around MLS draft time where the MLS coaches mention how they like Wake players because they play in as advanced a style as there is in college soccer and already know how to behave as professionals. The guy could attract great players, improve them during their careers and win games. Just as importantly, he did this while being a great ambassador for the university - this was always priority number one for him and I believe that he did us proud.

So where does the program go from here? With the exception of some programs on the West Coast, the ACC is the premier soccer conference in the country in terms of depth, quality of teams (expecially with the addition of Louisville and ND) and game attendance/atmosphere. Wake should be able to get just about any coach that it wants from outside the conference. Someone who will certainly be getting an interview is Bobby Muuss - as someone mentioned he left Wake to be the head coach at the University of Denver. I can't claim to know much about the history of their program, but since he has gotten there they are now around the top 25, contending/winning their conference and have made the tournament the last few years i think. My impressions of Bobby were much like those of Jay - he cared deeply about the university and the players. He is as good a recruiter as there is and would probably even improve the talent coming through Wake. He is a better recruiter than Jay but not as strong at development and tactics. That said, talent wins at the college level and if you can get good enough players I don't think you need to be the best tactician to win. Carson Porter is another former assistant who could be considered - i believe that he is in the US development program now so this would probably be a step down for him. I was never impressed with him in any facet of coaching and don't think he would be a good representative for Wake.

The program definitely seemed to slip the last few years, not sure if it was because of so many good players leaving early or what - but maybe the change in leadership won't be such a bad thing.

Regardless, thank you to Jay for all that he has done for WF Soccer. He should be considered on the level of Skip as a person who ran a program the right way and could always make us proud of his team.
 
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