Both lacrosse coaches are OUT
Warde Manuel making some moves today. Michigan announces coaches for men's lax (John Paul) & women's lax (Jennifer Ulehla) will not return.
— Brendan F. Quinn (@BFQuinn) May 2, 2017
You guys were both looking at the "Live Lacrosse News Sporting Wire" at the same time, eh? I stare at that thing all day...
First thought that comes to mind is kudos to Warde. This couldn't have been easy, but it had to be done. The new facility should help attract a really good set of coaches.
Mike Pressler
Pressler is extremely loyal to Bryant, I don't think he'd come to Michigan. They were the only school to accept him during the scandal in 2006, I think he plans on staying there indefinitely.
Got a new stadium next year. Gotta have people in it so this needed to happen. 23-61 in 6 years on the Men's side with it getting worse defensively every year was ridiculous when teams like Marquette who started after Michigan did already made the NCAA Tournament once.
Didn't you know WD is the AD's personal advisor? Warde calls him before every move to make sure it is ok with WD.
We need swim lanes.
"We"
You're a member of MGoBlog now too?
I bet the Men's soccer coach is next. I wonder when his contract is up.
Hope so, sad to say. The ouster of the previous coach never made much sense, and Daley has been hugely underwhelming. Time to get the program back on track.
Won't be anytime soon...fall sport, not going to fire anyone now unless they do something crazy.
I saw him naked at Buffalo Wild Wings last week.
I bet
Thank god.
I spent an hour last week advising a mother and her son on patent and licensing rights to the kid's 3D-printed invention on an improvement to lax gear. A major athletic company was already pursuing him. He's not old enough to drive.
If Michigan is going to "do" lax, we need to put our program in condition to consistently strike for the national championship. Inter alia, Ann Arbor is one helluva superior place to spend a few years as compared with, say, Hopkins.
We need to move the ball forward, m/w. Pleased to see Warde shares this view.
attorney-client privilege.
then just the engineering specs will be sufficient.
Have been thinking of this recently when watching or reading about our LAX team.
Started thinking about Penn State and how they seem to be able to take teams that had little to no success or new programs and in seemingly no time at all have them competing at national championship levals.
PSU wrestling has won 6 of the last 7 national championships, before that they had a total of 2 top 2 finishes.
LAX PSU was ok but now they are a top 10 team.
Hockey in 5 years got ranked #1 and made the tourney and won a game, Also watching them since they entered hockey they improved each year.
Hopefully whoever takes over for both LAX teams can take them to national relevance.
Go Blue!
PSU Lax stole the Cornell coach, who was the hottest name in coaching for the year or two prior. This year I'm not sure there are many hot names out there who already have head coaching experience. Any legitimate tournament teams are all in the ACC and Big10, and you would have a really hard time hiring any of them away. So you'd be looking at an assistant or someone who had a nice couple years with a mid-level team.
too much baggage from the Duke scandal?
I personally think the university looks a lot worse from the scandal than he does. His only problem was having some kids throw a party, which is tough to stop if you are a coach. He did punish them for it if I recall correctly.
He was basically damaged goods though while that was going on, and the only university willing to look at him was his alma mater. He supposedly had other big offers since going back to Bryant, and turned them all down. He's basically set there until retirement, and I can't blame him if he wants to stay with those who were loyal to him.
Damaged only momentarily. Pressler coached the US Men's National Lacrosse team to a World Championship in 2010. Great guy. He will stay at Bryant. How about an Ivy coach?
The duke "scandal" where some players were falsely accused of rape, and the district attorney who brought charges not only resigned, but was disbarred as a result? And to top it off Pressler ended up getting a settlement and an apology from the university for wrongful termination. Yeah I don't think he has to worry about baggage from that.
Bryant was the one school that gave him a chance when things were at their lowest --- he seems to really appreciate that.
Pressler was also born in and grew up in Fairfield County, CT. He may want to stay that part of the country now.
They produce more talent year in and year out in Pennsylvania than any other state. It was kind of impressive that they went so long without being a top teir program
Maybe lure Starsia or Nadelen. Long shots would be looking at Matt Brown from Denver or Byrne from ND.
First, thank you to JP for his years of hard work. He's brought the program an awful long way, and I wish him luck in his future plans.
Second, in terms of candidates... Starsia is likely too old at this point, and would be like hiring Red Berenson now. Brown seems to be head coach in waiting at Denver but is definitely a quality assistant. Will be interesting to see who they can get. I don't think the Michigan Brand is there in lacrosse yet, so it wouldn't surprise me to see a bit of a lesser known coach get the nod.
Starsia should be just as tainted/have asmuch baggage as Pressler. That program was quietly out of control and they managed to keep it under wraps better than Duke did. He def knows the game though and is a great coach but he's also getting old.
After everyone was all concerned that Warde wasn't making decisive moves, he...coerces(?) Red into retirement and rightly let's go of JP even though he was the founder of the program. Neither are easy to do for a newcomer, but much respect to the man for getting it done
Huh. You mean that the people rushing to judgment (vehemently, it should be pointed out) about Warde's capability after less than a year on the job could have been wrong?
One area Warde is not getting any play for that is absolutely part of his job? The Rome trip. Harbaugh's idea, yes, but Warde's office has to execute it and it has exceeded the expectations that anyone locally or nationally could have possibly had for it.
Sounds like he's doing his job. Never fun for a coach to lose a job, especially in a lower-tier sport like this where it will have a real impact on his life, but it's part of the business. I wish the outgoing coaches well.
Not sure what people were expecting him to do in his first year on the job.
After the tumult of the past ten years in the Athletic Department, the smartest strategy was to spend time getting to know everyone, learning and observing, and bringing calm to the department.
What Michigan needed was a strong, measured leader...who would make wise decisions based on the best interests of the university. It appears as though Warde is doing just that.
Obviously Coach Paul's heart was in the right place but he could not get the job done. I'm friends with the parents of two team members and of two kids committed to the team in future years. Our new stadium will be the best in the sport by far according to Paul Rabil and Paul Carcaterra. There is no reason we cannot get the best coach in the country. I would have hired Lars Tiffany last year before he went to Virginia. We should hire Scott Marr from Albany. Most exciting offense in lacrosse and proven and sustained success at a SUNY branch campus, even without the Thompsons. I did hear that Coach Pietramala from Hopkins wanted the Michigan job when we first went varsity. Anyone have any candidates better than Marr?
Marr yes, absolutely. Albany was never really much of anything and now they're a top 10 team and a perennial threat to go to the Final 4 or even win it all. I'm on board with Marr for sure.
Wlax not surprising at all. In the past 4 years Ulehla missed on at least 4 very good womens lax players from west Michigan. Two are All-Americans (DII and DIII), one is at Northwestern and another is at Maryland. Hell, the Northwestern coach made her name by taking athletes and teaching them the game. Too bad she never got in her car and drove to Grand Rapids
Rockford, East Grand Rapids, Birmingham United among others. I know a four year varsity player / National Merit Finalist at Pioneer who was willing to walk on the team and Coach U didn't even have an interest in speaking with her.
The East Coast has good talent, but there are a handful of players within the state each year that could help the team. Coach U never even had an interest in investigating. At minimum, it would have built local/state interest in the program while it builds.
I knew WD would get in early on this one for some good old fashioned grave stomping.