OT: Lacrosse icon moves west to coach and spread gospel.
Long time Princeton coach, Bill Tierney, will move on to coach Denver. I know that this is mainly a football site, but I know that there is a lacrosse following for our club team in Ann Arbor. Given the explosion of lacrosse in MI in the last five years, and throughout the country for that matter, I think that this might be a great thing for the game. As a former athletic department colleague of Bill's, it hurts to see Princeton lose such a great coach, but I think that he can bring energy to the west coast to help spread the game. In fact, one of his old players, David Morrow, started Warrior Lacrosse in Troy, MI, which is probably one of the biggest reasons for the growth of the game in MI.
Isn't Princeton better than Denver?
Princeton's better than 99% of NCAA schools at lacrosse.
thats what I thought. So why would he leave to coach Denver?
Maybe he likes skiing. Maybe he figured he'd accomplished all he could at Princeton. Maybe he didn't get along with someone. Could be any number of reasons.
is lacrosse?
alcoholic drink or something. I'm not really sure though.
state of. there's cheese, beer and white people.
California and Colorado are basically the only two western states that are already into lacrosse.
I agree that it's great to see such a huge coach (coaching ability-wise, not Weis size-wise) going out West to coach. I would argue that lacrosse is growing faster on the West Coast than it is in the Midwest (although depending on where you count Texas - although I guess I could count that as South). The problem with Princeton is that it's hit a bit of a lull where their stringent academic standards are hindering some of the recruits that are coming in. Yes, Princeton has some of the best academics but kids are seeing that you can get just as good an education at other lacrosse powerhouses (Virginia, for instance) and still play lacrosse at the highest level. Denver, as you can imagine, has much less stringent academic standards so his talent pool has increased dramatically. The interesting thing to see is how many people he can attract to Denver. Most of the powerhouse programs are in the East coast and some in the Midwest, but Denver is pretty far from most hotbeds of recruiting.
Semi-side note: Florida added Women's Lacrosse as a varsity sport this year and if you look at the Under Armor Girls HS All American Game - nearly half the girls there are headed to Florida. If Florida or Florida State added a varsity men's lacrosse program, they'd have a top five program within a couple of years - every recruit would flock there for the weather and of course, chicks.
Tierney also has a son who plays for the MLL's Denver Outlaws who will be his assistant coach at Denver, and he had indicated before that he wanted to move eventually, as most of his family is on the West coast. Denver has great facilities (lacrosse only stadium: http://bit.ly/AZwR4), and they offered a huge contract. I think this is more about Tierney wanting to help grow the game/being close to his family than anything else.
It is insane how many top recruits Florida was able to get (http://bit.ly/gK4ui). I think it was last year when Vanderbilt, another team from a non-traditional area, had a ridiculous women's recruiting class. Like you said, FSU of UF gets a team, and the school will immediately meet their quota of kids rocking croakies and Vineyard Vines on the daily.
On ESPN, it talked about him making $250K to coach there, which I guess is a lot of money for a lacrosse coach in college
...$250K to coach there, which I guess is a lot of money for a lacrosse coach in college.
yea, that's a lot period
Denver's athletic director is Peg Bradley-Doppes, who used to be the volleyball coach and then an Associate AD at Michigan back in the 90s.
$250K is definitely a lot for a college coach in ANY sport other than big-time football or basketball. Denver is making a pretty big commitment to lacrosse. I wish Michigan would do the same by making the jump to varsity.