Haven't seen anyone comment on the recent addition to the staff announced last week. Thoughts? Tracey Bates Leone Returns To UNC As Women’s Soccer Assistant Coach https://goheels.com/news/2024/4/11/...turns-to-unc-as-womens-soccer-assistant-coach
I think that this is potentially a great move for UNC. Tracy is a highly experienced D-I college coach with decades each of head coach and assistant coach (and also a USWNT player for 5 years.) She is in the Clemson Hall of Fame for establishing the Women's team and has been awarded Coach of the Year accolade Coach of the Year while in the CAA. She is married to Ray Leone who also has been coaching for decades at various colleges. Ray is taking a coach position starting this year with the "United States Sports Academy" in Alabama, so her tenure at UNC may or may not be a long one.
If they are good enough to be a top level player in the NWSL, they will be even better after 1 to 4 years in a competitive college program. They will be highly rated and drafted at that time with what will surely be much better money. If they are not that good, they will have a college degree in hand with little to no debt. AGain forward thinking parents/recruits. Love your take on this, Tom, and will root for it happening, but I'll not be surprised to see the top players continue to be seduced by the prestige and money to go pro when they are 18.
Some no doubt do not like school and simply want to play soccer. Say goodbye to them. To those who are reasonably good at school, you hope that they have parents who can see the long game. Hopefully more will than won't, but we'll see. When they see a Jaedyn Shaw or Trinity Rodman succeed, they think they are that, but only a very small subset of them are!
I believe that Aven Alvarez is shown in an NCFC photo of graduating (‘24) seniors on FB on April 7th. I just grabbed a screenshot, but it seems to be too big to upload here. If you see it, I think she’s the one in the upper left (back row).
Brain fart..... Of course Olivia Thomas! Olivia has a place for sure. I'm trusting that after healing she has been focused on training to maneuver through a couple of good defenders at close range or feed a runner. Maddie Dahlein is a fast slashing type and may be the top scorer and Bella may fire away from her midfield place. And yes Liv Migli...her 4 years a Duke are an enigma. She was a 5'4" defender in club soccer and entered Duke as a forward for her freshman year. The Blue Devil's roster then showed she was a midfielder for her 2nd and 3rd years, and and then a defender in her 4th year. In her freshman year at Duke she scored 6 goals, one goal in her sophomore year and 4 goals in her junior year. She might shine for the Heels if she is 100% healthy and rearin' to go.
Players, parents, recruits, alumnae and donors, We had our final day of spring training yesterday. We played an 11v11 match against ourselves. I want to publicly thank the young men (Ross Butler, Cam Dinkenor, Keller Fraley, Jacob Franke, Kofi Jack, Quin McGuire, Odil Nazirov and Jonathan Sinclair) that jumped in to help us this spring. The 11v11 was women against seven men (Cam could not make it), Tierney McConnel and three female pros (Amber Brooks, Ade Gay and Libby Moore) … with liberal officiating, the barn burner of a game ended up 4-4 with the men winning on penalty kicks. Jonathan ran through the entire team a couple of times to score two; Jacob, free of goalkeeping responsibilities because of Ade Gay, scored two. For the women Maddie Dahlein, finally healthy after congenital bone issues in her foot was solved with surgery, scored two; Kate Faasse scored one; and Bella Sember scored one. The young men were not allowed to clean out the young women, so we stayed healthy ALL spring … thank you gentlemen! M’Liss hosted an end of spring party for EVERYONE, Nikki Nahas and the Brunners provided the deserts …. Thank you Nikki, Michelle and M’Liss! Finally, by the end of the spring season we got healthy, we had Tessa Dellarose our U-20 Nat’l Youth Team Player returned to us and we are now poised to embrace a fantastic collection of new and talented players this summer. The fall is all about team development. The spring is all about individual development. AND THIS SPRING’S INDIVIDAL DEVELOPMENT WAS RECORD BREAKING!! As a team we got faster and more technical. Nine players improved their vertical jump; eight players improved their agility; twelve players improved their acceleration; seven players improved their speed …. and these were all PERSONAL BESTS!! In technical testing … trapping, passing, shooting dribbling and heading … in fourteen different tests we had 106 personal bests. We are striking the ball with more power and serving it over greater distances. I want to thank Damon for the technical platforms he set up for us this spring (that were also incredibly fun!!) and Greg Gatz and Elena Cantu for helping us drive a great culture in our strength training. I also want to thank Brandi and her staff for keeping us healthy and helping us get healthy … we had only three young women out of practice yesterday. I know you will enjoy scrolling through everything below. Obviously, following our pros has been so much fun and now we can see every game it seems; and not just in the NWSL but also abroad. Our game is exploding!!! In an extraordinary recruiting moment for us, Tracey Bates Leone returned to Paradise. She left a head coaching position to return to Chapel Hill. If you look at her resume, she is off the carts … 3x collegiate National Champion, World Champion as a player AND a coach … tell me if there is anyone out there that can match this amazing young woman’s resume!?! On a personal note I want to thank the wonderful leadership at UNC that will honor my daughter at this year’s commencement. She gave the Eve Carson Lecture on campus and as her proud father, when that room embraced her I can’t tell you how excited I was. I want to publicly thank our chancellors and members of the UNC Board of Trustees who embraced her as well. Thank you!! Anson
Spring training is over which means prep for the new season starts!! Also I’m pretty sure UNC scrimmaged another NC school something State not NC. I saw it in a UNC Player’s instagram story. Aven looks the most likely to reclassify, knowing she already posted abt smth like it