PP: ‘Pack Soccer, A Commitment to Disaster’

As we piggy-back this entry from just a couple of weeks ago that was written when NC State had ZERO conference wins in fall sports, it is time for our annual mention of just how poorly the NC State soccer programs are being managed (or, just how wonderful the programs are being mis-managed).

Just last year, Lee Fowler’s NC State ‘accomplished a rare double dip of pathos with its men’s and women’s soccer teams each being the bottom seeds, based on their conference records, in their respective tournaments.’ (You can review our entry on the topic by clicking here.)

Well, this year ain’t going much better as the men and women’s teams are again BOTH at the bottom of the league with a collective ACC record of 1-12. Pack Pride has a thread on the topic with some additional historical information included.

OF COURSE this topic is discussed exclusively on the message boards as you would never see such an ‘article’ ever produced at PP (or The Wolfpacker). As you know, the sites are far too busy writing recruiting diaries and profiles on 15 year old high school students. Of course, a kid in Ohio who has a 5% chance of playing sports at NC State in five years is much more relevant to NC State websites than thought provoking stories about NC State Athletics.

In this instance, it looks like quite a few posts have been deleted from the thread, so we have no idea if the posts included inside perspectives that the site didn’t want in the public domain (so as to not harm their relationship with the all powerful Annabelle Vaugn Myers); or if the posts were derogatory.

Regardless, this interesting tidbit was included in the thread. Sounds like old Coach Fowler’s ‘leadership’ skills have allowed the Nora-Lynn-Finch-attitude to permeate throughout the Athletics Department.

My wife played for a top 5 program in the nation and was one of the faster players on the team. She got homesick and wanted to come back to NC. She detested the whole atmosphere at UNC and wanted to major in engineering. She decided on State and called Kerrigan to arrange her transfer to State. Kerrigan wouldn’t even contact her back and she had to go through the AD to get a tryout. Kerrigan took her on reluctantly and then stuck her on State’s bench for her career while State finished last every season in soccer. Kerrigan was trying to prove a point to the AD that she could recruit and would only play her players. The seniors on the team at the time Kerrigan was hired sat the bench that year and basically all freshmen played. It was pathetic to watch and I actually would boo her outloud at games for her decision making. She is a pathetic excuse for a coach and the sooner she is let go, the faster our soccer team will come out of the cellar of the ACC. She has never finished better than 7th in the conference and that was in the 9 team ACC and with GA Tech not having a team at the time.

It’s funny that many fans presume that Coach George Tarantini’s 41-76-14 ACC record would support his removal as coach from a sport that produces no revenue. That winning percentage is pretty similar to the Wolfpack’s most recent Head Basketball Coach whom our AD wouldn’t dare remove.

For the record, the following are NC State’s rankings in the NCAA’s annual ‘all-sports’ rankings now known as the “Director’s Cup’ (originailly known as the ‘Sears Cup’). The Pack finished 8th amongst ACC schools after posting our best finish in the Lee Fowler years of a fantastically mediocre 6th (in the ACC) last year.

—Lee Fowler Years—-

2006-07 – #44
2005-06 – #34
2004-05 – #51
2003-04 – #39
2002-03 – #43
2001-02 – #46
2000-01 – #56

—Les Robinson Years—
1999-00 – #40
1998-99 – #63
1997-98 – #43
1996-97 – #57

—Todd Turner Years—
1995-96 – #34
1994-95 – #32
1993-94 – #59

Any conversation about ‘all sports’ would not be complete without this entry.

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

AD & Department NC State Administration Non-Revenue

50 Responses to PP: ‘Pack Soccer, A Commitment to Disaster’

  1. The Big Leebowski 11/01/2007 at 9:26 AM #

    Moving out of the Method Road little league soccer is a step in the right direction. I’m hoping the move to back to campus and the improvements to Paul Derr track will be the kick-start (pun intended) for both soccer programs.

    SFN: Leebowski, can you share a little perspective on how our facilities compare to all of the other facilities in the ACC? I know that there are some good ones. But, are NC State’s facilities that proportionally worse than everyone else’s?

    Also, we just wanted to take a moment to congratulate Wake Forest on winning the ACC Football Championship last year. Of course, with the 11th worst football facilities in the conference one could never imagine such a performance happening.

  2. Sam92 11/01/2007 at 9:33 AM #

    That’s pretty bleak indeed.

    Does anyone have information on how our budgets for sports such as soccer, or gymnastics, compare to other ACC schools?

    I think of the budget, and the state of existing facilities, are measures of the tools the coaches have at their disposal, and I think it’s only fair to judge the coaches’ performance in the context of what they’ve got to work with. This affects both current performance and recruiting.

    It’s also an area where the AD could show meaningful leadership – working to raise money and improve facilities, if the AD had the inclination and capability to do so.

  3. Dan 11/01/2007 at 9:34 AM #

    Forget soccer. The volleyball team should have the peasants in full revolt. If there is a worse program in all the ACC, I’d like to know what it is. It makes Duke football look acceptable. Maybe the new coach is doing something. I dont know, but the fact that it ever got to that level is ridiculous. The girls deserve better.

    The man is not a good steward of our money or our student athletes.

  4. PackMan97 11/01/2007 at 9:38 AM #

    It wasn’t that long ago that the Pack had a top 10 soccer program. What a shame.

    I agree that Method Road has held us back, but that shouldn’t result is such a horrid program.

  5. StateFans 11/01/2007 at 9:51 AM #

    ^ It actually HAS been that long of a time. That is what happens when standards don’t exist and the opportunities to build on previous successes are squandared before proactive changes are made.

  6. Mr O 11/01/2007 at 9:53 AM #

    Its a combination of a pathetic facility and a coach with a bad reputation for the men. Moving on campus will help, but nothing is really going to change until a new coach is hired. Of course, that isn’t going to happen any time soon. Our only hope is that Tarantini retires.

  7. Mr O 11/01/2007 at 10:01 AM #

    I went to one game this year and noticed all the banners from the 80s and early 90s for both the men’s and women’s programs. Right around 1994, both programs nosedived and have never recovered.

    Wake’s facility: Built in 1997 – Wake is now one of the best in the ACC
    http://wakeforestsports.cstv.com/facilities/wake-spry.html

    Duke’s facility: Built a long time ago – one of the best programs in the ACC

    UVA’s facility: Built in 1992 – one of the best programs in the nation

    http://www.virginiasports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=17800&KEY=&ATCLID=1134413

    Those are just a few examples of how far the soccer programs fell behind in the arms race. Not only did ACC programs put us to shame, but so did some of the other top programs in this area of the country like Davidson, Furman and UNC G.

  8. PackMan97 11/01/2007 at 10:11 AM #

    Statefans, excuse me for those of us who aren’t in our 20’s anymore, being in college doesn’t feel like that long ago. Yes, it has been more than a decade, but it’s not like it’s been 30 years (which to me is a long time 😛 ).

    If I had to guess one of the biggest problems with Method road is location, location, location. I imagine almost everyone has on campus stadiums. Having an off campus stadium works for FB/BB with their large crowds but it doesn’t for soccer.

    BTW – Duke doesn’t play at Wallace Wade, they play at Koskinen which was built in 1999 and is next to Wallace Wade and Coombs.

  9. PamlicoPack 11/01/2007 at 10:25 AM #

    I don’t think program budgets are an issue. My understanding is that we are funding the scholarships for all sports at the level the NCAA permits. Is that no longer the case?

  10. StateFans 11/01/2007 at 10:25 AM #

    The early 1990s were 15 years ago. We are all getting old!

    Again, thank God that Wake has such a palace of a football stadium or they obviously could have never won the ACC Football Championship last year over a team that had only about the 8th or 9th best facilities in the league.

  11. PamlicoPack 11/01/2007 at 10:28 AM #

    And I think the success of Lisa Navas and her softball program (which had NO facility, off-campus or on-campus until this year) should once and for all put to rest the “facilities” excuse used to justify, not simply sub-par or disappointing, but absolutely horrendous and pathetic performances by some of our teams.

  12. primacyone 11/01/2007 at 10:30 AM #

    Thank goodness for Campbell. They’ve beat the heels the last two years.

    They have had the ability to beat NCSU the last 10. Would anyone like to compare their facilities to ours?

    Campbell’s Facilities

  13. LRM 11/01/2007 at 10:32 AM #

    C’mon now, there has to be a correlation. Just look at the RBC and all the banners hanging up in there!!

  14. LRM 11/01/2007 at 10:33 AM #

    And do you really think we could have ever hanged that Meineke Bowl sign in C-F without the Murphy Center or the Vaughn Towers??

  15. Mr O 11/01/2007 at 10:34 AM #

    Duke’s soccer stadium has been there a long time. I used to go watch games there back in the late 80s when I played soccer pre-college.

    It isn’t the location of our stadium. Kids like to play in big-time environments and that environment doesn’t exist at NC State. That is entirely because of the facility, but it has been a factor.

    Check out Greensboro’s Youth Soccer Facility. They have a 3000 seat stadium, with a European style roof, with adjacent lockerooms and concessions. The facility is lighted and has a three field training facility with lights. These fields have the same artificial turf that us used by Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Leeds and Barcelona not to mention the Georgia Dome and University of Michigan.

    http://www.greensborosoccer.org/facilities_bp.htm

    Our teams don’t even have lockerooms at Method Road and concessions are some kids sitting at a table or a hauled in trailer. It really is pathetic.

  16. primacyone 11/01/2007 at 10:38 AM #

    Okay, it’s the system’s fault. Keep changes the underscore after the DB to an O.

    Just go to http://www.gocamels.com and click on the first news link:
    “Men’s Soccer Defeats North Carolina 2-1”

  17. Mr O 11/01/2007 at 10:42 AM #

    Primacyone: Yes, the Campbell facility is superior to Method Road. It has had lights since the mid-90s and has adjacent lockerooms. The picture of the facility, (at least the one I saw) doesn’t show the permanent seating structure on the other side of the field. You have to open the media guide to see the seating and lockerooms.

    There is no doubt that Tarantini deserves to be fired. But facilities have definitely been an issue. Now is the perfect time to make a move on Tarantini, but we all know that is not Lee Fowler’s style. Tarantini will not be fired anytime soon.

  18. packbackr04 11/01/2007 at 10:42 AM #

    FOR FURMAN AND uncg to be better at nc state at anything is unacceptable

  19. Mr O 11/01/2007 at 10:44 AM #

    One of my comments from above should have read that the lack of a big time environment is NOT completely due to a lack of facilities.

  20. Sam92 11/01/2007 at 10:48 AM #

    Wake’s performance is certainly valid evidence that programs can rise above below average facilities, but query whether they can do so consistently, over a period of years.

    Facilities do make a difference, IMO, and a big one, because they affect recruiting. As does the entire campus atmosphere and student life — the current posting on this site regarding the student experience is relevant to entire performance of non-revenue sports – we are competing with Duke, UVa and other schools who have a lot to offer in terms of the campus experience.

    The general drift of the administration’s priorities away from enhancing the student experience and towards reshaping NCSU as a large commuter school has a negative effect on recruiting.

    Firing coaches with losing records is appealing, but the next coach is going to have the same struggle. NCSU needs a change in priorities at the highest levels of the administration to refocus on making the entire NCSU experience more engaging for the undergraduate students.

  21. Mr O 11/01/2007 at 10:49 AM #

    UNC-G has hosted the women’s Final Four. Their stadium is awesome(not just saying that because I am from GSO):

    UNC-G

    Furman’s:

    Not a great picture, but it is a brick and wrought iron fence facility with 3000 seats, lights, a modern press box, and a fully automated scoreboard.

    Pele was in attendence the night they dedicated it in 1995.

    Their coach would have been great for us to hire.

  22. Mr O 11/01/2007 at 10:50 AM #

    Wonder why links form certain sites don’t work???? The UNC-G stadium picture is worth finding once the broken link I posted takes you to the site.

  23. PackMan97 11/01/2007 at 11:01 AM #

    It’s not all about facilities as Wake proves, but poor facilities will make a mediocre coaching situation that much worse.

  24. PamlicoPack 11/01/2007 at 11:10 AM #

    What is it with Tarantini that makes him immune to any sort of performance-based job pressure?

    I agree, more likely that Kerrigan will be fired at the end of the year than Tarantini…

  25. primacyone 11/01/2007 at 11:14 AM #

    Here are the NCAA Regional Rankings for Men’s Soccer.

    2007 South Region Rankings (Oct. 30)
    Rank School Previous W-L-T
    1. Wake Forest 1 12-1-2
    2. Furman 2 14-2-0
    3. North Carolina 3 6-4-5
    4. Duke 4 9-5-1
    5. South Carolina 5 9-5-1
    6. Elon 6 7-4-4
    7. College of Charleston 7 10-4-1
    8. Stetson 9 10-4-1
    9. Jacksonville 10 9-6-1
    10. Campbell 8 9-4-2

Leave a Reply