If you visit regularly visit SFN then you know how to search our archives to find any of our many articles on the current position of NC State’s poorly performing Athletics Department. But, if you need some quick help you can click here for just a sampling of some entries that might be of interest to you.
In that^ spirit – and as Lee Fowler enters his NINTH year of ‘leading’ NC State’s Athletics Department – the projected performance of the programs on which he has put his stamp for almost a decade seems to resemble the underwhelming performance of recent years.
WHEN will it get better? WHEN are you, as NC State supporters, allowed to ask such questions and deserve a legitimate response?
We all know the current situation of the major sports – the Wolfpack’s football program is projected last in the Atlantic Division (again) while the basketball program is projected to finish in the bottom three of the league after finishing last season in the basement of the standings.
But, did you know that NC State’s Men’s Soccer team – after compiling a 1-6-1 ACC record last year – has been chosen LAST (again) in the conference for the 2008 season? (Link)
I don’t know what is more perplexing – the lifetime contract that coach George Tarantini obviously has or the fact that GoPack.com’s preview of this year’s soccer team is titled, “Men’s Soccer Looks Forward to Memorable Season” and doesn’t reference the ACC’s preseason projections or last year’s results. Integrity and the pursuit of factual information at its best!
The 2008 season also has the possibilities of being an exciting one on the new pitch. After a two-year hiatus from the NCAA Tournament, the Wolfpack will return a strong core of offensive fire power this season, in addition to its starting goalkeeper and three defensive starters all back from last year’s squad. In his 23rd season, head coach George Tarantini will have a lot of new faces for this year’s squad, including a talented group transfers looking to step on the field from day one.
(We’d like to take this moment to thank GoPack.com for creating such a vibrant and great market for US and helping us create so much traffic and success)
The good news is that the soccer team is moving into their ALL IMPORTANT new facility (or ‘fuh-cility’ if you work at NC State)! Of course, I don’t understand how we haven’t been able to recently recruit better players to avoid being chosen last with the promise of this great new facility on the horizon; but, since Lee Fowler has told us that all we need is new facilities then of course we can all finally expect some success. Scratch that. We admittedly don’t aim for success at NC State; just ‘improvement’. Somebody will get back to you on the definition of improvement one day. Maybe.
How convenient that Fowler has been able to deflect accountability for the programs under his watch based on an excuse of ‘facilities’ for almost a decade? How sad is it that the (insert adjective here) who run NC State have allowed him to get away with it for so long?
Could you imagine telling you boss FOR TEN YEARS that your office, your computer and your car weren’t good enough for you to be expected to produce results? Perhaps you should take your bosses and co-workers out to dinner after some golf up at your lake house to insure your job security. It seems to work great at NC State.
In other sports, the Wolfpack’s women’s volleyball team has been chosen LAST in the ACC media’s preseason poll once again.
GoPack.com has also chosen to not report this. Amazing. I wonder if GoPack decides not to report our losses if we can lay claim to some National Championships? At least the folks at GoPack fit the NC State mindset perfectly – they all believe that if you just don’t talk about something then it must not be true or actually exist in reality.
Coming off a 3-29 season, who knows how “Coach Fowler” will find a way to point to “progress” – another one of his 100% subjective criterias that the NC State Administration allows him to self-define for his own job performance. Perhaps we just need to build a new facility for volleyball? I mean, playing in Reynolds Coliseum must be one of the worst facilities in the entire league. I bet every other school in league has a multi-million dollar palace dedicated soley to the women’s volleyball team. How can NC State be expected to compete while providing all the women’s programs their own 12,400 seat on-campus facility?
I don’t know about you guys…but, I can’t wait until the next, next year. I am sure that everything will just be fantastic in 2010 after Lee Fowler has had a full decade of ‘leading’ NC State Athletics. (Don’t you know that you can’ judge an AD by his first decade?)
