zippy-claws

So right Clark, these are classy athletes and people.

If you show up this weekend at the Zippy Invitational at Ocasek, once again, please remember these names: Emma Moynihan (Miami) - 4:42.47 (2019 500 free); Claudia Lins de Mello (Miami) - 1:45.47 (2019 200 free); Claire Leichty (Toledo) - 16:11.80 (2012 1,650 free) Say their names

Agreed. Cautiously optimistic and it is a great job on keeping the fans informed. Nice job, and I am looking forward to seeing it come together for 2024 and beyond. Coach is putting a lot of new pieces in place, now she and her crew need to mold and shape them to what they envision for the team.

why do you think that? Isn't playing in front of 100,000 at Tennessee a thrill, or other past big games. This just reeks of being a Suckeye or else fan base.

And a local High School Public Address announcer that is sooooo bad

YAY! Finally someone else said it!!

While I do love to watch high school sports, and mainly soccer, I might add that high school soccer doesn't always equate to what major college soccer coaches are looking for. There are many highly successful collegiate programs that weigh success by results from an athlete's club team performance. In fact, there are a lot of Top Drawer highly rated recruits that never touched a high school pitch, and we can look no further than some of our past success stories. I may be wrong, but our beloved skipper Will Jackson never played High School soccer, and Colin Biros, whose father was Massillon Jackson's head coach, never played for his dad, or for any high school team. Will Trapp fore went his last two years of HS soccer for the Crew Academy before coming to Akron. On the girl/women's side of the equation, most elite coaches, and I would venture Coach Simonetti might agree, are interested in a girl's club status than HS stats. I also recall a Stow-Munroe Falls boy who signed with Akron, that never played for the Bulldogs. Can't recall his name. Not disparaging excellent HS players here, just pointing out that it doesn't necessarily equate to greatness on the NCAA level.

What would entice them to go from a State Championship team to a continual bottom-feeder in the MAC? Not trying to be a smart-aleck, just asking what could Akron offer any of their seniors in return for accepting a scholly here? Facilites? Maybe. Coaching staff? Hopefully (please Coach S, show me I'm wrong in 2024!) they could improve the squad together with the recruit. League? MAC women v. Big East, Big Ten, ACC - depends on their desire for the future. I would love to see a state champ team member in the Blue and Gold, but why should we expect it? Just asking...

Mobley can score and will, she had foul troubles vs. Oakland. Morgan Haney will be a scoring threat too, don't count either of these two out. Riley was a little lost out there, tried to be too perfect, should have used the board more on the close in stuff. My concern is how small our two point guards are. a 5 footer, and a 5-2 will get eaten up in the MAC. Rasheed seems to be the only one who wants to shoot a 3. It's apparent too that Coach Gensler's offensive style is completely different than the game played under Coach Jacson, which was much more perimeter focused. We'll see as the season proceeds but at least on TV they look more exciting than past seasons.

In looking at the final results from the meet, it appears we didn't swim some of our more seasoned veterans, and went with a more "newbie" lineup, plus we didn't have a very deep representation in every event, i.e. 3 Zips entered vs. 8 OU swimmers in the 200 free, etc. So depth wasn't there. No Dyer, no Goreka, no Sebotin. Plus, the women swam against Ohio State the night before this meet in Columbus in a dual, so I would assume they went big vs. the Buckeyes to see how they match up, and hoped the reserves could score vs. Ohio. Just a guess. And on top of that, I'm not sure how much dual results in the MAC mean to Peresie, this was a chance to let his team swim in the pool where the MAC Championships will be held in March.

My thoughts exactly! What a piece of work that guy is....

Remember, unfortunately we'll be playing again at arguably the worst stadium (if you want to call it that), in the BigEast, Corcoran Field...but you're right, we need a win, and an early score will force the Musketeers out of the ship's hold.... And by the way, the match is on 11-4-2023, not 11-5!

After watching the game with Hubby from a little warner climate than it looked on TV, we couldn't get enough of the comments on this thread. So great the passion, the admission of doubts (I would have gone to bed at the end of the third period if I hadn't just poured my third glass of wine!). Today we went rogue on went on the Kent State message board, and a) It doesn't hold a candle to ZipsNation and b) what a bunch of crybabies! Made for some great reading....

Sure they cost something to produce, but why would I pay more than $10 to watch an exhibition game for a sport that doesn't draw over 500 people to most games and pay $20 for a hot dog and a large Pepsi just for myself, and then listen to the University and admin complain that no one comes to the games? Get real, they cost something to produce whether I'm in a seat or not, and if I and another couple hundred people decide it's not worth the price, then that's zero towards the cost, vs. maybe covering some by offering at least a bargain for an exhibition, not to mention a regular season game. Plus, if the casual fans comes to see an exhibition at a less-than-regular-season-price, and likes what they see and experience, they might just come back and bring a friend or family with them. Marketing 101...and I actually learned that at The University of Akron!

Are Hot Dogs $1? Don't hold your breath on a freebie from the U

@csims0917, my apologies, I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm for T & F. I welcome anyone who has a passion for the sport, and I feel you do by your post. I just wanted to put up a few reality checks. We have a fine bunch of athletes who are really trying to better themselves and their teams in T & F here, and since it's not a big Scholarship sport, we have a lot of ex-HS Track and Field athletes here who can still compete in the sport, and do well, and can compete eventually in the MAC. Unfortunately, I am biased by the success of past teams, including ones my daughter was a part of here at U of A. I'll try to be less critical, and welcome to another Track Junkie!🏃‍♀️

The only way we could move our programs anywhere is if the MAC stopped sponsoring that particular sport. In regards to the BigEast T & F programs, we would do well once our programs get back to the level they were when coach Mitchell was here. Don't be fooled by the men winning the outdoor track championships last May. The program would nor crack the top 5 of BigEast programs right now, and the women are nowhere close to competing in the MAC, let alone The BigEast. On the Men's side, beside Brian Masai, our best printer was 120th in the nation, our 4 x 400 relay team that won the MAC was 184th in the nation. Think about that. We had one sprinter in the top 200 in every running category, except the 400 hurdles and Harkelroad was top 25. No middle distance runners, no distance runners (Masai excepted) in the top 200 in the ocuntry. Our throws guys were top 100, our LJ/TJ top 100, but that's it. Compare that to past teams. I'm hoping for improvement, cheering fro the athletes, but don't be fooled by what the administration is trying to paint as a success. Our best HJ was 150th in the nation. When we hosted the indoor BigEast meets, there was no SPIRE or OceanFirst complexes to host such events, and Akron's 300 meter indoor track was unique at the time. Can't match the new indoor and outdoor facilities in the East or Chicago now, plus the ammenities of the cities.

You are correct @Zip_ME87 Per NCAA.com No more golden goal in the postseason The rule: The days of the golden goal are over. As of 2022, if a postseason game (meaning conference or NCAA tournament) is tied after 90 minutes, overtime will not end when one team scores a goal. Even if a team scores seconds after kickoff in the first OT period, the game must continue until both 10-minute periods have been completed. Should the score remain even after both OTs, a penalty kick shootout will decide the winner. What it means: While golden goal rules seem to generate exciting finishes in knockout soccer, in theory, the sudden-death rules affect the quality of play in practice. Often, neither team commits numbers forward for fear of leaving itself vulnerable to a tournament- or season-ending counterattack goal. The general idea behind this rule change is to improve the quality of play, giving teams a chance to get back into the game even after conceding in overtime.

Isn't it weird that the MAC has 9 men's cross country teams, but only 5 schools have outdoor track and field teams and only 4 have indoor teams?

9. And ironically both St. John's and Providence, two BigEast teams share the record.

If you get the right internationals. 2 are goalkeepers that haven't been in goal all season, except for 1 match and the other hasn't played in 2 seasons. Katarina Bilz is graduating and Renauld is a so-so MId. And how are you going to recruit internationally when your coaching staff has never done it? Thank you @72 Roo for echoing my sentiments all season long. And once again, thank you for pointing this out. Not trying to be negative about Coach Simonetti, but if she's THE coach, we should have seen it by now.

I was thinking more like sitting in the tailgate lot and drinking grain alcohol until I "Black Out" and not bothering going into Info.

Well, the season is finally over, mercifully, and there's no reason to beat a dead horse. The women's soccer team took a few steps forward the last third of the season, only to let it all go to waste in a horrible display of soccer at OU. Maybe the losing and the end of the season finally took their toll. I wish the seniors good luck in their future, and I wish the returning players a hard-working fruitful off-season that keeps them focused on coming back stronger and more ready for the rigors of D1 soccer. And I wish Coach and her staff begin work after a few days of reflection on developing a program that is competitive, and finding the right pieces in the recruiting process to make Akron a non-bottom dweller in the MAC. We need a legitimate goal scorer, we need speed up top. We need a legitimate D1 goalkeeper. We need to hang on to the likes of Ella Hadley, Emma King, Anna Simmons (especially Anna Simmons!), and Hannah Langstaff. Can't lose any of them, In my opinion. They will be the veteran core if this team is to rise in 2024 to respectability. I'm a Zip fan, a women's sports fan, so I'll be back in the stands again in 2024, but it sure would be nice to go home after a match with a smile on my face.

If you read my posts you know I'm not a fan of Guthrie. That being said, I do believe Akron Athletics is better off now than under Larry Williams. More on my thoughts on Guthrie later in this post. Here's my "State of Akron Athletics" comments. First - Facilities. Since Guthrie arrived we've seen repairs made to InfoCision that were needed, although we still need to fix/replace the video board. The JAR is what it is, but it's not terrible, and the new floor, the addition of a "$$$ donor bar" are all positives. It still looks good, and those who do attend infrequently still think it's a good facility. FirstEnergy continues to be one of the top Soccer-specific Stadiums in NCAA soccer, and they recently upgraded the sound system to give more sound clarity and moved the speaker system to make the seating area more enjoyable before the matches (you can actually talk to your neighbors pre-game without screaming!) Ocasek is a very nice facility for swim meets, and they just added a huge, state-of-the art video system that is not only informative, entertaining and readable, but offers the swimmers and divers training assistance. Of course, basketball is getting a new training facility as well. And the new track and field complex at Lee Jackson field is fantastic, although the throws area are a little convoluted. All of these were done under Guthrie, so hats off to the AD and The U on Facilites. Coaches - Guthrie was smart enough to realize that Coaches Groce, Embick and Peresie were the most successful coaches (and programs) he had, so he's left them alone, and even has enhanced their contracts. It doesn't mean he keeps his mouth shut and doesn't criticize them in public to others, which is a big negative IMHO about Charles. He is overheard many times at games/meets/matches being very critical of his coaches to the general public, which I'm sure get back to the coaches mentioned and may tend to undermine their confidence. That being said, I believe he made positive hires in football, softball and volleyball. Baseball has been a circus. He needed to move on from Sabo but the OSU coach fiasco and then not re-signing last year's coach has to be questioned, as well as his new hire. Granted baseball hasn't started and time will tell but his pick is a little underwhelming. The Women's soccer hire was and is disastrous, not that she is a bad person or knowledgeable, it's once again a terrible hire for a D1 school with a Nationally ranked Men's program. Track and Field is another terrible hire. Some will point to the 2023 Outdoor MAC title for men as an argument, but the head coach had little to do with that, it was the throws coach and his athletes that won that title. Meanwhile the women's program is still in shambles. And she's already lost the throws coach after one season and has gone through 2 PV coaches already in one year. It's no secret Guthrie chased Coach Mitchell off, like he did Herlihy from soccer (needed). Still...Now we have a new Lacrosse coach, so we'll have to see how that goes. And I do feel the new hire for Women's basketball is a solid choice without watching one game, but once again, Guthrie's handling of the Jackson situation was pretty ham-handed. Department - The Athletic Department is not what I would call a well-run machine. Being a retired businesswoman, I understand wanting to have staff around you that you have confidence in and comfortable with. And I understand the desire to change, but change for change sake is not always a good thing. The department was already reeling from needed staff reductions, like all departments at Akron when Dr. Miller came on board. It appears from the number and quality of recent departures from Athletics that the methodology is "make life hell on them and they'll leave on their own" rather than try to work towards a different and consistent approach. They've lost a lot of good people and their replacements seem more like a hodge-podge rather than a unified front. Game Day Experience - It is abysmal. At all events. From football's thuggish music on every down instead of marching band, lack of any entertainment during time-outs, quarter changes etc. to the treatment of us fans by game-day staff, plus the cost of everything, it's not going to bring anyone to games. Basketball was so-so but once again, where are the things that make families and casual fans want to attend? They finally seemed to "get it" at the last few soccer matches with a few give-aways. Let's face it, it just flat out is terrible across the board, especially compared to the entire MAC conference, other than perhaps KSU. We do got to many away events in the MAC plus go to watch a niece and nephew who compete at other MAC schools, and hands-down we are 11th out of 12 in Game Day experience. Eastern Michigan leads the way, Miami is very good, Toledo is solid, and I can go on. So that's my "more-than-two-cents" worth. I'm sure I've given enough ammo for some of you to tear into me and tell me where I'm wrong, but the premise was to offer "thoughts" on the State of Athletics....and these are mine.

Very nice win for the women and coaches. These past three matches have seemed to see a change in philosophy of play, with tons of shots and shots on goal, and some gutsy play, like they're playing to win rather than playing to not lose. Hopefully a learning experience for the staff and the team. Way to go Zips!