zippy-claws

I'm sorry, I don't understand the question. Do you mean the last win in another conference that Akron was in, or a non-conference win?

I agree with YipaZip and expect as always, any dissenting view to get thumbs down from the three High Priests of the "Soccer" sub-forum. Whose expectations, and who sets "The Standard" ? It might be YOUR standard and your expectations, but did you get buy-in from the Athletics Department? Yipa is right, since the return from CoVid, attendance is pathetic and there seems to be no move to increase it. I had hopes when I heard they had finally hired a full-time Marketing Asst. AD, but have seen nothing yet to ally my hopes. And it's not just Soccer, it's basketball, football, what have you. It used to be TONS of youth soccer teams at the games, TONS of advertising announcements, lots of on field and off field promotions. Meanwhile, NCAA men's soccer programs around the country have improved dramatically since 2018, just look at the teams that have made the tourney those years vs. ones from the 2010-2014 seasons. Sure there are the usuals but there are a lot of "first time" teams that surprised by getting in and surprised by winning matches. The competition has caught up to the Zips. And face it, if the Zips weren't relevant, they probably wouldn't have gotten At-large bids, and certainly not a top 16 first round bye last year after losing the last two matches to WMU.

You must be his grand-son or something....

Not to mention that a DJ is now our Marching Band! On Band Day, I had to listen to loud obnoxious hip hop and rock blaring over the PA as well as "Norm"s rather dull announcing, rather than, well, an actual Band! And Ohio's Finest, at that! Way to go Charles, give me that great Game Day experience that will bring me back! 🤪

Is it a good or bad thing that on my Instagram Zip Football feed I see ads for walk-on offensive and defensive linemen???? https://instagram.com/stories/zipsfb/3186663881161459799?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Two weeks ago it was for running backs, I think????? Not a good look for the program, IMHO. But if it's needed then why not, I guess.

So that's why the women's soccer match on Sunday vs. Boston College had such poor attendance numbers! 🤣😂

No I am not. I just tried to offer a "think-out-of-the-box" suggestion as to how to get out of the quagmire that is women's soccer at U of A. Do I think she's the coach to guide us out? No., I do not. Am I blaming her for what the program is? No. And as I did not say any of these things, I also did not say he was out of line with his comments on Men's soccer. I questioned why he doesn't think the men's program shouldn't be emulated if you're trying to build a winning program. Can you answer that question?

Seriously - did you re-read this after you wrote it? Because if you did you wouldn't have hit "submit reply". So, a team that has not had a winning record since 2009, has not produced a single All-MAC player, and has never had a recruiting class judged worthy of a mention in its history should not emulate a program which has produced 125 wins in the last 10 seasons, and only lost 25. Or emulate a team that has made 8 of the last 10 NCAA tournaments, including a final? Or emulate a program which has had top-10 recruiting classes year after year after year, who recruits locally, nationally and internationally? Then if this isn't a program, readily available to study, ask advice from, learn from, then who or what program in your opinion is? Sorry they haven't won an NCAA match since 2018, but all I'm asking is a program that can be middle of the road in the MAC for women, I'll take the MAC playoffs as a starting point, before I even have the luxury of worrying about not winning an NCAA match.

In town from FLA to escape the hurricane, and went to the match last night vs. Dayton, and boy....wow...don't know what to say. The women played hard, and look a lot faster than last year, but after a nice early goal and a PK to go up by 2, it was all over but the lack of shouting. The coaching staff is way over their head, and while Coach Simonetti may be a good D3 coach, it doesn't translate to D1. This was not one of Guthrie's better hires, and he will never admit it. They lose their shape on the field way too often and way too quickly. They don't possess the ball much, so the D is stuck with lots of attempts on goal. I know, you boys from the men's forum are going to tell me, "give her a chance", and "it's way too early" etc. but the main thing as to giving her a chance is, the recruiting class was not good. Not even mediocre. And it shows. Portal? 2 athletes this year. True, they miss Bower and Nguyen right now, but that's where the recruiting class comes in. How can a school with a Men's program like ours never produce even a middle-of-the-pack team after all these years? Here's a thought....ask Ger or Michael or Attilla to become the Women's head coach, and let them share their thoughts with Jared to work out a plan to a) recruit better players both HS and Portal, and b) game-plan better strategies. Don't know if they would consider it, but it would be a great place to start.

The construction on Exchange is a literal nightmare, it is so insane that they are doing all that work at this time. It's been insane down there since June.

I know the 4 p.m. kickoff may deter a few, but it would be so nice to see a few of the Men's supporters and season ticket holders come early and give these women some support. The women's team goes way out in their support of the Men's program, and Jared makes sure his guys are at the Women's games, which is appreciated to see.

I say 4 and 8, no bowl game at all....

Nice to see the announcement today that the Mid-American Conference is bringing back the baseball tournament, and that it's going to be back in Avon. Six teams will make the cut, and it should be a good chance to see how the Zips match up by next May. We went one year and saw 5 games in two days before having to head back home, and it was a lot of fun, except the stadium needs a few shade areas. It got hot!

Anybody go to the exhibition match for the women vs. St. Bonaventure? Thoughts? Looking forward to the double-header with the men next week.

What local media? Local media overall is non-existent, let alone sports media..., and what does exist only covers the Cleveland pro teams. I'm hoping this new Media Assistant AD we have in place now can improve things, but Instagram seems to be the place to see pics on a daily basis.

I wonder if they have "repaired" their relationship with PEG. That has a lot of bearing on the video board's working or not...someone who knows how to actually run it and make graphics for it. The St. Francis game was an absolute fiasco, with just the SFU and UA logos displayed the whole game. PEG is a diampnd in the rough in the school's back yard with plenty of alums...why damage that relationship? I see on GoZips.com that we finally have a Marketing Assistant AD after going without for the majority of last year, and utilizing 3 or 4 GAs to do all the Marketing campaign. Maybe having him on board is a start....

I am so impressed. I was tired of trying to use what was the old App, or try to view GoZips on my phone. This is a wonderful addition, Thanks to whomever put this together.

Me too @72 Roo. I've watched Big East T & F as well as XC for the past several years, as a niece and a nephew ran/threw for two BE schools recently. They are a very pedestrian conference, besides a few stand-outs like a lot of conferences have. Villa and Georgetown have a few M & F distance "stars", St. John's has a hard tome fielding a complete team. Xavier and Marquette are pretty balances, Creighton has been tops. We would compete for titles right away.

Just look left and below avatar....and you can see the bio But no offense was taken @GoZips86, just wanted to point out that a few Zippy women do grace these pages....

I'll overlook the "Gents" tag... last year MAC Media Day was the end of July, July 26th. So I'd anticipate late July...

I just saw we have a new Lacrosse coach! Didn't even know the previous one was gone. The bio on the new coach is impressive, albeit for a lower divisional coach. But she seems like a winner, and God knows that the LAX program needs something after the addition of the sport. They have not exactly performed up to expectations, or even .500 level. The bio reads like a Charles hire, someone he trusts to move the program to the next level and not make excuses.

Now that's a name that will strike fear in next year's opponents, especially Shawnee State!

I like Michael Bevin as a writer, and he does a fine job covering soccer and track and field, and this was a nice article. But it sure would have been nice if the ABJ didn't wait until the last home series to write something like this....better something than nothing, I guess.

Okay then! I feel like a complete traitor for doubting! The Zips men won the MAC Outdoor Championships, according to MileSplit on-line! I was way off for doubting them. and the women ended up in 6th, better than imagined. The level of improvement these athletes made from indoors to outdoors was extraordinary. Hats off to Hilltopper for calling it a few months back when he said we were "re-loading as we speak". I should not have doubted you. But what really won this was the field events and enough can't be said about the throws and jumps and their contribution to this.

Meant PV for Pole Vault, my little chubby fingers got in my way!