Z.I.P.

Bobby, I understand that the only thing you have to go on is how the teams did last year, but please understand this is NOT last year!! Our team is significantly better than a year ago -- just from increased maturity of the youngsters. On the other hand, NCSU may experience the biggest drop-off in the NCAA from last season. Witness Sports Illustrated's calling them the #67 team in the nation and predicting they will go 3-9 overall with a home loss to #56 AKRON. Central Michigan? #83. I think they'll be better than that, and a road win in Mount Pleasant will be no easier than one in NC. IMHO. Call your bookie right away.

Rich Miano, former NFL DB with Jets, Philly, Atlanta has been DB coach for June Jones at Hawai'i since 99, and holds "Speed and Agility Clinics"/camps in the summer, which draw HS players from the mainland (and kids as young as 6!) to Hawai'i. The camps attract not just FB players, but soccer, basketball, even baseball and softball players. I think this is a trend that is catching on across the nation -- you can be taught to be faster, more flexible, more agile. It's not just an inbred trait.

Jamie Dixon, whom I know from his several years on Riley Wallace's staff at Hawaii, is is one of the classiest acts in all of college basketball. He's taking his team to West Point to start this season and honor his late sister Maggie, who took the Black Knights to the Big Dance last year. I'm SOOOO glad to see he and Keith on the same wavelength. Of course KD is not an unclass act himself. Way to go guys! A Pitt-Akron rivalry would be a great thing -- although Pitt fans wouldn't take to it very well. Tough on them!

Hey brah -- it's an exhibition game(s). If the games mattered I would want to hear it. Or more to the point -- fly 4000 miles to watch, as I hope to do next year when it is supposed to become a regular season event. Know what would be nice? How about adding the Columbus Buckettes for next year's tournament -- a few days before the teams play in American football. I really want to see both of those events next season.Aloha from HonoluluZip in Paradise

What was the name of that character Alex Karas played in Blazing Saddles? Mongo!!!

Got to see former Zip back-liner Cameron Knowles in sub action last Saturday night on Fox Soccer Channel in the Xango Cup match before 45,000 at Rice-Echols stadium vs Bex, Raul & Co (Real Madrid Baby! -- but where was Ms Posh Spice?). Anybody else see the match? Coach John Ellinger cleared the bench for Salt Lake with 18 mins left -- RSL was already down to 10 men for most of the second half. For Real Zip fans -- get it Real Zip... ahhh, OK not a great one-liner... anyway, Cameron's squad will be in Columbus on Wednesday evening to take on the Crew. Unlikely that he will see any action, but Cam will be dressed with the varsity. I wonder if there's a Reserve match scheduled? I think the two teams reserves played in C'Town last season.

I think if you grew up in Akron or Summit County, "Akron U," is the way locals say it. I tell people I meet who aren't from Akron I am a University of Akron (or "Akron") alumnus, but when talking to my family or friends from the area, "Akron U." is the preferred term. It's all in where you're from.And I still say "Green High", not the High School of Green.

Lenoire Rhyne is no junior college. It's a four-year NAIA institution. Not quite Mount Union, but they (NAIA) don't have any real academic standards, so maybe Andre will fit in there. Best of luck to him.

I just want to know why the term "FULL" in regard to the Rubber Bowl now means something like thirty or thirty-two thousand people in the stands, while when I was a student and an Akronite, a "Full" Rubber Bowl meant at least forty thousand people. I was at the Cleveland Browns game vs the NY Giants about 1972 when they fit about 44k in the bowl. Where have all the seats gone?

Well...I'm overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response to the new coach! Actually, I'm concerned that getting a coach with such a long background in NEO -- and an overall losing record in eight years at CSU -- may be an indicator that there were few (at least good) national or regional candidates. That could be the outcome of the Julie Wright fiasco. It appears to me that Wright's departure was due to the AD's refusal to raise the pay standards for the coach and her assistants, and I fear that softball may be one of the places that is still seen as a place to cut corners. The new WBB coach must have gotten raises for her assistants, as the new crew (especially the #2, who's an ex-D-2 HC) appears to have more experience than the last, which was made up largely of ex-HS coaches. Scimping on assistant coaches and recruiting for non-revenue sports may seem the right thing in the short term, but its no way to build an athletic program that will place us in a position to move up when or if the eventuality comes and we have a shot at a BCS conference. IMHO.

I guess their vaccinations can be considered a success then!

Great recognition for recently departed Akron assistant coach Mario Sanchez, who took over for long-time (24 year) HC Barry Barto at UNLV. Mario's listed by Soccer America magazine as one of the nine "Rising Stars" in American Soccer coaching and administration, along with people like UCLA head coach Jorge Salcedo and US national youth coach Brian Maisonneuve, the former Columbus Crewman.Here's what Mario said to Soccer America: "I think everyone needs a break to get their first coaching job of significance. One break for me, believe it or not, was when Fresno State dropped its soccer program. I was fortunate to land a job as assistant at Akron. That's when my coaching career took off."Akron: The cradle of coaches.

Walker is the only field player from Ohio to be invited to Adidas ESP (Elite Soccer Players) Camp, the top camp for incoming HS seniors. Yes -- its a big pickup for UL. Looks like Ken's going to have the Cards ready to play in the Big East before very long. But they need more than a couple players. Why not give 'em a game sometime? Oops! That's a Rooney, isn't it?

Catch this article in the Beacon. The way this reads, its as if the university doesn't yet have a single dollar to pay for the stadium! What the heck's going on -- attitudes sure have changed with the new admin. In any case, don't make any plans before 2011.www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/14875239.htm

Yes -- as the Can't State PR machine tells it, Phil Steele's publication is "the most accurate of the pre-season college football guides"! Can we assume therefore he knows something we don't, when he refers to the K-ent State "Eagles"?

His college football preseason prognostication rag hit the stands today, and I almost fell on my ass! The Clevelander has K Ent State and OHIO (!!) tieing for first in the MAC Eastern division. He predicts the Flushes playing Rutgers in the International Bowl in Toronto. I think he had NIU winning the West, with Toledo getting a bowl game.I think the world has turned upside down or something.

Apparently it came as a surprise to some that the new owner of the Akron daily newspaper is the Black Group of Western Canada. I had a suspicion they might be interested in adding the Beacon to their growing stable of papers, the largest of which HAD been the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, O'ahu's #2 daily paper.The Black Group bought the Star-Bulletin several years ago when it was on the brink of bankruptcy. Actually the paper was part of a joint-ownership agreement with the other daily on O'ahu, the Honolulu Advertiser, so when the owners decided to throw the Star Bulletin overboard and concentrate on the Advertiser there was concern (particularly among SB employees!) that Honolulu would join the list of one-paper towns. A group of "concerned citizens" organized to find a suitor for the Bulletin and eventually, just before the deadline, the small Canadian syndicate stepped forward.As you may have seen, the daily and Sunday runs of the Beacon are more than twice as large as the Bulletin, which had been its largest subscription paper PBJ (pre-Beacon Journal). This hasn't however stopped the SB from blanketing our one-university state with more college athletics coverage than BJ readers (are there any still out there?) could dream of. Does the BJ still have one guy, Whatsisname to cover all UA sports? The Star Bulletin, in attempting (rarely successfully) to compete with the larger Advertiser rarely lets a day go by without multiple articles about college sports at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. The college football season coverage generally begins the day the previous season ends. Check out www.starbulletin.com and see how many articles you can find on June Jones' pass-happy footballers. And they don't hesitate to cover the other sports, with separate reporters assigned to men's hoops, baseball, and women's sports. They also regularly report on sports like water polo, track and field (I swear there have been daily reports in our media on the UH Wahine track athlete going to the NCAA championships in the heptathlon -- despite the fact she's rated something like #17 nationally); etcetera.One article I read at Ohio.com, or maybe it was at Starbulletin.com (where the story lead on the Business page) today mentioned the possibility of a Midwest-MidPacific alliance with the papers sharing resources somehow. Let's see, you have Brian Windhorst and Terry Pluto (or is it the next closer planet?). We have a bunch of mangoes falling on the ground. Naaahhh -- that's not an even trade. Some kids walk by and pick up the mangoes to throw at each other. So they have a better use. Hey -- jus' kiddin' Whatsurename, ol' buddy! Here's hopin' for more coverage of the Zips in your news -- and a new alliance for the UA Aloha Section Alumni. Gotta get back to my job at the pineapple factory now. Bumbye!

Hello football fans. Have you got your brackets filled out for the little tournament in Deutschland yet? Here's a hint -- Green and yellow will be on the field at the end, that's for sure!In the week preceding my Hawaiian compatriot, Brian Ching's likely 270 minutes of benchwarming duty for coach Arena, I thought I'd alert Zip sports fans to the finish of the futbol 2006 recruiting season -- ended quite a while ago, but as usual there is no overall recruiting announcement on GoZips.com.We have two new limey's coming Akron's way this season. Elliot Bradbrook is the latest in a string of transfers to UA from Ashland -- kind of the opposite of what happened in American football I think, eh? Well, anyhow, Bradbrook should get some playing time off the bench this season for Caleb's troops. Not sure just how big a contributor he'll be in terms of what US audiences consider the bottom line -- putting the ball in the net -- but he should give the starters a run for their PT.Also coming onto the roster from England is freshman Oscar Odoch, who's been playing for Wigan Athletic and I think some other clubs in the EPL junior ensemble. Rumors of his being "The next coming of Wayne Rooney" don't appear to hold up to my research, as he doesn't appear to have been on any international travelling squads for Sven Goren and Company at England Inc. Nonetheless however, it is quite a coup for Akron to secure the services of a top player from the ranks of England's top junior ranks, and Oscar should contribute from Day One. Who knows, he may be a net-ripper from the outset.From the nation's top-ranked youth club, the Chicago Magic comes Rockford Illinois (Guilford HS) scoring machine Vedran Ilic, who put the ball in the net 34 times and assisted on 23 goals in his senior season of high school play. Not sure if his Magic 16s or 17s team was a qualifier for the nationals last year, but he has extensive experience in Super Y League.The fourth recruit is Ben Zemanski of Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. You probably know a lot more about this kid than I do. He was the star of the state HS champions last year, I think?Now for the ones who got away.The Midfielder with the leg of molybdenum, Y'town Cardinal Mooney's Zack Hernan chose to follow his recruiter, our old Chief Ken Lolla to the Louisville Cardinals. A nice get for Ken, and the youngster should see plenty of playing time in Kentucky, while he would have seen a lot of pine early on in a Zip uniform, I suspect.The top two senior fullbacks in NE Ohio, according to many, are headed to Evanston, IL to wear the purple of Northwestern. Lakewood's Mark Blades, an All-Star at Adidas ESP Camp last summer chose the Big Ten's up-and coming squad, along with Chagrin Falls' and Cleveland Force Junior standout Pat Coleman. Blades' Cleveland Soccer Academy teammate Justin Morrow is headed to South Bend to be a Golden Irishman. I think all of these guys could have gotten grants in aid to Akron, and would have eventually been strong players -- especially Blades, a fine student as well as defender. Another who fits under the title is Chris Korb another Force Junior who's headed to Xavier. Interestingly, his freshman teammate with the Muskies will be a player with the closest of ties to the Zips -- forward Slava Ubiparipovic, out of Mentor HS, the brother of Akron's top offensive threat, Ubie Senior.Would anyone please let me know when Westfield Cup shirts are available? I want to keep my collection going.Aloha and mahalo and for reading braddahs and sistas,Go Zips! #1 till the end this year.

I too am glad to see -- for the sake of the future of Mack Rhoades -- that the King of Wadsworth and most of Medina County is in favor of the new hire! I've been off-line due to travel and computer problems (finally logged-on from out-of town tonight) since just after Kelly K's dismissal. I DO have a connection to the new coach, as a friend's son was an assistant to Coach Kest at UTCC. I will be in contact with the dad and maybe son to ask about her personality, etc. Hope to catch the Roo pack again soonest.Be Good! And give King Gozips the honor to which he has grown accustomed. Uh-oh, I imagine you are already doing that, eh!?

My problem with the website's coverage of soccer is that their news on men's recruiting comes only in a piecemeal fashion, while they run a single headline on the entire women's recruiting class. I've never understood why they can't provide a report on the whole men's class, but its been this way for as along as I can recall. I just shrug my shoulders.

Can anybody explain to me why the soccer board is always either not on the forums page, or else has all threads removed? I'd like to place some news on there occasionally, or just blather about our squad, but it seems every time I go to, I can't even find it. Give us our Zipfutbal!

Yes indeed LAZF. I feel your pain. It sure is a pain to live in a town (island chain?) where the two daily newspapers obnoxiously run (usually front-page) stories on the hometown college football team virtually every day of the year. And where every home and away football game and all home bb games are televised across the state. Aren't you Akronites lucky you don't live in a place like THAT.

You folks don't seem to see the irony here, do you? If losing a year's salary is the most worrisome thing you can find in changing women's basketball coaches, that says a lot about how the program got where it sits today. From that perspective I suppose the only reason we have a team is to satisfy Title IX requirements.What no one has mentioned so far, is that if Kelly is sacked, we will likely lose with her the top recruit in school history, West Virginia state Player of the Year, Sarah Tokodi of Parkersburg Catholic HS -- the #66 ranked HS player in the nation according to the respected Blue Star Girls BB Reporthttp://www.bluestarbb.com/BlueStar-ClassRa...t-Class2006.htmI can't say that things are going to turn around right around the corner -- I'm still lacking a crystal ball -- but I can say that if Akron quits on coach Kennedy now, it will put the program in a bigger hole than its already in. I would equate it to K-ent State firing coach Corrigal, it will take 2-4 years to get back to the low level we are already at. Akron made a major investment in Kelly Kebe (now Kennedy) by hiring her away from Iowa State. She was one of the hottests assistants nationally, and Akron put a relative lot of $$ on the line, her salary is over 100k -- not very far behind KD's -- as we had to outbid Fresno State for her services at the time.It would be a shame for the new AD to make the wrong decision right out of the gate.Zip in Paradise

OK Balki. I don't know if you're confusing Oregon with your home in Eastern Slobovia or what, but having followed Pac-8 baseball (that's all the teams they have, including in the past Portland State), I was pretty sure Oregon didn't play baseball. I checked out Goducks.com, and there's no link to any baseball team or stadium in Eugene. Might it be the Beavers' place in Corvallis?

Well folks, now that UAM has moved on to what he considers a bigger and brighter future, we can try and suggest how the department can build upon what legacy he and MT left behind.The bone I have to pick with the university has to do with what Mike described to me as the "competition" between various departments and institutions at the university for sales of university licensed merchandise. There is no single location a person can go to to see all the university logo merchandise available for sale. There's one supply of "stuff' at the Zips Team Shop in the JAR Arena. The GoZips website has a supply. There's a catalog of merchandise available through the Alumni Relations Office. There's another separate selection at the Barnes and Noble owned bookstore. I guess there's another bookstore elsewhere. There're local sporting goods stores where you can find items unavailable anywhere else (see the similar thread on the "basketball" heading), and there are national chain stores like the "Lids" outlets that sell caps never seen before.In discussing this situation, I was told that because of rivalries between groups on campus, the "official" athletic department sales through the website and JAR shop were unable to offer for sale many of the products sold by other outlets because they didn't want to upset the applecart by which those university departments and outside contractors make profits, and extra income. And -- for the flimsiest of reasons -- the "official" university outlet decided they didn't want to sell T-Shirts for the first Division 1 bowl game in UA history. For a while, the only place to get "Fear the Roo!" shirts and "stuff" was through the bookstore, but it was awfully hard for people out of town to purchase anything from that store. For the life of me I cannot figure out why this situation must exist. I wonder if the Buchtel Hall administration is aware of this. Why can't they make it as simple as possible for consumers, both in person and on-line to buy all the items the university licenses through one single outlet, both brick and mortar and internet? I challenge the University of Akron to remedy this problem to the benefit of all concerned. Why do there have to be rivalries over sale of merchandise -- especially by separate offices within the university proper? Don't they all work for the students, alumni and community? Yes -- there's plenty of room for improvement, and to build on the fine foundation left by the Mike Thomas ohana. So let's Just Roo it! (should I copyright that, like "Fear the Roo!"?)Go Zips! :macc: