Z.I.P.

I'm not a skier! I wouldn't go near The Biggest Little City in the World between October and April. The 50 degree weather in Oakland was too Brrrr!-ee for me.BTW -- Do you know if there's any UA Alumni group in S Cal.? If you're interested, you may be able to get a printout of alumni for the area -- they sent me one for the 58 Zips in Paradise back in 1990 (pre-Coleman Crawford bb trip). I don't know though -- they seem even less reactive now than back then. And I didn't think that was possible.

The Akron Alumni Ofice arrange something??? Pardon me, but LAZ, where were you when the dozen or so of us were in Berkeley last month? I sent an invite to all alumni. Hopefully with a new Western-oriented AD, we wil see more UA games West of the Rockies.Zp in Paradise,Honolulu

Don't lose any sleep over the future of the Zip soccer program Rifler. If this were a program on the decline, Porter and Agoos wouldn't have put their hats in the ring. We're the Gonzaga of soccer, only better then that basketball team.

That's a very interesting prospect, as it looks like the MAC and WAC are both destined to be one-berth leagues. Perhaps Nevada would have a 50-50 shot if they loose the WAC tourney @home.Stu Morrill's Aggies are a big, tough, but not real athletic squad. You can watch them beat up on my Rainbows on Big Monday tonight. I think our defense might be able to cause them problems. Would be a long, hard road trip for any team outside the West region. Logan is no one's idea of a holiday spot.If ESPN wants to provide a real tight contest, they can send the Zips direct to the Stan Sheriff Center Arena in Manoa (Honolulu). Please God! . UW-Milwaukee was fortunate to eak out a win here, and help themselves out last year. I think they (UW-M) won their tourney, but had a shot at an at-large.

I think Chichester is considered a bigger recruit for basketball than he is in football. Perhaps Matta's mammoth class mitigated against him as much as anything. Yes -- he can play for Pitino -- but he'll ride the pine a while most likely. On the other hand, had he signed with JD & KD, Wood's future status may have become irrelevant. This thread may belong in another category!

No great surprise when the name was finally released -- which might say more than anything I ever could about just how high the program has risen these last couple years. Any school in the country would have coveted Caleb had they had an opening. Yes -- even the turtles. I look for Akron to be a top-5 team and College Cup contender into the forseeable future.I do wonder about what type of contract he got. It must be very similar to what Keith Dambrot gets in a much more visible sport. And I know Keith doesn't mind sharing the university's largesse.Go get 'em (meaning national team members), Coach Porter

Hmmmmm! I'm hearing there's a chance we could play @Northern Iowa. That would be quite a challenge, but a win would give us a chance of an at-large berth. Think positive, and

:blink: OKAY, MR. ROO, THIS IS GOING STRAIGHT TO THE SPCA -- AND MAYBE PETA!!!

Hang on Sloopy! You said it. We can get a young coach recommended by a Jerry Yeagley or Bruce Arena with experience coaching and recruiting for a Final-4 program, or we can get a succesful mid-major head coach who's a UA alum. This is a no-brainer. Where the guy went to college is irrelevant -- unless he was a Hermann Trophy runner-up like Porter or a three-time national champ, like Agoos.I am willing to put my trust in the committee and coach recruiting process put together by Mike Thomas and UAM. They are proven winners!

Transfer?? According to the link he is a prep schooler at Fork Union. Does that qualify as a transfer? He would be eligible in '06 if he shows -- but what's his status w/UNC, did they take back their offer from a year ago?

Folks,With regard to the soccer coach search, consider where the past and current (interim) Athletic Directors came from. The University of Virginia. That should be enuf said. Who was coach of UVA men's soccer during their years in Charlottesville? Who is coach of the United States National senior (World Cup) soccer program? Bruce Arena chose UA's Ken Lolla to coach his national youth (15>) team program. The U of A has connections to the highest reaches of soccer coaching circles. Look for a coach with national name recognition. Possibly a former national or World Cup team member. Definitely someone with national and international recruiting contacts.Rest easy Zip fans. We are going to be a force in futbal for a long time. Let's look forward to the 2006 season when we could be ranked first or second in the preseason poll.

NO! I may have made a mistake by concentrating on the Wolstein Group's facility at the expense of our Zips' Colosseum (Ziposseum?), but I just wanted to show that it IS possible to market a Major League sports facility in the Akron area. I don't have any direct dialog with the soccer developers, but I have a fair amount of trust in my source, and the source says the soccer stadium will include a retractable dome. I would not expect Summit County to contribute a dime to the construction. With full revenue stream going into the team owners' pockets, and a fantastic game site, I would expect the new team to draw very well -- better than the Crew, which has been one of the top draws since construction of Crew Stadium. Therefore, the team should be profitable from the outset. LA Zip -- ever been to Home Depot Center? I'll be watching the MLS Cup Champion LA Galaxy as they train and play an exhibition on O'ahu next month. You can go see our two Zips work out for MLS coaches at HDC next month.It is important to look at the new UA football stadium as an at least sometime home for the soccer team. So I hope it has sideline space and a natural grass surface. I doubt we have to worry about the field getting torn up, as there shouldn't be too much play on it besides Akron football.

LA Zip,It's nice to have another Westerner on the board. Aloha from the Pacific Basin.Here is the reason why there could be NO cooperation between the MLS and the University of Akron, or anyone else: Major League Soccer has a rule that all new stadiums must have clear scheduling rights -- in other words, the MLS must have the field exclusively during the MLS season. The MLS franchise must also have exclusive control over all concession and parking dollars. UA could not co-exist under the second rule alone. These are the reasons why the UA will probably never use the coming soccer palace in Richfield.And, hey, I don't understand why Cap'n didn't drop the other shoe: The 30k seat palace will have a RETRACTABLE DOME, because it gets VERY cold in NE Ohio in the fall, and you don't want to let those big spenders' tootsies get frozen. I can't tell you how excited I am about Summit County getting a bigtime football franchise. I'm in el cielo de futbal!

I'm a bit puzzled. I'm told the 12-game schedule will include 5 OOC games. Is that true?And BTW -- though it won't be official for a few more weeks, Akron's MAC West crossover road opponent this season will be @Toledo. The game will be later in the year -- possibly in November. The MAC office is hoping to brew up a MACC rematch, and the teams haven't played in years. That should mean we get them at home in 07.Roo under a palm tree.

September 12th, 2010. Circle that date!

Hey ITZ,You know what I love?That shot of yours from the T'Giving game-------------------- And the part I really love is: The stocking cap. It goes to show, even a Can't man CAN be a Zip fan! Thanks for that.And while I'm at it, let me send out a shout to the Can't State women's bb team and their SID, who I met last week. I liked your attitude. Just don't let #23 bring that attitude into the JAR cause there'll be no for her. More like And you can tell her that wasn't Spanish that Hawaii's #15 was speaking to her in (she asked the ref: "Do you speak Spanish?") -- it was Samoan!Go MAC!

Well Pimp (Mike!) ,This could be seen as bad news. I used to attend UNLV, when they were a nationally-ranked futbol program -- but that was 20+ years ago. My take is that while Mario has the potential to be a top-flight national-caliber coach, he has no head coaching experience, and little background in Midwest or Eastern soccer circles. I'm looking for UA to pick up a new mentor with some D-1 head coach experience, and at least several years of coaching and recruiting in either the Midwest or the Atlantic Seaboard. And while I'm at it, I'd encourage Roo Board members to have a little bit of patience with the Mid-American Conference soccer lineup. The biggest problem is a lack of numbers at present, but I'm expecting the competition to increase significantly in the not-distant future. There are so many great players coming out of SW Michigan and the Chicago areas that I don't think it can be long before both WMU and NIU become strong competitors in the MAC. Maybe we should be careful what we wish for, if we expect to dominate the league for the forseeable future. It WOULD be nice though if we could add a team or two with some national rep -- like Oakland, or even Evansville to replace Kentucky. Hopefully both UA and the MAC are working on this as a priority.Meanwhile, we are :macc:

:macc: played hard against a team that was better than many of us realized or expected. They hardly had a missed tackle the entire game, let's give the Tigers credit. On our side, we played Zips football, tenacious, never say die, but on this occasion they had too many athletes for us. I think the next time we see a Zips team on the football field, they will have more playahs, and will be better able to compete with athletic units like Memphis. We have no reason to tonight. I'm sure you will all have lots of discussion when you return from Ford Field. Here's just one interesting sidelight: In I think the third quarter, ESPN went to a commercial break, and when they put up the scoreboard, what appeared on the screen was "Valid Container Location Needed". First time I've ever seen an error message on national TV.

Hey LA Zip! Welcome aboard the Nation. I don't have any problem with playing @ The Coliseum, but first they owe the Zips in Paradise a game at Aloha Stadium to make up for the match the last coach cancelled. You don't mind making the trip to O'ahu first, now do you? Party at Zippy's: www.zippys.com We are :macc:

Yo Roo dogs. I know this subject is over a week old -- It took me a while to thaw out from the trip to the frozen Bay Area after returning to Hawaii. But I wanted to send in my report before it became le histoire ancienne. The trip for UA began with the obligatory Oakland Trib article on Friday, describing how Cal was an inch away from getting LeBron in a Bear uni thanks to coach Braun's close buddy Keith Dambrot. The Zips could have used some of Bron's NBA officiating, as the team in blue was called for fouls each and every time they tried to front "The Show" Powe and his Left Coast Comrades -- 6-10 DeVon Hardin, an even wider body in the paint. THAT and not Akron's offensive strategy was the reason Rome and Futchy were tagged wtih 3 fouls each in the first 12 minutes. While I appreciate the effort to appear objective, sometimes, when one side shoots 21 free throws in a half (while the visitors get just two!) it really IS home cooking from the stripes. In this case, I will admit -- and sitting ten feet away from Keith, I would encourage any doubters to ask the coaches or players themselves -- two of the officials actually did a professional job, which goes to show just how much power one referee has to take the game away from the players. The ref in question was a gentleman with the same name as one of my favorite coaches -- Humboldt State's Tom Wood. On this occasion, I got the impression for the only time other than last year's Michigan State-Hawai'i football game that the outcome of this game was determined before the start. As I say, don't take it from me -- ask others who were close to the floor (near the $5000 seat license front row I was in). And I'm sure the difference in fouls would have been even greater had coach not picked up the "T" midway through the half. One of the other refs didn't seem able to blow his whistle -- at leat that was consistent both ways -- and the other spent a good deal of time trying to make up for Mr Wood's errors. I congratulate him for the effort at least. Favorite moment of the night? Bubba (or was it Nick?) getting tackled by a Cal player with ref Wood just three feet away. After a word with Dambrot, Wood's loud shout was "I'm not makin' a chicken shit call like that"! At least Akron got the ball out of bounds, but less than five second later Woods whistles Dru for traveling when he was shoved from behind. Truth be told, Akron's 14 point loss (they hit a three-pointer near the final buzzer), was about the difference in the officiating. I think on a neutral court, with non-PAC-10 officials these two teams would be very close competitors. Boy -- did Rob Preston play his heart out -- with career high and five three-pointers. Akron actually tried to play tit-for-tat with Cal's goliaths, but after falling behind by near double figures early on -- UC made 18 of their 21 first half FTs -- the Zips were left to putting up 3-pointers to play catch-up. It worked for a while, and they got within 6 points with six or seven minutes to play, but Mr Woods and the Bear post attack went to work to put the game away from there. I was impressed with several Zips, including Darryl who has really worked hard to prepare for his senior campaign. The youngsters showed Akron will have a deep squad in the future. In particular, I was impressed by how Nate Linhart looked on the floor in mop-up time. He played with great confidence and showed good athleticism. He's going to be a fine player. Also, what a nice surprise to meet a half-dozen or more of Quade Milum's woman-folk. And the Dial's were great companions in the front row. Hope to see them sometime at an NCAA tournament venue. From what I understand, the Bears should be visiting the JAR in the future, as EMU will head to Berkeley next year I think. But, if anyone plans a trip to the U of Cal in the future, do NOT plan on driving onto the campus -- you can't even take a car onto UC without a permit. But do park downtown and enjoy yourself at one of their world-famous eateries. Its hard to imagine such a conglomeration of Tibetan cuisine in such a short distance! But is catfish baked in a clay pot really a Tibetan favorite? How many catfish can you find in Tibetan streams? Personally I loved the Thai dinner of salmon in spicy peanut sauce. I can't wait to go back -- even the brisk weather (34 and 35 degrees on Saturday and Sunday mornings) was a refreshing (and fortunately very temporary) change from Hawaii's constant 70 to 80 degree temperatures. Best of luck to the Zip crew. This could be our year -- if we can find some rebounding somewhere. And let's see if we can't get the Zips into the Rainbow Classic next year. Go Zips!

I just want to say how classy the NIU fans have been, in their trip to the Rubber Bowl, and at Ford Field. Akron and No Ill are two blue collar football teams, they fight harder than almost any teams in college football. This was a war on the field tonight, and its a shame one team has to lose. I DO hope this replays on ESPN Classic -- as the UA-Marshall game did last year. It was too bad the announcers wanted to talk more about USC than about Akron and NIU. Most of the teams in CFB wish they had a coach like Novak or Brookhart. Two real class acts. Let's hope we can keep them both in the MAC for years to come.

You know what would be a wonderful gesture? Regardless of what ANYONE thinks, Coach Brookhart should invite coach Owens to stand on the sideline with the team at the Motor City Bowl. Let's accept the fact that this team was built by Owens, and JD made it into MAC Champions. Let's go Zips!!! Complete the trifecta: beat Maryland and California. Mahalo to everyone who showed up at Ford Field tonight. Mahalo to everyone headed to the turtle house Saturday. I'll see anybody headed to the Bears' den on Saturday. Zip in Paradise

Go to the MAC website, <www.mac-sports.com> and click on the MACC logo, then on the Marathon section. It will tell you how you can get a voucher for a free MACC ticket with a fill-up at a Marathon station. Only problem is, all the stations participating are in Toledo and Bowling Green -- except one in Sandusky! Good news for Zipman -- but he's probably trotting to the game! Another hint: In past years different MAC schools sold MACC tickets at different prices --and BGSU's were the cheapest. I believe you could pay by credit card over the phone, then pick up the tix at will call. Check it out and see their price. You might try Can't State too -- they should be having a fire sale.

Zips win in shootout at Storrs over the Huckies. Evan Bush is player of the game, making a first half save on a penalty kick my Mpho Mpanya, then stopping two UConn PKs in the shootout. Sinisa Ubiparipovich scored twice in the first half (15 goals on season) for Akron as they took a 2-0 lead, led 2-1 at the half. UConn controlled the ball second half, and had 17-8 advantage in shots after 2 OTs. Evan Bush for Mayor...Governor...President!!! Next up, the Terps in College Park. Coach Sasha Cirovski, President of the NSCAA, which placed Akron 8th in the final poll (Soccer America had them #1) will have his turtles ready for the NCAA quarterfinal matchup, with a trip to the Final Four on the line. I think the Roos will be ready too. And I think Maryland had better FEAR THE ROO!!!!!!!!

WHAT?? You mean it's not 78 degrees with 12mph tradewinds from the E/SE in Akron? Oh, my gosh, I thought everyone had tropical weather, with a chance of windward and mauka showers later in the day. But, as I told coach McFadden yesterday, I'd love to switch weather conditions with y'all -- for about 30 minutes! Why don't you come join me in (sunny??) San Francisco next weekend? I'm buying at Big Nate's Barbecue in SOMA before the Zips-Bears game. And I'd just like to second what Z-P had to say to the good Dr Proenza. Keep us on track, big guy. And have an extra drum stick for me. The Zip in Paradise, Honolulu, Hawai'i