Retiring / Honoring Numbers – UA Soccer

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Retiring / Honoring Numbers – UA Soccer

This is a complicated issue… very complicated. I thought about asking Coach Porter about this issue last year at the “Meet the Team” event… but decided that I needed to do some more research. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now.

There is no published set of criteria for Retiring a Number… or Honoring a Jersey as it is often put now… on the Official Zips Athletic site… GoZips.com. While it is likely that Akron Athletics has a policy for retiring number… it is also likely that the policy needs to be updated for soccer.

Part 1 - Previously Retired / Honored Numbers – UA Soccer

When most of us UA Soccer fans look at the NW corner of the stadium… we see only 2 retired jerseys… only two. I have to think that most of us… certainly me… wonder how a program with such a rich tradition in soccer can have only 2 retired jerseys.

The 2 Retired Numbers are:

Fritz Kungl – #4 - Forward – 1960, 1961 and 1962 All-American

Pete Milich - #2 - Forward - 1961 and 1962 All-American

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Fritz Kungl – #4 - Forward – 1960, 1961 and 1962 All-American

Pete Milich - #2 - Forward - 1961 and 1962 All-American

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Fritz Kungl – #4 - Forward – 1960, 1961 and 1962 All-American

Pete Milich - #2 - Forward - 1961 and 1962 All-American

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Part 2 - Previously Unrecognized Players – UA Soccer

First… I think that it’s important to consider the retired numbers that we have… determine the criteria that appears to have been used in the past… and catch up to about the year 2000… using that same criteria… and give some other former UA Soccer greats their due.

References:

http://www.gozips.com/athletics/awards/index

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_...l-America_teams

Previously Released Akron Soccer “Media Guides” (Photos)

Apparently… someone decided long ago that a 2-time All-American qualifies for a Retired Number. .. so to be fair to past soccer greats that earned 2 All-American recognitions (Assuming 1st or 2nd or 3rd Team)… we should add the rest.

Here’s the list:

Joe Queiroga - #? – Midfielder – 1966, 1967

Ford Brunner - #? – Goalkeeper – 1966, 1967

Richard Parkinson - #? – Forward – 1970, 1971, 1972

George Nanchoff - #? – Forward – 1975, 1976

Louie Nanchoff - #? – Forward – 1976, 1977

Simon Spelling - #? – Defender – 1982, 1983

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Part Three - 2000 – Present Retired Numbers – Discussion

Now… from 2000 on… it gets complicated.

The first reason that it gets complicated is that we have more Soccer Organizations/Publications/Internet Sites that release polls… and All-American awards than in the past (the 1980s… when we had the last 2-time All-Americans):

National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)

Soccer America

College Soccer News

Top Drawer Soccer

Soccer Times

Goal.com - (College Soccer Professor) is also gaining popularity… especially among Zips fans, 2010 - “Akron demonstrated the massive gap between them and the rest of the country”.

Two of these polls are recognized by the NCAA… the NSCAA and Soccer America… so the ALL-American selections from these two sources should also be recognized… by the Akron soccer program.

So… the first question in evaluating the criteria for retiring numbers is… how should these ALL-American selections be considered and weighted? I propose a method for assigning weights to polls in a table in Part Seven… but first… a discussion on another reason that retiring numbers is getting complicated.

The second reason that retiring numbers (or honoring Jerseys) is more complicated now is something that most readers of ZipsNation already know from reading the forum and GoZips.com for the past few years… and from reading other media on topics that include College Recruiting, the US Youth Squads (U-15, U16, U17, U18, etc.), the MLS Developmental Academies and other soccer clubs like the Internationals here in NE Ohio, Major League Soccer (MLS) here in the US, and other foreign professional leagues.

If you are not well informed on the relationships of all of the above organizations, you can review the “More Headlines” tab under Mens Soccer on GoZips.com… and try to find the Archives…

OR…

You can read most of this information in two Sports Illustrated articles of 2010 entitled, “Caleb Porter and American college soccer's Rust Belt Renaissance” and, “Porter shows youth national team pipeline still has plenty of Zip”.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/socc...rter/index.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/socc...b.porter/1.html

The first “War and Peace” sized Rust Belt article spanned 3 long SI Internet site pages… and covers Akron’s 2009 season (making the UA soccer program look great too). The Pipeline article goes deeper into the relationships between the soccer academies… college soccer… the Youth National Teams (U17, U18, etc) and getting players ready for Major League Soccer… and professional soccer in general… and feeding the USA Men’s National Team. This can also be looked at as the “State of the Union” of Amerian soccer.

Basically… we have an environment today where colleges, MLS Developmental Academies, and other soccer academies and clubs… as well as other professional organizations… compete for college age soccer players… and where all of these soccer organizations feed the US Youth teams, Pro Soccer and the MNT (Men’s National Team).

This Graphic somewhat represents the organizations of various soccer institutions and clubs in the USA… but… there are a lot more possibilities with arrows… moving from just about any organization to another… as long as the Youth Soccer age and NCAA age and other requirements are met.

Sources:

http://ussda.demosphere.com/standings/2010...1/27484529.html

http://www.ussoccer.com/Teams/Youth/US-Und.../Residency.aspx

http://www.ussoccer.com/Teams/US-Men.aspx

http://www.ussoccer.com/Teams/US-Men/Playe...layer-Pool.aspx

So… we have a situation where… like last year… Coach Porter switches from “What’s Best for the Team”… during the season… to “What’s Best for the Player” at the conclusion of the season. Porter fully supports any players who he feels are ready to turn pro… in getting Generation Adidas contracts (contracts that offer better than average Pro salaries while also providing for a soccer player to have funding to complete a degree later). As we saw at the end of 2010, Porter supported 5 undergraduate players in their joint decision to leave the Akron soccer program and turn pro.

What all of this means is that it is unlikely that Akron players in the future who show great promise as a pro player will hang around for 4 years of college.

Take Perry Kitchen for example. He joined Akron last year as the captain of the U17 team… with loads of international experience. He played one year for Akron and left for the Pros… where he was the 3rd overall selection in the MLS Draft.

Of course… we will also always have players like Anthony Ampaipitakwong too… who was an All American in 2008… and hung around for all four years (wining the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award too).

So… the second question in evaluating the criteria for Retired Numbers is, what will be the required tenure for a player to have a number retired by the University… since the days of playing for 4 years for the best players are almost gone?

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Part Four – Evaluate the Criteria used by other Colleges

There are probably more hits for Retired Numbers on the UNC site than most schools… and the first hits are for the UNC Ladies soccer team… one of the most significant Dynasties in Sports… and a good candidate to research.

I didn’t see a list of criteria for UNC… but I did read that the “National Player of the Year” was mentioned as a sufficient requirement to retire a number… as indicated in this older posting:

http://www.theacc.com/sports/w-soccer/spec.../082803aaf.html

ELEVEN RETIRED NUMBERS: - North Carolina has had 11 players have their numbers retired following their careers at North Carolina. Each earned National Player of the Year honors while a player here. There are some amazing stats on this page!

You can see by this graphic that UNC has retired many jersey numbers… and it appears to be actual… not symbolic… as the last person to use the number is listed in Tarheel Blue:

http://wsoccer.athletics.unc.edu/jerseys/Alum%20Jers.pdf

But… a look at the current Roster indicates that the numbers are in use today:

http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/w-socce...soccer-mtt.html

Lady Tarheels can have their numbers retired (honored) at the end of their Senior Year… as stated in this news release from 2008:

http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/w-socce.../032408aab.html

http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/w-socce...soccer-mtt.html

In the MAC, BGSU has defined and published criteria (2010) for Honoring Jersey Numbers:

http://www.sent-trib.com/bgsu-sports/bgsu-...-jersey-numbers

But this idea certainly goes against the UNC idea above… by requiring that the athlete be removed from the university for 10 years. It also required graduation… or at least “significant progress towards a degree”... which allows for some room in interpretation. The athletic accomplishments also open to interpretation… National Award, All American, and MAC POY.

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Part Five - Input for Number Retiring / Jersey-Player Honoring

This is my justification for posting this information… instead of asking the Athletic Department to do something about the lack or Retired Numbers in our Soccer stadium.

In some schools… the job of AD (Athletic Director) is like a revolving door… and so are some Coaches’ jobs… and even University Administration. We are lucky here to have some very well respected people in those positions... but… here’s a look at why we (ZipsNation people) should also be welcome to consider this topic.

But… no matter how long we have our existing Administration, AD, and coaching staff… the Soccer Stadium will be here longer… and so will the fans. We… Alumni of Akron… and People of Akron… NE Ohioans… are the ones who will be looking at those retired numbers for decades to come.

Why not have a voice?

So… feel free to leave some feedback on the criteria for getting some more retired numbers up there… so that it looks like we have a Soccer Program here when the stadium is empty.

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Part Six - Proposed Criteria for Honoring Jersey Numbers – a Weighted Awards System

Given the current state of MAC Soccer and the level of play at the University of Akron, I do not feel that MAC Player of the Year would be sufficient for a Retired Number (as @ BGSU)… but I do feel that this award should be recognized with some points… in a weighted awards system.

In a Weighted Awards System… we should keep the criteria from the past alive… and Retire a Number (Honor a Player-Jersey-Number) if a soccer player achieves TWO All-American recognitions from the NSCAA… or from Soccer America (as long as the NCAA continues to recognize the Soccer America Poll). I also think that we should award some points for 2nd and 3rd Team All Americans… and for 1st, 2nd and 3rd team All-Americans from the other top organizations.

I also feel that if a UA Soccer Player wins a Hermann Trophy… that he/she should automatically be awarded for having a Jersey Retired… if the “yet to be decided” tenure is met. After all... this player will automatically have his/her name etched into the record books as being a great player. Consider the fact that in football… many players who win the Heisman, fail to have long illustrious careers in the NFL… but they are still legends in College football and are recognized as that with retired numbers.

Making the US National Team should also be a way to automatically qualify… but some criteria needs to be established for the number of games… as players are taken from a pool depending on the opponent, tournament, time of the year, other obligations, etc..

.................................All-American......Player of the Year

NSCAA................................Yes...................Yes

Soccer America.......................Yes...................Yes

College Soccer News..................Yes....................No

Top Drawer Soccer....................Yes....................No

Soccer Times.........................No.....................No

Missouri Athletic Club.....................................Yes

(Hermann Trophy)

Also… the US Developmental Academies recognize players for achieving “All conference”, “All Academy” and the “All Academy POY” (Player of the Year) for some grouped Youth Teams (U17/U18, U15/U16, etc.).

http://www.ussoccer.com/Teams/Development-...Academy&p=3

The USA Youth Soccer Teams are also another way to recognize achievements… by adding points in a weighted system.

http://www.ussoccer.com/Teams/Youth.aspx

Other awards need to be evaluated for inclusion in the weighting system… but awards like Gatroade POYs should probably not be considered.

MAC Conference Guidelines:

Probably… UA Soccer is a program that is more similar to other large conferences than the MAC… so unless the MAC has guidelines on retiring numbers… Maybe the ACC and Big Ten should be consulted to determine how the big boys do it.

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Part Seven - Sample Weighted System

In this table… which looks more complex than it is… initial weights are assigned to various criteria (awards)… and an initial total is used for a minimal number of points required to have a number retired… (1800 points).

First… the old standard is recognized… if a player is recognized as an NSCAA All-American for 2 years (800 points each)… and the number is retired/recognized… as the player also attended UA for 2 years and gained another 400 points.

If a player wins the Hermann trophy… this results in 1600 points… so even if the player only attends college here for one year… the number is retired. This is consistent with the Heisman trophy in football.

Making the USA Men’s National Team results in 1000 points for each year (appearances are TBD).

Going from Akron to a Developmental Academy… or the other way around… and winning the POY is recognized almost like the Hermann Trophy.

Winning multiple All-American awards… 1st, 2nd, or 3rd teams… in one year or in multiple years… will result in significant points towards.

Playing for multiple years in MLS will also be recognized with points… or a brief stay in an International Premier League will also result in a good number of points.

It’s not likely that everyone will agree with these weights… as I’m not sure that I agree. I’m sure that I would change the weights after calculating a few players from the last few years. But… we need to get a system in place… where we can award more Retired Numbers… and still keep the minimum requirements that were set in the past… so that we can see some familiar names up there… from 2000 on. We can also anticipate that some very recent players will easily qualify after a couple more years at the Pro level. This would make our program more consistent with other top programs… like UNC.

I am out of space to upload... working on that...

Please don't reply top Part Seven until a graphic is up here...