The Curious Case of Matt Dagilis

[ap95@zips.uakron.edu]

I was digging through the Gozips.com archives, and found this

http://gozips.com/sports/msoc/2011-12/bios/dagilis_matt00.

Redshirt, Start 23 Games, play sparatically the next three years. I can understand that he was competing for Play time with Chad Barson, Zarek, Kofi, DeAndre, ect, but to go from starter to benchwarmer seems a little too extreme. can someone fill me in?

[yazan07]

I think Chad and Zarek were just better than him. I mean, and with no disrespect to Matt, you're talking about the local kid from Firestone (not sure if he was even on scholarship?) vs. a pair of nationally ranked defenders. After the season where he started, the next time he really challenged for playing time was after Zarek had left for MLS, and Porter had experimented with putting Gallego at LB or DM rather than pairing him with Chad in central defense. I think in 2009-2010 maybe you could say that he was the #3 centerback, but because Zarek and Chad played nearly, if not every minute those two seasons, Matt was rarely called into action. It was kind of nice to see towards the latter half of the 2011 season that he was getting minutes, you almost felt like he earned it for sticking it out with the team.

[Zip_ME87]

I was digging through the Gozips.com archives, and found this

http://gozips.com/sports/msoc/2011-12/bios/dagilis_matt00.

Redshirt, Start 23 Games, play sparatically the next three years. I can understand that he was competing for Play time with Chad Barson, Zarek, Kofi, DeAndre, ect, but to go from starter to benchwarmer seems a little too extreme. can someone fill me in?

Simple answer is Zarek Valentin, Chris Korb, Chad Barson, and Kofi Sarkodie. Matt never really competed with DeAndre or Bryan Gallego for playing time. Matt was a starter in DeAndre's and Bryan's Freshman season (after 7 Zips left for MLS, 2 seniors and 5 underclassmen from the 2010 season). Matt graduated and was gone before DeAndre's and Bryan's 2nd season (last season).

EDIT: By the way, I like Matt a lot. He's a great player and an awesome person. I was happy to see him at Butler last week as I had hoped I would. (I knew he'd show up to support his team.) I hope he will return to Akron as often as he can, and that UA and Zips fans will always make him feel welcome.

[fknbuflobo]

I was digging through the Gozips.com archives, and found this

http://gozips.com/sports/msoc/2011-12/bios/dagilis_matt00.

Redshirt, Start 23 Games, play sparatically the next three years. I can understand that he was competing for Play time with Chad Barson, Zarek, Kofi, DeAndre, ect, but to go from starter to benchwarmer seems a little too extreme. can someone fill me in?

The best available players play. Plain and simple.

Porter knew that he had to recruit heavily in Defense after the year (2008) when Matt Dagilis started. Porter did that. When Barson and Valentin arrived in 2009, the decision was a no brainer.

And Dagilis was not going to bench Korb, much less Sarkodie.

Athletics is cruel, true, but cruel.

Matt will always be welcome in Akron and among those surrounding the program.