2023 Women's Soccer

[YipaZip]

On 9/4/2023 at 1:59 PM, fknbuflobo said:

You need never doubt my sincerity or deliberation.  I was formally trained in compositional deconstruction at the University of Akron.

 

I too would be satisfied with Zips WSOC hosting (and losing) the MAC Tournament.  That would be quite an improvement over struggling to achieve mediocrity.  But this is an unacceptable goal for MSOC, who are accustomed to much greater heights.

 

The histories of Zips MSOC and Zips WSOC are not comparable.   For a long while WSOC have not even been respectable.  MSOC enjoy a long and storied legacy.  It is far past time for WSOC to catch up to MSOC.  But MSOC have not recently been worthy of that stellar legacy.  They have instead become woefully pedestrian. 

 

So, I am challenging them, calling them out.

 

Certainly, crosspollination between the Men's and Women's programs is healthy and mutually beneficial.  The two programs share the same facilities and resources; they should likewise share methodologies and techniques.  But MSOC must regain relevance and stature before any of us download their instructional video or enroll in their weekend seminar.

To even suggest that MSOC need to “regain relevance” is a pathetic statement. 
 

You have been a bitter old man lately. 

[malonepioneer12]

Akron men’s soccer has not won an NCAA tournament game since 2018 (someone can correct me if I am wrong).  That is not acceptable.  The standard is NCAA National Championships not losing in the first round or not making the tournament.  YipaZip - the standard is the standard and we have fallen below expectations.  So it is a fair statement that we have lost relevance.  
 

One other note why do we continue to talk about women’s soccer on the men’s soccer board?  This needs moved to another section.  

[Blue & Gold]

2 minutes ago, malonepioneer12 said:

Akron men’s soccer has not won an NCAA tournament game since 2018 (someone can correct me if I am wrong).  That is not acceptable.  The standard is NCAA National Championships not losing in the first round or not making the tournament.  YipaZip - the standard is the standard and we have fallen below expectations.  So it is a fair statement that we have lost relevance.  
 

One other note why do we continue to talk about women’s soccer on the men’s soccer board?  This needs moved to another section.  

In addition, I don't believe we won the MAC since 2018. That's not at all acceptable. It is right to put some heat on the program; that's what men do. We don't thrive when we're coddled. We thrive when healthy pressure is applied. @fknbuflobo  (along with @TennZip )are the two posters which make this particular forum worth visiting and they're as big of Zips fans as anyone on earth. @fknbuflobo wants what is best for the program and we have slipped from our once high standard. This is unacceptable to anyone who truly cares.

 

Having said that... I'm glad we're up to #3 in the nation! 😂🤘🤘

[YipaZip]

8 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

In addition, I don't believe we won the MAC since 2018. That's not at all acceptable. It is right to put some heat on the program; that's what men do. We don't thrive when we're coddled. We thrive when healthy pressure is applied. @fknbuflobo  (along with @TennZip )are the two posters which make this particular forum worth visiting and they're as big of Zips fans as anyone on earth. @fknbuflobo wants what is best for the program and we have slipped from our once high standard. This is unacceptable to anyone who truly cares.

 

Having said that... I'm glad we're up to #3 in the nation! 😂🤘🤘

Sounds pretty relevant to me? 🫡

 

With regards winning the MAC - this team won the MAC last year in a double round league worth way more than a once off final game. The final seemed to be set up as a F' YOU towards the Zips for going to the BigEast and giving the opposition WMU/BG/NIU a 2nd opportunity to get at large birth. 

Edited September 13, 2023 by YipaZip

[YipaZip]

5 hours ago, malonepioneer12 said:

Akron men’s soccer has not won an NCAA tournament game since 2018 (someone can correct me if I am wrong).  That is not acceptable.  The standard is NCAA National Championships not losing in the first round or not making the tournament.  YipaZip - the standard is the standard and we have fallen below expectations.  So it is a fair statement that we have lost relevance.  
 

One other note why do we continue to talk about women’s soccer on the men’s soccer board?  This needs moved to another section.  

Whos expectations? Are the school still investing in soccer like it was in the past? 

 

Many things would suggest not:

-number of spectators inside of First Energy. Where is the promotion on local radio etc, like there was in 2010.

-number of away games on the West Coast (the team went to Santa Barbara, Utah Valley and Seattle in recent past)

-didnt our 2010/205-2018 have 5 on soccer staff? AFAIK it's just Embick, Coppenger, Nanchoff and Attila now.

 

[zippy-claws]

21 hours ago, YipaZip said:

Whos expectations? Are the school still investing in soccer like it was in the past? 

 

Many things would suggest not:

-number of spectators inside of First Energy. Where is the promotion on local radio etc, like there was in 2010.

-number of away games on the West Coast (the team went to Santa Barbara, Utah Valley and Seattle in recent past)

-didnt our 2010/205-2018 have 5 on soccer staff? AFAIK it's just Embick, Coppenger, Nanchoff and Attila now.

 

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.  

Edited September 14, 2023 by zippy-claws
spelling

[LoyalZIP]

The men's program benefitted so much from having someone like Caleb Porter as the head coach. His personality was entirely unmatched by anyone else in the entire country. He was a one-man fundraiser, promoter, and CEO. To a fault, almost. The U had to do almost nothing to sell or promote the program because he took it upon himself to do that and build the Akron brand. The fact that Jared simply doesn't have that kind of personality is no fault of his own. Administration has been riding the wave he created for nearly 15 years now, entirely to a fault. Now, could they promote the program better? Absolutely. They leave a lot to be desired with marketing in general, as I have said of the last few admins at this point. 

 

So many things factor into attendance. Even men's basketball, who is arguably in the midst of its most successful 5-year run in its history, gets bad crowds for a lot of its biggest games. Ultimately, for me, I was raised an Akron soccer fan who knew I could look forward to a handful of things when I would go to games. I knew they would not lose at home, I knew the Rowdies would be loud and proud and make the opposing team's life a living hell, and I could always look forward to 3-4 home NCAA games that would all have an unmatched intensity.

 

Well, again to no fault of the current state of the program, all of the founding Rowdies are long gone and nobody ever cared like they did, Akron soccer is no longer marketed the same way it once was, NCAA rules have leveled the playing field and/or made it tougher on programs like Akron. If you had told me 13 years ago that this team would drop a home NCAA tournament game in the first round, with red cards galore, I would have called you insane. At the same time, if you had told me that general success on a national level has been fairly steady throughout that time-frame, save for 2019, I would have been pretty pumped. 

 

So, is the administration giving them all the support they should? Maybe not. But, if you spoke to MSoc alumni from 2008-2018 about the "standard" being the same as it once was, I'm not sure we'd hear a universal yes. Adam Najem said before his senior season that it was College Cup or bust, after all.

 

Akron soccer fans are indeed spoiled by some awesome success that spans across decades. Spoiled to a point where they won't show up unless it's the Elite Eight. But that's also what happens when you have a sport like college soccer that isn't a huge draw many places in the country, especially Akron, Ohio. Akron soccer has a lot of great die-hard fans, but most people I know are only going to tune in when they know a National Title is on the line. You can call them bad fans if you want, but that's their standard for Akron soccer and you don't have to like it.

[malonepioneer12]

7 hours ago, zippy-claws said:

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.

What you are saying is completely incorrect…Akron’s RPI was top 20.  In fact they ended the year at 16.   I don’t disagree with most of your other points.  The problem is money and Akron doesn’t have any.  

[YipaZip]

12 hours ago, LoyalZIP said:

Adam Najem said before his senior season that it was College Cup or bust, after all.

In that case, Adam Najem was a bust? The 2016 team, his senior year was one of the worst Akron seasons in my 18 years watching. 

[LoyalZIP]

8 hours ago, YipaZip said:

In that case, Adam Najem was a bust? The 2016 team, his senior year was one of the worst Akron seasons in my 18 years watching. 

 

My point is that is the standard that the PLAYERS hold themselves to. So getting bent out of shape whens some fans feel the same way is, well, ridiculous. 

 

And that team won an NCAA tournament game, which at the time was a bare minimum expectation.

[Reslife4Life]

Anyway.... The Zips Women won at Niagara 1-0 yesterday on a goal by Emma King

[fknbuflobo]

Emma King is a bona fide scorer.  (Searching for video…)

[LoyalZIP]

15 minutes ago, fknbuflobo said:

Emma King is a bona fide scorer.  (Searching for video…)

 

https://x.com/ZipsWSOC/status/1702482149356470741?s=20

 

 

[Zip_ME87]

1 hour ago, Reslife4Life said:

Anyway.... The Zips Women won at Niagara 1-0 yesterday on a goal by Emma King

 

Thank you for bringing this thread back to the Women's Soccer discussion! 👍

 

[zippy-claws]

Back in Akron for the weekend, and loved the Men's game on Friday night, and went to the women's game on Sunday.  First off, the women are playing spirited soccer, and have had so many close losses it's gotta be tough.  They play gritty defense, just haven't seemed to find an offense yet.  I've been super-critical of Women's soccer, I know.  But I was impressed by what I saw.  It would be easy to fold up the tents for themn, but they haven't.

 

Now my beef...I know and you know I'm a nick-picker, but...I went to the game mainly because it was the program's Pink Day, when they honor breast cancer victims and surviviors, raise money for research, etc.  The only reason I knew it was Pink Day is because the PA announcer at the men's game said it was going to be.  Being a cancer survivior myself, I have six Zip's pink tee shirts I either donated money for or were given at past Pink Days, and whether you liked Noreen or not, there was always a moment for women from both teams to honor family members who were victims or survivors, a moment of silence for the victims, tee shirt sales and donation opportunities.  Women's basketball also does a heckuva job with their Pink games.  Today was a Marketing disaster.  This has nothing to do with the women's team, but everything to do with whatever Marketing department there is at Akron.  The only reason you would know it was Pink Day was the team wore pink stockings.  There was no display, no mention of American Cancer Society, no sales or giveaways for breast cancer awareness, and not a peep out of the PA announcer about why the team was wearing pink, or that it was even Pink Day.  I asked the two marketing GAs at the entrance, where all the cancer awareness things were, and they looked at me like I was from Mars.  They gave scarves to students attending the game, not Pink one's but some give-away to try to lure them out of their dorms.  Whoever the head of Marketing overall or the head of marketing for women's soccer should apologize and or be reprimanded by Mr. Guthrie for this egregious oversight.  Don't do us any favors, and stop having Pink games if you're not going to recognize their importance.

[TennZip]

4 hours ago, zippy-claws said:

Back in Akron for the weekend, and loved the Men's game on Friday night, and went to the women's game on Sunday.  First off, the women are playing spirited soccer, and have had so many close losses it's gotta be tough.  They play gritty defense, just haven't seemed to find an offense yet.  I've been super-critical of Women's soccer, I know.  But I was impressed by what I saw.  It would be easy to fold up the tents for themn, but they haven't.

 

Now my beef...I know and you know I'm a nick-picker, but...I went to the game mainly because it was the program's Pink Day, when they honor breast cancer victims and surviviors, raise money for research, etc.  The only reason I knew it was Pink Day is because the PA announcer at the men's game said it was going to be.  Being a cancer survivior myself, I have six Zip's pink tee shirts I either donated money for or were given at past Pink Days, and whether you liked Noreen or not, there was always a moment for women from both teams to honor family members who were victims or survivors, a moment of silence for the victims, tee shirt sales and donation opportunities.  Women's basketball also does a heckuva job with their Pink games.  Today was a Marketing disaster.  This has nothing to do with the women's team, but everything to do with whatever Marketing department there is at Akron.  The only reason you would know it was Pink Day was the team wore pink stockings.  There was no display, no mention of American Cancer Society, no sales or giveaways for breast cancer awareness, and not a peep out of the PA announcer about why the team was wearing pink, or that it was even Pink Day.  I asked the two marketing GAs at the entrance, where all the cancer awareness things were, and they looked at me like I was from Mars.  They gave scarves to students attending the game, not Pink one's but some give-away to try to lure them out of their dorms.  Whoever the head of Marketing overall or the head of marketing for women's soccer should apologize and or be reprimanded by Mr. Guthrie for this egregious oversight.  Don't do us any favors, and stop having Pink games if you're not going to recognize their importance.

Living in Georgia, I only get to see a few men's games in person.   I do not get to see any women's games in person.   Thank you for providing an update on what you saw from women's soccer.    Coach Simonetti got a very late start in her first year.   I have been told that she has great passion when you talk with her in person.   I am glad that you are seeing some positive signs.   It would be fantastic to see women's soccer doing well.    

 

      Cancer is such a devastating disease/major health issue.    I give you great props for your donations over the years and your support of the previous womens soccer games and women's basketball games where breast cancer awareness was given the excellent treatment that it deserves.   It is great that the women players for both teams were able to honor family members in the past.   One of my favorite moments of the major league baseball all star game is when every player and every fan holds up a card honoring a family member or friend that has been heavily impacted by cancer.      I am very glad to hear that women's basketball has been consistently doing well with this needed special day

 

     I went to the Akron Athletic department web site .  I clicked on Athletics and then clicked on Athletics Staff Directory.  I then clicked where it said all offices to try to sort by department.  I went down to the M's to try to find marketing.  I ended up needing to go to Athletic Communications and Marketing.    

https://gozips.com/staff-directory#athletics_communications_and_marketing

 

I do not honestly know if the previous pink recognition days were primarily done by the marketing department or if the SID's or the women's coaches were the major driving force.  When I read the biography of Seth McFall, I see that he has only been in his job since June 2023.   

 

    From what you described, this important recognition and fund raising day was done super poorly this year.   I believe that women's basketball will have a new coach next year...who might not be aware of the excellent pink days that have been done by women's basketball.

 

   To make sure that women's soccer does much better next year for pink day and that women's basketball continues their great work, I would suggest that you send an e-mail to Mr. Guthrie, Mr. McFall, Mr. Palchick and Ms. Simonetti to let them know that the University of Akron did very poorly this year with women's soccer Pink days.

 

     Cancer is devastating and we need to continue to raise money to fight cancer.   You are not "nit-picking" at all on this issue.   I would guess that Mr. Palchick and Mr. McFall should be the 2 people that will need to work together to make sure that "pink Day" in fall 2024.....sees tremendous improvement.

[zippy-claws]

12 hours ago, TennZip said:

Cancer is devastating and we need to continue to raise money to fight cancer.   You are not "nit-picking" at all on this issue.   I would guess that Mr. Palchick and Mr. McFall should be the 2 people that will need to work together to make sure that "pink Day" in fall 2024.....sees tremendous improvement.

Thank you @TennZip for your kind words, I appreciate them and for the suggested route for me to follow to make my feelings known.  

[zippy-claws]

So you guys always discuss RPI for the Men's team, I thought I'd look up the RPI for the women's team.  The 2-11-0 team, that have lost all 6 matches at First Energy Stadium.  RPI - 312, out of 347 schools.  One of those wins was against Niagra, whose RPI is 338.  Wisconsin-Green Bay is in at 323.  Hmmm...where did our AD come to UA from?  Pattern?  or silly me.  I was encouraged after the NIU game, but gutted after watching the WMU match.  Maybe we should close down women's soccer and form a women's rowing team, or our team can play FIFA Soccer on the e-Sports team.

[TennZip]

1 hour ago, zippy-claws said:

So you guys always discuss RPI for the Men's team, I thought I'd look up the RPI for the women's team.  The 2-11-0 team, that have lost all 6 matches at First Energy Stadium.  RPI - 312, out of 347 schools.  One of those wins was against Niagra, whose RPI is 338.  Wisconsin-Green Bay is in at 323.  Hmmm...where did our AD come to UA from?  Pattern?  or silly me.  I was encouraged after the NIU game, but gutted after watching the WMU match.  Maybe we should close down women's soccer and form a women's rowing team, or our team can play FIFA Soccer on the e-Sports team.

That is very discouraging.    The 2nd year for football and women's soccer coaches...is not going well. Thank you for sharing RPI info.   I had no clue that there were 347 teams in RPI (men's number is 211).    Looking at their schedule, the next game (Ball State - 4-0-2 MAC record) is probably another loss.   Miami, E. Michigan and C. Michigan join Akron in the bottom of the standings.   Hopefully, the women can keep playing hard and not finish 0-11-0.    https://getsomemaction.com/standings.aspx?path=wsoc

[Zip_ME87]

4 hours ago, zippy-claws said:

So you guys always discuss RPI for the Men's team, I thought I'd look up the RPI for the women's team.  The 2-11-0 team, that have lost all 6 matches at First Energy Stadium.  RPI - 312, out of 347 schools.  One of those wins was against Niagra, whose RPI is 338.  Wisconsin-Green Bay is in at 323.  Hmmm...where did our AD come to UA from?  Pattern?  or silly me.  I was encouraged after the NIU game, but gutted after watching the WMU match.  Maybe we should close down women's soccer and form a women's rowing team, or our team can play FIFA Soccer on the e-Sports team.

It’s interesting when you read the gridiron thread how discouraged the posters are but are not ready to fire the coach or shut down Zips gridiron. Seems to me that our Women’s Soccer Coach and team deserve the time needed to rebuild from the disaster TFC left. Jen has had only 1 recruiting class. 

[fknbuflobo]

Zips WSOC is currently abysmal.  Cannot hide from that fact.  But that does not mean regime change is justified.  Give Simonetti at least another season.  Coaching change will eventually become necessary unless there is dramatic improvement next year.  But not yet.  And the suggestion to drop WSOC altogether is absurd.  I believe the notion to do so was in jest.

[Zip_ME87]

52 minutes ago, fknbuflobo said:

Zips WSOC is currently abysmal.  Cannot hide from that fact.  But that does not mean regime change is justified.  Give Simonetti at least another season.  Coaching change will eventually become necessary unless there is dramatic improvement next year.  But not yet.  And the suggestion to drop WSOC altogether is absurd.  I believe the notion to do so was in jest.

 

I disagree with next season being the deciding season. Seems to me that Coach Simonetti should be allowed at least 3 recruiting classes before we even think about making a change. You cannot count last year given that she was hired ~2 weeks before the season started.

 

[fknbuflobo]

55 minutes ago, Zip_ME87 said:

 

I disagree with next season being the deciding season. Seems to me that Coach Simonetti should be allowed at least 3 recruiting classes before we even think about making a change. You cannot count last year given that she was hired ~2 weeks before the season started.

 

To be fair, it is difficult to think of this as Simonetti's 2nd season.  

More like 1.5 season, I guess.

[TennZip]

Before tonight, I had not given a thought to women's soccer and any recruits that they might have lined up for 2024 and 2025.

 

The men's soccer team currently has 5 recruits listed by Top Drawer Soccer (TDS) for 2024 and 1 recruit listed for 2025.

 

If you look at the commitments link below,  the zips women's have 1 recruit listed for 2024 and 3 recruits listed for 2025.

 

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer/college-soccer-details/women/akron/clgid-128/tab-commitments#sectionblock

 

    I look at the TDS recruiting roundup every Monday morning.   I will try to do a better job of looking for Akron in the list of Division 1 women's signings.

 

The women's list is always much, much longer than the men (as Zippy-Claws educated us earlier - 347 womens team in RPI ; only 211 in men's soccer)

 

I must admit that I did look at the TDS recruiting roundup for Sept. 25 to October 1.   However, I must also admit that I completely missed that Akron had 2 recruits listed for 2025 in that weekly roundup.

 

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/sima-recruiting-roundup:-sept-25-october-1_aid52532

 

for some reason, the women's commitments for 2025......have been much higher than the commitments for 2024

 

  If you look at the TDS list for Sept. 25-October 1, they identify 57 division 1 women's soccer commitments in that week for 2025.

 

If you look at the 2025 boys soccer commitments, there is 1 boy listed.

 

   The encouraging part to me.....on the women's commitments....is that TDS has 3 of the 4 commitments identified as 3 stars.   Most of the recruits that that Akron Men...have been getting.....are almost all 3 stars.   I believe that Caleb Borneo and Joshua Hardin were 4 star for this year.  Carter Cormier, Matt Dreas, Nathan Ferguson, Alen Kapic, Ryan Kopay and Joshua Bartels were all listed as 3 star by TDS.  Jackson Herbert was rated 2 stars by TDS.

 

of the 6 men's commitments for 2024 and 2025, all are listed as 3 stars

 

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer/college-soccer-details/men/akron/clgid-438/tab-commitments#sectionblock

 

   To me, it is encouraging, that Coach Simonetti is getting 3 star rated players.   I know that TDS is not anywhere near perfect.     FknBuflobo will point out correctly that the great DeAndre Yedlin was not highly rated by TDS.

 

I am not familiar with Ohio Premier junior team .

 

Bailey Kerins is a 2025 commitment from Ohio Premier.    3 star rated efender

Addison Lambert is a 2024 commitment from Ohio Premier.   3 star rated midfielder

Freya Blatz is a 3 star rated GK from Pennsylvania.....2025 commit....Century V FC club team

the 3rd 2025 commitment is Luisa Fragnoli.   She is an unknown quantity to TDS  (no rating).   She comes from the very familar Internationals SC.

I believe that Luisa Fragnoli plays high school soccer last year for Highland.   As a sophomore, she was selected first team all suburban league.

 

If I look at the Girls high school soccer rankings for October 2nd, the Highland Hornets are 12-0-0 and they are ranked 10th in the state.

I am encouraged to see that the women zips have landed a star player from a top local team.  I also notice that the Medina girl's team is 10-0-0 and ranked number 1 in the state.   I have no idea if any of the Medina girls star players have made college commitments.   Walsh girls have a great team every year.    Hopefully, Akron women can start getting top players from Walsh and Medina.     Manchester also has an excellent team this year.   I am sure that Coach Simonetti has more than one commitment currently for 2024.   It is impossible for TDS to know about all commitments.   I just thought that I would share some positive recruitng news (at least in my uneducated women's soccer opinion)....with each of you.     

 

https://ohsaaweb.blob.core.windows.net/files/Sports/Soccer/2023/OSSCAStateSoccerPollWeek5.pdf

[zippy-claws]

@Zip_ME87 and @fknbuflobo, Gentlemen, if you kindly re-read my post on RPI for the women's team, I never called for the coach to be fired or regime to be changed.  Nor once again, did I blame her.  I was just simply stating the fact that it is so bad, and I realize that she inherited a bad situation.  I just do not see a coach with only DIII experience knowing how to recruit for a DI program at this point, and no one seems to want to help her succeed.  One other point I'd like to make.  Some during this thread of conversation on women's soccer have suggested that we have such a fertile ground in NE Ohio which to recruit women's soccer from.  And yes, we've had our Walshes, our Copleys (recently), our Twinsburgs, but the talent just isn't as deep as we kid ourselves to believing.  I looked up every BIG10 and MAC soccer rosters, threw in Cincinnati, Dayton, WVU, Pitt, Marshall, Cleveland State and Youngstown State as well.  I looked for women who played HS or lived in NEO, and I defined NEO as Eylria/Lorain to the PA border, and Lake Erie down to New Philadelphia.  Here's what I found.  And this is only rostered players, not whether they start, get playing time, are stars, etc.

MAC - Akron has 9 players, the entire rest of the MAC has 13.

BIG10 - 13 teams with 8 total players, 3 of which are at Ohio State

Cleveland State has 10, Youngstown State has 5.

Cincy, Dayton, Marshall, WVU and Pitt has a total of 1.

 

So, where did the NEO talent go?  I highly doubt the numbers are big in the ACC, SEC, Big East.  And I'm too lazy to keep looking at rosters.  My points are, 1) we may be living in a bubble as to how much talent resides here, and 2) to think that just because our coach may have an NEO connection, that that's where our hopes should lie.  I wish her luck and success, I've never called for her to be fired, I've just always thought the hire was a mistake.