Barnes at work....Joe L out as soccer coach

[Saboteur]

Joe "retired" as Pitt's soccer coach.
Did Barnes engineer this? I have to think so....the message at Pitt is becoming more clear. The bar is raised.
It will take a few years, but it looks like we are on the way to having a legitimate athletic department and not a place for people to retire to.

 

[wbrpanther]

Joe "retired" as Pitt's soccer coach.
Did Barnes engineer this? I have to think so....the message at Pitt is becoming more clear. The bar is raised.
It will take a few years, but it looks like we are on the way to having a legitimate athletic department and not a place for people to retire to.

Any chance Joe actually did just retire?

 

[Las Panteras]

yea.....im scratching my head wondering how you get from a soccer coach retiring to a legitimate athletic department........

 

[Cap pitt]

yea.....im scratching my head wondering how you get from a soccer coach retiring to a legitimate athletic department........

I wonder if Dixon is next to retire

 

[MajorMajors]

Any chance Joe actually did just retire?

I was in school the same time as Joe L. I'm retired. J.L. has to be at least 65.

Go Pitt.

 

[Pitt-Chains]

I was in school the same time as Joe L. I'm retired. J.L. has to be at least 65.

Go Pitt.

Changing of the guard.

 

[thom67]

I was in school the same time as Joe L. I'm retired. J.L. has to be at least 65.

Go Pitt.

Joe L born February 1951.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Thw soccer team didn't win a conference game for 4 years on a row so it was probably a good idea.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

I was in school the same time as Joe L. I'm retired. J.L. has to be at least 65.

Go Pitt.

Agree on the age thing. I am 70 and a younger cousin of mine was a teammate of Luxbacher for Pitt a few years after I graduated.

Maybe he just was ready to retire anyway and got a little extra encouragement.

Proof of the new AD's interest in improving men's soccer will be seen in the quality of the replacement coach to be hired.

 

[Pitt79]

yea.....im scratching my head wondering how you get from a soccer coach retiring to a legitimate athletic department........

Simple, they had this guy on tenure track, and the team was 0 for the last 3 years in the ACC. the message is get serious about WINNING in everything. I'm not lying when I say that I know people in the athletic committee at the university, the new regime has prioritized winning, even to the point of telling women's sports and minor sports that revenue sports winning comes 1st above the secondary sports, the message to them is, you better support this, because if football and men's basketball doesn't win, and win big, and generate more revenue, then you might as well not exist.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Any chance Joe actually did just retire?

Yes.

 

[DT_PITT]

I wonder if Dixon is next to retire

Nope. Not a chance. You'll just have to "endure him" for quite a while.

 

[Gorachee]

Sorry to see him go. I am not a soccer fan, but he was one of the greatest players in Beadling history and part of an old Beadling family. He was the only Pitt coach ever to be in my parents' living room as he did some work with my father when Joe was in graduate school.

 

[rpost3]

Well he loved Pitt and loved the game. Remind you of any recent football coaches?
He'll still be around a lot.
Interested in seeing where the program goes from here. It's a very attractive job considering the conference despite the lack of scholarships.

 

[pittsoccer92]

I strongly believe that Barnes engineered this "retirement." I do not think Joe planned to retire this year.

There should be a ton of interest in the job. I expect a current ACC assistant will get the job, but I'd love to see former Duquesne coach Wade Jean get the job.

 

[braves2121]

I played for Joe and he was a terrible coach. amazing he lasted this long

 

[Harve74]

I was in school the same time as Joe L. I'm retired. J.L. has to be at least 65.

Go Pitt.

Joe was in my class. He's probably 63. Little known and ultimately unimportant facts:
1)Joe was the QB of our intramural champion football team.
2) He kicked a game winning 49 yard FG in the championship.
3) He kicked footballs straight on, not soccer style.

Great guy! Dunno if he was pushed out or retired on his own. But, like most college sports, if Pitt wants to be better in soccer, they will have to devote more resources and spend money. Most of the non-revenue sports have been run primarily as place-holders. We need X number of sports to be in D-1 or XYZ Conference so we field that many sports. Funding them to be successful has never been much more than an after-thought.

 

[FreeportPanther]

Joe was in my class. He's probably 63. Little known and ultimately unimportant facts:
1)Joe was the QB of our intramural champion football team.
2) He kicked a game winning 49 yard FG in the championship.
3) He kicked footballs straight on, not soccer style.

Great guy! Dunno if he was pushed out or retired on his own. But, like most college sports, if Pitt wants to be better in soccer, they will have to devote more resources and spend money. Most of the non-revenue sports have been run primarily as place-holders. We need X number of sports to be in D-1 or XYZ Conference so we field that many sports. Funding them to be successful has never been much more than an after-thought.

Wow, my memory must be going! I could have sworn Kenny Macha kicked that field goal, I snapped, you held...........unless I'm morphing years together???
Joe is a good guy!

 

[Las Panteras]

Simple, they had this guy on tenure track, and the team was 0 for the last 3 years in the ACC. the message is get serious about WINNING in everything. I'm not lying when I say that I know people in the athletic committee at the university, the new regime has prioritized winning, even to the point of telling women's sports and minor sports that revenue sports winning comes 1st above the secondary sports, the message to them is, you better support this, because if football and men's basketball doesn't win, and win big, and generate more revenue, then you might as well not exist.

umm.......I suspect that every Athletic Dept in the country focuses on the revenue sports.

Trying to figure out how canning a 60 something soccer coach has anything to do with the necessity of revenue sports winning big?

 

[Pitt79]

umm.......I suspect that every Athletic Dept in the country focuses on the revenue sports.

Trying to figure out how canning a 60 something soccer coach has anything to do with the necessity of revenue sports winning big?

It has to do with wanting to win in EVERYTHING, in having a must win attitude.

 

[CrazyPaco]

umm.......I suspect that every Athletic Dept in the country focuses on the revenue sports.

Pitt has mostly only ever focused on revenue sports. All schools do, but historically, there are few major power conference schools that have put less resources into Olympic sports...and this because Pitt has simply had a terrible pool of resources to invest. ACC money is now allowing that to change, and the most obvious is that Pitt is now fully funding, for the first time, athletic scholarships in most sports.

Joe has been the head coach at Pitt since 1984. He's had almost zero support for his program over that time. It was well beyond time for him to move on, but there is something to be said for his loyalty and his decades of service to the university in far less than ideal circumstances.

 

[mike412]

I was in school the same time as Joe L. I'm retired. J.L. has to be at least 65.

Go Pitt.

I played soccer at Pitt in the 1967-68 season and covered it for the Pitt news the prior year, and Luxbacher was not on the team either year. If he was a freshman in 1968-69, he would be around 65.

The fact is that he was a poor hire and has done nothing to enhance the sport during his long tenure. The women's program has made some strides since the school finally built a soccer field, but the men's program, if anything, has regressed.

As an aside to illustrate how hard it used to be for a soccer coach here, we used to practice on a dirt field near where a lot of the sports facilities now stand. The field was too narrow and also sloped toward the housing projects down below. I think the street was General Robinson Street but am not certain. In practice it was an unwritten rule to try to keep the ball on the other side of the field since if it went over the hill, we would have to climb down to the projects to get it. It wasn't that it was dangerous; it was a steep hill and a tough climb back. The rule was "you kick it, you get it" which is why practices were almost played exclusively on the other side of the pitch.

It was hard enough trying to develop any skill in controlling the ball without grass, but when you effectively squeeze 22 players onto half the pitch, it was made that much harder.

 

[Harve74]

Joe was in my class. He's probably 63. Little known and ultimately unimportant facts:
1)Joe was the QB of our intramural champion football team.
2) He kicked a game winning 49 yard FG in the championship.
3) He kicked footballs straight on, not soccer style.

Great guy! Dunno if he was pushed out or retired on his own. But, like most college sports, if Pitt wants to be better in soccer, they will have to devote more resources and spend money. Most of the non-revenue sports have been run primarily as place-holders. We need X number of sports to be in D-1 or XYZ Conference so we field that many sports. Funding them to be successful has never been much more than an after-thought.

Wow, my memory must be going! I could have sworn Kenny Macha kicked that field goal, I snapped, you held...........unless I'm morphing years together???
Joe is a good guy!

You are combining two different seasons. Macha kicked the FG in the semi-finals our freshman year, as you describe. We lost in the final. You and I were freshmen that year. Most of the team were juniors or seniors.

Our senior year, Joey beat a Dental School team in the final with another 49 yarder. I think I snapped for that one. Joe was in my student teaching seminar the next year, when we were both doing some grad school work. That team had Geno Klein, Riefenstahl, Jim Stein, Petey and sometimes Auchenbach. You only played one game that I remember that season. We had a game on a night when half the team had a midterm and I remember calling you to suit up and help us field a team.

 

[Harve74]

I played soccer at Pitt in the 1967-68 season and covered it for the Pitt news the prior year, and Luxbacher was not on the team either year. If he was a freshman in 1968-69, he would be around 65.

The fact is that he was a poor hire and has done nothing to enhance the sport during his long tenure. The women's program has made some strides since the school finally built a soccer field, but the men's program, if anything, has regressed.

As an aside to illustrate how hard it used to be for a soccer coach here, we used to practice on a dirt field near where a lot of the sports facilities now stand. The field was too narrow and also sloped toward the housing projects down below. I think the street was General Robinson Street but am not certain. In practice it was an unwritten rule to try to keep the ball on the other side of the field since if it went over the hill, we would have to climb down to the projects to get it. It wasn't that it was dangerous; it was a steep hill and a tough climb back. The rule was "you kick it, you get it" which is why practices were almost played exclusively on the other side of the pitch.

It was hard enough trying to develop any skill in controlling the ball without grass, but when you effectively squeeze 22 players onto half the pitch, it was made that much harder.

Luxbacher was class of 1974 and graduated as Pitt's leading career scorer. Joe played for the Pittsburgh indoor team (Spirit maybe?) that used to play in the Civic Arena before going into coaching. His performance as a coach was pretty representative of the budget he was given and emphasis Pitt put on the sport.

 

[mike412]

They had no budget at all when I was there. Leo Bemis was the coach and doubled as the golf coach. One reason we had to go down and get balls that rolled down the hill is that we only had one good ball to practice with. He would bring one new ball and a bunch of old balls to warm up with before scrimmages. If we lost that ball the scrimmage was over.

To save money, we played mostly local teams where we wouldn't have to stay overnight. We usually took one weekend trip a year. The year before I played it was to PSU on Friday and Bucknell on Saturday. The year I played it was MSU and Eastern Michigan. We didn't play any home matches because Pitt didn't have a field. At one time I understand the soccer team played at Pitt Stadium, but not when I attended school.

There wasn't much HS soccer in the WPIAL back then. Most of the kids were the sons of immigrants who grew up watching their dads play for the Polish Falcons or another team in the fraternal organization league. The two best players on the team were students from Africa. They didn't come to Pitt to play soccer, but technically the were head and shoulders better than any of us.

I didn't get into many games. I never had played the game in my life and Bemis started letting me practice with the team in my junior year whenever they didn't have 22 players for practice.
I didn't really know a lot of the rules but I had my own rule: if you stole the ball from me, the next chance I got I would foul you on the back of the ankle. Hard. Back then we wore metal cleats so that really hurt.

In 1974, I was attending law school at George Washington and summer clerking at Arnold & Porter, a big and prestigious firm. One of the female messengers there had a little crush on me and asked if I would like to go watch the World Cup. It wasn't on American TV but she had a friend who worked at the BBC and they were getting the feed for the employees to watch. I went and Holland was playing. I got to see Johann Cryuf play. I quickly realized what he played and what I played was not the same sport. When I learned he played his club ball for FC Barcelona, I became a Barca fan, and have remained one for 41 years. When I moved to California, I learned the matches were carried on Mexican TV. I used to drive down to Tijuana every Sunday to watch them at a sports bar there. Then came the Internet and I could usually get a streaming live broadcast on my computer. Now pretty much every Barca match is carried live on Bein Sports.

Pitt always has been and always will be my #1 team, but Barca is #2 ahead of the Pirates, Penguins or Steelers.

 

[FreeportPanther]

You are combining two different seasons. Macha kicked the FG in the semi-finals our freshman year, as you describe. We lost in the final. You and I were freshmen that year. Most of the team were juniors or seniors.

Our senior year, Joey beat a Dental School team in the final with another 49 yarder. I think I snapped for that one. Joe was in my student teaching seminar the next year, when we were both doing some grad school work. That team had Geno Klein, Riefenstahl, Jim Stein, Petey and sometimes Auchenbach. You only played one game that I remember that season. We had a game on a night when half the team had a midterm and I remember calling you to suit up and help us field a team.

OK, now I got it straight. I remember a lot of things, but sometimes the "details" are a bit fuzzy. Those were good times, I remember after the Majors 1 purge, our intramural team could have beat some small college teams!

 

[rpost3]

They had no budget at all when I was there. Leo Bemis was the coach and doubled as the golf coach. One reason we had to go down and get balls that rolled down the hill is that we only had one good ball to practice with. He would bring one new ball and a bunch of old balls to warm up with before scrimmages. If we lost that ball the scrimmage was over.

To save money, we played mostly local teams where we wouldn't have to stay overnight. We usually took one weekend trip a year. The year before I played it was to PSU on Friday and Bucknell on Saturday. The year I played it was MSU and Eastern Michigan. We didn't play any home matches because Pitt didn't have a field. At one time I understand the soccer team played at Pitt Stadium, but not when I attended school.

There wasn't much HS soccer in the WPIAL back then. Most of the kids were the sons of immigrants who grew up watching their dads play for the Polish Falcons or another team in the fraternal organization league. The two best players on the team were students from Africa. They didn't come to Pitt to play soccer, but technically the were head and shoulders better than any of us.

I didn't get into many games. I never had played the game in my life and Bemis started letting me practice with the team in my junior year whenever they didn't have 22 players for practice.
I didn't really know a lot of the rules but I had my own rule: if you stole the ball from me, the next chance I got I would foul you on the back of the ankle. Hard. Back then we wore metal cleats so that really hurt.

In 1974, I was attending law school at George Washington and summer clerking at Arnold & Porter, a big and prestigious firm. One of the female messengers there had a little crush on me and asked if I would like to go watch the World Cup. It wasn't on American TV but she had a friend who worked at the BBC and they were getting the feed for the employees to watch. I went and Holland was playing. I got to see Johann Cryuf play. I quickly realized what he played and what I played was not the same sport. When I learned he played his club ball for FC Barcelona, I became a Barca fan, and have remained one for 41 years. When I moved to California, I learned the matches were carried on Mexican TV. I used to drive down to Tijuana every Sunday to watch them at a sports bar there. Then came the Internet and I could usually get a streaming live broadcast on my computer. Now pretty much every Barca match is carried live on Bein Sports.

Pitt always has been and always will be my #1 team, but Barca is #2 ahead of the Pirates, Penguins or Steelers.

Great post, Mike. Thanks for writing. You guys laid the foundation. I can't imagine trying to play as a junior in college for the first time. That takes guts.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

One of the best threads ever. Great nostalgic stuff. And Lux played QB on a championship intramural team? I thought soccer players weren't good athletes? Or so I've been told on these boards.

 

[Harve74]

One of the best threads ever. Great nostalgic stuff. And Lux played QB on a championship intramural team? I thought soccer players weren't good athletes? Or so I've been told on these boards.

Joey played intramural football in black high tops. He had, consciously or unconsciously, adopted many mannerisms of Johnny Unitas on the field. With his short haircut and high cheekbones, there was a resemblence. He threw a very nice ball - considerably better than ny high school QB I played with. The guy was a pro athlete - playing in two different outdoor leagues and for a couple seasons in the indoor league for the Spirit. He had winning seasons 11 out 23 years at Pitt and was twice Big East Coach of the Year. Given the level of support he got, he had a pretty successful career.

 

[rpost3]

Lux must've been an unreal athlete because I remember my father mentioning intramurals against him, either football or basketball, and honestly who the hell remembers playing intramurals against a soccer player in the 1970s? Must've resonated for a reason. I believe he played some in the old NASL against some of the biggest names in soccer history. Beckenbauer, Pele, etc.

 

[Harve74]

Lux must've been an unreal athlete because I remember my father mentioning intramurals against him, either football or basketball, and honestly who the hell remembers playing intramurals against a soccer player in the 1970s? Must've resonated for a reason. I believe he played some in the old NASL against some of the biggest names in soccer history. Beckenbauer, Pele, etc.

We had a VERY good intramural football team in the Fall of 1973 and almost as good the next year. When Majors came in, he brought about 90-95 new scholarship players and was pretty ruthless in cutting former walk-ons. Intramurals picked up many guys who had been on the team in previous years. We got three or 4 guys, but it wasn't just us. Many of the IM teams had former players. I even went head to head against a guy who had started on the OL two weeks previously but was kicked off the varsity for some reason. I also lined up against several guys who had played small college football and were in grad school. We played against a guy who had been named to All- State in Wisconsin, I think -and Lux was better. The games were very competitive, particularly in the Independent division. In the finals we beat a Dental School team which had a former starting WR for Navy and a lineman who had been in the Oakland Raiders Fall camp.

Freeport joked above that we might have won some WPIAL sections. He's not totally wrong. I'm pretty sure we'd have beaten my high school team. Everybody on our team had played some sports in high school, mostly football,. Several were in other varsity sports We also won both Spring and Fall soccer but of course, Lux and a couple guys couldn't play IM in a sport where they had lettered varsity.

It was a different era. The Pitt News used to have a beat writer who did a weekly column in Intramurals. The IM Department kept track of teams and championship points and sometimes handed out championship ribbons or trophies, both for individual sports and a cumulative all-sports total. I still have my football trophy somewhere, a cheesy little football player on a plastic pedestal, and the pamphlet they put out with the champions and all-sports totals. We finished first in overall points in the non-fraternity category.

Hey, everybody gets old. If Barnes really wants to compete for ACC titles in every sport, obviously, building around a coach who is 64 is not the way to do that. But the morons who attacked Lux in this thread and on the pay board should be ashamed of themselves. Joe worked hard here for a long time and was very influential in building local soccer in this region. He and Eugene Klein, who, BTW, was also on that IM Champion team and won several PIAA championships and was GM of the Riverhounds, ran a very successful youth Soccer camp for years. As I said above, he was twice Big East Coach of the Year. He's a fine Pitt man and a better, more successful man than the anonymous putzes who slandered him on here.,

 

[Pitt79]

http://www.nasljerseys.com/Players/L/Luxbacher.Joe.htm

Interesting thread.

 

[Pittx9]

I wonder if Dixon is next to retire

I sure hope not.