So I was told here that coach Waldrum won’t be able to bring elite middle class players to Oakland and thus make Pitt a power in women’s soccer like our men are.
yet Nikki Izzo Brown has been the only coach in WVU’s history, and has built that program into one of the elite programs in the country, grabbing top recruits from western PA and top players from all over North America every year. She recruits the Canadian national team very well. Morgantown is not Oakland. It’s not the city. But it is a dump. And it is West Virginia afterall.
WVU has only been to one national title game in recent years, but they were ranked #1 and upset by USC. But top 5 and top 10 rankings and contending for national titles are the norm there. I think this is our ceiling at Pitt. We play in the ACC afterall so being a perennial conference winner isn’t easy. The conference has 3 of the 4 College Cup teams this year and probably should have had all 4.
By the way, WVU has an AA (I think she’s an AA) out of WPIAL. She was a national player of the week this spring. She ls at WVU, and Pitt gave her a $hit offer out of HS because it was the old staff that didn’t value local players. If Coach Waldrum were around then, Pitt would have been in play...and our women still might be playing in the College Cup today. Granted we haven’t had a player like her in Western PA in the last 4 years...but we do produce them once every 5 years or so. When I think of the 4 best local players who came out of WPIAL in the last 10 years, one went to PSU, one went to UVA, and 2 went to WVU. That’s gonna change.
I also remember talking to our old staff about another player who was a notch or two below the players i mentioned above. They didn’t recruit her and specifically told me they only saw her as maybe a player who would get minutes here and there for them. She ended up playing at a mid major and has been a Herman award finalist and has lead her team to the sweet 16 and has scored plenty of goals and helped her team beat ACC teams in season and in the NCAA tourney. Those guys simply couldn’t identify talent. Among other things.
yet Nikki Izzo Brown has been the only coach in WVU’s history, and has built that program into one of the elite programs in the country, grabbing top recruits from western PA and top players from all over North America every year. She recruits the Canadian national team very well. Morgantown is not Oakland. It’s not the city. But it is a dump. And it is West Virginia afterall.
WVU has only been to one national title game in recent years, but they were ranked #1 and upset by USC. But top 5 and top 10 rankings and contending for national titles are the norm there. I think this is our ceiling at Pitt. We play in the ACC afterall so being a perennial conference winner isn’t easy. The conference has 3 of the 4 College Cup teams this year and probably should have had all 4.
By the way, WVU has an AA (I think she’s an AA) out of WPIAL. She was a national player of the week this spring. She ls at WVU, and Pitt gave her a $hit offer out of HS because it was the old staff that didn’t value local players. If Coach Waldrum were around then, Pitt would have been in play...and our women still might be playing in the College Cup today. Granted we haven’t had a player like her in Western PA in the last 4 years...but we do produce them once every 5 years or so. When I think of the 4 best local players who came out of WPIAL in the last 10 years, one went to PSU, one went to UVA, and 2 went to WVU. That’s gonna change.
I also remember talking to our old staff about another player who was a notch or two below the players i mentioned above. They didn’t recruit her and specifically told me they only saw her as maybe a player who would get minutes here and there for them. She ended up playing at a mid major and has been a Herman award finalist and has lead her team to the sweet 16 and has scored plenty of goals and helped her team beat ACC teams in season and in the NCAA tourney. Those guys simply couldn’t identify talent. Among other things.