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Women's coach Linder to Baylor?

Nope - Baylor's naming a new coach today, but it won't be George Van Linder.

Care to retract that statement PonyPride?

I sure would -- how embarrassing!
I'd heard another name attached to BU's search, which is why I spoke up. Pardon me while I eat a little crow on this one.
Congratulations to Baylor - Van Linder is a good coach. Good hire for BU.

Yeah Van Linder is a great coach. Hello?? Why the hell is he leaving a great program behind for *re-checks the name* Baylor?! My god...anyone else a little surprised by this?

I can only guess that Baylor offered more cash, but I don't know this to be true. Just an opinion.

coaches these days just don't have any loyalty. schellas hyndman will retire at smu. there's a great coach

That's true - Coach Hyndman has been offered more money to go elsewhere, including to Notre Dame and to the Dallas Burn of MLS. He is a class act through and through, and his loyalty to SMU is hard to match in the coaching ranks - of any sport. SMU is extremely fortunate to have the best coach in the country.

Baylor's soccer program is only 7 years old. Their 3rd year, they won the Big XII Championship and lost their coach to Notre Dame.

The current coach did OK for a year or two on the last coach's talent but then ran things into the ground.

I suspect SMU was a big step up from Butler for Van Linder, both in terms of prestige and cash...so much for loyalty, right?

In his press conference, he mentioned that he looked forward to the challenge of competing in the Big XII on a regular basis instead of an occasional out-of-conference game like he did at SMU.

I'm sure Baylor offered a lot of money, and from BU's standpoint, he'd beaten BU consistently over the last few years and had also beaten UT and A&M a time or two. Baylor rolled the dice and lost on their last coach who was a Division 3 HC at Trinity. This time they needed proven D-1 HC experience.

BTW, PonyPride, who was the other candidate BU was looking at?

[This message has been edited by Sic_em (edited 01-01-2003).]

Sorry, Sic_em, I don't remember who the other candidate was. I'm a bit of a soccer junkie, and I didn't recognize the name at all - which surprised me, since I figured Baylor's program was reputable enough to attract intrest from some "name" candidates. I can't remember where I read it (or I'd post it), but the report I read sounded like it was a done deal that Baylor was going with the other candidate.

Good luck with Coach Van Linder. He's a terrific guy, and a very good coach. You'll do well with him.







[This message has been edited by PonyPride (edited 01-02-2003).]

SMU wasnt that big a step up from Butler in terms of salary, and Baylor wasnt that big a step from us. Soccer coaches dont make as much as some people apparently think.
I talked to some of the players this past weekend, and they told me that the biggest issue was support staff. Baylor was willing to give him the budget to hire a 2nd assistant coach, and SMU wasnt. George got a small raise for himself, but the biggest difference was in the budget and level of support for the program. Thats where Baylor crushed us.
For the people sneering at Baylor, you're a bit off base. They dont have the history that our team does, but they have been in the top-20 and in the NCAA tournament a couple of times in the last 5 years. The whole Big 12 seems to be upgrading their level of competition in this sport. UT made a huge financial commitment to soccer by hiring away Chris Petrucelli, building their soccer facility, and hosting the womens College Cup. Now Baylor wants to keep up.

Texas shells out big cash for Petrocelli, builds a great facility and sinks crasy money into the program - and gets beaten by SMU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament two years in a row. Love it. Money doesn't buy success.

Van Linder was an invaluable asset to Mustang Athletics...we did not make the "comittment" to women's soccer, apparently because some of the more pigheaded alumni believe that football is the only real sport at smu. Stop the obsession with football and come to the realization that programs like women's soccer and cross country have put us where we are in the cup standings.