Quote from: SierraFD3soccer on November 20, 2023, 05:32:39 PMQuote from: Kuiper on November 20, 2023, 04:34:11 PM
I'll offer a few of my "probably only of interest to me" observations about Washington College, which seems to be the biggest underdog of the Final Four and therefore the most suitable for my kind of Region X-style posts. Plus, there's an admirable Southern California angle to Washington College's coaching staff that is worth spotlighting given the, ahem, somewhat negative view on the Boards of the coaching staff of at least one of the other participants in this year's Final Four.
Washington College assistant coach Ryan Shera lived in the Southern California area prior to the pandemic, coaching youth soccer. For awhile, he was the soccer director for Yalla Academy, which was a soccer, tutoring, and college program for refugee children that existed at the time in El Cajon, CA. It was started by someone from Lebanon, but it served refugee kids from all over, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Mexico, Guatemala, Sudan, Ethiopia, Liberia, and the Philippines. He got some national attention for his work there:
https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/20162547/yalla-non-profit-academy-el-cajon-supports-refugee-families-soccer
Incidentally, the last photo and description in the ESPN story is of a Sudanese refugee named Akuar Yamun, who Yalla's founder saw playing soccer in the park and encouraged his father to bring him to Yalla for soccer and tutoring to help him get a chance to go to college (his father was one of the "Lost Boys" from South Sudan who Akuar said walked 1,000 miles to Ethiopa to escape the Civil War). In a feel good update on Akuar, he went on to play club at Nomads and just finished his freshman year as a 6'5" defender at San Diego City College in case anyone is looking for a community college transfer in a year or so - https://www.sdcityknights.com/sports/msoc/2023-24/roster; https://x.com/sdcityknights/status/1705455515722260529?s=20)
Here's an interview Shera did with a local station about the program (rocking a hairstyle that I'm sure his current players would love to see!).
https://www.kpbs.org/news/midday-edition/2015/08/26/one-youth-soccer-league-san-diego-college-goal
Here's an interview that Shera did with Simple Coach (with a much more conservative hair style)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KymkA31Mzuk
It's also interesting to note that Head Coach Roy Dunshee and Asst Coach Shera both have law degrees. Shera still practices law as well, serving as general counsel for his family's business. I don't know if there are any other soccer programs in the country with two lawyers on the coaching staff. It would be interesting to see what the player contracts in the Washington College program look like!
And, if you want to extend the Law connection further with Washington College, the team's leading scorer this year was Ben Strine. Ben's brother James, a volunteer assistant coach on this year's team, was the co-leading scorer on the 2021 team that made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament.
https://www.washcoll.edu/live/news/strine-brothers.php
How does that relate to law? Their father, Leo Strine, is the former Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery (the most important business law court in the country because most public corporations are incorporated in Delaware) and the former Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court.
Adding something as well, Roy Dunshee got his start head coaching in high school soccer and made the jump to college. He coached at my son's HS, Severna Park (a public HS), for several years before my son's time, but his asst coach took over and has had equal success at the HS. Further, Roy ran Coerver for Maryland (https://www.coerverunited.com/) which he gave up to Sev. Park's now head coach. Don't know why they left that out of bio. So he has a unusual story, but not as much as his asst. coach. You might say that he is not the usual head college coach. Also a really, really stand up guy. Simple Coach's interview is exactly the way he is.
Roy's son goes to St. Mary's College of Maryland (actually a small honors state college in St. Mary's County, southern Maryland) and they went to the NCAAs this year. Lost in the first round to John Carroll.
Another Mom, you may have not made the connection, but W&L has a freshman from Severna Park, Brad Dulin, who left a MLS Next program to play his senior year for HS soccer. He played for a program that started its upswing because of Dunshee. Last year, his team lost in the state finals after a great run to the finals. Also, the SP girls just finished winning the state title and were undefeated while being coached by another Coerver coach when Dunshee ran the program.
You could say that Roy Dunshee has a coaching tree. Maybe not in college, but in other ways. FYI, Coerver is profitable and don't think any of these coaches will make the jump like Roy did.
As for the Dunshee coaching tree, it does extend to college. His 2015 captain at WC, Chris Koch, is the son of legendary UMass coach Sam Koch, a teammate of mine at Colby in the 1970s. Chris went on to assist at WC and is now the assistant at Stevens, which went to the Final Four last year.