| Original Message |
Anonymous
Posted Jun 12, 2009 10:06 PM
One week after the resignation of Oliver Weiss, Virginia Tech promoted Mike Brizendine to replace him as men's soccer coach.
Brizendine, a former James Madison University standout, has been an assistant under Weiss for the past five seasons.
The coaching change will also bring a change in recruiting philosophy.
"We would like to have more American kids in our program," athletic director Jim Weaver said Thursday.
Weiss, a native of Germany who led Tech to four NCAA tournament appearances in his seven seasons, used foreign players to improve the program. The 2007 team that reached the NCAA semifinals featured six foreign standouts -- 2008 Major League Soccer draft pick Patrick Nyarko of Ghana, Robert Edmans of England and Germans Alexander Baden, Georg Zehender, Stefan Hock and Markus Aigner.
Last fall's team, which went winless in the ACC, included Baden, two newcomers from Germany and three newcomers from Ghana.
Why will Tech be trying to recruit more Americans under Brizendine?
"If I answer that, I'm getting into the personnel issue of the previous coach," Weaver said.
Last week, Weaver said he could not comment on Weiss' exit because it was a "personnel issue." He had said the personnel issue was also why he could not say if Tech had discovered any NCAA recruiting violations in Weiss' tenure.
Weiss turned to foreign players because he was unable to attract elite American recruits.
Brizendine, 32, hopes to have better luck.
"We haven't been able to get those top-tier U.S. players, so we're going to try some different tactics to see if we can recruit those kids," Brizendine said. "That's the goal.
"We have to recruit them earlier. The recruiting cycle has moved up tremendously. ... It used to be you made your decision [in] January of your senior year. Now you make it in your junior year, and it's starting to move even further.
"So I think we'll get more aggressive earlier and see if we can attract some of those kids. It's a risky game, ... but I think that's the way to get ahead with American kids."
The Hokies open the 2009 season in late August, so Weaver wanted to act quickly in naming Weiss' replacement.
"We have new freshmen coming in in less than four weeks," Weaver said Thursday. "You can't do a national search in that short a period of time."
Brizendine spent three seasons as the head coach at Bridgewater College
before joining Tech, and was named the 2003 ODAC coach of the year.
He also has been an assistant at Ferrum, and once played for the now-defunct Roanoke Wrath minor league team.
He was named the Atlantic Region assistant coach of the year in 2007.
"He's been instrumental in the successes of our program," Weaver said. |
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