UGA parts ways with soccer coach Billy Lesesne [uga]

Yea, heard the AD told him that he needed a coach that actually wants to get to NCAA tournament.

Its their best season in a while, but I guess not good enough

Odd timing. Their last 2 years were the best of his tenure.

Prior to that he was running it into the ground.

It’s all about winning. (Not that it needs stating here because everyone of course understands this but it keeps people grounded.)

The new coach, whoever it will be, will have freedom to bring in the people they want to build the type of program they think will be successful.

For example, I think Randy Waldrum, coach at Pittsburgh Women’s soccer, cut almost the entire team when he took over in 2017. Not saying that’s going to happen BUT it could…… because new college coaches like to come in and make changes. Could be an opportunity for some and others may be casualties of the transition.

However one thing you can count on is this, the people that tell you they know what’s going to happen actually have no idea. Only the new head coach knows that.

They signed 6 players:

georgiadogs.com/news/2021/11/10/soccer-georgia-announces-2022-signing-class.aspx

Is one of them the kid you know?

Yes the team had a pretty good year, still, it wasn't good enough to make the tourney. His contract was up, why renew when he does nothing dynamic to warrant him being kept on. Doesn't recruit well, doesn't capitalize on the Hope scholarship to fill the gaps left by scholarships alone, doesn't leverage the fact that UGA is in the SEC, great schools, strong financially, Football Saturdays. Rich breeding ground in Metro Atlanta for talented players wasted. I mean, you don't even have to travel far to scout players. I wish him well, but in college sports you know the drill. New AD wants his/her own people, so will only retain you, if you're early into a long contract, or you're producing on the field/court/pitch/etc.

Sent you a DM.

Florida has used too many in state players in the last several years IMO. Florida has some good teams and players but the school usually has at least 2-3 players from Tampa and Florida Elite each. Neither of those programs is great nationally. They have good teams but they are not as good as Concorde, Tophat or some other national powerhouses like So Cal Blues or Solar. Florida needs to recruit out of state more, not in state. As a Gator fan I have watched this for the last few years...they need more kids from stud programs. The new coach signed a few west coast kids. Hopefully this will help!

Now UGA should take more in state kids. More Tophat and CF and GSA kids. Now UFA too.

I looked at AR and MS rosters. Although these teams are pulling in a few girls nationally they are recruiting their general region. Arkansas relies heavily on recruiting sister states Texas (11 players) and Oklahoma while they only have a couple girls from their home state. Mississippi recruits the entire Southeast with only a couple girls from MS.

Georgia probably has similar recruiting tactics focused on GA and other nearby states and some players further away. They signed 4 or 5 players this year from Georgia, so recruiting Georgia probably wasn’t the problem. Maybe it was bringing in the right players to fit their style of play, having the team ready to play, and others have mentioned tactics & execution on game day.

I can't understand for the life of me why UGA doesn't heavily recruit top players from the Metro Atlanta area! There is far too much talent in the area to not land any of these girls. I know two girls on the current team and one that's will be a freshman next year. For the girls currently on the team it was more of them reaching out to UGA than it was UGA going after them. Almost every year we have MULTIPLE girls that are ranked nationally by soccer websites but UGA never even made attempts to go after any of them. UGA could pretty much field a team with top-level talent, without any athlete having to pay a thing with the use of HOPE plus athletic money. Between TH, GSA & Concorde alone UGA could put out a pretty formidable squad every year if they went after the top players. It's crazy to look at the rosters of schools out of state, Pac 12, ACC, SEC, Big 10, Big East and see a lot of our local girls making major contributions to those programs and knowing that a major school in their back yard never even gave them a call. A lot of these girls are even UGA fans but still heard nothing from the school. My daughter was on a call with an SEC coach, who could not believe that UGA had not even been in touch with my daughter even though she lives an hour away from the campus, and she was a nationally ranked player. I really don't believe that UGA takes it's women's soccer program seriously because there is no way that can be this bad at recruiting in their own back yard. Hopefully the next coach will fix this and then there won't be a need to rotate the coaches every four to five years.

OK I agree with some of this, BUT there are a number of girls from the area that go to other SEC schools that don't have better academic reputations, like Auburn and South Carolina and Ole Miss and MSU. I could go on. A lot of Tophat top players who have stayed in the SEC went to Vandy and I agree that academic wise that proves some of your point. But the other SEC schools except for Florida are ranked lower academically.

UGA SHOULD at least reach out to these girls. You never know what will sway a player. No doubt PAC 12 and ACC have historically been stronger than SEC but you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Same goes here. Even if you get 1 or 2 of those you were not getting before it will help get you into the NCAA tourney.

I really think you missed my point. I understand about the Cali weather and liking other schools, my point was and is that UGA doesn't even try to communicate with these girls to see if there is even a chance they would want to UGA. Second I only used TH, GSA & Concorde as references as there are plenty of girls in those clubs that are quite frankly not very good but there are some that are, and let's be honest most of the top girl players from Atlanta come out of those three clubs, specifically TH & Concorde......And just because UGA is not good now doesn't mean that they can never be good. I'm old enough to remember when The New England Patriots were GARBAGE, the Saints were GARBAGE, the Golden State Warriors were GARBAGE etc., etc but kids today think that those teams have always been great. Lastly all it takes is for one class to make something special happen and people will follow and want to do the same. I'm not even a UGA fan but I still believe they miss out on an incredible opportunity by not even trying. "She will never say yes if you don't ask her!"

Thanks for the clarification. We dont know each other so we dont know the other's perspective.  My daughter is a 2022 and I know Georgia did reach out and recruit several players who are signing elsewhere in the ACC or SEC.  They decided on other schools for many of the reasons I mentioned above. Either way I think we both want to the same thing.  Georgia being really good at Womens soccer would be great.  We will see who they hire to replace the old coaches. My main point is winning at UGA is harder than we think.  Most of their competitors are just as well funded as they are with some having better academics.  The style of play will be a HUGE factor as well for some potential recruits.