The worst in Candrea's career
- Thread starter Amy in AZ.
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
I think two things caused the downward slide at Arizona: 1) Removing softball from the Olympics. Coach Candrea got a lot of recruits simply because he was the coach of the US Olympic team. 2) The emergence of the SEC as a power in softball has spread out the talent, and a handful of West Coast teams no longer get every 5* recruit.
I wonder how SEC facilities compare. I assume that the athletic budgets of Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Florida, Tennessee, etc., are higher than most because of the cash cow of football and their 90,000-seat stadiums. But not sure. Beyond facilities, fan support is a big attraction, and softball is a popular sport in the South.
As for Candrea, I think kids and parents today realize that there are a lot of outstanding coaches out there. I don't think he's viewed as a Pat Summitt or a Geno Auriemma. When I first heard of Candrea, I didn't realize he coached at Arizona. I just thought he was the Olympic coach.
02Crush
Way past gone
In certain circles he is considered a icon coach in the game in others not known at all. However times change and things adapt over time. This sports has done both in the past 10 years and now there are more competitive programs. I feel this is due to the growth in popularity in key regions as well as the TV recognition in recent years. It is another sport young ladies are realizing they can continue to play above the HS age if they work hard at it. I am not sure there will be anymore Stacked teams in Division I due to recruitment opening up to more programs with opportunities for playing time and possible national exposure. I think this alone will continue to balance competition and create unique opportunities for college programs across the nation. I like Coach C. and have learned some things from then man over time. But what came easier in the past will not be as easy now based on the above stated factors.
Very simple its called pitching. Look at his tranfers coming in and this was just a down year, because of bad luck.
M
mahi
Guest
I have to show those pictures to my DD. Particularly the throwing ones as to why she's not supposed to drop her elbow.
The ability to recruit the right players make the team. AZ is no longer THE PROGRAM everyone aspires to be in. It's pretty easy to rise to the top, when you're at the top pretty much alone.
I know there were weekends that if I could get my hands on the right players, I had to do very little coaching. Making the lineup and calling heads or tails for the coin toss was the most effort I extended.
I agree fully with the SEC statement.
- May 9, 2013
- 65
- 0
The SEC has some money to spend. UK's facility is incredible and I think Mizzou has a big upgrade planned in the next couple years.
Facilities: John Cropp Stadium
Facilities: John Cropp Stadium
- Oct 19, 2009
- 1,822
- 0
I think one of the things that made Candrea successful is he taught a rotation swing when no other was teaching it which gave him an edge, he was quick to embrace new ideals while other were reluctant to change. Now others have adjusted their strategy and caught up to what he teaches JMO.
- Mar 11, 2009
- 431
- 0
I heard from some UofA ex players that when he got real popular and went to coach the olympic teams that he softened up with his disipline and acceptable UofA standards for players and it has hurt the program ever since because he was in such demand for video's camps yada yada yada.... I also heard he was the first coach to start getting verbal's from freshman and sophmores in high school because he had to recruit a couple years in advance due to Olympic commitments and then other schools started to do the same to keep up and the rest is history...
