In case you haven't noticed, and I bet you haven't, Georgia's soccer team is having its best season ever. The team plays Ole Miss today in the opening round of the SEC tournament as the two seed. Head coach Patrick Baker was named SEC Coach of the Year for leading the Bulldogs to a narrow second place finish in the SEC East, behind a Gator team that we beat. If not for a bad loss at home to Mississippi State, the team could have gone undefeated in the conference. In the latest polls, we are the highest rated SEC team in the country.Coach Baker has recruited hard the past three years and the results are beginning to show up. The Dawgs had three All-SEC selections and three All-SEC Freshman team picks, including SEC Freshman of the Year, Kelli Corless. Congrats on the accomplishments and Go Dawgs!
Quinton
5 comments:
If I recall correctly, he was an assistant coach at UF where they have had a lot of success. In fact, Foley's M.O. seems to be to hire/fire until he finds a winner. UGA should just make a habit of hiring their assistants from the successful programs they have, especially in the women's programs.
Baker was the head coach at Florida State before coming over here. They were an up and coming ACC squad, and getting him over here was a bit unexpected.
This team underachieved last year, losing a lot of close games. This year the close games have gone our way...like they say, winning breeds winning. You get that winning attitude and it changes everything.
This is still a very young team, with only 2 seniors and another great recruiting class coming in so the future looks very bright.
And lastly, kudos to Baker for changing the recruiting philosophy and trying to keep Georgia's top players from going out of state. Sounds like common sense, but apparently not to Patberg (his predecessor).
Thanks to Coach Baker for keeping Georgia's brightest at home. It's a shame he wasn't here for the Class of 2003 and 2004.
Lots of great athletes got away.
If the Collegiate UGA Ultimate Frisbee Women's team (college series played in the spring) ever picks up any of these women athletes lookout. The UGA Women's Collegiate Ultimate Frisbee Team has won the Collegiate National Championship before and there is no better way to crosstrain for soccer than Ultimate. Heck, even Manny Diaz used to get Al Parker, Mike Sell and former UGA tennis teams playing ultimate in the spring. Lookout!
UGA 2 - Ole Miss 0
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