Coug of the Year First Round: #8 Jane LaRiviere vs. #9 Matt Potter
by Grady Clapp on Jan 5, 2009 7:00 AM PST
in Coug of the Year
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PrintThe semi-madness continues, with our 8/9 matchup between two people you may not have even heard of.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't know who they are (Yes, that's a double negative - deal with it). I also lined up this matchup somewhat on purpose, because I really feel one of these two Cougar coaches deserve to make it to the second round.
#8 Jane LaRiviere
Led the Cougar varsity rowing team to eighth in the nation this year. This coming two years after leading WSU to a fourth place finish at nationals, the highest final national standing for any women's team in Cougar history.
Also led the Cougars to a victory over Washington in Seattle this year, which is hilarious for the following reason:
Distance from row-able water:
Washington State University - 30 miles
University of Washington - 0 miles
#9 Matt Potter
Led the WSU women's soccer team to the NCAA tournament for the first time in six seasons. The team finished 10-6-5, drew with #21 Washington, beat #13 California and drew with #5 USC. The Cougs lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Texas.
EDIT (4:45 p.m.): Added qualification: has British accent.
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This shouldn't even be close
As someone who worked in the department and has a very insiteful view of how these two programs work, this should fall to Coach Potter hands down. I wont go into details publicaly on this comment, but in a battle of Title IX programs, for Matt to accomplish what he has is a much greater accomplishment than what the rowing team has done. It might not look it to the serface, but underneath, this really shouldn’t even be close.
I'm sure that people already dislike me enough around here,
but in short; the competitive level of rowing and women’s soccer are not really compairable. Would you vote for the men’s club soccer coach if they made it deep into the playoffs over Coach Marbet if he coached the baseball team into the super regional? I doubt it. Honestly, without sounding too much like an a$$ 0, that is what we are compairing here. The only difference is scholarships mandated to balance the weight of the football program for Title IX compliance.
Those might not be juicy details you were looking for, Grady, but I’m trying to be cool about it.
If you've ever heard Matt Potter say
women’s “soak-er” in his english accent, you would no question be voting for him. Personally, that’s why I voted for him.
I'm not going to push for him to win the whole thing
but to compair his job, success, and his results to Jane’s is ludicrous.
One juicy detail I didn't have to disclose
Potter is one of the greatest guys I’ve ever worked with. He had no reason to show me any respect, but in just six months that guy showed more appreciation and respect then Dan Tobias did in four years.
I know that I’m a bit biased on this one, but I love that guy. And I have regrets on a daily basis for not sicking with him when I had the opportunity too.
As an undergrad I spent 5 years working with the women's soccer team
I started out as a manager and Matt offered me an assistant position when I graduated. I turned it down. So yes, maybe I’m more than a bit Bias. But bias doesn’t override truth.
The truth is that Matt’s accompishments with this team are far more impressive than Jane’s with the rowing program. I could write a 50 page disertation explaining why, but I just don’t feel like brow beating everyone. People don’t always want to hear the truth because it cen get a bit ugly. In the end all that most would hear is that I’m bashing the rowing team, and they want to look at the national placement of the rowing team and put all their weight on that. Those are the same people that felt that Boise State won the National Championship two years ago.
In general, rowers aren’t people who have spent 10-12 years of their life prior to college training and spending thousands of dollars to be on club teams and traveling teams, playing in tournaments infront of college recruiters from age 11 and dealing with club politics for playing time like soccer players do. The Pac-10 is the strongest conference in the country every year for women’s soccer and washington isn’t a hotbed location for recruiting either. Not to mention that once you get a player to come to Pullman, you have to spend about two years uncoaching them the system that has been banged into their head for the past decade by their club team, teach them your system and get them athletically ready to handle elite level college soccer.
Rowing doesn’t have those issues. Other than learning one or maybe two/three techniques, rowing is all strength and conditioning.
Haha. No need to preach to me...
I did vote for Potter by the way.
I know next to nothing about rowing, but I love soccer. I reffed NIAA soccer back when I was in high school. Soccer conflicted with baseball season, and I was better at baseball (mostly because it requires less running), so that is why I didn’t play soccer in high school, but I know a ton about the game.
The funniest part was when I would make an offsides call on a player who happened to be in one of my classes. I wouldn’t hear the end of that for a week.
Like I said, I'm not going to go into it to deep here
but you can trust me when I tell that rowing and soccer aren’t even in the same catagory.
But yes, soccer is amazing. I played Keeper so I didn’t have to worry about the running stuff. Plus the rules are totally in your favor and you can hurt people and not get in trouble.
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