BREAKING NEWS: Mike Varga Out As Jaguar Soccer Coach
South Alabama Athletic Director Joel Erdmann announced that the University will not renew the contract for head soccer coach Mike Varga and that a national search for his replacement will begin immediately.
Varga has been the head coach at South Alabama for the last 14 seasons and compiled a 121-131-26 record over that time period. He also led them to a share of the 2000 Sun Belt Conference regular-season title. He also led them to the championship match in the 2005 conference tournament.
Coach Varga has a record of 186-155-32 in his 18 seasons as a head coach. He was previously the head coach at Lincoln Memorial in Tennessee.
The Jags were 8-10-3 this season and hosted the Sun Belt Conference soccer championship tournament at The Cage on campus. The Jags, a #7 seed in the eight team tournament, were eliminated in the first round by Middle Tennessee State.
“Mike has been a loyal and trustworthy member of the University and Jaguar Athletics,” Erdmann said. “We deeply appreciate his service and wish him the best in all future endeavors.”
“We will conduct a national search beginning immediately,” he continued. “The search is wide open and and we will pursue the best-qualified candidate for our program.”
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3 Responses to “BREAKING NEWS: Mike Varga Out As Jaguar Soccer Coach”
Mike Varga was the greatest coach this program has ever seen. Next year the team will probably dominate within conference with the 11 returning starters and the senior class being 14 kids that he hand picked. It’s disgusting that DJE decided that now would be the time to release Varga knowing that the success would make it seem like the right decision had been made.
Well, it all comes down to wins and losses. Unfortunately Coach Varga’s record this past season was 8-10-3 and he had a losing record over his 14 seasons at South Alabama. Dr. Erdmann and Dr. Moulton decided that they wanted to make a change.
Coach Winkworth has built a stable program at UNA where, presumably, he had even less resources than he will have at South Alabama. It’s always difficult when a coach is let go, but I believe that Erdmann is doing what he thinks is the best for the school and the soccer program.
Winkworth has built a world of success at UNA by bringing in kids from overseas. That works at Div. II and Div. I men’s programs, but not at Div. I women’s soccer where the best and most talented players are already stateside.
The budget given to Varga was piss poor over the last 14 seasons. Did you know that he actually went an entire season without bleachers or stadium seating at the field? Dr. Moulton didn’t think it was necessary to spend the money to improve the facility and recruiting for about 3 seasons was tanked. It’s all about what you can do to sell the program. If you look at the schools across the state that have women’s soccer, I wouldn’t consider USA to even be in the top 5. Auburn, Alabama, Samford, UAB, Troy, Birmingham Southern, and then I would go so far as to even put Montevallo ahead of the current facility.