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Post by FIUBlue82 on Jun 8, 2007 17:58:22 GMT -5
Former University of Tennessee coach Rod Delmonico was interviewed this afternoon by Jerry Del Castillo on his daily sports show La Descarga Deportiva on 1550 AM Cadena Azul. The interview was in English and translated for the primarily Spanish-speaking audience.
Lets just say that Coach Delmonico made it crystal clear that he wants to be the next FIU baseball coach. He had about 8 players on last year's UT squad from Miami and said he spent so much time recruiting in South Florida he bought a condo down here. All this info was originally reported by Pete Pelegrin at the Herald and confirmed by Delmonico this afternoon. I know Delmonico recruits the area well because some of his players were underclassmen when I was in high school.
And, FIUFanatic will appreciate this, Delmonico referred to FIU as "a sleeping giant."
Whether he is the next coach or not, it's clear - FIU baseball was underachieving and a coach that has taken his SEC teams to the College World Series three times (including as recently as 2005) went public with his desire for the job.
GO FIU!
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Post by FIUFanatic on Jun 8, 2007 19:42:32 GMT -5
I just loved what you posted!!! ;D It seems national caliber coaches and administrators are reading this board......
Now, a bit more seriously...it is a great chance for PG to make national splash with his coaching selection, and the fact there are so many coaches from so many different places with a genuine desire to come to FIU is definitely pretty humbling and a nice feeling where our program(s) could go.......
Go FIU!!
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Post by tennesseeterry on Jun 8, 2007 22:08:40 GMT -5
I wanted to take an opportunity to add to the conversation about Coach Delmonico. I am in Knoxville, TN and I am very close to the situation. Let me give you some history. Coach Delmonico came to UT as an assistant with Florida State. When he was hired by UT's former AD Doug thingyey in 1989. At that time the SEC Western Division was absolutely dominating SEC baseball and UT was not competitive at all. The last time UT got to the CWS was 1951. thingyey told Rod that he wanted UT to be competitive. Rod told thingyey that he would take this program to Omaha. thingyey patted Rod on the cheek and sent him to work. UT built a new ballpark - Lindsey Nelson Stadium and Rod tirelessly recruited. He immediately secured local baseball talent in the East Tennessee area as well as the state of Tennessee and across the nation - specifically, he established a pipeline to So. California and went head to head with Long Beach State and Cal. St. Suddenly UT burst on the scene in the SEC. We won the Eastern Division and then the Conference and hosted Regionals. In '94 we lost to Arizona St. in the Regional final. In '95 Coach D. got to host another Regional and defeated Oklahoma St. to take UT to Omaha for the first time 44 years. Now, keep in mind that UT plays the first 1/2 of its season in winter weather - I'm talking consistent temps below 45 for day games, cold, damp conditions and the occasional snow. In the late '90s he began to recruit So. Florida. Keep in mind. Coach D. doesnt send assistant to do all the leg work in recruiting. Coach D. is a tireless recruiter. He built up relationships with many of the So. Fla. high school baseball coaches and J.C. coaches. It is true that he spent so much time in So. Fla. that he bought a condo in Miami. He made a conscious decision to go head to head agaisnt Miami, other Florida schools and LSU for some of the So. Fla. players and he was incredibly successful. Keep in mind again that he signed So. Fla. players to come play ball for 1/2 of the season in winter weather. Those players came to UT not because of UT but because of Rod. He continued to reload and took UT to Omaha in 2001 and again in 2005 defeating Georgia Tech 2-0 in Atlanta in the Super Regional. Some food for thought: While at UT Coach D has had 11 40-50 win seasons and averaging 40.0 wins over the past 14 years, eight Regional appearances, 3 College World Series appearances, 4 SEC Eastern Division titles and 2 Conference crowns, UT was in the top 25 during 14 seasons. Coach D has had 102 All Americans, 66 Academic All SEC players and 97 players that were drafted by major league teams including 11 first round picks and he has coached olympians and Team USA members. Lastly, UT stole at least 100 bases in 12 seasons under Coach D and every recuiting class under Coach D has been ranked. I firmly believe that if FIU hired Coach Delmonico he will do like he did at UT - secure the local players, add some the nation's best, endear the local fans and WIN! You give him the weather, the facility and let him get the players and not only will FIU win it's conference but I envision FIU hosting regionals and I'll bet you'll see FIU in Omaha. It's real hard to put into words what I have seen as a season ticket holder here in Knoxville. I was there. I think UT made a huge mistake to let him go. Now, with his departure - if he goes to Florida, I'm genuinely concerned that some of UT's players will leave. Some of our So. Fla. players include pitchers - Brian Morgado, Ryan Butner and Nick Hernandez, catcher - Yan Gomes (just named Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American) and SS - Danny Lima and then there is Coach D's. son Tony Delmonico - a switch hitting 2B/SS that bats in the 2 hole. Coach Delmonico is very serious about his interest in the FIU job. He is not kidding when he recognizes the program as "a sleeping giant". I hope more fans like y'all (a little East TN lingo) will voice support for Rod.
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Post by Steve on Jun 8, 2007 22:24:15 GMT -5
In addition to his credentials, his hire would lesses then "PG IS ONLY HIRING UM PEOPLE!" argument....
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Post by FIUPantherFan on Jun 9, 2007 9:20:48 GMT -5
I'm a little upset that this move wasn't made before, especially considering the quality of the coaches we could have had. Price should have been gone after last year.
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Post by FIUFootballer on Jun 9, 2007 9:30:18 GMT -5
PG - sounds like Delmonico is our guy. No other scUM candidate's resume even comes close to this guy. If you go with a scUMhead then we can safely say you have some kind of agenda. First it was choosing an inexperience OL coach from scUM over Chuck Amato, an experienced ACC head coach, now will you choose another unproven assistance coach over an SEC head coach with Omaha experience? Enough bluffing, it's time to show your hand.
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fiu12
Juvenile Panther
Posts: 56
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Post by fiu12 on Jun 9, 2007 13:37:05 GMT -5
i find it funny that pete supposedly called all these people to ask what to do when he already had jd arteaga over there DURING the baseball season when fiu was on a roadtrip.
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Post by FIUFan on Jun 9, 2007 13:54:26 GMT -5
Footballer, I think you're over reaching a bit on the agenda comment. Sure Delmonico would be a great fit for us but you have to remember the money issue. If you hire an established coach to build the program to prominence quickly your going to pay large dollars, if you hire an asst. from somewhere (say UCG) your going to pay him unproven first year coaching dollars and if you hire a long time pitching coach like Calvi, you might expect to pay something in between.
The question here that I don't know and I doubt any one on this board knows is; what is PG and the universities strategic vision for the non-football sports? I, as a fan, want to be top-25 in baseball, basketball, football, women's s&d, intramural tidily winks and everything else. But what are the priorities? Baseball should certainly be one; but at what cost? and if cost is a factor to consider then all prospects should be heard and a best fit hired. Hopefully, in the end, Delmonico or someone of his ilk will be the one who takes us to Omaha.
p.s. thanks to tnterry for the history lesson on coach Delmonico.
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Post by FIUFootballer on Jun 9, 2007 15:07:19 GMT -5
Maybe the agenda comment is over reaching but, come on, how many more inexperienced scUM people is PG going to have leading or staffed on our teams? I thought we were running D1 athletic programs which should be on the same level as any other university, do other D1 programs hire as many inexperienced people as we do? Amato is getting paid at FSU more or less what MC is getting paid here, so money was not the main determinant there. And if Delmonico was hung up on money you think he would have gone on radio pushing for the job?
My point is if we want to build quality programs and attract fan support, we need to win, and hiring a bunch of inexperienced kids to coach our programs is a major gamble. We need to bring in some tried and true coaches that can build a program, not some kid that may stink up the place and then fire him in 5 years.
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Post by FIUFanatic on Jun 9, 2007 16:19:31 GMT -5
I think we are a little bit ahead of ourselves...aren't we? Let's see what happens, give time and then make comments. Is the women's soccer coach (Thomas Chestnut) from UCG? No, he comes as an assistant coach from Fresno State, previously from Florida. What about Munga Eketebi?...a long time asssistant at FIU, and great former All American at FIU as well. MC comes from UCG and, like the other two new coaches PG has hired, don't have much of a Head Coaching experience at the collegiate level (Eketebi did one year at Nova Southeastern). He hasn't hired the new women's softball coach either, so we shall see...I don't think UCG has a softball team, by the way.
So, the common denominator...at least so far... in PG hiring a new coach in competitive sports has been more towards assistant coaches from other programs, as well as from FIU. Among the assistant coaches being talked about, you have Turtle Thomas, Lazer Collazo, and the Rice guy, in my opinion, ahead of JD Arteaga and Gino DeMare.....Head coaches, or former head coaches we have heard about the LeMoyne College head coach, and of course, Delmonico.
Of those two, Delmonico should get a really long look by PG as he has been there at a pretty high level of success, he also apparently is a tireless recruiter, and is not that old yet and energetic. Yet, he has a very vocal group of detractors from the Volunteers fans I have read in different boards....criticizing him for being kind of "snubbish", underperforming teams "lately" and things like that......I like him as my #1 choice right now.....with Thomas as my #1A choice, with the Rice guy and Collazo as #2....
We shall see (hopefully) soon enough....
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Post by FIUFan on Jun 9, 2007 19:22:38 GMT -5
I'm with you Footballer; I hope money is not an issue and we get Delmonico (or whom ever) in a slam dunk. I'm dying to see some great baseball at the UP real soon. I'm seeing a lot of teams we used to beat up in the regionals this year (e.g. UNC, Michigan, Manhattan, Rutgers, OH St., etc.) we need to get this program back to were it used to be.
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Post by tennesseeterry on Jun 9, 2007 19:38:54 GMT -5
Guys, in reading the last few posts I wanted to respond. The "money issue" is not a big issue. Coach D knows going from the SEC (as the lowest paid coach I might add) to FIU will be different monitarily speaking. There are some creative things that can be done with a contract such as incentives. Coach D had a contract with UT that gave an automatic bump in salary if he made it to a regional, an automatic 1 yr. extension with a regional, another year with an appearance at the Super Regional and back to a 5 yr contract with a CWS appearance. Incentives could be linked to increased ticket sales. These are things that have been done in other SEC coaches contracts as well as other things. So the "money issue" really is not that big of an issue. As for the "snubbish" reference let me tell something Rod did at UT - which was his idea. "Fan Day" was every Sunday where, win or lose, the coaching staff and team met out in right field and the gates were open to all fans to come out and talk, photograph and sign autographs for anyone and everyone. Coach D was always accesible for speaking engagements in and around East Tennessee. He was always available for recorded and live radio, especially during baseball season. We have a "Lead Off Banquet" each year to kick off the season hosted by Coach Delmonico. We usually have 1000+ fans attend each year ($350 corporate tables and $25 a head) - a great fundraiser (which he would do at FIU as well.) Coach D has attracted keynote speakers including Chipper Jones, Tommy LaSorda (HOF), Brett Butler, Tommy John, Tony Perez (HOF), George Steinbrenner - no kidding, and others. As far as underperfoming teams lately - following the the 2005 CWS appearance he definitely had a rebuilding year because is lost a bunch in the draft. His signing class for 06 was ranked in the top 5 in the nation. This year was a little unusual. Coach D lost a pre-season All American - CF Julio Borbon (1st Round Pick) with a broken ankle just before the season was to begin - so there went the lead off batter. He lost pre-season All American - C J.P. Arencibia (1st Round Pick) the first weekend of the season at Florida State with a back injury - so there went the no. 3 batter. Those players were out 6 and 4 weeks respectively. 3B Cody Brown suffered a torn rotator cuff, SS - Danny Lima broke a finger on his throwing hand. Guys, in the SEC you're doomed with those circumstances. However, Coach D kept this team fighting. When everyone got back to good health he took the series agaisnt Ole Miss, LSU, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and got eligible for the SEC tournament where he beat the No. 1 team in the nation - Vanderbilt in the first game. I could go on and on. Any questions - let me know. By the way, Coach D's number is "8".
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Post by tennesseeterry on Jun 9, 2007 21:30:12 GMT -5
Oh, guys I forgot to mention that not only does Coach Delmonico's oldest son, Tony (an all american) have another year of eligibility left, he has a second son, Joey that is a middle infielder with D-1 talent that will be a senior in high school this fall and his 3rd son, Nikki is probably the best talent of all three - honest - and he will be a high school freshman this fall and he looks like Derek Jeter's twin. These boys literally grew up on an SEC baseball field and it shows. I looked at FIU's 07 schedule. I bet that if Rod were hired you would see mid week series in the future with the likes of - or should I say the ilks of (Miami, Florida St. and Florida) - I had to say that being here Knoxville, which is Gator Hater Land. And I bet FIU would win those series!
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Post by FIUBlue82 on Jun 9, 2007 22:31:08 GMT -5
Welcome to the board tennesseeterry. Thanks for the detailed history on Coach Delmonico. He does seem to be the leading candidate at this time (at least in my mind).
Thanks again.
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Post by baseballgirl1 on Jun 10, 2007 22:17:09 GMT -5
I THINK THAT THE REAL QUESTION IS WHY DID HE GET FIRED. I THINK THERE IS A LOT THAT PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT. IF HE IS SOOO GREAT THEN WHY WAS HE FIRED..
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