I have a similar concern (and I'm one of the _least_ "warm and fuzzy" people you'll ever meet...seriously). While given this sport's/league's/team's history, having a coach the players can completely _trust_ is critical, having one they _like_ isn't. Having one they think of as an actual friend is probably more of a negative than a posit…
I have a similar concern (and I'm one of the _least_ "warm and fuzzy" people you'll ever meet...seriously). While given this sport's/league's/team's history, having a coach the players can completely _trust_ is critical, having one they _like_ isn't. Having one they think of as an actual friend is probably more of a negative than a positive. It would unquestionably be a negative below the pro level, but even for pros, there's a very necessary hierarchy of authority at work on a sports team.
But here's the thing: there's a lot of talk about how we should be "looking for a world class coach." Okay, that sounds great...but how many legitimately WORLD CLASS coaches are there in the women's game? Of those, how many are even _thinking_ of being on the market? I might argue that while it would certainly be possible to find someone on the market who could reasonably be predicted to be better than Gale, would they be truly "world class" better? The list of people with that kind of resumé is short, the number of those actually considering a new position is a small fraction of that number...and a lot of them would be ruled out for a number of reasons: they focus on the wrong sort of play for our roster and/or fanbase, are a bad fit with team culture, language barriers, and so forth.
I very much suspect that the "global search" wasn't turning up any obvious candidates. I agree with the sentiment that that might not be a reason to confirm Gale _now_ instead of waiting until the end of the season, but I don't think I agree with the FO critics who seem to be implying no such search was made. They just didn't find the right Canadian... (jk on that last bit!)
I have a similar concern (and I'm one of the _least_ "warm and fuzzy" people you'll ever meet...seriously). While given this sport's/league's/team's history, having a coach the players can completely _trust_ is critical, having one they _like_ isn't. Having one they think of as an actual friend is probably more of a negative than a positive. It would unquestionably be a negative below the pro level, but even for pros, there's a very necessary hierarchy of authority at work on a sports team.
But here's the thing: there's a lot of talk about how we should be "looking for a world class coach." Okay, that sounds great...but how many legitimately WORLD CLASS coaches are there in the women's game? Of those, how many are even _thinking_ of being on the market? I might argue that while it would certainly be possible to find someone on the market who could reasonably be predicted to be better than Gale, would they be truly "world class" better? The list of people with that kind of resumé is short, the number of those actually considering a new position is a small fraction of that number...and a lot of them would be ruled out for a number of reasons: they focus on the wrong sort of play for our roster and/or fanbase, are a bad fit with team culture, language barriers, and so forth.
I very much suspect that the "global search" wasn't turning up any obvious candidates. I agree with the sentiment that that might not be a reason to confirm Gale _now_ instead of waiting until the end of the season, but I don't think I agree with the FO critics who seem to be implying no such search was made. They just didn't find the right Canadian... (jk on that last bit!)