Lady Vols Softball

#5,177
#5,177
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#5,178
#5,178
Rickster said:
Ralph, thanks for everything you've accomplished. I hope you retirement is long and enjoyable.

Ralph Weekly retires as Lady Vols co-head softball coach; Karen Weekly to take reins
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Rickster said:
Ralph, thanks for everything you've accomplished. I hope you retirement is long and enjoyable.

Ralph Weekly retires as Lady Vols co-head softball coach; Karen Weekly to take reins
Click to expand...
I hope Karen hires Madison Shipman as her assistant. Since Madison seems to work for ESPN only during softball season I think she could be persuaded to leave ESPN. Plus, she already lives in Knoxville and her parents do too, so they can watch the kids when she goes on road trips. She would be the perfect choice and great for recruiting too. Too bad Ally decided to leave, though.
 
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#5,180
#5,180
jeebie said:
I hope Karen hires Madison Shipman as her assistant. Since Madison seems to work for ESPN only during softball season I think she could be persuaded to leave ESPN. Plus, she already lives in Knoxville and her parents do too, so they can watch the kids when she goes on road trips. She would be the perfect choice and great for recruiting too. Too bad Ally decided to leave, though.
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I’m pretty sure softball staffs are limited to three paid coaches.
 
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#5,181
#5,181
volman128 said:
I’m pretty sure softball staffs are limited to three paid coaches.
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The story about Ralph leaving on the UT site at utsports.com said Karen is currently conducting a nationwide search for an assistant coach so I would assume it would be a paid
position. But I see the point of your question since she is also hiring the ex Missiouri assistant as hitting coach. Maybe they can allow four paid positions since they already have Megan as pitching coach.
 
#5,182
#5,182
The timing of that announcement is strange to me. Wednesday post 5 pm. Same day baseball team returns home. Almost seems like an end of day news dump as opposed to a celebration of the end of a career.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
 
#5,183
#5,183
jeebie said:
The story about Ralph leaving on the UT site at utsports.com said Karen is currently conducting a nationwide search for an assistant coach so I would assume it would be a paid
position. But I see the point of your question since she is also hiring the ex Missiouri assistant as hitting coach. Maybe they can allow four paid positions since they already have Megan as pitching coach.
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No. The former Missouri hitting coach will be the third full-time coach. I’m not sure who Majors is referring to, I believe UT’s current graduate assistant is moving into the volunteer assistant role that Marc previous held. Aubrey is going to be a grad assistant starting in the fall.
 
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#5,184
#5,184
WVU05UT09 said:
The timing of that announcement is strange to me. Wednesday post 5 pm. Same day baseball team returns home. Almost seems like an end of day news dump as opposed to a celebration of the end of a career.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
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UT admin wanted to wait until after the baseball team was done and had the welcome home celebration for them, out of respect for the season they had.
 
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#5,185
#5,185
DeerPark12 said:
No. The former Missouri hitting coach will be the third full-time coach. I’m not sure who Majors is referring to, I believe UT’s current graduate assistant is moving into the volunteer assistant role that Marc previous held. Aubrey is going to be a grad assistant starting in the fall.
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I realize that the former Missouri hitting coach will be the third full-time coach. But UT's article still states that Karen is doing a national search for an assistant to replace Ralph. Are we to assume that this new assistant is not going to be paid or is one of the other assistants going to have to be let go if there can only be three paid coaches including Karen. And yes, I understand that Aubrey Leach is going to be the unpaid volunteer assistant in the fall.
 
#5,186
#5,186
The Missouri coach is his replacement. Pretty much everyone knew Ralph was gone when he was announced because you can’t have a staff of more than three paid coaches.
 
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#5,190
#5,190
jeebie said:
I realize that the former Missouri hitting coach will be the third full-time coach. But UT's article still states that Karen is doing a national search for an assistant to replace Ralph. Are we to assume that this new assistant is not going to be paid or is one of the other assistants going to have to be let go if there can only be three paid coaches including Karen. And yes, I understand that Aubrey Leach is going to be the unpaid volunteer assistant in the fall.
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Aubrey will be a graduate assistant, not the volunteer. Unless something has changed, the volunteer assistant will be their GA from this past year.

The "national search" was conducted a few weeks ago, but can't be officially announced yet. The position was not technically open and eligible to be posted and filled until Ralph's retirement was official. The Missouri coach is replacing Ralph. It will be official once the UT requirements for a required job posting have been met.
 
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#5,192
#5,192
DeerPark12 said:
Aubrey will be a graduate assistant, not the volunteer. Unless something has changed, the volunteer assistant will be their GA from this past year.

The "national search" was conducted a few weeks ago, but can't be officially announced yet. The position was not technically open and eligible to be posted and filled until Ralph's retirement was official. The Missouri coach is replacing Ralph. It will be official once the UT requirements for a required job posting have been met.
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The GA isn’t staying on. She is pursuing other opportunities.
 
#5,195
#5,195
Vols4life said:
When JT announced he was transferring I was hoping it would be close to Knoxville when he went away it was only a matter of time
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As someone who dated a softball when I was in law school, and then moved to Atlanta to marry a different former Division I athlete, I can tell you that having a steady, serious boyfriend is both most comforting and least comforting thing for a coach to know about a player. A coach is comforted by the fact that they pretty much never have to worry about where that player is on a Friday night, it’s often at the apartment hanging out or something like that. You’re not worried about them being assaulted, or drugged, or becoming the butt of campus jokes for being passed around. A calm, stable relationship is often very, very good for performance on the field.

But, as we’ve seen as Tennessee fans, there are also sometimes negatives. They’ve had a couple of players in the softball program in recent years that developed eating disorders because of unhealthy relationships with controlling boyfriends.

More often, though, is that when a player has a serious relationship, she is not as close to her teammates. Spends more time with the boyfriend then developing some of those off-field relationships. usually then only has one or two close friends on the team. So then the boyfriend transfers out, maybe something else happens in her life, and suddenly she doesn’t have anybody that she really feels close to. Looks around and just thinks it’s time for a fresh start. I can tell you that was the situation for several of the really good players that are transferred out of here over the years. Even somebody like Ellen Renfroe, had struggles her last season in part because she had been close to her sister and her boyfriend, her sister graduated and her boyfriend transferred to Memphis before her senior year. When Aldrete left, part of it was her boyfriend, who she stayed with, transferred to Arizona State, where her brother was already playing baseball. ASU didn’t have a scholarship and she ended up at California.

I knew her sister, but I don’t know Ally. She will always be 14 years old in the stands to me. but it seems from what I can gather to be a lot like what I’m talking about. Close relationship with a boyfriend who leaves. Only close with a couple of teammates, one of them left. Probably some dealing with her sister‘s shadow stuff as well. Seems like every interview people do with her is about her sister and how she compares. That’s a lot. Look around and wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to develop new relationships and a fresh start somewhere else.
 
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#5,197
#5,197
DeerPark12 said:
As someone who dated a softball when I was in law school, and then moved to Atlanta to marry a different former Division I athlete, I can tell you that having a steady, serious boyfriend is both most comforting and least comforting thing for a coach to know about a player. A coach is comforted by the fact that they pretty much never have to worry about where that player is on a Friday night, it’s often at the apartment hanging out or something like that. You’re not worried about them being assaulted, or drugged, or becoming the butt of campus jokes for being passed around. A calm, stable relationship is often very, very good for performance on the field.

But, as we’ve seen as Tennessee fans, there are also sometimes negatives. They’ve had a couple of players in the softball program in recent years that developed eating disorders because of unhealthy relationships with controlling boyfriends.

More often, though, is that when a player has a serious relationship, she is not as close to her teammates. Spends more time with the boyfriend then developing some of those off-field relationships. usually then only has one or two close friends on the team. So then the boyfriend transfers out, maybe something else happens in her life, and suddenly she doesn’t have anybody that she really feels close to. Looks around and just thinks it’s time for a fresh start. I can tell you that was the situation for several of the really good players that are transferred out of here over the years. Even somebody like Ellen Renfroe, had struggles her last season in part because she had been close to her sister and her boyfriend, her sister graduated and her boyfriend transferred to Memphis before her senior year. When Aldrete left, part of it was her boyfriend, who she stayed with, transferred to Arizona State, where her brother was already playing baseball. ASU didn’t have a scholarship and she ended up at California.

I knew her sister, but I don’t know Ally. She will always be 14 years old in the stands to me. but it seems from what I can gather to be a lot like what I’m talking about. Close relationship with a boyfriend who leaves. Only close with a couple of teammates, one of them left. Probably some dealing with her sister‘s shadow stuff as well. Seems like every interview people do with her is about her sister and how she compares. That’s a lot. Look around and wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to develop new relationships and a fresh start somewhere else.
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Alot of truth to this.
 
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#5,198
#5,198
DeerPark12 said:
As someone who dated a softball when I was in law school, and then moved to Atlanta to marry a different former Division I athlete, I can tell you that having a steady, serious boyfriend is both most comforting and least comforting thing for a coach to know about a player. A coach is comforted by the fact that they pretty much never have to worry about where that player is on a Friday night, it’s often at the apartment hanging out or something like that. You’re not worried about them being assaulted, or drugged, or becoming the butt of campus jokes for being passed around. A calm, stable relationship is often very, very good for performance on the field.

But, as we’ve seen as Tennessee fans, there are also sometimes negatives. They’ve had a couple of players in the softball program in recent years that developed eating disorders because of unhealthy relationships with controlling boyfriends.

More often, though, is that when a player has a serious relationship, she is not as close to her teammates. Spends more time with the boyfriend then developing some of those off-field relationships. usually then only has one or two close friends on the team. So then the boyfriend transfers out, maybe something else happens in her life, and suddenly she doesn’t have anybody that she really feels close to. Looks around and just thinks it’s time for a fresh start. I can tell you that was the situation for several of the really good players that are transferred out of here over the years. Even somebody like Ellen Renfroe, had struggles her last season in part because she had been close to her sister and her boyfriend, her sister graduated and her boyfriend transferred to Memphis before her senior year. When Aldrete left, part of it was her boyfriend, who she stayed with, transferred to Arizona State, where her brother was already playing baseball. ASU didn’t have a scholarship and she ended up at California.

I knew her sister, but I don’t know Ally. She will always be 14 years old in the stands to me. but it seems from what I can gather to be a lot like what I’m talking about. Close relationship with a boyfriend who leaves. Only close with a couple of teammates, one of them left. Probably some dealing with her sister‘s shadow stuff as well. Seems like every interview people do with her is about her sister and how she compares. That’s a lot. Look around and wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to develop new relationships and a fresh start somewhere else.
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Well said. Many don't realize what happens behind the scenes and the thought process of players. . They commit to the school before they are adults and once they are their start developing as adults, get exposed to new things, etc. The person I was my senior year of high school was a different person than the person I was my senior year of college.
 
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