SOCCER: Visiting coaches eye locals

HAMISH BIDWELL
Once again, it was the action off the park that overshadowed what happened on it at Park Island on Saturday.
But before too many of you Hawke's Bay United fans go feral and bombard the newspaper with scathing letters, all the stuff going on in the stands was positive. In new University of Evansville soccer coach Mike Jacobs, we had a visitor who was very taken with two or three of our young players and who may offer them four-year scholarships to attend his school in Indiana.
Near him, in what was officially noted as the Gould Family Box, lengendary English player and manager Bobby Gould was also casting his knowledgeable eye over Hawke's Bay's finest.
The father of Hawke's Bay United coach Jonathan Gould, Gould sen, who picked up FA Cup medals as a player with West Ham and as manager of Wimbledon, is in town for the rest of the month and has already joined the Hawke's Bay coaching staff.
So while the Bay didn't manage to get the points against Otago, going down 1-0, their own performance, plus the interest of two international coaches, meant that from an individual and collective standpoint, you left the ground feeling that the stock of Hawke's Bay's players was on the rise.
In fact, in talking to Jacobs you get the distinct impression that he sees New Zealand and Hawke's Bay footballers as forming the basis of his team for years to come.
"The hope for me is to try and create a clearing ground, where rather than just go back with two players from this trip, I'll be able to identify players that I can pull every year," said Jacobs, on what was day one of his nine-day tour of the country.
In his previous job as assistant coach at Duke University, he saw first-hand what a massive influence New Zealand players such as Tony Lochead, Duncan Oughton and Steven Old were having at collegiate level in the US.
Their efforts have been enough to convince him that our Kiwi boys are some of the best in the world.
"What's interesting is that 20 years ago there was a British invasion in American university soccer," Jacobs explained.
"You had a lot of great players coming over and I think that, right now, New Zealand is right where the UK was 20 years ago.
"There's some great players coming out of New Zealand and you only have to look at what Ryan Nelsen's done and Simon Elliott now."
Having met the Hawke's Bay coaching staff, plus the odd player and parent, Jacobs was in Wellington yesterday to attend a series of matches and meetings. He will conclude his trip in Auckland with a session with All Whites coach Ricki Herbert.
Jacobs sees this visit as being as much about spreading good will and the Evansville name, as it is about going home with a few players in the bag.
Having taken over a programme that struggled last year, Jacobs is determined to return the school to it's former glory.
"One of things about the University of Evansville is that there's no other College Bowl teams there," he said.
"So, whereas at Duke you compete with basketball and football for fan support, it's not the same at Evansville.
"There's also no professional sports there, so the city's success tends to rise and fall on the success of Evansville soccer.
"We get great TV and radio coverage and we've had some wonderful players here.
"Davey Weir, who's now the captain of Everton and Scotland, he was the leading scorer in the Evansville team of 1990 that went to a national semifinal.
"Paul Nevin, who's the new head coach at the New Zealand Knights, he was a team-mate of Davey Weir's, so we've got a pretty good pedigree."