"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very pleased to announce Mel Heinz..."
With that announcement, the first building block for a woman's soccer program at VSU is in place. Melissa "Mel" Heinz becomes the Lady Blazers first ever soccer coach. Heinz leaves Division I Winthrop to build a program in South Georgia.
Heinz says, "Valdosta State University is doing it right, and they've already had success, and I'm looking for a better opportunity. I feel I can find that here."
VSU athletic director Herb Reinhard had to sift through over 70 applications for the job before choosing Heinz to direct the soccer program. One huge factor was her experience at starting a program from scratch.
Reinhard says, "Building a program is much, much more difficult than stepping into an established program, so the fact that she had experience in building that program at Winthrop, and that program showing stability and success coming out of the gate, that was important."
Now, Heinz will have to try and find players to recruit which should come pretty easy in her backyard.
Heinz says, "Georgia and Florida are just hotbeds for female soccer."
Heinz now has 18 months to assemble VSU's first squad as the team will blaze into history in 2011.