Let's list some SS facts: Her best years at Hofstra were her 1st and 3rd years, primarily the previous coaches recruits. Hofstra has been 11-21 the past two seasons. She has had had trouble retaining girls with several girls leaving the team last fall season and has been continuously criticized for her inability to relate and form relationships with her players. Now that her team has had two years with entirely her own recruits she has had two losing seasons. Unfortunately successful coaching at any level requires the ability to form interpersonal relationships with your athletes, relate and inspire them, and ultimately earn their respect. There is a difference between fear and respect and you should never confuse the two. Good coaches earn their players respect, SS on the other hand is feared. Don't believe me, ask any TG player if they are afraid of here and the overwhelming majority will say they are afraid of her.
Her club teams have encountered some problems from a player retention standpoint. Her last strong class of multiple high level top program commits were probably 2016, (though 2020 has had a good start). She is inappropriate on the sidelines often when addressing these young athletes, saying things that comes out callous, and she should try to preserve some of these girls self esteems and help build self confidence instead of tear it down (here come all the kool-aide drinkers, who are going to say your daughter isn't tough enough, but would you let some punk on the street verbally abuse your daughter? then why would you let a person in a coaching/authority role do it?) and it is obvious that though she works for a University, and claims to teach young people athletics and everything that is supposed to go with that (the virtues or sportsmanship, hardwork and respect) she is a poor excuse of any sort of educator.
You can see the disfunction of the father/daughter relationship and the resentment build in this woman. She has little passion for the game left, the only passion is for the survival of the brand to support the people feeding off of it. The father runs to his truck between games to avoid any interaction with parents or players cause as he has expressed many times he hates parents, and they know nothing. In his mind there is only one way and that is the Smith way. And AS....well we will leave that for another time.
It is a little tough to hammer her on her coaching career at Hofstra so far. She has been there (5) seasons. Keep in mind that her first season was 2013. At that time most of the top talent was already committed by 10th grade (class of 2016) and in some cases by 9th grade (Class of 2017). In my mind her first true class is the freshman from this past year's team. It looks like she has some good talent from that grade and next years freshman class is still TBD. Add to that a very successful SB team at almost a third of the cost as well as better academically, other top flight talent does not stay on LI, great D2 talented teams on LI...etc. Recruiting at Hofstra is difficult. You need to create a winning/successful program like SB and the recruits will come. I think we would all like to see LI girls have success on the next level.
TG 2016 class was a strong group of girls, no doubt. I do not think the 2017's were strong but the 2018 team is very good. They are not in the top 3 (YJ, M&D, Skywalker) but they are easily in the next one or two teams to follow. 2019 is also a strong group, probably in the 5 to 10 range. The problem TG has is that they are not as strong as YJ when it comes to college recruitment. Therefore some of the better talent end up moving to YJ after a couple of years. That to me is the one issue they need to address, although sometimes getting rid of those parents is better for all anyway. In reality though they are still by far the second best option on LI and many girls do go onto to top lacrosse as well as academic institutions. As far as coaching...they cannot win. People come on here and complain about college girls coaching that are always on their cellphones...but on the other hand when SS coaches she is too hard on the girls. As you can see they will never make everyone happy.
Everyone need to make a choice that is best for them. But, let's stop all the bashing because you feel like somehow you and your daughter were wronged. Hopefully you are in a better and happier place so move on. You can go to the YJ thread and find the same crap on there. I can tell you we enjoy our TG experience and have met some wonderful people. Best of luck to your daughter(s)
