Good guess. Alesia was driving up to do Gator home game radio broadcasts. Maybe she is interested in getting into coaching.
The position of Volunteer Assistant Coach is a volunteer position. So the selected person must be one who’s a post graduate student and is on campus or has a big draw in NIL.
They’ve removed the “volunteer” tag and they’re just called a “student assistant” now. Don’t think they ever received NIL money, at least not in the way the players do. They have typically earned their money by running camps and clinics. Now they are allowed to be on salary and receive benefits as well. Benefits and off campus recruiting were the big things they didn’t get before, now they can do both. https://www.baseballamerica.com/sto...teer-assistant-coach-into-full-time-position/ *correction, the volunteer coach has simply be made an assistant coach. The student assistant is still somewhat of a volunteer. They receive a stipend (10-15k?), scholarship, housing, and meal plan. They can also take money from the camps and clinics. I do not believe they will be receiving any money from our NIL war chest.
But it looks like we are still discussing someone who is a “student” assistant. Who is a graduate student on campus and was on the softball team. I think that is where the potential pool of candidates are coming from. Emily Wilkie is entering a Physician Assistant program. Is it one on the UF campus? If yes, she is my guess for the position. Another wild guess, Kendyl Lindaman.
Doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s someone who is currently on campus or was on the team this year. For reference, Mikey Rivera spent a couple years in the minors before coming back as a student assistant for the baseball team. Majority of our football grad assistants have come back after stints in the NFL. Certainly could be, but it doesn’t have to be. Funny related/non-related story— I have a buddy who came back as a football grad assistant after a stint in the NFl. They didn’t even ask what grad program he wanted to attend. When he showed up they handed him a stack of books and his class schedule, lol. Apparently he was here to coach football.
One of the guys that played in our travel group was a Grad assistant at his alma mater while he got his Masters, he then became a Volunteer Assistant with the program with the plan to become a paid asst if/when they expanded the staff limits As you mentioned, as a Grad and Volunteer asst he made his real money running the camps and clinics and giving private lessons (hitting and catching). It's a grinder of a job, often the first guy to the field and the last to leave. He eventually left coaching as it burned him out.
I could be 100% wrong on this but I think everyone is confusing the change from volunteer to being a paid coach able to recruit off campus with links back to January 2023 is the change that allowed Francesca to come on as the fourth full time paid coach. I don't think it has anything to do with being a student assistant. I tried to verify by looking at Charla's official title last season but she does not appear on our official roster of coaches. Just the four full time coaches. In her linkedln profile she calls herself a student assistant. Again, I could be wrong but I don't think the potential hire we are talking about is any different from "volunteer assistant coach" and that the title possibly has simply been changed to "student assistant".
That rule change allowed CTW to hire Francesca. Charla was the graduate assistant coach this season, just like the mystery coach will be next season,