There are lots of factors, and I won't go into them all either. But, one of the most important that was left off of the thread below was coaching. It's not an accident that the top teams in the coference -- year after year -- happen to have the best coaches. Watts is a legend -- like no other in the PSAC both in terms of coaching expertise and recruiting ability, but also in terms of longevity. Rusell, in my opinion, is really sound in terms of his knowledge of building a program...knows the key training elements -- build a solid foundation, build strength, back off a bit at the end of season...run within yourself and as a team and good things happen. Watch how often you see two Haven guys working together in the big races...they run really well as a team. All around, Russell reminds me a ton of former Ship coach Bob Walker's approach. Spence is a legend -- like no other in the PSAC in terms of running achievement. There have been some good ones...Spence is the best. Also, truly just a great, great guy -- I can't imagine who WOULDN'T want to run for him. IMHO, he's quickly becoming a very, very good coach as well building strong teams (versus just some strong individuals which I thought was the case in the past). He's done a good job building up the current top-Ship runners...look how they've progressed over the past 2-3 years...very impressive. Hoovis
Not this again wrote:
Author: Former psacer question
Subject: RE: Paul Short
Message:
Why are teams like Edinboro, Lock Haven, and Ship consistently very good while most of the psac is not?...
This has been brought up time and time again. I think it has been determined that it's not just one factor, or two, or three. It's a combination of history, both past and recent. There is also the factor of location of the school; to the local leagues and districts nearby and their talents. A minor part is the scholarship money available at schools.
I haven't begun to touch on everything, but please just don't let this turn into a coach bashing thing. Yeah, some coaches may be better than others. I'm just saying it's not ALWAYS a fault of the coach if a runner isn't All Conference/Region.
So, yeah, it's a bunch of factors. I've been hearing rumors that part of the PSAC may be disassembling, as in, a few years down the road, there may not be a Cheyney xc or Mansfield or some other smaller PSAC schools. This is just a rumor, though. Anyone else heard something like that?
I'd rather hear more on this rumor (for the time being, anyhow).