Andy Gerard to George Mason

Gerard is a coward. He knew that Vinny was going to Oregon. He should have stayed and tried to beat Oregon. Instead he copped out and went to a shit program. Just telling it like I see it.

interesting post. can you substantiate any of the following things for me (perhaps i am just out of the loop)?

1) vin got fired from stanford for recruiting irregularities?

2) andy gerard knew that vin was going to be coaching at oregon when he decided to interview at george mason?

3) andy thought he was going to be vin at stanford, but wasn't andy an asst track coach whereas vin was the director of t&f?

4) nike is throwing down $25 million to get the trials in eugene? if so, who is getting the money?

5) nike needs vin to get the trials to eugene, but nike can get vin the olympic head coaching title?

6) george mason has a fully funded track/xc program? who have they been giving the 30 or so scholarships to the last few years (men & women)?

7) andy left stanford because he is afraid of coaching against a team coached by vin, even though that team didn't even make ncaas last fall? if true, wouldn't andy be more concerned 2-3 years from now (remember, vin can't really recruit for this fall)?

8) i can't figure out what you mean by saying that the schools at which andy coached are not ethnocentric but mason is. are you saying that andy will now coach only jamaicans?

despite the above particular criticisms, it does appear that you have a decent knowledge of andy gerard's coaching career and the CAA, so i hope my questions don't seem too harsh.

as a w&m alum who ran for andy, i think he'll be fine at mason after a few years. it's a state school in a state with pretty good high school running talent.

i think it would be a good thing for w&m (and g'town, american, uva, jmu, navy and other local schools) if george mason improved in the middle and long distances. but i hope that gibby, brian and kathy can use their northern virginia ties to keep the top recruits headed down to williamsburg.

Tribe,

Name a small school in a small conference with limited money and strong academic reputation, that recruits solid sprints, field events?

That would be UNC-Wilmington, who won the conference last year, now that Jim Sprecher is back at the helm. He also won the conference the last three (4&5-with his recruits) years he was there, before a stint at Ball State. And he has done it on less than 50% scholarship funding.

The farm team will relocate as the Quack Attack ...

and what about Gags? Will they throw Gags to the wolves in favor of Alberto? NICE TOUCH.

That's what me think.

Agree about all the Vin/Nike stuff not really holding up. Gerard did get married just before moving to Cali so it's entirely possible his move back to VA was based on his family's interests and not just on his career. Same for Dena since she has 2 very young kids. Also, maybe he figures he can be in the area and eventually take over Stimson's Director job at WM. Would make alot of sense. He'd work with 2 coaches he once trained and now that the guys and girls teams are working together (something that did not happen under the previous women's coach)it would be a more desirable job. Have no idea if this is the reasonng but it would make sense and Stimson must be close to retiring in the near future, so they'd be looking.

i like gags, he has been very good to me. but think, he must be considering retiring soon. the last year has been rough on him physically.

with the changes in eugene, it might be good for everyone. alberto's role might be limited. he can't seem to focus on more than one runner with success.

"6) george mason has a fully funded track/xc program? who have they been giving the 30 or so scholarships to the last few years (men & women)?

8) i can't figure out what you mean by saying that the schools at which andy coached are not ethnocentric but mason is. are you saying that andy will now coach only jamaicans? "

George Mason Men's Track and XC teams are fully funded and the Women's Track and XC teams are fully funded. -you may not have noticed because the assist. AD likes to tell athletes at the last min. that they are ineligible and nothing can be done by that time..

I don't think he is saying he "will now coach only jamaicans". Mason is in the top 3 for most diverse schools in the nation. When I was there, there were at most 4 caucasian guys on the team each year. There were many ethnicities on the team not just Jamaicans. It will be a big change from his past schools. I feel it's just a different challenge, not saying it's bad or that he is unable.

with respect to mason being a fully funded program, i really don't know the answer to that. it would be a surprise to me if it is, but since i don't know and two presumably different (albeit anonymous) posters are telling that it is, i guess i will trust them. looking at their men's roster (http://gomason.collegesports.com/sports/m-track/mtt/gema-m-track-mtt.html), a couple of things stand out. i count about 9 guys who couldn't possibly be getting scholarship money, which leaves 13 who might. of those 13, a bunch of them are seniors. this could be a good or a bad thing. assuming they exist, if the scholarships have been given to incoming freshmen, then andy wouldn't have much ability to recruit distance runners for awhile. on the other hand, if they haven't been used, he would have a big pool of money to spend this fall.

it's also apparent from their roster that they are currently very good at the jumps but that's about it. i wonder if their jumps coach is going to stick around.

one last thing - their roster is quite small, especially when it comes to runners above 200 meters. at w&m and stanford, andy had a large group of distance runners. i wonder if gmu will allow him to have a larger roster or if he will be forced to focus on a few top flight runners.

The team is small and so is the women's. Mason is a huge commuter school...not a lot of walk-ons nor school spirit among the student population. Hopefully Gerard will look to the large amount of local h.s talent for walk-ons/partials.

I agree that UNCW do pretty well for a small school with limited funding. Likely because of good coaching. However I still don't think they compete on the national level - and I'm several years removed so I may be out of the loop. But have they ever had an all-american mens T and F performer. I think its very difficult for a small, academic school to compete nationally in sprints and to some extent field events. Distance/middle distance is a different story - William and Mary have had all americans in track and XC every year for most of the last decade. They've produced an Olympian in the 1500, a second place finisher at NCAA's in the 800, A distance runner voted as the NCAA T and F performer of the year and several additional distance runners who continue to compete at the elite level. They're also one of a very small number of schools to have competed at NCAA's in XC every year for the past 9 years. My point was simply that if they poured all of their resources into sprints, they couldn't have had nearly as much success and I was arguing that it is much more difficult for small, academic schools to achieve national success in these events. Winning the CAA may be a worthwhile achievement but it really doesn't count for much nationally.

coachkritter wrote:

Tribe,

Name a small school in a small conference with limited money and strong academic reputation, that recruits solid sprints, field events?

That would be UNC-Wilmington, who won the conference last year, now that Jim Sprecher is back at the helm. He also won the conference the last three (4&5-with his recruits) years he was there, before a stint at Ball State. And he has done it on less than 50% scholarship funding.

For someone who claims to have gone to William & Mary, you sure do have trouble with subject-verb agreement.

"I agree that UNCW do pretty well..."

"William and Mary have had all americans..."

Using the phrases "they," "they've" and "they're" several times... you sound as though you believe King William and Queen Mary themselves are responsible for the program!

My guess is that you were slotted by Andy, but I've now become one of those assholes who makes fun of people for their message board grammar.

But anyway, get off the tradition. People say Stanford is through, why can't ol' W&M? Unless you're owned by a shoe giant (Nike/Oregon), traditions are meant to die.

"I was impressed with Tom O'Connor and the athletic department's vision for the program," said Gerard. "George Mason was at the top of the CAA when I first coached at William and Mary and the opportunity to build that program back to that level as well as the chance to excel in all three seasons and push for national recognition was what committed me to coaching the Patriots."

Good luck Gerard, it looks good from the outside, but just wait until you get in. I really do wish him the best though.

Anders-

What's up man?

It's a good thing to be skeptical of all these conspiracy theories.

It's interesting to listen to people complain about what others do. Nike has money, Stanford has success, and Oregon has tradition. These are things that too many people lose their heads over with jealousy. Money, success, tradition. If they have it, and I don't, I want it. Actually that's pretty natural. However coming up with largely creative and unsubstantiated claims should really be in it's own thread titled "bullshit in a gut wagon".

Like it or not, Oregon (under Vin) is going to have a lot to do with running in the U.S. in the next few years. It seems that a lot of good runners will enjoy this.

P.S. Huffdaddy and Rexing are in the limo, ready for a 2 hour drive to Polyester's?

please don't remind me of that limo ride.

where are you these days? you can respond to

anders0417@hotmail.com

if you'd like.

Wait, wait, wait, Anders did you race for Gerard?