Is MSU's Walt Drenth That Good of A Coach?

he bought that team. Tell him to start recruiting 10 flat guys like Vin and Wetmore, than let's see what he can do.

10 flat for what ? the 100. Try 9:00 guys to those two places. Walt can coach, and so can that new guy at Syracuse, I think Fox is his name.

Bought what? Only two guys were given money the first year. Three walked on

i know sprangel and bartlebaugh, its awesome to see em doing this kind of thing

For the record there are still some of us in Minnesota who are pissed that Drenth wanted to Gopher job when it went to Plascencia---we've seen how that worked out.

Wondering wrote:

He took over women's program (actually all track and CC this year) and they win regionals and could go top 5 at National's.

Yes, Walt can coach...but I believe Rita Arndt-Molis leads the women.

Walt writes the workouts and does what walt says to do. She did not take them to this level .

Rita answers to Walt. I hope you don't think that this years success had much to do with Rita?

Walt recruited me when just about no other D1 coach did. He looked at my high school times, including my 1:58r 800 best, and said he thought I could be a national class 800 runner.

When I placed 2nd at NCAAs two years later, I was tremendously grateful for his confidence in me and for his ability to spot my ability.

I'm not at all surprised to see that he's been able to turn MSU around quickly. He's in a tough part of the country for recruiting and for qualifying for NCAAs. But it looks like he is more than holding his own so far. I wish him all the best.

nice times for girls wrote:

For the record there are still some of us in Minnesota who are pissed that Drenth wanted to Gopher job when it went to Plascencia---we've seen how that worked out.

You are pissed that he wanted [the] Gopher job? And now it isn't working out with Plascencia? Or that he wanted to "go for" the MSU job?

I don't get what you wrote at all. Hasn't Plascencia coached there for a long time?

Drenth is a good coach. He is not however for everyone. Some will flourish under him, others will flounder. With Walt it is probably a matter of communication. He is a great guy though, possibly misunderstood by some of his current/former athletes.

I'm an alum, and I don't have the inside scoop, but from what I hear, Rita likes working with Walt. Clearly they are a good tandem if they're able to win perhaps the best region in the country.

You're wrong, Zanotti was also a D1 runner, was third behind Moore, and Hammerle in 2001.

I think everyone knew that Drenth was a good coach of distance runners before this year. He has done very well at a few different schools. What remains to be seen however, is if he is also a good track & field head coach. MSU had a better track season last year than anticipated in light of previous years' team showings. Hopefully for the Spartans, these successes will continue.

Walt was about the best coach I ever had. Take a look at the ASU women, Walt started that. He is always trying to learn more about the sport, and always willing to talk about it. Very opinionated, and is fun to argue with. He could get really fired up during races too, which made racing that much more fun!

Walt is a great coach who can scare that piss out of ANYONE. Kind of like a hard ass football coach in many ways. Overall though, a very good person to run for, especially for untapped or moderately talented runners. Very good at developing unhearalded runners out of high school.

Wetmore recruits 10:00 kids??

Sh!t, I wish I knew that when I was in high school. I wrote him a letter when I was a senior and told him I was a 9:20 guy, and I didn't even get a questionare post card from him.

I guess I should have lied about my times and told him I was 40 seconds slower.

what was Bartlebaugh's 5K time in high school? I heard he was only like a 163X guy or something.

Jessica wrote:

Walt was about the best coach I ever had. Take a look at the ASU women, Walt started that. He is always trying to learn more about the sport, and always willing to talk about it. Very opinionated, and is fun to argue with. He could get really fired up during races too, which made racing that much more fun!

DRENTH is a great coach I ran at ASU in the dark days before Walt and moved on to down to Tuscon to run. He did pretty good with a bunch of castoffs. If I had know he ws comming I would have stayed