Mark Wetmore quote

"skinny?, u want skinny gouch? you should look like a skeleton with a condom pulled over your head" - mark wetmore

any other quote doesnt matter bc this one is epic

Sounds like a good quote for Wetmore, since every one of his great runners (Goucher, Torres, Ritz, Culpepper) was a world-beater high school runner...

Wetmore's talking more about recruiting. He's looking for guys who don't make footlocker or break 9 for the 2 mile because then he won't have as much competition getting the runners. Recruiting is always a tricky thing. College coaches want good runners, but they want runners that are humble without big heads. A lot of those sub 9 state champions, they get to college and struggle a lot, especially the first few years. Guys who aren't #1 on their team, who aren't #1 in the state and don't have earth shattering times, those are the guys that won't be psychologically shocked when they get to college and don't win their first races.

Its from Running With the Buffaloes. Wetmore is talking about how one his runners, Mike Friedberg, is doing so well in college and beating many of the really good high school runners and how a lot of high school stars disappear.

The exact quote is "If you want to be successful in college, don't go to Foot Lockeror or run 8:55 (for two miles in high school).

The real trick to recruiting is finding those guys who are reasonably fast off of little or crappy training and have a lot of room for improvement. The only problem is that it's very hard to find out about guys like this. One coach might recruit an 8:50 2miler while another coach finds a kid running 9:15 off of 30mpw. Two years later, the 8:50 kid is running 14:00 and the 9:15 kid is running 13:50.

I think too many college coaches go for the top guys because they know that even if the kid doesn't improve at all over 5 years they'll still contribute to the top 5. A little more work is required for slower guys, but their ultimate potential is often higher.

Recruiting is a sidenote. The real reason is because sub 9:00 2 milers think they're all that and are unwilling to take it to another level in college, which is the requirement to be great. High school takes guts, college takes fortitude. A guy who didn't get all the notice takes the next level of training in stride and can become better after more prolonged training. You just never know how great you can become until you commit to it. That's Wetmore's point. Ryan Hall has supposedly helped his brother understand that 9:00 2-mile is just a starting point. It is phenomenal for its class. You can marry the prom queen or the queen of England, different classes.

but the prom queen is better looking and has a lot of potential. No where else for the queen to go.

I agree 100% with some of the things said on this thread. Coaches think just because you can run super fast in HS you will run really fast in college. Good coaches look into athletes and research them. are they serious, do they want to go to the next level, how's their training, ect.

personally, I may be a little biased because my college coach was the guy who looked at me and saw a bundle of potential when other guys overlooked me and only saw my slightly above average times.

THarrier wrote:

Its from Running With the Buffaloes. Wetmore is talking about how one his runners, Mike Friedberg, is doing so well in college and beating many of the really good high school runners and how a lot of high school stars disappear.

The exact quote is "If you want to be successful in college, don't go to Foot Lockeror or run 8:55 (for two miles in high school).

Wetmore's been whining about the athlete's he doesn't get for years.

It's always sounded like he's simply trying to build his own reputation as a coach because he doesn't get the athletes....supposedly...and then can whine about how it hurt him in the NCAA's but he's doing all he can.

bump

He isn't getting all white collared athletes (some yes, but not all), most programs don't. Oregon does, but not everyone is like Oregon. Deal is Wetmore does a better job at developing his blue collars than most--hence his annual team depth, and a few championships.

Dude, i don't think anyone has got better guys than Wetmore (at the top, that is) in the USA.

Goucher...FL course record holder

Torres...4 X FL finalist and All American (15th as a freshman)

Ritz...first 2X time winner in FL history

Gimme a break. I love how Wetmore gets this reputation for developing 'blue collar talent.' He can develop as many "9:30 guys into All Americans" as he wants...without the 1 point to start off the team scoring, he's got no championships.

He has gotten 4 of the top 7 or 8 runners that America has to offer (Ritz, Torres, Goucher, Culpepper). And they were all FL Champs in high school (ok, Culpepper was 4th...but close enough).

This quote should have gotten him fired. He has no business coaching women, especially those with the tendancy for eating disorders!

well when you find a coach that can be as successful as Wetmore and can develop athletes as much then submit your suggestion to the athletic department, donate a large sum of money, and see what what happens

There isnt a coach in the NCAA (any division) that can be as successful as Wetmore or that is even close to as good.

Isn't the Queen of England already married?

I've recently read the book (Running With the Buffaloes) and one of the users above correctly identified the quote.

It stood out very clearly to me, and at first I was confused by his meaning, but I think if you look at the time it was said, it would offer an explanation.

The book follows either the 97 or 98 Buffalo team, and at the time during the late 90's, US distance running was in a horrible slump, from the HS to the pros. The majority of kids who were hitting sub 9's at the time were probably highly talented people who had done an over-abundance of interval and anaerobic training (which was much more commonplace at the time). With the popularity of the internet and it's relative easiness to communicate ideas, training methods were altered and distance runners began to understand that actual distance running is needed to run fast.

This is one of the reasons that sub 9's were happening often in the 70's and 80's and why they are happening again today.

If the book was written now-a-days, I'm sure Wetmore wouldn't make a similar quote.

When he made that quote the only top runner he'd gotten was Goucher.

slim jim wrote:

"skinny?, u want skinny gouch? you should look like a skeleton with a condom pulled over your head" - mark wetmore

any other quote doesnt matter bc this one is epic

This quote didn’t age well.