Best Women's Coaches on the West Coast??

Does SHE want to stay close to home, or is that what YOU want?

Also, those are good, but not great, 3k times. You may want to consider D2.

You're talking 3200 times I presume.

Kelly Sullivan at Oregon State. Womens-only program. He's excellent at developing girls and a great person.

Yes I am referring to the 3200.

and she is open to running in Midwest or East coast but it is important to her that the weather is not completely brutal and that the school is not in the middle of no where.

Oregon State...you must be kidding

Erin Dawson at Arizona is as good as any of them.

Erin Dawson at Arizona is as good as any of them.

If she gets down to the 10:20s for the 3200, she can go wherever she wants to college.

ummmm.. wrote:

Oregon State...you must be kidding

You obviously don't know anything about the program or Kelly. He's been around a long time-- well respected. Has developed lots of runners the past 25-30 years, going back to his days at Auburn. He spotted Nick Symmonds in high school and got him to Willamette. Oregon State is a special program and is currently in the process of building a new track. It's not as pressure-packed as some of the other PAC-12 schools.

PattiSue Plumer is new to Stanford this fall. Rumor has it she's very well-liked by the team and believes in bringing along the freshmen slowly and carefully. It's too soon to tell how successful she'll be, but Cuffe had a nice xc season.

Kelly Strong Cal Poly

Scott Guerrero Loyola Marymount

If you want coaching, UCSB and UC Davis are good bets, although pretty different cultures. The UC system is still far cheaper than private school price tags. Last I checked, none of the UC's were having yard sales.

Lots of good recruiters out there, but that is not the same as coaching. Check roster sizes and the development of current athletes. Do your homework.

nordicmama wrote:

PattiSue Plumer is new to Stanford this fall. Rumor has it she's very well-liked by the team and believes in bringing along the freshmen slowly and carefully. It's too soon to tell how successful she'll be, but Cuffe had a nice xc season.

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Second that. I coached high school and saw her up close when she was coaching at the same level at a rival school. She seemed very effective.

There are several schools with good coaches on the West coast. And my alma mater UCLA is not one of them, in my opinion. Your daughter should pick a few programs to follow during the next 6-8 months, and then see how they improve. Does your daughter want personal attention, or is she ok not getting individual attention? Picking a college is such a personal thing. There are several choices on the west coast. The Pac-12 is the best conference in the country. You can't go wrong with most of these schools. You can also look at UCSB, Cal Poly, USF, and UC Davis. Good luck to your daughter.

Would concur with "Bear Trap" and stay away from UCLA for the time being.My daughter and I met with their coach on an unofficial visit going into her summer season but we never heard from him again.She ended up running at NCAA's in Terre Haute with her team.He seems like a nice guy but is still figuring things out.The coach at LMU,Scott Guerrero is a solid coach.Look at how he coached and developed Tara Erdmann over her 4 yr career.

If she made footlocker Colorado will be interested with the 10:40.

Colorado or Arizona is the best running choices. If she is very smart and wants to be a doctor consider Stanford but be warned the academics can be overwhelming.

If she wants to win multiple NCAA Indoor and Outdoor NCAA Championships she should pick Oregon.

At the moment, my daughter is fixed with UCBerkely...anyone know anything about the coaches and the program?

I went to school on athletic scholarship in the late 70's. I have a challenging intellectual career, but there is no question Div. 1 running delayed my personal and career development. It delayed me socially as well since the design of most coaches (I don't blame them) is to isolate their charges from the numerous distractions at a university. I don't have any regrets, and indeed, I was from an unemployed single mother home, so the scholarship was welcome. But I was a good student and ignored means to attend school on a combination of need and academic merit assistance.

I am not at all a fan of athletic scholarships unless the goal is to make coaching and teaching a career, where the priority on athletics over academics which obtains with a scholarship is more or less compatible with that kind of a career goal.

I say this because with the kind of times this young woman has run she will attract scholarship money.

I know it sounds boring and repetitive, but I would really urge this young woman to go to the school that best fits her academic interests. Period. I know this may be difficult financially, but if you can make a decision based on academics and fit, it is more likely she can view running as a means to express herself and to put her in a position where she can control running rather than having it be the other way around.

It is not easy to let go and chase the running dream - which is a great thing for a Dad to experience. But really, now is the time to think most practically of her future. The truth is that you never know how an athlete can handle to rigors of Div. 1 training (it sure is not high school), and I would argue that there is even more variability in terms of high school progress in women than men. Make the school a place she really wants to land.