HAS UCLA'S MIKE MAYNARD LOST HIS MIND?

That's politics. After Bolden was demoted people get mad. Did Curran coach Pena to the Olympics ? Who coached Yoo Kim ? I'm not that up on the PV. At least Maynard waited until after the OTs unlike the ass licks at Oregon who let go Robert Weir right in the middle of the OTs.

Maynard is an idiot.

For all intents and purposes, he just pulled the plug on the legendary vault program at UCLA. No prep vaulter in their right mind will ever be interested in going to UCLA from this point on. What a shame.

The only event Curran is good at is PV. It's hard to justify having a coach for just 1 event and a liability for all the other jumps and combined events.

Like I said before, I don't know all the details who coached who at UCLA, but if Curran was responsible for 2012 Olympians Yoo Kim of South Korea and Tori Pena of Ireland then WTF is the UCLA AD thinking ?

Curran is best pole vault coach in the country, unfortunately he is not that great at HJ/LJ/TJ. There are very few pole vault coaches who are in charge of the entire jumps crew at any university and especially not one with the jumps tradition of Ucla. Maynard knows what he is doing and will get Ucla on the podium in the near future.

Kim and Pena train elsewhere.

Bruin Boy wrote:

Maynard is an idiot.

For all intents and purposes, he just pulled the plug on the legendary vault program at UCLA. No prep vaulter in their right mind will ever be interested in going to UCLA from this point on. What a shame.

Any Bruins have any idea as to why they let Martin Smith go to Oklahoma?

Yes, he wasn't exactly Mr. Personality, but the guy was a proven winner. Obviously, Stanford, USC, and the Arizona schools that have been doing well wouldn't be interested. But why wouldn't the rest of the Pac-10 (back then) that was not doing well want to pick him up?

Whether you like Martin or not, as far as coaching ability goes, a competition between Mike Maynard and Martin Smith is no contest.

Maynard has brass balls. He is making the kind of decisions he had to make to return UCLA to conference and national prominence.

Do you critics actually believe Pat Henry would waste one of his full time positions on a coach that only coached one event? No chance.

For years, UCLA has had blue chip recruits in the LJ/TJ/HJ training with volunteer coaches. That's just not acceptable and makes no sense with 6 available coaches. They've lost so many awesome talents it's terrible. I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision, but had to be done. It's no way to run a golden program like UCLA with 2 sprint coaches, 2 distance coaches, a throws coach, a full time pole vault coach, and volunteers coaching HJ, LJ, TJ, Heptathlon, Decathlon.

fghttet wrote:

Maynard has brass balls. He is making the kind of decisions he had to make to return UCLA to conference and national prominence.

Do you critics actually believe Pat Henry would waste one of his full time positions on a coach that only coached one event? No chance.

You obviously have NO IDEA how many points the Pole Vault has generated at the Indoor/Outdoor Conference and NCAA level for UCLA over the years.

NO IDEA whatsoever.

And if Maynard "has brass balls" as you claim, then WHY is Jeanette Bolden still there???

Get real.

Yolanda76 wrote:

For years, UCLA has had blue chip recruits in the LJ/TJ/HJ training with volunteer coaches. That's just not acceptable and makes no sense with 6 available coaches. They've lost so many awesome talents it's terrible. I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision, but had to be done. It's no way to run a golden program like UCLA with 2 sprint coaches, 2 distance coaches, a throws coach, a full time pole vault coach, and volunteers coaching HJ, LJ, TJ, Heptathlon, Decathlon.

That would be true if a high profile elite type JUMPS coach was hired like Jeremy Fischer. But Maynard didn't hire Fischer. Instead, he chose an "average" multi-events coach from Cal Poly. Jack Hoyt. Now how does that make your program better???

I can't believe I'm defending Hoyt, because I find him a bit arrogant. However, you are vastly underestimating his ability to say he's average. Ask 2x Olympian Sharon Day how her career was going before he came to Ca Poly.

Although Yoo and Tori are not under Anthony at this time UCLA still gets the honor of claiming them as Olympians. Maynard gets recognition and a super rep with the Top 10 faculty at UCLA, which translates to money. I can't see why he would let Curran go of all people.

Jack not crap wrote:

I can't believe I'm defending Hoyt, because I find him a bit arrogant. However, you are vastly underestimating his ability to say he's average. Ask 2x Olympian Sharon Day how her career was going before he came to Ca Poly.

Fine.

Can you name anyone else besides Sharon Day and Aris Borjas (javelin) that backs up his resume?

He doesn't even come close to what

Curran has achieved...

It is a disgrace that UCLA can't field a juggernaut of sprinters, hurdlers and jumper like Jim Bush did to win numerous NCAA titles. Investing scholarships and full time salary in the pole vault and a coach is a mistake. Granted Curran is an outstanding coach and bleeds blue and gold but to win a NCAA title you need sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers. UCLA should be a magnet to recruit LA basin and California. For us bruins to see Ron Allice own LA and the dual meet is unaccetable and change had to be made.

Bruin Boy wrote:

fghttet wrote:

Maynard has brass balls. He is making the kind of decisions he had to make to return UCLA to conference and national prominence.

Do you critics actually believe Pat Henry would waste one of his full time positions on a coach that only coached one event? No chance.

You obviously have NO IDEA how many points the Pole Vault has generated at the Indoor/Outdoor Conference and NCAA level for UCLA over the years.

NO IDEA whatsoever.

And if Maynard "has brass balls" as you claim, then WHY is Jeanette Bolden still there???

Get real.

I know exactly how many points UCLA has scored at the PAC-10 and NCAA championships in the pole vault. And it has resulted in exactly zero team titles and zero team trophies. Art was fired for using the model you are defending. Its time you people grow up and accept that this is a competitive profession and if you choose to play at the highest level you better understand how to score enough points to win titles and trophies if you're going to hang on to your jobs.

Honestly, only international medals matter to the UCLA alumni and UCLA academic department heads.

I agree though PAC-12, NCAA, USA, and OT wins and titles aren't exactly chopped liver.

I liked Curran a lot when I was at UCLA but his vaulters have a long history of being very inconsistent. (Yes, I know it somewhat comes with the event). However, he absolutely was not cut out to be the head jumps coach and it isn't feasible to waste one of your six coaching slots on a PV only coach. I really do wish him the best though, and I'm sure another school will pick him up.

Maynard probably didn't have the option to outright get rid of Bolden. Dan Guerrero is terrible at his job and probably insisted that she be allowed to stay on. Hopefully she will be gone within a year or two. (Full disclosure, I never got along well with her and I know she won us the national title in 2004 but for the most part her women have been pretty awful the last 6ish years).

I will say that as a Bruin alumnus I am very happy that the programs are finally being combined and brought under one head coach. It always bothered me immensely that we had a split program when I was at UCLA.

Go Bruins!!

fghttet wrote:

I know exactly how many points UCLA has scored at the PAC-10 and NCAA championships in the pole vault. And it has resulted in exactly zero team titles and zero team trophies. Art was fired for using the model you are defending. Its time you people grow up and accept that this is a competitive profession and if you choose to play at the highest level you better understand how to score enough points to win titles and trophies if you're going to hang on to your jobs.

You sound like you are some sort of Deca or Multi-Event coach that thinks that there is VALUE in being an average "Jack of All Trades" at the D-1 level and that THAT is the kind of business model that produces TEAM championships.

What you forget to mention is WHO Mike Maynard just replaced Coach Curran with. It's not like Maynard went out and hired a Dan Paff, Dan Steele, or Harry Mara.

He hired a "Jack of All Trades" guy that has never had an NCAA Champion. Not one.

Meanwhile, Coach Curran just had a Sophomore that was runner-up at the NCAA's and scored 8 of the teams 17 points for UCLA's 9th overall in Des Moines.

Flight 1

1 Jack Whitt JR Oral Roberts 5.65m 10

2 Michael Woepse SO UCLA 5.55m 8

3 Derick Hinch SO Arizona State 5.50m 6

4 Nico Weiler JR Harvard 5.50m 5

5 Cale Simmons JR Air Force 5.40m 3.5

5 Kolby Shepherd SR Liberty 5.40m 3.5

7 Joe Davis SR Virginia Tech 5.40m 2

8 Chase Brannon SO Tennessee 5.40m 1

9 Andrew LaHaye SR Florida State 5.40m

10 Kyal Meyers SO Texas Tech 5.30m

10 Sam Kendricks FR Mississippi 5.30m

12 Michael Viken SO East Illinois 5.30m

13 JJ Juilfs FR Washington 5.30m

14 John Prader JR Cal Poly 5.30m

14 Marvin Reitze SR South Carolina 5.30m

16 Hunter Hall SR Virginia Tech 5.30m

17 Michael Seaman SR Samford 5.15m

17 Kovey Simmons SR SE Louisiana 5.15m

19 Andreas Duplantis FR LSU 5.15m

20 Kevin Schipper SR Notre Dame 5.15m

20 Cody Doerflein SR So. Illinois 5.15m

22 Daniel Gooris JR No. Iowa 5.00m

--- Kyle Wait SO Kansas State NH

--- Logan Cunningham JR Texas State NH

He hired a "Jack of All Trades" guy that has never had an NCAA Champion. Not one.

Hoyt coached Chris Randolph to multiple NCAA DII titles when he was the head coach at SPU. He's a good coach and a good guy, I hope people give him a chance.

UCLA could potentially bring in a volunteer PV coach as well.

I am not saying I support them giving Curran the axe! It will be interesting to see how many vaulters transfer.

But there's no reason to bash Hoyt. Maynard obviously wants to build UCLA back up in other events, and Hoyt is a very solid coach that will get that done.