Interested in Spartanburg Methodist College

They brought in a new guy to coach track and field and I was told 2nd hand that there was a powerstruggle for control of the squad and Mike lost. Mike is one of the best distance coach around and it is a shame that SMC did him that way. He is a great coach and a great man. Big loss for SMC bigger loss for the runners who would have improved there. THe new coach is not even close to Foley's lead. Foley does post here some under a name a journalist. Hope we can hear directly from him.

You ever been to SMC? Its in a dangerous area of Spartanburg...and that is saying something.

Under Foley, You didnt train in that area, they trained at Milliken

From what I have seen and heard, SMC is now focusing more on track than xc, and most of SMC's distance runners have either transferred or quit.

i do know that several kids have left that program - but i don't know the details... one scholarship kid transferred to Clemson and will be a walk-on

i'd be wary of rumors though, talk to someone who actually knows what's going on

Check out Wofford. Its in Spartanburg and has a much better program than SMC.

Mike Foley no longer works there. In that, since Foley used to donate his entire salary to the program (around 30K a year) to fund their scholarships, they also don't have much in the way of scholarships anymore. The new guy seems okay but he's a track dude, not an XC guy, so he's going to recruit and focus on the events he knows. It's too bad because SMC was really good for awhile...

Thanks for all the replies and all of the suggestions.

Wofford better than SMC. That made me fall out of my chair laughing. In the Cummings and Foley years Wofford was destroyed by SMC year after year. Wofford has improved some in the past few years but they are not a good program. The best program in the Upstate is Furman. Wofford better than SMC very funny. Well they are now since Foley is gone

When did Wofford ever have a good running program ????

Wofford did have very good runner when Pat Phillips was the coach there. He was a triathlete or biathlete. It was in the 90s. Foley left at the start of the year and the xc coach was Blackwell. Her coaching was very different from Foley. Foley was a High mileage guy. Blackwell is a lower mileage and more quality coach. They did not achieve their potential under her.

Right now wofford is a joke when it comes to running if you are looking for schools with the same quality of runners that were at SMC i am personally friends with a few of the athletes that transferred out this year and they went to North Greenville University. Another option may be Winthrop University or USC Upstate. Just a ball park of schools that are ether on the rise due to an influx of new runners or have recently produced decent athletes (Frudenthal Winthrop) (Gilbert Kembio Upstate) (Bret Morley formally of SMC now at NGU and a new transfer in Ben sessions)

Wofford may be a joke for running but so are most of the other SC schools. Wofford prepares you much better for that thing you do after college.

You are spot on about that one while i was only addressing the running aspect of each school academically Wofford is head and shoulders above the others (including price). Honestly if you want to be good at running all you need is a pair of shoes, time, motivation and to make a concious effort to understand the sport so that you can train intellegently. So unless running is going to be your lively hood definetly choose you school based on the quality of the education that is accessible to you finacially.

Wofford is and always will be overshadowed by Furman in ever aspect. Sports, social, academics. Many years some of the HS teams in Spartanburg has better teams than Wofford.

There was no "power struggle" between myself and Coach Rhodes. I personally recommended him for the head track coaching position after SMC made the move from just being a cross country school to adding indoor and outdoor track teams.

I had two other full-time jobs and could not commit to track, too, given the dramatic cut in pay.

There were other factors involved in my departure but let's be clear it had nothing to do with Terry Rhodes. It is true that the distance program is a shell of what it was but track & field is strong and the school remains as the only JUCO in S.C., N.C. and Georgia for a full indoor, outdoor T&F, XC and Half Marathon (yes, HM) is a separate sport, program.

SMCs 28 team national championship qualifiers, 65 All Americans, seven Top 5 team finishes, a men's XC team national runners-up and an individual national champion were a testament to the school, my assistants and the amazing young men and women who bought into our training methods.