AJ Acosta is now a substitute teacher at an elementary school

so sad the fall of USA athleti wrote:

How embarrassing. Meanwhile Kenyans older than him will get free rides at American Colleges next year.

You are comparing apples and oranges here.

Acosta had a free ride at Oregon for four years, and despite some setbacks he did some good things for his team. His eligibility is now used. No more scholarships for 26 year old college graduates.

The Kenyans you refer to still have college eligibility left. Rules allow this. Sponsorships are an entirely different thing. Acosta last ran at a top level about 3-4 years ago and has been oft injured since then (see article). Sponsors don't take too kindly to athletes on the sidelines. They might get a year or year and a half. 14:57 at Carlsbad does not indicate sponsorship level status, beyond some race expenses and gear from a local shoe store.

And one more thing isn't there an NCAA age restriction, and isn't it 24 for DI, maybe a couple years older for DII.

Public or private?

I have already posted twice in on the Oregonlive site with regard to this matter.

1> As an educator, I am glad that AJ was able to be in that field

2> I personally think it is a travesty, that we, as runners in the modern era have adapted a "dog-eat-dog" personna. If smack talk was supposed to be a scarlet A on the face of athletics, then why don't we eschew ALL athletes who think that they are good. I said it in oregonlive forum and I will say it here. At the Carlsbad 5000, I was actually there and after my All day 20K event there, I watched both the elite men and women. I watched AJ finish. The man has heart and he has talent. That is a solid fact. I do not like the fact that people "walk away" because someone may struggle for a year. He's 25, soon to be 26. He has time to perfect his art, still. I find it hard to believe that we, as Americans, can love Meb and Bernard (which we should) but turn on AJ so quickly. With the right equipment and training regimen, AJ can be what AJ was, and possibly better. We are grilling him for one solitary time when we know that of which he can be and has been capable? Let's do better. Someone should sign AJ--and that is that.

Thanks,

Mike

I would not take stick's smack talk seriously. He has issues with AJ and Oregon.

Most fans would like to see AJ do well but it's a tough market when the Olympic silver medalist in the 1500m also doesn't have a contract.

IDK what opportunities AJ had or turned down. He would have fit in well with OTC Elite from a talent level perspective and being from Oregon, and gotten enough support to train full time.

1> As somebody who isn't an educator, I'm glad to hear somebody is going into that field :D2) Totally agree with this as well. The trash talking of AJ is bizarre. I've never met him and suspect most of the people who trash talk him haven't either, so I don't understand why they would come onto an anonymous message board to trash talk him. Is it because he ran fast in the past and no longer is running those times? Is that a reason to hate on somebody? I can't imagine why this thread was started in the first place.The hating on AJ reminds me of the hating on Webb. If somebody runs a fast time, post about it. If somebody has been running fast and has an off race, sure, post about it. If somebody hasn't run fast in 5 or 6 years, why are we posting about what day job they chose to take?

The hate on AJ is mostly due to his online pesona back in the Dyestat days. He was really the first "elite" high schooler to interact on Dyestat, and, like most high schoolers, he was a pretty big douche. Very full of himself.

His time at Oregon seems to have mellowed him (not being top dog will do that), but every once in a while he still makes an eye-rolling comment. Like complaining about having to run in worn out shoes because he didn't have a contract (dude, just go to the store and buy a pair).

Thank you. Excellent post. I haven't really paid that much attention to Acosta's career but what I see here is a guy who wants to keep pursuing the sport seriously even though he doesn't have sponsorship and who found a job that allows him to stay alive while he does that. How anyone can criticize someone for doing that is beyond me except that it's Letsrun and that's what people do.

not a member of aj nation wrote:

, why are we posting about what day job they chose to take?

The hate on AJ is mostly due to his online pesona back in the Dyestat days. [/quote]

So in other words, AJ outgrew you turds, and you are still wallowing in your junior high jealousy.

At one point AJ was training with the OTC and being coached by Vin:

http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2012/03/track_field_notebook_former_or.html

Did he ever get a contract offer from Nike?

We have seen some guys the last few years like Meb and Manzano who thought they were worth more than they were being offered. That ended up working out well for Meb and badly so far for Manzano. Did AJ hold out for too much lose (so far) the bet on his future performance?

You guys are speculating on a different AJ Acosta than the one I know.

The AJ Acosta I know is a laid back guy who happens to have some major running accomplishments. Footlocker champion, Sub-4 miler, etc. Who he was in high school and what he did then -- I certainly dont recall anything that bad or atypical for a HSer -- is probably much different than something he would do now.

In my opinion, AJs runner eliteness never got in the way of who he is.

This is mostly interesting to me because substitute teaching isn't that bad of a gig if you can get on the favorite list f all the teachers. Nothing wrong with making a living.

realists wrote:

You guys are speculating on a different AJ Acosta than the one I know.

The AJ Acosta I know is a laid back guy who happens to have some major running accomplishments. Footlocker champion, Sub-4 miler, etc. Who he was in high school and what he did then -- I certainly dont recall anything that bad or atypical for a HSer -- is probably much different than something he would do now.

In my opinion, AJs runner eliteness never got in the way of who he is.

I agree. His hate probably comes from when Dyestat was at it's peak. Hundreds of posts per day about elite runners, with AJ pretty much being mentioned daily. It just so happened that he was also an active poster, which was pretty cool. I was pretty much a lurker, but I was fortunate enough to also make footlocker that year. I met him, hung out with him a bit, and talked to him on occasion during the college years. I had no problems with him. He always was cool with me. Actually, if I recall correctly, he backed off the pace during FLW to encourage other runners in their attempt to qualify. Hardly a "douche" move.

Good luck to him going forward.

Actually, it's kind of funny that he is still actively mentioned so much. Those Dyestat days seem so long ago to me, now.

Don't get making a living a substitute teaching confused. You make like $50 a day. Not living wage by any stretch.

It was the whole AJ Nation thing. I think a lot of the hate came from that.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

It was the whole AJ Nation thing. I think a lot of the hate came from that.

Which isn't fair because that was some AJ fan at Oregon waiving around a sign, not Acosta himself.

Ahh yes, I remember the Dyestat days. That was before Flotrack become the azzhole of running sites and had 100% free content.

Yes runnerd, I agree. I was a fan of Alan Webb (and other athletes), as well, having followed distance running for a long time (ever since I was in high school in the early 90s). I got to see all of the acclaim such athletes got, but then I got to see the awful pitbull-style attacks on such athletes when they pulled out of races and people turned on them. It all came to a head for me when in the most recent olympic trials, Webb was in the 5000 and was not even mentioned on TV as a competitor. Back to Acosta with regard to this, we are at a very important crossroads and so is he. We could be witnessing a heroic story of someone who is keeping a dream and has someone take him under their wing or collective wings, or we can see the sad fracturing of a dream from someone who was able to string together sub-14 5Ks in the past. I only started posting here specifically after I saw him at the 5000 and was wondering what his future held. I saw him race in 2008 in a local race that he convincingly won during a college break. It is very current and very real that we could be watching one way or another. At 25, he has so much life and athletics left as a runner. Someone has got to think he is important. For those who are badmouthing Acosta, unfortunately, I did not see any of those people in the elite race this last Sunday while I watched. The man is still the real article and maybe the new "AJ Nation" can be trying to get this man to his dream--it's still a potential reality. Thanks

road rashed wrote:

Don't get making a living a substitute teaching confused. You make like $50 a day. Not living wage by any stretch.

From Stanislaus County, CA

My district, Hughson, just went to $120 (from the 95 in the document)

Not so bad in an area where you can still get a decent apartment for 800 bucks a month

not a member of aj nation wrote:

The hate on AJ is mostly due to his online pesona back in the Dyestat days. He was really the first "elite" high schooler to interact on Dyestat, and, like most high schoolers, he was a pretty big douche. Very full of himself.

As a former active Dyestat poster from that era, I don't remember him being a douche at all. It's funny that Letsrun calls him a douche considering the overall quality of message board content here, like calling out a runner for making a living as a sub teacher while hiding behind the wall of anonymity(I long for the mid-2000s Letsrun dearly). If anything, he was pretty humble about his running ability and treated the Dyestat playground posters really well.