Why Hasn't Pat Tyson Made Gonzaga a National Powerhouse?

Forgetting for the moment That you call yourself "GSL", Tyson has remade the Gonzaga record books in the last few years. He has built a program which now gets regional votes in the XC rankings, has athletes qualify for NCAA regional qualifying in track, and had Emily Thomas make two straight appearances in the NCAA Outdoor Championships. He has done this with limited scholarship money (I believe 1 1/2 scholarships for each of the men's and women's teams) and recruiting athletes who meet Gonzaga's academic requirements.

GSL would lead me to surmise you have more than passing knowledge of the Greater Spokane League and therefore would know a bit more about Gonzaga as a school. Tyson took on a huge remodeling job when he took over at Gonzaga and lesser coaches would have run away from the challenge, but not Pat and now we are beginning to see the fruits of that remodel with school records every single season.

Maybe the guy is a good coach, but not a good recruiter. You need to be both at the college level.

His "begging" parents to move to Mead territory raises some questions from me. I'm not familiar with Washington high school sports and rules, but I can't image that recruiting is allowed there.

used car salesman wrote:

Maybe the guy is a good coach, but not a good recruiter. You need to be both at the college level.

particularly with no scholarships to offer.

Because talent of his athletes is way more important than coaching and he doesn't have any scholarships to attract top talent.

cooptastic wrote:

His "begging" parents to move to Mead territory raises some questions from me. I'm not familiar with Washington high school sports and rules, but I can't image that recruiting is allowed there.

My mistake, I begged my parents to move to Spokane in HS. They of course said no. Tyson did not beg my parents to move. He reminds me of Pete Carroll in that he seems to get the best out of his athletes and creates a positive/fun culture. This isn't a post ripping on Tyson. He's one of the greatest long distance minds in the country.

Gonzaga track and xc only gets 1.2 scholarships for the whole mens team.

used car salesman wrote:

Maybe the guy is a good coach, but not a good recruiter. You need to be both at the college level.

You obviously don't know the guy. He is the KING of recruiting. Every top level runner I know from Washington wants to run for Pat. But selling a $36k tuition with no scholarships goes beyond even the ability of even Zig Ziglar.

I believe Pat is hoping to move to Oregon in the future. If he does, watch out. Oregon will be unstoppable.

the gugs wrote:

used car salesman wrote:

Maybe the guy is a good coach, but not a good recruiter. You need to be both at the college level.

particularly with no scholarships to offer.

Is that what he tells people? Looks like there's $4,114,675 devoted towards scholarships at Gonzaga and a budget of $100,000+ for the XC/track program. Surely he's got at least a few scholarships to work with (plus being the Director and having control).

Former WCC guy here,

Gonzaga has made GIGANTIC improvements in the last couple of years. In fact, the WCC as a whole has. You have to remember that 6-7 years ago, the conference was terrible outside of Portland. From around 2000 to when BYU joined, Portland would send their "B" team and destroy the rest of the conference. In fact, 2003 Portland's "B" scored a perfect 15 at the conference championships in 2003! You'd be lucky if there were one or two guys outside of UP that could crack 15 minutes in the 5k. Now, Loyala Marymount, San Francisco, and Gonzaga all have a couple studs who are throwing down some serious times.

The Angel of Death wrote:

Former WCC guy here,

Gonzaga has made GIGANTIC improvements in the last couple of years. In fact, the WCC as a whole has. You have to remember that 6-7 years ago, the conference was terrible outside of Portland. From around 2000 to when BYU joined, Portland would send their "B" team and destroy the rest of the conference. In fact, 2003 Portland's "B" scored a perfect 15 at the conference championships in 2003! You'd be lucky if there were one or two guys outside of UP that could crack 15 minutes in the 5k. Now, Loyala Marymount, San Francisco, and Gonzaga all have a couple studs who are throwing down some serious times.

Wow, this a really nice, relevant post.

(sarcasm)

Because the GSL is hyper competitive, and when you have 90 guys turn out for a high school XC team year after year, you're gonna be in pretty good shape. Not to take anything away from Pat, but college is a different situation with regards to recruiting and developing talent. (also, didn't those Mead teams put in huge milage back in the day? You take 90 guys and have them all run 70 mpw, you'll have enough studs emerge to field a great squad)

He has 1.5 scholarships per gender. This is a fact. It's all dedicated to distance runners, being that they only carry distance runners, but there is zero chance for any school to be a "national powerhouse" without being fully-funded, especially an expensive private university. He's a great coach. He's doing a very good job relative to what they have. Gonzaga's ceiling is low, and his teams run near it.

Do you mean Pete Carrol from Swarthmore? His HS coach was Mark Wetmore, technically it was Ed Mather, but you get the point.

If you include morning runs, it was probably somewhere between 50-70 mpw, summer was closer to 70. Tyson was a great recruiter at Mead, he had soccer players, wrestlers, and even some basketball players joined XC to get in shape for basketball season. College is a different beast, that and I'd be curious as to the number of top high school runners, who are unable to get a scholarship, that have $36k in their savings account($144k for a bachelors). The man knows how to motivate, he was best friends with one of the most charismatic runners, and learned from some of the greatest coaches. He still has that mystique about him where you can feel his energy, I dunno where he gets it from, but he has it, and people can feel it. Why isn't Gonzaga a powerhouse? Could be a number of reasons already said as to why GU isn't dominating XC and Track, but I doubt it's Tyson. For him, it's a new trail to blaze and he won't give anything less than his best.

UO gets the National Scholastic Academic champions, and perfect SAT/ACT applicants, that's why.

I've been close to Pat on many different fronts and he is a close colleague.

He was a great coach in high school.

He knows how to recruit WA kids.

He gets every last inch of tread out of the Pre connection.

He has taken Gonzaga from irrelevant to very competitive.

He has done so with less than 2 scholarships on the men's side.

He, along with Patty have done well with the women and qualified for NCAA's

To the poster above citing budget of $100,000..... That is about as much money as a homeless person on welfare; included in that budget: all shoes, shirts, gear, equipment of any kind, travel expenses, team camp, meals, team entry fees....etc. oh and coaches salaries.

Ultimately, Gonzaga recruits a certain niche athlete: super poor smart kids, super rich smart kids, super rich average grades.....in that order. They get need based grants from the school and generous academic scholarship so the most money possible is for the first group. Gonzaga is all about developing average or undiscovered talent and with his network of coaches in the state, Tyson is able to snatch up many kids that fit his program.

I believe the program is doing well, but don't see it getting a whole lot better without more financial support from the administration. Even with that, I'm not convinced that Pat Tyson is as good a DI coach as he was a HS coach.... That is only from what I have seen. By no means a bad coach.... Just not going to be a hall of famer.

Someone else might be able to clarify, but my recollection and understanding was that Tysons Big Opportunity came when Dellinger retired. His name was heavy in the succession rumor but it went to Lanana.

Isn't Gonzaga one of those schools that make you take 3 hate classes to graduate with a bachelors, that's why.