Kevin Sullivan to Michigan

Who?

Right now or back when he was going to ncaa

We're merging several threads into one. Since I don't know how to do it electonically I'm doing it by hand. From another thread.

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Does Kevin Sullivan have the coaching experience of others who would have applied?

At a public institution doesn't the hiring process have to be competitive?

Read the press release from mgoblue.com...!

Why would they hire a non-American? I know most of their studs in recent (or not so recent) years - like Ellerton, Brannen, Willis and Sullivan - were foreigners. But really! These are American institutions that should hire qualified American coaches. Same with Faculty. Let the Ivy League pretend they are better by getting foreign professors, but leave sports development to American coaches whose interest it is to develop Americans. No wonder there are so many foreign athletes in the NCAA. It is time this stopped. Why doesn't he go coach at a Canadian University/College - how many of their programs could use his help?

fu manchu wrote:

Why would they hire a non-American? I know most of their studs in recent (or not so recent) years - like Ellerton, Brannen, Willis and Sullivan - were foreigners. But really! These are American institutions that should hire qualified American coaches. Same with Faculty. Let the Ivy League pretend they are better by getting foreign professors, but leave sports development to American coaches whose interest it is to develop Americans. No wonder there are so many foreign athletes in the NCAA. It is time this stopped. Why doesn't he go coach at a Canadian University/College - how many of their programs could use his help?

Why should citizenship be a hinderance to hiring the best potentional individual for the position in question? That Sullivan was born north of the border instead of south of it os of no consequence to his abilities to coach. Team USA's head soccer coach this year is German but they didn't let that stop their decision to hire him.

Sully is an athletic prodigy who will do well as a coach. I believe his freshman 800m time was 1:53. He knows racing and training from personal experience. I know there are many arguments that say a great athlete will not always be a great coach and vice versa. Sully though is Canadian. Enough said.

"Why would they hire a non-American" - give me a break. It's the 21st century, people move around. Take a look at the faculty of any major American university like UM - they come from all around the world.

Sully is a great hire. Smart, personal guy who will do great things for the program. Interested to see how quickly he can land some big name recruits. High schoolers won't necessarily know his name as well as they did a few years ago, but that might not matter much. How many NCAA coaches have had the success he has at the international level? That will be a huge recruiting tool.

Karen still Florida State?

A personal guy? does that make him a good coach? If he does not get much money to work with, he will not get big recruits. Most runners in the US that are entering college do not know who he is or what he does. He is from Canada, so I guess you are saying they will get mostly Canadian recruits. And if he is a great hire, why didn't he have a coaching position before?

Personal guy = a positive for recruiting, internal AD politics everyone has to play, being a positive figure for the team and school in interviews, etc. Being well-liked is never a bad thing. And absolutely not saying he will get mostly Canadian recruits. Canada will never produce more than a handful of distance guys who are good enough for full-rides to the NCAA each year. Some years there are hardly any.

Recruiting is not all about money. Sure, for 4:0x and 8:5x guys you need to throw money at them, but for many great college runners, money isn't the only draw. He will have enough scholarships available to him to land some big names. When recruits see 3:50/ mile and 5th at the Olympics, they will take notice that this is someone who probably knows something about training and competing at a high-level.

Also, he does have coaching experience. Quite a bit actually - read his bio. I assume you meant why didn't he have a full-time coaching position before - how would any of us know. I would assume it is because for most of the last 15 years he was an athlete first and seemingly allowed KH to develop her own career and helped out when he could. He couldn't just show up to FSU and be named the mens coach. Look who is there.

outstandingfacts wrote:

I guess this is one of those quality posts that rojo says they won't delete because there is nothing to prove it is not true. This is why your site has become a joke, and why 90% of people on here just want to stir up crap...

The obvious hilarity here is that the brojos DID delete that post, and the post now only appears as quoted by you, the person lobbying to get rid of it.

Classic.

Vax wrote:

Who?

ha

From my understanding, he wasnt really around much at FSU. Yeah, he was listed as volunteer coach, but thats probably so FSU could pay to take him to meets with Karen when he wanted to go.

What are you talking about? Immigration is a topic that we are going to allow. Ironically, your post was deleted because I assume you used the 'report post' function and someone decided it was just easier to delete it. I have no problem with the question.

Many people are xenophobic. Many people don't want Kenyans getting 'American' scholarships. Many assumed the xenophobes are racist but apparently it goes farther than that. Personally, I like the hire.

I am not sure if I like the hire. Jason Kidd got hired with no coaching experience as a head coach. It was based on him being a great player. The jury is still out on how he will do as a head coach in the NBA.

Kevin was a great athlete. How will he work with high school kids coming in that are maybe 4:15 types that Michigan does need to develop. Can he relate to those folks.

One of the knocks on great athletes becoming successful coaches is that they have a hard time relating to those who are not as talented as they were. Kevin was amazingly gifted, and used that gift to become world-class.

What about working with athletes that they must have to be successful that aren't world-class and will never be at that level. Can he understand and relate. That will be the question.

Is his wife staying @ FSU?

The folks above who were talking about a "personal" coach--did they mean "personable"? Or did they mean he was a one-on-one coach for just a single individual (or maybe a few)?

I'm not trying to bust anyone's chops (this time); I'm genuinely curious.