How Is Amy Begley A "World Class" Coach?

What she coached two girls to ncaas. She'll have two Olympians in no time!

I notice the press release says she coached two athletes to the NCAA cross country champs for the first time in program history???

ahhhhh except for that time the entire team qualified and finished inside the Top 10 in 2012.

yaright wrote:

I notice the press release says she coached two athletes to the NCAA cross country champs for the first time in program history???

ahhhhh except for that time the entire team qualified and finished inside the Top 10 in 2012.

I believe those 2 athletes were part of the 2012 team. So no big improvement.

Amy was a solid college runner at Arkansas but not world class. She was brought into the NOP to be a training partner for Kara. She needed the magic sauce in order to train at the same level as Kara. Poof she is an instant Olympian. Because she wouldn't follow orders the sauce was taken away and she was pushed out of the group. She was upset and left to coach at UConn. The team immediately stopped qualifying for Nats. She has developed nothing.

Lets call a spade a spade- no one wants to work under JJ! Amy was there for 1+ yr. Didn't some of the UConn athletes leave after the coach left? It takes time to build a team- at least the 2 who qualified didn't get worse. Good for her getting a pro coaching job.

You can't judge Begley based on her time at Uconn. Right when she signed on 3 of UConn's top runners transferred, their top recruit decided to go to Iowa State to train with the former coach, and the girl who was All American this year was injured. So although in the 2013 preseason UConn was predicted to be a top ten team, they didn't even make NCAAs. This year I guess was a building year for them but Lauren Sara (All American who was injured last year) did very well.

So what should we judge Amy on?

1. Should we base it on how well next years team does? That would be the result of 3 years of recruiting.

2. Should we just throw out her UConn experience and base it on her wealth of previous coaching?

I bet that in 2 years the apologists will be saying "Just give her time"

The point is that Atlanta & Mizuno were shopping for a world class coach. This from runners world:

"The 21,000-member ATC had announced earlier this month that it would hire a “world-class” coach to develop training programs and provide instruction for the Atlanta running community, a function previously performed by volunteers."

Begley barely qualifies as an assistant college coach, and is no way a world class coach. Who has she coached that's world class?

Iowa State is my new home wrote:

Amy was a solid college runner at Arkansas but not world class. She was brought into the NOP to be a training partner for Kara. She needed the magic sauce in order to train at the same level as Kara. Poof she is an instant Olympian.

You are correct in that she became a terrific runner when she went to train with NOP. But aren't you just making a guess regarding the reason for her improvement?

Because she wouldn't follow orders the sauce was taken away and she was pushed out of the group.

This 'guess' is a little over-the-top, no? She turned out to be an incredible runner. She beat Flanagan in at the USA Championships. But unfortunately, I think(?) it was an injury spiral that resulted in her retirement, and Nike cutting her, no?

This from another thread:

AYB is a joke of a coach and her hubby was a washout HS coach and this marriage with ATC will last all of 1 year. She is not experienced enough to attract talented runners to join her and not a good enough coach to take local talent and turn them into something special.

Inside politics businessas usual

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=5537496&page=158#ixzz3KCzKGyTE

Just because somebody out of jealousy posts something anonymously on the internet, doesn't make it true.

The fact is, Amy Yoder Begley was given a shot at the NOP to come in and 'just' be Kara's training partner. She instead ended up going to the big dance, no? And to top it, she ended up KO'ing Flanagan on the track at USA's!

Rah, Rah, Ziss Boom BAH!

But what does that have to do with her coaching abilities?

We fail too often because we think good athletes will make good coaches. Rarely does it happen.

Not sure who you think "we" is, but the reason Begley will likely be a great coach is because she not only has actually 'been there' and exceptionally succeeded, but she also has been very no-nonsense candid and informative on the real-world ins-and-outs, and desirous of making a positive difference Unlike the trolls that post mindless, useless crap here, while wasting their employers time, or not actually having a job.

coachingtomorrow wrote:

But what does that have to do with her coaching abilities?

We fail too often because we think good athletes will make good coaches. Rarely does it happen.

The blaring point is not wether she will be a world class coach, but the fact that, right now, she is nowhere even close to a world class coach.

A former world class runner (like Rick Kenah), yes.

But at least Rich cut his teeth in the agent/admin side of the sport before heading up a big org. Amy has coached nobody. Nobody. Period.

I, personally, hope it works out as Mizuno/ATC are putting some serious money into this.

But an Olympian by Tokyo (or two, with the goal of one man and one woman)? Maybe only if Amy suits up again :)

Amy hasn't actually even coached men yet...........

I agree it is an uphill challenge for Amy. If she had coached good athletes, good college graduates might want to go to ATL.

But with ATL being a hot/humid swamp, it'll be tough.

Another thread pointed out there haven't been any NCAA XC champs from south of Arkansas. There's a reason for that and it is not $$.

Good luck to MIzuno and and ATC and Amy. But I see another Furman Elite... Good kids with great perks, OT qualifiers, really good at supporting weekend warriors and kids, but no Olympians... (well, unless the target throwers and pole vaulters)

buckles mcturkeystein wrote:

But with ATL being a hot/humid swamp, it'll be tough.

Another thread pointed out there haven't been any NCAA XC champs from south of Arkansas. There's a reason for that and it is not $$.

)

I agree on your other points, but your XC point might make sense if the Olympics were on an XC course in 40deg or colder weather. But they're not.

One of the main reasons you haven't seen a southern XC champ is because the timing of the season doesn't match up. In many places in the south you go from 60-70deg weather to running nationals in 30 something.

Notice, that there have been plenty of successful southern kids running fast on the track.

Also, if you look team wise, FSU has come close to winning on the men and womens side, so lets not distort facts.

Coming close to winning is not winning.

buckles mcturkeystein wrote:

Another thread pointed out there haven\\\'t been any NCAA XC champs from south of Arkansas. There\\\'s a reason for that and it is not $$.

)

Pretty sure that Houston, Tuscon, Austin, Los Angeles and El Paso are all south of Arkansas.

she is world-class and she is a coach. so, by fallacy of composition, she is a world-class coach.

Workd class abs don't make a coach..: although Canova has washboards!