Unwanted Coach (College Division 1).....Ask Them To Step Down??? ADVICE NEEDED URGENTLY!!

You aren't in a position to affect the situation.

That means you have a few choices.

1. run at another school.

2. run unattached and still go to the current school.

3. stop running so seriously.

You aren't there for very long and you have no authority, so, I'd head to another school and take as many athletes with you as you can.

I'm interested to know if prior to going to the school if you had an opportunity to figure out the stuff you know now.

I will agree that you don't have a lot of control. When I was in college, my school let our CC and distance track coach go after my JR year. They said it was because recruitment was down and there were no evident results. Whether or not that is accurate is debatable, but not the point. The replacement situation was terrible.

The athletic department tried to look like they were being fair and allowed several athletes to be on a "committee" to seek the replacement, and us (as well as anyone else who wanted) sat in on a "group interview" with all candidates that the AD brought to campus. I was promised several times that the school would not compromise and hire someone just to fill the void. We had a head track coach that could handle CC for a season if the process wasn't complete.

We interviewed three men. The first was amazing, but wanted way too much money and was already head of a brilliant program. The second would be moving from a successful JUCO program to NCAA, was a good guy, seemed a little narrow minded, but was smart and had college coaching credentials. The third had some good high school coaching creds, but was dumb as nails when it came to training philosophy and rubbed every athlete that met him as weird and unapproachable. We shared our thoughts with the AD.

The JUCO guy was offered the job, took it, and then changed his mind in June. I specifically told the AD that we needed to open up for interviews again, as we had no candidate that we saw fit to hire. The third guy got the job. He was let go 2 or 3 years later for being inappropriate with our ladies team.

Case and point: you have no control unless you get her to step down. Your description of her personality does not make that sound promising.

Sorry and good luck.

I've actually just gone through a situation like this in which my teammates and I actually reached a successful conclusion. Basically, we had a decent cross country coach who had brought on an assistant who was a nice guy but didn't have a clue what he was doing. The head coach didn't do track because she had some other stuff going on, but at the conclusion of the season we just told her what was going on and then she made sure the other guy wasn't rehired for cross country. Just talk to multiple people in authority,not just one AD. Also, bring up specific instances of whats wrong with this guy and bring eye witnesses as well, the more the marrier. Good luck.

I'm not defending your coach, but you are incredibly naive. You're not asking someone to quit the team, you're asking someone to quit their job. Do you understand the difference?

Tough situation, and I honestly don't see a good outcome.

But would it be possible to do something more positive? Could the xc kids, male and definitely female together, possibly go in to the dept. administration and strongly express your desire to have the male asst. selected as head xc?

In your remaining time there, you might not see a lot of immediate change but you could start the process of change for future athletes in that program. Parents, Equity director, AD, President, lawyer etc... Could be made aware of a hostile, negative program and that bad PR is no good for the school. Threaten with pursuit through litigation And you will get more attention at least brought to the matter. Bullying, nonproductive, negative environments are a death sentence to a program. Uh, don't you pay tuition? State school? Tax payers deserve better.

It sounds like you are causing drama. If you can't explain what the problem is in a paragraph, its probably that you are causing unnecessary drama. What I got from this is you don't like your coach. Your post told me nothing concrete about why this particular coach is bad. No examples of training, workouts, or anything. If the coach is so bad, why don't you transfer. If you're fast enough that it would matter, there are other schools who'd love to take you. Plenty of athletes transfer when there are coaching changes. The other option is to start doing some of your training, like morning runs, on your own.

The simplest and most productive step to resolve your issue would be to have a candid meeting with the coaching staff. Writing poor evaluations, speaking with the AD, and venting on a message board are all forms of complaining rather than attempting to solve the problem. If you don't like how your coach is treating you, then you need to speak with your coach and explain to her why you feel uncomfortable on the team (e.g. examples of how she was mean to you) because only she is capable of changing her behavior. Meeting with the coaches could also help enlighten you to why the team/coaching staff operates the way it does.

Asking someone to resign from their job when you are not her employer is a bold move and would likely be perceived as inappropriate. If you are unhappy competing on this team, you can transfer to another school or quit the team and run club. Please remember that you chose to attend this university, and if you are unhappy with your decision, then you can put yourself in a different environment by leaving the team. It is not up to you to decide who will coach this team, but you do have the power to decide how you react to the changes in coaching staff. If you go in with the mindset that you will not be successful, then you will likely not be successful. However, if you keep an open mind, you might have a great season. I understand your frustrations, but try to look at it from the perspective of what you can do to better yourself rather than focusing on the components that are out of your control.

Jason Hartmann is not capable for college coaching staff.

You doomsday predictors need to calm down. You're the reason this team is splitting in two. Most of us guys have accepted the decision and are just hoping our guy gets the assistant job. The few that haven't are delusional and are acting entitled. It's clear that the athletic department doesn't care what we think so why would anything we do now change that. Most of us are just focused on the XC season at hand and are trying to make ourselves better runners, which is completely under our own control. Any hopes of asking the HC to step down will be futile, as she's an egomaniac who cares mostly about having power. And any of the guys threatening to transfer are just bluffing, and if they're serious then we'll be happy to see them go, because we don't want teammates like that anyway. We're not Oregon, we're the worst team in a mid-major conference with the majority of the team consisting of walk-ons. The world isn't going to end because the guy we wanted didn't get the job, so the sooner you all accept that the better.

Sincerely,

The majority of the guys team

The AD should have kicked you off the team already.

If you were capable of being really good you'd already be good.

What pathetic whiny attempt to throw someone under the bus.

Take responsibility for your own training and quit trying to blame everyone around you. In this day in age if you aren't resourceful enough to use google and find a good training program, you are going to struggle with life.

I know who you are, and you are a person who is always going to be miserable, and always going to be a victim. I hope you make this a turning point in your life, but judging by your post it won't be.

Enjoy the rest of your life at the back of the pack.

TALK WITH THE HEAD COACH Most of the time they understand, want to talk with you and workout an arrangement.

STOP RUNNING TO THE AD. I'll tell you right now, the AD doesn't care, and it just makes everyone coaches, runners, and athletes look bad. The university already has cut its men's track team, its a much easier decision to cut XC if the coaches are inept and the team are a bunch of a-holes. Not to mention, the next time you want new uniforms, equipment or assistant coaches, what do you thing the AD's response will be?

Meet with the head coach, in many cases, the head coach's main job is to be an administrator anyway, and will lean on assistants for coaching. Voice your concerns, or merely praise what a great job (X) assistant is doing and that you would like to keep working with them. That's usually enough to get what you want.

Even if you get the coach fired, you will have alienated yourself so much that your career is over, or you will transfer within the year.

Just some general "college" advice, view your coach like a part of your team. Believe they always want the best for you. And work with them to get what you need to be successful. As with every relationship, you may have to give a little, to get a little.

Great point. What do you actually bring to the table here? So far it sounds like just a lot of drama. "NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU THINK"

You're the problem wrote:

The AD should have kicked you off the team already.

If you were capable of being really good you'd already be good.

What pathetic whiny attempt to throw someone under the bus.

Take responsibility for your own training and quit trying to blame everyone around you. In this day in age if you aren't resourceful enough to use google and find a good training program, you are going to struggle with life.

I know who you are, and you are a person who is always going to be miserable, and always going to be a victim. I hope you make this a turning point in your life, but judging by your post it won't be.

Enjoy the rest of your life at the back of the pack.

A friend of mine is in a similar position. He inherited a program where the long time head coach is retiring, 2 long time assistants quit, the only assistant left is barely capable of driving a van and holding a stop watch. The assistant undermines his authority, changes workouts, gives extra attention to some of the girls on the team.

My friend can't stand the assistant but is stuck with him due to budget cuts. Now there's no money to hire any other assistants and he's really stuck.

Competing in college should be one of the best times of your life, and you only have 4/5 years that you can do it. It is too valuable of an experience to have it ruined by a bad coach or team atmosphere. I transferred after two years at a crappy school with a dbag coach to a nationally ranked school with a great coach, and it was the best decision I'd ever made in my life. You don't realize how bad it is until you go somewhere that is not dysfunctional. Being unhappy enough that you post an essay on letsrun about your problems is not normal and not the way that it should be. If you just finished your freshman year, then you're in a good position to transfer. You can't get the time you spent at your current school back, but you can make your future much better.

A few thoughts.

I would not recommend asking the coach to resign.

Are there team captains? That's often a token recognition for a senior(s), but functionally they should interface between the coach(es) and the larger team members. Try to work with them and the others on the team who are unhappy with the coaching situation and determine what is worth communicating with the coaches and what is worth communicating with the AD.

It's not clear what has been communicated with the AD aside from some bad evaluations. You really should set up a meeting (individually or collectively) to air your complaints and see how they can be resolved.

Some of what you have said is a "personal style" matter that may not be resolved easily such as modifying workouts written by another coach or preferring to work with the women's track team in the Spring when the men are in a club status.

An AD often has to play "musical chairs" with coaching staff assignments. Typically the jobs don't pay that great and require a lot hours, so it's understandable that someone may have a "day" job and coach part-time or it may be hard to recruit someone who is better able to replace a current coach.

At the end of the day, you will need to be responsible for yourself on deciding to stick it out, quit the team and finish at your school, or transfer to a different school.