Harvard Takes Another Hit - From a Coach on Staff

FreddieTheFreeloader wrote:

used goodz wrote:

Was a pole vaulter for MIT.

Cute girl with cute job title: "gives academic and emotional support..".

Sigh..rich people problems.

"Cute girl"

"Cute job title"

^ You are talking about someone who went to MIT undergrad, was a pole vaulter, and now is getting her Ph.D. at Harvard where she volunteer coaches on the track team. Sooooo... either A. you're particularly hard to impress, or B. if it's not a perspective shared by you, it's not a valid perspective.

I'm afraid that this video makes me despair about reaching the "Carbon-free world of awesome." My son said in watching that end, "she looks frustrated."

But kudos to her for working toward an ambitious(!) goal. And this has nothing whatsoever to do with whether the Harvard coach is mistreating his athletes. It is pretty obvious that he is and she had no self-interest in saying so. But a 50% injury rate among distance runners isn't exactly unprecedented. The injury rate at Stanford, on the men's side, maybe the women's too, this track season seems to be a lot higher than that.

Oh, She's real wrote:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-kuntz-8b86a588

Snowflake

Bonkers wrote:

If you can't keep 50% of your athletes healthy in 1 season, then that's a massive failure by the coach. Everything else aside.

And if you can't keep 40% of your athletes healthy for 2 seasons at your previous coaching job in Long Beach, then it is a double failure.

It was actually 8 of the 11 remaining women distance runners hurt this spring. This seems to be PWD's norm. Might explain why the top Harvard recruit recommitted and will be attending Princeton instead.

So sorry, I got my PhD at CalTech where civil discourse and intelligent debate was the norm.

Harvard's bellwether today is whom, Conan O'Brien or this hysterical hoyden?

99ninety wrote:

Oh, She's real wrote:

Snowflake

Do not use this term. It does not mean cry-baby liberal. It comes from the Aryans.

This thread is seriously warped. How many posters here are on the team at Harvard? So why do you care /spread the hate? If the article were written by Justin Smith, Ph.D., MIT pole vaulter, would you react the same way?

This thread is showing me how many people on this forum just want women to be seen and not heard. With this kind of response from supposed running fans, is it no surprise that student athletes are shamed into staying silent? Especially for the women?

I'm a Harvard track alumna (yes - I am a woman). I'm one of Haggartys last athletes so I have no personal experience of what the current program is like. But as an alum, reading these articles - especially ones written by coaching staff members - it maddens and saddens me to know that the program has become broken, despite the fact it has turned into one of the power programs in the Norheast. Even if what they are writing is not 100% true, it is showing me that there is some kind of distrust and fracturing within the program that shows it isn't healthy.

With these stories coming out, I'm curious on how the program or school will react/respond, and at what expense it will take ($, recruits, etc). I wouldn't be surprised if the administration continues to not do anything publicly as they try to save face. Would they ignore a female volunteer coach? I wouldn't put it past them. They may be reacting the same way these fellow posters are in here or in the comments of the original article. It's sad I feel that way, but I can wish there is enough of a reaction that will force them to do something.

ChubbsMcGoo wrote:

So sorry, I got my PhD at CalTech where civil discourse and intelligent debate was the norm.

Harvard's bellwether today is whom, Conan O'Brien or this hysterical hoyden?

Are you proud of yourself because you can use alliterative sexism? Your libelous language will lead to your eventual lambasting, you lackadaisical loser. Lauren represents the best of Harvard: she is a compassionate and dedicated leader who is willing to speak truth to power. I'm sure she knew that she'd have to deal with morons liike you, but she published her editorial anyway, because it was the right thing to do. Caltech is a outstanding institution; perhaps they will allow ypu to return for a intensive course about how to be less of a sexist schmuck.

The following was just shared as a comment on Lauren's article. Is Lucy also "hysterical"?

As a recent Harvard graduate (Class of 2015) and former athlete on the female track and cross-country teams, I very strongly identify with this article. Kudos to you, Lauren Kuntz, for bravely publishing this and choosing not to hide behind the cloak of anonymity. I ran for a few years under Jason Saretsky (he oversaw the female distance program at this time point, circa 2011-2013) and chose to quit the team during the spring of my sophomore year. I was constantly injured, running 2x the mileage I ran during high school and felt like an inconsequential statistic. Jason rarely displayed empathy and compassion to his female athletes who were not in the top 3 of their distance group and berated my best friend (who was the female track team captain at the time) for her serious injuries and difficult choice to not compete during her senior spring. This is a man who spoke to other members of the womens team and urged them to individually talk to my best friend and "encourage" her to participate at the outdoor Ivy League Championships i.e. guilt trip her into competing. Jason was relentless with this campaign and it infuriates me to this day that he remains employed at my alma mater.

If anyone within the Athletic Department is reading this, I highly encourage you to schedule meetings and circulate a poll within the womens track and cross country teams to garner objective, honest feedback free from the fear-based results that would occur if Jason were to ask for feedback.

Please remember that this man is in a position of power over 18-22 year old women; these are their formative years and being coached by someone like Jason Saretsky is a surefire way to wreck their physical and psychological health.

And as my username suggests, my name is Lucy McCullough. I invite anyone reading this who is skeptical of my background to google search me and verify that I did attend Harvard, I did run on the cross country and track teams, and I do have personal experience with Jason Saretsky and the rest of the administration.

"is whom" ?I guess you didn't learn grammar at CalTech.

ChubbsMcGoo wrote:

So sorry, I got my PhD at CalTech where civil discourse and intelligent debate was the norm.

Harvard's bellwether today is whom, Conan O'Brien or this hysterical hoyden?

"ChubbsMcGoo" is not the tag name of a Cal-Tech Ph.D. Do you know any Cal Tech Ph.D.s? This is the tag name of a frat boy or a guy sitting at home a lot.

Running twice the mileage of high school, feeling like a statistic , being pressured to run when a bit hurt, coaches not showing empathy, this unfortunately is not unique to Harvard. I've had a few of my HS athletes experience this when they chose to run for D1 schools. Most also stopped running. I was never able to understand why a nurturing environment can't take place on more D1 track teams. No wonder some HS runners don't improve in college.

I've read these threads over the last few months without commenting because I have nothing to add and have no clue what is happening. I've known Jason and his family since he was a kid and this saddens me. Hopefully the administration will have meetings, circulate a poll, watch the coaches closely and "read them the riot act" give them one last chance or remove them. Horrible for all involved.

Elbata slow your roll or we're telling coach about your postings here.

Judging by how defensive this thread is getting it's very clear the Harvard contingent going up against PWD is all over these boards to smear his name. Maybe if you guys went about this better you'd have some traction.

Repeats after me: "even though I'm Harvard edumacated doesn't mean I'm any more special than anyone else and I will hopefully some day learn how to handle what it takes to run for a high level program without crying to the school newspaper."

HarvardAlum wrote:

Judging by how defensive this thread is getting it's very clear the Harvard contingent going up against PWD is all over these boards to smear his name. Maybe if you guys went about this better you'd have some traction.

Repeats after me: "even though I'm Harvard edumacated doesn't mean I'm any more special than anyone else and I will hopefully some day learn how to handle what it takes to run for a high level program without crying to the school newspaper."

+1

Coach wrote:I've known Jason and his family since he was a kid and this saddens me.

HINT HINT: BIAS ALERT!!!

Beardingus wrote:

Elbata slow your roll or we're telling coach about your postings here.

Is that supposed to be scary? You're going to "tell on me"? You aren't even good at trolling. God, you're pathetic.

elbatata wrote:

Beardingus wrote:

Elbata slow your roll or we're telling coach about your postings here.

Is that supposed to be scary? You're going to "tell on me"? You aren't even good at trolling. God, you're pathetic.

Looks like I struck a nerve. Hope your day gets better lol