The new distance coach at Florida will be.... Chris Solinsky

Solinsky $108,000 a year

At UF an NCAA title is a 40% bonus. Win indoors and outdoors that is starting to become real money.

GeorgiaPeachy wrote:

Spangler was making $95,000 not including bonuses for SEC's, NCAA's. At best Solinsky is making $50,000 at W&M.

So much for that 'no money' theory.

I'm not asking to bait a discussion, but is he a good coach? Obviously there isn't a correlation between being a runner and a coach.

I haven't kept up with him (in fairness, nor has he with me ;-)

Gatorland wrote:

Solinsky $108,000 a year

At UF an NCAA title is a 40% bonus. Win indoors and outdoors that is starting to become real money.

Why are tax payers footing the bill for overpaid coaching salaries in b level sport???

Get off these boards

Being from Virginia, I have seen him take some pretty decent/above average high school guys to running some studly times. He was not there that long to get a progression or trend for a whole team, but the guys that I knew exploded at his program. A lot of kids were excelling under his training

Walt Drenth, Andrew Gerard, Alex Gibby, all fine distance coaches, did not leave W&M to make less money.

Florida is one of the few programs in the country that's basically self-sufficient. Per USA Today (http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/), they had about $141M in revenue, only about $4.5M of which came from student fees and none from the university.

UF has long set the standard for salaries in the SEC, but they tend to go through coaches pretty quickly.

We're all impressed that he hasn't kept up with you. Thanks for the meaningless anonymous stealth gloat. Did you feel better after you clicked on the post message button?

Signed,

Best Runner ever on these boards, or in the world!!!!!

rojo wrote:

If he ends up being the coach, I just hope people in 3 years aren't asking why the UF xc team isn't top 10 in the country. Having talked to someone who has coached there in the past, I know they get very little scholarships for distance. Unless the recruit is basically a guaranteed scorer at NCAAs, almost zero.

And Florida despite its size isn't a good state for in-state distance recruits like Texas.

A nice result would be try to finish top 2 in xc in the weak region in xc and make it to NCAAs, try to develop a stud or two on the team that can contribute at the NCAA level, and not be a total embarrassment at SECs in the 1500-10k (zero points this year).

He's going to get more resources to recruit, but I don't think the end game here is XC. October/November in Central Florida is still pretty muggy. We will be better in XC, but no one is expecting any championships.

The real goal here is to develop scorers on the track, and there we have a huge advantage. Solinsky was a beast on the track, and he'll be able to sell top-notch facilities where you can train outdoors from January through April. And track is our thing -- we're the Once a Runner school, not the Running with the Buffaloes school.

Everyone jokes that Florida doesn't have any in-state talent, but c'mon -- this is Florida. We have athletes all over the place. Jenny Simpson and Nicole Tully were in the same graduating class down here. Mark Parrish wasn't even recruited out of high school, and he went on to score points in the steeplechase at NCAAs. It's hot down here for all of HS XC, and it's hot during regional/state track season, so it's really hard to tell how good these kids can be.

Florida went from not having a women's lacrosse team to having a top 5 team nationally in three years. We hired a coach from lacrosse country (Maryland), and told her to go up there and bring back some studs. She came back with a full team. Obviously, it's easier to do this in women's sports (given the scholarship money), but the plan is the same: have him find a couple of talented midwesterners who want to get out of the snow and see some girls with tans, and eventually start scoring points in June.

[quote]Wolfpack wrote:

Cross is nice, and yes, Florida humidity is brutal!

/quote]

Having grown up in that town, I can verify. However, somehow some post-collegiate distance runners managed to thrive training there, and not just training there in the winter:

Frank Shorter

Jack Bacheler

Jeff Galloway (when he was running, not walking)

Marty Liquori

Barry Brown

Collegians:

Tom Nohilly (steeple)

Quentin Cassidy

So, there! It can be done.

Stating the obvious wrote:

I'm not asking to bait a discussion, but is he a good coach? Obviously there isn't a correlation between being a runner and a coach.

I haven't kept up with him (in fairness, nor has he with me ;-)

I'm also curious if he is a decent coach. His team finished 8th in the fairly weak Southeast region in 2016. Success in pro sports doesn't necessarily make you a good or bad coach but it does greatly increase your marketability for coaching positions.

Gatorland wrote:

Solinsky $108,000 a year

At UF an NCAA title is a 40% bonus. Win indoors and outdoors that is starting to become real money.

Somewhat idle curiosity -- Solinsky's official titles will still by like Spangler's were, correct? "Assistant Coach" of both Cross Country and Track and Field distance events...

Hogtowner wrote:

[quote]Wolfpack wrote:

Cross is nice, and yes, Florida humidity is brutal!

/quote]

Having grown up in that town, I can verify. However, somehow some post-collegiate distance runners managed to thrive training there, and not just training there in the winter:

Frank Shorter

Jack Bacheler

Jeff Galloway (when he was running, not walking)

Marty Liquori

Barry Brown

Collegians:

Tom Nohilly (steeple)

Quentin Cassidy

So, there! It can be done.

You forgot Keith Brantley

Will he be sending his runners to Dr. Brown to treat their thyroid?

Yes, we go to one who actually went to college in the last 30 years! Oops, 35 years. Dang.

UF has recruited some good runners over that time, but I don't think any really developed. I'm thinking of the class from my era when they had one of the top milers in the country (Todd Orvis) and top 2 milers (Mike Mykotok) in the same class. Orvis flames out but I think Mykotok was ok. I'm sure there are other examples of similar classes, but I haven't followed very closely.

Athletic department is not part of the university, it is the free standing University Athletic Association (UAA). Salaries, therefore, are not part of the public record. Unless told by some who is receiving the salary, you really don't know.

Taxpayers are not involved.

Re: "the money." A young couple with a child, is to be faulted for a significant economic boost to their family?

Most insightful post on this thread was rojo.

Believe me NO ONE wants to improve UF's distance fortunes more than Mike Holloway.

People tend to forget his tenure at Gainesville Buchholz High School. In less than a decade, he had four state titles in track, and four titles and two runner ups in CROSS COUNTRY!

If true, this is disappointing news.

Solinsky was Assistant Men's Coach, Distance for track and Head Men's Cross Country Coach

William and Mary also just elevated their interim Director of CC and Track and Field to the Director.

If Assistant Coach Mike Henderson takes over, that would be great. With Solinsky there, all money was spent on distance. If that changes, that would be bad.

Wolfpack wrote:

Believe me NO ONE wants to improve UF's distance fortunes more than Mike Holloway.

People tend to forget his tenure at Gainesville Buchholz High School. In less than a decade, he had four state titles in track, and four titles and two runner ups in CROSS COUNTRY!

No doubt, Holloway did do a excellent job at Buchholz, which set him up as a great hire by Jeremy Foley.

Still, I just wonder about the internal dynamics of Florida distance running, with Holloway apparently providing at least some direction over the XC program?

One of Spanger's comments to MileSplit after leaving for Boston University:

"For me, it was the opportunity to coach at a academically prestigious university with outstanding facilities and training environment for distance runners. Also, the chance to be a head cross country coach again was appealing."