Is Cal's Chas Davis the best high school recruiting coach in the nation?

Don't know if you know this, but athletics has a lot of pull in most universities. Say an average student at a school like Cal is around 4.5 weighted GPA and 1500 on new SAT. Well, Cal can probably get in a 3.7 kid with a 1300 on the SAT through athletics. Wouldn't be surprised if it was even lower. A school being "tough" isn't necessarily always the issue when it comes to athletics. Also, they are in a highly desirable area of the country, with a highly desirable campus, within a highly desirable conference. Yes, it is oh so difficult to recruit there......

I am more impressed by the recruits in the past that ASU, Oregon State, and Washington State have managed to land.

I don’t know exactly what their admission standards are, but I recruited a CIF state champion a few years ago that wound up at Cal. He had less than 1000 on SAT.

No Chas, you are not.

Marshawn Lynch Went to Cal. He is next level dumb. And he’s not the only one at Cal. They will find a place for you if you are a stud.

What is amazing isnt that he can recruit good athletes to a tough school. Instead, what is amazing is that he can recruit good athletes to a school with a terrible head coach and revolving door of assistant coaches.

Having some insight into the program, my impression is that they end up with a fairly high percentage of athletes who are more interested in school than athletics. The ones interested more in picking a good athletic fit are mostly going elsewhere.

Chas seems like a good guy. But like every other coach there whose last name isnt Sandoval, I wouldnt expect him to be there a few years from now.

I've recently sent kids to other good programs (oregon, ucla, as well as some lower level programs.) I strongly recommend to my athletes not to go to Cal, unless it is their absolute dream school for academic reasons and they are willing to potentially be throwing away athletics by going there.

Shayla Houlihan is the head coach now... what makes you think Chas is responsible for the recruiting? The athletes love her and are much more engaged in coming to Cal because of her.

NCAA watchful wrote:

Over the past few years, Davis has pulled in top-5 recruiting classes and top tier high school blue chips despite recruiting for one of the toughest universities in the country.

Off the top of my head, here are some of the top high school individuals:

Garrett Corcoran 4:05 /8:52 (hs '14)

Bethan Knights 9:53/4:42 (hs '14)

Robert Brandt 8:51 2mile (hs '15)

Kai Benedict 4:10/8:58 (hs' 15)

Takeshi Okada 3:55 1500/14:21 5k (hs '15)

Jordyn Colter 2:04/4:45 (hs '15)

Stephanie Jenks 4:44/10:06/16:37 5k (hs '16)

Brie Oakley 4:41/9:52/15:52 (hs '17)

Wow thanks, I had no idea how exactly this school became such an NCAA running powerhouse. In the recent PAC12 conference meet, the women had both the last place finisher in the 5000 (35th) and the 11th place finisher in the 10K (Oakley). No other Cal athletes were taxed with event entries. They are being saved for Zurich.

Meanwhile the men had a sprinkling of back markers in the 800, 5K and 10K.

Bravo Chas!

fsfsfs wrote:

Shayla Houlihan is the head coach now... what makes you think Chas is responsible for the recruiting? The athletes love her and are much more engaged in coming to Cal because of her.

Yes, she is the head xc coach and an assistant track coach. Meanwhile Sandoval remains "director" of XC and Track.

What makes me think Chas is involved in the recruiting? It was the OP who said that, not me. However, you could just look at their website to see that Chas and Mike are listed as in charge of recruiting:

But the reason that I think the OP is correct is because who I see out recruiting this year has been those two plus mohamad.

Anyway, as somebody already pointed out, their awesome recruiting classes have continued to stink it up. I can think of no other school that does so poorly with such a great class of recruits, and they have been doing it for 15 or 20 years now.

I'm not sure the inner politics there that have made it such a toxic school. Maybe it's Tony, or maybe it is the level above him. I've heard rumors both ways but don't know which is true and don't have enough insight to know.

Chas (Rudy Ruettiger) Davis is the most annoying version of joe pesci in Lethal weapon. First things out of his mouth are how the other universities aren't as good as his. All credit to Cal for being a great school as they still sign good kids in spite of this clown.

Chas is persistent and enthusiastic. But he will absolutely throw your other schools (that you're considering) under the bus at every opportunity in a conversation in a very unprofessional manner. Overall, he's kind of a spaz, but pretty likable. He gets points for sheer effort.

His problem is that there are no real success stories to point to at Cal. Yes, they get blue chip recruits, but nobody gets better. And damn few even stay close to their pre-Cal levels of achievement.

Tony Sandoval is a very nice guy, but the program has a lot of downsides:

* Shayla is probably going to leave soon for a head coaching position. Also, she's not all that impressive in person - seems distracted and not exactly "coachy" for lack of a better term. She acts more like one of the team in her dress and attitude.

* Nowhere good to run. Have to drive for every long run, and even then the options aren't great.

* History of injuries - higher than other programs from what I can see.

* They do weights twice (I think) per week at 6AM! That's stupid. Athletes need sleep for recovery, esp. at a school like Cal where there's a strong likelihood you stayed up late with classwork.

Overall, I think Chaz does pretty good given that he's got a lot to overcome program-wise. He does have the Cal academic brand behind him, which is really their best recruiting asset. But high school runners who want to improve in college can clearly see the lack of success, and it makes other options seem better, even though Cal is a fantastic university. .

This is only one metric and it isn’t a good one. Ultimatey all that matters is how the team places. They find high level Hs kids who are doing college level training. Wisconsin and ND have been in this category the past few years.

CAL just flat out sucks!

John Utah wrote:

Marshawn Lynch Went to Cal. He is next level dumb. And he’s not the only one at Cal. They will find a place for you if you are a stud.

He's actually an intelligent person if you put your racism aside.

In your years of posting history this is what you say over and over again. It's trite.

The Cardinal Red wrote:

CAL just flat out sucks!

NCAA watchful wrote:

Over the past few years, Davis has pulled in top-5 recruiting classes and top tier high school blue chips despite recruiting for one of the toughest universities in the country.

Off the top of my head, here are some of the top high school individuals:

Garrett Corcoran 4:05 /8:52 (hs '14)

Bethan Knights 9:53/4:42 (hs '14)

Robert Brandt 8:51 2mile (hs '15)

Kai Benedict 4:10/8:58 (hs' 15)

Takeshi Okada 3:55 1500/14:21 5k (hs '15)

Jordyn Colter 2:04/4:45 (hs '15)

Stephanie Jenks 4:44/10:06/16:37 5k (hs '16)

Brie Oakley 4:41/9:52/15:52 (hs '17)

Goddammit mom! What have I told you about posting about me here? It's embarrassing so stop! Jesus Christ...

NCAA watchful wrote:

Over the past few years, Davis has pulled in top-5 recruiting classes and top tier high school blue chips despite recruiting for one of the toughest universities in the country.

Off the top of my head, here are some of the top high school individuals:

Garrett Corcoran 4:05 /8:52 (hs '14)

Bethan Knights 9:53/4:42 (hs '14)

Robert Brandt 8:51 2mile (hs '15)

Kai Benedict 4:10/8:58 (hs' 15)

Takeshi Okada 3:55 1500/14:21 5k (hs '15)

Jordyn Colter 2:04/4:45 (hs '15)

Stephanie Jenks 4:44/10:06/16:37 5k (hs '16)

Brie Oakley 4:41/9:52/15:52 (hs '17)

So Chas, how's the contract negotiation going?

Has Jenks ever ran a race for CAL in her two years on Campus?

Colter has not improved since High School.

Brandt is at UCLA

Rough outing at regionals for Oakley placing 34th with a 16:27. Corcoran ran alright with a 14:00, but didn't qualify either. Surprised he didn't run the 1500 given he's gone sub-4 in the mile.

How many runners did CAL qualify for nationals?