UC Davis New Coach???

Doing hill work in Davis is tough.

Don't have any insider info, but the writing should be on the wall regarding their next hire. Stop hiring coaches for the sole reason that they were able to run fast from the day they were born. Someone that has natural gifts far exceeding the norm can rarely explain those gifts effectively. This is true in all fields, as the most brilliant mathematicians make for horrible teachers to those that are much less gifted.

More often than not elite athletes like to tell themselves they had to work super hard to achieve their success, which in part is absolutely true, but it's often a case of succeeding despite the training they did rather than because of it. Additionally, elite athletes turned coaches have body control that they often can not teach to their athletes because it's so difficult to teach a sensation to someone who has never experienced it.

If Sheffield hires another former world class athlete that somehow makes the program tank even further he's got to start seriously worrying about his own job if he's not already.

I agree 100%, however, my worry is that the team could be in danger of being cut, at least the men's team. Looking over the men's roster, they return like 7 guys this upcoming season and I haven't seen any announcements regarding any new recruits. Would hate to see the program go through what it is going through due to coaching changes. But I have no knowledge of what goes on within the program I am just going off what I observe from the outside.

Barbosa went on leave at some point in Feb or March due to "family related reasons" according to a conversation I had with the interim distance coach in later March who was one of their now-graduate female 800m runners from the year previous. But she thought he was still involved with the program and recruiting and was expected to return. This is obviously not the case at this point. I had it confirmed that Barbosa wasn't returning from someone on staff just recently as well and that they're in the process of hiring a new coach, so odds are they aren't cutting the program.

All I know is that just before I was on the squad there was Sue Williams, then Jason Jaques, then Chris Puppione, then Drew Wardenburg all in like a six or seven year span. That was during the transition to DI. It was hard on the team but at least they recruited. I have no idea what they're doing right now in terms of recruiting and returners. The men's squad has really sucked it up lately in terms of depth - some years recently they didn't even have someone competing in the 10K at all during the track season.

All ears if anyone knows what happened/is happening now.

frmraggie wrote:

Doing hill work in Davis is tough.

But we do have the wind.

The distance program has been left in ruins for one reason and one reason only: whoever hired the past two distances coaches is out of touch with what it takes to excel in those events. The Davis program as a whole has collapsed and that falls on the head coach and AD.

They should be looking for a new head coach.

Things went downhill when Davis went D1. D2 Davis could prolly smash D1 Davis.

CCAA Commish wrote:

Things went downhill when Davis went D1. D2 Davis could prolly smash D1 Davis.

When the men won Big West I doubt that. But ever since Drew Wartenburg came on their recruiting totally fell apart.

recruitfail wrote:

CCAA Commish wrote:

Things went downhill when Davis went D1. D2 Davis could prolly smash D1 Davis.

When the men won Big West I doubt that. But ever since Drew Wartenburg came on their recruiting totally fell apart.

More like when Hunt retired things went downhill. The people before Wartenburg weren’t very good.

Conference Was Embarrassing wrote:

The distance program has been left in ruins for one reason and one reason only: whoever hired the past two distances coaches is out of touch with what it takes to excel in those events. The Davis program as a whole has collapsed and that falls on the head coach and AD.

They should be looking for a new head coach.

Good point. I wonder if it has to do with pay too. When they collapsed cross and track into one program they ended up cutting a higher paying position of cross program director that could have been dedicated to cross and distance track and now instead they just hire an assistant track coach to handle cross and track. The last salary information available had the head cross coach at $50k/yr. Decent, but you also have to teach PE classes (or at least you used to have to) and live in Davis where there aren't many other jobs for partners. You could live in Sac, but still, it's not a salary you're going to attract top DI coaching talent with IMO.

CCAA Commish wrote:

recruitfail wrote:

When the men won Big West I doubt that. But ever since Drew Wartenburg came on their recruiting totally fell apart.

More like when Hunt retired things went downhill. The people before Wartenburg weren’t very good.

Looking at their most recent top 10 marks list, 3-8 from each event over 800 come from the transition period or later, though more from the middle distances (which makes sense given who they had on as coaches after Puppione):

It looks like there was a solid group around 2000-2002 though, was that Hunt's era?

Greg Metcalf and Pete Dolan are available and very popular on this message board.

Haggietheaggie wrote:

Greg Metcalf and Pete Dolan are available and very popular on this message board.

Why not Kim Conley?

Brad Wick has done great at SJSU. The cost of living in Davis area would make him feel rich compared to living in San Jose.

SirReggie wrote:

Haggietheaggie wrote:

Greg Metcalf and Pete Dolan are available and very popular on this message board.

Why not Kim Conley?

Probably her zero coaching experience, for one.

Are you telling me that being an elite athlete doesn't automatically make you a great coach? I bet they wish they knew that last fall.

Mr Peanutbutter wrote:

SirReggie wrote:

Why not Kim Conley?

Probably her zero coaching experience, for one.

Kim Conley is very "experienced" with coaches, if you know what I mean lulz

/thread

CCAA Commish wrote:

recruitfail wrote:

When the men won Big West I doubt that. But ever since Drew Wartenburg came on their recruiting totally fell apart.

More like when Hunt retired things went downhill. The people before Wartenburg weren’t very good.

I came in right after hunt left. Heard some good things about him. But the record books clearly suggest that the crazy revolving door period of coaches still managed some reasonable mid major times up front, if no depth.