UC Davis New Coach???

Out of control wrote:

I wasn’t joking either

From his connections in Brazil?

No I’m not one of the athletes, parent or involved in the program in any way. I just know someone that is. It’s a mess and hopefully they can clean up all their issues soon. UCD is a good school and deserves a better program.

I have some direct knowledge of the situation and may confirm some of what's been said on this board.

I was an assistant coach this track season for a junior college in the north bay area for probably the only time (FYI for those who know me: not because I didn't like it/wasn't asked to return, but because the pay is terrible and I'm not at a point in my career to make any serious effort at coaching - weird life circumstances lead to this even happening at all). I handled the long distance (5000 and 10000) crew (coached 1 guy and 1 gal onto the top 10 list for the 10000). The top guy wanted to transfer to Davis after this season, where I ran a decade ago, so I got in touch with the Davis XC assistant coach Ackley in February and he got me in touch with Barbosa (Barbosa had no email or phone number on the campus website that I could find). Barbosa and I had a phone conversation in the last half of February where he expressed interest in the athlete walking on in the Fall. Then in early March at a meet at Sac State I saw a Davis distance runner and got to talking. He explained that Barbosa had just left for some reason, which was a surprise to me because I had just talked to him a couple weeks before that. The athlete didn't have any details (at least that he wanted to share) and he wasn't happy about the situation. Later in the season in early April I talked to another Ag at a meet and he thought Barbosa might be returning. At this point though Barbosa had not returned a call or a text since our first conversation in February so I was skeptical. Finally after the JC season and NCAA finals ended (so not long ago) I got in touch with Ackley again, who told me that they were looking to hire a new coach and that the athlete I was trying to help could in fact walk on in the Fall. That athlete went to Davis recently for housing purposes but never managed to get ahold of the head coach in person (because the athlete never set up a meeting) and the athlete hasn't heard back from the head coach yet via phone or email. Then I found this thread and am now thoroughly interested in all this drama and want to know pretty much as much as possible.

I know people directly involved and have had it confirmed to me that it was indeed because the coach was giving out 800mg ibuprofen pills to his athletes. That is what I have been told and it is all I have to report at this time. I'll see what else I may be able to dig up.

It saddens me to see what a successful mid-major program (yes, that’s what we are guys) has become in the past couple of years with Sheffield.

The longstanding approach has been to put a full track and field team together each year, with all event groups pulling their weight. It seems like those days are gone. Such a shame.

Any truth to the rumors about a nor cal juco coach taking over next season?

anotherFormerAggieGreat wrote:

Don't care what you think about my writing. I am not going to be a literary scholar anytime soon. I do have a Masters Degree though. I may seem like an idiot to you. But at least I am honest and not a pretentious prick.

You must have a Masters in education, as that's the only one given to illiterates.

anotherFormerAggieGreat wrote:

Don't care what you think about my writing. I am not going to be a literary scholar anytime soon. I do have a Masters Degree though. I may seem like an idiot to you. But at least I am honest and not a pretentious prick.

It's very hard to believe you have a Master Degree.

It's not about being a literary scholar. It's about your inability to writing simple, clear sentences. I have a difficult time believing you even graduated from high school.

legaladvil wrote:

I know people directly involved and have had it confirmed to me that it was indeed because the coach was giving out 800mg ibuprofen pills to his athletes. That is what I have been told and it is all I have to report at this time. I'll see what else I may be able to dig up.

I mean that would pretty much do it. Not sure what else there would need to be. At this point I'm most interested in seeing how the program is shaping up going into the fall.

If I hear anything more from that transfer athlete I'll let it be known, too.

altter wrote:

anotherFormerAggieGreat wrote:

Don't care what you think about my writing. I am not going to be a literary scholar anytime soon. I do have a Masters Degree though. I may seem like an idiot to you. But at least I am honest and not a pretentious prick.

It's very hard to believe you have a Master Degree.

It's not about being a literary scholar. It's about your inability to writing simple, clear sentences. I have a difficult time believing you even graduated from high school.

Pro tip: If you're gonna criticize someone's writing, don't make mistakes in your criticism ("inability to writing simple...").

Also, if the guy who wrote the thing you're criticizing is the guy I think it is, then underestimating him is a huge mistake. He's a respectable and competent guy. I didn't give him the respect he deserved when we was on the squad together and I was wrong on all counts. The substance of what he said was a valuable contribution to this thread and I don't see how harping on it gets us to a better understanding of what's going on with the program, though I do see how it could make people who didn't run as fast as him feel better about themselves.

Gunrock wrote:

It saddens me to see what a successful mid-major program (yes, that’s what we are guys) has become in the past couple of years with Sheffield.

The longstanding approach has been to put a full track and field team together each year, with all event groups pulling their weight. It seems like those days are gone. Such a shame.

how did that guy even get the job? it seems like with the semi-success of the rest of the track team he won't get canned or can just blame the distance runners/coaches and keep his job. the longstanding approach you mention is pretty much how any competent program operates, so it's a sad commentary on the program that it even needs to be said.

True, but my mistake was clearly a message board typo. The kind you make when you edit your post mid sentence. His post was so bad it was almost incomprehensible.

It does not mean he's stupid, and it has nothing to do with his running ability or the kind of person he is. However, when called out on it he's pulls out the Master's card. I find it difficult to believe someone with a masters could write so poorly. I'm not calling him a liar, but I wonder how he could get through so much school with so little regard for clear communication.

It does affect the value of his contribution. I'm not harping. I'm just perplexed.

BTW: you have no idea, nor do I, if was if he ran faster than I did. I don't measure myself on how fast I used to run. Not any more. That was a long time ago for me.

frmraggiealso wrote:

frmraggie wrote:

Doing hill work in Davis is tough.

But we do have the wind.

Good to see some of my 90s teammates on here. Now off to the DC for a Last Supper photo.

Thanks for sticking up for me altter. I was a little harsh in my last post. Maybe the poster criticizing my writing feels that my writing reflects upon them because they went to UCD also. I guess I can respect that. I just hate it when people try to point out grammar mistakes on forms to belittle someone. I was just trying to get across the information as quickly as possible while typing it on my phone. I apologize for causing any inconvenience to anyone who was reading my first post. Therefore I rewrote the post so it would be easier for people to read and get my point across as clearly as possible. PS There still might be some errors as no on perfect especially not me.

Someone who was actually on the first Big West championship team when Drew was coaching. At the time I was running I thought we were pretty decent. Now looking back on it this was probably the best guys team in school history. Here were some of the pr's on our team. Our 1st runner went 13:40 for 5k, also he was 15th in NCAA XC in 2010. The 2nd runner had run 8:48 for the steeplechase, but did not run the year we won as he was ineligible. The 3rd runner had prs of 3:44 for the 1500 and 8:10 for the 3k. Our 4th ended up being our number 2 finisher at regionals after coming back from a meniscus surgery in both legs the year before. His 10k pr was 30:10 and he was the Big West Conference champion for the 10k that season. Our 5th guy ran 30:01 for the 10k, the 6th runner was a freshman who ran middle distance in high school he had run 1:51. He ended up transferring to Purdue and our 7th runner ran 30:15 for 10k.

The year I was on the UC Davis XC team Drew recruited two 1:50 800 runners. He also recruited two runners from Davis high. One Davis runner ran 9:13 the other Davis runner ran 1:54 for the 800 and 15:17 on the Woodward park course, but did not run track his senior year as he was hurt. The next year the coach recruited a 8:51 runner from Davis high school. So I don't think it was the lack of recruitment, but some of the guys did not pan out like any other team.

There were a good amount of injuries if I recall. At one point we probably had only 6 guys healthy during that track season. Drew was the type of coach that would basically tell you that you might not be able to walk on to see if you were committed or not. I can't say I liked the guy, but some of the runners did improve under him. Unfortunately others became a lot worse. This happens on a lot of teams. The girls team seemed to do well under him after I left.

After Drew left I am unsure of what happened to the guys team depth as it was abysmal in xc the following years. I think there is a lot of talent that is willing to go to Davis, as Davis is not a bad place to train and has outstanding academics. Hopefully things can turn around as there is no reason Davis shouldn't be a top 3 team in their conference every year.

According to a woman on the UC Davis team this Spring, Jose Barbosa resigned in the winter quarter. (No reason was shared, but it was strange timing given that he started around August when Devin took a job at UCLA.) He was going to continue providing workouts for the distance runners. The head coaches (Rahn and Marshall) were going to ask a recently graduated runner to be the (interim) distance coach for the remainder of the track season.

This probably doesn't add anything new to the conversation, but hopefully it clarifies it.

On the plus side, the school has plenty of lead time to search for a new XC coach and track distance coach for the coming school year. Lots of coaches change jobs at the end of the season, so hopefully they will make an announcement soon.

Yet Another Former Aggie Great wrote:

According to a woman on the UC Davis team this Spring, Jose Barbosa resigned in the winter quarter. (No reason was shared, but it was strange timing given that he started around August when Devin took a job at UCLA.) He was going to continue providing workouts for the distance runners. The head coaches (Rahn and Marshall) were going to ask a recently graduated runner to be the (interim) distance coach for the remainder of the track season.

This probably doesn't add anything new to the conversation, but hopefully it clarifies it.

On the plus side, the school has plenty of lead time to search for a new XC coach and track distance coach for the coming school year. Lots of coaches change jobs at the end of the season, so hopefully they will make an announcement soon.

I wonder if they even paid the interim coach.

There will be very little interest from established distance coaches for this position. Without the support necessary to rebuild and sustain the distance side this job will continue to be a revolving door.

The head coach apparently has trouble managing staff. There was upheaval on more than one front this year.

Boho wrote:

There will be very little interest from established distance coaches for this position. Without the support necessary to rebuild and sustain the distance side this job will continue to be a revolving door.

The head coach apparently has trouble managing staff. There was upheaval on more than one front this year.

Upheaval from coaches or from athletes?

Boho wrote:

There will be very little interest from established distance coaches for this position. Without the support necessary to rebuild and sustain the distance side this job will continue to be a revolving door.

The head coach apparently has trouble managing staff. There was upheaval on more than one front this year.

I heard many bad things about the management and programatic side of things in the athletic department when I was there. It sounds like things have only gotten worse.