USF HEAD COACH LEHMAN-WINTERS JOINS OREGON DISTANCE

As a fan of Oregon running, I felt losing the Powells would be a huge blow to the program but with this hire along with Ben Thomas, the new duo could be arguably an upgrade. Hoping they develop good chemistry in the coming years.

Another Home Run Hire? wrote:

As a fan of Oregon running, I felt losing the Powells would be a huge blow to the program but with this hire along with Ben Thomas, the new duo could be arguably an upgrade. Hoping they develop good chemistry in the coming years.

Agreed...I was very worried they would lose most of the current roster once the Powells left but these two hires should be able to restore enough confidence in the program for majority of the runners and not to mention I am sure there will be some who will follow Thomas and Helen to Oregon. Just wonder will they be coaching separate genders or splitting up the distances. Seems like they had opposite strengths at the their previous programs and would probably do better working together than splitting the genders IMO.

USF is a small school, no track on campus(kezar is a downhill warm up jog away), a block away from golden gate park trails. She made USF what it is and she’s already got the green and gold wardrobe.

Two great hires

So which one writes the workouts?

This is a HUGE hire. Someone Robert Johnson has taken lemons and turned it into the most amazing lemonade ever. Not sure he could have gotten two better coaches anywhere in the world.

Say good-bye to seeing any American women distance runners going to UO. The Oregon women will now be an all foreign team.

Wonder if she's bringing any of the better USF runners with her like Isabelle Brauer or Weronica Pyzik?

BUTTHOLE SURFER wrote:

Say good-bye to seeing any American women distance runners going to UO. The Oregon women will now be an all foreign team.

BleacherReporter wrote:

I am sure there will be some who will follow Thomas and Helen to Oregon.

You should have at least as much respect for women as you do for men.

Looks like a very fine hire, with success at all levels, including working as a volunteer coach at UCLA, which might be the Robert Johnson connection. He was at UCLA from 2003-2005 after Appalachian State, as near as I can tell from his bio, and she was at USF for fifteen years, so she would have been at UCLA just before he arrived, 2001-2003, where teams and runners she helped coach were very successful. Her athletes at USF also were at the top of the NCAA in gpa. She relied on foreign athletes at USF (and coached one to an NCAA championship at UCLA), which is what Joe Franklin does as well. It is an easier way to get to national prominence for programs that can't get the top American recruits. It is also something Oregon has largely eschewed since Vin was hired, though they have brought in a number of foreigners since he stopped coaching (Edward Cheserek being #1, Lukas Verzbicas became an American citizen, there was also, briefly, Freddy Ovett, Steve's son, and I think a French steepler). At Oregon, she can prove that she can coach the top American distance runners.

There were many other candidates you might have thought of before her, who have led large elite D1 programs to national titles, but this is a quality hire.

Ignorance .. wrote:

BleacherReporter wrote:

I am sure there will be some who will follow Thomas and Helen to Oregon.

You should have at least as much respect for women as you do for men.

I am confused on your comment...what does my post have to do with gender. I didn't mention anything about men or women in that statement?

So does this mean the Oregon distance team will no longer have American runners?

She went after the best athletes she could get to come to USF. I will not say they won't have any foreign athletes but obviously they will have alot better chance of landing the top domestic talent.

Oregon's two best women this year (including their national champ) are foreign.

highlander wrote:

She went after the best athletes she could get to come to USF. I will not say they won't have any foreign athletes but obviously they will have alot better chance of landing the top domestic talent.

SF is an expensive place, USF is a small catholic school that doesn’t have much to offer, HLW did a lot with the talent she could get. This should be an upgrade for Oregon and with the talent they already have and can draw expect big things.

Miler:415 wrote:

highlander wrote:

She went after the best athletes she could get to come to USF. I will not say they won't have any foreign athletes but obviously they will have alot better chance of landing the top domestic talent.

SF is an expensive place, USF is a small catholic school that doesn’t have much to offer, HLW did a lot with the talent she could get. This should be an upgrade for Oregon and with the talent they already have and can draw expect big things.

This is correct. It's not like she turned away Footlocker and NXN kids, the fact is those kids aren't interested in USF so went to plan B. She turned USF from last place in the West Coast Conference to national contenders. Great hire.

exactly-the Footlocker kids were always going to the Stanfords and Oregons of the NCAA rather than a smaller private school--went to plan B and it turned out pretty good--I'm sure there will be some transfers from USF in addition to new Oregon recruits--as mentioned this couldn't have turned out much better for Oregon in the past few weeks time....

Bettingfool wrote:

Miler:415 wrote:

SF is an expensive place, USF is a small catholic school that doesn’t have much to offer, HLW did a lot with the talent she could get. This should be an upgrade for Oregon and with the talent they already have and can draw expect big things.

This is correct. It's not like she turned away Footlocker and NXN kids, the fact is those kids aren't interested in USF so went to plan B. She turned USF from last place in the West Coast Conference to national contenders. Great hire.

Great hire, great move for Robert and Oregon. Helen was handing Oregon their a$$ at USF at West Regionals and just couldnt quite makeup for it due to an uneven playing field at Nationals. Now that she is at a powerhouse school, the tables have turned in a big way. If I was Washington I would be on red alert, as Oregon just got a Nuke and is LOOOKING TO BLAST one off over Washington. Head into the bomb shelter Centrowitz and the powells, there is stealth bomber named the S.S. Lehman Winters coming over washington and its packing dirty bombs.

The problem is that you refer to the male coach by last name but the female coach by first name.