Which coaches develop walk ons to be contributors? The bad coach thread one of the posters says “the hard truth is that coaches spend time working with the most talented”, yet some of the most successful coaches have taken plenty of no names to the next level.
John McDonell took Dan Lincoln from 4:16 high schooler to Natty Champ, AR Record Holder.
Vin Lanana took Andrew Wheating from 1:52 high schooler to NCAA Champ, Olympian.
And the freaking Akron coach took Clayton Murphy from 1:54 to Olympic Bronze medalist...the cream rises to the top, no matter who the coach is. Not to mention, huge improvement in college says a LOT more about what they were doing (or weren't doing) in high school than what they did in college.
Honestly some of the best programs do, that is what makes them the best.
Historically these places come to mind.
CU
Portland
Adams State
Western State
NAU
CSU
Dartmouth
Chico
GVSU
I think a lot of it has to do more with the fact that they allow walk-ons in the first place. I don't doubt that Andy Powell can develop solid walk-ons...(ex: Daniel Winn) but he barely even made the roster at UO.
Places with large rosters that run a lot of mileage will simply have a few diamonds come out of the rough. Not sure that means the coach is "better", but it sure seems to get a lot of respect; deservingly so IMO.
Most of those schools have fewer distance walk-ons than crappy distance programs do. Schools like Florida, Texas Tech, Houston, and Ohio State have full distance squads made up of all walk-ons. Schools like NAU, Portland, and Adams State pour nearly all of their scholarships into the distance program. so the number of walk-ons is not the answer. You need to have a good coach and many scholarships to attract great runners so that the other good runners will improve.
Great interview with Steve Cram - says Jakob has no chance of WRs this year
I’m a D2 female runner. Our coach explicitly told us not to visit LetsRun forums.
Guys between age of 45 and 55 do you think about death or does it seem far away
2024 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion
adizero Road to Records with Yomif Kejelcha, Agnes Ngetich, Hobbs Kessler & many more is Saturday