BC has only scored double digit points at ACC's on the men's side twice since they joined in '04. They have scored 0 more often than they've hit double digits. The women's side is slightly better but i think they have only finished top 10 once at ACC's and never scored more than 40 points.
Their track is about to be destroyed by a transit project and they seem to have no concrete plan for a new one. They had a plan to redevelop a local 9 hole executive golf course into a multiuse athletic complex (incl a new UMD track) but some nimby pensioners complained and the country backed out of the deal. So it will remain an underused 9-hole par 3.
UMD should be much better. There are plenty of great MD runners who never consider the school because they’re so bad. Worse than other, non appealing D1 schools in the state such as Frostburg or UMBC. Most go compete out of state which is unfortunate. And until they bring back men’s cross country they will never have a serious distance team. In fact, a good number of their club runners can beat their varsity team in the mile up.
Valmon is a great guy and that’s about it. Coaching and everything else is not for him. The fact he’s been able to stay for almost 20 years is telling of another issue. UMD as a whole, is terrible at sports. Most of their teams do not belong in the Big10 let alone D1. Something at the top needs to change.
Additionally, the athlete culture is terrible. Everyone is there to say they’re D1 and get gear, not actually compete. The fact that one of their bars has an unofficial “athlete section” section is telling enough. Never seen this anywhere else, even big football schools. They’ve got a lot of work to do as a whole and there is not a single thing that can be fixed and make a change immediately.
As a MD native and lifelong UMD fan I cannot recommend any athlete attend here unless they are a lacrosse player, field hockey, men’s soccer, or women’s basketball.
UMD should be much better. There are plenty of great MD runners who never consider the school because they’re so bad. Worse than other, non appealing D1 schools in the state such as Frostburg or UMBC. Most go compete out of state which is unfortunate. And until they bring back men’s cross country they will never have a serious distance team. In fact, a good number of their club runners can beat their varsity team in the mile up.
Valmon is a great guy and that’s about it. Coaching and everything else is not for him. The fact he’s been able to stay for almost 20 years is telling of another issue. UMD as a whole, is terrible at sports. Most of their teams do not belong in the Big10 let alone D1. Something at the top needs to change.
Additionally, the athlete culture is terrible. Everyone is there to say they’re D1 and get gear, not actually compete. The fact that one of their bars has an unofficial “athlete section” section is telling enough. Never seen this anywhere else, even big football schools. They’ve got a lot of work to do as a whole and there is not a single thing that can be fixed and make a change immediately.
As a MD native and lifelong UMD fan I cannot recommend any athlete attend here unless they are a lacrosse player, field hockey, men’s soccer, or women’s basketball.
Willard has done an excellent job with the men's basketball program
Kameron Jones 1:49 at Maryland, runs 1:45 as a grad student at Clemson
Caleb Dean 14.1 110mH at Maryland, transfers to Texas Tech, gets 2nd at Nationals in 60mH, 13.4 in the 110mH
There's probably even more unused talent on that roster.
To be fair, Dean is more of a 400h runner and did have some decent success at MD. And he was a guy that didn't do all that much until late in his senior year of HS when all of a sudden he is running low 37 300h... He was fortunate probably to have the chance at MD all things considered. Now he is NCAA leader.
He is also proof that putting in the work can in fact pay off.
Trust me, he's had his chance for years. nice guy, but can't really coach. At this point the athletic department is just holding onto him so they can say their track coach is an olympic gold medalist/world record holder. Maryland had a big streak of training up some serious contenders in the field events (notably long jump), but I'm not sure if that's the case now.
Maybe every 2-3 years there are a couple runners from the university's Club Running team who have times good enough to walk onto Maryland's D1 track program (no XC program anymore). And each of those years, maybe one of those 2-3 people bites and heads over to varsity and either modestly improves their PRs or burns out/gets injured hard. The other 1-2 who don't bite have a far more positive relationship with running after college, I can promise you that much. However to be fair I know a couple of exceptions who went through that program and continue to improve/have a fire for the sport, but the UMD track program has a habit of taking people with just-barely D1 times and burning them out but without the results to "justify" it.
Kameron Jones 1:49 at Maryland, runs 1:45 as a grad student at Clemson
Caleb Dean 14.1 110mH at Maryland, transfers to Texas Tech, gets 2nd at Nationals in 60mH, 13.4 in the 110mH
There's probably even more unused talent on that roster.
To be fair, Dean is more of a 400h runner and did have some decent success at MD. And he was a guy that didn't do all that much until late in his senior year of HS when all of a sudden he is running low 37 300h... He was fortunate probably to have the chance at MD all things considered. Now he is NCAA leader.
He is also proof that putting in the work can in fact pay off.
Yes, my bad for not highlighting how good he is at 400h. He was running 50.x while still at Maryland. So they had a nationals qualifier... But now Texas Tech has him at 48.x
I give a lot of credit to both of those athletes. But being with Maryland for 4 years as "pretty good Big 10 athletes" and then becoming NCAA Leaders immediately after leaving kind of shows me that they were seeing success despite the Maryland program, rather than because of it.
Trust me, he's had his chance for years. nice guy, but can't really coach. At this point the athletic department is just holding onto him so they can say their track coach is an olympic gold medalist/world record holder. Maryland had a big streak of training up some serious contenders in the field events (notably long jump), but I'm not sure if that's the case now.
Maybe every 2-3 years there are a couple runners from the university's Club Running team who have times good enough to walk onto Maryland's D1 track program (no XC program anymore). And each of those years, maybe one of those 2-3 people bites and heads over to varsity and either modestly improves their PRs or burns out/gets injured hard. The other 1-2 who don't bite have a far more positive relationship with running after college, I can promise you that much. However to be fair I know a couple of exceptions who went through that program and continue to improve/have a fire for the sport, but the UMD track program has a habit of taking people with just-barely D1 times and burning them out but without the results to "justify" it.
I believe you and admittedly have not followed U Md track. When I read a post regarding the coach I looked up who the coach was and discovered that it's Valmon. I was surprised as Valmon was around a strong culture and knows what it takes to become great.
What's the Title 9 situation look like these days? I'm a UMD alum and in the early 2000s their distance squad was easy to join as a woman but quite difficult as a guy due to roster spot limitations. They'd get a few decent local runners and the odd recruit from up and down the coast, but they never put together anything decent. The result was a men's team with just a handful of distance runners. No depth and no ability to recruit nor build up a pool of underdeveloped high school talent with ability to developer over the years due to roster limitations. I'm under no delusions this would make them stand out, but the result seemed to be a fairly insular squad hamstrung by numbers.
Can't speak for the sprint squad. There is a ton of talent in PG county alone, where UMD is located, but that never translated to recruits or the development of a solid sprint/field program.
My read from afar is Valmon is not a terrific program builder, but to his credit, the AD/Title 9 situations hasn't given him much to work with.
I'm not positive but didn't MD cut their Men's program at one point? around the time they left for the Big 10? Cut or decreased scholarships for a few sports as money issues is what made them move.
Valmon is a great guy and that’s about it. Coaching and everything else is not for him. The fact he’s been able to stay for almost 20 years is telling of another issue. UMD as a whole, is terrible at sports. Most of their teams do not belong in the Big10 let alone D1. Something at the top needs to change.
As a MD native and lifelong UMD fan I cannot recommend any athlete attend here unless they are a lacrosse player, field hockey, men’s soccer, or women’s basketball.
Also as a lifelong UMd fan, I disagree that they are terrible at sports. They have won national championships in men’s and women’s lacrosse (, field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and men’s soccer. Since 2000, they’ve won eighteen in total. They are also ranked in baseball, and have made a couple of tournaments the last few years. Football is starting to become competitive in the B1G.
Before 2000 I would have agreed with you. And they are certainly terrible at track and field.
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