You can care about athletes all you want but not knowing anything about distance running really limits your coaching ability. By the way, those post collegiates were women...not men.
You can care about athletes all you want but not knowing anything about distance running really limits your coaching ability. By the way, those post collegiates were women...not men.
Akron will lose to Toledo this fall. Watch for a couple of Kenyans at Toledo this fall!
and Akron and Toledo will loose to Ohio Northern and Mt. Union this fall as well.
In the know...you are a jackass. Williamson and Bray have no life - this is true, but they are not going to get on letsrun and start bashing Mitchell (who is NOT the one of sprint fame).
Orange uniform guy...you had an equally jackass statement - I think you said something to the effect of "don't be surprised if he picked up a thing or two about distance running while coaching the sprints/hurdles". There is no way in the world sprinters and hurdlers would accept a distance coach who has "been around" hurdlers over the years. You HAVE to have a trained, experienced coach for each event. Klim does not appear to be that.
For the rest of you who don't know, Akron won the triple crown in the MAC (CC, indoor, outdoor) for women, which is impressive considering there are 12-13 teams including Kent, Toledo, Ball State, EMU, CMU, WMU, and Miami. The men's side of things has not gone as well. The MAC only has 6-7 men's teams. Akron has been middle of the pack in track and potentially better in CC. Williamson was the distance coach but is looking for other options. He was an Akron grad and a true distance coach. The distance crew has gotten exponentially better since he started.
Put it another way, if any Big Ten or ACC team hired a sprint coach to do the distance events, would it be acceptable (what if you were the athletes involved)??
Keiser--
Scott Jones is the cross country coach for men and women and Klim is helping him out. Jones is a quality distance coach and Klim brings a lot of coaching, recruiting and administrative experience to the program. Akron did not score in the 800 meters and up at the MAC outdoor championships (7 schools--8 place scoring) so the change is obviously for the better. It is not a matter of who can coach distance runners better. It will come down to who recruits better.
Kieser:
Didn't YOU used to coach at Akron? What happened?
A fat midwestterner
Da-man - that arrangement makes more sense than handing over the distance crew to a new guy. I hope anyone who reads this thread takes time to notice I did not bash any coaches. As for your comment about who can recruit better, I agree with you to an extent, but with limited scholarships and no proof of recent performance I doubt much money will find its way to the distance crew. A question for you - how would YOU recruit given the status of the Akron men's program? My guess is you'd say you need to find guys other schools wouldn't find and develop them. For this you need years to prove your system will work so you have YOUR guys in YOUR system. Don't forget, you'd only be allowed to have 12 guys TOTAL including 800-10,000/CC because of quota limitations.
Yes, Mr. Fatmidwesterner, I did coach a UA for one year (and enjoyed it immensely). I was asked not to return and was replaced by Jones who was replaced by Williamson for the men only. I am now like you - a fat midwesterner.
Dennis will consider Klim to be a success if he comes in and does only what Dennis and Scott tell him to do.
Keep your chins up Akron distance crew, Dennis applies for every job in the universe. Sooner or later someone will be stupid enough to hire him and then the pursestrings will open.
I don't but the consistently meanspirited and sarcastic tone of Yes... sort of reminds of a former female BG middle-distnace runner now in her 40's who used to get on here a lot under a different name
detective wrote:
I don't but the consistently meanspirited and sarcastic tone of Yes... sort of reminds of a former female BG middle-distnace runner now in her 40's who used to get on here a lot under a different name
Whoever it is, they sure have an axe to grind.
Yes..... wrote:
It would be a tough sell to get someone who would:
A: Put up with Dennis trying to tell them how to coach distances with no money to give
B: Insanely low pay
Yes..... wrote:
Good luck dealing with DM
I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy
Yes..... wrote:
OK well maybe that tells you that Dennis doesn't want the mens distance squad to be successful.
Get it?
Yes..... wrote:
I can't blame Klim for taking the job-it's just too right for him in his current situation.
What I could never figure out is why Scott Jones stays at Akron and puts up with Dennis Mitchell.
Good luck to both of them!
(that one actually had a hint of positiveness mixed in with the usual bitterness)
Yes..... wrote:
How many of those points came in the Pole Vault?
The athletes won the triple crown and the assistant coaches are the ones who coach them.
They should won the triple crown in spite of Dennis not because of him.
Yes..... wrote:
Dennis will consider Klim to be a success if he comes in and does only what Dennis and Scott tell him to do.
Keep your chins up Akron distance crew, Dennis applies for every job in the universe. Sooner or later someone will be stupid enough to hire him and then the pursestrings will open.
Bitter ex-wife or something?
Joe will do an outstanding job at Akron with the men's distance/xc team.Oh yea,Joe is no yes man,ha,ha to say the least.
Cheers Joe you made it!I mean everyone on letsrun is tearing you a new one,ha,ha,Congrats!
Assuming this news is correct, just wanted to drop a line here and congratulate Joe on the new job. You seem to have "taking a program and improving the hell out of it" down to a science. I have no doubt you'll find success in Ohio.
All the best.
I am merely the voice of the silent majority.
Pretty much everyone thinks Dennis is a horses patoot.
Any improvement made by the team should not be accredited to Joe for the simple fact that he will probably have zero influence on the success of the athletes. It will be there determination and pure hatred of dennis mitchell that will carry them to the top. NOT Joe's lack of distance coaching experience and knowledge.
I'm going to start with the easiest critique: there's no sense in comparing Akron's program to a Big Ten or ACC program, regardless of caliber, because of the funding disparity. Some men's programs in the MAC are battling to stay alive (in light of Title IX prescriptions), and many are already dead, which is why Duke athletes might have a right to be upset if their program hires a sprint-oriented coach for the distance guys, but Akron should probably just be happy they hired an experienced coach, period. This is also why the women are so good in the conference and the men are not, and also why the MAC has only 6-7 men's teams. This is an oversight to which only a 'jackass' would fall prey.
Further, it has been suggested that Klim 'does not appear' to be distance capable. Exactly what constitutes an ostensibly distance-capable coach? To put simply, how the hell would you know one way or another if you hadn't been around him while he was coaching or read his resume? The sprint coach label is overdone in this thread. Klim had many responsibilities at Bucknell, not limited to sprints, including recruiting of all kinds of athletes (no small point).
I think a lot of the outrage and the criticism of Klim taking this position stems from the typical distance runner elitism that pervades this site: "They hired a SPRINT coach! Who hired the philistine!!!" In fact, track and field coaches...I'm sorry...track and field AND XC coaches...of Klim's level of experience are usually very capable in a number of events and usually accrue experience with many events. Klim will do a good job--and if not, it won't be for want of experience in distance coaching. Do you people think before you type, or is it the old monkey-tied-to-keyboard scenario?
Hardly wrote:
Any improvement made by the team should not be accredited to Joe for the simple fact that he will probably have zero influence on the success of the athletes. It will be there determination and pure hatred of dennis mitchell that will carry them to the top. NOT Joe's lack of distance coaching experience and knowledge.
And therein lies the conundrum of any coach taking this position. Any success will be attributed to "desire to succeed in the face of adversity" or "the natural progression of things anyway", while any failure/lack of success is attributed solely to the new coach.
On here, it's "damned if you do, damned if you don't." THAT should be Letsrun's motto.
Pericles In Orange wrote:
I'm going to start with the easiest critique: there's no sense in comparing Akron's program to a Big Ten or ACC program, regardless of caliber, because of the funding disparity. Some men's programs in the MAC are battling to stay alive (in light of Title IX prescriptions), and many are already dead, which is why Duke athletes might have a right to be upset if their program hires a sprint-oriented coach for the distance guys, but Akron should probably just be happy they hired an experienced coach, period. This is also why the women are so good in the conference and the men are not, and also why the MAC has only 6-7 men's teams. This is an oversight to which only a 'jackass' would fall prey.
Further, it has been suggested that Klim 'does not appear' to be distance capable. Exactly what constitutes an ostensibly distance-capable coach? To put simply, how the hell would you know one way or another if you hadn't been around him while he was coaching or read his resume? The sprint coach label is overdone in this thread. Klim had many responsibilities at Bucknell, not limited to sprints, including recruiting of all kinds of athletes (no small point).
I think a lot of the outrage and the criticism of Klim taking this position stems from the typical distance runner elitism that pervades this site: "They hired a SPRINT coach! Who hired the philistine!!!" In fact, track and field coaches...I'm sorry...track and field AND XC coaches...of Klim's level of experience are usually very capable in a number of events and usually accrue experience with many events. Klim will do a good job--and if not, it won't be for want of experience in distance coaching. Do you people think before you type, or is it the old monkey-tied-to-keyboard scenario?
Very well stated. As it's been said before, Klim is not just a "sprint/hurdle coach." And yes, I'm talking about more than the fact that he's also been coaching jumpers/multis the last few years too (he's also been in charge of coaching several 800 runners to some outstanding times/wins in the past).
Klim worked with the legend Arthur Gulden for several years as assistant XC Coach, and surely brings with him an interesting set of experiences from that.
As an interesting side note, Klim went from a several time Division III national qualifier in the Decathlon and Javelin to a 3:04 marathoner. Yes, I know, everyone else on this site runs 2:20 regularly, but I think that's really cool.
He also has seemed to be great at working hard to recruit kids, so I would fashion a guess that he may receive some recruiting duties at Akron as well.
But, as always, time will tell ladies and gentlemen. At least give him a chance.
I havent read any news on this guy taking over. Is there any officail news or is it just word of mouth?
When I was at the State Track meet I heard that Akron already had a more than qualified person ready to take over the distance program. I was told that the returning runners were very excited about running for this individual. What happened to him? Did he find another job elsewhere?
detective wrote:
I don't but the consistently meanspirited and sarcastic tone of Yes... sort of reminds of a former female BG middle-distance runner now in her 40's who used to get on here a lot under a different name
I'd like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love,
Grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves.
I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect HARMONY,
I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.
[Repeat the last two lines, and in the background:]
It's the real thing, Coke is what the world wants today.