Best D1 Coaching performance

Worst = BYU Men or Stanford Men

Best coach at the NCAA's for an individual was TOM SERVICE of Santa Clara University who took STEPHANIE WILSON to a 28th overall finish and All-American status. She was a 5:32 miler in high school and didn't even make the Santa Clara Cross Country team 2 years ago!

http://www.santaclarabroncos.com/sports/c-xc/recaps/112309aaa.html

Unreal.

Stanford totally missed the boat...and still finished 10th. Not bad. This experience will make them the HUGE ODDS ON FAVORITE next fall. Go Cardinals!!

nepoks wrote:

Worst = BYU Men or Stanford Men

johndenver wrote:

..but yet the majority of his roster is wv kids.

Since when is WV in Canada??!! Cleary is Canadian and recruits mostly Canadian girls.

What about Gibby. No one, even those who follow WM pretty closely could have predicted at the beginning of the year that this team would end up top 5. As a former alum, I expected them to be good, but without clear front runners, Gibby developed a strong pack of runners who consistently performed well at EVERY meet this year and he got their BEST performance at the NCAAs. You can't ask for more from a coach than that. Everyone knew they'd be solid, but he got 3 All-Americans Monday. In Gibby's flotrack interview the day before the race his own speculation was for a tight pack and maybe one All-American. Gibby develops talent well, has 1/2 the scholarships of the schools he put his team in there with, and way less support than schools like Colorado, Stanford, Arkansas, or Wisconsin. The Tribe continues to put out a solid product every year, attracting kids with a great coach, team atmosphere, and excellent academics. When compared to other team's talent and support, the Tribe consistently overperforms and this year was prime example of that. In their 13 consecutive national appearances this is the best performance for the Tribe.

Jefe in the CO wrote:

I'd give it to Lananna with Martin Smith second (OK for 12th was actually a surprise to me and a great result for a seniorless team). For the girls Procaccio (sp?) and FSU's Harvey.

Martin's team ran much better than Vin's, just a huge talent difference in the rosters.

nepoks wrote:

Worst = BYU Men or Stanford Men

satnford men doesnt come close

yes they bombed at nationals, probably a combination of a small miscalculation in training and a young, inexperienced team

however most the guys on stanfords team, particularly heath, made huge jumps this year, while stanfords season cant be called a success all the guys on the team are definitly better than they were last year

(sorry but a bomb like this after such a dominant performance a week ago is generally not primarily the coach's fault...the kids spazzed out)

bruingirl wrote:

Stanford totally missed the boat...and still finished 10th. Not bad. This experience will make them the HUGE ODDS ON FAVORITE next fall. Go Cardinals!!

Cardinal

Agreed - I don't follow HS running that closely but I don't think any of the William and Mary top 7 were Foot Locker finalists. They sure did well with a bunch of little known runners. Portland gets all the credit for succeeding with few resources but the tribe are right up their with them. Hell - Portland has a few big name recruits. Who does William and Mary have.

As for others:

Dave Smith: They won so obviously a good job but with the talent, anything less would have been a disaster.

Lannana: Sure they ran their best race of the season but common - there is so much talent. Puskedra, Mercados, AJ, Centrowitz...these guys were absolute studs in high school.

Dunn: They folded at NCAAs but until that point I would have given him an A + for coaching. This team made huge strides during the season. Yes, a coaches top priority should be the championship so he peaked them to soon or didn't get the guys mentally ready...whatever it was, I stil think the guy knows what he's doing.

What's with this Puskedra pacing/drafting his teammates nonsense? The only people he paced/drafted for were guys like Ulrey, Bumbi, Bethke as they blew him away by 20+ seconds in the last 2K.

Puskedra's a monster talent, but something has seemed off since NCAA cross a year ago. 2nd in conference (to Rupp!) and 5th in cross to getting killed by Fernandez and Derrick in junior cross, 10th in the NCAA 10K, 4th in conference and 21st at NCAAs. He's not as good as a year ago for some reason.

Also, props to "milers" like Ulrey, Centro, and See for being All-American. Acosta and McNamara could learn how to run from them.

Definitely Gibby and the Tribe. Arguably their best recruit over the past 4-5 years didn't even run this season (Peter Dorrell, 8:59 3200 in HS). Most of their top 7 guys were 9:10-9:20 3200 meter runners in high school, and a couple were not even in that range. Compare that to the teams that beat them, and you've got teams comprised of mostly guys that ran sub 9:10, and many who were sub 9:00 and FL finalists.

And to answer the above question, I don't believe WM has any FL finalists on their roster. If I'm correct, Matt Keally was their last recruit to make FL Nationals.

Gibby has done a superb job over the last 4-5 years with his resources. Definitely the best coaching job in my opinion. 3 All-Americans for a team that has half the scholarships (literally) of most other teams in their range is incredibly impressive.

Gibby? Seriously? He has had really decent kids running for him but really doesn't develop them. His training philosophy is handed down (as opposed to developing his own) and out of date with today's standards...isn't his degree in communication or something? He inherited a strong SFA program there and did well but was not really improving, inherited a stronger program at WM and guess what...not really improving.

Sorry, I just found his unability to answer simple physiological questions about training methods/ideas to be a very limiting factor in his development as a coach. But he has done well at conveying his coaches program on these kids he coaches.

NAU coach is my vote! Nice run guys!

What are you talking about. The coach is supposed to prepare the team both physically and mentally for the champions races. So if the entire team falls apart after a successful season it does reflect poorly on the coach. Additionally such a poor performance a week after a dominant performance would point to not peaking at the right time to me rather than the entire team mentally falling apart.

That having been said I would not call their season a complete failure. They have improved alot from last season and show alot of promise for next season. However I do think some of the blame for the poor performance does fall on the coach the way they were so dominant at regionals and dropped so far at NCAA's.

Which coach(es) that had a team trophy, have a degree you are satisfied with?

music is happiness wrote:

What's with this Puskedra pacing/drafting his teammates nonsense? The only people he paced/drafted for were guys like Ulrey, Bumbi, Bethke as they blew him away by 20+ seconds in the last 2K.

Puskedra's a monster talent, but something has seemed off since NCAA cross a year ago. 2nd in conference (to Rupp!) and 5th in cross to getting killed by Fernandez and Derrick in junior cross, 10th in the NCAA 10K, 4th in conference and 21st at NCAAs. He's not as good as a year ago for some reason.

Also, props to "milers" like Ulrey, Centro, and See for being All-American. Acosta and McNamara could learn how to run from them.

This is traditional Lanana, he is excellent at getting guys really fast, really quick, then they tend to stagnate or get marginally better or marginally worse. Of course there are exceptions to this statement as there are to anything, so please don't start giving me examples to refute this idea, there are plenty more that back it up. Also, this isn't all that bad of a thing, I constantly improved throughout my career, but never ran as fast as a lot of the guys he's coached. I'm not sure which option I would have preferred if given a choice. The point is this is a general trend among his athletes.

You obviously have a grudge against Gibby. Gibby has proven to be a superb coach and I rank him as the best this year. His team finished 5th without a top 10 runner and 3 made All American. That's team coaching. Degrees don't make great coaches or leaders. He also coaches his wife who has been on 5 U.S. National Cross Country Teams and she went to all World Meets regardless of there location.

Coaches need relevent degrees wrote:

Sorry, I just found his unability to answer simple physiological questions about training methods/ideas to be a very limiting factor in his development as a coach. But he has done well at conveying his coaches program on these kids he coaches.

Does anyone see the irony in this joker trying to put forth an argument relating to academia when he misspells relevant and thinks "unability" is a word?

Eric Heins of NAU, has done a fantastic job since he has taken over the distance program. One the mens side NAU's runners have improved greatly and lets not fail to mention that his team finished 4th missing a very good runner, who probably would have finished top ten, giving NAU a national title...

Coaches need relevent degrees wrote:

Gibby? Seriously? He has had really decent kids running for him but really doesn't develop them. His training philosophy is handed down (as opposed to developing his own) and out of date with today's standards...isn't his degree in communication or something? He inherited a strong SFA program there and did well but was not really improving, inherited a stronger program at WM and guess what...not really improving.

Sorry, I just found his unability to answer simple physiological questions about training methods/ideas to be a very limiting factor in his development as a coach. But he has done well at conveying his coaches program on these kids he coaches.

NAU coach is my vote! Nice run guys!

Perhaps when you asked Gibby "physiological questions about training methods/ideas", you used a combination of poor grammar and weak logic. Is it possible he didn't understand your question...just a thought.