2014 College Track and Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion

Adrian is a very knowledgeable coach who has been doing this for quite a while. I find it entertaining how this forum is all about bashing those who may have an opportunity to further themselves in their career. Perhaps Adrian has positioned himself through years of sacrificing, learning, administering, networking for this position. Adrian would do a fine job at Purdue. As everyone says on here, loyalty is a big deal in this profession. He has obviously showed loyalty that may pay off for him. He would be a solid hire if he in fact is up for it.

After all, Adrian has coached athletes from the 800 up. I doubt they will put all their money into the long distances. Being a middle distance runner himself, I think he would fit better into what Coach Greene's vision is than other possible candidates. He wants to win on the track, and middle distances will help that. Forget Cross Country.

Glavash is a good young coach and a hell of a recruiter. They have a good young core of sprinters coming in. Recruiting is a big part of the equation last time I checked.

And if Matt gets the job and does well, please get back on this site and congratulate him. Admit you were wrong when it happens.

Lots of insecurity in coaching these days. Instead of respecting the effort people put in to position themselves for a job they truly love and can feel supported in, we criticize them and pin them under impossible expectations.

Let's rally people- if we truly love this sport (clearly this thread has passionate intense personalities) then let's offer support to those we feel lack the "tools" as well as support those that are solid.

Nothing comes from this jealous squabbling about how so and so isn't any good or so and so can't recruit etc....

Now-

Do we have any ACTUAL candidates for these jobs or are we looking for more soap opera material?

mother may I? wrote:

Author: Common Sensei

Subject: RE: 2014 College Track and Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion

Message:

Looks like Notre Dame pulled Alan Turner back away from the Ole Miss job he had supposed taken.

http://www.und.com/sports/c-track/spec-rel/071814aac.html

_______________________________________________________________________

does anyone dare take the job at ole miss?

What is wrong with the ole miss job?

Cal Tech is open per NCAA job listing. Looks like a great school but terrible program. Any potential there?

Read wrote:

It is strikes me as humorous that the release say that the other sprint coach has good energy. What the heck does that mean? Can he coach? Looks like a good staff. Two really good coaches, Throws and Sprints, decent Jumps/Multis. The rest is still to be seen. Guess UT will go back to its Sprints, Throws, Multis days cause it doesn't seem like the Distance will be doing much with the coaches in that area.

Distance won't currently be doing much at this time because they are so thin there, not because of coaching. If they are still thin in a couple of years and are not recruiting a few studs every year, then start a thread bashing the distance coaches. UT has a strong staff in place, now they need a full complement of athletes.

Don't waist your money and time in the distance events. No need

Ryan Baily moves on to Colorado State

Brad Gamble announced as replacement for now.

be real man wrote:

Its great that you are his friend but he has been there for 15? years. There is a reason he has not progressed his career. He may very well be a solid coach where he is and in that conference. Again he has not really done anything of note and certainly nothing that says he could lead a distance program like Notre Dame and be contending nationally (as ND should be doing).

Never heard of Matt Sparks, but looked at his bio and I'm impressed he has stayed at So. IL so long....maybe Turner is looking for someone who won't jump ship for a better job as soon as one come open? 13:53/28:42, 4:00 miler, 2:03 and 4:45 girl...and team championships in XC. Doesn't look too shabby.

Not interested wrote:

Cal Tech is open per NCAA job listing. Looks like a great school but terrible program. Any potential there?

Cal Tech is a difficult challenge. It's one of the strongest schools in America, and the most academically challenging school in the state. Admittance standards are high, so recruiting is the hardest part of the job. Given that, the student-athletes are generally great people. I have a friend who is a head coach there (another sport), and this is what she told me about 3 years ago, in reference to an athlete who had an all-nighter told her about being tired for practice: "it turns out, building an mp3 player is really hard." So you're students are building products that compete with ipods for their midterms.

This job requires someone who is patient with athletes that are running 35 minutes for 8k (men). Given that, there are diamonds in the rough every few years (Matt Kiesz 1500m runner circa 2008) which make the job fun. The 800 and 1500 school records are strong, and set by Alan Kleinsasser (Ruth Wysocki's brother) so there is some great T&F history. The school itself is in a beautiful area (Pasadena), but is quite expensive. Go there, stay for 20 years, and become an icon at the institution, and you'll have student-athletes who celebrate your coaching forever. It's a great place, but not for the average coach.

Sparks is an outstanding coach, upstanding professional and better than most all of you. (Silence)

Thanks for all the info on Cal Tech. Looks like they have faculty housing options, although there is no online pricing that I could find in a quick search.

Like you said, this looks like a great opportunity for someone who has patience and isn't afraid of a challenge.

Positivity wrote:

Sparks is an outstanding coach, upstanding professional and better than most all of you. (Silence)

Well. Another fan of someone who looks at a coach with rose colored glasses that are a little too thick. Why can't coaches be called out for how they really are? There are simply too many coaches who aren't really built for the job, who stay in for too many years.

I've written this before, but I've seen coaches who have had bios of 25 or 30 years and they extoll the career of someone who has had 3-5 national qualifiers in that time and maybe, MAYBE 1 All-American. Some of you will say, well, they were probably not in a "great" situation. The AD didn't support them, they didn't have the money they needed, or the school was hard to recruit to, etc. Yet there have been other coaches out there who were in virtually the same situations, who either built a monster of a program and moved on to bigger and better or who stayed and dominated and made that program a legit destination for top recruits. In the end, it's just a bunch of excuses for why one guy got it done and the other didn't.

I knew a "great young coach" who was in for 6 years. The guy produced numbers similar to this Sparks guy(15 years?!?!)-1:49- 3:43-4:00-7:58-8:31st-sub 13:45-sub-28:50(men) and 2:04-4:18-sub 16:30-sub 34:30(women) and 5 individual AA's. That guy realized he just wasn't good enough and pulled the rip cord. There are a lot of hanger-on types who could learn from that. Sometimes you just have to realize when it's just not going to happen for you and get out so you aren't the guy screwing up someone's dreams.

-End of rant.-

You should have ended that with "end of ignorant rant." You really have no clue - just go away.

I award you zero points, and may god have mercy on your soul.

What school you're at does matter. Prestigious schools attract the best talent. Less prestigious schools with most or all of their money in distance can buy good talent. Less prestigious schools with no or low scholarship money in distance are going to lose.

If what school you are at made no difference then we wouldn't have this thread talking about where the coaches were moving to. They'd all pick a school, stay there and they'd all win.

I could name countless coaches who sucked at one school but succeeded at another. They didn't become a better or worse coach overnight. They were in better or worse situations.

Correct, great coaches will find a way to improve and succeed no matter what. However, there are limitations. In recruiting the typical kid can't look past school prestige (unless when scholarship is in play) just like in coaching searches some of you tools can't look past name recognition of the coach or the school they are currently at.

As for your example of a great young coach. I think you're fudging to look elitist. However, if that case is real and he coached 5 AA in six years he didn't get a big job for reasons other than coaching ability.

You can name countless coaches who sucked at one school and succeeded at another? Let's hear them. Actually, I'll settle for just 6. If you can name countless then half a dozen should be no problem.

Looking over results from this past year....

Pat Henner - what did he do while he was at JMU? He got a lot better "coaching" when he got to G-town (and please don't tell me they should be better)

Paul Spangler - What did he do at VMI? Lot better once he started coaching Cory McGee

Tony Houchin - UAB has a lot more invested then UNLV?

Khadavis Robinson - What did he do an UNLV?

Dan Steele- Maybe a backwards move, but he seems to be much more successful at Oregon then he is at Northern Iowa?

Steve Keith - He is dominating at Vandy...at Alabama, not so much, UTEP he was successful on international legs.

Yeah prestigious schools like Oregon, Wisconsin, Arkansas. Very Prestigious. The cream of the crop students are just beating down their doors with their 36 ACT and 2400 SAT scores in hand. I don't know how the Ivies stay in business against these land grant schools.

None of the schools listed offer more than a cookie cutter undergraduate experience despite what the fanboys of each of these schools say. Not good, not bad, but like I said, they sure ain't Ivies. Please don't try to say that these schools can count their athletic achievements as prestige because we both know that's not what you were talking about.

Either way, I guess we agree that cream rises to the top although I do know some really good coaches that produced very good runners who just walked away from it all and now enjoy life as a club or high school coach. They also enjoy family life and not having their lives ruled by a job that pays little to begin with, which may or may not pay off with a big job that has a nice salary after 10-15 years. Have a good one!