Interesting for sure. Hard to say how reliable someone coming off a GA stint would be. Some just stand in a coaches shadow for two years while others are actually getting two years of experience. Still though, going from that to running an entire program is quite the jump
I personally know of multiple D2 experienced coaches that applied for this position. One coach with 20 years of coaching success ( no national championships, but solid programs) that interviewed and did not get this coaching opportunity. Some of these hires make zero sense except to meet a quota and to keep the salary low.
She is a sprints and jumps coach with NO experience as a XC coach or as a runner.
The athletic departments have got to do better across the board when it comes to hiring solid coaches.
I personally know of multiple D2 experienced coaches that applied for this position. One coach with 20 years of coaching success ( no national championships, but solid programs) that interviewed and did not get this coaching opportunity. Some of these hires make zero sense except to meet a quota and to keep the salary low.
She is a sprints and jumps coach with NO experience as a XC coach or as a runner.
The athletic departments have got to do better across the board when it comes to hiring solid coaches.
This is wild, a GA for a head of a program that finished dead last in the conference and the school just transition to D2. The only thing I can think of is low pay, she’s “local” and check their minority box.
I personally know of multiple D2 experienced coaches that applied for this position. One coach with 20 years of coaching success ( no national championships, but solid programs) that interviewed and did not get this coaching opportunity. Some of these hires make zero sense except to meet a quota and to keep the salary low.
She is a sprints and jumps coach with NO experience as a XC coach or as a runner.
The athletic departments have got to do better across the board when it comes to hiring solid coaches.
I also know a lot of experienced coaches who did. It's in a good spot. Unfortunately the entire athletic department is a nightmare I do not know how their AD has kept his job.
To add to this she didn't even finish the GA stint she did one year of it.i hope she's a great coach but she's going to have to learn a lot of administrative stuff, ordering, budgeting on the fly.
I know when they offered the position last year the salary was low. The cost of living was high. And the A.D loves the SEU coach. So this was a connection move, but wish her the best.
I am not interested in besmirching or slander but I am curious how someone like VanHootegem, a coach at some of the most prestigious track programs and a head coach at OU, end up at South Plains College? I remember he stepped down at Norman, why does one come back to coaching at this level? Best wishes to him.
Reminder that khadevis robinson is unqualified for his position and is more invested in his phone than real life
Could you please not come in here with that baseless crap, if you’re going to talk about someone provide some context to the story to back up your claim
I am not interested in besmirching or slander but I am curious how someone like VanHootegem, a coach at some of the most prestigious track programs and a head coach at OU, end up at South Plains College? I remember he stepped down at Norman, why does one come back to coaching at this level? Best wishes to him.
South Plains is a great gig. They tied for 1st place at the National Championships both indoors and outdoors. They had a 1:46 800m runner last year (altitude converted from 1:47.25). They ran 7:15 in the 4x8 at Texas Relays, winning by 6 seconds. Had they raced Penn Relays they likely could have been in contention to win.
They also had the number 3 high jumper in the entire NCAA (only 2 D1 guys had a better PR). They even had 3 guys who ran 45.x open 400 and a 3:03 4x4.
There's no shame in working at a JuCo. Probably 20% of athletes at the NCAA D1 championships (in speed/power events) started at a junior college. Every power 5 head coach has the top JuCo coaches on speed dial.
No national championships? So you have to win a national title to be a solid coach? Tell me the percentage of coaches that win national championships? My point is it was a stupid comment to throw in.
Context: he’s a bad coach. How about read back a bit? I provided plenty of background if you read page 104 I believe. And don’t complain that it’s too much to read because I don’t wanna hear it after that comment bud.
I personally know of multiple D2 experienced coaches that applied for this position. One coach with 20 years of coaching success ( no national championships, but solid programs) that interviewed and did not get this coaching opportunity. Some of these hires make zero sense except to meet a quota and to keep the salary low.
She is a sprints and jumps coach with NO experience as a XC coach or as a runner.
The athletic departments have got to do better across the board when it comes to hiring solid coaches.
This is wild, a GA for a head of a program that finished dead last in the conference and the school just transition to D2. The only thing I can think of is low pay, she’s “local” and check their minority box.
It is definitely a risk. I got a D3 Director role right after being a GA and they definitely took a chance on me. I made my boss happy and checked all the boxes and ended up with an All-American my first year.
That being said, I was a GA for an extremely lazy coach and I basically was getting paid crumbs to run all the recruiting, visits, travel, most of the budget, as well as create training plans, etc. It sucked at the time but it gave me what I needed to step into a larger role more quickly.
We also had a great support staff in compliance that made sure things ran smoothly and I learned a lot on the fly. Them transitioning into D2 seems like the biggest chance for a "uh oh" moment where experience would come into play.
"Best Candidate for the pay offered." This thread is always pretty interesting in the post mortem of hires. $55,000 in Beaufort is probably enough for a single (?) 24 year old. but for Coaches with 20+ years of experience with a family? In time, everything works out. If its a good job and good hire, there will be no movement. If they are a good coach in a bad spot, she'll get a better job.