2024 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion

Most of those "stepping away" are doing so because they got in MASSIVE trouble and were forced to resign.

The pandemic made people realize that personal time to spend with family/friends or doing hobbies is far more important than devoting your life to your company (or University in this case). Young people in all professions started reprioritizing their lives because of this. You add in the crazy state of inflation after the pandemic, and you have a recipe that doesn’t line up with collegiate track and field coaching. You have hardly any time outside of work and the salaries have been pretty much stagnant for decades thus you have seen a lot of young people leave. Yes some have gotten in trouble and left but the majority got smart enough to realize it’s just not worth it no matter how much you love the sport. AND on top of it all? The NCAA is facing the biggest changes in its history that doesn’t seem to look well for a sport that just spends and spends and spends an athletic departments money.

That sums it up pretty well. "Young" coaches graduating with THOUSANDS of debt, being asked to volunteer or work for "part-time" positions or even some full-time positions paying less than some people can make working as a gas station attendant. Add on top of that recent inflation/cost of living, and zero time outside of work to really have a life....Doesn't sound like the most glamorous job once you start crunching the numbers and take peek behind the doors of what the profession really is.

Yessir, kind of hard to keep up with those student loan payments 6 months after you graduate when you’re “paying your dues”. Absolutely drowning just to get by let alone planning for your financial future, starting a family, and hopefully retiring one day.

Then imagine a new head coaching coming in and "going in a different direction" from you. RIP all your hard work unless you land on your feet immediately, often times requiring you to completely uproot your life.

Other professions have this as well, but those are by far the minority. It just isn't worth it anymore.

Jebreh is not a distance coach and APU is now trash, they will just be a track program, just what the director of TF wanted. They were building a powerhouse and now its over!!! If you have any questions look it up, Jebreh best 5k guy was a 15:30 5k, look up the results for the woman cross country, almost the worst team in the NCAA, close to San Jose State.

Don’t know anything about the dude but it’s hard to find a program that cares less about distance than USC so that is probably not a great barometer.

well he was at UNLV before that, and that is just as bad

athletics.apu.edu

Harris Set to Lead Cougar Cross Country & Distance - Azusa Pacific University Athletics

Jebreh Harris has been named the head coach of Azusa Pacific cross country, and he will serve as an assistant coach for Cougar track & field.

Link:athletics.apu.edu/news/2024/8/13/cross...

Jebreh Harris is the new head coach of Azusa Pacific cross country and will serve as an assistant coach for Cougar track & field, as Director of Athletics Gary Pine and head coach of track & field Jack Hoyt made the announcement today.

Where is Cawley going?

FSU

This 100%.I'm one of those young coaches about to leave. In the past two years I have six friends around my age all quit coaching entirely. These are relatively successful DI coaches realizing this profession is decaying at a rapid rate. It's simply not worth it. We love coaching and will continue to keep in in our lives in other forms, but we've seen what collegiate athletics really is.

At this point we've heard older people trot out all the tired phrases and statements about how we're lazy, entitled, etc that's it's mewtelt background noise. Most of us feel pity for those people but gratitude that we've broken free from a terrible mindset that largely contributed to the work conditions of today.

I don't know a single person that isn't happier now than they were then. These were people winning titles and qualifying athletics to NCAAs by the way. Almost all having masters degrees and several were head coaches who chose to walk.

Ever try to recruit a distance runner to UNLV with no scholarship money? Just asking.

UC Davis - Assistant Coach

Current Marshall athlete here. Yes Coach Nesby doesn’t have the strongest resume as of now, but he’s one of those guys that you can tell has some great knowledge of the sport and is truly a caring guy. With the amount of talent that Marshall brought in, Nesby will have a much stronger resume this time next year. Sko Herd!

I was a young coach who also left. Mid major head XC and assistant track. Was making 35k per year, got a $1 raise after winning XC conference (I’m not kidding) and the athletic director got a larger bonus than I did for me winning coach of the year (also not kidding).

Money isn’t everything but it’s really hard to survive on $2k per month take home.

Also looking at the NCAA 5-10 years down the road I didn’t see a lot of opportunity. What change careers at 45 when I can leave at 35.

I've had multiple young, talented assistants leave the profession, and, as others have said here, they cite work-life balance and low pay, which I understand and sympathize with.

But I think there's something else, too: the job just isn't as much fun as it used to be when I was a young underpaid, overworked coach. The money was always bad, but it used to be a lot more fun coming to the office every day. Minimal BS, maximal track and field. Now it's the opposite--maximal BS, minimal track and field. Also, today's athletes have a much more extensive (and sometimes contradictory) set of expectations, which are not always fun to deal with. Young coaches don't have this point of reference, of course--they weren't around. But I think this change in day-to-day enjoyment contributes to coaches leaving the sport just as much as the low pay and long hours.

SU head just left days before reporting date. This will be a big job for someone