Son was being recruited hard by Stevenson. Coach was Danielle Gray. All of a sudden she was gone, no email or nothing. Granted he pretty much decided he wasn’t going to go there but still weird she was recruiting hard right before we found out she was gone and they hired a new coach and now it looks like that hire fell through. The former Olympic sprinter seems to be the only listed coach left.
Jonathan Marcus just got fired from Portland State
Canned like tuna...honestly, they ought to cut the program. It's just a few steps above Seattle University, unless the school is at the absolute minimum sports needed for Division I.
Didn't they just hire a head coach? I am curious about what happened with the previous Head coach before him...
Hi - MAC Conference Track Coach here and I have been around.
First thing I will say is I know Camodeca, Berdan, and Gray and they are all great people from my interactions with them. Stevenson AD, not so much a great person. He ran off Camodeca when he was winning championships, they got rid of Berdan mid season because he "wouldn't host meets" and needed to recruit 60 athletes in 1 year to keep his job, clearly an unreasonable expectation. When Berdan was let go the kids were not happy, sent a recording of the AD to the conference and the AD looked really bad.
The Gray situation is even more chaotic from what I have heard. She was the only FT coach on staff because Stevenson was on a hiring freeze until about November. She brought on 5-6 volunteer coaches to help and a part time sprints coach (Bernard Williams). Job was finally posted in November/December and applicant pool was not very good, so she asked to hire in the summer, admin blamed her for poor application pool. The conference meet was pulled from Stevenson due to not being suitable to host conference (no power, limited parking, no seating) - yet the reason the previous coach was fired was because he wouldn't host meets! Gray felt like she would be fired because the conference meet got pulled, because she was aware of why Berdan was let go. Sounds like she was also told on her first year that the recruits she brought in was not enough. I looked on the web site and it looks like she has 20+ freshmen. She was informed she needed 40 recruits this season or else she would be let go after her 2nd years.
The most unprofessional thing is the AD hired another HC while Gray was still employed, behind her back. He started the next day and quit 2 days later.
Kids and parents are beyond angry.
If I was a coach I would stay as far away from this job as you can, you will be the 4th coach in 3 years!!
Wow, didn’t see this before i posted. Thanks for the info. This is terrible. Hard to know what you are sending your kids into these days. Smdh
Son was being recruited hard by Stevenson. Coach was Danielle Gray. All of a sudden she was gone, no email or nothing. Granted he pretty much decided he wasn’t going to go there but still weird she was recruiting hard right before we found out she was gone and they hired a new coach and now it looks like that hire fell through. The former Olympic sprinter seems to be the only listed coach left.
Anyone see the comedy acts from the Olympic sprinter on IG? Thoughts?
SF Academy of Art dropping all 13 teams. The track team was starting to show some promise. Could never figure out why they went D1 for such a small school.
SF Academy of Art dropping all 13 teams. The track team was starting to show some promise. Could never figure out why they went D1 for such a small school.
Hi - MAC Conference Track Coach here and I have been around.
First thing I will say is I know Camodeca, Berdan, and Gray and they are all great people from my interactions with them. Stevenson AD, not so much a great person. He ran off Camodeca when he was winning championships, they got rid of Berdan mid season because he "wouldn't host meets" and needed to recruit 60 athletes in 1 year to keep his job, clearly an unreasonable expectation. When Berdan was let go the kids were not happy, sent a recording of the AD to the conference and the AD looked really bad.
The Gray situation is even more chaotic from what I have heard. She was the only FT coach on staff because Stevenson was on a hiring freeze until about November. She brought on 5-6 volunteer coaches to help and a part time sprints coach (Bernard Williams). Job was finally posted in November/December and applicant pool was not very good, so she asked to hire in the summer, admin blamed her for poor application pool. The conference meet was pulled from Stevenson due to not being suitable to host conference (no power, limited parking, no seating) - yet the reason the previous coach was fired was because he wouldn't host meets! Gray felt like she would be fired because the conference meet got pulled, because she was aware of why Berdan was let go. Sounds like she was also told on her first year that the recruits she brought in was not enough. I looked on the web site and it looks like she has 20+ freshmen. She was informed she needed 40 recruits this season or else she would be let go after her 2nd years.
The most unprofessional thing is the AD hired another HC while Gray was still employed, behind her back. He started the next day and quit 2 days later.
Kids and parents are beyond angry.
If I was a coach I would stay as far away from this job as you can, you will be the 4th coach in 3 years!!
Wow, didn’t see this before i posted. Thanks for the info. This is terrible. Hard to know what you are sending your kids into these days. Smdh
The track team is in shambles, again, because of the AD. Mutiple volunteers have already resigned or just disappeared from the program because of this. The volunteer pole vault coach, who had the supply of poles has resigned and now the team has maybe 5-6 poles to use. The AD is hiding an ignoring all request for meetings with the team and parents and I am sure he is praying this goes away for the 2nd time - but that will not be the situation this time.
Wow, didn’t see this before i posted. Thanks for the info. This is terrible. Hard to know what you are sending your kids into these days. Smdh
The track team is in shambles, again, because of the AD. Mutiple volunteers have already resigned or just disappeared from the program because of this. The volunteer pole vault coach, who had the supply of poles has resigned and now the team has maybe 5-6 poles to use. The AD is hiding an ignoring all request for meetings with the team and parents and I am sure he is praying this goes away for the 2nd time - but that will not be the situation this time.
Thats is crazy. My son went on his overnight recruiting visit there in September. He really likes it. Wanted to commit but i told him lets slow it down. Take all your visits, no need to rush. Visits of course are designed to make you feel that way.
Now Ursinus, he went on a couple of visits there, one overnight. Thats the school i really liked. Loved Coach Blickle and that program, and they really wanted him. But again, had to implore him to take his time.
He ended up getting a full ride academically somewhere else, lower D1 and now has the the times good enough for a spot and the coach has already told him he is good to go so we will follow the money of course.
But its public now that Ursinus job is open. We knew before it was announced because Coach Blickle reached out. I found that to be respectful, and professional. Had no idea about Stevenson and what was going on. Sad to see Coach Blickle go but he seems happy with another position he got so we wish him the best. That seems like a great job at the D3 level. Good facilities, safe campus and excellent merit aid.