Vanderbilt XC/Track & Field Head Coach Rumors

They get scholarships and the opportunity to compete, I don't see what they have to complain about.

Snowflakes be meltin'. That's why they don't get put in charge of anything of significance.

No white guy is crying over people giving jobs due to race, not qualifications. The team is built off of distance at Vandy, and due to such, they should hire a coach that specializes in distance, which leaves you with very few options that are minorities. By the way, do you comprehend that the term minority means lower in percentage? So by default, it is already a smaller pool. Let alone the fact that caucasian Americans make up the over 80% of the Americans competing in distance events.

Couldn't get worse than Steve. Looking forward to having a new coach in the program.

I suspect Althea’s focuse is going to be 3 fold with more emphasis on her event areas of 400 and 800 but she was also a state champ hep and jumper beyond her track success and no doubt learned a few things over past 4 years at Ga in the jump/multi area from Petros. She will hire a talented distance coach, be it Rhonda or someone else to handle the 1500 up and keep it a stable focus of the program. So stop with all the, “this is a stupid hire” crap as its a perfect hire.

Yes.. look for the sprint and hurdle scholars at NC A&T and LSU to transfer to Vandy for their academics.

Bicurious wrote:

No white guy is crying over people giving jobs due to race, not qualifications. The team is built off of distance at Vandy, and due to such, they should hire a coach that specializes in distance, which leaves you with very few options that are minorities. By the way, do you comprehend that the term minority means lower in percentage? So by default, it is already a smaller pool. Let alone the fact that caucasian Americans make up the over 80% of the Americans competing in distance events.

Says you - who I might add is not the AD & who has a lot more info than you do - So if its qualifications you want - maybe she had the best ones irrelevant of event group - and they figured that they could get a good distance coach to help out with those events and be a better all around track team. Just because Vandy is mostly distance runners now does not mean they should stay that way. Bias is a heck of a drug.

Beats Keith wrote:

Couldn't get worse than Steve. Looking forward to having a new coach in the program.

Did Steve Keith steal your girlfriend?

I mean, I know this is LRC where entitled pissants come to grind their undersized axes but how about just class it up and let the guy retire peacefully?

Vandy has an average SAT score of 1500. There's a reason the Ivy League schools are bad at sprints. If Vandy had 36 scholarships and an average SAT of 1305, they'd still NEVER COME CLOSE to Florida, Georgia, LSU, and other SEC teams in the sprints.

They don't even sponsor men's track, so Althea would coach exactly ZERO men in her event groups. However, they could take the same approach as Providence or Syracuse and have a shot at a national championship XC team.

Bicurious wrote:

No white guy is crying over people giving jobs due to race, not qualifications. The team is built off of distance at Vandy, and due to such, they should hire a coach that specializes in distance, which leaves you with very few options that are minorities. By the way, do you comprehend that the term minority means lower in percentage? So by default, it is already a smaller pool. Let alone the fact that caucasian Americans make up the over 80% of the Americans competing in distance events.

Just because the focus of the previous cosch was distance is irrelevant to the new head coach. Thats like saying the new coach of a basketball team that was full of mostly shooters and the head coach was a center he is the wrong choice. Just get an assistant who is good with backcourt shooters. That's like saying the head football coach was a linebacker and coached linebackers and linemen can't be the head coach because the previous coach was a pass happy offensive minded coach. Vanderbilt has the facilities to be good in any event group if they want to be.

Yeah, I don't think your analogies actually fit at all. High profile TEAM revenue generating sports are not the same as NCAA XC and Track & Field. Further, the sport of basketball has a minimal roster comparatively and schools like Vanderbilt suck at football, for the same reason schools like Vanderbilt suck at sprints, jumps, hurdles. And like it or not, unlike football, ncaa track can specialize. In football you are required to have every position covered or you are not allowed to compete at all (they also have tons of scholarships and a billion coaches). In ncaa track, if you are at a school like Vandy that isn't going to be a top program in certain events EVER, they can focus on an event area that WILL bring them success, with no penalty and no restriction. Not to mention, they have men's and women's cross country programs, so to focus on distance not only produces better results, it also covers more sports. They also do not have men's track & field, so they have fewer event coaches than all the powerhouse schools just in the SEC.

You are obviously free to believe whatever you want. However, you have no historical evidence to support what you are saying. You just "hope" it works out. That's fine, and nobody can say with certainty it won't work out. Maybe Vandy will be a national power as a full track & field program, fighting for SEC titles, finishing top 5 nationally indoor and outdoor, while still contending in and getting to nationals in xc. It is possible, though all evidence and history for Vandy and for schools like Vandy overwhelmingly suggests otherwise. Time will tell.

If you are just happy a black woman got a head coaching job, then that's fine. If you are just happy that a historically strong distance program is being dismantled to build a sprints/jumps/hurdles program, then that's fine. If you just have a lot of hope that this will work out, that's fine too, but say those things. To compare Vandy XC and Track & Field to basketball or football, or to argue without facts or history that this has much of a chance of being a successful program athletically at this type of school, is disingenuous.

I'm quite confident Althea Thomas can duplicate her success from Georgia at Vandy.......She had ZERO women in her event groups qualify for NCAA's this year at UGA and I'd bet my life she has zero in the next few years at Vandy.

Another person commenting who doesn't know what they are talking about.

As for football, if Vanderbilt wants to be good at football they will pour tons of resources at it to be good, just like Notre Dame and Stanford does. Duke is a powerhouse in basketball because they pour resources into it. Vanderbilt baseball is a powerhouse, again because they put resources into it.

As for Vanderbilt...how many distance runners were in Oregon.......None. They had a sprinter at Nationals in the 400 and their 4x4 wasn't far from making it. I must have been asleep when Vanderbilt was a cross country powerhouse. They aren't better than Stanford, Notre Dame, Duke or any other elite academic school and they certainly aren't better than Arkansas and Alabama in the SEC in distance. Historically Vanderbilt has sucked in track and cross country. Stop acting like Althea Thomas isn't a great hire.

I don't know what it is with you distance guys and why you think the sport revolves around you and why head coaches need to also be a distance coach. They don't.

Another person commenting who doesn't know what they are talking about.

As for football, if Vanderbilt wants to be good at football they will pour tons of resources at it to be good, just like Notre Dame and Stanford does. Duke is a powerhouse in basketball because they pour resources into it. Vanderbilt baseball is a powerhouse, again because they put resources into it.

As for Vanderbilt...how many distance runners were in Oregon.......None. They had a sprinter at Nationals in the 400 and their 4x4 wasn't far from making it. I must have been asleep when Vanderbilt was a cross country powerhouse. They aren't better than Stanford, Notre Dame, Duke or any other elite academic school and they certainly aren't better than Arkansas and Alabama in the SEC in distance. Historically Vanderbilt has sucked in track and cross country. Stop acting like Althea Thomas isn't a great hire.

I don't know what it is with you distance guys and why you think the sport revolves around you and why head coaches need to also be a distance coach. They don't.

Vanderbilt football is FULLY FUNDED and they still needed to use a women's soccer player as their kicker.

Vandy women's XC in 2019 was 5th in the south region with a very young team. They were on the doorstep to qualifying for nationals in XC. Vanderbilt track scored ZERO points at the SEC championships. Should they dismantle a strong XC team to try scoring 10 points in the SEC track championships?

Agree. Plus Steve Keith was doing an outstanding job until he had major health issues that nearly cost him his life. He fought a hard battle for years and Vandy officials stood behind him as they know the man busted his tail for Vandy for years. Better than many places in treating their employees with respect.

Wrong, She coached Amber Tanner. The 800 was her primary event. You just showed how little you really know….

Plus she had Elijah Hall in the 400 and he made Olympic Trials final. So STFU.

Brain cramp - Elijah Godwin in the 400

You dont know Althea wrote:

Agree. Plus Steve Keith was doing an outstanding job until he had major health issues that nearly cost him his life. He fought a hard battle for years and Vandy officials stood behind him as they know the man busted his tail for Vandy for years. Better than many places in treating their employees with respect.

Okay, I agree that Althea is not the bad hire many make her out to be but let’s not lie to ourselves here. Steve Keith was a horrendous coach, health issues notwithstanding. The only major success Vanderbilt ever saw as a program (I.e. consecutive years qualifying for xc nationals) came while Rhonda was assistant coach. Just look at the timeline. Vanderbilt was good when Rhonda was there, got bad when she left, and Duke got good when she was there. Rhonda is the common thread. I have never heard a good word spoken about Keith from any athlete he has coached and it’s a wonder he was allowed to stay for as long as he did.