Anyone else here read “what made Maddy run”? Can’t believe the school isn’t doing more after that. The book still haunts me.
Harvard & Penn Coaching - Alleged Harassment & Misconduct
College Running
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Harvard Article
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asdkgas;dkljg wrote:
I don't think there is any need for victim blaming here - it's just that based solely on what's in the story - as that's all the info we have - there wasn't much going on here.
Oyebode quite literally does not allege anything meriting news coverage. Her claim is that she strained her knee one time but Brooks "treated her like she was faking it." What does this mean? We have literally no more information that this. She also claims that if Brooks couldn't cut you he would make your life as difficult as possible. Again, there is no additional information about how Brooks made her life "as difficult as possible." It is also unexplained why Brooks would not have been able to cut someone from the team, especially a noncontributor. Finally, she states in December of 2021, Brooks threatened to cut her from the team and that she had not been given a "fair chance" to prove herself. But Oyebode threw for Penn in their first meet of the season on December 10th. And she had thrown for Penn in 2020 and 2021. So, as a third year team member she clearly had the opportunity to prove herself. And if Brooks didn't want her on the team, why did she throw in the first meet? Why not cut her (or threaten to cut her) before the season? Or perhaps he did threaten to cut her in December 2021 over an issue that is not addressed in the article? Regardless, Oyedobe quite of her own accord in January 2022 - she was not cut. I'm honestly not sure why this was even part of the article.
Regarding Osezua, there is not much here either. She starts at Penn and throws in the 21 outdoor season. She then throws in the 22 indoor season before leaving school for her year-long mental health leave. She then returns to school and throws in the 23 outdoor season apparently without issue (none is stated in the article). Then she gets hurt in October of 23, goes to the trainer who tells her she can't get a free MRI because the injury was off campus, and then seemingly goes AWOL from further communication with the coaches or training staff - as none is mentioned or alleged in the article - and instead decides not to pursue an MRI and drop her course load, making her ineligible. She then met with the coaches on January 12, 2024, one day before Penn's first meet of 2024, to discuss rejoining the team. Again, we have no detail about what may have transpired in the interim, but it seems bizarre that there was no communication between the parties prior to this. In the article, she states that the coaches told her they were unaware of her injury, which she seems to think they would have known about via the trainer, which strongly suggests that she never spoke to anyone on the coaching staff about her injury. Regardless, it seems odd to tie the coaching staff's reluctance for her to rejoin the team to her mental health leave, when she had already rejoined the team for 2023 outdoor when she returned to school from her leave. A more natural understanding would be that this person was MIA for entirety of the lead up to the season and then the day before the first meet of 2024 asks to rejoin the team. As a non-contributor it is not shocking the coaches may not have wanted this person back.
Why are you going into such depth with these two but not mention Lindner's story, which is detailed extensively in the article? Are you trying to downplay this and just focus on these two to try to substantiate your claim of "there wasn't much going on here"?
Lindner's story is the main story here. It's the lede and most damning set of allegations in the article.
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Eastern C wrote:
Harvard Article
Thanks for the sharing the follow up. It doesn't seem to add much to the Penn story but they raise the question if Harvard even knew about the open Title IX investigation into Brooks.
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Eastern C wrote:
Harvard Article
Brooks will be suspended before the weekend.
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Hey, if Greg Jack can get another position at VT after his drunken/racist outrage on a plane, these guys have no worries about their future. Schools want to win at all costs
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It’s unbelievable Harvard still has coach Fletcher listed on their website. I imagine Harvard will conduct their own investigation but as a parent of a recruitable child I have some serious concerns. A colleague’s D ran for Harvard when Wales Dinen was on their staff. Why isn’t Harvard leadership getting involved?
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Concerns wrote:
It’s unbelievable Harvard still has coach Fletcher listed on their website. I imagine Harvard will conduct their own investigation but as a parent of a recruitable child I have some serious concerns. A colleague’s D ran for Harvard when Wales Dinen was on their staff. Why isn’t Harvard leadership getting involved?
What's the full story behind the Wales-Dinan situation?
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story timez wrote:
Concerns wrote:
It’s unbelievable Harvard still has coach Fletcher listed on their website. I imagine Harvard will conduct their own investigation but as a parent of a recruitable child I have some serious concerns. A colleague’s D ran for Harvard when Wales Dinen was on their staff. Why isn’t Harvard leadership getting involved?
What's the full story behind the Wales-Dinan situation?
Flotrack did a WOW video with the women's team at Harvard. In the video, PWD body language towards one of the runners was blatantly creepy. LRC erupted with a huge thread about the video. Flowtrack pulled the video and re-edited it without the creepy shots. PWD past at other schools and namely having married a former student-athlete he coached came up. Fast forward to a few months later and PWD got let go, but it took awhile.
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live from Kirkland St wrote:
story timez wrote:
What's the full story behind the Wales-Dinan situation?
Flotrack did a WOW video with the women's team at Harvard. In the video, PWD body language towards one of the runners was blatantly creepy. LRC erupted with a huge thread about the video. Flowtrack pulled the video and re-edited it without the creepy shots. PWD past at other schools and namely having married a former student-athlete he coached came up. Fast forward to a few months later and PWD got let go, but it took awhile.
"Body language" is an understatement, he was tickling the girls lower back while she was in just a sports bra.
Did Harvard ever release a statement saying what they found as a result of the investigation?
Clearly they found enough to fire him. The findings most have been very serious.
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that's an understatement wrote:
live from Kirkland St wrote:
Flotrack did a WOW video with the women's team at Harvard. In the video, PWD body language towards one of the runners was blatantly creepy. LRC erupted with a huge thread about the video. Flowtrack pulled the video and re-edited it without the creepy shots. PWD past at other schools and namely having married a former student-athlete he coached came up. Fast forward to a few months later and PWD got let go, but it took awhile.
"Body language" is an understatement, he was tickling the girls lower back while she was in just a sports bra.
Did Harvard ever release a statement saying what they found as a result of the investigation?
Clearly they found enough to fire him. The findings most have been very serious.
Nope - never released it publicly.
Some of the controversy was also about his coaching methods, as he encouraged unhealthy eating habits and overtraining. It led to over 50% of the distance/mid-distance crew to leave the squad. Funny enough, one of his former Harvard athletes is now coaching at Harvard (Judy Pendergast - she transferred out of Harvard to Oregon, only to transfer back).40 -
that's an understatement wrote:
live from Kirkland St wrote:
Flotrack did a WOW video with the women's team at Harvard. In the video, PWD body language towards one of the runners was blatantly creepy. LRC erupted with a huge thread about the video. Flowtrack pulled the video and re-edited it without the creepy shots. PWD past at other schools and namely having married a former student-athlete he coached came up. Fast forward to a few months later and PWD got let go, but it took awhile.
"Body language" is an understatement, he was tickling the girls lower back while she was in just a sports bra.
Did Harvard ever release a statement saying what they found as a result of the investigation?
Clearly they found enough to fire him. The findings most have been very serious.
I have some nonpublic information on this and can say confidently that it was a very fair firing.
Saretsky should really be put under more scrutiny. I know he was inches from losing his job previously because the PWD stuff was right under his nose and this makes me more skeptical of him.
The reality is that he is very good at fundraising and managing the right alumni relationships, but he's bad at hiring and coaching kids. To me, he'd be better suited as an administrator rather than as a director.
Beyond PWD/Fletcher, Saretsky no longer personally coaches athletes at any distance because all of his athletes quit in 2018. Literally every single 800m/1500m runner on the team chose to run maintenance pace with Gibby or quit the team rather than train under Saretsky, who was serving as the middle distance coach at the time.
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harverd wrote:
I have some nonpublic information on this and can say confidently that it was a very fair firing.
Saretsky should really be put under more scrutiny. I know he was inches from losing his job previously because the PWD stuff was right under his nose and this makes me more skeptical of him.
The reality is that he is very good at fundraising and managing the right alumni relationships, but he's bad at hiring and coaching kids. To me, he'd be better suited as an administrator rather than as a director.
Beyond PWD/Fletcher, Saretsky no longer personally coaches athletes at any distance because all of his athletes quit in 2018. Literally every single 800m/1500m runner on the team chose to run maintenance pace with Gibby or quit the team rather than train under Saretsky, who was serving as the middle distance coach at the time.
It's time to make that info public. If Saretsky was covering up something like (hypothetically) his assistant coach's inappropriate relationship with athletes (again, hypothetically), more people should know about it.
The current athletes are at risk now because you want to keep a secret.
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r3d3 wrote:
harverd wrote:
I have some nonpublic information on this and can say confidently that it was a very fair firing.
Saretsky should really be put under more scrutiny. I know he was inches from losing his job previously because the PWD stuff was right under his nose and this makes me more skeptical of him.
The reality is that he is very good at fundraising and managing the right alumni relationships, but he's bad at hiring and coaching kids. To me, he'd be better suited as an administrator rather than as a director.
Beyond PWD/Fletcher, Saretsky no longer personally coaches athletes at any distance because all of his athletes quit in 2018. Literally every single 800m/1500m runner on the team chose to run maintenance pace with Gibby or quit the team rather than train under Saretsky, who was serving as the middle distance coach at the time.
It's time to make that info public. If Saretsky was covering up something like (hypothetically) his assistant coach's inappropriate relationship with athletes (again, hypothetically), more people should know about it.
The current athletes are at risk now because you want to keep a secret.
What part of "very good at fundraising" you didn't get?
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Blue Bottle in Cambridge sucks wrote:
r3d3 wrote:
It's time to make that info public. If Saretsky was covering up something like (hypothetically) his assistant coach's inappropriate relationship with athletes (again, hypothetically), more people should know about it.
The current athletes are at risk now because you want to keep a secret.
What part of "very good at fundraising" you didn't get?
It's Harvard, fundraising is easy. Do you know how rich their alumni are? The parents of the athletes are rich too.
When your sprints, throws, and distance coaches are producing national championships, alumni will donate.
Their big fundraising numbers have nothing to do with Saretsky being "good" at fundraising.
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