Well Andrew a long time ago Jim O'Brien was the head coach of both Track and Field and Cross-Country at Arcadia HS, but was removed from three of the four positions by then athletic director Doug Speck.
Now why would someone as respected as Doug Speck have to remove O'Brien over two decades ago? Inform me?
Where do you draw the line for the kids looking out for their best interest when they feel like nobody else is doing it for them? You understand that Landis was under very clear directive from the administration and her "mentor" Chris Schultz to completely separate girls and boys cross country right? Where's the respect in that?
Now you're so invested in this idea that "he split the girls XC team"? J.O.B. had made multiple attempts to help Landis succeed. You're so hell bent on this that you can't see that these kids have their own opionions and can make their own choices, and again, it's nice to see that they don't all conform to something they don't believe is right. Some of those girls had already run with J.O.B. before Landis stepped foot there as a coach. She even issued a crying apology to them for having them caught in the middle, that it was out of her control. You know what it looks like from the outside? The girl runners that trained with J.O.B. ended being the faster girls on the team, that they had a deeper connection than you could comprehend. Sure seems like you resent that.
CTIX wrote:
I know and have trained for Coach O'Brien. Great guy but seems to have issue with control.
He has alienated the Girls XC team, shown little respect instead of working with Coach Landis and tried to take over the program. Has also tried his best to separate girls/boys XC team? Some girls won't train with Coach Landis, some have quit XC. Really? You only have HS memories once.
It appears to me that he is trying to do the same with Track. Shultz may be an a-h--e but it is his program. So did O'brien benefit these athletes in anyway by pulling them from their track season? These are great athletes, why would they bypass their season?
O'Brien wants full control of Boys/Girls XC and Track and he has credentials to justify his promotion. But the means in which he tries to gain control are underhanded and childish and don't take the athletes best interests into consideration.
The AD, Press is in over his head, he has had problems in every sport at AHS and probably should be replaced.
As for O'Brien, they should let him go, or give him full control so that the HS athletes are not put into a position of missing great HS experiences, which he clearly does not care about. If O'Brien cared he would let his athletes run Track.
I'm going to call the OP out as a liar based on this:
https://www.facebook.com/KeepCoachOBrienAtArcadia?ref=stream&hc_location=streamHere, you have REAL accounts from Arcadia runners both male and female as well as their parents, and a VERY large support base requesting that O'Brien remain at the school.
The OP is one opinion. 1600+ others counter it.
I don't know what sort of rumors and whatnot the people on this thread have been going on about, but as an input from the actual Arcadia Runners, I'm going to say that most of them are likely false.
The ghost of Doug Speck wrote:
Well Andrew a long time ago Jim O'Brien was the head coach of both Track and Field and Cross-Country at Arcadia HS, but was removed from three of the four positions by then athletic director Doug Speck.
Now why would someone as respected as Doug Speck have to remove O'Brien over two decades ago? Inform me?
The both the pasadena star news and the prepcaltrack articles said J.O.B. had been coaching at Arcadia for 17 years. I can thus inform you that based on that, Doug Speck did not remove him as a coach in any position 2 decades ago. IIRC J.O.B. also re-signed his position as head track coach due to his own personal reasons. Nills Miller was initially the coach for boys and girls cross country, J.O.B. came in, worked with him initially, and J.O.B. remained the head boys coach while Miller remained the girls coach.
ArcadiaAnon wrote:
I'm going to call the OP out as a liar based on this:
https://www.facebook.com/KeepCoachOBrienAtArcadia?ref=stream&hc_location=streamHere, you have REAL accounts from Arcadia runners both male and female as well as their parents, and a VERY large support base requesting that O'Brien remain at the school.
The OP is one opinion. 1600+ others counter it.
I don't know what sort of rumors and whatnot the people on this thread have been going on about, but as an input from the actual Arcadia Runners, I'm going to say that most of them are likely false.
The comment from Indoor? below sums up the situation best. Was he a good coach and did the kids and parents like him? Sure sounds like it.
However he willingly put himself (and the athletes) in a pissing match with the administration and lost. How does this help the kids now?
Indoor? wrote:
Unfortunately in life disagreements happen and they effect other people. For whatever reason these guys couldn't work out their differences in a better way and this was the best solution? Well guess what now this "best solution" which was pretty crappy in that they didn't get to do track, now it means they don't have him as an XC coach either.
Seems like something better could have been figured out.
But let me be clear. The day that he created a non-school group that took 80 kids that normally do track out of the track program was the day he quit coaching at Arcadia.
The real account is the story. HE JUST GOT FIRED!!
The Ghost of Doug Speck rises, which to me means he did not learn a thing from his earlier transgressions. BTW, I only suggested give him all positions or get rid of him. The administration obviously felt getting rid of him was the right choice. I also feel giving him full control would have been a choice, but that would have been unfair to Schultz and Landis.
Cali Guy wrote:
PrepCalTrack moves the ball forward a little...
http://www.prepcaltrack.com/2013/06/18/obrien-now-out-as-arcadia-xc-coach/"The situation was not always rosy, however. The boys cross country program had been been issued a two-year ban from participating in one very popular invitational starting in 2011, with the meet director citing past transgressions as the reason."
I can't imagine what transgressions would get a team banned from an XC meet. I've been around O'Brien's teams and the athletes were pretty self-disciplined and on track.
I dont know too much about the situation going on here, but I can answer your question! O'Brien had mentioned that they were banned for jumping in the lake after their team broke the Woodward Park record at the Clovis Invitational in 2010.
CTIX wrote:
The real account is the story. HE JUST GOT FIRED!!
The Ghost of Doug Speck rises, which to me means he did not learn a thing from his earlier transgressions. BTW, I only suggested give him all positions or get rid of him. The administration obviously felt getting rid of him was the right choice. I also feel giving him full control would have been a choice, but that would have been unfair to Schultz and Landis.
Yes, because the administration obviously put the wants of the student body at the forefront of all the choices they make right?
There's not a lot we can do for O'Brien at this point but one thing that we're not going to stand for is people running their mouths and accusing him of negative things that he didn't do.
You say that he didn't see eye-to-eye with the other coaches. That's correct.
You also say that he didn't keep his athletes' best interests in mind. When you say that, you're lying through your teeth.
It was because he was trying to do what he thought was best FOR his runners that he was fired.
In case you don't know, Schultz treats distance runners like crap. He doesn't care about our workouts, rarely pays attention to us at all, and doesn't even bother trying to remember our names. You think we want to run for a coach like that?
You call the distance runners out on quitting Track because "You only have high school memories once". You're right about the memories. But let me ask you. Would you really want to remember 4 years running for a jerk who doesn't even bother watching you run in a meet? I sure don't. I'd much rather spend my 4 years running for a coach who's giving me feedback the whole way through and giving everything he's got to make me a better runner.
I'm pretty sure wrote:
I dont know too much about the situation going on here, but I can answer your question! O'Brien had mentioned that they were banned for jumping in the lake after their team broke the Woodward Park record at the Clovis Invitational in 2010.
Really? That's kind of amazing.
Those aggressive and territorial geese at Woodward jump in the lakes all the time. If only the folks from Clovis could ban them...
The person who said that Doug Speck fired Jim O'Brien at Arcadia over two decades ago got it wrong. Doug Speck fired Jim O'Brien something like 14 years ago, but he did fire him.
I'm pretty sure wrote:I dont know too much about the situation going on here, but I can answer your question! O'Brien had mentioned that they were banned for jumping in the lake after their team broke the Woodward Park record at the Clovis Invitational in 2010.
Interesting... the Spokane teams used(?) to have a tradition of jumping in the lake after winning the WA state meet (don't remember if they do or not anymore, whether its knowing they have another meet the next weekend and don't want to celebrate too much when there is more work to be done, or because their streak got snapped a couple years ago).
Obviously, they never got banned for that (and I don't see why they would have, or why Arcadia would have in their situation).
I'm pretty sure wrote:
[quote]Cali Guy wrote:
I dont know too much about the situation going on here, but I can answer your question! O'Brien had mentioned that they were banned for jumping in the lake after their team broke the Woodward Park record at the Clovis Invitational in 2010.
It probably wasn't that one that got them banned. They crossed the line a few times and jumping into a lake wasn't close to being the worst thing. One of the things he did would have gotten him fired right on the spot at most other places.
Infinity wrote:
[quote]I'm pretty sure wrote:
[quote]Cali Guy wrote:
I dont know too much about the situation going on here, but I can answer your question! O'Brien had mentioned that they were banned for jumping in the lake after their team broke the Woodward Park record at the Clovis Invitational in 2010.
It probably wasn't that one that got them banned. They crossed the line a few times and jumping into a lake wasn't close to being the worst thing. One of the things he did would have gotten him fired right on the spot at most other places.
Oh actually, I do recall him mentioning something that happened prior to the jumping! Excuse me for not remembering, but this was a long time ago! But I do remember he said that he was being blamed for something he did not do. Not sure if he was lying or not.
I wonder what O'Brien's army will do now. Continue to run club all cross country season or choose to run for a high school team.
If they run for a high school team will it be a different high school team (since a lot of the runners at Arcadia high school chose to run their due to their program). Will other schools in the areas see a sudden rise to power?
What are you talking about? One kid on the team has run age group track, I don't think any of the others ran competitively or do anything besides jogging a P.E. mile once in a while before joining the cross country team... and it has always been that way. I think the number of kids that have run age group track before joining the Arcadia Cross Country team, in the past 13 years, is TWO. Everyone else pretty much started from scratch
worst poster wrote:
Agreed.
I think its good Rocha seems to have done his own thing and stayed with the track program. He needs to look out for himself, not JOB. He could have a monkey writing his workouts and he'd do fine.
Any good private schools with godd T&F programs in that area? Maybe the best thing would be to get away from that whole mess.
Absolutely the best thing would be to leave "the mess". Rocha wouldn't need to go to a public school; if he transfers he'd only need to sit out 30 days I think.
IMO, he should look at Brea or Dana Hills, where he can run the next 3 years with someone that is his equal in either Austin Tamagno or Jake Ogden. Both of those kids are extremely talented and are at schools with history. I believe Rocha transferred to Arcadia in the first place to have good teammates to train with, so what's the difference?
Back on topic, if you're a multi-national champ coach and getting fired, you are doing something very wrong along with something very right. In cases like that, it can be hard to look past the "very wrong" part because the high-school level is not professional sport.
SoCalXCFan wrote:
worst poster wrote:Agreed.
I think its good Rocha seems to have done his own thing and stayed with the track program. He needs to look out for himself, not JOB. He could have a monkey writing his workouts and he'd do fine.
Any good private schools with godd T&F programs in that area? Maybe the best thing would be to get away from that whole mess.
Absolutely the best thing would be to leave "the mess". Rocha wouldn't need to go to a public school; if he transfers he'd only need to sit out 30 days I think.
IMO, he should look at Brea or Dana Hills, where he can run the next 3 years with someone that is his equal in either Austin Tamagno or Jake Ogden. Both of those kids are extremely talented and are at schools with history. I believe Rocha transferred to Arcadia in the first place to have good teammates to train with, so what's the difference?
Back on topic, if you're a multi-national champ coach and getting fired, you are doing something very wrong along with something very right. In cases like that, it can be hard to look past the "very wrong" part because the high-school level is not professional sport.
Look brah, if this was a professional sport, no owner would fire him cause he's winning championships. Lawyered...
Thank goodness the new boys coach will be O'Brien's former assistant, Michael Feraco. He's a great guy and will lead the team with O'Brien's philosophies
IMO, he should look at Brea or Dana Hills, where he can run the next 3 years with someone that is his equal in either Austin Tamagno or Jake Ogden.
Join Brea and they have a legit shot at the 4xmile. Stillwater should have surpassed it at nationals this year. With Branton (4:13) and Tamagno (4:09), Brea would crush the record with Rocha. And they would give CBA a race at NXN next year.
Landis was not under any directive to separate from O'Brien. I've talked to Landis about situation and all she wanted was a cohesive team, which because of O'Brien she never had. O'Brien did nothing to help Landis succeed, he should have but he did not. To be honest she should have told any XC girls runner who did not participate in her program see you later. She never did that. Kids may make their own choices, but in what HS sport can you get away with that, they are kids? Respect is not something O'Brien displayed towards his peers and in turn not a good example for his athletes. I can tell you I know for a fact that Landis can coach, her methods work and would have worked well for O'Briens girls if they had given her the chance. As for her apology to the team, I did know about that, it was an apology because she could not do anything about O'Briens antics and was in a helpless spot she could not rectify. I do not resent the young girls for their choices, right or wrong. In fact I have great relationships with alot of them and have never once steered them in any direction.