Kevin Hadsell wrote:
Readers Digest Version:
The MAC is a tough conference and very competitive. Not a lot of high school All-Americans showing up but a lot of All-Americans produced and national qualifiers. Over the last 20 years you have coaches like Sue Parks (BSU/EMU), Mo Banton (Ohio), Rich Ceronie (Miami), Steve Price and Sid Sink (BG) being very competitive at the NCAAs in both cross country and track. Then you have coaches like Dennis Mitchell and Bill Lawson and many others that have focused on more track and had tremendous success. Like the other guy said, if it is so easy, then please give us the secret formula!
To the guy who feels he can do better: You are right. We were not well rounded. We had good individuals to augment the cross country program. I had 10 scholarships tied up in distance. Spread out a total of about 17 scholarships to 40+ women and many didn't score in the non-distance. Never really could get the throws going like the next coach did. Some really good sprinters and overall had great success in the LJ and TJ over the years. We lost the MAC 2012 outdoor because I couldn't piece together an even mediocre 4x4 (we were winning by 2.33 points going into the event. Sue Parks is FAR better than I ever was at taking at team to the NCAAs in xc and winning track titles. We were mediocre at track. You win! I concede! :)
Oh yeah...while you are fangirling over your win...just jot down for me the same level of scrutiny for LSU and USC while they are dead fuing last in their conference in xc and couldn't score a point over 1500m if their life depended on it. But hey...we will wait. I mean...you're apparently the guy that knows how to be great in every single event and still take a team to the NCAAs in XC. We are excited to hear from you and your wisdom.
PS: There is no need to even compare Andrea Grove McDonough and me. There is no comparison. She is a better coach and is clearly a much better human being than I am. I have known her for years and we chat and have chatted about the Toledo job. She is such a great person that I will easily concede to your observation! She is going to do a great job and hopefully exceed what I was able to do. Stunningly, after all that went down, I am still great friends with my former administrators and support people at UT and they are great people to work for and with so she will do amazing. So...yay for you! You win another point you're on a roll Butter Cup.
~Kevin
See, I was right! In fact, with that much money invested into the distance events, you probably should have been top 10. Teams like Iona, Providence, and others have fared much better with less scholarships in XC.
I can't defend LSU and USC's poor XC results. They should be better. But they are focusing on track -they actually win national championships using their scholarship money in other places. And there aren't many distance runners who want to live down south and have to practice at 5am every day because of the heat. And they can't get a 4:54 women's 1600m runner for books (which is what they are worth) when you and other distance-only programs are throwing full rides at them.