Coach Tyson has 4 scholarships to work with on the entire mens team. Especially considering he can recruit academically strong athletes making the $65k school affordable for athletes that are full ride caliber athletes wherever they want to go (Examples Mwara, Maiorano, Smith). He has had incredible success from the absolute bottom of the totem, now he is close to the top while haters are on his scrotum! Go zags
Coach Tyson has 4 scholarships to work with on the entire mens team. Especially considering he can recruit academically strong athletes making the $65k school affordable for athletes that are full ride caliber athletes wherever they want to go (Examples Mwara, Maiorano, Smith). He has had incredible success from the absolute bottom of the totem, now he is close to the top while haters are on his scrotum! Go zags
Tyson is nowhere near the best. With 31 men on the cross country roster it's highly likely he has way more than 4 scholarships. Regardless, low income students from WA attend Gonzaga FOR FREE. Additionally, 98% of Gonzaga students receive academic merit scholarships and/or financial aid (based on their admissions website). That means for a large % of WA residents, Gonzaga would be significantly cheaper than even UW.
It's hard to say Gonzaga is at the "bottom of the totem" when their basketball team is consistently one of the best in the NCAA.
The sample set at each school is probably too small to do a decent analysis, but it would be an interesting stats project to try and rank coaches on athlete progression and health.
Jason Vigilante At Princeton has to be mentioned also. He coached a world record DMR team at Texas, as well as US champion/Olympian Robby Andrews. At Princeton he has won numerous Ivy league titles as well as a DMR national title. For a school with no scholarships to place 5th overall at NCAAs in track, and be a factor in cross country also is very impressive.
I wish so bad there was a possibility of making a comprehensive study on this subject. It's impossible due to so many factors.
1. Recruiting - This already completely skews the game
- High profile school with tons of perks? (ie Oregon) or some no-name school like Chicago State?
- Lots of in-state talent with little competition (ie Minnesota) or way too many D1's with little population?
- Academic scholarships easy to come by? Or difficult?
- Average cost to attend a specific university, after scholarships and grants, as a walk on
- Weather/geography (ie Flagstaff vs Fargo vs San Diego)
- Roster size limits? BYU with 40 men's distance runners? Or an SEC school running xc with 800m guys?
- Scholarship funding - obviously a huge factor. Fully funded? Zero athletic aid?
- Roster make up - Is the distance coach allowed to use all 12.6 men's scholarships? Or walk-ons only? This piece alone makes up most the differences in top coaches vs mid-tier.
- Staffing - Is the coach running around with 3 assistant distance coaches or just a single volunteer (or less!)?
- Budget - Is the coach flying to Euro Jr's and east Africa every year to recruit and flying international kids in for official visits? Or is it all Zoom calls and Instagram?
- In-state talent pools. Is the coach recruiting out of states like California or Utah? Or Louisiana?
2. Coaching - the question we're actually asking but still has variables
- Travel budget - is the team getting to all the fast meets so their athletes get multiple changes in perfect California race conditions?
- Altitude - inherent benefits for coaching distance runners?
- Weather - the inverse of the above with most altitude programs dealing with snow through April and sometimes May. On the other side of the coin is the deep south with humidity and heat.
- Facilities - Indoor track? Outdoor track?? Trails or all pavement?
- Staff - Does the coach do everything alone or do they have help during workouts and on the road to make things operate more smoothly?
- General support - Does the coach have people to take administrative tasks so they can devote more time to coaching?
Control for all these variables and you MIGHT be able to come up with a good idea who actually coaches the best.
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I wish so bad there was a possibility of making a comprehensive study on this subject. It's impossible due to so many factors.
1. Recruiting - This already completely skews the game
- High profile school with tons of perks? (ie Oregon) or some no-name school like Chicago State?
- Lots of in-state talent with little competition (ie Minnesota) or way too many D1's with little population?
- Academic scholarships easy to come by? Or difficult?
- Average cost to attend a specific university, after scholarships and grants, as a walk on
- Weather/geography (ie Flagstaff vs Fargo vs San Diego)
- Roster size limits? BYU with 40 men's distance runners? Or an SEC school running xc with 800m guys?
- Scholarship funding - obviously a huge factor. Fully funded? Zero athletic aid?
- Roster make up - Is the distance coach allowed to use all 12.6 men's scholarships? Or walk-ons only? This piece alone makes up most the differences in top coaches vs mid-tier.
- Staffing - Is the coach running around with 3 assistant distance coaches or just a single volunteer (or less!)?
- Budget - Is the coach flying to Euro Jr's and east Africa every year to recruit and flying international kids in for official visits? Or is it all Zoom calls and Instagram?
- In-state talent pools. Is the coach recruiting out of states like California or Utah? Or Louisiana?
2. Coaching - the question we're actually asking but still has variables
- Travel budget - is the team getting to all the fast meets so their athletes get multiple changes in perfect California race conditions?
- Altitude - inherent benefits for coaching distance runners?
- Weather - the inverse of the above with most altitude programs dealing with snow through April and sometimes May. On the other side of the coin is the deep south with humidity and heat.
- Facilities - Indoor track? Outdoor track?? Trails or all pavement?
- Staff - Does the coach do everything alone or do they have help during workouts and on the road to make things operate more smoothly?
- General support - Does the coach have people to take administrative tasks so they can devote more time to coaching?
Control for all these variables and you MIGHT be able to come up with a good idea who actually coaches the best.
Spot on. Comprehensive list which shows an actual understanding of the situation.
I’d like to see more upvotes for Al. In addition to preparing Midshipmen for cross country and track meets, he developed us morally, mentally, and physically and prepared us to serve and protect our country.
i just an average high school runner, and Al developed me into a mid 15 5k runner, MUCH faster than my slow, fat-bodied midshipmen classmates who were not on the track team.
he did this not only through tough love and tough workouts, but also with his insistence and cutting weight and eating less. I would have been MUCH slower if I ate more. For breakfast I ate kashi and skim milk, pb and j for lunch, a LITTLE pasta and salad for dinner, and lots of fruit. NO dessert
Wow.
god bless the United States Navy
Agreed. Sorry he won’t coddle you like Gen Z needs and their avocado toast
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