After reading this I feel compelled to offer some commentary and perspective.
Personal Background: I graduated from Saratoga in the mid 2000s and was a member of the team for cross country, indoor, and outdoor track, from 7th grade through senior year (yes, 18 seasons total*). I qualified for and competed at multiple state championships across seasons and was part of state championship teams. I can't comment on the totality of the Kranick's coaching since I was there for a small portion of it, but generally speaking the program has remain essentially unchanged from the early 90s until today.
*Note - importantly, in NYS, athletes are eligible to compete on Varsity athletics beginning in 7th grade. So for many schools, Saratoga included, junior high kids practice along side the high schoolers. This was the case for the distance program - girls started in 7th grade and it was essentially one giant team.
Truths/Myths:
Myth: The Kranicks are being sued. No - in fact, the letter is just a note alleging mistreatment, and has been sent to the state governing body. It's possible that this could manifest itself in the future as a lawsuit but right now there's no litigation.
Myth: The Kranicks give or gave performance enhancing drugs. Vehemently oppose this sentiment. At no point during my tenure was this ever even remotely contemplated. Did not hear anything related to it in the years before or after I was there. Per a previous post - the kerfuffle in the mid 90s was from a family that didn't like the program and moved to rival Shenendehowa - you can do some google searching on it but it essentially boiled down to the family being concerned with the intensity of the program and a claim that the coaches provided the athletes with B12 supplements. Unclear how pervasive this was or whether it was suggested offhand to a single athlete. My beef has always been with dumb opposing teams and coaches saying things like "oh they must be giving them something." BS! We would beat teams b/c we worked harder than them.
Truth: Saratoga kids run 7 days a week, essentially all year. This is true. Practice is held Monday through Saturday with an "optional" long run on Sunday mornings. Practices on Sundays and over the summer are provided under the auspices of a public Saratoga recreation program - which while technically is true, essentially functions as an extension of the program. Athletes who have any hope of running varsity understand that (a) attendance makes you better and (b) lack of attendance is not looked upon favorably by the coaches.
I will note though - the 7 day a week regimen is actually not as bad as it sounds. In my mind what is worse is the lack of downtime between seasons. Given that the team is so good, we'd run cross country through late November and then literally immediately transition into indoor track the Monday after our last race (Feds or now NXN). This would repeat itself after indoor season, and to a lesser extent after outdoor track before summer running started up (which, like Sunday runs is a full time committment).
Myth: Athletes are forced to run through injury. Not true. Girls would get injured in the normal course of training. The expectation was that you'd still try hard and attend practice, but not that you'd do things that would make an injury worse. With that said, I realize in retrospect that girls would be training through things they shouldn't. Not because the coaches insisted, but because they didn't provide us with enough perspective that some time off would help. See the Truth section above for between season recovery - essentially didn't exist.
Truth: Saratoga athletics program is deferential to the Kranicks. Won't overly elaborate but they've been able to establish a fairly insulated bubble in which to operate. The immense success certainly has helped but the school overall has let them operate with few restrictions.
Truth: Saratoga runners do poorly in college. Now being older and having some perspective, I realize this is true. Many of my friends got partial d1 scholarship and immediatley burned out. This is not always true, and many girls did great in college. But I think this was the exception not the norm.
Myth: Coaches hate their athletes. Totally untrue. They care deeply about each runner doing well. They've established what in their minds is a difficult and rigorous program designed to maximize each person's potential. I think they've skewed toward overtraining many athletes, but not out of any bad intention.
Overall perpsective: My best analogy is that the team is run like a high caliber college football program or maybe like boys high school hockey in Minnesota or something. This in the sense that it truly is a program - you either commit to it and love it or you're essentially on the outside looking in. Again, now with the benefit of age I realize the coaches were particularly adept at getting younger girls to buy into this mentality. None of us had the background to realize there was any other way. Of course you ran 7 days a a week. Of course you sprinted to to front every single race. Of course you won every dual meet every year. These aren't necessarily bad things - they're just a super intense way to go through high school and sports in general.