Klim coaching at Akron

Get your head out of f***in ass...there is more than just outdoor track dumbass...and yes everyone made an improvement in at least one event. I hate ignorant people like you. Always with your closed f***in mind only looking at the narrow picture and not the fact that akron had 10 guys running better than any akron team in history.

Anti-War wrote:

WAR - you would be wrong in assuming that the top 5 cross country guys were on scholarship. The top two came in on scholarship but the next four were walkons. I can promise you that the over the last three years there has been more money invested in the pole vault than in the entire men's distance team. fair? maybe not but that is how mitchell runs the show.

I'm curious who these 5 men's pole vaulters were that were on full scholarship. Let's see, the only men's pole vaulters that Akron has had for the last four years has been Kevin Poest(Multiple conference champion, national qualifier), Greg Miller (Scored at conference every time), Mike Meditz (not strictly a vaulter...hurdles 110 & 400s, 4*400, 400), Justin Southall (Multi), John Russell (state champ in high school...came in on books first year, finally got a full ride his senior year. Five time all-american), Dan Digman (not on any kind of scholarship until senior year. scored in pole vault and javelin), Brian Fukuzawa (Multi, won conference in multi and scored in many other jumping events including high jump, pole vault, triple jump), Nick Continenza (Multi...ran distance freshman year for Akron and scored at conference for multi), Weston Lott(Current Multi...only active vaulter returning for next season and scored at the conference meet). That's the list I think. Only one of the actual "vaulters" was on full ride and he didn't get that until his senior year after three all american performances. Seems Mitchell doesn't give out scholarships to just anyone. If someone would like to correct my facts, please go ahead, but I think you'll find all of this is correct. The point is Mitchell gives money to people who earn it. Not just people who improve, but people who score points and gain recognition for the program.

Did anyone once consider the fact that RICK WILLIAMSON IS GONE??!! You all talk about how wonderful he is and how he did this and did that, but what about the fact that he DESERTED THE TEAM?? He left them when they were getting SO MUCH BETTER. He did not have a job waiting for him so he left the program. Yes, he may have had his reasons for leaving, but he LEFT. So GET OVER IT. This is the present. That was the past.

Or maybe one should consider the fact that the majority of Akron's men's distance team are a bunch of head cases who think the track program owes them something when they have not accomplished anything really. Maybe Coach Klim is just what these guys need. Someone who will be their coach and let them know how it is and maybe we could see some progress as far as getting their heads out of their asses. No doubt in my mind that the team has talent--they just can't show it for more than half a race.

And one last thing. Since when is college running so much about the training philosophy and not about racing?? Yes, these boys can get the miles in, but if they can't race, they are not getting the job done.

This is how I see it 100%. Thanks for explaining it better, ha.

With so much emphases on the MAC meet, is it justified to give an athlete who can score no more than 10 points a full scholarship? Whereas a distance athlete can score up to 30-40 points by themselves if they're good enough. Even sprinters can accumulate 30-40 by themselves. So why is any single event individual receiving a complete scholarship? Please explain.

When you score 30-40 points individually at a MAC meet you are probably going to be on a full ride. How many of the distance guys have done that??? If they even scored 10 points they would be on some kind of scholarship.

These guys think that Williamson's training program is the only thing that works. Yes, they did get better but how competitive were they in the MAC?? How many guys qualified for regionals?? Obviously, they need to change something or try something different than just running 100 miles a week to get better and be competitive at the Divison I level.

They think that Mitchell and Jones are just bringing in a coach that will train distance runners the way they believe they should be trained. Look at Jones' team. His girls have succeeded. They score at least 50 points at every MAC meet. They are the top scorers among every distance program in the MAC. Obviously, he's doing something right.

I agree with Irritated. It's not just about training. You got to train to race..not train to run.

I wonder how Scott Jones would have done had he had no or very little scholarship $$ to bring in Bobbie Hardbarger, Michelle Rizzo, Jennie Castle, Beata Rudzinska, Brandi Schoeppner, Morgan Sulzener, Rachel Zubricky,and Adriana Zalucka. Nobody would deny that Scott has done a nice job with the women, but those girls were all very talented. To get it done on the men's side, it's going to take a significant financial commitment, not only in terms of scholarship money, but in what you would pay their coach.

Get it Dennis?

And before you state the obvious, I am aware that the economics of a women's program and a men's program are different due to the higher scholly limit on the women's side.

one thing i know about all of this is that williamson knows his shit, and that cannot be argued. he has turned mediocre kids into distance runners within the matter of 2 years. jason headman ran 9:47 for 3200m in hs and ran 8:35 his soph year, and on top of that has had other runners around the 10:00 range in hs in the 8:40s within 2 years...i was recruited to akron and very strongly considered going there this upcoming year, until i had heard that williamson would not be returning. why did i not choose akron? because williamson was a top of the notch coach, got nothing in return, and was forcibly resigned by that jackass mitchell...i personally heard from a distance runner at UA that Klim told the distance guys "give me 2 weeks with you and you will be distance runners".....that should be enough right there.

Idiot!

Headman ran 8:35.90 for 3000m not 3200m.

Akron has never had anyone near 8:40's for 3200m or 2 miles. Their school record is 8:25 for 3000m.

I want to support what Williamson did at Akron, but your carelessness with the facts obliterate whatever credibility your argument might have had.

For the record here are the best times for 800/1500/5k/10k outdoors for the since 2002:

800: 1:50.94/1:57.85/1:55.80/1:52.21/1:56.15

1500: 3:58.89/4:00.03/3:58.19/3:53.32/3:56.44

3k: 8:40.06/8:56.30/8:55.07/8:36.02/8:44.18

5k: 15:42.16/15:40.19/14:56.86/14:31.95/14:53.12

10k: -/-/-/31:01.68/31:30.51

Indoor times show similar trends

2005 was a tremendous year for the program with Pykare and Howard running very well. My observation is that the guys believed in what they were doing and certainly improved from 2004 to 2005. Headman performed nicely this year, but the other guys clearly didn't perform as well as last year.

Overall the program developed more depth - more guys were performing relatively well, but at the Division I level it's tough to say everything is going well when your best 5k runners are now just under 15:00 rather than near 15:40.

I wish Williamson the best wherever he goes next and hope Klim does great at Akron. Since Klim is clearly a choice of Mitchell's at the end of a very good year for Akron Track, maybe Klim will get the support ($$$) necessary to attract greater talent.

Bottom line, these guys need to get down off this pedestal that they stand on and get something done racing wise for the Akron program and stop dwelling on what is out of their hands. I think everyone would agree that it would be nice to see them score big in the MAC and represent the team as every other event group does. Then I'm willing to bet there would be not too many Mitchell and Klim bashing forums on Letsrun.com. Because if you hadn't noticed, the majority of posts about Akron on this forum tend to be aimed at either Mitchell or distance guys...It's getting old. Mitchell is the head coach and makes the calls--get over it.

For the record, why dont you list the indoor times as well instead of giving a rather skewed idea that the "trend" was similar cause you know it wasnt. Thank you.

I got "Moneyshot"s point....I looked at his statement and could see that he was talking about the 3k and not 3200....When would a college athlete even run a 3200 for B.O.F.F. to jump to his conclusion of "carelessness of the facts"?

This is a huge thread considering we are talking about a guy who has a part-time coaching job and he reports to Scott Jones as the men's assistant distance coach. Scott Jones is in charge of all distance runners. Joe Klim is his assistant.

ok..so the guys did improve their times but they haven't been competitive at the Division I level. Oh and yes Scott Jones did have money to recruit those girls but the guys that came in on scholarship that year were more talented than the girls.

Who is 16x?

wrong wrote:

This is a huge thread considering we are talking about a guy who has a part-time coaching job and he reports to Scott Jones as the men's assistant distance coach. Scott Jones is in charge of all distance runners. Joe Klim is his assistant.

Letsrun has never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Indoors

800: 1:55.10/1:59.05/1:57.17/1:50.90/1:54.65

1500: 4:32.76/4:29.54/4:17.27/4:08.18/4:16.4h

3000: 8:40.06/9:04.19/8:37.21/8:25.52/8:35.90

5k: 16:14.75/15:51.69/15:49.53/14:45/15:13

I didn't post these earlier because the trend is the same - Akron was generally very poor in the distance races, had a good year in 2005, and fell back this year. A troubling fact is that the guys are running their best times of the year indoors rather than outdoors.

No matter how you cut it, while 2005 was a decent year, this year's best times of 1:54, 4:16, 8:35, and 15:13 are not competitive at the Div I level.

I think Williamson did good things with the guys that were there. They seemed to believe in what they were doing and that's a crucial piece of a program. I don't agree with the earlier assessment that incredible things were being accomplished, however.

Who really gives a shit. My guess is that this is a back-and-forth posting between Rick Williamson and Dennis Mitchell/Scott Jones and whoever this new guy is.

You can't find five people outside of Akron that care at all about the men's or women's program at Akron.

MAC titles are nice. But hey, it is still Crackron and nobody gives a shit.