When will it be posted? Or will this be internally filled?
When will it be posted? Or will this be internally filled?
They will begin the coaching search on 1/28/13 according to the press release on hastings.edu I think they will look to bring someone in. There is a great sprint and throw coach already in place however.
Creighton University in Omaha, NE will be opening up the head cross country position, just be aware that they do not have a track program.
Where is their coach heading?
I'm not 100% sure but from looking at his background, he is a very competitive guy and will look for a school that wants a coach with that kind of mentality.
Is that some kind of a joke. What background does he have to show that he is competitive at all?
You don't need it(competitive background) if you are a Kelly Sullivan job placement! Just put in your 2 years in Corvallis and you've got it made!
Toledo head cross country position now open. Ari Fisher is currently in charge of distance until a head coach is chosen. Tons of talent on that team, and quite the recruiting class coming in.
Where is the Toledo job posted? It is not anywhere online.
Pretty Crazy year for in-season changes.
Texas / Clemson / Toledo
http://www.utrockets.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=206099360&DB_OEM_ID=18000
When I coached college in Ohio we regularly ran against Tiffin. They were always an easy win. Team seemed undertrained and poorly coached. That all changed when Ron martin took over the distance runners. Team over acheived. Ron Martin is one of the best distance coaches in Ohio much better than Coach Croy.
Seems like the Tiffin coach may have one the battle but will ultimately lose the war when his team(s) go downhill.
Lipscomb University, DI, XC/Track Operations Coordinator and men's distance/xc assistant coach:
As someone who has no interest in this whole Tiffin thing that apparently so many people give a hoot about, I decided to do my own research and here is what I found
First with Ron Martin, I keep hearing the words 'legend','genius' and 'hall of fame coach'
Ron Martin was a high school coach for the longest time before he came to tiffin, had a great deal of success at the high school level. And in 1997 was inducted into the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame.
To my knowledge, Ron Martin is not in the Tiffin University Hall of Fame, the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame, and has not received any Regional or National Coach of the Year awards from the USTFCCCA since joining Tiffin's staff in Fall of 2005.
Since joining the Tiffin University staff in fall of 2005 The Tiffin University Men's and Women's XC teams have qualified for Division II National Championships a total of ZERO times.
In that same time period they have had 2 men qualify as individuals and Zero women qualify as individuals
In indoor and outdoor track and field from winter/spring 2006 thru winter/spring 2012, Ron Martin qualified 1 male athlete(same person as one of his XC qualifiers) in that time and zero women. His lone qualifier in outdoor track and field did achieve All American status in the 1500 meter.
To recap: 9 cross country seasons - 2 individual national qualifiers, zero all americans
7 indoor seasons - 0 national qualifiers
7 outdoor seasons - 1 national qualifier, 1 All American
So in 23 seasons he had 3 national qualifiers and 1 All American, that is hardly something to be proud of in my eyes. To call these numbers 'legendary' and 'hall of fame' would be ludicrous by anyone's observation.
Now here is the interesting part that i found. I noticed a trend by many people saying the Tiffin distance team sucked and were atrocious and Tiffin was a joke before Ron Martin got there. So I decided to try and just look at what Tiffin was all about the 2-3 years before he arrived. What I found was interesting.
In spring of 2004 Tiffin University had a national qualifier in the men's steeplechase. In fall of 2005 Tiffin University had a individual qualify for XC Nationals. That person also achieved All American status. In Spring of 2005 Tiffin University had ANOTHER and DIFFERENT national qualifier in the men's steeplechase.
So from Spring 2004 to Spring 2005 Tiffin University sent 3 different individuals to a national championship and achieved 1 All American award. Ron Martin, in 23 championship season sent 2 individuals qualify to a total of 3 national championship appearances, garnering 1 All American total.
Also of note, the 2005 steeple qualifier was ONLY a sophomore and in his last 2 years under Ron Martin, failed to make it back to the national championships.
My first question would be, who was the distance coach before Ron Martin, seems like he had a pretty good grasp on things. My second question would be, why are all these people defending Ron Martin?
Sounds to me like he tried to bring some high school principles to the college level and it really didnt work out. We all know high school and college distance running are 2 different things.
I also heard from a reliable D2 coach that they had a lot of great recruits quit or drop out of school under his tenure as well (a couple 152 800 guys, some 416 milers in the last 3-4 years).
To me, sounds like his firing was pretty justifiable and we do not have to hear about Tiffin University ever again. Case Closed
You hit the nail on the head there.
To the hardley boys, you will continue to hear about tiffin university. The case is not closed. So tell us who is this "reliable D2 coach" is. It sounds like the tiffin's current head coach jeremy croy. Every single program in the USA has great recruits who quit or drop out for one reason or another. Please keep your mouth closed on things you don't really know.
You know they are going to want to hire you next season. You practically run the circus at practice and the students are already competing really well. You still want to leave?
RobertsWesleyan wrote:
Heard from an inside at Roberts Wesleyan they are planning to clean house as they make the transition to DII. Although the XC has been succesful I guess something shadys been going on.. never a surprise when a team gets good fast.
The main reason is Track is a disaster and they figure you need to get rid of both to make an impact in DII.
Uh huh...speaking as someone with another "inside source" any allegations against the XC group over at RWC are baseless. Good coaching and attention to detail explains rapid improvement.
Rob Lyon wrote:
When I coached college in Ohio we regularly ran against Tiffin. They were always an easy win. Team seemed undertrained and poorly coached. That all changed when Ron martin took over the distance runners. Team over acheived. Ron Martin is one of the best distance coaches in Ohio much better than Coach Croy.
Seems like the Tiffin coach may have one the battle but will ultimately lose the war when his team(s) go downhill.
If you are talking a "win" against Tiffin in cross country you are right. Before Ron Martin, Tiffin's cross country programs had a tough time ranking in the top 20 among all the colleges at all-Ohio in cross. That was kind of tough to do before his tenure. He brought in the numbers.
Before that it was teams that had 30 flat 8k runners as a fifth man, or a team of 20-21 minute 5k women who ran 19:40 in high school and weren't sold on putting much into their running, other than a few individuals. Martin changed that.
But there were a small group of athletes before at Tiffin that were motivated enough even with meager credentials that were very committed. One who placed higher at D2 Cross Nationals than anyone there since (23rd) and a couple of 9:06 and 9:08 steeplers.
NOBODY CARES ABOUT TIFFIN!!!
Check yourself before you wreck yourself Hardley.
While everything you say is at face value true, you (much like politicians) fail to put your data and figures into the proper context. In this case, you fail to take into account the overall improvement and advancement of NCAA Division II competition. It is no longer a division that is exclusively for the Division I castoffs, instead it has become a very competitive division in which it is now much more difficult to qualify to nationals than it was 8 to 10 years ago.
Starting with the two Steeplechasers who qualified in 2004 (Eric Hamner) and 2005 (Andrew Belzer). If you look at both of their performances in the National Finals, neither one broke 9:20, which was the Provisional Qualifying mark for 2012. Hamner ran 9:15 to qualify for finals in 2004 and Belzer ran a 9:07 (at some point) to set, what is still, the Tiffin University school record. Compare those times to the 2012 Division II performance list and you'll see that both would have qualified as Provisional marks but neither would have been fast enough to compete at the National meet. Hamner's time would have ranked him 31st and Belzer's 22nd and neither would have made the 2012 National Meet nor would they have qualified for the 2011 or the 2010 meet either.
I do not usually compare Cross Country races year to year because there are too many variables and when it comes down to it, Cross Country is about placing and not time. But I felt that the disparity between 2004 and 2012 was too big to ignore so I am including it with this caveat. But if you look at the 2004 NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championship Results, Todd Casey ran for Tiffin University and earned All-American status by placing 23rd and completing the 10K course in 33:03.2. That time would have placed him 209th at the 2012 race, almost a full 3:00 behind the 23rd place runner in 2012.
Finally, if your "reliable" Division II coach was truly reliable then he would know a couple of things. First, a lot of kids come out of high school and choose to party and drink instead of what they should be doing which is training, studying, and sleeping. Second, some of the 1:53 and 4:16 kids coming out of high school have never truly worked as hard as a collegiate athlete is expected to work, instead getting by purely on talent alone. Ron Martin does not let his athletes skate by like that, he expects them to put in the work that is necessary to get results. Whether that is taking a walk on and training him to go sub 16:00 in the 5K or signing an All-State High School stud and training him to become an All-Conference or All-American stud. Ron Martin expects hard work and in return his athletes can expect high reward when it comes to the races that matter. Unfortunately, for some kids, it's too much to ask.
The truth is that Ron Martin IS a legend of a coach who has earned the respect and admiration of both his athletes and his colleagues in the Track and Cross Country community. He is trusted by parents to act as a father figure and show their kids the right way way to do things (which isn't always the easiest). He has also never bothered, or particularly cared, about awards or commendations for himself. Instead he truly just loves to work with Distance runners, day in and day out, and takes just as much enjoyment out of watching his slowest runner set a huge PR as he does watching his fastest runner take down a meet or school record.
So in summary, the amount of depth and talent in Division II has exploded over the past 10 years and has made the division much much faster than it once was. And while an All-American award or National Qualification in 2004 or 2005 is still very impressive, it doesn't hold a candle to the kinds of times Division II guys are running today. Also, Ron Martin is a respected member of the Tiffin community as well as the Cross Country and Track communities and does not deserve to have his name dragged through the mud like this.