Neely Spence Gracey quits Hansons ODP!!

A breakdown of some of the tactics being used in posts on this thread (see below)Classic shadow projection (I'm secure, she's insecure)Projecting one's own insecurities about emotional vulnerability onto another. If someone is emotionally vulnerable, then someone who is emotionally stable (i.e. secure) might seek to support the person. Instead, through projection, the supposedly "emotionally stable" person spreads vitriol in public in a proselytizing attempt to "warn" the unseeing masses to their great insight. Important to note that the projector is afraid of their insecurity in the big world (shadow), and therefore the perceived insecurity of another draws their explosive wrath (projection). Demonizing of "emotional woman"See quotes below for a classic, dime-a-dozen demonizing of an actual person, in most cases a woman ("emotional car wreck woman who can't count to 4"). The (presumably male) posters and their 'pack' are, of course, emotionally stable. The Hansons are emotionally stable. The whole world is emotionally stable... except Neely Spence. Oh, and... Diminishing statements about those tangentially connected to the evil-doer ("daddy and DB and Kevin Hanson")"Daddy and Mommy coddled her" (unlike me, who didn't need coddling from mommy and daddy). "I warned Kevin Hanson, who then defended her" (a real man wouldn't tolerate mistakes in another person, especially an emotional woman). "Her DB husband is a huge negative in her life" (while I am a huge positive contributor to society with my comments). "Her teammates don't like her" (when I feel entitled, like a concentration camp guard, to degrade a type of person, then I will gather a mass opinion to back me up in an effort to destroy my projected enemy. "Nobody likes that [insert diminishing derogatory phrase here], which is proof that we should continue to righteously treat them badly")Over-blown criticism of a developing adolescentWhile in literally every myth a hero has to suffer greatly before achieving something of true value, these critics can achieve no meta-perspective on the possible value of Neely having ups and downs. Jenny Simpson also dramatically blew up at NCAAs and cried. She has also switched coaches. She has also succeeded. Ryan Hall has had blow-ups (underperformed at 2005 NCAAs) and great successes. The posters are "splitting" the world into "good and bad", because they are insecure and can't handle the ambiguity. "She's either going to run great or run bad and cry with excuses." Much more societally acceptable to bash and stereotype a woman adolescent, because the poster (another insecure, mortal human) is afraid of a) expressing emotions publicly ("like a girl"), b) reaching greatness and therefore intensified public scrutiny (fear of inner shaming, i.e. 'believing the outer critic who bashes you for trying to win but not winning'), c) the fact that our performances are inconsistent (and adolescents, as 'between-child-and-adults', are the best screens for adults to project their insecurities about our body and mind inconsistencies. 'I need to go to work every day and achieve. Look at this girl/woman who shows me how erratic my experience can be. I must distance myself from her.')quote 1

quote 2

Why does there have to be a bad guy?

Neely is awesome but needs to spend more time away from Michigan than works for the Hansons. She is most certainly NOT overweight. She has fought back admirably since her knee surgery and is in great form today.

I think people are just trying to take shots at both parties.

Neely has kicked a lot of behinds in D2 and I'm sure that there are several people that take pride in her struggles so the made up crap begins. Not fair but what you expect on these boards.

Hansons have told many athletes that they do not have room and others that were not good fits to take a hike. All of these people get a perverse pleasure out of taking shots. Equally as not fair.

There is no story here folks, move along.

slowbama wrote:

They don't invest millions. They get $ and free product to sell from brooks. Willing to bet my hairpiece theyve been in the black on the program since about 2008.

Either you are insane or you have no clue what salary and benefits costs are for employees.

I agree. Cheap people have a tough time understanding those that spend.

3 houses owned

3 apartments owned

Winter home rental

Travel

Stipends

Medical

I seriously doubt that is all paid by Brooks?

Really amazing stuff wrote:

This thread is priceless. Everyone seems to have some sort of inside knowledge. I just want everyone to remember that they are talking about human beings. Someone's daughter, father, wife, etc. Whether it's Neely or the Hansons.

This is why the sport will never be anything. Because the community like this is downright horrible. Seriously, calling a 23 year old overweight? I'm sure that's great for her psychi if she reads this. And I'm sure if the Hansons were reading this they would be upset too.

Oh yeah, because fans of other sports never criticize their athletes/coaches. If track and field will "never be anything" something tells me it's not going to be because of the LRC message boards.

Good talk, Neely Spence's dad, thanks for stopping by.

Someone as insignificant as Neely Spence (I had never even heard of her till' this thread) doesn't deserve this much attention; who even started this thread, the president and sole member of the Hansons Brooks fan club? Next time start a thread like this when Mo or Galen jumps the NOP ship, not when some broad who's never going to make an Olympic team quits the Hansons.

What if it has nothing to do with running? She did recently get married and maybe they want to be together?

I had a female athlete join Hanson's not long ago. She left after a year because Kevin's poor people skills. The team is always injured but that makes sense all they do is run no prescribed strength or mobility etc...

They treat women very poorly!

Hansons is a great program!

Dewey_Runner wrote:

Really amazing stuff wrote:

This thread is priceless. Everyone seems to have some sort of inside knowledge. I just want everyone to remember that they are talking about human beings. Someone's daughter, father, wife, etc. Whether it's Neely or the Hansons.

This is why the sport will never be anything. Because the community like this is downright horrible. Seriously, calling a 23 year old overweight? I'm sure that's great for her psychi if she reads this. And I'm sure if the Hansons were reading this they would be upset too.

Oh yeah, because fans of other sports never criticize their athletes/coaches. If track and field will "never be anything" something tells me it's not going to be because of the LRC message boards.

Good talk, Neely Spence's dad, thanks for stopping by.

"Neely Spence's Dad"?! Um... This is like when they used to call Reggie Miller "Cheryl's Brother" Neely's dad is a World Champs medalist in the marathon. He's her dad as well, but at least show us you know the sport. And yeah there is far to much criticism on these boards.

agc5k wrote:

A great big world wrote:

Home Schooled socially awkward girl could not leave home to go to college so she stayed home and ran for daddy. Had some sort of mental break down when getting beat in D2 Nationals which I thought was a huge warning sign.

I warned Kevin Hanson that she was not mentally stable. He liked her and said that she was a "good kid". He even defended her inability to count to 4 last weekend. I wonder if he will remain her defender?

Not popular amongst all of the other Hansons runners. Her husband is a DB and a huge negative in her life.

If this is true thats so sad, I feel sorry for her. And who is her husband?

That is pretty much it, which is a shame, because she does have some true talent. I grew up in the same PIAA district as she did, watched her run at Ship in college, and she never seemed able to break away and go out and succeed on her own. There is an annoying "cult of Spence" in this area that I don't think is warranted. Yes, he was pretty amazing, and Neely has run very well at times (and her cracked knee cap was a freak injury, shit happens), but why doesn't Ship produce more all-stars or is more dominant as a team? And how the hell do you miscount 4 laps of an 8k race when you're wearing a Garmin?? She could have glanced at the time on her watch and realized it did not align with it being a final lap. The entire situation is too much talk and not enough results.

Shippensburg has 3 scholarships for the men and 4 for the women to share between the entire team for sprints, distance, jumps, and throws. Call any coach in the country and they will tell you that SU goes further with that than almost any school in D2. Go ahead and look over the top 10 teams every year and most of them are fully funded (12.6 Scholarships for the men and 18 for the women) and SU has close to the fewest. Kids turn down way bigger scholarships from other schools to go there to be apart of the "Cult" which churns out conference championships and AA's annually. How many programs have won national relay titles with combined scholarships for the 4 student athletes totaling .3 of a scholarship? Ship has done it. Spence is an amazing track coach and his teams show up and kick ass every year.

Currently sharing around 1 scholarship for distance they have:

Tom Kehl 1:51-800/3:50-1500

Dan Dreeman 1:52-800

Nick Gibson 1:52-800

Ryan Spangler 3:50-1500

Brayden Burleigh 3:46-1500/8:08-3k (National Mile Champ 2014)

Keiran Sutton 8:13 3k

Peter Gelston 9:03 Steeple (AA 2015)

** there are many many more kids that will score at their conference meet that aren't on any scholarship at all.

How much more dominant of a team can they be?

Out of the last 9 years SU has won 23 Conference Titles and the rest of the conference has won 13...They are:

6x Defending PSAC Outdoor Men's Champs (Scored 278 points last year, out scoring the next 5 teams combined)

5x Defending PSAC Outdoor Women's Champs

4x Defending PSAC Indoor Men's Champs

4 of the last 5 PSAC Indoor Women's Champs

Pride Team Tradition,

Proud Ship Alum!!!

I'm certain Steve would beat both Hanson bros combined in a coach-off any day of the week.

Why would anyone judge success based on D2 conference champs?

How many National titles?

GVSU men only have 3 scholarships for their entire track team. There might be only 2 - 3 teams in the country Div II that have 12.6 scholarships. Girls teams can only have 12.6 as well, unless they are Div I.

Coach Spence is a good coach. I would say he has done more with less than the Hanson's but either way, both have done great things for the sport, regardless of their shortcomings.

Haha cool story wrote:

Congrats on finishing top 10 at nationals in a club race. Hope that 1 free pair of shoes you got is lasting you.

I have not read the whole thread, so I apologize if this is redundant.

Not saying this guy is nice, or even telling the truth...but if we accept the idea that he was top 10 at club nationals last december the guy is in fact - a boss. The top 10 at clubs last December were all professionals. Incase you guys have forgotten, club nats for XC has gotten to be quite the race. I believe Tag was 9th or 10th and Scotty Bahus wasn't even in the top 10. For you guys to try and make it sound like this guy is some kind of a hobby jogger is laughable.

Please don't let her go to Hudson. Great guy, but she has real potential..... Also hope she's not set on Boulder. Altitude yes, but that running scene is cutthroat.

Hank Moody wrote:

Haha cool story wrote:

Congrats on finishing top 10 at nationals in a club race. Hope that 1 free pair of shoes you got is lasting you.

I have not read the whole thread, so I apologize if this is redundant.

Not saying this guy is nice, or even telling the truth...but if we accept the idea that he was top 10 at club nationals last december the guy is in fact - a boss. The top 10 at clubs last December were all professionals. Incase you guys have forgotten, club nats for XC has gotten to be quite the race. I believe Tag was 9th or 10th and Scotty Bahus wasn't even in the top 10. For you guys to try and make it sound like this guy is some kind of a hobby jogger is laughable.

Since she said they were going over the competition which included Spence, it is given that poster is female. Here are the top 10 female finishers:

1 Laura Thweatt Boulder Track Club

2 Tara Erdmann Nike

3 Angela Bizzarri

4 Alisha Williams Boulder Running Comp/adidas A

5 Brianne Nelson Boulder Running Comp/adidas A

6 Sarah Pagano Boston Athleic Assoc. A

7 Rochelle Kanuho Boulder Running Comp/adidas A

8 Frances Koons The Georgetown Running Company A

9 Juliet Bottorff Boston Athleic Assoc.

10 Elaina Balouris Boston Athleic Assoc. A

Chances are great that the poster made up being a top 10 finisher but if not, she would be one of the above.

That means the coach would one of the following:

1. Salazar

2. Mackey

3. Simmons

4. Mahon

5. Troop