Drew Hunter goes pro (just as we told you weeks ago) - signs with adidas

ed. wrote:

Why do you guys always feel the need to back yourselves on the back for having insider information?

It's an insecurity thing. They never pass up an opportunity to blow their own trumpet.

Another clincher may be that Drew has a serious girlfriend. So he wants to stay close to home rather than going to Eugene.

This serious girlfriend may or may not be a very fast runner.

^kind of true....

Also for him to break an NLI and a full ride to Oregon it has to be a ridiculous contract. Probably more money than berian, 2x base salary or more. Adidas really capitalizing on Nike'a recent bad publicity

Yeah that would suck. Don't want to set the American Record and be one of the greatest milers of all time in the world.

MidwestIsBest wrote:

Good stuff. I love it. Don't want to pull a Webb.

Jeff Albertson wrote:

Another clincher may be that Drew has a serious girlfriend. So he wants to stay close to home rather than going to Eugene.

This serious girlfriend may or may not be a very fast runner.

+1 He wants to keep hitting it

LetsRun.com wrote:

Chavez has the details.

http://www.si.com/more-sports/2016/07/08/drew-hunter-signs-adidas-contract-turns-professional-oregon-track

Not many H.S. distance runners have ever been in the position that Drew Hunter and his family found themselves in this spring. Athletically, I was close with a 4:05 and 8:40 for 1-mile/2-mile and 8:10 and 13:58 for 3K/5K distances during my senior year which was admittedly over 40 years ago. I was the best prep distance runner in America back in the spring of 1973 and my times have held up fairly well over the years... just as Drew Hunter's Jr/Sr years will be used as a benchmark for prepsters for decades to come. But, the professional opportunities were certainly not available to my generation back then... like they are today. Coming from a lower middle class American farm family with gigantic economic restrictions back then... I can certainly appreciate the value/opportunity that an immediate 6 figure yearly income presents over the next 10 years, especially in combination with a guaranteed expense paid college education in conjunction with that sizable income. I totally respect Drew Hunter and his parents... as well as his recent coaching guru/consultant, Tom Schwartz, and I certainly am not aware of all the factors that this family had to consider over the past month of decision making. However, I do have some mixed emotions and reservations about Drew's decision to go pro immediately out of H.S. and I try to express them as eloquently as I can on my:FaceBook posting/blog this morning. It requires far more space than what we have to work with on this message board post. Please check it out on:

and leave a comment if you are so inclined. I'm sure many of you have some feelings on this issue and I would certainly like to hear it. Regardless of my feelings, I sincerely wish Drew Hunter well in his running career as he takes it to another level. Congratulations on a very remarkable H.S. career.

You mean after an almost-career-ending injury. Don't gloss over that fact. If his navicular did not heal (as it often does not) going pro would have seemed like a colossally stupid decision in retrospect.

Considering new signee Leah Oconnor has had nothing but foot injuries since running in adidas I'm thinking this might be a bad thing. Plantar is due to bad shoes.

Panties in a bunch wrote:

Considering new signee Leah Oconnor has had nothing but foot injuries since running in adidas I'm thinking this might be a bad thing. Plantar is due to bad shoes.

My plantar flared up for the first and only time while I was wearing Adidas shoes. Not saying it's a bad company as I've had achilles issues in other shoes, just that they don't work for me. It happened after about a year of wearing their footwear, so people may not know if it really works for them going into it.

that is a valid point, there were a lot of people questioning the decision to run the steeple after that navicular injury (myself included at the time, although without the injury I always thought jager was a perfect steeple candidate as he has shown). The devil's advocate argument part of that is that if the navicular injury was going to happen anyway (which we dont know because he would have been under byrne's training plan), then he was smart to get the money while he had the chance. I am not saying that hunter will turn out like jager, but that was probably the most accurate comparison i could find on the guys side. On the women's side, there are obviously more examples of athletes skipping college, so there are a bit more comparisons to be made.

They'd better work hard on fixing his running form. He's worse than Graham Williamson and Jeff Atkinson put together.

Drew is in Eugene, wonder if he was courted by anyone else...

Prob wanted to talk to U of O coaches before decision. But maybe met with Nike, Asics or Brooks before going with Adidas.

Great opportunity to watch the 5k and 1500 finals today and tmrw at Hayward. Lots of other VA high schoolers here, Murphy, Lyles, McGorty all at the track yesterday.

Panties in a bunch wrote:

Considering new signee Leah Oconnor has had nothing but foot injuries since running in adidas I'm thinking this might be a bad thing. Plantar is due to bad shoes.

There are plenty of athletes from across the shoe company spectrum who have been struggling with injuries, so lets not jump to the conclusion that it is the shoes to blame. Besides, that is such a specialized thing that what may be bad for O'connor might be great for Hunter.

rojo remains unemployed (just as we told you 20 years ago)

aii289 wrote:

My take on this wrote:

Even if his running career bombs, he still gets a free ride at what ever university he chooses. A win-win for him and if he's smart he keeps a few bucks in the bank for the future.

but no chasing NCAA titles, no college teammates

just racing B heats at random meets until he's matured enough to be competitive

That´s what it´s like for basically all runners outside the US.

The thread below is over 5 months old now. I feel the same way today as I did then - I couldn't be happier for the guy! There is a tremendous amount to be said for the consistency of keeping the same coach. There are also no guarantees in this life. Injury, illness, etc. can happen at any time to anyone, especially a distance runner.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=7018035

With a scholarship he would have been locked into a three-season year and would attend school for as long as five years - all while hoping to one day lock-in a pro contract.

What he is doing instead is the exact same scenario, except he gets the contract today, gets the money today, keeps the same coach (and consistency), gets a free ride and can pick the races he wants to run. Development can occur more rapidly with a few degrees of freedom, and this choice allows for that freedom.

College running isn't all frat parties and girls. Most serious guys I knew in college yearned for that lifestyle!! The guys I knew who were serious about running in college were going to bed early and waking up early. Not to mention never being on campus, traveling to meets, etc.

This is Letsrun - where your dreams become reality. Let Drew chase his dream.

Walter Dix aptly summed up the reason to stay amateur and attend college in his interview. The structure (and the cameraderie) is nothing you can get in track anywhere else. Clubs are no substitute. British runners have been coming to run in the United States for college for a long time now and they comprise many of the best the UK has to offer, aside from Farah. Their club system is not working. Many countries send their best athletes to the NCAA system and it works. It also gives you a permanent national rooting base.

jman1 wrote:

The thread below is over 5 months old now. I feel the same way today as I did then - I couldn't be happier for the guy! There is a tremendous amount to be said for the consistency of keeping the same coach. There are also no guarantees in this life. Injury, illness, etc. can happen at any time to anyone, especially a distance runner.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=7018035

With a scholarship he would have been locked into a three-season year and would attend school for as long as five years - all while hoping to one day lock-in a pro contract. .

I do hope it works out for him; but one thing I'd point out is that college is more than running, frat parties and dreaming of turning pro. Its great that Adidas will pay his college costs, and I hope that's guaranteed, regardless of his running success. Pro training, in particular, seems like a real grind and its going to be tough to go full time to school, and take classes at all seriously. He said he wants to be a business major, and I guess after running there's always becoming an agent, the running shoe/apparel business, or Run Gum, or Picky Bars. But professional running is a pretty small world, and 10 years is a long enough to close off a lot of options. The advantage of getting a full scholarship to college is that it opens a lot of options.

In thinking about comparable decisions, Mary Cain seems to have wealthy parents, so I'm sure she'll find opportunities even after her running career is over. But I've often wondered about the long term career prospects of Alexa Efraimson, for example, especially vs. those of, say, Elise Cranny. Just speaking in purely economic terms, I'll bet Cranny will be a lot more successful in her life, because she chose college over turning pro.

But, as several have said here, economic success doesn't automatically equal happiness, and I hope all these great young athletes end up happy and content with their choices.

Kate Murphy?LOL thats not even legal

Trueeee wrote:

Jeff Albertson wrote:

Another clincher may be that Drew has a serious girlfriend. So he wants to stay close to home rather than going to Eugene.

This serious girlfriend may or may not be a very fast runner.

+1 He wants to keep hitting it