Im grateful for Letsrun for making it more accessible to be a fan. But it's hard to really dig in without ever being able to watch anything in person living in the northeast. With the Adidas Grand Prix gone, Penn is about all I can get, and I love it for that.
Wait, this guy's full name is Patrick Henry?
- The Armory?
- NYC Marathon? Healthy Kidney?
- Reggie Center?
- BAA Events?
- IC4As?
Highway6 wrote:
First of all, nowhere in that article did Coach Henry mention "destroying" the Penn Relays or Drake Relays. If you have ever been in the Texas A&M track offices and locker rooms you would know that they have a lot of Penn Relays championship wheels on the walls. Coach Henry has been bringing teams to Penn for a long time and has had a great relationship with Dave Johnson. He has said that the atmosphere at Penn is good for the sport. He just also thinks that trying different things is good for the sport. A few SEC schools not going to Penn or Drake is not going to "destroy" either meet. Those meets are bigger than a few teams.
More importantly, why do you single out Coach Henry and Texas A&M? What about the other SEC schools that aren't going? Arkansas, Alabama, LSU, Tennessee...? Why no link to their press releases about going to the SEC Relays? What about Baylor (not an SEC school) skipping the Drake Relays for the first time in forever to go to Texas Tech? Or, Nebraska? Florida is hosting a meet this week? How dare UCLA and USC dual the same weekend as Penn/Drake!!! Don't they realize they are "destroying" the meets and killing the sport?!?!
Where was the outcry when Vin started the Oregon Relays and it was initially on the Penn/Drake weekend?
I always find it amazing that people refer to Coach Henry as a "donosaur" when he is one of only a handful of coaches willing to try different things and to look at ways to make the sport more popular. You might not agree with his ideas, but at least he has some! Everybody likes what they are comfortable with and I guess Coach Henry likes to rock the boat a little bit. And, what does he have to gain personally from that? He has already won 36 national championships! Trying things that MIGHT make the sport a little more exciting or a little more relevant isn't going to make his teams any better or help him win more national titles. But, it might make the sport a little better for those young coaches coming up.
Truly much ado about nothing. The fact that LetsRun wants to make this a big deal and with such a misleading hyperbolic thread title tells me that it is either a slow news day or there is another agenda.
- You mad Bro?
- When you "... rock the boat a little bit ..." be prepared for the push-back!
- Don't be cute ... if you think LetsRun has "another agenda" then put it out there!
Around 2000 when the internet and technology became available, the number of
Spring colleges relays and meets exploded. Schools expanded and started their own relays attracting regional high school and colleges.
Seriously Rojo? Talk about a huge misquote man...he didn't say anything about DESTROYING Penn Relays. Hahahahahaha do you really feel so threatened by someone rocking the boat a bit?
OH NO! PLASE DON'T TAKE AWAY OUR PRECIOUS PENN RELAYS! PLEASEEE!!!!
Chill man. As a collegiate athlete at Penn Relays, I (amongst others) felt extremely disrespected and disregarded. It's all about the high school athletes and pros. Not to say that's a bad thing. But anyone who has competed there will tell you that the meet is logistically a HUGE failure nearly every year. So what if the SEC decided to do something about it. Coach Henry is free to do whatever he wants if he feels it's in the best interest of his team. I was at the SEC coaches meeting as a volunteer assistant. The coaches voted unanimously to have this meet. They also voted unanimously to have a similar meet indoors that was supposed to be hosted at Arkansas. This was going to be the SEC "East vs West" meet.
You singling out coach Henry is comedic. Why don't you interview him and try to get some real insight instead of pulling a quote out of an article and literally fear-mongering:
COACH HENRY IS TRYING TO DESTROY PENN RELAYS LETS RIOT
Oh and for your information Rojo...
1 Texas A&M 'A' 3:39.04C
1) Diamond Spaulding SO 2) Brenessa Thompson SO
3) Jaevin Reed FR 4) Jazmine Fray SO
2 LSU 'A' 3:43.17s
1) Kortnei Johnson SO 2) Jada Martin SR
3) Travia Jones SR 4) Ruby Stauber FR
3 Ole Miss 'A' 3:48.14
1) Shannon Ray JR 2) Breanna Tate SR
3) Jolie Carbo JR 4) Maddie McHugh SO
4 Vanderbilt 'A' 3:50.46
1) Tierney Price SR 2) Becca Schulte FR
3) Jennifer Edobi JR 4) Courtney Clayton JR
5 Alabama 'A' 3:51.84
1) Olivia Fotopoulou JR 2) Brianna Sims SR
3) Janel Pate SO 4) Kristyn Williams SO
6 Arkansas 'A' 3:59.82
1) Jada Baylark FR 2) Kelsey Herman SO
3) Sydney Hammit JR 4) Alexandra Byrnes FR
7 Miss State 'A' 4:11.11
1) Justice Sims FR 2) McKenzie Ethridge FR
3) Sharon Botley FR 4) Alyssa Staubach SO
TAMU women just broke the collegiate record in the sprint medley. Terrible for the sport though I agree...
MORE BAD NEWS! OUR SPORT IS FALLING APART AT THE SEAMS! THE TAMU MEN & WOMEN JUST BROKE THE COLLEGIATE SMR RECORD IN ONE DAY! OUR SPORT IS DOOMED ROJO! DOOOOOOOMED
1 Texas A&M 'A' 3:11.94C
1) Fred Kerley SR 2) Elijah Morrow JR
3) Mylik Kerley JR 4) Devin Dixon FR
2 LSU 'A' 3:12.25s
1) Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake SR 2) Jaron Flournoy SO
3) Michael Cherry SR 4) Blair Henderson SR
3 Arkansas 'A' 3:15.38s
1) Kenzo Cotton JR 2) Josh Washington SR
3) Obi Igbokwe SO 4) Carlton Orange SO
4 Tennessee 'A' 3:17.13s
1) Christian Coleman JR 2) Mustaqeem Williams SO
3) Ari Cogdell SO 4) Zach Long SO
5 Miss State 'A' 3:28.21
1) Charles Taylor SR 2) Juston Waters JR
3) Josh Willingham JR 4) Aaron Phelps JR
It's a FREE country. If you don't like SEC Relays or Penn Relays you can go back to Africa where your ancestors originally came from 100,000B.C.
This is my whole point. How amazing would it have been if the SEC schools were in those sprint medleys? Instead it's impossible because it's an SEC only meet. I'm annoyed with people like Henry BECAUSE the SEC is such a huge talent pool.
Someone mentioned the SEC leaving won't ruin penn/drake. That is true. To me, penn is primarily about HS, USA vs the World, and the college distance relays (4x8 and up). Even still, I think Penn is about the best athletes competing for a wheel. It's sad to me that SEC wants to annex themselves from that because the coaches like the smell of their own farts more than anything else.
Impossible because SEC chose to compete in an SEC only meet*
No. I'm sorry but you have it all wrong. You have no idea how difficult Penn makes things for some collegiate teams. Their officials are complete ***** and rude. Coach Henry has always been about his TEAM. He dislikes how track is viewed as an individual sport and not a team one. Like when teams send their squad to three different meets, when that team is HOSTING their own meet. The throws at Penn are non-existant and separated from everyone else. Penn Relays is NOT the end all be all in track.
"As a collegiate athlete at Penn Relays, I (amongst others) felt extremely disrespected and disregarded."
- Wow ... this guy sounds like he's living in the "Land of the Offended."
Highway6 wrote:
The fact that LetsRun wants to make this a big deal and with such a misleading hyperbolic thread title tells me that it is either a slow news day or there is another agenda.
The agenda was to get people to talk about it. If we put up a headline, "Should the SEC relays be held the same day as Penn and Drake?" literally no one would talk about it. THe headline got noticed and got people talking.
The reason his name got mentioned is he's the top coach in the country. THey do a good job with their SID department. I don't ever read the releases of some random SEC school.
I'll start by saying.
1) Pat Henry is a GENIUS. My mom is friends with the Texas women's AD. I once told her "IF you want to win a NCAA title, just hire Pat Henry."
2) I don't know what the right answer is.
As a coach, I'll tell you Penn is far from ideal for the athletes. The idea that it's full of a packed crowd is a myth - except for Saturday. There is hardly anyone there for most of Thursday.
As a fan, if all people get excited for is time trials, then I'm bored as hell. Penn is tradition and it'son national tv and it's wild on Saturday.
That being said, I think Pat's team focused meet is a good one.
I don't think the internet is helping. Back in the day, no one knew what was going to happen at Penn/Drake. Now coaches know every race everyone has ever run so people figure out if they have a shot at winning and don't bother to show up if they aren't.
- Competition & the internet bring out the best .... it will make Penn better if they have to amp up their game: the ENTITLED always get worse in the long run.
- Drake doesn't seem to have that problem .... packs the stands, continuous improvement, knows that they have to work to get folks to come to Iowa in more often than not -- challenging WX.
Good point. My original thought was to shut down a street immediately adjacent to the track, but that depends on the street layout and geography around the track. Maybe instead do street events on day one, focus on drawing in a crowd and let word of mouth spread and then do all the running events on day 2. Have live music and let people in the infield--convincing the host to allow that may be a tall order though.
NASCAR model
-
* Extremely boring website .... ZERO storylines, teasers, "Hot Match-Ups", pre-Penn Interviews. For an income producing event supported by volunteers --- this is weak.
* Can't believe Max "NASCAR" Seigel's letting them get away with this given USATF's streaming ... where's Vin when we need him!
* Pat Henry & any 2-bit SID will "smoke out" the Penn Relays entitlement. I'm sold!
The first people on earth were Africans. This means your ancestors were Africans too!... Or were they sheep?
Penn Relays was cool when we all went back to the Irish pub across the River....
And had some fun.
Sad now.