Ok let’s shift gears slightly.
Let’s not talk about who will AT hire, let’s discuss who could/should hypothetically take the position. List 3-5 possible candidates.
Ok let’s shift gears slightly.
Let’s not talk about who will AT hire, let’s discuss who could/should hypothetically take the position. List 3-5 possible candidates.
“Difficult to work with” came from the mouth of another SEC head coach.
I heard essentially the same from someone at UGA.
So here's what confuses me about this thread.
Althea is considered a bad hire because she's a sprint coach and Vandy is considered a distance school. Fine, let's go with that.
What exactly is stopping the distance group from flourishing if she simply hires a competent distance coach? If the athletes rumored to have been looking to go to vandy decide to go elsewhere based off this hire, what happens if she hires someone who they respected as a distance coach? Who looks bad then?
Keep in mind, I'm not saying this was the best or worst hire. Simply that a team who's KNOWN for distance running doesn't have to stay so unbalanced. A team who's known for distance running doesn't need a head coach that's a distance coach. They simply need a competent distance coach. There are schools that have a throws coach as the head coach. Those schools didn't turn into a shot put academy. I know of a few schools whose head coach is a jump coach and that event group at some of those schools is actually underrepresented.
So all I can ask is what do you really have a problem with?
Jim Gaffigan wrote:
So here's what confuses me about this thread.
Althea is considered a bad hire because she's a sprint coach and Vandy is considered a distance school. Fine, let's go with that.
What exactly is stopping the distance group from flourishing if she simply hires a competent distance coach? If the athletes rumored to have been looking to go to vandy decide to go elsewhere based off this hire, what happens if she hires someone who they respected as a distance coach? Who looks bad then?
Keep in mind, I'm not saying this was the best or worst hire. Simply that a team who's KNOWN for distance running doesn't have to stay so unbalanced. A team who's known for distance running doesn't need a head coach that's a distance coach. They simply need a competent distance coach. There are schools that have a throws coach as the head coach. Those schools didn't turn into a shot put academy. I know of a few schools whose head coach is a jump coach and that event group at some of those schools is actually underrepresented.
So all I can ask is what do you really have a problem with?
To start, they don't even have a men's track team. So Althea will be coaching ZERO men. If they wanted to be more balanced, why couldn't they just hire a distance coach and then have the distance coach hire Althea as a sprints coach?
The most competent distance coaches aren't going to apply to be an assistant to Althea. She wouldn't even hire the most qualified applicant because she wants someone that's going to shut up and be happy with 3 out of 18 scholarships.
And don't forget that the best sprinters won't be able to meet Vandy's admissions requirements.
I wouldn't know who Althea was if she walked into my house and I had never heard of her before ( obviuosly I'm not a that well versed in college head coaching news) iBut if I'm a big distance recruit I sure would rather the director at my school be a distance person than not. It may not be a deal breaker but if I had a preference then the person pulling the strings on my scholarship money and the budget for traveling to meets and other resources would be a distance person!!
Absolutely. At NAU, BYU, Colorado, Notre Dame and Boise State, a distance recruit knows what they are getting.
Their main concern might involve making the travel roster in a timely manner.
Oregon manipulates the cash flow to bring in elite athletes in multiple event groups. The head coach isn't distance, but nobody would claim that they don't know what they're doing with the distance side of the house.
The only way an elite distance recruit should consider a program like USC or UCLA, is if they wanted to major in Film.
A recruit peering inside a crystal ball at the Vandy program right now can't see anything.
Gotta admit…if I were one of the current scholarship athletes that either didn’t score big at SEC’s or at least qualify for NCAA’s, I’d be looking at back up options if she starts pulling scholarships in a hurry….
https://media.giphy.com/media/142dhzXGA8EsIE/giphy.giffake news alert wrote:
And don't forget that the best sprinters won't be able to meet Vandy's admissions requirements.
Droddy & Stinson's Communal Bong wrote:
https://media.giphy.com/media/142dhzXGA8EsIE/giphy.giffake news alert wrote:
And don't forget that the best sprinters won't be able to meet Vandy's admissions requirements.
I didn't say anything about race....are you assuming event groups are broken up by race? That's racist.
Thomas recruited Boling to Georgia, he won an NCAA championship in the 200. He would not have gotten accepted to Vandy.
It's official, Althea is KILLING the distance program at Vanderbilt. Ashley Kovacs hired as the throws coach.
Kovacs is a great coach, don't get me wrong. But why didn't Althea hire someone equally qualified for the distance runners?
It's clear all the focus is going to be on sprints and throws. Distance runners, time to enter the transfer portal.
hurrikane wrote:
It's official, Althea is KILLING the distance program at Vanderbilt. Ashley Kovacs hired as the throws coach.
Kovacs is a great coach, don't get me wrong. But why didn't Althea hire someone equally qualified for the distance runners?
It's clear all the focus is going to be on sprints and throws. Distance runners, time to enter the transfer portal.
Wow this shows she doesn't care about cross country. She hired the volunteer from Kentucky to be the distance coach and then hired one of the best throws coaches in the country.
Vandy could be one of the best cross country teams in the south. Instead AT is turning them into a bottomfeeder in XC and track.
fake news alert wrote:
Droddy & Stinson's Communal Bong wrote:
https://media.giphy.com/media/142dhzXGA8EsIE/giphy.gifI didn't say anything about race....
Sure you didn't, Southern Man.
Jim Gaffigan wrote:
So here's what confuses me about this thread.
Althea is considered a bad hire because she's a sprint coach and Vandy is considered a distance school. Fine, let's go with that.
What exactly is stopping the distance group from flourishing if she simply hires a competent distance coach? If the athletes rumored to have been looking to go to vandy decide to go elsewhere based off this hire, what happens if she hires someone who they respected as a distance coach? Who looks bad then?
Keep in mind, I'm not saying this was the best or worst hire. Simply that a team who's KNOWN for distance running doesn't have to stay so unbalanced. A team who's known for distance running doesn't need a head coach that's a distance coach. They simply need a competent distance coach. There are schools that have a throws coach as the head coach. Those schools didn't turn into a shot put academy. I know of a few schools whose head coach is a jump coach and that event group at some of those schools is actually underrepresented.
So all I can ask is what do you really have a problem with?
Just re read this over and over and over:
Vandy can not and never ever ever will be able to compete in the Sprints vs LSU, Ga, FL- ever. Those teams loaded with future Olympians and future pros.
The approach Vandy is taking is completely backwards IF the goal is to be successful in women's track in the SEC.
Here's what you do:
-get the best PVs and HJs in and develop them
-do what you can in the sprints, you'll never compete with the good schools
-bring in a van full of east africans to run the distance races. you don't have to really coach them, that much, the "distance coach" is really just a van driver
-dominate the throws with your new throws coach.
So a couple years out, how's distance going at Vandy? New coaches coming on board 2024?
CoachFig wrote:
So a couple years out, how's distance going at Vandy? New coaches coming on board 2024?
My take on Vanderbilt now is that their entire sports teams are nothing more than a big DEI program that are ONLY tolerated because Vandy is lucky enough to be grandfathered into the SEC.
They make a token effort in sports. Hire token coaches, and bring in a few black kids onto campus, then get a HUGE SEC football check that they stick in their pocket.
Check their Baseball success over the last 10 years !!
Vandy had a national title winner this year and I believe they finished higher than Tennessee at outdoor nationals
seems like this was a pretty solid hire considering where VU T&F had been
