I fully expect better meets now that the Coach Pattie will be in charge. Since St. Olaf hosts a lot I expect many positive changes. The Ole women’s track team has improved immensely in her short tenure. I can only imagine we’ll see the same in meet hosting. Most other MIAC coaches have been very impressed with Pattie and were sick of Power’s insistence on using championship seedings for regular season meets, hard ash meet management and lengthy emails with last minute changes before meets. This will be a welcome change. I’m sure she’ll have her staff ready to host a great MIAC championship. She’s probably excited to not have Power stand in her way anymore.
I hope you're not another coach. As a coach who's teams attend a lot of St. Olaf meets, we know we're going to a highly organized meet, even if they are a long. It seemed like Power did all the meet work before and after. I assumed that's because he's so much more experienced than the women's coach. I hope those duties are now shared and the women's program plays a bigger role in helping host, set up, and clean up. Power was all over his team about that. A few years ago his team cleaned up during the alumni race, which didn't thrill the alumni or the team, but he had to turn the facility over club frisbee at a certain time. In talking with him a few weeks ago, he was a bit uncertain of what his role would be since he was told by his AD he wouldn't have a role in hosting track meets anymore. He seemed to take a lot of pride in trying to host efficient meets. He did say the assistant had lots of hosting experience in other stops and that he would do a great job. I'm sure it was a bit of an ego blow to lose that responsibility after doing it for so long.
Can I get a BAZINGA! Nyuk nyuk nyuk. I for ONE would much rather be at CARLETON. 7th, 7th, and 9th out of 11 for the Knights at the last 3 MIAC track meets may seem iffy - but here's ahkshually why OLAF bad:
Just exactly how did his departure prevent them from doing a national search for a new coach? Let me introduce you to a word you may not know - interim. The administration could have easily appointed an interim coach and moved to conduct a national search. The college got the coach they wanted in the timeframe they desired.
Let's look at the 2025 MIAC championship since there is so much "talk" and not enough analysis. The MIAC Men's Rookie of the Year was from St. Olaf. He was also All Conference. A second freshman made runnerup.
I'm lazy so I let ChatGPT do a little work. If you look at the MIAC championship results and only look at the top 20 non-Seniors, St Olaf has 5 runners with St. John's and Macalester tied at 3. If you expancd it to the top 30 non-Seniors, St Olaf has 8 followed by Macalester with 5 and St. John's with 4.
If you just look at the Freshmen results, St Olaf has 3 of the top 10 freshman (1,2, 9). Carleton with 2 at #s 3,5). If you look at the top 30 freshmen, St. Olaf has 6..
Now let's look at the indoor track season for Freshmen. Is the cupboard truly bare? At the MIAC 5000 m Indoor Championship, St. Olaf had 2 fFreshmen finish in the top 12 with one of them in the top 10. No other MIAC freshmen were in the top 20. If you look at just these 2 runners against other freshmen nationally, you will see that they posted the 41st and 43rd fastest times in the nation.
What all this means for the future...who knows? People get injured, sick, or have off days. Can Carleton or some other contender snatch victory away? Of course, that can happen. However, I think it is very difficult to argue that St. Olaf will not be in a strong position over the next 2-3 years to dominate the MIAC and contend on the national stage.
Just exactly how did his departure prevent them from doing a national search for a new coach? Let me introduce you to a word you may not know - interim. The administration could have easily appointed an interim coach and moved to conduct a national search. The college got the coach they wanted in the timeframe they desired.
Curious what has the admin had to say to the team about all the coaching changes at St. Olaf. What sort of expectations has the weights coach placed on the new coaches? While he must be really happy to not have a coach on a behavior plan I’d expect he has to mentor the coaches on how to meet his goals. That will be a lot more work for him. Luckily the women’s staff is very experienced and has had great success in a short time at St. Olaf.
Has he talked with the team about roster cuts yet? I heard he’d asked to meet with all recruits and Power told him no, so they wouldn’t know about a changes.
sorry, but in the real world if you can’t follow the instructions of your boss, your time at that job will be short. Seems Chunko had many opportunities to meet expectations and any good boss will work with new employees to make sure that doesn’t happen again. That was quite a facebook post by Chunko. Sounds like he’s going to a fat camp for a few weeks to help change his routines and learn healthy havirs. Probably for the best.
I heard he’d asked to meet with all recruits and Power told him no, so they wouldn’t know about a changes.
As a parent of a recruit I can tell you Power never contacted us nor has anyone else in the program in the past month. We had to find out about all of the changes through social media. They're really dropping the ball over there.
Are you the parent of a 2026 or 2027? I hope he at least informed 2026 commits and recruits, but the Admin may not have wanted him to notify recruits in case he said something inappropriate about St. Olaf.
From what I’ve heard the coach left before his staff had planned Spring Break trips, so the new head coaches are probably just getting in contact with recruits. They may not even have a list of who he was recruiting. Email the coaches
If you’re that turned off, you can always look at Mac or Gustavus.
What are you talking about - mentoring? The coaches that have been elevated are seasoned professionals. Why do you think there needs to be behavioral mentorship? And why are you perseverating over "roster" cuts? St. Olaf is graduating 13 seniors. Without counting entering 1st years or transfers, that leaves a roster of 30. Of those 30, some are not distance specialists but mid-distance track runners. If you remove them from the "official roster" but still have them train with the team you drastically reduce the official roster size. A perusal of D3 rosters show a range of 22-31 runners. This is meaningless number is easily achievable without "cutting" people. And by the way, the team never travelled far with more than the usual 7-10 runners that competitive schools normally travel with. I'm sure the St. Olaf coaching staff and runners appreciate your genuine concern about their well-being. However, I am sure they will be OK.
Are you the parent of a 2026 or 2027? I hope he at least informed 2026 commits and recruits, but the Admin may not have wanted him to notify recruits in case he said something inappropriate about St. Olaf.
From what I’ve heard the coach left before his staff had planned Spring Break trips, so the new head coaches are probably just getting in contact with recruits. They may not even have a list of who he was recruiting. Email the coaches
If you’re that turned off, you can always look at Mac or Gustavus.
2026 - visited a few months ago, narrowing down the options and making a decision this month...then this. The promoted coaches have been emailed so hopefully we hear back soon. Not turned off so much as a bit afraid that the vibe may have been "roster sizes too big" so here in the 11th hour the spot that was offered may be rescinded. We shall see.
Take what you hear about the "roster size" concern with a grain of salt on these boards. St. Olaf has carried their same size roster since at least 2013. You can easily Google the rosters for the last 15 years. No one on this board has explained why it would be in the best interest of the college to cut it. The fact is that at regionals and nationals teams can only enter 7 runners and usually travel with 10 including 3 subs. So, having a roster of 40 runners doesn't matter. You can only bring 10. And that roster of 40 doesn't travel far from campus. So, overall cost is negligible. Training facilities and the coaching staff are a sunk cost. Cost doesn't change much if you have a roster of 20 (Pomona) or 25 (La Crosse) or Tufts (31).
The reality is that no "spot" on a roster is guaranteed. Performance is all that matters. This is a competitive program and despite the naysayers on this board they do quite well. You should look at the team times and see where you fall and honestly assess yourself. If you fall in the top 10, you are going to travel. If you don't, you will have opportunity to train and break into the top spots. This is true anywhere you go and you should be wary of any school that "guarantees" you a spot.
Lastly, you should always apply the "broken leg" test to any school you look at. That is, if you broke your leg and couldn't run would you be happy at the school? If you can't answer yes, then you should move on.
First of all, don’t use letsrun info for any sort of reasonable info about Olaf or Power. The reality is that if Power was recruiting you then his assistants who were his friends will honor that. The admin does want the XC roster to be smaller in favor of more track athletes, but they graduate a bunch of guys. And they were just on Spring Break. I’m sure the coaches will reach out soon. You can also email one of the AD’s and restate your interest. Change is always chaotic and the timing of his dismissal made it even tougher. Don’t give up. I loved my Ole experience running for Phil and Power.
The perspective is appreciated. St. Olaf definitely passes the "broken leg" test, but the opportunity to run there is icing on the cake. We will see what the next couple of weeks holds for communication from the coaching staff.
They won’t recruit less, they’ll just set standards for upperclassmen to reach. They’ve already increased the standards to be recruited in the last seven years. The admin wants track success too, so they’re asking for more from that staff. Power didn’t meet their expectations and they have a model on the women’s sides that is as successful without the headaches, so they’ve moved to that.
Who said they were doing roster cuts and power got fired. The information I gathered from sources outside of letsrun have notified me that these strong claims are false.
You replied to Anders Skemp but I assume you were asking about my son...I'm not going to get into his times because I don't want to get into a debate as to whether or not he's deserving of an email or phone call.
The only reason I posted on here was to shed some light on the fact that the school/coaching staff are not communicating these changes that have an impact on a soon-to-be-made decision about where to attend college. He's not D1 caliber, and a "spot" at a D3 school like S.O. isn't any more than a walk-on spot at a school that can offer money. There's no confusion about this by him or I. It's his top choice at the moment but not getting a response from a coach after a week is sending a message, intentional or not. He may still choose to enroll there regardless of Power's departure, but how this is being handled may be a factor.