It’s one thing to be an unlikeable unsupportive a-hole if you’re like a Bobby Knight or a Bill Belichick and get the results. But Angela Reckart, ummmm, no….
You are comparing these two coaches to each other? Belichick wasn't unsupportive or a tyrant like Knight. He was a deek to the media, not to his players.
The kid showing up drunk to practice? He needs intervention and help. And yes that would be a condition of returning to the team. If he is showing up to a practice drunk, he’s got a real problem. It is really poor judgment to make the kid run laps drunk. What was she thinking? In a college environment? With today’s liability backdrop?
I might add I cannot imagine signing that memo in the fall of 23. I would have figured out how to navigate the coach, including the difficult challenge of avoiding overtraining, which one can bet was a common problem. But I was a poor kid grateful just to get a great education and would not have felt entitled to engage in a wholesale revolt. I was trained in high school by a direct disciple of Igloi and knew what worked. How to fit that within the coach’s structure was on me. I am however two generations removed.
I was at the Virginia Invitational in 23 and talked to several of the parents. They were nice people - way more involved in their kids lives than I could imagine - but some clearly belonged to stratospheric socio-economic ranks - and they are used to getting their way. The coaches should understand like it or not this is part of the Duke landscape.
This isn’t a new thing at Duke. I used the term “Bill Fostered” in reference to the Duke basketball coach (successful) who was run off to South Carolina. He wasn’t a cultural fit despite being a good coach and recruiter, and one could see it would not last. I was on a committee in grad school with a prominent NCAA champion coach, and he confirmed the same to me. Foster didn’t have an elite education. Now, this coach was famous for instituting ferocious defense, and he did make clear to me that the passive zone Foster played wasn’t long for this world. And he thought once Coach K recruited Dawkins he would succeed (gives you an idea of how badly he wanted Dawkins). So there was some substance involved with the situation and not just culture. But I would approach Duke with caution either as an athlete or a coach.
I have met Kevin Jermyn and do think he is a good fit. Great coach too.
How sad. It is actually very telling that the coach has been fired and it still is not enough for these people or this person. The weak come here and try to drag the program through the mud some more. The coach is gone. You got them fired. You won. All you are doing now is further hurting the program and gloating over pathetic actions. Proof you never cared about Duke cross country or track success.
Suspending the kids and yanking the 5th year for throwing a big party before Nuttycombe would be reasonable.
But the party was 22 days before Nuttycombe. That seems a little excessive to be honest. Unless they missed a practice due to being hungover, or got themselves arrested (which if they did, my fault), seems like a disproportionate response to a party 3 weeks before a race.
The depressed athlete seems like faults on both sides. She clearly didn't really care, but on the other hand, she doesn't have too. She's paid to coach, not babysit. Would be great if she felt the need to work to support the athlete, but not the end of the world if she doesn't. Kid needs to find other ways to support himself.
Whole thing just seems like a bad combination of soft kids and tough coach. Wasn't like she yielded any results anyway.
Suspending the kids and yanking the 5th year for throwing a big party before Nuttycombe would be reasonable.
But the party was 22 days before Nuttycombe. That seems a little excessive to be honest. Unless they missed a practice due to being hungover, or got themselves arrested (which if they did, my fault), seems like a disproportionate response to a party 3 weeks before a race.
The depressed athlete seems like faults on both sides. She clearly didn't really care, but on the other hand, she doesn't have too. She's paid to coach, not babysit. Would be great if she felt the need to work to support the athlete, but not the end of the world if she doesn't. Kid needs to find other ways to support himself.
Whole thing just seems like a bad combination of soft kids and tough coach. Wasn't like she yielded any results anyway.
They weren't suspended because they partied too close to a meet, they were suspended because the party sent 1 underage person to the hospital in an ambulance who came close to death. The party got shut down by police and the dean of students was notified so the coaches were forced to punish them.
It was a 1 meet suspension, and Nuttycombe just happened to be the next meet.
At other schools, they likely would have been suspended for the season. The irony is that the Duke coaches probably begged the dean of students for a lighter punishment of 1 meet instead of the full XC season. In return for saving their season, the athletes got the Coach fired!
Bunch of entitled upper middle class white boys without any real live responsibilities.
1. Racism: "white boys" These are adult men, and we live under a racist/sexist regime that discriminates by race and sex, refering to adult white males as "white boys" should be more unacceptable than it is to speak about a privileged group like adult black males as "black boys."
2. The drinking age should be the legal age of adulthood, if not younger. Many/most European countries handle this better. Such a late drinking age just creates crime and makes drinking "cool."
3. You're children, you're too young to drink, yet you're adults and your lives must be ruined for drinking while too young to drink because your old enough for every other adult responsibility, except this one.
Also, Angela Reckart was a DIII runner. I doubt that she even ran high school cross country! She was just plain unqualified. Yet someone here gave me a down vote. It is amazing how low some people are on LRC! The only thing I can figure out is that he/she knew or is Angela Reckart!
Jed, female coaches are so low on numbers compared to men that they are simply not put under the same microscope as men are. No experience no problem. It’s sad because it makes the legitimate female coaches look bad. Until they’re under the same level of vetting you will keep seeing them hired over us when they do not deserve it
Thank you, and yes I certainly agree with you that things are very different for females in coaching and teaching. However, I think that since I have commented on LRC for many years, all but a few trusted friends vote against me. It is mostly jealousy because I have made many people wrong repeatedly.
Can someone confirm it was just 1 young lady that needed to go the hospital and not 2? Does it make a difference with this 10 year tradition just prior to Nuttycombe
1. Racism: "white boys" These are adult men, and we live under a racist/sexist regime that discriminates by race and sex, refering to adult white males as "white boys" should be more unacceptable than it is to speak about a privileged group like adult black males as "black boys."
2. The drinking age should be the legal age of adulthood, if not younger. Many/most European countries handle this better. Such a late drinking age just creates crime and makes drinking "cool."
3. You're children, you're too young to drink, yet you're adults and your lives must be ruined for drinking while too young to drink because your old enough for every other adult responsibility, except this one.
Bunch of entitled upper middle class white boys without any real live responsibilities.
3. You're children, you're too young to drink, yet you're adults and your lives must be ruined for drinking while too young to drink because your old enough for every other adult responsibility, except this one.
Whose life got ruined? The people who committed a crime and still were given their scholarship for their optional 5th year (but not a roster spot)?
Or the coach who they got fired who now has to change her career to find ways to provide food and housing for her two children?
3. You're children, you're too young to drink, yet you're adults and your lives must be ruined for drinking while too young to drink because your old enough for every other adult responsibility, except this one.
Whose life got ruined? The people who committed a crime and still were given their scholarship for their optional 5th year (but not a roster spot)?
Or the coach who they got fired who now has to change her career to find ways to provide food and housing for her two children?
Everyone loses from stupid laws, except lawyers, politicians, and the prison industry; but this coach was putting herself out of a job with/without "a crime."
I looked her up. She had 9 years experience in the ACC and Big Ten as a cross country assistant when she was hired. You can speculate about her abilities, I guess, but she was qualified for the job.
This is what happens when you give a distance running coaching position to a former sprinter. Look up Angela Reckart, she never even ran cross country at the college level and it looks as though she was primarly a 400 meter runner! According to the article the problems the Duke runners had was a "bad attitude." Now, how many distance runners have you coached who had a attitude problem? There is your answer, not that I was perfect.
Also, Angela Reckart was a DIII runner. I doubt that she even ran high school cross country! She was just plain unqualified. Yet someone here gave me a down vote. It is amazing how low some people are on LRC! The only thing I can figure out is that he/she knew or is Angela Reckart!
This is the post I was replying to. Forgot to include above.
The fact that the team had a raging party in the middle of the season and defend it as “tradition” is so Duke mediocrity. Cross country kids are so weak.
Imagine if our sport was covered like football and basketball with beat writers and folks following everything. Headline like top recruit not at practice due to being too drunk.
Or the headline “girl sent to hospital after party at Quarterback/ team captains house”
Whose life got ruined? The people who committed a crime and still were given their scholarship for their optional 5th year (but not a roster spot)?
Or the coach who they got fired who now has to change her career to find ways to provide food and housing for her two children?
Everyone loses from stupid laws, except lawyers, politicians, and the prison industry; but this coach was putting herself out of a job with/without "a crime."
They did her a favor by firing her and she may not or did not initially see it that way, but they did. After all that BS with those athletes and that team, why would you want to come back to it after a summer free of that BS!?!? I’m sure she was initially upset disappointed and depressed but hopefully by now she’s been able to breathe and rationalize the situation for what it was. Is it really worth it to say you’re a p5 coach and you coach a few all-Americans here and there no matter the success the other stuff will overshadow. This profession can suck the life out of a coach. No they’re not the athletes therapist, no they do not have to be concerned with why they’re doing what they’re doing outside of the track as long as it doesn’t affect their performance in the classroom and track/field. We have to stop trying to put so much expectation on the coach and less on the athlete and then want the blame to go on the coach when it goes bad but the athlete wants all the praise when it goes well. That is not fair to that coach we are all human and make mistakes but she as an authoritative figure has the right to put her foot down, the runners like these wouldn’t have lasted a week in the 70s and 80s where you had to be thick skinned the coaches back then didn’t play around with nonsense like this I’m sure they would make this lady look like mother Theresa
Corporate media owes a lot of its ideological conformity and hubris to journalism schools. Media critics and advocates for reform suggest that journalism needs to return to being a trade … Continue reading ""
I cannot imagine being a college coach in 2024. Any attempt at holding anyone accountable is met with charges of "mental abuse" "cruelty" and "unsafe environment". Those are very vague terms. It could mean yelling, screaming, name calling, threats to your scholarship, or it could be being told to be at practice on time and don't show up to practice drunk.
I cant imagine having to tell my next employer why I was fired. "So these kids had a big party where the police where called and one person almost died. I suspended two athletes from a meet, per my AD. The kids didn't like that so... here I am."
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