2025 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion

What does a head coach going through 10 assistants in 3years say about him and the program.

Ben is a Marathon director. He’s not a coach, he just started a group with Hoke and can’t coach college. He sucked as a pro coach

Is there anything to the rumor I've heard that Coach Dahl's position in San Antonio is open?

Uh yes. If admin is high on the person and someone they want in the role, they'd name them right away. That way they can move forward with finding a sprints coach before the season gets into form.

In your scenario you're putting the interim in charge of finding a sprints coach? You don't think the XC coach would want to get "his" staff implemented right away? You think admin would want to drag this out till after Thanksgiving, start applications for a sprints coach in December hoping to get someone interviewed, hired, and on-campus ready to work when students move back in January?

Finally, why do you think they wouldn't promote the women named interim? She's been there 2+ years, got admin experience, and more actual coaching experience than the XC coach who's only in his 2nd year in charge. If it's anyone internal, it'll be her. But either way, if their plan is go internal, they're really screwing up by dragging it out and not naming someone already.

I hear you on many of those points, but what I know about the school firsthand is that they OFTEN will take the easy route to get a fast “fix”. And maybe the interim tag is a trial run for them to see how she does with leading the team in the present, but I’m a little skeptical to be honest.

As far as the importance to them on admin experience, I truly don’t believe that’s even a factor they look at with HC positions. Tons of that falls back on assistants there. Writ large the mentality for XCTF there has been “let me recruit, let me coach and leave me alone”. They just happen to also win, though that’s hardly a prerequisite to keeping your job there, which in DIII I guess if you can fill a roster and then some while you’re losing, they cancel out.

seems like a good hire

General question: anyone willing to share some reasons why college coaches were fired/let go? I'm curious if it's usually only egregious stuff (relationships with athletes, documented abuse, violation of school rules, etc.) or if there are less glaring ones.

I know it's not as common in our sport compared to football or basketball. Is it possible to hang onto a job just by not being totally awful? How hard is it for a school to fire someone without a huge reason?

Coaches definitely get fired for performance. It is definitely not as knee jerk in our sport for a lot of reasons though.

The drastically lower pay, as well as the fact that success in our sport has both team and individual aspects and thus coaches can have a longer rope.

You talking Army West Point? on their 10th asst coach since 2023. Sucks for a recruit, talked into joining the Army by a coach to only have them bail on them when they get to campus. Turnover happens at other schools but not at that rate, and has some bigger implications at West Point.

While I kind of understand what you are saying. You are ultimately going to West Point to have a career in the army / setting yourself up after 4 years in the army. It is a little different then someone picking to go to whatever mid major and then showing up and their coach no longer there.

Totally agree, in the age of transient student athletes (and coaches) there are higher stakes at service academies because they are recruiting a teenager to join their college team AND the military. Army in particular seems to have way higher turnover of assistant coaches than Air Force or Navy.

If a kid is going to a service academy they have more important considerations than who the assistant coach of their team will be.

You know it's the slow job listing/rumor time of the year when we are talking about service academy assistants...DIII firings' etc....

To change the subject.. and no it’s not directly a track & field coaching subject but it connects to it if you understand the ramifications.

is there ever going to be a snowballs chance In hell that college football makes room for female coaches? I understand that it’s a male only sport but there should be some kind of program to integrate females who are interested in coaching the sport. It would make a huge impact on hiring of coaches for Olympic sports.

Ah yes, the person that yawns at DIII. Wasn't just a DIII firing, it was a multi-time national championship winning coach that really kind of built a powerhouse. And then that house imploded because he couldn't get his act together.

Does this mean coe going to have opening soon? 👀

Why was this guy even an assistant at Coe? He was a longtime head coach at Widener which is a strong program and spent time at LVC which is a ranked DIII XC team this fall

UER just open up. Good job with good athletes