Patrick Henner to fill coaching role at Arizona State

How do you go from Director at Georgetown to distance coach at the bottom feeders of the Pac 12?

hazing scandal

You get paid enough

Gtown in the desert wrote:

How do you go from Director at Georgetown to distance coach at the bottom feeders of the Pac 12?

Someone’s head had to roll At Gtown for the hazing scandal unfortunately. Henner didn’t deserve that. Imagine if your livelihood could be jeopardized by the idiot decisions of 19-year-olds

Bumping this thread because its interesting and the fallout could shake up the PAC 12.

Pat Henner is a great coach with a lot of credentials, and an extensive resume from Georgetown and USC both.

Unfortunately, as another poster said someone had to be the fall guy for the Georgetown hazing scandal, in this case that was Pat Henner.

Henner still had sub 1:50 800 guys, sub 4:00 milers, low 8:00 3kers, and sub 14 5kers at USC, all while having no cross country. You can argue that he just imported talent, but its still pretty impressive regardless. There are better, fully funded track programs that don't get distance talent like that, even with cross.

Obviously the PAC 12 is a powerhouse conference in the Power 5 for cross and track, but with the introduction of Henner, things could seriously be shaken up in the next few years.

On a side note (and to stir up some drama lol) of course the crappy coach they had is going to coach at Tinman Elite. Just adding more to their mediocre underachiever reputation really.

Yeah, I don't think he had any sub 4 milers and had one guy who ran low 8:00 which means nothing in a conference like the Pac12. It was a 800m program on the men's side in terms of distance. No doubt Henner is a good coach and great motivator, and a definite upgrade from the previous coach. Without resources I don't think he will be able to get the distance side to the level it was 10-15 years ago with Quintana at the helm.

Much lower cost of living, higher air quality, relative proximity to altitude training. What's not to like. I'd call it landing on your feet for an outstanding coach who had to shelter the brunt of push back from a situation which was not of his doing. Well wishes to Coach Henner and the ASU distance crew.

Sure low 8s in the 3k aren't super impressive in the PAC 12, but it is a testament to his abilities as a coach that he was able to get an athlete of that caliber without cross.

As far as resources, what do you mean? ASU is fully funded scholarship-wise and has great facilities. Phoenix has tons of running locations, and altitude is not far at all.

Sure, it will be a few years before ASU is in a serious position to contend for PAC 12 in any meaningful way, they have to build a reputation first. But down the line I could see them being very competitive in the conference, region, and country.

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:

Gtown in the desert wrote:

How do you go from Director at Georgetown to distance coach at the bottom feeders of the Pac 12?

Someone’s head had to roll At Gtown for the hazing scandal unfortunately. Henner didn’t deserve that. Imagine if your livelihood could be jeopardized by the idiot decisions of 19-year-olds

Henner was 100% complicit in the hazing scandal. He did not create a good team culture. He let the team get away with murder.

It wasn't just hazing - it was also sexual harassment and racism too.

Regardless, he resigned because it was better for his career to get away from the train wreck that was Georgetown.

Rock of Maine wrote:

As far as resources, what do you mean?

Oh vey. Someone doesn't understand how college coaching works....

Watcher of The Old School wrote:

Rock of Maine wrote:

As far as resources, what do you mean?

Oh vey. Someone doesn't understand how college coaching works....

And you obviously do, that’s why you’re a PAC 12 coach, right? That school has everything it needs to get good athletes.

Oh great and wise “Old School,” would you mind enlightening us on what you think “resources” means?

feels napalm wrote:

And you obviously do, that’s why you’re a PAC 12 coach, right? That school has everything it needs to get good athletes.

Oh great and wise “Old School,” would you mind enlightening us on what you think “resources” means?

Sure. I can help you since you don't seem to understand the concept either.

Rock of Maine said,

"As far as resources, what do you mean? ASU is fully funded scholarship-wise and has great facilities."

For some context, I was a DI coach for 9 years, and coached against ASU and Louie at two different schools when his program was at the top of the PAC-10(12), but it doesn't take a college coach to understand that no matter how great of a coach you are, if you are not given any scholarship money to invest in your event area, you will not be successful.

For some reason, in Louie's latter years, the Head Coach (Kraft) slowed the distance scholarship allocation to a trickle(this was well known on LR). So a very successful coach went from being a real factor on the national scene(podium finishes in Cross) to being at the bottom of a conference that he once was dominating. He was lucky if he got an individual athlete to nationals or regionals in track. He struggled on for a few years, then left for Oregon State where he controls the purse strings, and is building a very good women's team that has already qualified for nationals under his leadership.

So the fully funded and great facilities, while a factor, will help you be a consideration for top recruits, but if as a coach you can't put your money where your mouth is, you won't land the top notch runners.

No sub 4:10/9:00 boy or sub 4:55/10:40 girl is going to come run for free when they have dozens of offers for money on the table. It doesn't really matter how "great" the facilities are, money talks when it comes to landing talent, and only in the rarest of occasions will a coach luck out and get a top athlete for very little or no money.

So the "fully funded" doesn't really apply if you have a Head Coach who is only going to put money into sprints, jumps and throws, and only give you a few books scholarships, if that.

That makes it(money) something that is "there", but out of reach. So a coach ends up trying to build his program on academic scholarships and athletes of a lower tier who will gladly fill up roster spots at a PAC-12 school for free, i.e 4:20/9:20 and 5:10/11:00 kids.

I know it's general, but it is how it works, especially in a P5 conference. You are welcome.

thank you. He was dealing with the same thing at USC I assume. So having a full XC program on the men's side is a plus. And maybe all he's being asked to do is baby sit. Get a team full of 9:20/11:00 caliber runners and hopefully coach some up to be studs. We all know he can do that, but to think he will be competing with the Colorado's, Washington's, and Stanford's in a couple years is hogwash.

I am hopIng Henner can get my Sun Devils going. Was very disappointed the last couple years to be so far down in standings. Will Henner coach both genders on his own?

We heard Cory Leslie was going to coach at Tinman, then a few days later his replacement is hired at ASU. It's clear that Cory Leslie was BOOTED from ASU and this search had been going on for a while.

Watcher of The Old School wrote:

Rock of Maine wrote:

As far as resources, what do you mean?

Oh vey. Someone doesn't understand how college coaching works....

Yeah what are you talking about? I'm genuinely curious what resources you're referring to.

They have everything any other Power 5 school has, if not more.

I think fully funded means 12.6 scholarships my friend. I’m sure with Pat Henner at the helm they will get the distance scholarships to good runners.

It’s not like ASU is known for particularly good sprints and throws anyway, so your long essay doesn’t really change anything

scholarships anonymous wrote:

I think fully funded means 12.6 scholarships my friend. I’m sure with Pat Henner at the helm they will get the distance scholarships to good runners.

It’s not like ASU is known for particularly good sprints and throws anyway, so your long essay doesn’t really change anything

Once again, not very well informed, my friend. Everyone knows fully funded means 12.6, but what more can you add to the conversation. Not much I see. Let me help you out.

They have a top 3 throws coach, maybe even top 2 from the UCLA coaching line of Artie V, and not 1, not 2, but 3 sprints coaches on staff! One of whom is the guy who doles out the money(HC). So if you think they are going to fall over themselves to throw 6 scholarships at Henner, think again. He'll most likely be fighting hard for scraps with the jumps coach.

Not known for sprinting and throws? When they won everything and were dominating the Pac-10, Regionals, Indoor and Outdoor NCAA's, it was behind a strong throws, multi's and sprints group with very few distance runners. That isn't to say they haven't produced outstanding individuals, but distance wasn't the foundation of the program ala Arkansas or Oregon, or Wisconsin.

As far as my" long essay not changing anything" well, it doesn't have to, that's the beautiful thing about history. Take it or leave it, but it happened, and with Greg Kraft still active with the track program as associate AD in charge of track, all signs point to a status quo situation at ASU. You are welcome.

scrambled eggs wrote:

thank you. He was dealing with the same thing at USC I assume. So having a full XC program on the men's side is a plus. And maybe all he's being asked to do is baby sit. Get a team full of 9:20/11:00 caliber runners and hopefully coach some up to be studs. We all know he can do that, but to think he will be competing with the Colorado's, Washington's, and Stanford's in a couple years is hogwash.

Easy, boy!