Just curious. Does there coach have connections or something?
Just curious. Does there coach have connections or something?
For at least forty years.
Iowa spelled backward is Kenya
red5 wrote:
Just curious. Does there coach have connections or something?
Just maybe.
malmo wrote:
For at least forty years.
Coaches wanted to win, but weren't good at developing athletes.
There was a provision in NCAA rules to allow for USA men that served in the military (from the days when there was a draft), so that a male could be much older than the typical student and still compete in sports.
Kenya (and other countries) employed their athletes in their military to provide income, but those athletes do almost nothing beside wearing the uniform and training.
Combined with the high mileage many were putting in each day to get to school when young (especially the parish-built schools), these older athlete-students (I reversed it on purpose) were perfect for scoring points in CC and the 5k and 10k in track. 18-21 year-old runners had little or no chance against 24-28 year-old distance runners, as the body gets much stronger and can better handle distance training and racing.
Although Iowa State was one of the schools, and Washington State, the classic case may have been Ted Banks at UTEP. He was a manager of older, world class athletes in many events and not a coach. I blamed Banks more than anyone for the relative decline of US in the mile and distance races, because there is something extra one can find inside themselves if there is a chance to win. Then the times come down that much more, and the runner could develop into an international star. When I was running, even if the coaches weren't causing problems (like refusing to let me run in races just to be spiteful), I faced runners much older who were already world class, but not so when my age.
The NCAA could require that an athlete must be under 23 in any season they choose to compete in, and then offer on a case-by-case basis exemptions for USA military.
That would greatly reduce the attraction of recruiting Africans.
Older than the hills wrote:
malmo wrote:
For at least forty years.
Coaches wanted to win, but weren't good at developing athletes.
There was a provision in NCAA rules to allow for USA men that served in the military (from the days when there was a draft), so that a male could be much older than the typical student and still compete in sports.
Kenya (and other countries) employed their athletes in their military to provide income, but those athletes do almost nothing beside wearing the uniform and training.
Combined with the high mileage many were putting in each day to get to school when young (especially the parish-built schools), these older athlete-students (I reversed it on purpose) were perfect for scoring points in CC and the 5k and 10k in track. 18-21 year-old runners had little or no chance against 24-28 year-old distance runners, as the body gets much stronger and can better handle distance training and racing.
Although Iowa State was one of the schools, and Washington State, the classic case may have been Ted Banks at UTEP. He was a manager of older, world class athletes in many events and not a coach. I blamed Banks more than anyone for the relative decline of US in the mile and distance races, because there is something extra one can find inside themselves if there is a chance to win. Then the times come down that much more, and the runner could develop into an international star. When I was running, even if the coaches weren't causing problems (like refusing to let me run in races just to be spiteful), I faced runners much older who were already world class, but not so when my age.
The NCAA could require that an athlete must be under 23 in any season they choose to compete in, and then offer on a case-by-case basis exemptions for USA military.
That would greatly reduce the attraction of recruiting Africans.
Your solutions comes across as cowardly. U.S. is a 100m to 800m nation plus hurdles, jumps & throws with the occasional 1500m runner. Look on World Athletics, only 30 U.S. 5000m men have broken 13:15 and at least 1/2 a dozen of them were not born in U.S. Kenya has 151 sub-13:15 men. Kenyans do not need to be over age 23 to race sub-13:15. It seems like you want to set it up so U.S. born 13:50 guys can be NCAA champs. In U.S., too many believe because they are unable to sprint sub-55 400m that means they have long distance aptitude. No! U.S. men are not good 5000m to Marathon runners. Keeping Kenyans out of Iowa will not change the facts.
Interesting question. The state has a higher than normal percentage of East Africans competing at the high school level also. I think they must like the weather and terrain in Iowa. Tha is the only logical answer.
Older than the hills wrote:
malmo wrote:
For at least forty years.
Coaches wanted to win, but weren't good at developing athletes.
There was a provision in NCAA rules to allow for USA men that served in the military (from the days when there was a draft), so that a male could be much older than the typical student and still compete in sports.
Kenya (and other countries) employed their athletes in their military to provide income, but those athletes do almost nothing beside wearing the uniform and training.
Combined with the high mileage many were putting in each day to get to school when young (especially the parish-built schools), these older athlete-students (I reversed it on purpose) were perfect for scoring points in CC and the 5k and 10k in track. 18-21 year-old runners had little or no chance against 24-28 year-old distance runners, as the body gets much stronger and can better handle distance training and racing.
Although Iowa State was one of the schools, and Washington State, the classic case may have been Ted Banks at UTEP. He was a manager of older, world class athletes in many events and not a coach. I blamed Banks more than anyone for the relative decline of US in the mile and distance races, because there is something extra one can find inside themselves if there is a chance to win. Then the times come down that much more, and the runner could develop into an international star. When I was running, even if the coaches weren't causing problems (like refusing to let me run in races just to be spiteful), I faced runners much older who were already world class, but not so when my age.
.
Maybe you just weren't good enough
Goes back to the early 70s. Kip Korir ran for DIII Coe College --he also did some jumping, was a superb all-around athlete.
His younger brother David came over to a nearby high school (Cedar Rapids Washington) and ran 1:50, and some great relay legs at Drake Relays, for 800 and went Iowa State where he was an All-American. If not the first Kenyan track star at ISU he was among the first.
Your answer is that there are more because there have always been more? Okay. But that is not an explanation of why more come to Iowa.
Marty Smitty wrote:
Your answer is that there are more because there have always been more? Okay. But that is not an explanation of why more come to Iowa.
That is not at all what I was saying. I know it's hard by try to think through this. Kip Korir came over in the early 70s, his younger brother followed. Ran for Iowa State. This created a connection, some might call it a recruiting pipeline, so the younger Korir was followed there by the likes of Richard Kaitany, and Yobes Ondieki. And by the late 80s they started bringing Kenyan women.
Why does the University of Alaska-Anchorage have so many Kenyans? Three out of six men, four out of 11 women. As I type this, it is 3 degrees in Anchorage; it is 82 degrees in Nairobi. The elevation in Anchorage is 100 feet; in Nairobi it is 5900 with much higher elevations within the country.
"Hey, do you want to come to sea level, freeze your a$$ off for four years, and run on ice covered roads from October through April?"
Martin Smith's recruiting of Kenyans is completely disconnected to a high school runner or D3 runner. There are 6 Kenyans on Iowa State's team and they all transferred from other colleges. Ending up in Iowa had nothing to do with anyone coming to Iowa 30 or 40 years ago. I doubt that any of the 6 knew where the state of Iowa was or had heard of Iowa State before coming to the US. Other coaches recruited them from Kenya.
Older than the hills wrote:
The NCAA could require that an athlete must be under 23 in any season they choose to compete in, and then offer on a case-by-case basis exemptions for USA military.
That would greatly reduce the attraction of recruiting Africans.
Nowadays most Kenyan runners are way below 23. I meet several of them at Junior colleges. Most are recent high school graduates.
Africans make American runners better. Americans have been benefiting by having to compete against Kenyans because you have work your tail off. Going back to the days of Craig Virgin.
Conversely for the top Kenyan runners , coming to America to run was detrimental to their careers. My theory is that the likes of Kimombwa , Henry Rono, John Ngeno, even Peter Rono had very abbreviated careers because their NCAA coaches run them into the ground. A college coach only cares about winning as many races as possible now. He doesn't care if this causes the runner to be burned out by 27.
Most of the posts on this thread are nonsense. First, only 2 of the top 7 yesterday are African born. 4 of top 7 were recruited and developed out of HS. One was a US born transfer. Iowa State has been successful by developing US born kids and adding good African born transfers that become great.
Marty Smitty wrote:
Martin Smith's recruiting of Kenyans is completely disconnected to a high school runner or D3 runner. There are 6 Kenyans on Iowa State's team and they all transferred from other colleges. Ending up in Iowa had nothing to do with anyone coming to Iowa 30 or 40 years ago. I doubt that any of the 6 knew where the state of Iowa was or had heard of Iowa State before coming to the US. Other coaches recruited them from Kenya.
The thing is when you get 3 or 4 people from similar backgrounds, it makes it easier to recruit more. If you are some 13:40 JuCo guy, do you go to the school where you are the only Kenyan or do the one where you can run with 4 guys who you can talk to on your runs?
What is a little shocking is when schools don't go all in. Whats the point of brining in 3 guys who can run 13:45 if your 4th and 5th guys are 14:50 guys.
But the OP is asking what their secret is. How are they able to attract Kenyans when other schools can't?
I was offered almost nothing by the Iowa State coach who was recruiting Kenyans.
He couldn't coach, and saved his scholarships for those who could overcome that fact.
I didn't want to go there anyway, but my face-to-face conversation with this coach revealed he was not a good coach, and his path to keeping his job was to recruit Kenyans--not 18 to 22 year old Kenyans, but much older.
Moreover, he discussed his workout schedule, and I would have been burnt out in one year.
As for the post that claimed maybe I just wasn't good enough, I never claimed to be good in the 5k or 10k, and I never expected to be. Those are not my events.
Marty Smitty wrote:
But the OP is asking what their secret is. How are they able to attract Kenyans when other schools can't?
Because they have 3 kenyans on the team. Would you rather go to a school where you can speak Swahilli on your runs or english? Through in things like contacts (whey do the same schools keep getting english, NZ, and Aus runners? Cause they have connections), and it is pretty easy to see why you get clumps.
Typical ignorant bigoted post by a sore loser.
So every Kenyan student athlete was in his late 20s?
There are thousands of great colleges/uni's in the US to go and get trained and run and become world class, what held you back?
Becoming a top notch runner isnt that complicated, as we now know.
Is there a rule against attaching a helium balloon to yourself while running a road race?
Am I living in the twilight zone? The Boston Marathon weather was terrible!
How rare is it to run a sub 5 minute mile AND bench press 225?
Jakob Ingebrigtsen has a 1989 Ferrari 348 GTB and he's just put in paperwork to upgrade it
Move over Mark Coogan, Rojo and John Kellogg share their 3 favorite mile workouts
Mark Coogan says that if you could only do 3 workouts as a 1500m runner you should do these