Great Oak XC selects selects candidate without coaching experience to replace Soles

anonymous maximis wrote:

https://prepcaltrack.com/2021/04/20/great-oak-going-with-tammy-draughon-as-pick-for-new-cross-country-coach/

I’m guessing the team will essentially coach itself then... seniors leading with Cortes help maybe and just trying to carry on the tradition.

Sad to see a dynasty end so abruptly

I wonder how much this will reduce Great Oak’s chances of qualifying for NXN next year if NXN happens

if you're the school why do you want a nationally competitive program and the drama that goes along with it. just put in a normal ass teacher who will run a practice for a couple hours after school and call it a day.

Why is Soles leaving the program?

There is plenty of training information online and she can get advice from other coaches. She'll be fine so long as the talent pipeline continues.

coach_rodney wrote:

Why is Soles leaving the program?

Because his family doesn’t want to live in California anymore.

The article states that Doug Soles didn’t know sh!t about running when he got hired so why would anyone care about new candidate background? My high school coach didn’t know jack about running and I ran 9:08 for 3200m. But he knew everything about motivation.

jaboukomobile wrote:

I’m guessing the team will essentially coach itself then... seniors leading with Cortes help maybe and just trying to carry on the tradition.

Sad to see a dynasty end so abruptly

Or maybe they will be coached by someone with significant running experience including six Boston Marathons.

I just don't understand how she is paying off student loans for both a BS and MS from Duke on a teaching salary. Maybe she got some scholarship money or something.

duck sauce wrote:

if you're the school why do you want a nationally competitive program and the drama that goes along with it. just put in a normal ass teacher who will run a practice for a couple hours after school and call it a day.

Exactly. That coach's only job is to make her boss' job easier. Not to be competitive. How do you make the AD's job easier? Keep ANY and ALL issues off their desk. Having an elite program with dozens of kids does NOT do that. That's also why the AD wasn't going to go with a Doug Soles disciple but probably someone she trusted as a teacher on staff not to make problems. That simple.

XC Time trial results:

https://cdn4.sportngin.com/attachments/document/9d52-2477211/2021_GOHS_XC_Time_Trial.pdf

Looks like a dynasty has come to an end. Many programs would be happy with those results, but big drop off from previous years.

Pope T-Bag II wrote:

duck sauce wrote:

if you're the school why do you want a nationally competitive program and the drama that goes along with it. just put in a normal ass teacher who will run a practice for a couple hours after school and call it a day.

Exactly. That coach's only job is to make her boss' job easier. Not to be competitive. How do you make the AD's job easier? Keep ANY and ALL issues off their desk. Having an elite program with dozens of kids does NOT do that. That's also why the AD wasn't going to go with a Doug Soles disciple but probably someone she trusted as a teacher on staff not to make problems. That simple.

The ADs job is to direct athletics, not complain and worry about how much work is on their desk. Crybaby loser.

Monopoly money wrote:

Looks like a dynasty has come to an end. Many programs would be happy with those results, but big drop off from previous years.

Gotta agree. The 2020 virtual time trial results seemed better.

Maybe now when a GO kid goes to college they will continue to run well and may even improve.

Pope T-Bag II wrote:

duck sauce wrote:

if you're the school why do you want a nationally competitive program and the drama that goes along with it. just put in a normal ass teacher who will run a practice for a couple hours after school and call it a day.

Exactly. That coach's only job is to make her boss' job easier. Not to be competitive. How do you make the AD's job easier? Keep ANY and ALL issues off their desk. Having an elite program with dozens of kids does NOT do that. That's also why the AD wasn't going to go with a Doug Soles disciple but probably someone she trusted as a teacher on staff not to make problems. That simple.

No way that a school like Great Oak is this stupid and/or incompetent to want to sandbag a program because it means that the AD has to "do more work" and it comes with "drama". The good publicity and happy parents (who donate money to the school) outweighs the "drama" and small amount of paperwork. Parents will donate more money to the school and athletic department if their kid is doing good and winning. What "drama" even comes with a nationally competitive program? Milesplit and FloTrack writes some articles about you, comes to your school once a year to film a Workout Wednesday, and some people on the internet debate if your team will win NXN this year or not. That seems like nothing and the AD is a marshmallow if they can't handle that. If the AD is as incompetent as y'all seem to imply they should be fired and replaced with the guy who was AD at my high school. He was a football guy who knew nothing about running but even he had enough sense to sign off on whatever our program wanted. The head coach did all the work (scheduling, fundraising, talking to parents, etc.) He even had the brainpower to give head cross country coach the head track and field coach job (both indoor and outdoor) which came with a nice raise to keep the coach from leaving for a D3 position.

back to the future? wrote:

Maybe now when a GO kid goes to college they will continue to run well and may even improve.

Who’s to say theyll get a chance to run in college if they’re mediocre now

time trial happened wrote:

Monopoly money wrote:

Looks like a dynasty has come to an end. Many programs would be happy with those results, but big drop off from previous years.

Gotta agree. The 2020 virtual time trial results seemed better.

And the times of the individual either stayed the same or got slower for the most part.

Have they always done a time trial in early July?