Steve Magness resigned/out at Univ of Houston?

True

No formal announcement because of the sad situation this week.

80s marathoner wrote:

There is a Facebook post by Ray Stanfield (Runmaster) saying he is the new cross country coach at Univ of Houston. One commenter there said Steve Magness is leaving to concentrate on writing. Haven't seen anything other than this.

Anyone else heard anything more?

Heard nothing, but makes sense, the guy is a legit writer.

kmaclam wrote:

80s marathoner wrote:

There is a Facebook post by Ray Stanfield (Runmaster) saying he is the new cross country coach at Univ of Houston. One commenter there said Steve Magness is leaving to concentrate on writing. Haven't seen anything other than this.

Anyone else heard anything more?

Heard nothing, but makes sense, the guy is a legit writer.

He shpld hire an editor

80s marathoner wrote:

There is a Facebook post by Ray Stanfield (Runmaster) saying he is the new cross country coach at Univ of Houston. One commenter there said Steve Magness is leaving to concentrate on writing. Haven't seen anything other than this.

Anyone else heard anything more?

I'm hearing he was forced out. Poor performance. He's an atrocious writer.

My biggest problem is that he was willingly part of the Nike sponsored doping program and waited way way to long to disassociate from the program.

sad fall wrote:

80s marathoner wrote:

There is a Facebook post by Ray Stanfield (Runmaster) saying he is the new cross country coach at Univ of Houston. One commenter there said Steve Magness is leaving to concentrate on writing. Haven't seen anything other than this.

Anyone else heard anything more?

I'm hearing he was forced out. Poor performance. He's an atrocious writer.

He's a thoughtful but overtly sanctimonious guy.

I also found him rather petulant last year about the Covid lockdowns that shut his team's season down, like an unusual lack of patience and understanding for the situation.

Best of luck to him.

Breakfast In Bed wrote:

sad fall wrote:

I'm hearing he was forced out. Poor performance. He's an atrocious writer.

He's a thoughtful but overtly sanctimonious guy.

I also found him rather petulant last year about the Covid lockdowns that shut his team's season down, like an unusual lack of patience and understanding for the situation.

Best of luck to him.

He certainly seems thoughtful, and that became clearer in juxtaposition to his long time associate Jonathan Marcus. Though his willing association with JMar certainly leads you to wonder.

He's had a difficult time drawing real success from his theories, though the cards were stacked against that at a program like UofH which had little record of broad success in distances without recruiting foreigners. Just not a great place to train as a distance runner, between the climate and available running surfaces, and the academics aren't superior in any way to any other school in that region.

It probably didn't help his cause any that he married one of his Cougar runner alumnae. Maybe had difficulty gelling socially with the rest of the coaching staff.

truth here wrote:

kmaclam wrote:

Heard nothing, but makes sense, the guy is a legit writer.

I'm not convinced he's even literate. Did you read the science of running? Just about every sentence has a big grammatical error.

Oddly enough, Chris Napier also wrote a book called Science of Running, full of all sorts of diagrams and info. I found that Science of Running a much better book.

I know nothing about Magness's departure, but it has always been the case that UH has put all their resources into the sprints and has never been able to build a distance program.

UH is a commuter school that is in a pretty crappy part of Houston and has pretty lax admissions standards that are just short of being an all comers school. The distance program has largely relied on in state recruits because it is very difficult to convince athletes to come to Houston versus an SEC or Big ten school. UH has a pretty minimal campus life for out of state students who are stuck in town on weekends and shorter holidays. There are some good academic programs at UH, but nothing that would set it apart from any other big Div I school. It will take a lot of luck with in state talent and a dedicate distance coach to build a program at UH that can attract out of state talent to establish it as a consistent NCAA finalist. It is just not a school that sells itself. And I went to UH for law school.

If you're going to bother with going to school in Houston, as a runner, and your academics are good enough then you're going to Rice. And at least you're not running through or around slums when you run off campus there. Otherwise, Texas State, SFA, UNT, almost anywhere else offers a better campus culture experience and a decent crack at a conference podium.

Under Tom Tellez, the reputation was that distance runners wouldn't be offered scholarship coming in unless they already had marks that would qualify for nationals. The same is likely essentially true today, most of those on the cross country roster are probably on Pell Grants, need-based academic scholarships, etc. Just not a supportive place for distance success, but then they know the typical model for Southern, urban schools.

There are plenty of strong distance teams that are at a worse school for running than Houston. Magness with his name, reputation, and his knowledge of training should have been able to attract recruits that even Burrell would be comfortable giving big scholarships to. But he couldn't. This leads me to believe he was either a lazy recruiter, or a crappy recruiter, or both. People don't like know-it-all types and that's how Magness comes off.

The "art" of coaching is something that has eluded Magness his entire career! I hope he finds success in his next endeavor.