Why Can't Mike Smith Coach Women at NAU to Same Level as Men?

Nigel_Bikes wrote:

Get Metric wrote:Most talented ladies want an option to have a legit career instead.

Which must mean most talented men don't want a legit career?

They tend to be less realistic about their chances of being pro. If you are getting an exercise science degree you have given up any pretense of wanting a legit career.

......but I got my master's at _____________ wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

It's about recruiting and not coaching. Being able to recruit the best male distance runners doesn't guarantee he'll have the same success with women. Your average blue chip female athlete might have different criteria for choosing a school. For sure, choosing NAU is putting running ahead of academics.

I just received a letter from NAU regarding my daughter. They liked her tests scores and hinted about some type of scholarship. Even if they offered a full ride, I would still 100% want her to go to a U.C. here in California.

If she could get a 100% scholarship (combined academics and athletic) that covered her tuition, books, room & board that would be a decent deal. After graduating she could enroll in a masters level program back in Cali to "cover up" that NAU degree.

Again, she's not an athlete so the decision is almost purely academics. She's considering engineering so I don't know if your NAU/"Cali" strategy makes sense for her.

I'm only mildly a snob when it comes to colleges. In China, many people beieve its Stanford, Harvard or nothing and I've explained to my Chinese-Japanese wife, several times that it makes no sense to pay double the cost of going to a U.C.

I frequently get mocked for attending SDSU and I do feel shame in that I couldn't get a full academic scholarship to an Ivy League school like so many LRers have.

Get Metric wrote:

NAU is not where you go if you want to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. It’s where you go if you want to major in exercise science, nutrition, or recreation. Basically you want to run amongst mountains. Most talented ladies want an option to have a legit career instead.

I disagree with “NAU graduates are only good for exercise science, nutrition or recreation”. I graduated NAU in 1999 with a small business management degree. I feel that NAUs education was spot on for the times and definitely laid the foundation for me to start my own company. There’s a 99.5% chance I make more that the above poster with his “better” education and I’m already retired.

Thanks solely to NAUs education. I’ve never understood the bashing on it, it was everything I needed.

hfsxvnkm wrote:

Get Metric wrote:

NAU is not where you go if you want to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. It’s where you go if you want to major in exercise science, nutrition, or recreation. Basically you want to run amongst mountains. Most talented ladies want an option to have a legit career instead.

I disagree with “NAU graduates are only good for exercise science, nutrition or recreation”. I graduated NAU in 1999 with a small business management degree. I feel that NAUs education was spot on for the times and definitely laid the foundation for me to start my own company. There’s a 99.5% chance I make more that the above poster with his “better” education and I’m already retired.

Thanks solely to NAUs education. I’ve never understood the bashing on it, it was everything I needed.

If you're referring to me, that's not what I said and being an anonymous poster you make whatever you type. An anonymous poster claiming he makes more money than another anonymous poster is asinine. It is true, though, that my wife is far hotter than yours.

I think my daughter will have more options with a U.C. degree but a degree from NAU or a California state school will be far from the end of the world. My companies have had partners located the all over the country that have websites with bios. The executives for commercial real estate companies in the NYC area all attended Ivy League level schools but on the west coast it's all over the map. I've worked with very competent people that were the first ones in their family to attend college and their only path was to live at home, work part-time, go to a JC and transfer to Sac State. There's no reason to believe they're less qualified than the kid with rich parents.

hfsxvnkm wrote:

Get Metric wrote:

NAU is not where you go if you want to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. It’s where you go if you want to major in exercise science, nutrition, or recreation. Basically you want to run amongst mountains. Most talented ladies want an option to have a legit career instead.

I disagree with “NAU graduates are only good for exercise science, nutrition or recreation”. I graduated NAU in 1999 with a small business management degree. I feel that NAUs education was spot on for the times and definitely laid the foundation for me to start my own company. There’s a 99.5% chance I make more that the above poster with his “better” education and I’m already retired.

Thanks solely to NAUs education. I’ve never understood the bashing on it, it was everything I needed.

I think two things are true:

1. Once you go out and start your career, no one really cares where you went.

2. NAU isn't a good school

shootpost wrote:

hfsxvnkm wrote:

I disagree with “NAU graduates are only good for exercise science, nutrition or recreation”. I graduated NAU in 1999 with a small business management degree. I feel that NAUs education was spot on for the times and definitely laid the foundation for me to start my own company. There’s a 99.5% chance I make more that the above poster with his “better” education and I’m already retired.

Thanks solely to NAUs education. I’ve never understood the bashing on it, it was everything I needed.

I think two things are true:

1. Once you go out and start your career, no one really cares where you went.

2. NAU isn't a good school

As I mentioned before, on the east coast, many companies very much care where someone went to school.

My daughter, now a senior, has been a top 10 runner in our state for all of her HS years. She emailed coach Smith at NAU and Coach Wetmore at CU Bolder at the same time this summer. Coach Wetmore responded with a great email. Outlined the program, expectations etc and made her feel welcome. Crickets from Smith. The word on the street with the high school

runners is if you’re not at the top coming out of high school, forget going there to run. They are not interested in whether you can be great for them in 2 years. Girls or boys.

Exactly this. There will be a delay in the progression of the women's team because the men's team was already built in for him with Heins to be a top choice for the best male HS runners. He has essentially built the women's team from the ground up, and that takes awhile. Good recruiting builds on itself over the course of years, but you have to start from somewhere. He has had success coaching Rachel Schneider (congrats to the newlyweds!) too. I think the point about male vs female attitudes towards academics is interesting too. But if women choose colleges more based on academics, how does this logic hold up with schools that win women's championships? Is NAU a much worse school academically than New Mexico or Arkansas, who have been women's powerhouses for a while?

Are NAU Women out!!??

6th Place!?

Ouch. OP was onto something.

RougeDog wrote:

My daughter, now a senior, has been a top 10 runner in our state for all of her HS years. She emailed coach Smith at NAU and Coach Wetmore at CU Bolder at the same time this summer. Coach Wetmore responded with a great email. Outlined the program, expectations etc and made her feel welcome. Crickets from Smith. The word on the street with the high school

runners is if you’re not at the top coming out of high school, forget going there to run. They are not interested in whether you can be great for them in 2 years. Girls or boys.

I call BS on this, mostly because Wetmore has never handled recruiting as far as I know

jlkj wrote:

Are NAU Women out!!??

6th Place!?

Ouch. OP was onto something.

This is the mountain region bud. Top 7 teams are getting in.