Penn Head Coach Steve Dolan named new Penn Relays Meet Director

Steve Dolan is the man for this role. I heard through the grapevine Penn teams used to have trouble getting their guys/relays into the top heats when dealing with Johnson. Example, c/o 2018 Jeff Wiseman (1:45 800 guy for Penn), was not allowed to participate in the CoA College Men's 4x800 and lead his team to a wheel. Dolan will serve as a pipeline for Penn runners to compete in any race/heat they want... deserving or not. It will be great for the program and name recognition.

Bring back the 20k road race!

guythatflyss wrote:

Steve Dolan is the man for this role. I heard through the grapevine Penn teams used to have trouble getting their guys/relays into the top heats when dealing with Johnson. Example, c/o 2018 Jeff Wiseman (1:45 800 guy for Penn), was not allowed to participate in the CoA College Men's 4x800 and lead his team to a wheel. Dolan will serve as a pipeline for Penn runners to compete in any race/heat they want... deserving or not. It will be great for the program and name recognition.

Jeff Wiseman is a 1:51 800m runner per TFRRS. He was a better 400/500m runner. Where did you get the idea he was a 1:45 800m runner?

In the right race and right training he could do it... his words

You both are missing point here... as usual. See my take on this below. This is what the HIRING is about!

Dolan was obvious choice among number of candidates vying for the position. Below were other contenders and why they did not compare to Dolan:

- Mike Glavin (HC @ Saint Joes). Famously quoted saying that there would be "a lot of red at the front of A10 conference meet" in regards to his team being competitive. I think he was mistaken with Dayton's alt unis and not his St. Joes squad. Either way, he gave full ride to wrong NJ guy. Maybe next lifetime Glavin.

- Coach Quinn (Assistant @ Penn/Saint Joe's). If not for his age, he would've been the clear choice. Dolan has informed the public that Quinn will take over in some capacity running the concession stands. Only time will tell if there will be enough food left to feed the Penn Relays crowd.

- Marcus O'Sullivan (HC @ Villanova). Quite possibly the only other real contender for this position. Penn Relays = Super Bowl for this coach and team. Winning a wheel means more to Marcus than Tiernan winning an NCAA XC Title. He'll be out for vengeance this coming Penn Relays... just in time to end the season at NCAA Regionals.

- La Salle/Temple Coach Tandem. There were talks of position being split between these two programs. If not for Temple getting into a shoving match with Penn team at Penn state Invite a few years back, and La Salle not poaching ace Sam Webb, this may have come to fruition. All is good though - Temple will go back to competing one season and finishing 4th/5th at regional meet, and La Salle will go back to racing the Wiss every Sunday. Not bad alternatives.

People like you are what make this website insufferable. People saying that they/someone they know "could've ran xx:xx in the right race" clearly was never a serious competitive runner and knows nothing about the sport as a whole. Take a hike hobbyjogger

I agree with you.... but this case is different. Wiseman had undeniable talent and was time and time again shafted his opportunity to shine on the big stage.

Phil, we may never know what indecipherable Pennsylvania province Jeff Wiseman comes from, but I know this much, Jeff Wiseman was born to bring it.

Phil... you are misguided, you need to change tour. 1:45 is generous, I'm lowballing Jeff. With the new cheater flys, under the lights twilight atmosphere, his girlfriend at the meet, his boys hollering on the sidelines... we're talking fast. We're talking 1:43 fast, no joke. You have to meet this guy one day. Watch him do a stride and you'll fall out of your chair. Do you want me to set up a meeting between you two? Jeff and Phil... I like the sound to that. If you guys hit it off maybe you could become his next coach. He is looking for a coach to get him to 1:39. You seem like the realistic, level headed coach he could use. "Phil leads Jeff to elusive 1:39 mark", I can see it in the Philly Inquirer now

Wow, share some of the hallucinogens you're on so I can join this delusion train.

You'd think he'd be more concerned with trying to get his team to be competitive. They are bottom 3rd of the Ivy League right now for both genders.

my friend you are woefully misguided. Penn Track has overcome insurmountable odds... dealing with the departures of coaches Collin Zeffer and the renowned Chelsea France. Remember... France was the mastermind behind Nia Akins unbelievable rise in the NCAA. Also keep in mind, assistant to the coach, Jeff Wiseman (c/o 2018, 1:45 800m runner) had to be let go due to COVID cutbacks. I am appalled you had the audacity to come onto this platform and judge a program by beginning of season results. You remember the last time Penn got blasted for early season results? Yeah... 2019, the men went on to win and the women tied for second. Keeping on the topic of the rest of the Ivy League, here is my take.

Harvard: might be the favorite to win it all, would love to see them keep the crown from Princeton, especially after fumbling the bag in 2019.

Princeton: ran well at Paul Short but some key runner will inevitably take a dump or throw up during the race and will screw it up for them.

Columbia: over performed last XC HEPS, this race isn't at VCP so expect them to come back to reality and finish bottom 2.

Cornell: cried because somebody ranked them 6th in the preseason Ivy rankings and has done nothing over the past 2 years to say otherwise. A sleeper team for sure, also a hypothetical team that has to start putting championship results down before they cry.

Yale: solid team. Could see this team making a run at the top 3.

Dartmouth: Irrelevant unless its 30 degrees and 20mph winds on HEPS day.

Brown: irrelevant even more so now that Cameron Daly isn't on the team

CM Runner... thoughts

Why would the Penn Relays Meet Director not be the Penn Head Coach 🤔 It's the Penn Relays. Not the St Joe Relays. Not the Villanova Relays.

@CM Runner, would love to hear your thoughts. Let me chime in (if I may):

guythatflys seems to be... well.... GUIDED. Thank you for hitting on a lot of key points. It's extremely rare to find someone on this platform (if you can even call it a platform) that can objectively speak about a conference, let alone the Ivy League.

There are, however, a few points you missed. Let me fill in the gaps:

OFFICIAL IVY LEAGUE HEPS THREAD 2021:

Princeton: This team will be good, as long as Ed does not Trip-ass around turns at his home course. Also can we talk about Kevin Berry... dude almost got cut from his high school team (even though cuts weren't allowed) because he was that bad. Now look at him, Princeton's fourth guy (Trippas, Ellis, and Joseph Fast all before him).

Harvard: The favorite in my opinion. Look for Caleb Moore to give Moore effort at Heps and pull off the win. Also like Acer (Allen) Iverson to break some ankles out there. If weather plays out right, and we get a Crisp day, then Harvard will be rolling with Will Crisp up front.... And yes, I expect a lot of blank stares when Graham Blanks is top 10. Das (Sameer) my prediction.

Brown/Dartmouth/Columbia: remember when it was Michael Scott's last day in the Office? And he paid nice tributes to everyone before he left? But at the end of the day, he was running out of time to say goodbye, so he lumped Creed, Meredith, and Gabe in the same goodbye. His goodbye was something along the lines of "whether you're scared of dying, dying alone, or dying face down in a ditch... don't be"

So Brown/Dartmouth/Columbia - whether you're scared of losing, finishing the race, or even having enough guys to field a team, don't be. You're still getting a terrific education.

Cornell: Throwing Cornell a major bone here, only because I feel they have been shafted time and time again. I think they will fight their way to a 4th/5th place finish. My only question is here is if Cornell has a coach. Rumors are circulating that kids are practicing on their own?? How absurd is that. Apparently coach is still there but doesn't write workouts because he has no control over group. Zoo in Ithaca.

Yale: agreed that they are an underdog. Harkins knows what he's doing and he is level-headed.

Thoughts? Objections?

guythatflyss wrote:

CM Runner... thoughts

My thought is that discussion about the 2021 conference predictions should be moved into the 2021 Ivy League XC predictions thread. :-p

Apparently, there was one other point in time where the Penn TF/XC coach was also the Penn Relays meet director - Jim Tuppeny did so in the 1970s for about 9 years before switching to being the meet director full time in 1979. I wonder if Dolan is thinking in a few years of a similar transition?

“I think there’s a part of me that sees the next phase of my coaching and sort of track and field career as, can I be part of helping that?” he said [to the Philly Inquirer, see link below]. “Can I be a part of making the Penn Relays and continue on with the history and tradition to make it that great event it is and build on it?

“One of the things that sort of motivated me when I first took the director of job at Penn was the place that Philadelphia and Franklin Field and Penn play in the world for track and field, and kind of inspired me to say, ‘What can we do?’ I think we can do some pretty special things to build on this Penn Relays tradition to really make Penn and Philadelphia a central opportunity for people for years to come for track and field.”

You're just as bad as the others in this thread with your points. However, I do happen to agree with the user above that you shouldn't judge a team based off of early season results. It isn't about how you start, but its how you finish. Especially if you believe you can finish strong too, then by God you got a shot.

I digress.

Long story short, Dolan's gonna be doing both for a while. He's still got a lot of good years ahead of him in coaching, and I highly doubt that he'd stop coaching in order to do the Relays full time.

This is just the icing on the cake, forever cementing his legacy in Philadelphia running lore. In 50 years there will be a bronze statue in his honor. And honestly, they may even change the stadium's name to "Dolan Field"... I like the sound of that.

To me, it smells like the final attempt to bring Penn Relays completely into the Penn Athletics department and reap the all profit from it. Previously, it had been separate from the Athletic department, but they have slowly begun to bring into its fold. In addition, this might be an attempt to prevent Dolan from leaving by giving him a new title that bumps up his salary.

aztec the moronic wrote:

You'd think he'd be more concerned with trying to get his team to be competitive. They are bottom 3rd of the Ivy League right now for both genders.

What's he supposed to do? In a conference without athletic scholarships, you wind up coaching a glorified intramurals program. It's D1 in name only, D3 in reality. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but why would you lay out so much effort when the talent is never going to be that good before you even get to the limited inspiration and motivation that will always be part of that situation.

you realize none of the other teams in the league have scholarships either? It's a level playing field.....except Penn has an advantage because it hosts the Penn Relays. It has the biggest track stadium in the nation. It has the best business program in the nation. He left Princeton for Penn because Penn has better everything.