And worse August-Oct and April-May. It’s a wash on weather, overall. As for places to run… sunny on concrete is still on concrete. Anyway, Palo Alto is still better year round.
You’ve never seen the Santa Monica mountains then. There are plenty of spots to run in a 5-25min drive. That’s part of the deal that most colleges have. Brosnan doesn’t beat to the same drum as your typical UCLA coach. Or at least the last few. I can definitely see him putting them on the podium in the next three to four years. Even with their results at regionals it was a improvement on the actual runners he was handed in a few months.
I’ve seen Brooke Johnston from IL on the women’s side and Remses Cortez in the mens side commit, but it’s early and most likely see others in the next few months. I do live in Southern California and have a small insight on the team. He seems to be focusing on transfers this year with only a few freshman. If you think about it, that’s a smart way to get good quick. Love him or hate him he’ll get the job done, just not in the first 6 months. Culture takes time to change.
Do you know other top tier college coaches or are you just basing your comments off how impressed you are with Brosnan from his high school days? If you know and understand the 5-10 top college coaches who year after year compete to be on the podium, you might understand that Brosnan isn't special.
By the way, a few of his runners improved and a few ran worse than last year. The team overall did not improve significantly from last year, certainly not on the level of Cal Poly who also had a new coach (with admittedly a 4 week head start). Vanhoy made a noticeable difference in his short time, Brosnan did not. Vanhoy's recruiting class is also much better and much deeper than Brosnan's. Vanhoy is a really good coach, but not in the top 5-10.
With the current roster they have, they only have 1 All American capable runner. (Staggs) I don't think that roster will improve until minimum 1 year from now. Who knows what plans the previous coach was making them follow.
The 2nd best runner (Morales) was just getting smoked by the entire NP roster in high school 2019. And everyone there other than Nico Young are barely fringe nationals guys. Unlikely he would be better than them.
It's also a bit of self fulfilling prophecy. If UCLA won't invest money, why would a top recruit waste time going to UCLA when they can get better education and better results at other top 10 rosters.
Brosnan alone isn't enough to bring people, UCLA needs to put in more effort as well.
With the current roster they have, they only have 1 All American capable runner. (Staggs) I don't think that roster will improve until minimum 1 year from now. Who knows what plans the previous coach was making them follow.
The 2nd best runner (Morales) was just getting smoked by the entire NP roster in high school 2019. And everyone there other than Nico Young are barely fringe nationals guys. Unlikely he would be better than them.
It's also a bit of self fulfilling prophecy. If UCLA won't invest money, why would a top recruit waste time going to UCLA when they can get better education and better results at other top 10 rosters.
Brosnan alone isn't enough to bring people, UCLA needs to put in more effort as well.
Was he? Looks like he beat Aschbrenner head to head 2 of the 3 times they raced in track during the 2019 season. Nico beat him twice and nobody else from Newbury beat him, including dual meets, County Championships and CIF.
With the current roster they have, they only have 1 All American capable runner. (Staggs) I don't think that roster will improve until minimum 1 year from now. Who knows what plans the previous coach was making them follow.
The 2nd best runner (Morales) was just getting smoked by the entire NP roster in high school 2019. And everyone there other than Nico Young are barely fringe nationals guys. Unlikely he would be better than them.
It's also a bit of self fulfilling prophecy. If UCLA won't invest money, why would a top recruit waste time going to UCLA when they can get better education and better results at other top 10 rosters.
Brosnan alone isn't enough to bring people, UCLA needs to put in more effort as well.
Was he? Looks like he beat Aschbrenner head to head 2 of the 3 times they raced in track during the 2019 season. Nico beat him twice and nobody else from Newbury beat him, including dual meets, County Championships and CIF.
Also, he lost to Nico and Jace in the 2019 XC season, but beat everyone else on the NP roster, including Sahlman.
If UCLA won't invest money, why would a top recruit waste time going to UCLA when they can get better education and better results at other top 10 rosters.
Brosnan alone isn't enough to bring people, UCLA needs to put in more effort as well.
Hard to get a better education than what’s possible at the 20th ranked university and top public school in the country:
Yes lots of them, he took random kids who just happened to go to the High School he Coached and got what 4 under 8:40 and 6-7 under 9 Minutes, He knows how to develop runners, Now at the College he has the advantage of Recruiting, so he can get talented runners to begin with instead of trying to turn Donkeys into Race Horses which is basically what he did at the High School he coached, No way that many kids in 1 High School could have that many good runners all he coached from scratch, He is probably a better Coach in Cross Country Than John Wooden was in Basketball, remember Wooden had Great Players from recruiting like Lew Alcindor now called Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Bill Walton, Brosnan started with NOTHING he basically made Chicken Salad with Chicken Crap
Nope, LA is a crappy place for anyone who enjoys distance running.
As much as I dislike LA, UCLA is actually in a very nice part of town (right next to Beverley Hills). I wouldn't judge Brosnan too harshly just yet. It takes years to build a program. Judging him on his first-year results is not a realistic evaluation of his methods or ability to recruit.
I think people default to "good academic school with generally 'big time' sports is easy to recruit to." But there's a lot of those schools, PLUS schools that don't have necessarily prestigious academic pedigree yet have established success. Of course someone wants to go to UCLA and many runners would be elated to get a scholarship. But to get the kind of roster to win championships or finish high at NCAAs, I don't think it's that easy.
I think people default to "good academic school with generally 'big time' sports is easy to recruit to." But there's a lot of those schools, PLUS schools that don't have necessarily prestigious academic pedigree yet have established success. Of course someone wants to go to UCLA and many runners would be elated to get a scholarship. But to get the kind of roster to win championships or finish high at NCAAs, I don't think it's that easy.
I forgot to add that all that said, I don't think it's completely out of the question for UCLA to succeed.
With the current roster they have, they only have 1 All American capable runner. (Staggs) I don't think that roster will improve until minimum 1 year from now. Who knows what plans the previous coach was making them follow.
The 2nd best runner (Morales) was just getting smoked by the entire NP roster in high school 2019. And everyone there other than Nico Young are barely fringe nationals guys. Unlikely he would be better than them.
It's also a bit of self fulfilling prophecy. If UCLA won't invest money, why would a top recruit waste time going to UCLA when they can get better education and better results at other top 10 rosters.
Brosnan alone isn't enough to bring people, UCLA needs to put in more effort as well.
A better education??? Yeah you lost your argument there. And how do you know the program has not invested in the XC program? Do you believe the previous coach invested more?
UCLA only cares about Olympic medals. That's one of the Olympics four top medal schools in history. All L.A. They've dominated winning the Olympics for 100 years now before America was middle class and had the luxury of college sports. The Hollywood execs drool over the volleyball girls. College trophies make good bonus money for the coaches and are nice too though but glossed over in Hollywood. All time stats have USC #1, Stanford #2, UCLA #3, Berkeley #4. All are majority L.A. athletes. Pepperdine is a top Olympics volleyball and swimming school that matters hugely to the Hollywood entertainment industry as well but is laughed at since Pepperdine makes students take 3 religious classes to graduate with a BA/BS.