You seem like a really big fan of Brosnan, so sorry if any of this offends you. 5 of the 6 kids you mention were from 2 families. They were casual runners in middle school, playing other sports and not training seriously at a high level like other middle schoolers that run in the 4:40’s. What other runners did you chart that ran 4:15 as 9th graders that didn’t turn out great?
it is pure chance they ended up at NP, coupled with a coach who did a really good job with them. However, there are dozens, if not more coaches in high school that would have had similar results.
He is proving what kind of coach he is at UCLA, which is nothing special. If he was THAT great, you would think he could make a measurable improvement in a group of runners in a year over a coach who was fired because he didn’t have great results. This whole, give him time to recruit doesn’t hold true based on your argument. According to you, it’s not about the athletes, but the coach’s skill at developing the runners. So, the current group of runners should buy into his system and higher expectations to make a significant improvement. Why haven’t they?
Outside of the 2 families, he’s taken a ton of really good middle schoolers and made them really good high school runners, but none on the level of the Youngs and Sahlmans.