This thread was posted last Tuesday at 1:28 PM. The other Duke thread contains a credible sighting that Reckhart was coaching the team on Tuesday afternoon.
It's inside information or very unfair to her. The athletes and coaches read this forum. Imagine coaching in the afternoon then finding out that LetsRun has information that you're fired.
Combined with the earlier thread it seems to have been some type of insider campaign against her. Perhaps with reason. I have no idea. The timing seems strange, just 3 months after Duke thought enough of Reckhart to send her to Belgium for European Cross Country Championships.
From what I can see - she has reason to complain in terms of support for middle and distance runners. A tough circumstance because she had to know the territory when she took the job. But you can't fault her for pushing for her athletes. Again, from afar it appears that it is difficult for developing runners - the recruited athlete with little or no scholarship money - the 10 minute 3k high school women's runner - who could with time and effort be a very good NCAA runner - they need competitive opportunities and support and meets to compete in. The team clearly prefers sprinters and throwers and multi-event types - but the school by its nature is going to attract distance talents. It is hard enough at Duke to develop with the social and academic distractions, so not an easy situation. I don't think the rumors help.
From what I can see - she has reason to complain in terms of support for middle and distance runners. A tough circumstance because she had to know the territory when she took the job. But you can't fault her for pushing for her athletes. Again, from afar it appears that it is difficult for developing runners - the recruited athlete with little or no scholarship money - the 10 minute 3k high school women's runner - who could with time and effort be a very good NCAA runner - they need competitive opportunities and support and meets to compete in. The team clearly prefers sprinters and throwers and multi-event types - but the school by its nature is going to attract distance talents. It is hard enough at Duke to develop with the social and academic distractions, so not an easy situation. I don't think the rumors help.
Welcome to any distance coach. She sucks as a coach and should have never been hired to begin with. She is god awful
she still shows up as coach on their website, in the same roles her bio describes her as being in the second season of. so she's been neither fired nor demoted.
now, in theory, she could have been on a contract expires end of the year, and not been renewed. we had a soccer coach allowed to expire and replaced. but i looked at the coaching assocation site, no new ad, and nothing new comes up if you search for "duke track field jobs."
last, many of us saw the SC NAIA college firing their coach during the season as obnoxious and counter-productive. and the people who thought that was ok justified it as purposefully insubordinate and not just a performance debate.
since there's no objective sign this is true, vague references not even like "i know people on the team who say," and multiple threads against different coaches someone doesn't like or wants to stir things up against, this feels like a mod defamation concern. "should be gone" is an opinion. "is gone" is saying something is factual. if that is not true....
she still shows up as coach on their website, in the same roles her bio describes her as being in the second season of. so she's been neither fired nor demoted.
now, in theory, she could have been on a contract expires end of the year, and not been renewed. we had a soccer coach allowed to expire and replaced. but i looked at the coaching assocation site, no new ad, and nothing new comes up if you search for "duke track field jobs."
last, many of us saw the SC NAIA college firing their coach during the season as obnoxious and counter-productive. and the people who thought that was ok justified it as purposefully insubordinate and not just a performance debate.
since there's no objective sign this is true, vague references not even like "i know people on the team who say," and multiple threads against different coaches someone doesn't like or wants to stir things up against, this feels like a mod defamation concern. "should be gone" is an opinion. "is gone" is saying something is factual. if that is not true....
It’s true and confirm by the actual runners on the team. She no long coaches at Duke
Duke has has good recruits leave because of her and she can't develop athletes
Most Duke recruits choose Duke because the academic quality of the school, not the program or the coach. Same with the Ivy's. Sure, having a great coach and program is a bonus but no one is confusing Duke's running program with NAU or Oklahoma State. Just like no one is confusing the academics of NAU with Princeton, Columbia or or MIT. Stanford or Notre Dame or Harvard and sometimes Princeton offer both qualities but even Neguse chose Notre Dame for it's academics not it's athletics.
Horrible eyesore for letsrun to permit this thread to continue, casting unsubstantiated rumor and now over 20 posts buying this. I checked duke’s website 1 min ago and reckhart is listed as a coach. Mods?
Hey Junior- Coach Daniels has silver & bronze from the Olympic Games.
WTF are you talking about?
With all due respect to Jack Daniels, you strengthened my point. He does not have a (notable) running background, but he can coach lights out. His medals are in the pentathlon. With a horse. And a gun. And fencing sword. And swimming. And and, what?
I can’t comment on her skill as a coach. She is laboring under difficult conditions, however - some of which she had to know coming in. In my career I have been judicious about taking jobs with high risks - I don’t cast judgment on people who do - but this is a high risk job. By the way - I talked to Duke parents at UVA last fall and they informed me they think highly of the coach. I also observed team behaviors which were positive. Put together with the team’s impressive GPA and I don’t agree with all of the negativity. Nevertheless a tough job in a league far more challenging than when I competed.
Wilbourn’s preferences for sprinters and throwers make sense from a point scoring perspective and equally important to a place like Duke from a diversity viewpoint. Clemson’s 180 after junking their program and then immediately bringing it back revealed a lot about the sport’s contribution to diversify (a good thing in my book).
You could literally see her on race videos dozens of times.
Her team performed well. 3 men under 1:50, 1 with a 3:41 and a sub 14 along with 29:30. Not bad for having minimal scholarships.
She also had several women punch their ticket to regionals with 2:03, 2:05, 4:21, 15:37 and 10:15 steeple.
I didn't see her but maybe I was looking at the wrong place. I thought I saw a younger blonde woman yelling instructions at the Duke relay runners as they rounded the turn.
Reckart did have a couple of Instagram stories this weekend, reupping posts from the Duke official account, including one about Maatoug running 3rd in the 5000.
That caused me to wonder what was going on. Maybe her job was in flux but she managed to save it.
The sophomore Lauren Tolbert was impressive, IMO. They have her bouncing between 400 and 800. Today she ran a personal best 2:03 low at 800 then followed up with a sub 52 split in the relay.