I don’t think he ever encourage eating disorders. No coach wants to deal with that mess.
But I do think his team has a culture of eating disorders due to routinely recruiting athletes that were already having issues. They were willing to take on “at risk” athletes because they were fast. Sadly once you have a few of those athletes running well, other get sucked into it.
The year they had the 3 freshmen with DRAMATIC weight loss that all were flying was pretty hard to shake
As someone who was on an Ihmels team at Boise State, while he didn't encourage eating disorders, he certainly didn't discourage the practice as well. I remember a team meeting at the start of the school year outside and was probably 80 degrees out. A lot of the women's team was bundled up in puffy jackets and shivering because they were so cold. During that meeting, him and his wife, who was a Dr on campus, were saying how proud they were of the team by getting better the "right way" and not having an eating disorder issue on the team.
About 18 months later when a lot of the team was falling apart and having some serious medical problems because of their eating disorders, he showed no sympathy and just replaced them with the new crop of runners on the team.
On top of the eating disorder issues, he was just not a fun person to be around. He was always holed up in his office with the lights off, and barely lifted a finger if an athlete was having problems, and often blamed the athlete to their face when they were having issues.
He drove a lot of people out of the sport, just look at how many people made it to the end of their 4-5 years in the program that were still on the team. Also think it says a lot that any athlete who continued to compete post college has never publicly credited Ihmels with this success, and some go so far as to explain that Ihmels did not coach them in college and an assistant did.
Not a lot of tears shed from alumni when the news came out, and I know a lot are hoping that someone can come in and make the program something to want to represent again, because Boise is one of the best places to train in the US
Hey former teammate probably 👀 I can endorse this is all true. Does anyone know what happened to the assistants?
To the bottom of the MW? Men were 3rd and women 2nd just this year.
In 2021 and 2022 the women were a (very) distant 5th, which while maybe isn't "bottom" it's certainly underperforming from where they were historically. The men were also 5th in 2022. Then..again they haven't made a Nationals since 2021. Both teams also land near the bottom in indoor and outdoor track and they underperform in the distance events. BSU has an over distribution of their scholarships allocated towards distance. They also have 3-4 coaches allocated to distance alone. Sure, it's good they got second and third *this year.* But given the amount of resources they align to distance, they *should* be a powerhouse team on the grass and the track and they are. Not.
That's coaching, leadership, guidance and recruitment.
That doesn't even bring into account the above mentioned major issues with culture, relationships and vision.
But yes, they did get second and third! Great point!
To the bottom of the MW? Men were 3rd and women 2nd just this year.
In 2021 and 2022 the women were a (very) distant 5th, which while maybe isn't "bottom" it's certainly underperforming from where they were historically. The men were also 5th in 2022. Then..again they haven't made a Nationals since 2021. Both teams also land near the bottom in indoor and outdoor track and they underperform in the distance events. BSU has an over distribution of their scholarships allocated towards distance. They also have 3-4 coaches allocated to distance alone. Sure, it's good they got second and third *this year.* But given the amount of resources they align to distance, they *should* be a powerhouse team on the grass and the track and they are. Not.
That's coaching, leadership, guidance and recruitment.
That doesn't even bring into account the above mentioned major issues with culture, relationships and vision.
But yes, they did get second and third! Great point!
so odd that the teams had better success in the MW (higher placing) when they raced at lower elevations... ummm is right
They should go get one of these WCC coaches. Gonzaga, Portland, one of the Cali schools.
those programs beat boise with no budget, facilities or scholarships. Give them a throws coach, couple of euro jumpers that don’t mind the cold and boom you have a track team
No sh!t they land at the bottom on the track- their track only athletes are worse than their distance team (outside of their one semi recent performance- yippee). You can’t be a powerhouse track team with only a distance squad, too many points left behind. They also don’t have an indoor facility, which hurts all event groups in the same. And that’s for both indoor and outdoor I might add.
Also, I see you failed to mention anything on administration in your factors of what makes a good team. Ever stop to think that there is more to a program than coaching alone? And would it be too far of a stretch to say it’s difficult to control “culture, relationships, and vision” if you don’t have any sort of support from your administration? Coaches are tied to what they can do based on support from administration. If administration doesn’t do anything to support a team, it doesn’t matter how good or bad of a coach you have. Furthermore, all of your referencing on when the team started underperforming is exactly when the new AD came on board. Any coincidence on that? Or is it solely poor coaching that has lead to the decline, even though they have a history of being good before then. But you’re right, it’s easy to just look at the results and immediately blame the coach!
Allie ostrander admits she was extremely unhealthy while in college - her teammate went from hs average to all American as a freshman to never running again - the program clearly encouraged/supported unhealthy behavior under this coach. It’s sad people like this exist as coaches in this sport for this age group