At first, I was thinking it was crazy, but maybe not. Altitude is huge. And coaching. If he wants to be one of the best in the world, I guess there aren't that many options.
At first, I was thinking it was crazy, but maybe not. Altitude is huge. And coaching. If he wants to be one of the best in the world, I guess there aren't that many options.
How much money do you think he would have gotten if he had gone to Arkansas?
New Mexico has got to be one of the worst places. Now for this cat personality, there were a few appeals based on his scenario. Since he's a runner, the altitude helps, there's a great training environment, Mr Samuel is there, minimal distractions.
I don’t know the full breakdown of what guys get anymore but there is so much sneaky money.
Full scholarship, cost of attendance check, money for grades now right? Maybe a little sprinkle on top?
Trainers, equipment, healthcare taken care of, indoor and outdoor track, trails, altitude, training partners. Access to great meets like the 10! (Probably a better set up than training in Kenya. From what I have heard, if you need an MRI in west Kenyan GOOD LUCK!)
Seems like an awesome set up. Also not being in the SEC helps, run a true pro style calendar without needing to double 5k/10k or steeple/5 at conference in Mississippi with brutal heat.
Schools pay a huge sum of money reported to be $25,000 per year for the agents to grab the Kenyan kids and send them to American colleges. Not every college can afford that payment. So it appears that New Mexico has an in with the agents and they are directing the kids to head to UNM. Plus having a complete team of Kenyans doesn't hurt. UNM will be very good because of all the Kenyan athletes and they won't have any American's on the team. Sadly, that type of recruiting covers up the average coaching and academics.
The strange part to me is that New Mexico completely dropped 4 sports and slashed the budgets, scholarships, and rosters for men's track in 2018/19 due to financial issues within the athletic department. Now they appear to be paying substantial money above and beyond scholarship dollars to obtain these athletes, either to scholarbook-type agents or NIL or both.
All these African-based agents, along with the recent ruling regarding JuCo not counting against eligibility, there will be even more Kenyans running as freshmen in the near future.
There already other international students there including other Kenyans. New Mexico has been very good at developing international talent, and he will have an amazing training partner to work with on day one with Habtom Samuel.
Its a simple area like Iowa State, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State (other Kenyan Powerhouse schools) which makes the transition easier plus Albuquerque is a great training area. Makes perfect sense to me
Serious question: what does UNM get out of this? They're dropping large $ to bring these runners in and support them, but why? To be competitive in a zero-revenue sport that does not attract general public attention, or boosters, or donors, or student applications? It seems like money wasted, especially for a school already cutting athletic budgets.
Second question: do they even pretend to be students anymore? Like, how is freshman comp going? Did you get the notes on the econ homework?
4:03 debut at 5,000 ft. Teammate Collin Kiprotich though had the best race of his career beating Waleed Suliman in under 3:59, with Samuel in 3:59. Kosgei ran 4:37 to break the school record. Early days but looks like there’s going to be an adjustment period.