Is MSU's Walt Drenth That Good of A Coach?

Err by the way .. I love Walt like a father. "Brutally honest" is his montra. He'll tell you what you need to know to get better. Even if it hurts. He gives everyone a chance. If you work your tail off for him, he gives at all back to you, regardless of how fast you are.

CC team member wrote:

Rita answers to Walt. I hope you don't think that this years success had much to do with Rita?

I don't know. What is Rita's specific part in the equation? (On paper, she appears to handle the distance runners).

For a former/current athlete:

What is Drenths basic training philosophy? Compared to many other coaches of equal or even lesser repute - it seems that Drenth is a relative unknown commodity.

First off Walt is without a doubt one of the best distance coaches around. If he has a weakness I'd argue its his recruiting. If he could recruit like Oregon/Wisconsin etc, his teams would be NCAA challengers - and thats because he has such a high success rate. Most of his runners do well. As for best quotes:

Walt watching a slow womens 10k: F%$*%$K - I'd rather watch paint dry.

Walt describing a 4:07 HS miler who didin't train and went clubbing 2 nights before NCAA's - "Mike - he's the king of the idiots, King of the f&%$ing idiots. HE's like Jesus and all the idiots are his disciples."

Walt gave me a chance to run for a team that I probably had no business being on. He works just as hard for the last person as he does for the superstar on the team. I developed tremendously under his tutalege as both an athlete and a person. And he certainly has a way with words. Sometimes it is mixed metaphors: "This isn't rocket surgery..." other times it is his own brand of brutal honesty, "XXXX, if you think you're a miler, then your workout is 10x10meters headfirst into a brick wall!" or "He's the most well traveled 2 minute guy in the country."

I would love to go back in time just to sit in the locker room for his pre-practice speeches again.

"I don't want to hear any woo woo woo"

I think Walt's recruiting problems come from his lack of tolerance for a prima donna. He wants guys who want to win by sacrifice and hardwork

That aerobic capacity of a turkey quote is great, he used that in reference to another guy on my team too.

Wondering wrote:

I think Walt's recruiting problems come from his lack of tolerance for a prima donna. He wants guys who want to win by sacrifice and hardwork

I somewhat agree. I also think that Walt loves nothing more than taking good to average guys, working with them for a few years, taking them to a new level, and drilling the prima donnas.

I bet if you asked him, he'd rather finish 10th at nationals with a bunch of "no-names" (so to speak), than 5th with a team of footlocker studs.

I think he loves the underdog role.

Another quote (Delivered before IC4As in the early 90's) ... "Fellas, you just gotta be a bunch of rough-ass bastards out there"

In Walt's early days of coaching at CMU when I was on the team we would occasionally do some really stupid stuff. After one of the incidents Walt gave us a talk that went something like this: "Individually you are good guys, but for some reason when you are all together as a group you really have a lot of asshole potential". After that it simply became known as AP.

scotth wrote:

I don't know. What is Rita's specific part in the equation? (On paper, she appears to handle the distance runners).

scotth,

Rita is the "Associate Head Coach" for the cross country team (men's and women's) and is an assistant for track. Walt is the Director of Track/Cross Country.

He overseas all in XC, writes the workouts, etc. Rita is obvioulsy very involved, but he is responsible for what has happened this year.

okay...you asked for quotes:

A friend quoting on Walt..."He's a time bomb, you don't know if he's just ticking or ready to blow up:)!"

A quote Walt used on a teammate at NCAAs...that I wished he said to me: "Pass this girl...and be a b!tch about it!"

A quote Walt said to me (that makes him such a great coach!): "Honestly, I just don't think your being very tough." I was doing 1000 meter repeats and not hitting the times..I hit every time after that, thinking in my head..."Walt just called me a pussy!"

Walt can be very impatient. Once when he was waiting for the team to take a leak at a rest stop or gas station he is said to have told the team after about 5 minutes to "get your asses back on the bus what do you think this is blankety-blank field trip"

I ran for Walt and I've seen him bring runners to their peak. But I've often wondered how it was that he had some of the world's best to work with and yet has no national champions to his name. It seemed obvious by their season's performances that they were the best in the country and that some of his girls should have been national champions on the track or in cross-country and yet when the big show came, the girls came up just short.

Walt was nothing but a dick! he only cared about you if you were running good! if you were hurt its like you wernt on the team! F that ass hole!

Plasencia, Jim Stinzi, and Drenth were all interviewing for the Minnesota Head Cross Country Coach job in the winter of 1996. I should know I was running there at the time. The interim coach was a guy named Carson Hoeft who was a MN track alum. The athletics program decided on Plasencia because it was assumed he would have more clout within the state and a better ability to recruit MN kids. I have nothing against Plas and it was great to run for him but I think Drenth would have been the better selection and I think the overall MN distance program would have become much better under Drenth.

J.G....nothing but a dick? Hard to believe based on the majority of the other posts here.

J.G wrote:

Walt was nothing but a dick! he only cared about you if you were running good! if you were hurt its like you wernt on the team! F that ass hole!

You must be thinking of Stinzi.

Walt Drenth is one of the greatest coaches in the country. He turned around a struggling MSU cross country and is now having both teams going to nationals. He is a very straight forward and knows what he is doing. I have been following MSU XC for several years and let me tell you this team is the real deal ........3-4 years the road and I can see them taking home a national title... and when they do they wont race like bitches like the Wisconsin team... watch out for MSU at Nationals!

He is a great motivator on the course as well.... I recall a couple years back at an XC meet... he was yelling "tear some f***ing heads off".. to some of his runners