This interview with Mark Wetmore makes me lose a lot of respect for a coach I once admired. He makes it seem as if coaches who have international athletes on their teams are cheating. he also makes it clear that he doesn't respect those teams or there athletes who I'm sure work just as hard if not harder than any Colorado runner does. Does he not realize that there is a German athlete on his team? How is that any different from bringing in a Kenyan athlete?
I agree with Wetmore....US Tax dollars pay for the development in US Olympic sports. Its all about building US athletes to compete on the olympic level....which is funded by US citizens....not for athletes of ANY other country.
Plus any foreigner on Mark Wetmores team will not be awarded one scholarship penny...They must walk on!
While he certainly doesn't make me sick, I don't like what he said. I don't understand how recruiting top American prep runners like Ritz, Torres, Goucher, etc. is "building from the ground up," but taking in foreign athletes is not.
Here is a link to the original interview.
http://www.flocasts.com/flotrack/speakers.php?sid=1&f=32
I would be really surprised if Dan Edwards doesn't get any sort of financial aid.
Wetmore detester wrote:
This interview with Mark Wetmore makes me lose a lot of respect for a coach I once admired. He makes it seem as if coaches who have international athletes on their teams are cheating. he also makes it clear that he doesn't respect those teams or there athletes who I'm sure work just as hard if not harder than any Colorado runner does. Does he not realize that there is a German athlete on his team? How is that any different from bringing in a Kenyan athlete?
Read this link about the "German" athlete; you'll find he went to a school for US military dependents which happened to be in Germany. Likewise, I remind you that Frank Shorter was born in Munich.
What the hell are you talking about? Collegiate athletes are used to promote the university they compete for, not to develop American athletes. Running is a business; take your personal agendas elsewhere.
whats wrong with wanting do develop good american runners. some of you guys just come on here to bitch. hes actually trying to make the U.S. good in distance running. and I think it is different than getting prep stars cause he is trying to build them tocompete on the world level. I mean goucher and ritz. 2 big names for the U.S. from colorado.
thats a bit dramatic. i see your point though. but sick? really? anyway, i disagree with Wetmore long stocking too. Whether you get an import or not, the thing is to get the most out of your athlete. And while you may have a better chance with a proven comodity, its certainly not a sure thing. They have things to overcome in coming here. Culture shock, language barrier, etc. And for the athletes, racing against foreigners raises our game and that is never a bad thing. The key is to race and beat the best. The world is rapidly shrinking and its the athlete's individual responsibility to raise their game to compete with and beat whoever you are put up against. But for wetmore, he wants to win and feels sorry for himself when he doesn't.
Agree with Wetmore wrote:
I agree with Wetmore....US Tax dollars pay for the development in US Olympic sports. Its all about building US athletes to compete on the olympic level....which is funded by US citizens....not for athletes of ANY other country.
Plus any foreigner on Mark Wetmores team will not be awarded one scholarship penny...They must walk on!
How stupid, it's CO tax dollars not US tax dollars, so all of the out-of-state recruits Wetmore gets should be considered in about the same light as a foreign athlete is. Wetmore neither said nor implied nothing about developing Olympians, illiterate boob.
"fast car...but no one in town respected them." That to me, sounds like Wetmore is looking for respect? Poor Wetmore. Hey, i have an idea. Stop crying about the other guys car and try to make yours better and better. He sounds like a housewife crying about the next door neighbor's new hairdo. Stop crying and keep putting out the best teams you can.
This is just another glaring example of the wusification of the U.S. Suck it up, quit crying about the other guys fast car and race. But whatever, thats just me.
Actually, it's usually booster money. Most ADs aren't supported by tax dollars.
Wetmore detester wrote:
This interview with Mark Wetmore makes me lose a lot of respect for a coach I once admired. He makes it seem as if coaches who have international athletes on their teams are cheating. he also makes it clear that he doesn't respect those teams or there athletes who I'm sure work just as hard if not harder than any Colorado runner does. Does he not realize that there is a German athlete on his team? How is that any different from bringing in a Kenyan athlete?
theres nothing wrong with what he said.
even if he has more pride in coaching dathan ritzenhein, he still has to live with the fact that he will always have to recruit people like robert chesert, whether he likes it or not.
even if he has more pride in coaching dathan ritzenhein, he still has to live with the fact that he will always have to recruit people like robert chesert, whether he likes it or not.
He will? Since when?? Seems to have done all right so far without having to do so.
Ritz is from Michigan not Colorado
Tim Goldsack wrote:
Ritz is from Michigan not Colorado
no. he ran at colorago.
webb ran at michigan.
ps- the debate isnt over hometown. its about who hes having to coach at colorado. please read the orginal post and flocast video.
omurphy21 wrote:
I don't understand how recruiting top American prep runners like Ritz, Torres, Goucher, etc. is "building from the ground up," but taking in foreign athletes is not.
There is no difference. He gets some the top american talent and if he doesn't think so he's delusional.
If you listen to his interview he compares his using american runners to building a car from scratch and using international runners to buying a brand new car. In reality what's happening is both him and the international recruiting coaches are both buying brand new cars. He's buying the American made Chevy Camaro's, Ford Mustangs and Dodge Vipers while the international teams are buying Porche's, Mercedes, and BMW's. Both cars are brand new and really fast, they are just built in different places.
I don't have a problem with coaches who only want to recruit Americans and coaches who want to recruit primarily international. I do have a problem with coaches like Wetmore who think international recruiting is cheating and who disrespect the work of coaches who do so.
Wetmore needs to accept the gifts and talents he has and stop trying to come off like he's hard up for talent and resources. It only makes him sound dilusional and clueless. He has the best situation in America to recruit distance talent to. He is at a big name school with big conference resources. He is also in the distance running mecca of the country with altitude, trails and training facilities when all combined are umatched. He has books, websites and documentries that publize his program. There is a strong foundation is there to build on. He needs to stop acting like he magically built his big house program on the sand.
I don't discredit Wetmores ability to coach athletes build a program. He is obviously one of the best or he wouldn't be allowed to be in such a great situation. He just needs to stop trying to discredit those who built their programs differently. It's disrespectful and unsportsmanlike.
running fast wrote:
Actually, it's usually booster money. Most ADs aren't supported by tax dollars.
Nope, that might be what they want you to believe.
You're an idiot.
I've got nothing against foreigners, but actually, I have a great deal MORE respect for Wetmore. People try to pull this argument off that it's not really taxpayer's money all the time, because scholarships are funded privately, which is only partly true, by the way. But, to the extent that it is true, donations are made as a tax write-off, so it's half a dozen of one and six of the other. Scholarships should be for assisting need-based AMERICANS with education expenses, not foreigners, who have, in no way, earned any right to merit the rewards of American taxpayers. Once they are here legally paying taxes or making private contributions, then, perhaps, their kids can benefit; otherwise, you are denying a privilege underwritten by AMERICANS for Americans. As a private contributor to CU, I will pull the plug if I see Wetmore stray from this policy. Furthermore, I do wish that he would recruit mainly Coloradans, as he has in the past, because there is a lot of unrecognized talent here.
The first thing I have to address is that everyone is saying it's the tax payer buying these teams. That is not true, not all international students come to America on full scholarships. This means that their remaining tuition comes from out of the country, which is a credit to the American economy. It actually improves your economy because money is coming into the country that wouldn't be thrown into the GDP otherwise. The second thing that seems a little ironic to me is that Wetmore has made it well known that he has a great deal of respect for Arthur Lydiard. He, and all the other teams in the nation, owe Lydiard for coming up with the fundamentals that all our programs are based on. My point is Lydiard spent his life promoting running on an international level, not only in New Zealand. So it is fairly hipocritical for Wetmore to say he only promotes training American runners, when all his methods have come from the effort of coaches teaching their methods internatioanlly.