Worst X-C/Track Coach You Have Ever Run for and/or Heard of

MY COACH LEFT ME AT YALE INVITATional, I had to ride back to NYC with another team. HE had his 100-400 m runners running 10ks in XC. WEe worked out indoors all year long. I'm gonna have to give it to him for worst coach ever anmd i've had about 6 in the last 5 years.

That's harsh. There were a few times they wanted to leave me behind, I'm sure, but never did it.

We went from a Lydiard disciple my first year of high school to a guy who held all our school records 880 and up for sophomore year. We were fired up because we figured he'd get us all to be fast like him. Well, the guy was a speed demon. Nothing but intense stuff every damn day. He'd even run with us on our "distance" days to make sure we weren't going too slow. He'd verbally tear you apart if you were struggling. He had the throws coach rough up a senior who questioned his training methods. By the middle of track season I quit to concentrate on the high jump (seriously, 5-10 sophomore year). It was either that or get injured like everyone else.

The good news is the following year we got a guy who had been one of the legendary Jamul Toads. Suddenly everyone was running better again and having fun.

My first year of track in high school, we got a new coach of the Nietzchean (sp?) school -"That which does not kill me makes me stronger." He had the sprinters doing 600's and 400's, lots of 'em, 3 days a week, with the promise that when the races started, we'd go to shorter faster stuff. Well, come the race season, we just had to do the same distances only way FASTER. I was puking at every workout, and every single sprinter but me (who was out with another injury) got shin splints.

The fact that he chewed tobacco didn't really help the whole puking thing, either.

Final straw was when he forgot when Regionals were, gave us our hardest workouts yet, and no one made it out of the trials.

If he had stayed track coach for another year, I might never have kept with the sport.

bob pollock, clemson university. hands down.

4 straight days of hard intervals on the track. Rest friday, weekends were basically all out 8 milers. I kind of thank him for it though, he taught me how to be tough.

I think I got ya all beat. I run the 5k and up, guy had me on the track 4 days a week with fridays "off" and meets on saturday. Sundays were a non factor for this man. Man loved "all out" stuff, like 2 all out 800's and thats it....in december....you get the point

My Coach is basically the same as Empiricism's. But with one addition, 4 stress fractures in one year, 5 if you include him.

Don't college coaches have the best job security in the world? They can do stuff like this to athletes, manage to single handily destroy a good team and still keep their jobs! I know a coach who came into a pretty successful collegiate program - I won't mention specifics - and within a year of him taking over as head coach had destroyed the reputation the program had for 10 years. Then, he doesn't go recruit anyone to try to rebuild. And forget about his athletes doing anything to help rebuild either. It's tough to rebuild a reputation when you're doing pool runs.

I'm certain this guy still has his job.

Peace out.

Why not name names? Bring it on...

Names, eh? My high school coach's name wouldn't mean anything to anyone, but for three years he never had anyone do any sort of training for track. He was the football coach and saw track season as a time to see how fast the running backs and wide receivers were, if there were any fast kids not playing football who he could recruit, and as a chance to practice a few football plays.

A name most will recognize is Brooks Johnson. When he was coaching DC International, an age group club in Washington, he'd sometimes have his kids running on the track at the U of Maryland. Sometimes I'd do some intervals there so we'd overlap and I couldn't running for him. He'd stand in the infield with his watch and essentially yell non-stop insults and obscenities at all of his kids. It's perhaps a personal bias, but I have a hard time respecting coaches who do that. Then, when he made the "big time", he'd occasionally publish an article in a running magazine about training methods which demonstrated that he had nothing but contempt and a lack of understanding for aerobic development.

HRE, you knew Brooks Johnson when he was in DC? St Albins prep? Did you know Glenda Moody, as well?

Worst Coaches:

Tony Sandoval UCB

Terry Crawford SLO

Honorable Mention:

Randy Lydum

Crawford:

I knew a female that went to SLO as an 800m/1500m/5000m runner who was fairly decent in those events. Crawford put her in the 400m because she wanted to "have somebody in the race."

Sandoval:

A friend of mine went to Cal as a freshmen with a very good mile time. She had been used to around 50mi weeks in high school, so Sandoval says, "We're gonna drop it down to 25 miles a week, all of it speed. You need to build strength from speed before you can run any kind of mileage." Keep in mind that this was the first week of cross country practice.

Lydum:

I hope I spelled her name correctly because she deserves her place. She was the fastest woman or guy on the team. She was in great shape, but none of that seemed to extend to her athletes. SF State has been so deplorable that they'd look better to everyone else if the didn't show up.

I am only amazed that SugarCane hasn't attacked this thread. Talk about baiting.

I clerk/officiate my high school's dual meets (in Massachusetts the dual meet season is still very important), and last year I witnessed a coach that was just garbage from a rival high school.

A) very, very overweight and trying to coach high school girls.

B) my high school false started in the 4x100, so they had a walkover. the team fumbled the second pass and got DQ'd too. The coach was livid -- I know, they shouldn't have screwed up but they weren't going to win anyway and its just high school dual meets.

C) his best athlete, a semi-legit sub-11:40 female 2-miler, wins the 2 mile in a huge margin, then he makes her double in the 400 (Massachusetts, can't do two races above 400). The girl has no speed, and no prayer of scoring. Coach is again pissed, angry because she ran a 67 or something and came in last.

Doug Brown - anyone who knows his will agree. Hands down winner.

Malmo, The title here is worst coach you ran for, which would cover my first high school coach, or know of, which would cover Brooks. I saw him conduct a very small number of workouts and was at a couple of indoor meets where he pierced everyone's eardrums. I was introduced to him at a high school meet at the DC Armory (I think) but never said more than "hi." Honestly, I've spoken more to you than to him ( it's true,we were drinking in a group at the Boston Marathon once years ago), so that should answer the "knew Brooks" question. Glenda Moody's name sounds familiar, but I can't place it.

I heard a comment made by a former athlete that Brooks Johnson was the only coach he knew of that could make a great runner good... Needless to say he was not missed when he left CPSLO to coach Mickey and Minnie and Disneyworld... Terry Crawford's only saving grace is she made some good choices on assistant coaches(Blockburger, Conover etc.).

Agreed.