Wetmore is a Jerk

Wetmores comment about Dathan wasnt a rip. He hasnt made himself into one of the best runners in the country at the age of 19 by taking a bunch of easy runs every week. Yes, it caused obvious problems but Wetmore is not ripping on him. Dathan knows he isnt a finished veteran, pro runner. He has things to work on and it is his coach's job to help him with that. I seriously doubt that Wetmore hasnt talked to Dathan about this and first brought it to his attention in the paper. He said that he went to CU to become America's best runner. If his goals are that high, he needs to accept criticism.

Wetmore is a jerk because he follows the dinosaur program of Lydiard

Gagliano doesn't know what he's doing.

Didn't Rich Kenah win two WC medals. Didn't Steve Holman run 3:31.

Please.

Wetmore is an OK coach....nothing special. Colorado has always attracted good distance runners. History proves this....look at how many good runners have come out of Colorado / Boulder in the last 20+ years. Don't be fooled, Colorado distance running did not just recently become great.

Heck, I feel anybody with just a bit of running knowledge could do well at Colorado......they always have an amazing talent base to work with.

As far a being a jerk ? He's like most distance runners a bit nerdy and shy.....don't expect too much class. He's an OK guy.

Funny how the same guy that says that Wetmore is a jerk for making those statements says that he likes McDonnell and Gagliano.

Don't see him on here bashing McDonnell for his harsh comments in the media after the Hogs lost to Georgia this weekend. And Gagliano is noted as one of the biggest assholes in the game.

Mark Wetmore may not be the best coach in the world, but I certainly consider him the best in the country.

We'll be training in Boulder this summer and if he needs to "cash in", he can let me know. I'd be glad to buy him dinner anywhere just to talk shop.

Funny how the people ripping Mark seem to know very little about him or the program. #1 Like a previous poster said this would not be a thread if CU and Mark were a mediocre D1 program. Where are the threads about CSU? Who is the coach there? #2 Culpepper was a big time blue ship recruit back in '91 who was coached by Quiller for 2 years b4 Mark coached him. He had done nothing under Quiller. After 2 years with Mark he was NCAA champ. Soon after him CU got some decent recruits - Wells, Batliner, Reese, Severy, Roybal(4 of 5 from CO). Under Mark's tuteledge they built a name for themselves. CU became a bit of a power and kids from out of state who wanted to be great started showing interest. Remember the '94 team that was the first solid team with Larson and Culpepper earning AA status in Cross. First team where Mark had some coaching power. 5 of the top 6 guys were from Colorado(Larson, Found, Larson, Salazar, Catalano, Kleckler.) Pretty soon at a place where they were just happy to make the NCAA's in Cross, guys like Kleckler, Tiernan, Severy, Wells, Friedberg, Smith and other lesser knowns were making All-American. These were guys know one outside of CO had ever heard of. Hmmm, how did he do it? It was only logical that when Mark got his hands on blue chippers, like Culpepper he could really develop that talent as well. See, Goucher, Slattery, Wheeler, Gorton the Torres(who are gone after 4 years - hmm, wait I thought everyone was injured at least a year at CU, how did they get out in 4?) Now he has Nelson, Schoolmeester and Vaughn(both from CO). He is lucky if he has 15 or 16 guys on the mens side out for Cross. Stanford has 15 or 16 highschool All-Americans from all over the country and 10 other studs you never heard of on their roster, they have more $ and better facilities than CU(CU's team Sat - 4 of top 5 from CO). What has LaNanna or Gags done lately with the stable of talent that came out of Stanford? Remember Riley, Stember, Jennings? Come on guys think before you write assine posts. Mark is not at all after media attention he is reclusive and anti-social. Anyone who knows him, knows CU and running are his life. Unfortunately, most of the people who write in here do not know him or much about the program - its too bad.

He is a good coach, for most people.

He is also a jerk. But not because of his quote on Ritz. More because of how he treats the non-Goucher, non-Torres part of his teams.

Sorry Bldr dude.....Wetmore is not great. Before Wetmore there were tons of good national caliber Colorado runners. Ask some old Colorado XC alums about teams now vs then. The times run now vs then. Sorry, but Wetmore simply cashes in on good talent not superior coaching. Mind you, he's a good coach but not some super star.....far, far from it.

Direct Quote from McDonnell:

?Our upperclassmen really let us down, but I was pleased with the freshmen,? Arkansas head coach John McDonnell said. ?We just started our speed work, so that may have played in role in our performances. Georgia is a good team and I?ve heard Florida is even better. This meet served as a big wake up call for them before they go to conference. We?re a good enough team and we have talented guys that are capable of doing well. They need to step it up or it?s going to be a long season.?

Seems like a pretty reasonable assessment of a teams performance - these comments don't come across as harsh. Coach Mac also has almost 40 national championships so I'll give him some leeway in his assessment of his teams.

And Gagliano is such a jerk that almost every good 800/1500 type in the 90's wanted to move to Washington to train with him.

Have fun training in Boulder...I hope you get in shape to finally break 15 in the 5000.

Um, the best coach in the nation is definately not Mark Wetmore. Its Marcus O'Sullivan

I think wrote:

he is a successful jerk. And it's funny how most of his present and past runners stick-up for him. Maybe they know what you obviously don't, and that is that he cares for his athletes.

Not that is really a fair comparison, but Bob Knight gets the same benefit from his players for the most part. A couple of players could not handle Knight, yet the majority seem to think very highly of the guy (or at worst kept their mouths shut).

It could just be that being with Wetmore day in and day out, one gets to know the guy. Too often if we do not have information, we fill in the gap, either for the better or worse.

I have chatted with Coach Wetmore a few times and he is polite enough considering he does not know me.

Hopefully, wet keg, is not formally One Keg. Cause One keg should certainly know better. Wet Keg, who were all these studs at CU back b4 Wetmore got there. I know Nahom went from walk-on to AA back in '89 and of course Scrutton was 'the man' back in the late 70's. But other than that lets here about the studs and stud teams here b4 Wetmore. The program had no where near the reputation it does now, nor the success. Furthermore, like Mark as a person or not, no coach has done a better job at producing All-American distance runners since the mid-nineties than Mark. If someone has, enlighten me. McDonell is a good coach, but were are his sub 13:30 post collegians? Back in there home country? How about Oregon, Wisconsin, or Villanova, have any of those powerhouses put up the results or produced the All-Americans Mark has in the last 8 years with less money and lesser facilities? I know there are some really smart guys on this board who will try to refute what I am saying or want to belittle Mark, but unfortunatley for them his record really speaks for itself. Oh, I know known of his athletes have done great on the world stage, so we can always put him down for that but what DI coaches distance runners have? Who had the best representation at US Track Champs this past Spring in the distance events? Who coached the fastest American 5K runners in the last 2 years? Come on - like him or hate him(cause you don't really know him) lets give credit where credit is due!

Jammer -- I also have a published article in the Arkansas newspaper (it's not online) that says ... "The guys ate at McDonald's on Saturday," said McDonnell. "I told them 'This is where losers eat', enjoy your lunch."

I'm not saying that McDonnell is an ass (though I will say that about Gags), just that sometimes coaches use the media as motivation for their athletes.

I likewise think it's horrid how everyone is so quick to jump on Wetmore's back.

Thanks, hopefully training in Boulder will be great for myself and my team this summer. If everyone's breaks 15 for 5000, we'll be quite the HS team. (Of course, everyone breaking 16 would need to come first)

Actually the 1993 team was quite good with 7 runners in the top 13 at Big 8's and they qualified for NCAA's and Quiller was the coach then. I have a close friend who came there as a walk-on in 1989 and graduated in All Big 8 in 1994 and was there while the program went from the lower end of the Big 8 to Champions. He actually credits a lot of it to Shawn Found who transferred there and ignited a new attitude along with some other walk-on guys like Scott Larson, Jim Giveans, etc. Culpepper came there in fall of 1991 injured and stayed injured pretty much the first 1 1/2 years there from various things.

[quote]BLDr Dude wrote:

Funny how the people ripping Mark seem to know very little about him or the program. #1 Like a previous poster said this would not be a thread if CU and Mark were a mediocre D1 program. Where are the threads about CSU?

For the most part I agree with your post and history. But do take issue with the above post. CSU's program is not high profile, nor is it "great," but it is by no means mediocre. So stay in Boulder, sip your freaken' latte', but don't call CSU's program under Del Hessel mediocre. He's built a strong program over the past several years, and has coached many good runners since the 1970s.

Speaking of Wetmore and Dathan. I think that in light of Dathan's history of injury he should consider transfering to a school that would provide him with some softer running surfaces. Granite is evidently not going to work for him. Personally, I think he should consider joining the Oregon Ducks and running on our soft woodchip trails.

some history wrote:

Actually the 1993 team was quite good with 7 runners in the top 13 at Big 8's and they qualified for NCAA's and Quiller was the coach then. I have a close friend who came there as a walk-on in 1989 and graduated in All Big 8 in 1994 and was there while the program went from the lower end of the Big 8 to Champions. He actually credits a lot of it to Shawn Found who transferred there and ignited a new attitude along with some other walk-on guys like Scott Larson, Jim Giveans, etc. Culpepper came there in fall of 1991 injured and stayed injured pretty much the first 1 1/2 years there from various things.

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Very good info....also the 1970's teams were full of talent.

It's just they did not have choir boy lifestyle like the CU kids of today. Ask people like Sandrock or Castro about the CU teams of the 70's. This was also the time that Mary Decker was

making a name in distance running without the "great wetmore".

Before Sandrock and before Castro and before Quiller (the first time) CU had as many as three All Americans on the same team. This is when everyone on the team was from Colorado.

Quiller coached Casteneda, Peterson, and Gregorio when he was an assistant,1972 ish. Gregorio was from California, the other two from Colorado.