Western Washington U.

Good school, great location, crap coaching (based on several independent opinions from former athletes).

You're gonna tell me that Bill Roe is a crap coach?

Bill Roe is not the coach.

sorry my bad, i've been out of the loop for a few years

I would agree with "great school, great location." Don't know about the coaching, as I only went there post-bac. WWU does like to make its students jump hoops, though.

I graduated from WWU last summer and I have no complaints about it. I developed very well there as a runner and student.

Also, they just got 11th in cross nationals this year. Probably the best team in the schools history. You'll be apart of good team competition and a very close knit group.

We return our top 6 next year, 4 of which were redshirt freshman this year in xc. Bellingham has the best trail system around and the school is pretty good too.

Leadership at Western is extremely suspect. Never been too clear on what Roe's role in the program is, but he is a buffoon there and in his "job" with USATF. Pee Wee has been there forever and is not much of a driving force.

This year they had a volunteer coach, Al Reimer, who could continue to do a lot for the program if he sticks around. Al is willing to spend time and invest energy in the athletes. Revolutionary, I know.

B'ham is a great training environment, with the only drawback being the rainy climate. Western should be able to get a slew of recruits each year and probably belongs on the "Best place to build a program" thread elsewhere on the boards.

My guess is that they will fall all over themselves to get a runner with your PR's there.

send me your e-mail and I will give you the e-mail of WWU's recruit guy. I can also answer questions you have about the program, but I would rather you speak directly to a coach because you won't get the information you need on this message board. Few of the members of the team actually check it.

I'd love to talk with you and hear more about your running and future goals. I'm the current distance graduate assistant/recruiter at WWU. My e-mail address is bieser01@gmail.com. Shoot me an e-mail sometime.

Positives

1. Great trails

2. Team is currently pretty talented so you will have guys to run with and likely be going to XC nationals

3. Located in a nice college town

4. If you are in state and don't get $$ somewhere else, it is affordable.

Negatives

1. Lack of funding. From talking to their athletes, there is hardly any money for either scholarships or travel.

2. Inconsistent coaching -- For the record, I liked the guys. Bill has been there forever in title but is rarely there other than wanting to seem important and make decisions. Pee Wee has also been there forever, but only is really involved in motivation and administration. Training decisions are mostly up to the individual runner, not the coaches. TJ bailed and jumped ship up to Alaska Anchorage (and from my understanding he was doing the recruiting and day to day stuff). If things go as they probably will, the new guy who posted here will likely be gone once he can find a job somewhere too. That is how things go at D2.

Summary

I really liked hanging out with the WWU guys at meets. I wished that I could have been on their team. My team was crappy, but it would have been a pain to transfer. If you can afford it, can transfer without losing seasons, and are motivated and don't need too much guidance, you should go. If you need lots of hands on stuff, that doesn't happen with their huge team. Oh by the way, if you don't know their team, it is about 3 times bigger than any other GNAC team.

Who are you? I was thinking that I have probably run against you if you are a sophomore. I graduated last spring.

I try to not post about WWU anymore, but saw myself mentioned. First off, I loved my time at WWU, both as a runner and as a coach. It was fun running at nationals in XC, and helping start to put the program back on the map as a coach. The program has what it takes to go in the right direction. Although more scholarship money would have been nice, we took a bunch of walk-ons and placed 2nd at nationals in the DMR. Last year there were 7 different guys who hit national provisional marks in distance events in track. The group moved on and placed 11th at nationals this fall (and would have been higher had Tomsich stayed healthy and ran like he did at Sundodger). I know that they will be thorns in my side for many years to come.

Lastly, I don't want anyone to think that I bailed on WWU to go to Anchorage. Although I completely love it up here in Alaska, there just wasn't funding to keep me at WWU... I wanted to see how far I could take things. Pee Wee was the one to told me that I should search the NCAA job postings. I'm grateful to PW and Bill at WWU for giving me the opportunity to get into collegiate coaching in the first place. I'm grateful to Coach Friess and the athletic department up here for giving me the chance to help take the UAA program to a higher level while making coaching my profession. I have a big place in my heart for both of my programs, and I think the athletes and coaches from both schools know that.

Good luck to everyone this spring in track and next fall in XC.

As a coach, it is unfathomable to me that a coach likePeeWee collects a paycheck from a large and talented program while providing so little direction to the athlete's training. There must be dozens of talented, motivated and informed coaches out there that would gladly take the helm and make WWU a National DII powerhouse.

The program's strengths are definately the youth and upcomming talent. A 14:40 sophmore would fit in excellently with the current redshirt freshman class.

3 redshirt freshamn led the way for an 11th place finish for the vikings while having another freshman who placed 6th and had a little of an off day.

The order at nationals:

1. Freshman

2. Freshman

3. Freshman

4. Junior

5. Junior (redshirt still available, 24:22 early season 8k: injured rest of year)

6. Freshman

7. Senior

I would imagine tha WWU was the youngest team at nationals this year and still placed 11th despite their usual #1 runner being injured. I would say the future looks great.

As a coach?

Whatever your name is, PeeWee does alot more than you think. For such an underfunded program, PeeWee does a damn good job. He is constantly looking for ways to get more money to the program, but unfortunately most of it goes toward the "ball" sports. He is the HEAD track AND FIELD coach, so he has his hands full with ALL the athletes (less the pole vaulters and weight throwers). He coaches javelin and jumps, assists with the hurdlers, and assists with the distance runners during track. He coached the D2 national champion womens javelin thrower last year.

If he pays full attention to just the distance guys it hinders the track team because other athletes do not get their coaching. That is the reason that he calls upon his assistant coaches to help the distance guys. That was TJ's role and he did a pretty damn good job of it, and it is now Al and Eriks role.

If you want to help, send a check to the program.