Johnny Gray to be UCLA distance coach

From the LA Daily news:

Gray appears on his way to UCLA

Johnny Gray, the Harvard-Westlake of Studio City cross country coach and distance coach for the Wolverines' track and field team, appears set to take over coaching middle distance runners and serve as a cross country assistant at UCLA after the recent dismissal of coach Eric Peterson.

Although UCLA hasn't made a formal announcement regarding the hiring of Gray - the U.S. record holder in the 800 meters - several sources close to the UCLA cross country program confirmed receiving an e-mail Saturday informing them of the new coach.

Although Harvard-Westlake was defeated last season by Flintridge Sacred Heart of La Canada Flintridge, Gray - the bronze medalist in the 800 at the 1992 Olympics - has guided the Wolverines to several Mission League girls' cross country titles.

Gray, who was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in December, has been instrumental in the development of some of the program's top athletes in recent years, including Chris Cheng, a state finalist in the 800 in June.

UCLA hired Mike Maynard, the former director of track and field at Boise State, to replace Art Venegas as Bruins' men's track and field coach Aug. 4.

Peterson was let go Aug. 13 and UCLA launched a nationwide search shortly thereafter for a cross country head coach, but has yet to make an announcement regarding a replacement.

The Bruins, who feature local graduates Shannon Murakami (Saugus), Sadee Martinez (Burroughs of Burbank), Zack Torres (Crescenta Valley of La Crescenta), Cory Primm (Westlake) and the Royal of Simi Valley quartet of Danny Benson, Jun Reichl, Kevin Sullivan and Kelcie Wiemann, are scheduled to open the season Sept. 5 at Brigham Young in Provo, Utah.

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It's funny how a bunch of bench warmers can criticize many top former and present athletes. Just because you were not blessed with their mental and physical abilities people choose to throw stones. Saying how disappoited or how they wished someone could've run to their potential. You don't know whats going on in their life and training. How would you handle situations? Pro track is not as simple you think. So some of the people who were not as fortunate to get to that higher stage may need to calm down some.

Why is it that when an 800 man/woman is hired to coach XC there is negative flack, as though he or she can not do it. But when a "distance minded" coach has control of 800 -XC there is nothing said. Coaching 800 -1500 is a bit harder to coach than 3k-10k. I think people should anaylze that. Also, yes Johnny is/was a great athlete, just because some great athletes didn't get the job done coaching does not mean HE can not coach. I definitely believe there are more non talented coaches out there who are horrible coaches, than there are former great athlete coaches. Just because some random coach has there masters, read running books, a gym class hero in the rec-runner world of distance does not mean he will be some great distance coach. Same as if a coach has been coaching for 20 yrs, he just has experience, then he gets re hired somewhere. It happens every year. There are a lot of great young or new coaches brewing out there that just need the opportunity.

I think Johnny will be a great hire for 8-XC. He knows the community, he has tons of connections, and he is very knowledgable about the sport of track and field and XC. Just because he specialized in the the 800-1500 does not mean he doesn't know distance.

Then again there are some coaches who were not talented physical athletes but GREAT coaches. Vince Anderson at Texas A&M for example, GREAT coach but probaly never broke 12 in the 100m.

It good to have a coach who's been there and knows how to relate to an athlete when the pressure of a major race is there. It makes an athlete believe, once an athlete believes, thats about all you need.

Everyone is different, just give a person the opportunity to prove what they can do....or not do.

hbshd wrote:

actually he has run under 14 mins in the 5k and under 30 min in the 10k. He had weeks at over 100 miles. Guy was a freak doubling everyday and doing threshold workouts up to 5 times a week.

And his dick is 10 feet long.

I have no beef with Johnny Gray. In fact, I respect him as an athlete and a person. But I do not want him coaching UCLA because I think we can hire a better person. We need someone who is as solid as a rock running the distance program. Someone who can handle the rigors of big time college coaching. UCLA has to hire a distance guy who doesn't mind leaving his ego in the background. Come on Bruins, we can do better than that.

Larry Sanders wrote:

I think we can hire a better person

Who's we? If you were a part of "we" you'd be hiring a better person instead of posting about it on a message board. Right?

I'm more interested in the Forest Braden comment that someone made. Is he Maynard's Boise State connection? Does anyone know if he has interviewed or if any other "distance/cross country" candidates have interviewed?

Maynard originally wanted to hire one good distance coach to coach both mens and womens, but Bolden wants the two teams to have separate coaches and split Petersons salary. Maynard is letting her call the shots on this one to let her feel powerful. Maybe Johnny Gray is the top candidate for Bolden and Forest Braden is Maynard's

Aahh, now THAT makes sense if true. So those two are going to try to live on an already modest split salary in L.A.? Does this mean that Gray will coach the women? And Braden gets the men? Hmmm. Well, such are the intricacies of a split program. Sounds like the real problem is that the women's coach doesn't care if the distance has any success, she is, afterall a sprint coach. Should be interesting to see how this one plays out.

I'm dumbfounded to learn that there are people here who would criticize the selection of Johnny Gray. A new low for the dirtbags among us.

webby wrote:

I'm dumbfounded to learn that there are people here who would criticize the selection of Johnny Gray. A new low for the dirtbags among us.

Please don't take my comments of JG as criticism. My comments are in response to the fact that the position was split. It is a 1 full time coach + a G.A. type of job- we aren't talking about 50+ athletes here. This business of what seems to be going on behind the scenes is what I was refering to as far as what is best for the program. JG may end up being a great college coach-does anyone know how his stint at Pepperdine went and how his athletes did there?. I am just amazed that someone of his rep & creds. would settle for what I have to assume is beans. At some point dignity has to be involved when you say yes to a job.

i personally know that gray's training was working for every single one of his atheletes at harvard westlake. he took the kids that were great and made then awsome and he took the sorrier runners and made then great. i am dissappointed to see him leaving harvard westlake right before there season because they were relying on him but as far as his coaching is concerned he is awsome and ucla and its supporters should appreciate him.

It's official, Forest Braden and Johnny Gray to coach at UCLA.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. This sucks!

Larry Sanders wrote:

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. This sucks!

You are the only one who is sucking anything here. Please spit out your father´s dick before you talk to adults.

For half the pay, you are going to get half the coach.

Oregon and Stanford aren't blinking.

I can't believe that the athletes of UCLA are better off with this arrangement than with Peterson.

When you fire a coach and get rid of a staff, you are suppose to make improvements on what you had before. As a UCLA alum, I am disappointed at the hiring of Bradon and Gray as UCLA's middle and long distance coach. We did not make out program better with this hire. We had a chance to really challenge the Oregon's and Stanford's for the top of the conference. Instead, we chose to be content with a weak middle and long distance program that gets pounded by the rest of the conference. I don't think USC is shaking in their boots right now after this debacle. I am depressed.

Some of you just don't get it. If UCLA was not able to make a top notch hire in this situation, it was because they did not want to. I know it is cliche, but actions really do speak louder than words. I agree that the other PAC-10 schools most likely aren't that worried.

Ultimately, the proof will be in the results....it may take a year for the runners to adapt to the style of training, which I suspect will be partially based on what he did with Merle at SMTC. Given the success that he apparently has had with the HS runners at Harvard Westlake, it appears that he has been able to successfully adapt the Igloi style training principles to runners with differing physical and mental abilities. I believe he's also been able to show success with Robinson, which is another reason they likely chose him. A coaches success is based on being able to adapt training and psychology to each individual runner to obtain the most from them. Sounds to me that hes demonstrated this. While Gray does not possess a "warm and fuzzy" personality, neither did Joe Douglas or Merle McGee, coaches I trained under while with SMTC in the early to mid 80's. But they both got the maximum out of the runners that trained with them. And while not a former UCLA runner like a lot of you appear to be, I did do my graduate work there while training with Gray and SMTC......and I'm optimistic about the future while Gray is the coach. Time will tell.

bruin watch 2009 wrote:

Some of you just don't get it. If UCLA was not able to make a top notch hire in this situation, it was because they did not want to. I know it is cliche, but actions really do speak louder than words. I agree that the other PAC-10 schools most likely aren't that worried.

I tend to AGREE with this line of thinking.

The UCLA Administration has burnt so many bridges in the manner in which they treated Vengas and Godina, that this is what they are left with.