Who are the great up-and-coming college coaches?

I'll get it started with one who looks pretty good: Linh Nguyen at UNC Greensboro. He's been head coach for five years, was assistant for five before that (I assume distance coach).

UNCG's SoCon finishes from 2001-05 when he was assistant: 5th, 9th, 7th, 4th, 5th.

UNCG's SoCon finishes from 2006 through last year: 3rd, 5th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd.

And they just took 15th in the men's race and had the overall winner at Paul Short. I don't follow the SoCon closely but I assume UNCG is the favorite to win this year.

He has gone the Kenyan route (like it or not) but he seems to be getting it done. Don't know him or his student-athletes so I can't speak to anything other than reading their website and looking at results.

Bob Braman, FL State University; formerly at University of South Florida. He was a great runner and is a great young coach.

Certainly a great one, I'd say Braman is already "there" not "up-and-coming" though. He's head coach at an ACC school that competes for national championships.

Art Siemers @ Colorado School of Mines is pretty tough to beat in terms of consistent results with very narrow talent pool:

1) High out of state tuition (and not much scholarship $)

2) Very tough standards to get into school (~28 ACT)

3) Only engineers

4) Time spent not running is not 100% video game, TV and nap time like it is at Adams and Western or D1 schools. Classes actually require thought AND effort.

Apply a "minimum 26 ACT score" filter to XC nationals for any year in the past decade, and I bet at least 90% of the guys fall out.

Aravda Canal Athletic Club wrote:

Art Siemers @ Colorado School of Mines is pretty tough to beat in terms of consistent results with very narrow talent pool:

1) High out of state tuition (and not much scholarship $)

2) Very tough standards to get into school (~28 ACT)

3) Only engineers

4) Time spent not running is not 100% video game, TV and nap time like it is at Adams and Western or D1 schools. Classes actually require thought AND effort.

Apply a "minimum 26 ACT score" filter to XC nationals for any year in the past decade, and I bet at least 90% of the guys fall out.

Does he coach the women there as well? Do they have a women's team?

My daughter is looking at engineering schools, but figured it would be tough to find a good academic choice in this area that also had a decent running program. She'll pick a school based on the academic offerings first, but would love to keep running in college.

Aravda Canal Athletic Club wrote:

Art Siemers @ Colorado School of Mines is pretty tough to beat in terms of consistent results with very narrow talent pool:

1) High out of state tuition (and not much scholarship $)

2) Very tough standards to get into school (~28 ACT)

3) Only engineers

4) Time spent not running is not 100% video game, TV and nap time like it is at Adams and Western or D1 schools. Classes actually require thought AND effort.

Apply a "minimum 26 ACT score" filter to XC nationals for any year in the past decade, and I bet at least 90% of the guys fall out.

You're kidding, right? Maybe for the Rose Bowl...runners are pretty smart folks, by and large. I know of a few schools that take low-score runners *cough*you-know-where*cough* but do you really think the guys at Stanford, the top Ivies, etc, don't have a 26 on their ACT?

Mark Coogan

hirethisguy wrote:

I'll get it started with one who looks pretty good: Linh Nguyen at UNC Greensboro. He's been head coach for five years, was assistant for five before that (I assume distance coach).

UNCG's SoCon finishes from 2001-05 when he was assistant: 5th, 9th, 7th, 4th, 5th.

UNCG's SoCon finishes from 2006 through last year: 3rd, 5th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd.

And they just took 15th in the men's race and had the overall winner at Paul Short. I don't follow the SoCon closely but I assume UNCG is the favorite to win this year.

He has gone the Kenyan route (like it or not) but he seems to be getting it done. Don't know him or his student-athletes so I can't speak to anything other than reading their website and looking at results.

Gee, if finishing one place ahead of a d3 team at Paul Short makes you an up and coming coach...

Yes they have a good women's program. In fact his first ever national champion was a female (3000 SC). Genrally a few AA's each season. Mines is pretty aggressive in terms of financial aid for female students. Art coached two elite females to enormous improvement and Olympic Trials qualification (Moody and Higgins), but decided to focus on his college athletes after a couple of years.

Rene the Cart wrote:

Gee, if finishing one place ahead of a d3 team at Paul Short makes you an up and coming coach...

Consistent improvement does. They seem to have that going regardless of where they finished relative to a D3 team.

Aravda Canal Athletic Club wrote:

Art coached two elite females to enormous improvement and Olympic Trials qualification (Moody and Higgins), but decided to focus on his college athletes after a couple of years.

I thought Higgins was coached by Hudson.

I think UNCG coach is posting about himself...UNCG is not terrible but far from good because Steve Hassan brought in a couple Kenyans and no one else could get Chelimo in school

Easily the best women's assistant, Kelly Strong @ Cal Poly SLO.

thetford woods wrote:

Mark Coogan

Dartmouth will do a lot with a little under him.

Bump. Some good names here. Anyone else? Although I'm impressed with the UNCG guy, I'm actually looking for a bunch of names and not to pump that guy up.

I can think of a couple of guys named Smith in the state of Oklahoma.

The one in Norman is not exactly a neophyte, but the job he's done building up the distance squad is simply phenomenal.

Yasuyuki Watanabe has to be the best young coach. Only 38, but he had ten guys on the Waseda team last year with 10000 m PBs under 29 minutes including one frosh with a 61 minute half marathon. The same frosh ran 13:31 this spring as a sophomore.

"I thought Higgins was coached by Hudson."

Incorrect.

Drew Wartenburg at UC Davis

Wartenburg has to compete for recruits against more prestigious Pac-12 schools (Stanford, Cal, UCLA, Oregon) and other Big West schools in California with nicer locales (Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara) but has still managed to bring some top notch talent to Davis.

Not only does he get good runners but he's proven the ability to turn them into great runners. The men's cross country teams won the Big West conference title last year. Jon Peterson was a surprising 14th at cross country nationals last year. He has a young crew of middle distance runners that have the potential of doing big things in years to come.

Wartenburg also coaches Kim Conley who has made considerable sides the in the post-collegiate world in 2011.