Vin gone from UO...to be USATF CEO at end of 2012

I swear, this is the most psychotic and hypocritical message board on the planet.

People on this board complain about how the sport is "dying" all the time, and yet the only thing that they recommend to change this is that NBC televise the entire 10000m run at the Olympic Trials.

Vin's time at Oberlin actually was pretty valuable. The school's athletic program is in a better way, and he hired Appenheimer (who's done a good job and is still there).

Everyone complained about the "backdoor" and "shady" tactics of the USATF, bringing the Trials to OU for two straight meets, but everyone I know who actually went to the damn meet had an awesome time and said it was a great event.

Vin in the coaching ranks does a very small population a lot of good. Vin as the CEO of the USATF does a slightly larger population a LOT of good.

I know it's a lot easier for your under-developed brains to point out what's wrong with the sport at the upper echelons, but since the average contribution to the "betterment" of the sport is to fully display the most boring event in track and field, I'd suggest there is a good reason you've not been tapped to be the USATF CEO.

Either prepare for change or wait for the sport we all love to be relegated to permanent irrelevance.

(example of the hypocritical nature of this board, compare how much uproar exists whenever Nike tries to put money into the sport against the fervor over allow athletes to advertise Picky Bars on their singlet... Good grief. I'm all for a change in the uniform rule, but pick a side and stay on it. You can't be for and against sponsorship at the same time)

Call your congresman to disband USATF after London 2012.

8 Year Term limits for postions Director and above.

One thing that is correct is Vin has brought in a big name to fill the distance holes on the roster

Elections: Internet Voting, 1 week long, one member = one vote.

Care to share who it might be?

runrunrudolph wrote:

Powell and Robert Johnson are essentially the men's and women's directors already. Powell runs all daily operations of the men's program and johnson runs all daily operations of the women's program. the two of them hired the other coaches and manage all of the money. they have 5 NCAA team titles and probably 10 team trophies between the two of them, who the hell do you think would be a better choice to run the program at oregon?

I am not arguing that Johnson and Powell are not excellent coaches and administrators, but this is the most plum job out there, and Uncle Phil will want to ensure a BIG NAME.

Wait I thought the firmist of the various backroom deals was to have Ian Stewart move into the slot.

He is severelyyyyyy OVERATTEEDDDDD

I vote, fire all of the idiots at USATF!

I actually believe the Andy should be given credit for Wheating, AJ, and Centro the last couple years, but Andy is not ready to be a Director of a whole program. In fact, the fact that he can really focus solely on coaching is what goes missing when our best distance coaches become head coaches (much less Director of what should be a top-level program like Virginia).

Centro leaving would not have happened if Vin was staying though.

Pogo wrote:

Vin's time at Oberlin actually was pretty valuable. The school's athletic program is in a better way, and he hired Appenheimer (who's done a good job and is still there).

Everyone complained about the "backdoor" and "shady" tactics of the USATF, bringing the Trials to OU for two straight meets, but everyone I know who actually went to the damn meet had an awesome time and said it was a great event.

...

Uhh speaking of backdoor and shady. The first paragraph you talk about Vin doing an old buddy a favor and hiring his star athlete and then right afterwards mention the "backdoor and shady" tactics. Anyone else see the irony here?

Michael Reilly will take over as director. After London, he will be back in Eugene.

other than no public bus from the airport, shuttle that missed the morning heats, no places to eat and drink, small stadium, no night life, stands full of 60's hippies and draft dodgers who don't know a shot put from a baton, having to dodge bike riders trying to snatch purses, and the smel ly hayward field ushers hired from the eugene mission, it was an average meet. sacramento was awesome.

my advice for you, next year don't show up for the meet.

Reilly won't be back. He's gone for good. Lance Deal is the new Director of Track and Field at UO.

This is getting off topic, but I see the skills needed for the head coaching job at Oregon as being good with the public and with organizing events. Hire the right assistants and the coaching will get done. Keeping people happy -- the 5,000+ that come to every home meet and the 8,000+ willing to volunteer for major events -- is a skill that isn't required anywhere else. It's why they loved Bowerman, were ambivalent towards Dellinger, and didn't like Smith.

Is Lananna shady? I have no idea, but he's a successful D-I coach, and it more or less goes with the territory. In no way would he be anyone's puppet, but I think he'd have a direct line to Phil Knight, and that would scare the bejesus out of anyone who wanted to mess with him. Similarly, if Knight wants him as CEO, they'd be scared not to hire him.

The CEO job might not officially have much power, but it's all in how you wield it. Example: POTUS has serious limits on its power but LBJ knew how to kick ass and Obama doesn't. Lananna would be like LBJ.

Vin is a great ego-maniac.

I predict he will be USATF CEO the day after Olympic Trials and in the distance area, he will have a National team coach with everyone training together/under one Director (coach). I think secretive Jerry Schumacher is out. Rowlands would be natural choice as he was hand-picked by Vin.

I got no beef with Mr. Lanana or Oregon.

However by what standards is a better program from another in terms of results and achievements?

Oregon has the biggest support in the country for track and field, the best facilities and the best budget.Prolly they don t have a limit in their expenses. Whatever they want they get.G force treadmill, Bio freeze container... , you name it

Then they can recruit pretty much anybody in the world. The Nike connection and support gives them full professional alike advantages,

Now lets talk results. From a results standpoint, Oklahoma State has done much better in men CC, Villanova better in women CC while on the track Florida, LSU, FSU and Texas AM are killing Oregon on regular basis

Hell if I think about it university of West Virginia is close to Oregon women team performances at NCAA CC and track lately(they get top 10 in both for the past years). And that`s a team that doesn`t sponsor men, have a very limited budget, only 2-3 coaches on staff and uniforms that Oregon prolly wore 10 years ago...

People, keep in mind, Oregon is the place where ALL Americans top 5 NCAA recruit themselves at times....(read interviews with student athletes about how they contacted the program)

So why is Vin such a great coach/ organizer??? for the resources they have Oregon does EXTREMELY average as a team