Fetzer to UVA as new Director of TNF and CC

factis wrote:This was called the best coach's opening in years

Well, can't be more than four years or so as UVA cannot really be thought of as on par with Wisconsin. The one difference is that here it was head coach rather than head XC coach.

Apparently Juli Benson of Air Force, (the former Juli Henner) was going to be the Director, but maybe now she is still in the running for the Distance Assistant? She ran at JMU, coached at Mason and G'town, so obvisouly she knows VA and the DC Metro area. If this happens does Jenny Simpson come to C'ville? That could turn C'ville into a smaller Portland, OR. Think about it, Alan Webb is already there, the Ragged Mountain Racing team is based in C'ville, and Donnie Cowart who runs for RMR could be a top 3 steepler at the trials. Having great places to train, an excellent running community, and a top of the line facility in the making, could make for a great situation!

I have known Brian for a good 8 years and while as a person I am not the fondest of him I have to admit he is capable of doing a very solid job there. He will definitely bring out the best of all the event groups there or find the right people to do so.

You think Fetzer is an affirmative action hire? Some young white guys actually do know what they're doing and do not get handed stuff on a slver platter because of the old boys network. Just because he's a young white guy does not mean that he knows nothing about coaching sprints and jumps.

Interesting that everyone is commenting on the impact on the Virginia program and no one has commented on the effect on the Harvard program. Track season just getting underway. The program lost Amy Gosztyla prior to xc season, and now the sprints and jumps coach is gone. The distance program was in total disarray over the xc season, and the distance team is coached by the head coach - who now has to find and train yet another assistant coach in a hurry. Some of the members of the T&F top 10 ranked recruiting class have got to be questioning their choice at this point, unless their sport really means nothing to them and they used it just as a springboard to gain entrance to the college.

Fetzer is a great hire for UVA. He can hire someone to follow Andrews around. Vigs big task at UVA was fundraising- I imagine that Brah convinced the AD he could raise some $.

Only odd item is they hired a single Brah amid the rumors we heard.

In all honesty Harvard is a complete joke within the Ivy League these days. They are where the top recruits go to disappear. XC was horrible for them with many top runners threatening to quit or collectively revolt. Harvard sucks and Fetzer was wise to get out of there before the parents combine forces. Ormen already wants out as do many, many others. Look back at the recruits they have gotten over the last three years and see what they are doing now.

True, What a crushing blow to that elite Harvard program. If Harvard has money buy out Littlepage.

Any idea of who might be UVA's next xc/800-10k coach?

Any one know where Fetzer went to high school?

Isn't Priscilla Bayley coaching distance at Harvard? She was pretty good, no?

This is a good hire. Finally somebody young somebody that is a decent coach is given a chance. His success will depends on what assistants he ll choose. Him changing places can be a good thing as hopefully he s seen and experienced do and dont`s.

Fetzer is from Johnstown, PA....Westmont Hilltop HS? Super great guy who will get it done at UVA.

Fetzer is a much more capable coach than vig. Congrats to uva for getting it right. Maybe they can get a decent xc program again. It was a sinking ship with vig.

Please...some of the posts on here are Fetzer him-self.

This is not a good hire. He competed athletes at Gardner Webb who had exhausted their elgibility.

Ahhh forget it, I could go on but what's the point. They deserve each other.

If UVA wants to crank it back up in CC they would do well to bring Brad Hunt back. He was bringing then in and providing a buffer between the kids and the neurotic tendencies of Vig.

hahahhahahh wrote:

Fetzer is a much more capable coach than vig. Congrats to uva for getting it right. Maybe they can get a decent xc program again. It was a sinking ship with vig.

*them in

As some have said already, this seems like a sensible hire of a capable administrator-and-recruiter in chief. From the Letsrun (distance) perspective, Fetzer himself will be less important than whomever he chooses as mid-d / distance assistant coach(es). That remains to be seen.

11 years, thank you. Everybody and their mother recruits distance runners, not every school cares about anything but distance, maybe why these sprint schools keep cleaning Oregon's clock, hell even the quackheads realize they need some actual athletes that require attention in coaching as opposed to hey go run 10 miles, let me know how it goes.