Ohio State University

Prior to this year, who was the only sub 30:00 10K guy? I thought Steve Crane ran 29"s in the 70's. I know as a freshman he ran 29's at the NCAA X-C champs, but that's not track! He was a former Aussie standout before going to OSU. He ran sub 14 for 5000 meters.

I would cast my lot for any coach that has to put up with Russ Rogers. If he were white, he would have been gone long long ago. Robert Gary has more scruples and honesty in his pinkie toe than Russ has in his whole body. Ohio State should fire him and hire Orin Richburg who just left Washington. Robert is the person they should get to coach the women (if in fact they want any success at all!!).

I disagree with the statement made about coaches in the MAC not getting runners excited about distance running. Runners at Eastern Michigan, Kent, Toledo, Akron, Ball State, and Miami etc are all very excited and by and large I would say that they largest margins of improvement from high school to college occur in the MAC. Of course, that is what you would expect, but how the MAC was even mentioned in the conversation escapes me, but then again, I'm just another high school coach.....

The OSU 10K record was set in the mid-70's by Robin Smith @ 29:58. This was kind of a joke, even with Robin, that a university that large, with some very outstanding individuals, did not have anyone break 30 for close to 25 years. Chris England finally broke the record by skipping the 29's and running a high 28 I believe (please correct me if I am wrong). Glas has now become the third. Orin Richburg would be a fantastic fit at OSU with his Kent State roots, etc., but Russ is going nowhere unless he breaks enough rules to give the athletic department a bad name. Anyone close to this guy can tell you what a slack job he does and how difficult he is to work with. The OSU team is definately on the rise. They will be solid this fall with Glas, Fischer, & White (NCAA qualifier '01)leading the way. Myers could be a hidden factor. He ran 4:02 indoor before suffering a major ankle sprain stepping on a slow outgoing runner in a 4X4. He is still an 800/1500 guy, but was hs state X-C champ so could be solid in X-C. He is so ultra competitive that a good X-C season would not surprise me.

I have to pipe in about Gary and Rogers and the reply about class. I was at the Big 10 meet at Indiana last year outdoors. The 5k had just ended and it's the last event before the 4 x 400. The OSU distance runners had really performed well at the conference- close to 45 pts. Anyway a kid in the 5k from Ohio State got beat right at the line to get 6th instead of 5th. I found out later that he was a walk-on who ha da huge PR on a very hot day. Gary is talking with this kids parents and Rogers jumps all in his ass. The parents are thrilled to death (big Buckeye fans!) and Rogers is really laying into Gary. You can tell Gary is just hoping he'll knock it off, but it goes on for like 2 minutes. I'm standing right behind them and Rogers says to gary, "What if all the areas on my team performed like your distance runners!". And with that Gary lost it and replied "then we'd be winning Conference championships by 80 points you crazy f**k," and immediately apologized to the kids parents for his bad language. Rogers walked away with his head between his ass. I bacame a Gary fan then

Witness, Your story brings very conflicting reactions. On one hand, anyone who has seen Russ operate would say "Yea, that's the way he operates. This sounds very familiar, and is typical behavior for Russ." On the other hand, I can't imagine Russ walking away without firing Gary on the spot. I have never seen him allow anyone to talk to him in that manner, regardless of how deserved it was. I do agree with you that witnessing that would elevate Gary in my eyes as well. I did hear a rumor that a women's coach was hired. I heard the rumor of who, but will wait for the official announcement to keep from spouting something false. I heard that Gary will be the official women's X-C coach this fall relinquishing duties in the spring or at least by next fall to the newly hired assistant. Hopefully the new hire will be given a chance and time to turn a sad situation around like Robert has with the men.

Is the new women's coach the Toledo head coach? There was a rumor on another message board that the Toledo coach was going to take the job. Is that true?

Andy, The 8 ball says "not at this time"! My sources say he never applied nor was contacted concerning this position. Maybe after this new hire is driven out of Columbus like so many previous? Hopefully it won't happen this way. If my sources are correct, this hire is a really good person, who will work hard, & do the right thing, beginning by working closely with Robert Gary to emulate the guys turnaround of the past few years.

Gary is Head for both men and women. He is supposed to be groomimng someone to take over women completely as soon as possible. Why didn't they just go get an already proven coach to take over right away?

As I posted earlier, Gary will serve as women's coach this fall only. The new hire will serve as an assistant, take over the women distance runners this spring and continue as head women's cross-country coach and women's track distance coach into the future. The coach has been hired, but I will not disclose it until the university announces it.

Is Matt Sparks the new coach or the old coach? It's been on OSU's site for a few days, but no announcement.

in yesterday's (7 august) boston globe "transactions" section of sports, ohio state named chad myers assistant cross country coach.

It has now become official that Chad Myers is the assistant distance coach at OSU under Robert Gary. The plan is: In the spring, Chad will take over the women and continue as Head Women's distance coach. Chad is a very conscientious hardworking person who most recently served as a volunteer assistant for Gary. He is an older brother of Rob Myers, an OSU standout (4:02 indoor & '00 big ten 1500 champ/'01 runner-up). Don't expect miricles as the women are very down right now, and I haven't heard of any recruiting being done this spring as Matt Sparks knew he was on the way out. OSU supporters, please give Chad & Robert a few years to recruit their own athletes and get them on their training schedule. Good luck to Chad and the program.

No recruiting being done because "Sparks Knew he was on the way out" give me a break, He tried everything he could to get good runners to come there. Lets face it, girls in Ohio do not want to run at Ohio State. I have a feeling you will see some good things from Coach Sparks in the near future.

If Sparks didn't recruit anyone to a last place team, then that is not a good job. It will take a great coach to make them great, but couldn't OSU not be 10th at the Big 10 meet? Is that asking a ton?

The point was not evaluating Matt Sparks ability to recruit. If you knew you were going to be dismissed from a position, would you knock yourself out recruiting to stock the shelves for another? I believe most would not. You are correct that Ohio women flee from OSU. Their recent trend for the women's program is to hire young MEN, with little to no experience. Ohio has a network of some of the top high school coaches in the nation. Most HS coaches do not want that for their athletes. Combined with lack of support in many vital areas (see my previous posts), this leaves the program doomed. As with any school that large in such a populated state, the women have had some outstanding individuals in the distances, but rarely a good team. Will Matt Sparks show good things somewhere else? Hopefully not. He has a family and owes them more than a $22,000 paycheck to play coach. These postions continue to go to inexperienced single people in most cases, or those dreaming like the hundred of others who think they are one good runner away from landing the big bucks job. Guess what? The new hire, although a good guy I hear, is yet another single young male. Will things change? I hope for him and the school, but it has to be uphill.

Where's Sparks going?? I hear hes a great recruiter and a good coach. But you cant expect to turn a program around in a year...especially if your athletes go drinking all the time....but thats just what I hear...

I believe the womens team will continue to struggle if they have in fact hired Myers. He is a nice guy and probably a very hard worker, but the name of the game right now is recruiting and he doesn't have any experience. Careful claiming people take these $25k jobs for purposes of "landing a big job", Gary went to Ohio State and seems to really enjoy coaching at his alma mater (maybe this is because he makes other monies from running?). I would venture to say that Russ was more an obstacle than low pay, but as far as high school teachers (coaches), most of the great ones make way more at the high school ranks than 25k. To be honest, I am surprised to hear that Gary agreed to coach the women?

ohio state has struggled for a long time, mostly due to their desire to be good in track and their hiring of people who don't seem to fit. the previous women's cc coach alienated many coaches throughout the state by badmouthing other state programs (and some of the ones in the Big 10 as well). he told one recruit that she shouldn't go to a MAC program because they slept 10 to a room and ate at McDonalds, while OSU flew to meets and did everything first class. normal people can see through that stuff knowing it not to be true and then become less interested in OSU.

Gary does use his guys for his own gain. He occasionally has some of "3rd tier" guys pace him one mile each on one of his tough training runs. They also do that for some of his track workouts. Apparently it's like trying to tell a dog to stop licking its butt - "they like it".