It still makes mw laugh to think that certain Coaches build a reputation based on how well a cross country team does. From the time(May 15th lets say) College kids finish track till school resumes in the fall we are looking at a minimum of 3 months. In some cases Four months. I am curious as to why a reputation is built based on what a coach does for less than 1/2 od the build-up for a regional cross race and not the entire school year. Teams like William and Mary are loaded with talented kids yet have only qualified Matt Lane for the NCAA track Championships over the past 6 years. Michigan may make the NCAA cross meet most years but why are they only qualifying the super studs for the NCAA Track Meet. By prepaaring for cross country as the peak of the year we are missing the boat. Reputations should not be made in 10 weeks, they should be made in 10 months. By no means am i singleing out just these teams, many more fall into this catagory. It is just short sighted on the part of many to glorify short sighted progress.
10 months not 10 weeks
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Well, for William & Mary, we are very strong in distance but lacking a bit in jumps/hurdles/sprints. We didn't even win CAAs in track; I say play to your strength, if you are really good at sprints, track should be your season focus, if you're good at distance, peaking at cc time makes sense. Sure W&M has talented kids, but since Lane left our top guy finished 51st in the country, we're more of a depth team than a standout school.
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not every person that qualifies for nc's in a distance event in a former f.l. finalist, i think his point is a
little more emphasis should be put on track performances when evaluating a coach. basically you're saying you guys play the numbers game in the fall... get a bunch of guys hammering and see if you can get to nats. while he/she is suggesting some individualized plans to develop talent across the whole year would be a better way to go and show
superior coaching. -
Yeah, and the football team peaks for fall.
By some miracle, we still have 3 separate sports teams at most schools in which to be a distance runner. At least in theory, cross country is a separate sport. The fact that there?s crossover between scholarships and coaches is moot. If your school?s gonna fund a separate sport, it?s gotta perform in its own right.
Keep talking, and the AD?s will figure this out finally and cut out cross and indoor in their latest $ saving strategy. -
Of course, a good cross country team doesn't come about because of 10 weeks work - anymore than a good track performance comes about because of 10 weeks work. It takes years of pretty heavy training to make anything significant happen in either season.
Still, one point I will concede, many athletes do better away from their coach than under the coach's direction. You can see some coaches screw up athletes by the week. For every week with the coach, the athlete's ability drops.
