Jack Daniels coaching at Wells College--WTF

I thought he was coaching D-2 in North Carolina?!

Dude moves around more than nomads.

Wells is located on one of the finger lakes in NY. Maybe it is really scenic up there, and Jack just wants to live there for a while. Or maybe he wants to take a poor team and see if he can turn them around.

awesome, look for Wells to dominate whatever it is Wells is in.

Brevard College didn't um...pay that well from what I heard.

His daughter (or grand-daughter? I forget) is attending college in NY so he decided to make the move with her...

Those lucky b**tards at Wells.

Its called a golden parachute, padding the retirement income, remaining in the ivory tower, whatever. He could coach some HS for free, but why if can pull a fat check (or any check) by coaching at Wells. Probably gets access for his family to all the athletic facilities, if this place has any, and other perks associated with being an ivory tower type place.

Their best guy is really running 6 min miles, geez? Any slightly above average HSer could run at this place.

Of course maybe he is planning on landing some recruits, who knows.

He probably likes the finger lakes, he did spend time at Cortland remember

If I remember correctly, Wells had been all female and only became coed very recently (the last decade or so). While I'd still expect the team to be somewhat faster, it isn't particularly easy to build a team out of nothing. It will be interesting to see how much of an effect Jack Daniels has in that regard.

wells is in aurora ny middle of the finger lakes nice place right on the lake maybe a half hour from ithaca best known for mckenzie childs not running. it was all women, its a hard sell with all the sunys around and hobart,ithaca...prob a good spot to chill for a while

In his mind, Daniels doesn't need to be coaching the best in the world and it's not about the money. At this point it's about the pleasure of coaching, so as long as he's coaching some dedicated runners he won't care if they're not running 25 minutes for 8k.

Straight Jack wrote:

In his mind, Daniels doesn't need to be coaching the best in the world and it's not about the money. At this point it's about the pleasure of coaching, so as long as he's coaching some dedicated runners he won't care if they're not running 25 minutes for 8k.

Very true. Wells College is tiny.. about 600 undergrads, less than 200 men, and no T&F team. JD was attracted for other reasons.

I've seen a few of older coaches have a great time taking over below average D2 and D3 teams as a kind of retirement gig. Most of the guys will never take it all that seriously but they show up to workouts, you can tell them not to party too hard over the weekend, they hang around the office and you can tell them all kinds of stories from back in the day, you bring your grandkids to the meets, etc. Every 5 years or so you'll get that one guy who came to the school for other reasons but has decent talent and a good work ethic so you can watch him greatly improve over 4 years, maybe even qualify for nationals. A lot more of these programs than you might guess are used as mutually beneficial leisure positions. The college wants another coed sport that takes minimal funds and they want a body to oversee it. You as the old man want a little project to take up the weekends and a few hours a day. The runners want a coach who isn't too gung-ho about running and won't get on them for partying too much. From the LetsRun perspective it's all "lol those guys aren't even breaking 30" but the runners, the coach, and the school really don't care because running isn't their life.

this^

is pathetic^

agreed... jack warner classic example. great man/coach. consider yourself lucky if one of these people crosses your path.

Jack is coaching at Wells College simply because he loves coaching. Don't read so much into it. The guy just loves the act of coaching, and never seeks out big-time gigs because of all the politics that surround these positions. More power to him, and the lucky squad at Wells College!

asfdlkjdflak wrote:

Their best guy barely broke 30 on a consistent basis...for the 8k.

http://www.wells-express.com/sports/mxc/2013-14/releases/2013032104d51h

Why?

To be fair, the guy was probably a 30min 5K guy in HS. Look at the development curve.

from what i heard he never came across as being interested in coaching when he was at brevard. seemed kind of disconnected. if you're looking for the easiest way to do your job you should just retire.