Irish Division 1 Cross Country Coaches

Ireland's best export is its people. Probably a reason why the population is so low

There are many good Irish runners as well.

The Irish population is rather low because th Brits took the 6 most populated and productive counties for themselves, calling it Northern Ireland. Most of Ireland is barely inhabitable due to landscape limitations (mainly agririan difficulties).

When you see ignorance in it's raw unadulterated state like this, it's actually quite amusing. Prince, I'd advise that you stick to dragging your knuckles slowly on the ground or pulling the legs off of spiders and leave the geopolitics to the grown-ups. Most of us who actually live in Ireland have left that old Anglophobic rubbish behind years ago.

In other words, grow up.

I don't understand why you have to slam someone, and then not offer up any facts. I think the statement is clear, and based on truth.

The UK kept a mere 17% of the land, but 31% of the population, and a SIGNIFICANT portion of commerce, and pretty much the only Coal resources at the time.

From one Irishman to another, relax.

Appreciate the political discussion, but I was looking more into insights about the high percentage of top collegiate coaches being Irish. Specifically the #3, #4, #13 and #14 programs in the country right now.

Mick Byrne. Never ran for him, but good guy, good coach.

Fair enough, point taken, I'll relax - I don't often rise to this sort of shite on web boards - and I don't want to get into a political discussion either but stuff like, "Most of Ireland is barely inhabitable due to landscape limitations (mainly agririan difficulties.", clearly marks this man out as a plonker.

Enough.

Agreed. My best guess is that he has never seen that side of the Atlantic. It's interesting to look at the other top 10 schools and see Iona there with them. I would think that the success is in the approach. I've never run for an Irish coach but my father is from Westport and he always got us to play soccer hard for him.

don't forget about the women - michelle byrne as at ETSU

As a native of one of those 6 counties the Brits stole I have to add that Fermanagh, Tyrone and half of Derry are barely inhabitable and not very productive so they don't count.

;-)

Prince is still a plonker BTW.

A couple more good Irish coaches...Peter McColgan, husband of Liz and Gary Lough husband of Paula Radcliffe.

They may have stolen 6 counties but we are stealin their wimmin!

You may also notice that those coaches often rely upon foreign talent to succeed. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with it, but rather pointing out their international ties make it easier to recruit foreign(mostly Irish) kids. Also, in Marcus' case he wasn't a bad runner himself at Villanova so that can't hurt in recruiting.

Look at their rosters now. Villanova has 2 Canadians, 1 Kenyan, 1 Irishman. Providence has 3 Canadians, 5 New Zealanders, and 6 Irish b/t the men and women(Treacy coaches both). Arkansas has 3 South Africans, 1 Kenyan, 1 Australian, and Ahmed was born in Somalia. Iona has 3 Irish, 2 Kenyan, 1 Canadian, and 1 Brazilian-born.

I'm not trying to say that recruiting foreign runners is bad, because i don't belive it is. I'm just trying to answer the question "why are they so successful?"

So they recruit from little countries like Ireland and New Zealand as opposed to Colorado and Stanford who get the best runners from a huge country like the USA....explain to me again why this is the reason for their success?

In short, Question Dude, they are successful because they have little competition recruiting kids from those other countries(except probably Canada). While there are maybe 10 schools that recruit Irish and New Zeland kids regularly, there are 310 schools recruiting American kids. Yes, Stanford and Colorado get the best of them, and that is why they are so good. But there is a reason why Providence, Arkansas, Villanova, and Iona are regularly in the top 10 at NCAA nationals.

Maybe the US has a DEEPER talent pool than those small countries. However, those small countries put out many high calibre junior runners. These XC teams do not need huge rosters of talent. They need 5 guys to score, so they give full rides to the top foreigners from "small" countries.

On a national level, consider if only 2-3 universities recruited track kids from California. All the other universities had the other 49 states to fight over. I'd be willing to bet that the 2-3 universities recruiting all the Californians would do pretty well.

I'll give you a better answer.

Ireland has a population of 4 million people, there are 10 US schools recruiting Irish HS kids, plus there's recruiting from Irish and British schools. So in reality the 10 US schools that are dividing up that small talent pool are not getting a whole hell of a lot of an advantage by recruiting kids in Ireland.

Here's my theory. When a kid in Ireland gets recruited by a US school it puts them under a hell of a lot of pressure to succeed. Leaving your family and friends for 4 years to study and train half a world away it a lot for an 18 year old and the prospect of failure and returning home in shame tail between legs motivates these kids more than it would motivate the average suburban American kid who can just transfer if it doesn't work out at Stanford, or Wisconsin or Michigan.

Irish coaches who went through the exact same thing as teenagers understand this pressure and use it to their advantage. I don't think Irish kids coming here are any more talented than American kids, they just take a more professional workman like attitude to their training because they know they only get one shot and they know that failure means going home to the dole. The average white middle class American teenager (XC recruit) doesn't have that type of pressure on their shoulders.

Importer wrote:

Ireland's best export is its people. Probably a reason why the population is so low

Ireland's population density is higher than that of the USA.

Explain to me why without their foreign athletes their programs would not be on the radar screen.

Going home to the dole. Well that might not be so bad. My daughter is attending UCC this year and the total cost for the year is 840 Euro and that includes books. Her flat is across the street from the school on College Rd is 200 Euro per mo. and that was considerd a lot.