UCONN XC/Track

just because coach roy didnt suck you off after a 4 hour ride to campus, doesnt mean if you run distance you should stay away from uconn. if you were a 430 guy, which i assume you are, give or take a few seconds, than he has no reason to waste time on a guy who might or might not score at big east, when he can get 2-3 430 guys every year who dont whine about little things. some turn out to be good and others don't have the drive to make it to the next level. as stated earlier there isnt enough room on the roster for everybody, just a fact of life, so there is no need to stack it full of mediocre distance runners.

i know many guys who like yourself didnt get recruited by coach roy with what i assume to be similar times. these guys walked on the team and under coach roy have improved greatly. this guy i know, for example, was a standard 430(mile)/935(2mile) guy in hs, nothing special, but turned into a 410(mile)/824(3k) guy and many times a big east scorer, by just doing what he was told. now those times aren't winning national meets, but i can assure you that many people would be happy with that progression. so if the point of running in college is to improve than i can assure you that uconn is a place that you can go to get the job done.

and i end this with a quote from a recent conversation i had with a former teammate "you will run fast under coach roy as long as you aren't a vagina"

first off--coach roy is a dick--no matter who you are

after talking to him you will think that uconn's program is on par w/colorado or wisconsin

i went to another college in ct i have noticed after watching them for 15 years that i could probably count on one hand the number of guys that made it through 4 years running there--most fry after a couple of years--

i believe he takes a sprint coach's approach to distance running and has an obnoxious personality to boot

if you have any talent, try providence--same neck of the woods, in an actual city and they have a coach that has a clue

personally, i love vagina

I graduated from UCONN thirty years ago so I won't talk from personal athletes. Over the years I've sent four athletes there, three had partial scholarships. None were distance runners.

Two stuck it out the full four years with Coach Roy and although it wasn't a dayly love-in - they both came away better people.

Coach Roy won't hold your hand or kiss your ass so if you are looking for that go elsewhere.

UConn is a great school for many reasons - the biggest

drawback being that if you love vibrant cities, you are out of luck.

I also knew Travis Landreth and he liked it there. They had some great team dynamics going on at the time.

Bottom line - if you pick a school because of the track program that is usually a big mistake. You might not picture it but you could have a career ending problem and now what do you do if you're not in the right school.

Go to the school you want to. Again, UConn is a great school.

But if you really want to run and you have a thin skin, or if you are injury prone don't go there.

totally disagree.

Whether or not you like Roy, he is not the type of coach whos athletes are fried.

Sure, his system does not work for some people but i've seen 4:05 milers suck at Arkansas, 8:55 guys at stanford and those are abviously two of the premier programs in the country.

The point is, don't knock the program because you know someone who didn't pan out.

Regardless of the above, I can't remember a single athlete who burned out after a few years. Generally if an athlete doesn't cut it, thats right from the start and usually more to do with the athletes approach.

coach roy sucks. don\'t run for uconn. For what it\'s worth (gotta be worth something), I know several runners/coaches who hate the guy...and nobody who thinks otherwise.

I love coach roy.

hey "sheesh". he generally doesnt want to talk to 430 types? i had a 416 pr when i went to my visit... the guy is a total asshole.. i hinted if he could throw me some money.. nothing.. nice try though

As a UConn grad that ran on the woman's track team, I have no idea if Coach Roy is good bad or indifferent. But what I can say is UConn is one boring school. You're out in the middle of no-man's land and if you don't have a car it doesn't matter how fast or far you can run, you're still in the middle of nothing. The education is fine for a state school, but if you want a 1st class education go elsewhere. And while running is important, unless you get a job at a sporting goods store when you graduate, nobody is going to care about your college running career, they're going to care about where you went to school and what you learned.

so where did you end up going? I honestly do not believe you about your 4:16PR. sorry man.

I meant to say 4:16 for the 1500. Obviously, that warrants scholarship at a lot of places. I expected at least half-scholarship from a place like UCONN, which isn't even in the top-tier of the big east in xc. I mean, sure, Arkansas and Stanford I could see a 4:16 1500 runner getting only maybe a quarter scholarship, but UCONN should be shelling out at least half-scholarship for a runner of my caliber.

Hey BadMove, if i were a D1 coach and you came to my office I think I would have donkey-punched you.

I give the Uconn Coach credit for only ignoring you.

You should have at best left with a broken nose and half a finger cut off.

if you could hold that pace for a 5k you might get a partial from stanford.

4:16 for 1500 merits money from what school???

Please tell me that your tongue is firmly planted in your cheek because I'm kind of slow today.

bad move wrote:

I meant to say 4:16 for the 1500. Obviously, that warrants scholarship at a lot of places. I expected at least half-scholarship from a place like UCONN, which isn't even in the top-tier of the big east in xc. I mean, sure, Arkansas and Stanford I could see a 4:16 1500 runner getting only maybe a quarter scholarship, but UCONN should be shelling out at least half-scholarship for a runner of my caliber.

Bad move,

I was agreeing with you on most points here until you posted this. If a 4:16 can get you a half ride at UConn and ANY money anywhere else, I would have gone through school as a miler instead of a 400m runner. You must be joking! My ex went through high school with similar times to yours and SHE managed to get some money. You, I'm afraid, are out of luck. Hate to burst your bubble and hopefully no hard feelings.

Go to Rutgers instead. You will get a better education.

There was a big east indoor meet a week ago where the 5th place mile time was 4:38. If you have sub 4:15 mile speed you will very competitive in the big east. If somebody at Rutgers runs a 3:45 1500 this year it would be a cause for celebration!

Hey, Rutgesr, UCONN, and other big east schools give talented 4:30 high school milers a reason to continue running after high school.

There is virtually no news about Rutgers distance running. I would be curious to see how Rutgers distance runners fare in Big East competition.

Someone posted earlier about coach roy liking tough athletes. A few years ago when I became interested in colleges and was heavily recruited by uconn, I developed a stress fracture. When I went to the therapist to talk about it, the therapist said, oh well its a stress fracture, no big deal. You can take some time off, but when I was at UConn, the guys would just slap some ice on after the run. No big deal. Running through a stress fracture? I don't know the circumstances of when the runners would be running through a fracture, cause at the very end of a season it might make sense, but the trainer made it seem like it happened more often than that. I also managed to get in an arguement w/ him on a recruiting phone call. Yes, it had to do w/ scholarship, I had been offered 50% athletic and 50% academic, but rather than say politly that he needed a commmitment from me soon or he was going to give the money to someone else, he got pretty nasty about it. Not really a way to convince an athlete to come, especially since at the time UConn was my top school. That really turned me off. A friend of mine also told me he cut a low 14:00 5k guy because he didn't make the start of the season standard. Don't remember what the kid ran, but it was a pretty fast time. Being someone who has run close to 14:15, the year I did that, I was running slower than the kid ran for his time trial. If you've got a kid that's run fast in the past, and is running not a terrible time at the beginning of the season, keep him on the team. If that kid was anything like I am he would've dropped a ton of time. Basically you have to be at the top of your game all the time, which, as we know in track, thats not always the best result. If you are still interesed in uconn, choose it for the academics as they are very good. Coach roy sucks and I would not recommend anyone choose uconn because of its running program.

it was no stupid 1500 meters.. some idiot posted that

it was 1600 meters

i went to his office

he gave me 5 seconds..

416 aint amazing.. but for no money to be offered is just absurd...

uconn is absolute trash

What is your definition of a "big east indoor meet"? And sub 4:15 would be very competitive? Do you consider top 40 to be "very competitve"?

There's a big difference. 4:16 is ok to good for the 1600. 4:16 for a 1500 flat out stinks. (On Div 1 and most good D2 programs.)