UCONN XC/Track

george watts at tennessee is a great middle/long distance coach. he is completely overlooked as one of america's best.

Why are we wasting 82 posts on what amounts to a pretty mediocre school for distance running.

Because it's UCONN!!!

What is so great about UCONN. A girl down the road from me is going to UCONN because she didn't have either the grades or SATs to go to Rutgers.

Yeah, and a girl down the road from me got into Harvard after she didnt have the grades or SAT's to get into Southwest Louisiana Tech State A&M Community College...You are taking one isolated incident and using that to make a blanket statement about a highly competitive academic university, UConn is almost certainly the best state school in New England which i'm sure is a determining factor in the decisions of athletes who decide to go there. Of course UConn is not on an Ivy League level academically, but here is a news flash, neither are 99% of the runners who enter collegiate track. Therefore, the academic reputation of UConn along with it's track success are most likely very attractive to prospective athletes.

I understand your argument, but I don't think that most solid high school distance guys go around looking for scholarship money in colleges. There isn't much to be had. I know I certainly didn't. I also didn't expect to be "stroked" by anyone, and I certainly was not good enough to warrant college visits a la "Hoop Dreams" or anything like that.

However, when I went to UConn as a 9:30 2 miler, which doesn't suck, Coach Roy told me to fill out a questionaire and wait for him. I filled it out, even though I had already sent him one and I told him I did. I waited for about a half and hour, then he walked by and went to a meeting or something. I left and took a campus tour. When I came back, he didn't even shake my hand when I said hello, acted like he had never seen me before, asked me what my times were, nodded, and walked away. I asked his secretary if I could stick around and watch practice and she said if Coach Roy said it was ok.

It was the least professionally run office I have ever seen, by far. I don't expect him to roll out the red carpet- common courtesy is enough!

I am not condoning the way in which you were treated by Coach Roy, if he didnt believe you could run there he could have been straight with you from the start and saved you a lot of time and effort. However, a 9:30 two miler is nothing special to a program like UConn who is looking for athletes who can step in and make an immediate contribution at the Big East level. From what i have been told by those who have run at UConn or have been recruited by the school, Coach Roy requires a tape of performances during the recruiting process, that is of course if he hasn't seen you compete already. No offer is made upfront, there is an evaluation period that ensues before any offer to join the team is extended. Roy only recruits certain athletes for a reason, he takes only those who he believes that he can work with and turn into immediate Big East scorers. From what you wrote, I am assuming that you had no prior contact with the coaching staff, you just walked in off the street. That is most likely the reason for your treatment, they are not going to pay much attention to someone whom they have not had any prior interest in. No high level track program is going to salivate over any distance runner not running national class times, UConn is no different

its not that he needs to give everyone who comes to visit him at his office a hand job, but he is just comes off like a prick who is in love with himself--he treats more people as sub human than otherwise--and there sure seems to be a pattern of this as we are seeing on these posts--so f you gotta get to know him and you wouldn't be tough enough bull crap--typical uconn arrogant frat boy ass licker response--first impressions are usually correct and have been confirmed

some little know tidbits about uconn's coach

roy digs up corpses and screws their bones

roy is abusive to puppies and kittens

roy is responsiable for 9/11

roy controlled the tsunami and laughed at all the people splashing around

roy was chairman of halliburton

roy likes to ride bicycles without seats

This post is actuall a very accurate representation of Uconn without being bias for or against Uconn. College Division I programs are much different than high school. Finding a college coach that you mesh with can be difficult.

There are many different coaching styles out there. Coach Roy has his and it works for some and not for others. The program has produced very talented runners and talented runners have left feeling unachieved. I know people who have left Uconn liking the program and others who hate it. When making a decision on a school consider all the things including the education, be sure to visit the school, and at worst case scenario transfer out if you do not think its working for you.

Every program, as can be seen,has its ups and downs. UConn is not Stanford. It isnt Villanova or Georgetown in distance, but it IS improving. You'll find no Kenyans or Irish recruits, but a bunch of young Northeast kids who want to work hard to PR. 5 of their top 6 are 19 or younger for cross country. Roy knows what he's doing. Hopefully in a couple years people will be singing a different tune towards UConn distance running. It's a great feeling knowing you can be the ones to build a future distance dynasty at a school rather than go to a top school that already has it built. You get to make your own trails.