Opinions of mick Byrne?

Watch your micro aggressions, bro.

buckey buckey wrote:

Unbelievably over-rated. Should've stayed at Iona with 12 scholarships for 12 foreigners and no real conference meet (just NCAA focus).

I believe this is a make or break year for him. Another year like last year he will be out. Top kids are very fickle. They only want to go to recent top programs.

I like his brother David better. Stop Making Sense was great.

From what I hear, it's not really his fault. He's gotten some top recruits that didn't pan out, but it was mostly on the kids. Some top recruits showed up injured, or got injured and lost motivation to really be the best. I know as a coach you take some responsibility for that, but some kids can't be fixed.

Malachy is back (he ran last night at UMinn.) so UW should go 1,2 in big 10 and probably win the team title again. Should be enough to keep the job for now. However, that team appears to have little depth. One injury could sink that ship.

This "another bad year and Byrne will get fired" schtick is absurd. The Wisconsin Athletic Department has a long, long leash for non-revenue sports performance. Look up Bobbie Kelsey or Pete Waite. It will take two or three more down years before the seat even gets warm.

This is a good senior class in Wisconsin for boys with Gessner-Newcomb-Wagner and Byrne needs to get a minimum of two of them. Wagner has already committed.

Mick knows running and training.

He has an old school pseudo tough guy attitude that can rub people the wrong way. But if you want to show up everyday and train hard, you'll get a long with him just fine.

He gets quite a bit of hate on these boards, but its hard to argue with his track record.

According to his bio on the Wisconsin website, he led Iona to 4 podium finishes in his last 5 years there. Then during his first 5 years at Wisconsin he also had 4 podium finishes including a national title.

this is what he's done in the last 5 years at nationals

2011 - 1st

2012 - 2nd

2013 - 9th

2014 - 10th

2015 - DNQ

What's more likely: that Mick became a worse coach these last 3 years, or that he hit a temporary rough patch? This happens to a lot of programs.

Oklahoma State has finished 3rd, 9th and 18th in the 3 years since their 2012 title.

Colorado finished 7th, 12th, 6th, and 15th in the 4 years after they won their 2006 title.

Iowakidscanrun wrote:

Malachy is back (he ran last night at UMinn.) so UW should go 1,2 in big 10 and probably win the team title again. Should be enough to keep the job for now. However, that team appears to have little depth. One injury could sink that ship.

Well, Malachy dropped out yesterday, injured...the ship is sunk.

Not "old school" at all.

Has as much talent as all but maybe 5 schools, but playing games with not racing and redshirting. Soft team.

Really unfortunate indeed. Incredibly talented Wisco's Sarah Disanza in 2014: was runnner-up in CC finals as a sophmore and then ran a 15:2X in indoors shortly thereafter. She defintely would've been a contender last year right up there with Molly and this year may have been a favorite.

I know absolutely nothing about Mick Byrne. Can anyone explain why people love/hate him? Does he have a certain philosophy that attracts some while turning off others? What's he all about?

I read a TON of Mick Byrne hate but haven't read any concrete reasons as to why he should step down or why people don't like him. Other than saying "he should coach distance and not be a director of the program" does anyone have any detailed reasons why he should be replaced or any specific knocks on his style of coaching/training philosophy? Just saying someone stinks and saying that his team hasn't performed doesn't explain why.

The number of "mick byrne needs to be fired" posts coupled with the zero amount of reasoning behind any of those posts, convinced me that people are just dead set on hating him.

runwild7 wrote:

The number of "mick byrne needs to be fired" posts coupled with the zero amount of reasoning behind any of those posts, convinced me that people are just dead set on hating him.

Wrong, he has completely destroyed a track and cross country program since Nuttycombe retired. Great guy to get a drink with but wondering if he can run a complete program or if he needs a boss.

Former Badger wrote:

runwild7 wrote:

The number of "mick byrne needs to be fired" posts coupled with the zero amount of reasoning behind any of those posts, convinced me that people are just dead set on hating him.

Wrong, he has completely destroyed a track and cross country program since Nuttycombe retired. Great guy to get a drink with but wondering if he can run a complete program or if he needs a boss.

What is up with guys like you? Wisconsin, last time I checked, is not a pro team, it is a college team. It is not football or basketball, it is xc and track and field, minor sports. You are attacking a college coach who comes to work every day and tries to do the best he can. It is his livelihood you are attacking and you need to stop.

This kind of crap (attacking coaches in our sport) is not only uncalled for, it is dangerous. We don't need this. I have seen too many attacks, including the one on the Woman's coach at Florida State, the one on Willy Wood, just to name a few.

Get a life and talk about the pro sports all you want. Besides, who cares what you think anyway.

Mick Byrne is a very good person, cares about his athletes and instills quality of life lessons every day. Having known him since he ran in college, I see nothing but quality.

So, as I have stated. Cease and desist. If you don't know what that means, here is a wiki definition:

A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to halt purportedly illegal activity ("cease") and not take it up again later ("desist").

BE Watcher: to answer your Nova question.

Mike Kerrigan 4:17 in HS to sub 4

Tom Parlapiano 4:17 once I think in HS ,to 3:42.x sub 4 conversion

Malone ran 3:40 and 3:39 last year so, I think from 4:06 in HS that is improved as well? 3:56. high converted to for the mile?

Thanks, but I don't know know why you would list Malone. He was a 4:06 HSer.

I know a little about Parlapiano and I would be a little surprised he didn't run faster than 4:17 in HS. I have talked to his coach from Pius about him and he said he was very under trained but never lost. Also ran in small schools meets so never had anyone push him.

I do not know anything about Mike Kerrigan's high school accomplishments so I will assume you are correct about being the only 4:17 miler that broke 4.

Also forgot to mention that Parlapiano was a footlocker finalists. So I don't think he should count as a typical above average guy.