The mystery that is Martin Smith

I'm glad somebody finally mentioned that they had fun running for Smith. I know I did. My team worked hard, were disciplined, but we also had a hell of a lot of fun. I looked forward to practice every day.

For me the bottom line was, however much I wanted to be a good runner, he would meet that commitment and raise me one. It was important to me, but even more important to him.

Whenever I run into an old teammate, it takes about 2 minutes until we're telling Martin Smith stories. They are great memories. I for one am GLAD I had a take-no-prisoners, funny-as-hell, demanding-as-hell, and competitive-as-hell coach, rather than some Mr. Positive guy telling me I was great all the time and that it was okay that I just screwed up the workout.

I went to the running camp Eugene had in the summer of '01. I'd say because of Smith it was one of the most informative, yet fun times I've ever had in my life. His passion for the sport is obvious and especially in the way he spoke of the steeple. The first time we spoke we talked about "Endurance", the Geb movie. I told him I wasn't a huge fan, that it wasn't terribly exciting, but he just lashed out on me for not appreciating the cultural side of the movie (which I did, but again, didn't find it stimulating). I found that funny cuz he did have a somewhat humorous tone. Anyways, i admired his "take no shit" attitude and his seriousness he brought to the sport and I do have to say I've never seen such loyalty to a coach than I have seen in Eugene(except for the loyalty me and my teammates have for our own of course).

I've seen children cry and throw a fit because they didn't get what they wanted. They are very competitive.

It's amazing what educated people will allow for when they can defines one actions as being competitive.

George Bush is competitive. He competes for oil at a relatively small cost. But hey, he's gotta win!

Ft. Collins,

I understand your analogy about the Wyoming runners, but that does not apply at Oregon. Martin Smith is a great coach and does have the results to prove it. His noticeable distance results mostly came from his years at Wisconsin where his cross country teams won several Big 10 meets in a row and a couple of national championships. He is a big part of the Wisconsin distance running tradition. Results show that Martin is one of the better coaches in NCAA track and cross country history. Under the current circumstances, what he’s done at Oregon is equally impressive, but maybe just not as noticeable. The UO track and field team became firmly established among the nation’s top 10 within just a couple of years after Martin became head coach.

The problem is with the distance and cross country teams. The UO cross country team was revitalized when Martin arrived and the UO cross country team was re-established as a national power. Then, the program suddenly began to go downhill. There were only 7 runners on last year’s cross country team. The current situation is that the cross country team will not return any Footlocker Finalists on next year’s team.

My perception is that the distance program has been severely undermined by the Nike Oregon Project. To paraphrase one poster, “it’s like they poisoned the well and then complained about not having water to drink.” Salazar has been counseling Oregon distance runners not to go to Oregon as long as Martin Smith is the coach and then complaining about the demise of the UO distance program. No one seems to know why. Perhaps Salazar feared that the coddled NOP runners would not get the proper care and nursing at UO. After all, Martin is definitely a hard-ass. No other coach could have weathered that storm as well as Martin.

Just one more thing! I know the team or Martin never made excuses about not making it to nationals last year, but I personally know that several members of the team were sick at the Regional meet and did not perform close to their capabilities.

Martin isn't a mystery, he's a jerk. Here's a story: once, I was at the Walnut Street Track (in Madison, before it was called McClimon, after the coach who died and left Martin king, I mean Coach) doing 1200m repeats. I was averaging 3:15 for 4 when Martin showed up, at about 7 PM with a group of "his" runners- some collegiate, some post-collegiate. And he tried to kick me off the track. "I can't let ALL the joggers on the track," he said. I wouldn't leave- told him to call the cops because I still had two 1200s to do. Then he had his runners start doing 1200s and he kept saying he wanted me off the track. Finally I did my last 1200 and had to run around his runners- and I went 3:07. And he still called me a "jogger." His guys were struggling that day to run 3:15-3:25. We could have worked together, but his attitude was that he would only let "his" runners work together. A few years later he finally started to respect my running enough to talk with me, but I never forgot his attempts to impede me. I have other stories, too- enough that when added to other good Madison runners' stories add up to a pretty ugly picture.

How many of "his" runners have competed well after college? I can't think of any.

me and my watch wrote:

Martin isn't a mystery, he's a jerk. Here's a story: once, I was at the Walnut Street Track (in Madison, before it was called McClimon, after the coach who died and left Martin king, I mean Coach) doing 1200m repeats. I was averaging 3:15 for 4 when Martin showed up, .

BULLSHIT. You are a jogger-boy.

results??? wrote:

Stanford, Arkansas, wisconsin and Colorado are the only teams that can compare to the number of all-americans distance runners that Oregon has had in the last 6 years.

I can think of a few more that in **the last 6 years** have had more all-ameican distance runners:

Michigan - Sully, Wisnewski, Brannen, Willis, Mortimer....

Indiana - Chorny, Jefferson1, Jefferson2, Haas, Powers -- between those five guys, it has to be something like 13 or 14 all-american certificates.

Ohio State - Connor, Myers, Fisher, Olinger - add em up[ and it has to be 10+ A-A's.

Who exactly have they had at Oregon in the last 6 years?

Are you Steve Lacy, Jim Hanson, or Max Harn?

The story about the 1200's would not be Jim Hanson or Steve Lacy.

Cardinallllllli wrote:

Who exactly have they had at Oregon in the last 6 years?

Logdens Holts Andrus Hartman Fien. That is Just off the top of my head.

Just between Logden and Hartman. They have more all-american certs than most other programs. I believe that each of those mentioned were all-americans in atleast two different events/sports.

me and my watch wrote:

How many of "his" runners have competed well after college? I can't think of any.

not my fault you can't think.

Dobert, Fry Mennon etc.

Smith coaches college athletes. The poster that made mention of his other athletes. Does not know what he is talking about. Most of Smith's athletes are not coached by him after finishing college. So don't blame him if the peole he is not coaching don't succeed as much as you want them to.

Uforabin wrote:

My perception is that the distance program has been severely undermined by the Nike Oregon Project. To paraphrase one poster, “it’s like they poisoned the well and then complained about not having water to drink.” Salazar has been counseling Oregon distance runners not to go to Oregon as long as Martin Smith is the coach and then complaining about the demise of the UO distance program. No one seems to know why. Perhaps Salazar feared that the coddled NOP runners would not get the proper care and nursing at UO. After all, Martin is definitely a hard-ass. No other coach could have weathered that storm as well as Martin.

I appreciate that you say that this is your perception of the situation, as it is entirely untrue. Alberto has NOT "been counseling runners not to go to Oregon...".

In the last few years there have been a reasonable number of elite Oregon HS distance runners:

Ian Dobson - from Klamath Union and absolutely no connection to Alberto - went to Stanford.

Jacob Gomez - from KU and absolutely no connection to Alberto - Stanford.

Lauren Jesperson - from KU and absolutely no connection to Alberto - Stanford.

Alec Wall - from Grant HS, worked closely with Alberto for three years - OREGON.

Mike McGrath - from Lincoln HS, worked closely with Alberto for two years - OREGON.

Joaquin Chapa - Grant HS, worked closely with Alberto for three years - Stanford, although his very difficult decision came down to Oregon and Stanford.

Annaliese Chapa - Grant and Central Catholic HS, worked with Alberto for three years - chose Oregon in the fall when Martin was still the coach!

Stuart Eagon - Beaverton HS, worked with Alberto for three years. Had been a lifelong Oregon fan, visited campus and decided to go to Wisconsin.

Ryan Vail - Centennial HS, worked with Alberto for one winter, visited Oregon and chose Oklahoma State.

Galen Rupp - Central Catholic, worked with Alberto for four years, loved Michigan and chose to continue to work with Alberto.

So, three kids Alberto worked with (McGrath, Wall, A. Chapa) CHOSE Oregon during the Martin Smith era. One other (J. Chapa) almost chose Oregon. Others he had no connection to at all (Jesperson, Dobson, Gomez) did NOT choose Oregon. (For those of you unfamiliar with Oregon's geography, Klamath Falls is about a 5-6 hour drive from Portland; the KU kids never trained with the Portland area kids.)

Feel free to continue to spout the theory that Al told kids not to go to Oregon, but it is a fact that, despite his differences with Martin, kids did not choose or reject Oregon bacause of him. (His public differences with Martin did not surface until recently, so please don't say that kids didn't choose Oregon because they read in the paper that Al didn't like Martin...)

The fact is that some kids chose Oregon. Others - some connected to Alberto and some not - chose to go elsewhere.

You don't have to be a former runner OR even an outstanding runner with fantastic pr's to be a great coach. The same goes for any sport. Joe Vigil was never a runner and he is one heck of a distance coach. He studies running and applies the exercise science aspect to his training scheme. Not too shabby for someone who was never a runner.

I've been kicked off the track by Smith. I've been let on the track, too, after I went and talked to the coaches and got their OK.

You may have hated being kicked off the track (even though you weren't actually), but I bet his guys appreciated a coach caring that much about them.

By the way, there were times during the Smith era (and since) that if you'd been running on the track when the campus police drove by, you may well have been escorted off the track. The university is stricter than the coaches, from what I've seen.

don't forget that before Martin left for greener pastures in Oregon, he was such a prick as me and my watch indicated about letting anyone other than his runners use the UWs track. while Martin and his runners should have first options for use and those not affiliated work around their schedules, Martin was such a good community guy, we started locking up the track except for those times where he and his runners were on it. now granted, various keys began to get passed around by those outside of Martin's program, or one could jump the fence to use it when no one was around, he was just such a selfish bastard who made no effort to cooperate with anyone.I have lived in 4 other college towns with major universities that had strong XC/track programs and under Martin, UW was the only one that kept out the public...or at least tried to. thank goodness for Jerry and him not being such a selfish bastard.there are many stories too I could contribute about Martin and his antics experienced or witnessed first hand as well as heard through the grapevine...and it most definitely doesn't paint a pretty picture of the man...more like a deranged dictator in his kingdom.

And after Martin left UW, the university was still locking up the track. Whether the coaches wanted them to or not. What's your point?

the university may have been locking, but Jerry has been super cool about allowing runners to use it not affiliated with UW. Also, I frequently use the track during the week and am often on it during the day when the maintenence/groundskeeping or other university employees, including the police have been there in the post Martin era and have not been asked to leave the track once. i wave to the guys cutting the soccer field, or whatever else they are doing, and get on with my workout. None of them, including the campus police who have seen me, have asked me to leave. I have been there when Ed and/or Jerry showed up with their runners and have had no problems. Each time I just asked them what they needed me to do or if they wanted me to leave and they said just to finish what I was doing. The only time I know of in the post Martin era that anyone was asked to leave the track was when someone was doing a track workout and one of his buddies came by on a bicycle and started riding around the track on the bike talking to his friend. Apparently Jerry showed up and politely asked the guy on the bike not to do that. No harm, he obliged, the guy finished his workout and once again, Jerry proved you can be a good coach with acting like a deranged lunatic as his predecessor was known to do.

idealist wrote:

And after Martin left UW, the university was still locking up the track. Whether the coaches wanted them to or not. What's your point?

"You don't have to be a former runner OR even an outstanding runner with fantastic pr's to be a great coach."

So your saying he sucked. That's all I asked. I know he has coaching success. I just wondered if he could relate to good runners, as a good runner. Now I know.

So are you implying he held a grudge against talented runners because he was not one himself?

It does bring up a good point. I've always felt that busting ass in the weight room had minute correllation to aerobic efficience in distance running. I think Martin pushed it mainly because it was hard. But I can thoroughly attest that there was an inverse relationship between my best max bench press and my current 5000 time.

Although I will say in cross country there is a psychological benefit over an entire team running against others who have not gone through near the effort in training as we did under Smith. You would not allow yourself to be beaten by others who didn't get out of the weight room until 7:30 every night.