Wiess signs with Slippery Rock!!!

Honestly, the surprise to me is not that he turned down Penn State or Tennessee, but that he didn't end up at Lock Haven. They've done a great job of snagging many of the best AA kids in PA the last few years.For those of you who are avid PSAC followers, take a look -- depth and strength in the conference is starting to return. It's not what it once was many years ago, but it's much better than what it has been in recent years.Kudo's to Pap and The Rock on the fine grab....Hoovis

Wow... wrote:

Jeff Wiess, Pa AA state champ, Foot Locker National meet qualifier, and who will be competing in the Penn Relays coming up here soon just signed with Slippery Rock University, turning down places like tenn, penn state....What do you think of this?

Anyone have any insight as to why this kid chose Slippery Rock?

I've been to Penn State and to Slippery Rock, and well...I'm curious to know what the deciding factor(s) were.

wow i can't believe it

from what people said like his whole family graduated from slippery rock. that might have had a hand in something.

Is the kid related to Kelly Weiss, who ran for the Rock from 1996-2000? I'm guessing it may be her little bro.

Hoovis

Wow is he screwed everyone at sru sucks and weiss will just suck as much as him wow that will be a bunch of sucky runners........weiss sucks have fun running 18 minutes for 5k's jeff weiss because you suck

Look its was his choice i think we should respect it even if we disagree and think he s wasting his talent. Remeber though he had no one to run with in Highschool and that worked out for him, so don t write him off just yet

Another good runner wasting his talent at a DII school. Tons of good PA runners go to the PSAC and they don't get even close to meeting their potential...why?...because they can.

Conversely, plenty of PA kids go to DI schools and run solid and meet their potential...why?...because they HAVE TO. It's a raised bar in DI.

Too bad. This Wiess kid will be running 14:50 against Ship kids and thinking he is the man when he could be running 14:00 against DI talent. Why would anyone want to be a big fish in a little pond?

What a bunch of crap.

yeah right.

Hoovis,

He is her little brother. I'm praying this isn't a mistake. Good luck to this kid and the Rock.

my question is why would a footlocker finalist even be considering psu?

At the current moment...Slippery Rock Univ. may not have any Outstanding distance runners...but of the 10 returning members of the cc team 8 of them have qualified for outdoor PSAC championships. The young guys are running really well on the team right now, and the upperclass runners are also improving. Most of the current runners are slightly better than average HS runners who just work hard to get where they are. Jeff is a great runner, and he will have a solid pack of runners around him. Not sure if he will be beaten but he will nonetheless be challenged and pushed.

He is related to Kelly...brother sister duo.

I'd say the only positive is that Jeff is coming from a place with even less talent...there is literally no one pushing him in his high school. At least at SRU he will have people who take it seriously.

Granted, he could have found much better schools and people to train with.

I'm sure he will do just fine at SRU, most of the guys running there now are faster than most of the lazy posters on this message board. At least they are out there running while you guys are sitting on your fat asses making fun of where a guy decides to go to college. Go run!

Hey now, I wrote my post after doing a 40 minute morning run at 5:45 AM. I teach all day, and I'll run another hour this afternoon.

Just because we're not running at the time we post, doesn't mean we don't train. After all of my running is said and done, there are still at least 21 hours left in the day.

Good point, coop. I've seen this criticism too many times (you should be out running, not posting) - isn't it possible to do both in your life?! :)

Must be a mistake. Good luck Weiss

Jeff is my brother and yes I graduated from SRU and so did our other brother Dan. I have told Jeff on more occassions than I can count that I will support his decision no matter where he goes to school and that I did not want his decision to be influenced by where I chose to run at. It doesn't suprise me however that Jeff is attracted to a smaller school. There is nothing about a big DI school other than running that was attractive to Jeff. My advice to him was to pick the best school for him all the way around because I know that he will run the fastest wherever the best fit is for him socially, academically, distance from home, location of campus, coach, teammates, etc. Jeff is self driven and very motivated and is used to pushing himself already. SRU does run at some big meets. When I was a student athlete there a large portion of our season was mixed competition-Duke, Penn Relays, Notre Dame, NC State. He will run against DI competition but live and function on a daily basis on a campus that is more suited to his personality. I think that Jeff is very brave to make a good decision for himself, knowing that he would receive criticism. Unhappy people turn into useless and burnt out runners. If he is good enough to last past college he will get there from the place that he is the happiest at. He will recieve a quality education in PE at SRU and since running probably won't pay his bills, he will come out with a useful degree. If I had to do it all again, though, I would go back to SRU. I had a wonderful experience there all the way around. Jeff knows this and I'm sure that his familiarity with the coach, area, and campus has contributed to his decision.