Wales-Dinan out from Harvard at end of month

Great. I hope they make the results of the investigation public at some point.

The tale of how a bunch of entitled whiners got their coach fired.

Idiots like you who have no clue should keep your mouth shut. Everyone's "go-to answer" regarding Ivy League students when they have nothing to say and no ammunition is that they are "entitled whiners". Recruited athletes are far from entitled you moron. They worked hard in the classroom and on the track to get there. Daddy didn't buy them their fast times on the track or in the field to get them in. So shut up and go troll somewhere else.

The full Flotrack video revealed a coach that needs to find another line of work, not involving young women,

Wow! If true, good luck finding a well qualified replacement. They'll probably have to hire a women - which there's nothing wrong with and probably the right call here. But even the well-qualified women aren't going to want to touch that dumpster fire with a pole vault. There's such a relatively limited number of them that they can name their price & situation...which won't be at Harvard. Jason's probably going to have to take over coaching the women in the mean time while mentoring the kid they hire for their first full time position. Maybe that pole vault volunteer coach? From what I've observed of the program, this is likely the right move...but what a tough situation for everyone involved. Good luck to them!

Kitchen Thoughts wrote:

Shut up wrote:

Idiots like you who have no clue should keep your mouth shut. Everyone's "go-to answer" regarding Ivy League students when they have nothing to say and no ammunition is that they are "entitled whiners". Recruited athletes are far from entitled you moron. They worked hard in the classroom and on the track to get there. Daddy didn't buy them their fast times on the track or in the field to get them in. So shut up and go troll somewhere else.

Found the Harvard runner. Way to get your coach fired, have fun running for your glorified club squad of Harvard old.

Seriously you are an idiot. And no I have nothing to do with the team. But I did run Division 1 many years ago at a non-Ivy league school and if the coach did all of the things they are reporting he did, I guarenteed our entire team probably would have quit too. It has nothing to do with not wanting to work hard. It's borderline abuse.

Ok, Mrs Wales-dinan thanks for chiming in.

Kitchen Thoughts wrote:

Found the Harvard runner. Way to get your coach fired, have fun running for your glorified club squad of Harvard old.

Don't have to look very far.

Sorry, No Harvard runner here, Kitchen Thoughts, However, I am someone who has a clue and experience with Ivy athletes, which of course as is obvious, you don't.

cowboybob wrote:

http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/track/coaches/Henry_Phelan?view=bio

Don't have to look very far.

Would be the best hire they could make, which means they won't do it.

Crimea River wrote:

The full Flotrack video revealed a coach that needs to find another line of work, not involving young women,

+1

Shut up wrote:

Sorry, No Harvard runner here, Kitchen Thoughts, However, I am someone who has a clue and experience with Ivy athletes, which of course as is obvious, you don't.

Haha maybe I do, maybe I don't, but thanks for responding to my post with both of your handles on here. Seriously, every Harvard thread is like this. I can't tell if it's one kid from the team posting with 5 different handles or the whole team working together to smear their program. Congrats on getting your coach fired.

msshole wrote:

cowboybob wrote:http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/track/coaches/Henry_Phelan?view=bio

Don't have to look very far.

Would be the best hire they could make, which means they won't do it.

Phelan would be a brilliant choice, dude is a legend, but they won't pick him.

PWD should not be given the courtesy of "stepping down." He should be fired so he never gets another coaching job. Now he'll just continue to fall upward, as he has his whole career. Next thing we know he'll be Metcalf's replacement at UW.

Sarestsky should be fired, too, but it looks like he's survived.

Thought patterns like this are why Letsrun has a bad reputation. Based on the full flotrack video and on the consistentcy of the comments from the women's team, WD needed to go.

"Phelan would be a brilliant choice, dude is a legend, but they won't pick him."

Truth.

Great guy, brilliant coach, stable home life. I hope he gets the job.

ephing an eph wrote:

PWD should not be given the courtesy of "stepping down." He should be fired so he never gets another coaching job. Now he'll just continue to fall upward, as he has his whole career. Next thing we know he'll be Metcalf's replacement at UW.

Sarestsky should be fired, too, but it looks like he's survived.

While I didn't like the video, let me play devils advocate.

So a guy who took the program to unprecedented heights should never coach again? This is a guy who was so good at Williams that the top girls on the team quit and took a 'semester abroad' so they could run unattached for him when he went to Duke.

He's engaged to a former athlete? So what. One of the best coaches in the land - Mark Wetmore - is currently living with one and co-coaching with one as well and the age gap between Wetmore and Burroughs is what 30 years? PWD and his fiance are within a decade of each other.

"But everyone quit the team you say." I certainly wouldn't want to have that type of attrition on a team but maybe it's what's needed to truly achieve. One can't deny that the pre-med flameout rate at an ivy is incredibly high by design.

He's a perv. Once a perv, always a perv. Typically, coaches that have relationships w/ student-athletes don't do it once then stop. They keep doing it. The athletes on the team deserve a coach who isn't trying to have sex with them.

Also, from the article, the investigation found a lot of bad things. As admitted publicly by the AD: UPDATE:

The Harvard Director of Athletics Robert Scalise wrote the following letter to The Crimson that was published on June 14th:

To the Editor:

A recent op-ed raised a number of concerns about the track and cross country teams and asked “the administration to intervene to ensure that all student-athletes are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.” On behalf of Harvard Athletics, I want to state unequivocally that our first priority is the health and well-being of our students. As noted in The Crimson’s previous reporting, the administration launched an extensive investigation earlier this year into concerns raised about this team. That process has now concluded, and it revealed a number of areas that must be addressed. These include concerns regarding nutritional support, training, and team culture. The Athletics Department is currently in the process of implementing the recommendations resulting from the investigation and is committed to making visible and meaningful progress.

The thing with the video is he knew he was being videotaped - like he had no idea what he was doing would be viewed as inappropriate. The gal falling into his arms after a repeat while he shoos the others along. That combined with knowing he's now close with a former athlete just gives a bad impression. No one is saying it's illegal or hasn't been done before but if I was a parent sending my daughter away to be on her own for the first time with all the pressures of college life would I want someone like that coaching and influencing her. Probably not.

If the costs to reach those heights are too severe than yes he shouldn't coach again. Allegations of physical, mental, emotional harm are difficult to sum up as all just rich kids "whining." Plus these athletes are at Harvard for gosh sakes - a lot of them have worked hard to get there and D1 running isn't a piece of cake either. And the volunteer coach - really gets nothing out of posting that other than alienating herself from the school.

If the investigation is kept private which I'm guessing it will be we'll probably never know and it probably is somewhere in the middle. But just seems like another case of too much smoke not to have some fire.