Central Michigan

If I I had to guess, 75% of the people posting on here are:

A. Coaches from around the area who are salty they because they were too slow to run in college and are upset that their athletes are also to slow to run at the D1 level.

B. Club runners at CMU that couldn't make the team.

C. Former and current athletes at CMU.

CMU is a good institution academically and athletically. I think we all can agree that it needs a leadership change to coach the current talent they have on the team.

Well by using my name I thought I made that pretty clear. I am the girls coach at Shepherd so I guess that makes be fall into your A category. I am not salty because I didn't run in college but I am a proud CMU grad, and I have a current girl running 2:11/4:58/10:41 so no not too slow for D1.

I am curious if a leadership change or more support from the University is needed. I love CMU and want to see it succeed and would want to have our top athletes go there and be close to home.

GanderOfMichigan wrote:

If I I had to guess, 75% of the people posting on here are:

A. Coaches from around the area who are salty they because they were too slow to run in college and are upset that their athletes are also to slow to run at the D1 level.

B. Club runners at CMU that couldn't make the team.

C. Former and current athletes at CMU.

CMU is a good institution academically and athletically. I think we all can agree that it needs a leadership change to coach the current talent they have on the team.

I post under my actually name, so there shouldn't be much mystery. Anyways, I agree 100% with your final paragraph. Great institution and I am proud to be an alum. The state of the track/XC programs is pathetic right now though. No way around it.

GanderOfMichigan wrote:

If I I had to guess, 75% of the people posting on here are:

A. Coaches from around the area who are salty they because they were too slow to run in college and are upset that their athletes are also to slow to run at the D1 level.

B. Club runners at CMU that couldn't make the team.

C. Former and current athletes at CMU.

CMU is a good institution academically and athletically. I think we all can agree that it needs a leadership change to coach the current talent they have on the team.

There was a time that us club runners respected and looked up to the varsity runners. Now we laugh at their race results and sometimes beat them with little training #Cantstoptheclub

The issue CMU has is not recruiting. They net an All-American, State Champion, D1 School Record holder at least every year, if not more.

Then honestly they must be lost on proper training methods if they can't produce decent results. I'm in Oakland County and my high school coach in Birmingham was better. Honestly, how does that work? What does the CMU coaching position pay?

Plain as pudding wrote:

The issue CMU has is not recruiting. They net an All-American, State Champion, D1 School Record holder at least every year, if not more.

they did redshirt plenty of talent on the men's side. and they will still be fifth next year. they recruited terribly under guthrie.

So who are the candidates? What do people think it will take to be successful? Some people on here are acting like they are in the know.

Bump

I have no idea who they are interviewing besides the current staff of Guthrie, but as for what they need to do to be successful, I believe it's staying healthy and having a change in the hammering of workouts. They are overworked and run into the ground. If they had a roster of 30+, there would be no issues because at least 7 would be healthy enough to do well. The years Central, at least for the men and in XC, have done well are the years they had a larger roster size. 2011, 2012, 2013 they had much more bodies than 2014, 2015, and 2016. I'm not sure that issues are going to be resolved if they hire in house, but maybe this is all due to the upper administration's lack of care for the program. New AD hired, maybe the culture will change. In my time at Central, I saw Dave Heeke maybe twice and we had hosted multiple conference championships. How can a team thrive if the administration doesn't give a hoot.

Basically, the way you fix this team in general is a top down approach. They have the athletes they need to succeed, but do they have the workouts and training, coaches, and upper administration that will allow them to? A lot of changes are coming so we'll see very soon if the ship turns around.

too much hammering and no rest, equals stale beat up runners with no chance to improve

Excellent post.

As a native Michigander I can tell you this is 100% true. When it comes to MAC schools Central is just alright, better than EMU but worse than WMU. Mt. Pleasant is in fact a cesspool, with nothing to do besides binge drinking and going to the 18+ casino. I do know some intelligent people that go there, only reason being they got a sh#*ton of academic scholarship.

I don't know about the women, but the men's team has picked up some top-tier recruits the past couple years, one being the D1 Michigan state champ in cross and another 15:10 guy. Hopefully they can actually deliver with their talent and do better than bottom half of the MAC. It will be interesting to see what happens this season, watch out for Bowling Green and Miami on the guys side as they are returning practically everyone this season.

Can we stop with calling places cesspools? Outside of Traverse City, Ann Arbor and parts of Grand Rapids I think we could call any town in Michigan a cesspool.

CoachHammel wrote:

Well by using my name I thought I made that pretty clear. I am the girls coach at Shepherd so I guess that makes be fall into your A category. I am not salty because I didn't run in college but I am a proud CMU grad, and I have a current girl running 2:11/4:58/10:41 so no not too slow for D1.

I am curious if a leadership change or more support from the University is needed. I love CMU and want to see it succeed and would want to have our top athletes go there and be close to home.

I agree dude, Amber Gall is a beast

I don't even know where to begin with a phrase like this...

Shenaniganz wrote:

He could of went to ...

D1 State Champ?

MACtion wrote:

As a native Michigander I can tell you this is 100% true. When it comes to MAC schools Central is just alright, better than EMU but worse than WMU. Mt. Pleasant is in fact a cesspool, with nothing to do besides binge drinking and going to the 18+ casino. I do know some intelligent people that go there, only reason being they got a sh#*ton of academic scholarship.

I don't know about the women, but the men's team has picked up some top-tier recruits the past couple years, one being the D1 Michigan state champ in cross and another 15:10 guy. Hopefully they can actually deliver with their talent and do better than bottom half of the MAC. It will be interesting to see what happens this season, watch out for Bowling Green and Miami on the guys side as they are returning practically everyone this season.

They meant Michigan HS Division 1 state champ, in Michigan there are 4 divisions for HS. It was a pretty good recruiting win for CMU to get him. However track did not go that great for him and he wasn't really on a ton of peoples radars to win D1 in XC before it happened. Could be a total stud or a flash in the pan.

Yes, he was indeed the dark horse pick to win D1 xc last fall. He had been running in the mid-high 15's until he broke through with a 15:20 at his county championship, less than a month prior to the state meet. Looks like he ended the season with a 15:17 and a 12th place finish at Footlocker Midwest, on a very tough course.

Although he probably had less than an ideal senior season of track, I would certainly not discount his ability. He ran 9:08 as a junior for 5th place at a loaded invitational. In fact, the guy who got 2nd in that same race at 9:07 is also at CMU. The 9:07 guy redshirted this past fall, but it will be interesting to see how they perform in an increasingly competitive MAC, and I wish them the best of luck. Just not enough luck to beat my MAC squad ;)