[quote]Beast of the Best wrote:
Just looking at our top Olympians, they are all former d1 runners with Nick Symmonds being the only exception. How many Olympians/national champs were/are coached by d2, d3, etc?
[quote]
You are referencing the difference in the caliber of athletes not the quality of coaches. There are loads of DI coaches who are good but there are just as many small coaches who are just as good if not better.
Superstar HS athletes most often go to DI schools, the ability of that coach to develop an athlete tells you a lot about how good of a coach he/she is. There are DI coaches who develop kids and there are ones that get by on talented kids. There are a lot of small school coaches who take average kids and turn them into pretty good kids on a regular basis, occasionally finding a kid who has the genetic attributes to become great and compete at a very elite level.
But to your point - Joe Vigil was a D2 coach who coached a load of athletes on the stage you referenced, many of them DI athletes who turned to Vigil after their college careers.