Check out an article I wrote on the WCAP

not bad kid, good job, that was pretty well written. Not really even anything to knicky-knack you about, other than the "5-kilometer" line. Its technically "5000 meters" as 5 kilometers means it was on the road. Again, well done.

First the heading is wrong and misleading. U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program puts runners on fast track to citizenship. More than half of runners came in as resident and the other half came in through Mavni. Before wasting you time get the facts

- I salute you and ESPN for getting after this topic; however, in my mind this article lacked "balance" and should have been a series given the topics complexity. That said, understand that Lickety is the self-proclaimed WCAP Track & Field team's a"High Value Individulal (HVI) Target #1" on the BroJos message boards as the Army might say. I take pride in being a part of WCAP's 'deck of cards' sans the battelfield clean-up following the Iraq invasion. I've stated this a number of times: "WCAP is much more of a threat to the fragile US middle/long-distance post-collegiate runners than doping ever was or is!"

- You failed to challenge why the US Army insists on investing so much US government taxpayer and MWR funds to maintain this WCAP track & field stable when they publicly exclaim that they are in danger of being "broken" as an institution in the midst of their global requirements. An Army LTC's full-time job is coaching track? Probably one of the highest paid track & field coaches in the nation .... why are American taxpayers funding this job?

- You failed to describe the WCAPers "flash-to-bang" from NCAA-boot camp-to-Citizenship-WCAP without serving in the Army's operating forces & on American taxpayer/college-student dime.

- You did not challenge the Army on their recruiting of NCAA blue-chippers in time for OTs or WCs. Furthermore, you did not address WCAPs UNREALISTIC standards that prevent above-average/talented soldiers serving in the operating forces from developing into national or world class athletes. As I've noted before, only 1 x West Point school record-holder could qualify for this program. I'll grant their are a few exceptions: Kibet, Maiyo. I would define as above average collegiate runners that figured out how to work their way into WCAP, but they are significant exceptions. In other words, WCAP isn't designed for "real" soldiers ... you have to be National/World Class before you enlist.

- You failed to address the additional income that WCAPers receive from sponsors and prize money ... an opportunity not afforded to other Soldiers. Furthermore, you did not cover the taxpayer bill for the WCAPers to participate in Diamond League & other events.

- You failed to challenge why WCAP used taxpayer money to move Soldiers to Portland so LTC Dan "the Scam" Browne could train them from his home versus an Army base which would reduce operating costs.

- You failed to address whether their enlistment commitment is extended based upon their time in WCAP versus the "real" Army.

- You failed to acknowledge the potential impact of the Secretary of Defense's pending policy decision on this fast-track immigration LOOPHOLE!

- You failed to address why WCAP contributes to making a "better Army."

Hey, Lickety Split, you have some sh!tty reading comprehension. Don't worry, my wife says that is America's #1 educational flaw.

Here answers one of your questions, I'll let you figure out which bullet point it addresses -

“I’ve witnessed them training fellow soldiers and was immediately impressed by their ability to make meaningful and lasting connections that strengthen a trainee’s physical and mental resiliency. WCAP athletes expose soldiers to mental skill training that leads to consistently higher levels of performance,†said Army spokesman Scott Malcolm

- Laughing at the example ... a soldier that's neither served in the operating forces nor in the Middle East or Afghanistan training other soldiers on combat resilience.

- You sucker .... that comment was a Army cop-out comment to dodge the fact that OK7272 DID successfully discerned: that all these Kenyans do is train everyday & minimal additional duties ... other than teaching some stupid class to "check-the-block."

leave it to lickety(my balls) to drag down yet another thread. Thanks and bye bye.

Well written article, young 'un.

A) Ignore this anonymous Likety guy. He's got this weird stalker hard on for the US Army.

B) You bungled several facts that you could have easily confirmed by interviewing athletes (tours of duty, who coaches WCAP etc.)

But it was good to see you report on the soldiers' actual non-running duties and their green card statuses prior to US military service.

Well done.

- Love it ... ignore Lickety, but reinforce the constructive criticism previously posted.

- "non-running duties" ... another sucker!

That article was pretty thin. Zero comment from the athletes you are discussing. Perspective and quotes from non-WCAP athletes are pulled from other sources. You don't actually have the correct information regarding the actual (and controversial) coach of the WCAP runners. Information regarding the athletes split with Dan Browne, explanation of group funding from the Army and Nike and some insight about how these men actually serve in our armed forces while also spending time for training camps in their native Kenya would all enhance your article.
Also, make sure someone edits your material - '5 kilometers' is not an IAAF/Olympic distance, you confuse site vs sight, etc

I thought it was a pretty good introduction to the WCAP for someone who doesn't follow the sport closely. Maybe a little less detail than I would have liked but overall it was Ok.

I don't have anything negative to say about the WCAP, but I just wonder about what will happen in the long term if Kenyan-born immigrants keep dominating US national teams.

Your article is misleading....

"That was until the Army’s World Class Athlete Program started offering expedited citizenship for permanent residents after they completed basic training in 2009."

WCAP has nothing to do with "expedited citizenship".


Anyone can gain citizenship through military service.

MANVI was the program which offered expedited citizenship.

MANVI has been under review.


Please don't confuse WCAP with MANVI and military service in general.


Alan

- Stop the bureaucratic misdirection.

- The author had it right ... WCAP targets green-card NCAA Kenyans that either meet or come close to their self-imposed Rift Valley-like time standards to enlist into the Army with promises of just-in-time American citizenship prior to Olympic Trials and World Championships as well as F/T Training.

- I bet the WCAP Kenyans couldn't even tell you what the MAVNI acronym meant.

I'm beginning to think Lickety is someone close to Andy Bayer or some other "close but not quite there yet" American who missed out on a worlds spot due to the WCAP guys. I would hope some average guy wouldn't harbor this level of resentment about a bunch of people they don't even know.

If you think that former Kenyans are going to ruin US distance running, look at the landscape before and after Bernard Lagat became an American. That is just one guy, but upping the level of competition is good for everyone.

Crazy Talk

Decent article but no mention of Scott Simmons? I thought he was their main coach.

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FitzyXC wrote:

I'm beginning to think Lickety is someone close to Andy Bayer or some other "close but not quite there yet" American who missed out on a worlds spot due to the WCAP guys. I would hope some average guy wouldn't harbor this level of resentment about a bunch of people they don't even know.

If you think that former Kenyans are going to ruin US distance running, look at the landscape before and after Bernard Lagat became an American. That is just one guy, but upping the level of competition is good for everyone.

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- What if I was Dan Browne & my school record of 28:27.64 back in 1997 might at best land me a trip to the BS Army 10-miler today? I guess that's acceptable that today's Dan Browne wouldn't be offered a spot to develop into a WCAPer. Some Morale program that the Army's got going for it ....

- That said, If you can't beat them, join them! And that's what Dan 'Scam' certainly did until the Kenyans turned on him ... he probably made them use military courtesiies like Yes Sir or No Sir & they rebelled ... you know, weird stuff like that.

Hey y’all, it’s the guy who wrote the article again chiming in on all your comments.

My approach to online comments as a writer is like how George Gerswhin locked the doors after his concerts and kept his audiences in because he didn’t care if he loved or hated it but he had to hear your reaction. A lot of times when I’m writing, I don’t get much reaction, so I’m just excited to write something that got a reaction.

My response to this is a mix of 90% sheer excitement and gratitude for your agreements and disagreements, about 8% looking at some of your comments with amusement bc you weren’t in my shoes when I was trying to write the article, and 2% annoyance at those guys who chimes in about a single mistake or two. Try writing 2500 words and see if you don’t come up with a mistake or two, jerk.

Also, I'm the guy who sits at the end of the sports bar and bothers the bartender to put on track and field when no one else in the bar cares, and when I talk to fellow bar tenders about how big of a deal Obiri beating Amaya was in the 5K, it's hard to get them excited, so it's kind of cool to be schooled by people who know more than me. If you have complaints about my lack of knowledge in the sport, don't think of me as the foremost expert on it. All I know is that I somehow convinced those guys to pay me to write an article about it and I did the best that I could with it. I don't even know if I'll ever write another track article again. It's not a particularly popular sport and I don't know if ESPN has a window outside of the world championships when a sport is relevant enough to bring in a freelancer.

On the question of using other people's quotes, that kind of goes in the 8% of my total reaction of people who don't understand the constraints I'm under: There are deadlines, there are interview requests that are declined, I almost didn't want to bother Andy Bayer and Ben True because I didn't want to bother them after they might have been devastated having lost a slot to their championships (Bayer was a good sport); there's also the fact that I'm a freelancer I'm not going to book a flight to London and ESPN wouldn't pay my way on a track story and unless you go to London, USATF isn't going to take time out of their busiest time of the year to accommodate a single reporter, there are people I interviewed (Stephen Haas, Coach Wetmore of Colorado) who were cut out of the final article

On the question of not interviewing the athletes: I wasn't given access. To be entirely honest (and I'm going to take some heat for that, so I don't know why I'm admitting it out loud and opening it up for criticism), I'm not a big fan of athlete interviews (I'm not really a sports reporter, I'm mostly local, human interest and TV/film) they're very rote and athletes generally follow scripts more than any other interview subjects. It would have been even worse with army athletes because the military is very, very protective of their soldiers' speech.

Lickety Split, I actually think you're right, I wish I asked those questions, but the military is very restrictive. They initially didn't even want to talk to me at all and had extremely little patience for any journalism towards their program, it took a lot of persistence and convincing that it was in their interest to get their side of the story to get anywhere at all and even then their answers weren't particularly clear and barely had the resources to get me follow-up to my questions. Also, when I asked my questions to the coaches, there was a PR person on the line policing me.

Also, I'm not ashamed to say that hey I didn't know what questions to ask. I kind of wish I knew you and somehow got that advice before I wrote that article. I tried to learn as much as I could in the time I had and I tried quite a few methods of absorbing that information and consulting with people who knew.

I just think you're reporting on a story where there isn't one.

WCAP is a success story.


Alan