Terrence Mahon out at BAA - to return to California at end of 2017

Robert Johnson is a sad sad man.

Jonathon utah wrote:

Boston winters are not a good fit for marathoners considering the other group options out there...

Perhaps you are correct, or perhaps Joan Benoit Samuelson had it right. She still has 4 of the top 10 US times while training in the region. The extremely high concentration of New Englanders on the list of US citizens that have won the Boston Marathon can be discounted due to the fact that marathon racing was a northeast oddity in the early days.

(again, I am not a native of New England and would personally winter in a warmer climate)

Rojo

since Anna and Morgan U, has had nobody. Didnt recruit well, didnt keep them healthy, didnt have anyone who moved from college to in contention at the pro level...for 4 years. Would you have kept him if you were funding the team?

I second your suggestion of Just Call Me Jock, an excellent book which explains there was a LOT more to Jock Semple than one day in '67.

rojo wrote:

it's just like a real job! wrote:

I mean, the way the real world works is you get a job, and then you either put up results or you don't. If you do, you (generally) get to keep your job. If you don't, you (generally) don't get to keep your job. Both groups have had some one-off performances, but it is hard to call either a resounding success.

I'll start by saying I know nothing about the situation, but have you ever thought he might just want to live in Cali?

He's a great coach .

Who would want to live in Boston? Is shithole.

He was a great coach but why will any one chose Boston to live over California anyway. He has gone onto pasteurs new I guess. California better place to go for anyone upon there retirement. Having said that he could be moving onto a new stage of his career somewhere nicer, better weather and all that. It's not worth to get concerned over it.

Will his current group of athletes move with him?

He's just started coaching Andrew Butchart apparently, wonder if O'Hare, Sharp and Butchart will move there as well with him.

Who know's maybe they will move to. I went to Boston before and just felt like it was so uninteresting there. The fact that a place called Cheers is considered a big attraction proves that, when I think of Boston I think of Cheers. It is a show about absolutely nothing, like Citizen Cane

Terrance is an opportunist and I don't mean that in a bad way. So many "professional" coaches don't think they should get paid. He does. Some of these groups operating on minimal support are naive to think they can do much against the very professional Nike groups.

Terrance knows this. I guarantee a better set-up is already in place for him in California.

T-money the man wrote:

Terrance is an opportunist and I don't mean that in a bad way. So many "professional" coaches don't think they should get paid. He does. Some of these groups operating on minimal support are naive to think they can do much against the very professional Nike groups.

Terrance knows this. I guarantee a better set-up is already in place for him in California.

You nailed it.

The only question is whether or not the "development" athletes will be leaving as well. Pagano, Balouris, and Matthews all have a chance to be decent marathoners. Of course the middle distance athletes will follow him to California.

Mammoth has struggled badly since Terrence left. Andrew is a nice guy but sucks as a coach. Much better that he serve as an assistant to someone that knows the ropes.

Jonathon utah wrote:

not a good fit wrote:

NOT A GOOD FIT.

He coached Ryan Hall and Deena Drossin...

Boston winters are not a good fit for marathoners considering the other group options out there...

Did you read this thread?

No one said that Mahon could not coach the marathon. As a matter of fact, that is why the BAA hired him.

Deena and Ryan Hall never lived in Boston never ran for Adidas or the BAA.

The question is who did he coach in the marathon during his time with the BAA? chirp chirp chirp

So, back to Mammoth or somewhere else in Cali?

That would be a very sad day.

ma$$hole wrote:

You scared me. I thought Mike M had passed.

Love it -- haven't thought about Mike in 20yrs! Is he still around?

Just saying, you don't quit a job without another job.

If Mahon had a sweet gig in CA, that would have been part of the press release and BAA would have wished him well in his new endeavor.

It is very clear that BAA did not get the results that they wanted. For the money that the invested they got zero Olympians and zero WC team members. Not even close. I think a woman or two might have made world cross, but nothing else. And they dont even have a men's roster. How is that recruiting?

kicked to curb wrote:

It is very clear that BAA did not get the results that they wanted. For the money that the invested they got zero Olympians and zero WC team members. Not even close. I think a woman or two might have made world cross, but nothing else. And they dont even have a men's roster. How is that recruiting?

They had a man in the final of the World Championships last month and the semi-final of last year's Olympics.

No one has suggested one of the obvious reasons.......Terrence doesn't like the Boston winters and wants to leave. He has been living in the area for 4 years and wants to move on/back to California, where he is happiest. I can't blame him for that one bit.

I am sure that there are other reasons/challenges, particularly with recruiting. There is a limited budget. Athletes do not receive a lot of money to run for the BAA. The costs of living in Boston are high and the athletes spend a lot of time traveling to other areas, often Mammoth because of the elevation options. Moving back to California eliminates many 6-7 hour cross-country flights. Athletes can pretty much live anywhere - but the few dollars they make will go a long way outside of New England.

I do not know what the BAA's opinion is of Terrence's performance/results as the coach or the athletes' appearances at BAA events. The HP runners did appear at numerous local events over the years and Terrence helped most of his athletes improve. Chris O'Haire - did really well internationally. Dan Winn ran well in 2016/17 as well. He competed well against an extremely diverse 1500m field at the Olympic trials. Emily Lipari has really come around well this year and Sarah Pagano has continued to thrive both on the track and roads. Others have battled injuries and in a sport like this, that is to be expected. If you have 12-15 people in a training group who are fresh out of college, realistically, half are going to rise up well and the other half will battle any number of issues, including injuries or having peaked as a runner.

Regardless of what the BAA's opinion is of Terrence, who should they expect to replace him and what should the expectations be for the athletes' performance?? The guy has coached Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor to American records. Morgan Uceny was the top miler in the world at one point and Anna Willard was right with her as the top steeplechaser and mid-distance runner. You can't question his prior results, skill-set, knowledge, and abilities. The results he got out of the BAA's HP team are very good and I wonder which of the current HP team will be moving with him to California. The names above I absolutely expect to be gone by the end of the year. Why would they stay? Also, I am sure Terrence has something figured out in California and it will get announced once he has made the move. Say, March, 2018.

I could see the BAA HP team going into a significant decline. It needs a coach who can match the caliber of Terrence and can recruit against a growing number of competitor clubs. For instance, Nike has several training groups out in Oregon/California. There is also Hansons, NAZ, Zap, NY/NJ, Wetmore's crew in Colorado. Just locally, Tracksmith now has a group, the Heartbreakers signed a deal for an elite club with Nike, Saucony opened up a club to be coached by Tim Broe, New Balance has its elite crew with Mark Coogan as well as Battle Road, WMDP, Ocean State just signed with a sponsor. There are numerous clubs out there both nationally and locally, and there is only so much talent to go around.

Does he coach Emma bates? Emma raced a low key 10k in California this weekend. She might be making the move back as well.

What is going on with Coogan and the New balance group. Seems like he has some good athletes (Abby is not the old Abby yet), but the top NB athletes seem to be staying away from Boston and being coached by other coaches?