Matt Centrowitz named director of XC/track & field at Manhattan College

I went on a recruiting trip at American in the late 00s. Multiple athletes spoke of 'coach' yelling at them and people quitting. My high school coach told me Centro would make me cry.

I ended up at another school that regularly competes against American and he didn't enter enough runners to score at regionals for cross multiple times.

KT needs to space these posts out. When there's a sudden influx of posters pointing out personal issues with the same person, it typically means it is one poster posting under multiple handles.

If you space them out more it makes it appear as if it is multiple posters with the same experience. You'll figure it out.

I’m an alum from the heyday era. I know a couple of the other people posting. None of them are Kevin. He was far from the only person to run for centrowitz who ended up hating him. Most of the rest of us either had healthier egos so we didn’t quit after one year, or we weren’t as good and didn’t have the same scholarship opportunities at other schools.

Hope he hires some good assistants at Manhattan to actually coach the team

wg8r9eugifj wrote:

I went on a recruiting trip at American in the late 00s. Multiple athletes spoke of 'coach' yelling at them and people quitting. My high school coach told me Centro would make me cry.

I ended up at another school that regularly competes against American and he didn't enter enough runners to score at regionals for cross multiple times.

Failing to enter scoring teams on the men’s and women’s teams was a deliberate plan because he did not want to be embarrassed by how the team performed. From 2008-2016, there was only a handful of times that either team entered a scoring roster.

One of his assistants at Manhatten is a person he coached to the world championships - I am sure she appreciated his coaching methods. As for regionals - why send a whole team if they will not qualify, just send the individuals that will do well.

Eagle Fan wrote:

One of his assistants at Manhatten is a person he coached to the world championships - I am sure she appreciated his coaching methods. As for regionals - why send a whole team if they will not qualify, just send the individuals that will do well.

Let’s extend that logic then, why send anyone to regionals if they will not qualify? Why send a team (or individuals) to conference if they won’t win?

Matt’s refusal to send athletes to meets just because he didn’t want them to embarrass him does not help to inspire confidence in the athletes, nor does it signal to recruits that they will receive many opportunitues to compete against top level competition.

A cross country team is a mix of runners. A few track 10k a few 5k/milers and some 800/milers All season people run 8k. Why beat up a whole team with a 10k right before indoors. Just send those 10k runners to get experience and a chance to qualify that year or the next.

Eagle Fan wrote:

A cross country team is a mix of runners. A few track 10k a few 5k/milers and some 800/milers All season people run 8k. Why beat up a whole team with a 10k right before indoors. Just send those 10k runners to get experience and a chance to qualify that year or the next.

So only 10k runners can go to regionals? Given the fact that the top performing athletes for AU at regionals were usually 1500/5k runners, it hardly makes sense for AU to limit their regionals roster to solely 10k runners.

The indoor season starts in earnest in January. Is it your contention that a month and a half is insufficient time to recover for indoors? It’s not like the whole team is going to regionals, only those that have earned the chance by placing in the top 7 of the team.

wg8r9eugifj wrote:

I went on a recruiting trip at American in the late 00s. Multiple athletes spoke of 'coach' yelling at them and people quitting. My high school coach told me Centro would make me cry.

So not only are you a weak minded loser but your HS knew you were a weak minded loser.

I am only giving my theory. I am not going to second guess the head coach who brought multiple teams to NCAA cross country. I am certain that he had sound reasoning

Eagle Fan wrote:

I am only giving my theory. I am not going to second guess the head coach who brought multiple teams to NCAA cross country. I am certain that he had sound reasoning

Do you want to second guess the coach that failed to win conference for the last 9 years of his tenure after 3 years of qualifying for NCAA’s? After 2007 XC, the team was just as likely, if not more likely, to finish 4-6th place at conference than in the top 3.

I ran for a period of time at AU in the 00's after being recruited of high school. As far as coaching style, I think people are fairly naive if they went to AU thinking their experience was going to be rainbows and butterflies. He had/has the reputation of being a hard coach, and that's just something you had to deal with. His biological kids practiced with us occasionally, and he was harder on them then he was on the team.

I was an am always of the belief that if you can survive his style, you'll be a great runner. Better than if you were to go to 95% of the other schools out there. Does he yell at you? Does sometimes go Bobby Knight on you? Absolutely. However, the worst things I remember, and that ultimately caused me to transfer, were the incidents and actions outside of the track. More than once did I have pre-race meetings with him and I could smell the Jack Daniels on his breath from 5 yards away. More than once he verbally attacked MY PARENTS. He recruited/attracted unbelievable talent and with rare exception all of the runners in his program were outstanding individuals. However, you had to live running, or else you weren't going survive. He always used to say about individuals who didn't have that commitment "They aren't a bad person, they just aren't a runner."

Food for thought.

Eagle Fan wrote:

I am certain that he had sound reasoning

Sound reasoning? Centro? Lol

Matt put in a lot of work and commitment to set American record at 5000. He can’t fathom people being on a team and not putting in the effort to succeed. To him it makes no sense to be in a sport and not be fully committed to that sport. Those who were committed thrived. Those who were weak couldn’t hack it and I am sure the correlation applies to people’s lot in life as the careers. Some get great careers and promotions. Others blame their mean boss

Eagle Fan wrote:

Matt put in a lot of work and commitment to set American record at 5000. He can’t fathom people being on a team and not putting in the effort to succeed. To him it makes no sense to be in a sport and not be fully committed to that sport. Those who were committed thrived. Those who were weak couldn’t hack it and I am sure the correlation applies to people’s lot in life as the careers. Some get great careers and promotions. Others blame their mean boss

It is possible to have accountability and high standards without demeaning and demoralizing people . Matt deserves blame for the poor performance of the team at the end of his AU tenure. It’s his job to recruit, retain and improve athletes. A real leader takes accountability for their mistakes and actions and Matt very seldomly did that.

Let’s look at Matt’s resume over about 20 years as a men’s coach at AU. In xc he won a number of patriot league titles in the first half of his time there - a conference hardly distinguished for running. The second half of his career there they were never better than about fourth. He took the team to nationals three times, finishing just about DFL once. No individual all Americans that I can recall. In track he had three all Americans, and no champions. In 20 years. People aren’t seriously suggesting he’s a top 100 coach in America right? Any podunk college can produce a couple all Americans over that time span. The running talent at Manhattan should be commensurate with his coaching talent.

ICoachYouRun wrote:

https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13034273/i-coach-you-run

This article is crazy. I'm pretty sure that I would be fired from my job for acting like that. Considering that he was being followed by a reporter, I'm assuming that this is a toned down version of Centro. I'm not surprised that there were mass transfers out of American.