2019 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion

What are the major jobs left open?

Stanford Distance Squad wrote:

You don't get it wrote:

They didn't pay the previous DirOps $100K+ and made her an Assistand A.D. becuase of her hotel reservation skills.

Dude, leave it alone! You made your pitch for Jess Riden, and everyone is fine with your opinion. But don't keep embarrassing yourself by saying the Director of Ops position is more important than the actual Stanford coaching staff. I am a member of the team, and I say you are not even in the ball park with that opinion. You made your pitch for Riden. Now, let it rest!!

Still no distance coaches. The team is restless and many of us are ready to hit the portal. JJ has not produced like he said he would.

How long till Utah’s head coach gets the axe? His all in on distance has been a disaster.

Given that the Utes have made it to cross country nationals twice after the distance "all in" I would not call it a disaster -- especially since they did nothing of note as a team in either track or cross country before the distance emphasis. But if Kepler can't improve on his most recent efforts, I agree it's probably time for a change.

Wow twice! That’s coach if the year. If you go all in on distance as a p5 then at minimum you better make it to nationals every year.

How many teams have you taken to NCAAs? I’ll wait.

utefan wrote:

Given that the Utes have made it to cross country nationals twice after the distance "all in" I would not call it a disaster -- especially since they did nothing of note as a team in either track or cross country before the distance emphasis. But if Kepler can't improve on his most recent efforts, I agree it's probably time for a change.

Who said Utah is all in on distance? There are several athletes on the team that are on pretty big scholarships that do other events.

Cardinals wrote:

Still no distance coaches. The team is restless and many of us are ready to hit the portal. JJ has not produced like he said he would.

Just so no one is confused: The above post by "Cardinals" was not from a member of the Stanford team. Stanford is "The Cardinal"--that is, a color--and not "The Cardinals."

In addition, a Stanford student would have been more likely to say (correctly) "as he said he would" rather than "like he said he would."

Utah HC did let go of one of the more respected throws coaches in the country to go all in with Distance, essentially killing their somewhat successful throws program. They may have done well in XC, but what about Indoor and Outdoor Track? Do those not matter? Stupid move on the HC’s part.

While Utah does not devote all 18 scholarships to distance, it clearly has been their focus since they fired their throws coach in 2015 and hired a distance assistant, giving them 2 distance coaches (Kepler is a distance coach). They made it to XC nationals in 2015 and 2016, so it was looking like a moderately successful experiment, but have been backsliding since then. Stride Report has them at #25 this year, so maybe they're poised to recover. But if they want any continued success, they'll need to find a good recruiter to replace Wartenberger, as Kepler has struggled over the years to compete for heavily recruited athletes. Any guesses for who might be on their short list?

0 throws All Americans. 3 distance All Americans in the past 5 years (Mergaert, Murphy and Feeny). So I'm not sure the throws program was really something to crow about. Yes, they slipped from 11th to 12th in the PAC 12 as a result of the distance focus, but you have to squint to appreciate that distinction. I too would prefer that they were actually a track and field team, but I will take success in any form from that squad over the years of mediocrity that preceded the distance focus.

It’s obvious that the Utah head coach can’t manage a single gender distance program on his own. And with two distance assistance (yes operations/recruit coordinator helps) he still can’t manage to make it work. But hey somebodies got to be last place why not him.

So says the disgruntled ex employee.

Dude, I suck at writing but you are freaking stupid. Somebodies and distance assistance

If you have ever had a job, just be thankful and move on.

Now let’s get back to jobs.

Dum dum alert wrote:

Dude, I suck at writing but you are freaking stupid. Somebodies and distance assistance

If you have ever had a job, just be thankful and move on.

Now let’s get back to jobs.

It’s called phone autocorrected bud. Happens when you post quick and don’t reread. To er is to be human but to go all in on distance and fail is truly divine.

Just look and see who the former throws coach was at Utah. Obviously, and I do mean obviously, that is who this guy is. If I am his current employer I am warning him to stay off of this message board.

Question for the experts here. New to this world of coaching.

I’m noticing a lot of coaches get fired multiple times but keep landing new jobs. How?

Also coaches with shady backgrounds keep landing jobs. How?

As a social experiment. I would love to see Hadsell apply for a job let’s say at a midmajor. To see if they even look. He has decent enough credentials etc. wonder if he would atleast get interviewed. He didn’t break any laws so there wouldn’t be a background check issue. I think it would be very interesting, especially if he kept us afloat as a window of transparency. Could even do a documentary about it.

Very good questions