WKU head coach

bananarunning wrote:

Any thoughts on who will be the new WKU head coach after Jenkins left? Could a new coach turn the program around?

With their shrinking budget and financial Crisis of the State (Commonwealth) of Kentucky, who would want this job?

The new coach, Tim Sykes, seems to have made a decent improvement over last year. Anyone have insight into coach Sykes and the program?

He's a solid coach that has been heavily involved in coaching Juli Accurso at Ohio U (3x D1 All american in XC), Kirwa at Liberty (13:55/28:56 D1 All American), then the previous year as a volunteer at Oregon. The program will continue to get better under him and is definitely worth considering.

Worth considering if you're a 9:30-10:00 3200 and 15:45-16:15 guy* to correct myself. If not then the program definitely is not good enough to consider yet but it's going to be better than it has been (which is one of the worst in D1)

Jenkins made 83K in 2017.

I don't think that is a bad salary for Kentucky.

Looked it up here:

https://openpayrolls.com/university-college/western-kentucky-university/page-74

I think that $83k is a tremendous salary for a head coach at small school like that.

WKU used to have a quite a few decent distance runners back in the 70's through the 80's. Had a number of foreign athletes including a few from South Africa.

In case anyone is wondering wrote:

Jenkins made 83K in 2017.

I don't think that is a bad salary for Kentucky.

Looked it up here:

https://openpayrolls.com/university-college/western-kentucky-university/page-74

Interesting. I agree that's pretty good for that school/location.

Out of curiosity, can you tell from that site (a quick glance doesn't reveal) whether that figure reflects actual salary, as opposed to rolling in benefits or pension, etc.? Some of those sites include employer paid & calculated benefits as "pay" but never actually gets to the recipient. (As long as you know what you're comparing it's fine, but don't compare one person's take home pay with another's pay plus benefits. e.g., if a grad assistant gets to take a class for free at Stanford, does that count as $15k in "pay"?)

They had a lot of great runners during that time. Sean Dollman won the NCAA national title. They always had a large number of foreign runners. I never knew them to do much with American runners or "local talent".

Here is the link directly to the result if it works:

https://openpayrolls.com/erik-a-jenkins-26589728

It says that the info may include where available: pay, salary, bonuses, benefits, retirement contributions, pensions, and other financial data.

Ask former distance coach, and Hall of Fame alum, Michelle Scott her thoughts on Jenkins and WKU admin...

The women's streak of 27 consecutive Conference Championships ended when Jenkins took over and pushed her out.

EZ10Miler wrote:

They had a lot of great runners during that time. Sean Dollman won the NCAA national title. They always had a large number of foreign runners. I never knew them to do much with American runners or "local talent".

You are correct. Sad to see their program decline so much from their "glory" days. I don't recall much "local" talent at WKU.

Sykes is a great addition for the distance program to flourish again. Will he get the support from the Director in scholarships?

TopOftheHill wrote:

Sykes is a great addition for the distance program to flourish again. Will he get the support from the Director in scholarships?

What scholarships?

Their program has no money!

Scholarships????? wrote:

TopOftheHill wrote:

Sykes is a great addition for the distance program to flourish again. Will he get the support from the Director in scholarships?

What scholarships?

Their program has no money!

At most smaller D1 programs the whole athletic department doesn't have much money which makes all the sports a liability. Even at big D1 programs it's only Football and Men's basketball that are revenue sports. All the other sports are liabilities.

Coach Sykes is leaving .

RollingDownHill wrote:

Coach Sykes is leaving .

Where to?

Where? wrote:

RollingDownHill wrote:

Coach Sykes is leaving .

Where to?

Didnt he just get there???

are you sure??? wrote:

Where? wrote:

Where to?

Didnt he just get there???

Went Coach Back in his home town