UConn's JJ Clark to Stanford

He should bring back John Oliver to coach XC/long distance while he sticks with the mid distance. He knows/understands Stanford and then went to Purdue and made them a national qualifier.

My daughter runs at UConn. Coach Clark made the calls to his team. Classy. I can confirm he's leaving UConn and he stated he's the Director at Stanford.

rojo wrote:

Is he necessarily going to be the head xc coach? If I was him, I'd consider being the director and coaching mid-d and hire someone else to coach long distance.

Maybe he will learn from his first blunder, but the only other time he was Director (Tennessee), he tried to coach everyone and failed. The man can coach women - there is no doubt about that. Phoebe Wright, Chanelle Price, Sarah Brown, Liz Costello, Emily Durgin, Brittany Sheffey, the Clarks...

But we are talking about DIRECTOR here. He doesn't do a great job with scholarship allocation. How did the Tennessee men fair when he was there? Look at his recruiting classes - he hasn't been able to recruit like Stanford does.

Only time will tell, but they certainly could've done better. It's Stanford...

Does he take staff with him? Do they even want to go with him. Heard mixed things but 1 was a constant. he likes the money in his group haha.

Um what wrote:

Im guessing you are a troll because there is nothing there that is racist. JJ has done very well with 800m runners. He has had spotty success at distance/Xc. It is what it is.

You ain't alowed to say nothin negative about a person of collor or a feemale no more.

Wishing Clark and Stanford the best. Hopefully, Coach Clark learns from what happened at UT and deleagates long distance, all men's training, and the busy work parts of recruiting to someone else so his mid-d ladies can conquer the NCAA. Hope he has a lot of success at Stanford.

JJ will ruin Stanford just like he ruined Tennessee and UConn. I’d say watch out to the coaching staff at Stanford because he wiped out everyone. He even tried to wipe out the unrelated Men’s team. He also destroyed the team environment and pinned the team against each other. There wasn’t a single ounce of positivity going through the team. Even HIS GIRLS talk the mostttt s**t about him than anyone else. It’s true there were a few amazing talents and I would never want to take away from their success but as for the wya he handled the rest of the team.. he just didnt care and let some people suffer brutally.

There is TOO MUCH dirt on this guy for the NCAA to let some of the things he has done slide. Going as far as anonymous phone calls.. getting rid of the coaching staff with an attempt to dismantle someone’s life work. All while suppressing the voices of his athletes except the ones he deems ‘worthy’ ... seriously someone needs to take a look at this. Someone not corrupt

As usual, a ton of haters on Letsrun when a long distance coach isn't named head coach at a university.

JJ Clark is a great coach. His biggest obstacle at Stanford isn't coaching long distance. Just hire a quality long distance coach. His biggest obstacle will be dealing with the pampered entitled student-athletes and their parents at Stanford. I have heard the numerous stories from Miltenberg and his staff over the last 7 years where the kids just whine when they don't get their way. If you think it's bad at most schools, its terrible at the elite schools, especially when the administration sides with the kids all the time.

Good luck JJ and congrats!

TrackFan19 wrote:

As usual, a ton of haters on Letsrun when a long distance coach isn't named head coach at a university.

JJ Clark is a great coach. His biggest obstacle at Stanford isn't coaching long distance. Just hire a quality long distance coach. His biggest obstacle will be dealing with the pampered entitled student-athletes and their parents at Stanford. I have heard the numerous stories from Miltenberg and his staff over the last 7 years where the kids just whine when they don't get their way. If you think it's bad at most schools, its terrible at the elite schools, especially when the administration sides with the kids all the time.

Good luck JJ and congrats!

Read this thread, it will change your mind:

DirtySpikes1 wrote:

There is TOO MUCH dirt on this guy for the NCAA to let some of the things he has done slide. Going as far as anonymous phone calls.. getting rid of the coaching staff with an attempt to dismantle someone’s life work. All while suppressing the voices of his athletes except the ones he deems ‘worthy’ ... seriously someone needs to take a look at this. Someone not corrupt

Every successful coach has disgruntled people. ADs don’t listen to every whiner. They certainly don’t care about Anonymous crap like this.

read this thread wrote:

TrackFan19 wrote:

As usual, a ton of haters on Letsrun when a long distance coach isn't named head coach at a university.

JJ Clark is a great coach. His biggest obstacle at Stanford isn't coaching long distance. Just hire a quality long distance coach. His biggest obstacle will be dealing with the pampered entitled student-athletes and their parents at Stanford. I have heard the numerous stories from Miltenberg and his staff over the last 7 years where the kids just whine when they don't get their way. If you think it's bad at most schools, its terrible at the elite schools, especially when the administration sides with the kids all the time.

Good luck JJ and congrats!

Read this thread, it will change your mind:

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=8126572

Yikes, just read the thread from 2017/2018.

Indeed, Stanford could have done better... Stanford should have done better.

What happens when its more than 1 whining ?

What happens when its a pattern?

What happens when too many people’s voices are suppressed because of one man?

What happens when good athletes are pushed down?

What happens when you have girls killing each other in and out of practice?

What happens when eating disorders start and then ignored?

What happens when the administration doesn’t want a scandal at their school so they brush it under the rug?

What happens when multiple people complain?

What then?

Do we just sit back and let it happen again?

I can understand a few entitled athletes crying but the entire other HALF of the team feeling unworthy, no matter how hard you work you’ll never be enough, no support, nothing just because you don’t run distance and you don’t look like a distance runner. This ‘track’ discrimination and suppression whatever youd like the call it CANNOT happen again!

Not buying it. Sounds like he’s weeding out and he’s got every right to. He didn’t recruit you. Prove yourself. Get better. Earn respect.

I love when boys accuse every skinny girl of having eating disorder and then act like some savior. You have no idea the conversations between the women and the trainers or their doctors or the coaches. It’s none of your business.

If you have a bunch of punks then I would weed you out too. This isn’t the bridge club.

Lol, I have to admit that my first reaction (as an alum for whatever that's worth) was negative. And it's precisely for what you said: I reflexively want a distance coach to be the head coach. Stanford is by and large a distance school and it seems to me that a distance-oriented coach makes the most sense. But I'll try to keep an open mind! As others have said, if he makes some good hires, then potential problem solved. Having said all that, and forgive me if this sounds arrogant, but my other concern is that he doesn't have any experience at academically-oriented schools, which I think could be relevant from both a coaching and recruiting perspective. Milt came from Georgetown, Lananna from Dartmouth, etc. Is this actually a problem? Not necessarily but time will tell.

TrackFan19 wrote:

As usual, a ton of haters on Letsrun when a long distance coach isn't named head coach at a university.

A weed out is different and I completely understand the purpose of a weed out. What I do ‘t see the purpose of is purposely putting down your athletes and pinning them against each other. It was like a cat fight every day in practice. And we were there every one of us concerned and trying to help as multiple girls had eating disorders and when he just neglects to care and just shoves it aside? Neglecting every other event group just because your ‘distance-oriented’ ? All for earning your spot... every athlete has to earn their spot, you arent just given a medal on the podium for participation. Just the treatment and neglect that happened inside that gym... i wouldn’t want to see that happen.. most girls ended up with mental problems .. we don’t need another girl jumping off the parking garage because of all the ‘pressure’ that pressure comes from somewhere. Athletes are ment to understand and cope with the pressure but when its coming at you from all angles and you dont even trust your coach.. then what?

BRB transferring/decomitting

-everyone

Good luck this year. Always try to catch a CC or Outdoors meet or 2 of my School. Really can't venture an opinion about Coach Clark but I was a little surprised when Amy Begley didn't transition to head coach at least for CC. The team seemed like they were headed in the right direction. They are still competitive just not quite breaking through.

aside from 1 mid distance athlete (who transferred in) and some throwers the UCONN team was on a very rapid downward spiral.

Here are the fastest times in distance events at UCONN this outdoor season:

800 - 2:03.41

1500 - 4:34.10

5000 - 17:06.30

10k - 35:26.26

steeple - 10:43.80

They had a good 800 meter runner but their #2 800 runner only ran 2:12. JJ's results were garbage at UCONN.