Unreal: UCSB hit with NCAA sanctions for having xc runners run over the summer

Dolan took UCSB to court, UCSB crumbled. Pete was given a monetary settlement.

IV Dude wrote:

Dolan took UCSB to court, UCSB crumbled. Pete was given a monetary settlement.

I hope that’s true.

Does anyone know where Pete wound up or if he’s coaching at all? He would be a good get for a struggling program.

I'm not going to do that and potentially reveal my identity while trolls continue to sling mud from the safety of their anon handles.

But i'll break it down at a high level for you. Your claim is entirely false because we didnt do VO2 max intervals for the entirety of the summer base training or winter base training before track. Those 5 months of the year were strictly mileage, tempos/fartleks, and hill reps. VO2 max intervals only occured during the heart of our competitive season, and tempos were incorporated year round to maintain the aerobic fitness we gained in the offseason.

Saying we did VO2 max intervals 8 months of the year is so off base that I couldnt let it go uncalled out. It's not the first time I've heard someone say that Pete's training was antiquated, but atleast they were informed of what the program was actually doing.

IV Dude wrote:

Dolan took UCSB to court, UCSB crumbled. Pete was given a monetary settlement.

I hope this is true. I can't even believe this was a sanction (as others have pointed out). In college we had unofficial practices all summer long. Coaches just didn't organize them and were not there. However, we met at school and the program was what we got from the coaches for the summer. This is just stupid.

And you're being any more courageous than the "anonymous trolls?" Is your real name Vivá?

I ran for Dolan and really did not care for him as a person. His coaching style was great for many. He was a strong X’s and O’s coach, and if you were strong mentally or a developmental athlete (not top end recruit), you were revered and usually found success under him. However, if anyone needed any sort of help with the mental part of running, they stood no chance. He ran hot and cold with his relationships with his athletes at all times. His interpersonal skills were so terrible at times, it literally ruined many runners careers. Most people knew Dolans personality before deciding to come to UCSB, so they made their bed. We all had a chance to run elsewhere if we wanted a coach who was going to hold our hand more and be a cheerleader for us during the bad times.

However, this stuff is crap. Dolan played by the rules, gave recommended daily runs in your exit interview after each season before summer/winter, but would not talk to you at any point until you returned for the 1st official day of practice. In my time, added up, I probably did over 100 long runs during the season on sundays and not once was he ever there, or ever questioned whether you ran or not that day after the fact. He gave you a recommended distance and that was it. They caught him on a training log technicality.

However I’m also not surprised that someone and their parents eventually got so upset by his lack of compassion and passive-aggressive behavior that they decided to come after him.

But again, dickhead or not, he was a great coach to many and played by the rules. These NCAA violations are a stretch to save face and not pay him. Glad to hear he reached a settlement with one of the most crooked, dirty organizations in the world.

Track season would end for many sometime in May. They would take some time off and start training again. Pete would send out schedules before the year ended. We would do only mileage, strides, drills up until July. In july, we would start “faster pace runs” which would just be progressions runs. We would not do our first real workout till about August. We started off doing mostly tempos. I remember doing mile repeats just once in August. We would not talk to Pete till we met up with him for our first day of practice.

Longtime listener first time caller wrote:

The track at UCSB fell into ridiculous disrepair but if you think that was Pete Dolan's fault you are mistaken. He led fundraising efforts for years, which ironically came to fruition with a new track during the Spring of 2018 in the middle of everything else going down.

What? Its was 100% Petes fault, he was the head coach.

His fund raising was a joke! He never reached out to the community, never really made a case for a sense of urgency, he was plain lazy about it.

As a coach (but not NCAA), these sanctions are pretty frustrating to see. Primarily because most of the sanctions affect people not at fault. Dolan is gone, why punish the program for a ridiculously petty alleged infraction? The show-cause order punishment if fine. I personally think it's ridiculous, but I can't argue with punishing a coach for breaking the rules- even if I disagree with the technicality of the rule.

But the other sanctions, in my opinion, show no concern for the athletes. I just feel that everything should be about the athletes- trying to help them enjoy their college experience, enjoy their sport, improve athletically, get an education, and learn how to become the best version of themselves. How does further limiting practice days, reducing scholarships, reducing officials visits, etc. help? It just hurts the program as a whole, hurts the new coach, and hurts the current athletes. These sanctions weren't that serious, and hopefully there won't be any practical, significant negative consequences. (I'm not trying to blow this out of proportion). But in other cases, the sanctions are more serious... such as missing post-season... which the athletes work all season for. Forget the coaches, the administration, etc.. it's not about them... why take away Championship season for an athlete who did nothing wrong? Consequences for rules are necessary, I get it, but It just feels like we miss the point when we do this... And as a coach, I get upset when I'm a part of a system punishing the athletes I care about when they did nothing wrong. It just feels wrong to me (If the athletes played a role in doing something wrong like the water polo kids accepting money for work above the going rate, that's a different story.)

Anyways, as others have stated, it seems like this is more about UCSB vs Dolan. So if this was all they could find, just issue the show-cause order and be done with it; don't sanction the program- punishing the athletes and new coach.

MikeMach1977 wrote:

IV Dude wrote:

Dolan took UCSB to court, UCSB crumbled. Pete was given a monetary settlement.

I hope this is true. I can't even believe this was a sanction (as others have pointed out). In college we had unofficial practices all summer long. Coaches just didn't organize them and were not there. However, we met at school and the program was what we got from the coaches for the summer. This is just stupid.

Pete did give us a structured summer schedule with mileage and workouts (mile repeats, farleks, intervals etc). We were told to do everything on our own or with a teammate, but also strongly encouraged to do everything in the summer training packet if we wanted to do well at the early August time trial and make the team. Pete never talked to me during the summer to check in or anything so I can't attest to any unapproved contact.

Pete was fired for non-NCAA reasons though (wish I knew, but we can all guess). As much as I dislike Pete from my 5 years experience on the XC/track team, I do agree with Pete that its a shame the NCAA sanctions fall on the current coaches and athletes.

Why not provide your athletes a recommended plan to follow over the summer. Then, have your captains set up a strava account (Bengals Summer Running Group etc) and the captains oversee and hold the other team members accountable? You as a coach can still look at the Strava account to see how they are doing if you want but just do not comment on it. From my experience, if you need to threaten runners to run you have the wrong runners in your program

Who??

The NCAA comes down on UCSB forvtraingblogs but Kansas basketball.... nothing. Really?