As the title states, has any coach made the jump?
As the title states, has any coach made the jump?
Bob Timmons, Kansas...Jim Ryun’s high school and college coach.
Jerry Smith from FM to Cornell? Maybe Rojo can confirm/correct me?
Maybe Dick Weis when he went to Missouri (about 1979- not sure if he was assistant or head). He coached at my HS immediately before that, he was a great motivator and distance coach. He went to Ok State in 1983 (until 2008).
Granted it was a very long time ago but Bill Bowerman did it and turned out OK.
there is a local d1 program in my area that is coached by an ex high school girls xc coach. from what i hear, he is terrible. and the program is terrible. d1, with decent money for scholarships, but would be beat by many, many d3 programs.
Lance Harter of Arkansas.
Began his career at Smoky Hill High School (lots of national success/recognition over the years) in the mid-70’s before moving onto Cal Poly for a few years. Now, one of the best female track and xc coaches there is over the last 30 years.
Didn’t the Bozeman HS coach recently jump to D1?
With NXN and national exposure I can see a few having an opportunity or two. Maybe, who knows,
John McDonnell
HStoNCAA wrote:
As the title states, has any coach made the jump?
Probably very few from this century.
high school xc coach wrote:
there is a local d1 program in my area that is coached by an ex high school girls xc coach. from what i hear, he is terrible. and the program is terrible. d1, with decent money for scholarships, but would be beat by many, many d3 programs.
name it or its BS
Why would it be BS? My alma mater averaged 30:01 for 8km at Conference, is Division I, and gets beat by D3 and many of the guys are on scholarship.
runnerexpert wrote:
high school xc coach wrote:
there is a local d1 program in my area that is coached by an ex high school girls xc coach. from what i hear, he is terrible. and the program is terrible. d1, with decent money for scholarships, but would be beat by many, many d3 programs.
name it or its BS
Lots of coaches did this in the 60's and 70's, but very few have done it since. You used to be able to just drive from school to school asking for a job...and you could get one. Much different world now, and this is virtually impossible. Unless of course you are a female.
the430miler went from a nobody to "the coach of the major university in San Antonio" so I'm guessing it can be done.
On a more serious note, there are many HS coaches in Texas who are better coaches that most NCAA D1 coaches but it's not worth the pay cut to pursue. I'm sure the same is true for many other states.
There are two examples I can think of from this era.
1. Devin Elizondo (UCLA). HS—> UC Davis Head distance coach—> UCLA Head distance coach. Not technically “overall head coach,” but effectively runs the distance program
2. Colorado State XC Coach. He went from being a HS coach and working in the private sector to being a college coach.
To be honest, it is very hard to do. You usually got to know people and/or get lucky. Merit only takes you so far in the profession and that’s probably its biggest downside. I would say most HS coaches get pidgeon-holed into only being viewed as such.
Former Sub 14:00 wrote:
There are two examples I can think of from this era.
1. Devin Elizondo (UCLA). HS—> UC Davis Head distance coach—> UCLA Head distance coach. Not technically “overall head coach,” but effectively runs the distance program
2. Colorado State XC Coach. He went from being a HS coach and working in the private sector to being a college coach.
To be honest, it is very hard to do. You usually got to know people and/or get lucky. Merit only takes you so far in the profession and that’s probably its biggest downside. I would say most HS coaches get pidgeon-holed into only being viewed as such.
Sorry, editing example #2. Meant the Utah State Coach. Get those confused sometimes.
Pig Sooie wrote:
Lance Harter of Arkansas.
Began his career at Smoky Hill High School (lots of national success/recognition over the years) in the mid-70’s before moving onto Cal Poly for a few years. Now, one of the best female track and xc coaches there is over the last 30 years.
We were D2 when Harter made the jump to us.
Former Sub 14:00 wrote:
Former Sub 14:00 wrote:
There are two examples I can think of from this era.
1. Devin Elizondo (UCLA). HS—> UC Davis Head distance coach—> UCLA Head distance coach. Not technically “overall head coach,” but effectively runs the distance program
2. Colorado State XC Coach. He went from being a HS coach and working in the private sector to being a college coach.
To be honest, it is very hard to do. You usually got to know people and/or get lucky. Merit only takes you so far in the profession and that’s probably its biggest downside. I would say most HS coaches get pidgeon-holed into only being viewed as such.
Sorry, editing example #2. Meant the Utah State Coach. Get those confused sometimes.
Gulden was a Coach (maybe a volunteer) at Idaho State before he went to Utah State.
I was sad when I got the letter from Larry Ellis (my coach at Jamaica HS in Queens, NY) in the summer of 1970 telling us that he was going to be the head coach at Princeton. Lucky for me, his replacement 2x Olympian Cliff Bertrand of NYU and Trinidad/Tobago was a great coach too!