Towson XC Coach Fired?

So, you come here for answers? Try calling Towson?

Yeah call Michael, Teto or Janet... but definitely under no circumstances.. call Joe!

I applied for the job right after it was posted, but I was extremely surprised to hear this on the message boards. I obviously don't know if there was anything internal, but assuming the most obvious answer let's be honest, track isn't a sport where we should be basing hiring decisions on results unless the athletes have overwhelmingly complained. It always frustrates me when coaches talk about having to do well at conference because that's what their non-track/XC AD knows/cares about. How people reach that level and don't have an understanding of every sport is beyond me. There's more to life than track and college coaches are much more about developing the person than the athlete. I couldn't imagine what college life was like for people who didn't have coaches to turn to. At least for track I will say a few of our coaches didn't get the most performance out of their athletes but I will say they were excellent at being available for guidance and just someone to talk to and to me that was so much more important. Let's focus on the important things

They said they will have a coach in place before the team returns.

This was talked about on the jobs thread, the top runner transferred out. They don't have much in the way of distance runners there.

off the team wrote:

This was talked about on the jobs thread, the top runner transferred out. They don't have much in the way of distance runners there.

Did the runner transfer because she didn't like the coach? Was the coach let go because of performance?

Mike jackson king of pop wrote:

Yeah call Michael, Teto or Janet... but definitely under no circumstances.. call Joe!

Towson actually has a substantial amount of women on scholarship but you wouldn't see it looking at their results.

MD Coach wrote:

One of my athletes was getting recruited by the Towson distance coach, Henry Phelan. Now I'm hearing he is gone, and he isn't on the track roster as a coach.

He was just hired a couple years ago, does anyone know what happened? Are they in the process of hiring a new coach?

Any help would be appreciated as she is looking to make a decision soon and she likes Towson a lot.

The head coach (sprint coach) of Towson, Mike Jackson, is a good coach and a good guy. Towson should have won the CAA conference championship last outdoors but their distance runners blew it. They scored 8 points in the distance events. Delaware women won by 13 points, getting 58 points out of their distance runners.

Their new coach is posted on the website. Looks like they made a good decision. I have heard they are working hard to develop their distance program.

I think the answer is, we don't know. Her bio says she has had positions as a strength coach, so lets assume she knows lifting. She was and 800m runner who ran down to the 4x4, not up to the mile. She coached other 800, runners and two kenyan cross country runners. So could she coach a 400/800 type, seems likely. Mile/5k type? We just don't know.

I would have your athlete ask questions about the training philosophy and see if it makes sense to you, because I don't think anybody else can tell you what it is.

Bumping this thread....as rumors are swirling that Coach Jackson is fired? Random rumblings and suddenly his Twitter went down, but his IG is still up. Not going to speculate as this is like 2nd/3rd degrees of separation thru the grapevine.

Update: Website lists the assistant coach as interim head coach. Seems legit. Reason behind it are all over the place but I won't speculate or spread false information.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Towson to ever become relevant.

How is that working out?

Read this thread and tell me more about how he’s a “good guy”:

I heard the girl that took over for a brief moment was a FREAK!

Towson cross country is in shambles.