Wisconsin Badgers pick up a good one

The coach and the admin hated each other. It was a two way street. Team was as rife with eating disorders and stress fractures as Guelph team. Coach did not speak to half the team, not even sure he knew their names. Admin didn’t decimate this program, the coach did. A very small group is unhappy and are leaving Queens and they’re trying to make as much noise as possible on the way out.

Every other gaels team seemed to make it work with the admin. The keyboard antics of SB behind the screen are exactly who he is. Arrogant and vindictive. Win at all costs mentality that is precisely what he criticized about Guelph. Ignoring, belittling and lying to athletes to suit his needs.

I understand that BM had a different experience but she must have seen how he treats the rest of the team.

when did u graduate from queens ?

Obviously I don't know what it was like as I wasn't a member of the team but this is quite surprising as I've only heard good testimonials of Queens XC / PK from both Canadian champions as well as runners just trying to make the varsity team

To contrast an anecdote with another anecdote (this is obviously the best way to decide merit, right?) - must say, as a recent queens grad who was certainly on the fringe of the scoring team I had a positive and encouraging experience with SB and the entire athlete group. They certainly spent more time and effort with me than I thought I deserved given my performance. Truly felt they had my health and development as an athlete was THE top priority.

And your assertion that coaching staff didn't know names is laughable at best. Have you even met them? The level of detail the coaches went through in terms of recruiting and race results - even the "B" squad races was admirable.

Not much interaction with Admin so really can't comment there.

Yea - I don't really get it, I was interested in attending Queens (before the coach was fired), and Steve came off as a very respectable and knowledgeable coach. Granted, I only shared a couple of emails with him but other athletes and coaches regarded Queens as a great place to study and run.

Its not surprising that many Athletic Departments in Canada largely ignore Track and Field and Cross Country. Its the same at many schools in this country. Despite that fact that I love the sport, they are viewed as fringe or club sports at most institutions. Most of the coaches I know at the university level of track and cross have to work extremely hard to get decent budgets for their teams to even compete and get to events. What I found a bit much in this article is that Brogan references that "Steve spent years watching another team win after cheating, rigging bids, unethical recruiting and more" . Seriously, what kind of messages and crap was this guy telling his young athletes - good grief.

Having been on the coaching staff for 8 years this is simply not true. If you would like to explain to me how I'm wrong please email me- you know how to get in touch. I'm sorry whatever beef you have had with Steve has made you want to lash out this way. Your statements simply are not true. I'd love to chat and hear how your experienced differed from everyone else who has spoken both on the record and anonymously .

I personally know a former Queens runner that ran under Steve and when I asked him about Steve's termination, their response was, "I am not surprised, guy was a real ###hole". That doesnt make him a bad coach but I am only sharing this cause maybe not everyone that run under the guy thought he was a good person with the highest moral standard. I dont personally know him so this is second hand.

There's substantial evidence that the Guelph program has rigged bids and been overall corrupt in their dealings with AO/AC. See SB's blog linked below where the last line states:

**Colleague Steve Weiler and I are in possession of extremely compelling evidence of corrupt behaviour on the part of Dave Scott Thomas and certain colleagues at the University of Guelph, with collusion by the governing body Athletics Canada-- evidence about which we have freely and publicly spoken without factual challenge over a number of years.

http://physi-kult.blogspot.com/2020/03/sport-politics-and-infantalization.html

Did the Queen's coach attend Guelph as a student, run for their team, coach at Guelph, or work at the university in some capacity? Did he live in the Guelph community for any period of time? If not how can he claim to know so much about the program?

Oh please, everyone knows you're a member of the Guelph group and have never attended Queen's. The trolling by this group is just shameless.

Many teams and coaches at Queen's work well with their outstanding AD. For example women's rugby who won USports silver last fall. Also women's basketball whose coach of 38 years recently retired had glowing words of praise about the AD.

Oh not this again - I have seen the forums on bid rigging from Steve before, and this has nothing to do with the Guelph program. Take that up with AC. Please elaborate on cheating to win, and unethical recruiting" that she referenced? Regardless, a good coach would not be shouldering the politics of running a team onto its athletes I would think.

no comparison wrote:

Oh not this again - I have seen the forums on bid rigging from Steve before, and this has nothing to do with the Guelph program. Take that up with AC. Please elaborate on cheating to win, and unethical recruiting" that she referenced? Regardless, a good coach would not be shouldering the politics of running a team onto its athletes I would think.

Except that there was a major one in particular taken up with AC as Guelph were caught in their lie about the bids - hosting the National XC Champs from 2015-2018. The result of Guelph being caught trying to rig the bidding process was that Steve Boyd's group from Kingston were the winning bidder instead and that our XC Champs were to be hosted there instead.

Her sister went to Iowa State and then returned home. Hard to say if an away program will work for her.

They already have Seth Hirsch.

Cornhole Flyers wrote:

They already have Seth Hirsch.

What?

McLeod! wrote:

Her sister went to Iowa State and then returned home. Hard to say if an away program will work for her.

While you might have a point about it not always working out, at Queens Both of them were running with the same club coach they worked with during their HS years. The two of them were far better than anyone else in their grade coming out of HS. Also to note that in the context of things, part of the decision for both Branna returning to Ontario as well as Brogan picking Queens over Wisconsin in the first place was to work with the coach they have worked with for years.

Now, with the firing of Steve Boyd at Queens, it's either transfer to another school or to continue working with him and not run at the collegiate level. Continuing to compete for Queens is not an honourable option and IMO if the Administration is the problem, for the two of them to continue their studies there doesn't really seem right either. Brogan choosing to go to Wisconsin is in just as large part (if not greater) because of her academic path - geological engineering - than it was to continue to run at a competitive level.

Something I've picked out over the years regarding Queens University - if they're mentioned in the headlines (Admin/Staff & Student Body), it's generally not for a good reason. Can't say the same about most of the other universities in Canada, even York and Western can and will make the news for positive reasons.

I had never heard of her but she seems tobe pretty talented indeed:

"Brogan is coming off of an extremely impressive 2018 cross-country season, where she remained undefeated through the collegiate calendar. In the fall of 2018 she became the OUA champion, U Sports champion, U Sports rookie of the year and U Sports athlete of the year. Of her fall cross-country races MacDougall said, “It has been a dream of a season.” She then went on to represent Canada at the World Cross-Country Championships in March."

https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/queens-women-win-ncaa-cross-country-race/