What is Happening at Stanford? Ostberg and Ratcliffe have entered the tranfer portal

zxcvzcxv wrote:

If they also have track or xc all-American and Stanford and Oregon on their resume, I'm betting they'll be okay, plus that might go with a plan to work for the evil empire, hq'd in Oregon.

Stanford missed on the best recruit in years, but they have a transition with a new distance coach, right?

If you think being a fast runner is going to help you land a job as a lawyer or an engineer or on Wall Street, you're painfully wrong. But it doesn't matter because both sides of the example would be All American since it's the same person.

JJ Clark ruined Uconn so expect Stanford to fall from grace too. Of course Stanford will always be decent because it's the best school in the nation, but JJ is going to struggle.

From what I've heard, JJ Clark is not for everyone...he demands a lot from his athletes and is not very supportive. If they have a good, but not great race, he will demand a great one, rather than being happy with a good one. It works for some, because it keeps them from being okay with just "good" races, but a lot of the time it also keeps people from feeling like they are racing well when they just run "good" races.

What is the policy once an athlete enters the transfer portal?

Do they pretty much have to transfer somewhere or can they return the school they were at?

Can an athlete test the waters and see if they can get a better scholarship offer to help pay for their schooling? If not, can they return?

I think they can pull out of the portal but good luck with a scholarship at your current school. These two guys brought a bunch of negative publicity to the program which will make it hard for the coach to recruit. Guessing they wouldn't even get a spot at Stanford now.

Some of my friends ran at UConn. They said JJ was a super nice and he seemed encouraging. I've never heard anything about him giving athletes a hard time for just 'good races'.

as soon as you enter the portal you give your school permission to yank your scholarship for any upcoming terms-- you get to keep it through the remainder of the term you're in but nothing guaranteed beyond that. Also definitely sabotage your relationship with a coach if you decide to stay-- who would want to put time and effort into coaching a kid that doesn't want to be there after all.

"Best recruit in years," you can't be serious (assuming you're talking about Nico Young). Have you seen his workouts? Watched his and his coach's interviews? Talk about overtraining . There is no room to improve for the poor kid, he's been maxed out. Mike Smith will do what he does but that will only go so far. I imagine 2-3 years from now he'll be just another high school burnout.

qwetrgw35465jyumk wrote:

Some of my friends ran at UConn. They said JJ was a super nice and he seemed encouraging. I've never heard anything about him giving athletes a hard time for just 'good races'.

Fake news. Read this topic:

Ratcliffe should have two years left.

ReggiePizza69 wrote:

Earlier Stanford lost Fiona O’keefe to New Mexico, which was not a complete shock. But the men’s team in the last week has lost Cortez, and Rizzo. Now Ratcliffe and Ostberg have been entered into the transfer portal. New coach conflicts or what?

You guys blaming the athletes: remember that these athletes were all recruited under Milt and the new coach wants to bring in their own talent with the big scholarship graduate's money. He likely told the seniors that they could return, but they'd have to walk on for grad school. Easy decision for student athletes that want to save some money.

Isn't Ricardo Santos the actual coach for the distance runners? At least on the men's side, I've heard.

Not for all of them. If Corona Virus caused an athlete to miss, their scholarship does not count. ⁷

Both just went to UNC. Seems like they're following Milt.

Only a matter of time after hiring JJ Clark.

Stan Ford wrote:

Not for all of them. If Corona Virus caused an athlete to miss, their scholarship does not count. ⁷

That's not how the covid thing works.

Not the case. New coaches (Clark/Santos) were/are honoring Milt's scholarship offers. At least for the specific people I talked to.

WinnytheBish wrote:

ReggiePizza69 wrote:

Earlier Stanford lost Fiona O’keefe to New Mexico, which was not a complete shock. But the men’s team in the last week has lost Cortez, and Rizzo. Now Ratcliffe and Ostberg have been entered into the transfer portal. New coach conflicts or what?

You guys blaming the athletes: remember that these athletes were all recruited under Milt and the new coach wants to bring in their own talent with the big scholarship graduate's money. He likely told the seniors that they could return, but they'd have to walk on for grad school. Easy decision for student athletes that want to save some money.

tin can man wrote:

zxcvzcxv wrote:

If they also have track or xc all-American and Stanford and Oregon on their resume, I'm betting they'll be okay, plus that might go with a plan to work for the evil empire, hq'd in Oregon.

Stanford missed on the best recruit in years, but they have a transition with a new distance coach, right?

If you think being a fast runner is going to help you land a job as a lawyer or an engineer or on Wall Street, you're painfully wrong. But it doesn't matter because both sides of the example would be All American since it's the same person.

JJ Clark ruined Uconn so expect Stanford to fall from grace too. Of course Stanford will always be decent because it's the best school in the nation, but JJ is going to struggle.

Another hater I see. How many NCAA team titles have you coached? How many NCAA DI Championships have you coached? How many Olympians have you coached?

spokane xc wrote:

Stan Ford wrote:

One of them has only outdoor remaining so he wouldn't have counted against the cap. He is probably walking away from a very inexpensive Stanford education in exchange for an expensive degree at somewhere like Oregon. Sounds like a typical Stanford student to me. Don't belive the rumors that the attendees are smart.

Ostberg is listed as a 5th Year and Ratcliffe a Senior on the Stanford Athletics website. I would guess both already have (or will have) their degrees from Stanford by the time they transfer.

Athletics websites tend to list their academic level but not their athletic eligibility level ie. Ostberg being a 5th year which is correct since he redshirted his frosh year (2015-Fisher's 1st year) and only track left anyway, Ratcliffe though an academic senior, has a lot of eligibility left-dude didn't race for almost 2 years. He did cross only in his frosh year in 2016 (Pac-12 top 10) and last year...2 more years of indoors and 3 years of outdoors left, but he likely will have his degree by this spring!

Disappointing to see the usual uninformed criticism of Stanford.

Coach Clark coaches the women, who were having a great year. In the article below, Ella Donaghu talks very positively about the new team atmosphere under Coach Clark.

Alex Ostberg has finished his 5 years at Stanford and is going to do a Master's degree elsewhere; he now has an unexpected opportunity to race during his 6th year.

https://gostanford.com/news/2020/4/6/track-field-a-perfect-season-unfulfilled.aspx