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Distance_Guru

Well with the cross country season over it's time for me to get serious with recruiting. I've made some pretty good contacts with several runners and seem to have the inside track on some quaility athletes. I have three goals for the coming years recruiting class.

Goal #1) Upgrade the talent level on the men's team. I've got a nice core of kids but anyone who saw our regional championships will tell you that as of right now we don't have the horses to run with the top 5,6,7 schools in the region.
Goal #2) Increase roster size on both squads, but particularly on the men's side. I currently have about 11 ladies and 9 men on my rosters. Of those I only have 3 women with the talent to be a contributing member on a team good enough to make nationals that I'm sure will be returning and another 2 I hope will return. On my men's side I have 3 maybe 4 with that talent level, one of whom has been extremely injury prone and irresponsible and another who has underacheived this year.
Goal #3) Fill the void left by the seniors on this years team. These athletes have been running in the top 5 since thier first race as freshmen, there is no way to replace their experience or the excellent relationship I have with each of them, but I will have to go out and bring in at least three girls and two guys with good work ethic, talent and durability just to replace them. I always figure on bringing in at least one more athlete than you have going out since some kids inevitably quit, get hurt or just bust every year.

Dan when you were coaching how much recruiting did you get to do? Any note worthy experiences?
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Paul · Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2002 12:53 pm Post subject:

Good luck on the recruiting trail. There's no such thing as down time for college coaches. I would imagine that as your program gets more notice, kids will be looking forward to you coming around to see them. Do you have recruiting responsibilities for other track and field events, also??

Distance_Guru · Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2002 1:01 pm Post subject:

Micah Ward · Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2002 5:04 am Post subject:

Just a personal note thrown in here. DG, does it ever occur to you what kind of impact it has on a kid when they are contacted by a college coach? I know ever person is different and for some it may be no big deal. But I can still remember the excitement my daughter felt when she got her 1st recruiting call. She was walking on air for days. Very Happy

When you get that reaction from a kid it has to excite you as a coach.
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Distance_Guru · Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2002 2:16 pm Post subject:

I remember the first recruiting call I ever got (interestingly enough it was actually from the institution where I am now coaching) I was so pumped I went out and flew through a 7 mile run, I don't think me feet hit the ground more than 4 times. Cool

The thing about recruiting from a coaches perspective is the athlete really determines how much I enjoy it. Athletes who are positive and curtious even if they aren't all that interested in your program are nice to deal with. These are usually the kids that you know really want to run and will get out there and bust tail for you if you can get them. On the other hand far to often you have athletes who aren't that good who have an attitude like, if you won't give me lots of money I won't talk too you. Which is sad since usually these are the kids that don't have a lot of colleges talking to them.

Fortunatly I have had a good response to most of my calls this year and I'm hopeful that I can put together a good enough recruiting class to really improve both my programs.
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Time is the fire in which we burn

Distance_Guru · Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2002 2:49 pm Post subject:

A little off the subject but how's your daughters running going? You had said that she stoped running with her college team. Is she still running a lot or is she taking some time away from running? What are the odds that she'll compete again at the college level, either transfer and run at another school or rejoin her schools team in the future?
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Time is the fire in which we burn

Paul · Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2002 5:33 pm Post subject:

I'm curious, too. Is she interested in running track in the Spring??

Dan · Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2002 12:01 am Post subject:

Micah Ward · Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2002 12:43 pm Post subject:

The daughter is taking a low key approach to running right now. She is running with a running club on campus and is putting in a relaxed 15-20 miles a week. I think she is going to hit the road races this spring and summer instead of returning to the college team.
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Distance_Guru · Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2002 6:04 am Post subject:

Nothing wrong with doing a little road racing. Sometimes I think that there are situations with athletes -wheather because of injuries, burnout, disagreements with the coach, or scheduling of training- where the best thing for all involved is for the athlete to get away from the team enviornment, do some road racing and get back to enjoying running.

As for recruiting I have to stick with worrying about quaility first quantity second. The primary reason being this years freshman class needs to be talented because looking down the road next year I may not be able to do much in terms if scholarship offers since I have no Jr's on this years mens team. Also I have two kid for sure and possibly two more that can contribute to a top 4 team in our region. I need to bring in at least three really talented athletes to build around these guys in order to achieve our goal of making nationals when this years sophmores are seniors. I currently have interest from four kids with the talent level I need and I'm trying to contact two more. If I can get three of them and two more athletes who I can try to develope then I will regaurd my recruiting year as a success on the mens side.
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Time is the fire in which we burn

Paul · Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2002 4:01 pm Post subject:

Does UNK have anything special to offer academically?? Portland State Univ used to have an incredible PE Dept, even offering a Ph.D in the field with an emphasis on Biomechanics or Physiology. Then they did away with the program in the 80's.

Distance_Guru · Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2002 4:13 pm Post subject:

We are a good school all the way around, we have a good student to professor ratio (somewhere in the 13-1 area if memory servers). Our specialty is education we're about as good a teachers school as you're going to find. But it seems that there aren't to many area's of weakness eduacationally. The only thing I can think of is that I don't beleive you can earn a Ph.D here, the highest degree we offer is Masters.
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Time is the fire in which we burn

Dan · Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2002 11:53 pm Post subject:

Paul, did PSU's dropping of that degree coincide with a plunge in their T&F program? It sure is the pits these days, going back as far as I can remember...

Dan

Conway · Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2002 9:35 am Post subject:

Have you considered doing any recruiting in California ..... There are lots of small schools here that have talent ... And this is a state with great distance runners and depth ... Perhaps I should start a fee based referral service of rthisx state ... Wink

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Dan · Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2002 12:29 pm Post subject:

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