NCAA Championships Team Score Observation [UCLA]

[balzonia]

I was comparing some college athlete meet results to their USA results and I just noticed that the UCLA men's team didn't score a single point at the NCAA Championship meet.

Wow. :!: :shock: :!:

Not trying to bash anyone... just an observation that shocked me.

[gh]

And now Venegas is out (see story on front page).

[BillVol]

And now Venegas is out (see story on front page).

Isn't having a throws man as head coach something akin to having a kicker as a head football coach? It just isn't going to work.

[gm]

And now Venegas is out (see story on front page).

Isn't having a throws man as head coach something akin to having a kicker as a head football coach? It just isn't going to work.

Ask Bill Webb...

[gh]

It (generally) doesn't work having a great technician as head coach in the modern NCAA setting period. You need, for lack of a better catch-all term, a first-rate politician in that positition. Somebody who can schmooze parents, athletes, athletic directors and alumni whilst balancing an impossible budget and following a bewildering array of NCAA regulations.

I won't name names, but some of the best assistants in the country have taken over programs and the result is that the program goes downhill, because none of the above is conducive to spending a lot of time going one-on-one with athletes and they end up hiring people not remotely skilled as they are.

[BillVol]

I thought that Webb was a little more versatile than Venegas but perhaps not. Anyhow, Webb had a fine career as coach.

[einnod23]

It (generally) doesn't work having a great technician as head coach in the modern NCAA setting period. You need, for lack of a better catch-all term, a first-rate politician in that positition. Somebody who can schmooze parents, athletes, athletic directors and alumni whilst balancing an impossible budget and following a bewildering array of NCAA regulations.

But that's been the rule in all sports forever!

How does John Thompson get Patrick Ewing? In Ewing's words, "He's an educator, he played in the NBA, he played the position (center), he's black, all those things....."

And Ewing's parents were concered that while Georgetown was a first-rate university, they questioned whether their Black son could adjust in its atmosphere. And a coach, who happens to be Black, was able to sell it to them. That's just an example.

All sports need to have head coaches who are "politicians" and "schmoozers" who can appeal to the parents and boosters!

[Gleason]

It (generally) doesn't work having a great technician as head coach in the modern NCAA setting period. You need, for lack of a better catch-all term, a first-rate politician in that positition. Somebody who can schmooze parents, athletes, athletic directors and alumni whilst balancing an impossible budget and following a bewildering array of NCAA regulations.

I won't name names, but some of the best assistants in the country have taken over programs and the result is that the program goes downhill, because none of the above is conducive to spending a lot of time going one-on-one with athletes and they end up hiring people not remotely skilled as they are.

Every track & field athlete who earned a full scholarship and is my friend in the past 50 years has said the exact same thing. I don't know about Venegas, but two throwers at the high school where I coached went to UCLA on a scholarship when he was a part-time throws coach there while teaching high school. They never complained about his ability to "schmooze" and they praised everything about UCLA despite my being an advocate for Southern California.

I ran for the late Vern Wolfe in JC the year before he began his 22 years as the head coach at Southern California. Every time I saw him at a meet he complained about the situation cited by gh. I was annoyed when a letter to the sports editor of the Los Angeles Times complained about Vern's coaching because the challenges cited by gh were unfamiliar to the writer.

Vern was a "great technician." Readers may not know that his North Phoenix high schoolers produced five national records in five years in the 1950s--all in field events. He did as well at NCAA and OG, but I must agree with gh that Vern would find college coaching to be even more difficult now than it was in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Thanks for citing facts that may be unfamiliar to some readers here.

[richxx87]

EDIT: Since mine isn't a post of lament over what occurred in the recent past--but instead a moving-forth type post, I've cut it from here and pasted it into the other one here:
http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... 168#559168

[The Atheist]

It was not a very good year for my Bruins, unfortunately. :cry: