Lafayette College

How is Easton like Oakland/Pittsburgh?

Geographically. Although demographically they are honestly fairly similar, Pittsburgh is a bit bigger of course but the demographic makeup (race, religion, median income, median housing price, poverty rates) are all pretty similar.

re team stability, the signs i would look for would be a tiny roster or few allowed to actually participate, a short schedule that requires only local travel, and the school outright saying they are looking at how many teams they have and whether to rationalize. asking it because they lose is insulting at precisely the point that a walkon is seeking grace. it's a good way to get yourself cut. in short, lafayette is an old, expensive, and well funded school and i would assume they will have a program unless they openly suggest otherwise.

personally depending on your event i would be asking the coach for training concept and the athletes for what they think of training and the coach's personality. you should be able to discern from outside sources, the TFRRS/school website, how they use their runner roster over a season and what it takes to have a shot at the team.

i might also ask how well balanced school/running/downtime are.

The user who described them as a dumpster fire nailed it. They only have 3 decent distance guys and none of them have come close to their PRs this track season.

Sanford ran 3:55 in the 1500 as a freshman and split 1:52 in the 4x8. So far this year he has run 3:56 and 1:57.

Worrell ran 4:08 and 1:52 in high school, this season he has run 3:56 (~4:15 for 1600) and 1:55.

Casey 1:54 in high school and only 1:55 this outdoor season.

Their athletes have stagnated. It's the same story from their women's distance team except for a talented 400/800 runner.

This is a little harsh. Dentino seems like a really nice guy from an outsider perspective and he'll probably figure it out. My impression is Lafayette likes the quality of students that come along with XC and TF and will keep the program. There is no Title IX issue since they do not offer athletic scholarships so the stuff about cutting the program is probably nonsense. Lafayette has a huge endowment relative to school size so they should be able to invest in retreads and hopefully they do the indoor facility right with a state of the art upgrade. I see the Patriot League schools getting stronger if anything and Lafayette should become a part of this trend (because why run for a bad academic school?) but they do need to invest in some upgrades.

Do you have another option?

Go to Lehigh. 12 miles away.

Better school. Better program. Nicer campus.

You couldn't get into an Ivy League since you don't know how to form plurals.