Living in a college town when you’re not associated with the university is depressing.
Memo, they are associated with the University in a very key way whether they like it or not. The run for Nike due to the largess of Phil Knight who cares very much about Oregon.
Can they not just live in Portland and drive down for the key workouts?
Illogical move wrote: Many athletes have been leaving BTC. If more athletes leave when does Nike or Nike Sports Marketing question the two coaches motives?
HELLO? The man who is responsible for Nike being so into track and field has literally given hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to Eugene/Nike/Hayward Field. Nike execs understand damn well the coaches motives - please Phil and make UO a distance powerhouse. If Nike's runners don't want to run there, I'm surethey'll be happy to tell them, "Find another coach or don't let the door hit you on the way out." Phil would MUCH rather see Oregon thrive than see the the #4 runner on the BTC have a rocking Bumble account.
By this logic alone I would never run for BTC or any Nike group. Why, as a pro, do you have to bow your head to any University?
Also, I can't imagine driving two hours every time there is a "key workout".
Poor BTC, got manipulated and then eventually screwed over.
Lopez Lomong maybe? Woody seems to have some connections to Boulder now. Elise has strong Boulder ties and is close with the team Boss ladies.
Lopez is 37, I expect him to retire pretty soon anyway. Cranny im doubtful considering the year she had with new PRs and American records. Kincaid has gone from an afterthought at NCAA level to making consistent US teams, also find it hard to think he will leave
Living in a college town when you’re not associated with the university is depressing.
Memo, they are associated with the University in a very key way whether they like it or not. The run for Nike due to the largess of Phil Knight who cares very much about Oregon.
Can they not just live in Portland and drive down for the key workouts?
Illogical move wrote: Many athletes have been leaving BTC. If more athletes leave when does Nike or Nike Sports Marketing question the two coaches motives?
HELLO? The man who is responsible for Nike being so into track and field has literally given hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to Eugene/Nike/Hayward Field. Nike execs understand damn well the coaches motives - please Phil and make UO a distance powerhouse. If Nike's runners don't want to run there, I'm surethey'll be happy to tell them, "Find another coach or don't let the door hit you on the way out." Phil would MUCH rather see Oregon thrive than see the the #4 runner on the BTC have a rocking Bumble account.
Hello… Eugene is a very small part of what’s going on.
You are missing the underlying problems at BTC. There are many.
Fundamentally, it has to do with Schumacher’s treatment of athletes on BTC. That is why people have left and are continuing to leave.
Memo, they are associated with the University in a very key way whether they like it or not. The run for Nike due to the largess of Phil Knight who cares very much about Oregon.
Can they not just live in Portland and drive down for the key workouts?
HELLO? The man who is responsible for Nike being so into track and field has literally given hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to Eugene/Nike/Hayward Field. Nike execs understand damn well the coaches motives - please Phil and make UO a distance powerhouse. If Nike's runners don't want to run there, I'm surethey'll be happy to tell them, "Find another coach or don't let the door hit you on the way out." Phil would MUCH rather see Oregon thrive than see the the #4 runner on the BTC have a rocking Bumble account.
Hello… Eugene is a very small part of what’s going on.
You are missing the underlying problems at BTC. There are many.
Fundamentally, it has to do with Schumacher’s treatment of athletes on BTC. That is why people have left and are continuing to leave.
Why the heck you guys think Solinsky is coming? Jerry needs help with putting this all together. Solinsky and Flanagan are either going to take the brunt of the Load with coaching and administrative duties with UO(Solinsky for sure understands the college coaching aspect enough to act as head coach to some extent) so that jerry and get BTC on board and put more energy into them. Or Solinsky is there to work with BTC mainly and then assist with UO Mens distance
This is an interesting discussion because it is part of a larger discussion going on in society about what a work location means, the implications of work-from-home, how can we measure the value of something in-person v. virtual, and so forth.
Sure, people have always complained about having to move to or drive to some location, but nowadays people feel entitled (and I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way) to staying put. The burden of proof is on someone else to prove that additional value will be created by performing some function in location B versus A, even if performing in B means doing in-person what would have to be done virtually from A.
Imo: Portland absolutely blows. Beaverton (where all of these athletes lived) is fine but running in Portland and even Beaverton is much worse than in Eugene. That being said, having all of these people move with not a ton of warning and having your coach triple or quadruple the amount of athletes he's responsible for is obviously not okay and I would be mad if I was in their situation as well. From what I've heard from reliable sources is that almost none of them are happy about the move and more importantly, having a distracted coach, but they're kind of stuck because Nike pays the big bucks and it's still the best situation available for them.
Memo, they are associated with the University in a very key way whether they like it or not. The run for Nike due to the largess of Phil Knight who cares very much about Oregon.
Can they not just live in Portland and drive down for the key workouts?
HELLO? The man who is responsible for Nike being so into track and field has literally given hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to Eugene/Nike/Hayward Field. Nike execs understand damn well the coaches motives - please Phil and make UO a distance powerhouse. If Nike's runners don't want to run there, I'm surethey'll be happy to tell them, "Find another coach or don't let the door hit you on the way out." Phil would MUCH rather see Oregon thrive than see the the #4 runner on the BTC have a rocking Bumble account.
Hello… Eugene is a very small part of what’s going on.
You are missing the underlying problems at BTC. There are many.
Fundamentally, it has to do with Schumacher’s treatment of athletes on BTC. That is why people have left and are continuing to leave.
I know the handling of Houlihan rubbed some the wrong way and caused some roster shake ups, and now the Eugene move, but are there any other things you're alluding to? Is there anything else he's done to treat athletes poorly?
The solution is very simple. Jerry and the coaches (the ones who made the decision to take a 2nd job and who are getting extra money for it) should be the ones commuting to Portland to run workouts with their team in Portland. They can buy houses in Corvallis or Salem and be within an hour commute of both locations. Plenty of folks commute that far. No need for any of the athletes to be disrupted.
Being based in Eugene seems like an illogical move for a professional distance team that is now tied to a University coaches schedule and all that comes with that.
Shouldn’t a distance team be based at altitude most of the year and come down to warm weather sea level camps vs. the opposite?
It would seem Collegiate schedules are very different from professional international schedules and time commitments from coaches would be in continual conflict. Obviously race schedules are very different, college recruiting cuts into the summer international schedules. Altitude camps (based on BTC’s current set up) fall on the Collegiate indoor and outdoor schedule. How do the UofO coaches spend any time at altitude camps to check on athletes?
Having been to Eugene many times it I s a somewhat isolated college town and not necessarily stimulating for mature professional athletes.
UofO is obviously paying the coaches more than what they receive from their Bowerman setup so their energy is spent where they are being paid the most.
Many athletes have been leaving BTC. If more athletes leave when does Nike or Nike Sports Marketing question the two coaches motives?
Where the athletes consulted in all of this?
It seems like a counter productive move for BTC athletes and a lucrative move for the coaches.
Thoughts?
I’d say that Nike Sports Marketing should take a deeper look at Jerry and Shalane. Something is not right here.
Mo was happy enough to go from London to Eugene. Sifan from Amsterdam to Eugene. Koko from some big German city to Eugene. Kejelcha from Addis and pts smaller to Eugene. And of course Centro from Eugene to Eugene--easy pickings for him.
Problems, schmoblems. Jerry and Shalane have gotten Cranny to 14:30s/30:13(?), Schweizer to mid 8:20s/14:26, Frerichs to sub-9 and medals, Houlihan to 3:54.99/mid-8:20s, 14:24, Fraser and many other surprises to sub 15 or even sub-14:50, Woody and Lopez sub 13, Centro 13 flat, Bumbi low 7:30s, Moh to 12:47/26:34, Fisher to 12:46/26:33, Jager to 8 flat/13:02, Teg to 12:58, Solinsky to 12:55, 12:55, 12:56, and 26:59! And Teare will tear a new hole in 3:50/7:30/13:00 this year. So, quit your whingeing about Jerry and Shalane.
Living in a college town when you’re not associated with the university is depressing.
Memo, they are associated with the University in a very key way whether they like it or not. The run for Nike due to the largess of Phil Knight who cares very much about Oregon.
Can they not just live in Portland and drive down for the key workouts?
Illogical move wrote: Many athletes have been leaving BTC. If more athletes leave when does Nike or Nike Sports Marketing question the two coaches motives?
HELLO? The man who is responsible for Nike being so into track and field has literally given hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to Eugene/Nike/Hayward Field. Nike execs understand damn well the coaches motives - please Phil and make UO a distance powerhouse. If Nike's runners don't want to run there, I'm surethey'll be happy to tell them, "Find another coach or don't let the door hit you on the way out." Phil would MUCH rather see Oregon thrive than see the the #4 runner on the BTC have a rocking Bumble account.
You're missing the point: yes BTC are "associated" with the university, but the point is that if you are in your mid-to-late twenties and live in a town where there is nothing to do then it's pretty depressing. If you go to the university as a student you can at least retreat into student life but what are Grant Fisher and Elise Cranny going to do? Start hanging around with college kids in their spare time? I can't see many BTC athletes sticking it out for more than a year, it's not worth pissing away some of the best years of your life in a tedious backwater. I also wouldn't be surprised to see performances suffer as the athletes' quality of life declines
Hello… Eugene is a very small part of what’s going on.
You are missing the underlying problems at BTC. There are many.
Fundamentally, it has to do with Schumacher’s treatment of athletes on BTC. That is why people have left and are continuing to leave.
I know the handling of Houlihan rubbed some the wrong way and caused some roster shake ups, and now the Eugene move, but are there any other things you're alluding to? Is there anything else he's done to treat athletes poorly?
Mo was happy enough to go from London to Eugene. Sifan from Amsterdam to Eugene. Koko from some big German city to Eugene. Kejelcha from Addis and pts smaller to Eugene. And of course Centro from Eugene to Eugene--easy pickings for him.
All those athletes you mentioned were in Portland, not Eugene.
For real. I think these folks dissing Eugene have only been on campus. As someone who went to UO for grad school and stayed… I only see college kids when I go to Hayward and Autzen for sports now. I work downtown, go out downtown, hang out with my 30 something friends in the Whit and South Eugene. There are great schools if you can afford to live in the right neighborhood (which presumably people from Portland can). Someone mentioned losing ballet, gymnastics, and violin for kids… um what? This isn’t bumble f*** country people. All those things exist. In terms of jobs for spouses the job market is going to be similar depending on what a person is looking for. At the end of the day it’s not the PLACE Jerry moved to but the fact he moved at all and tripled his athlete number.
Walk into any job-setting in the world and suddenly tell 20+ adults you're forcing them to move to another city, whether they like it or not, and there's a 100% chance that some of the people will be unhappy with it. Even if the two cities are a drivable distance apart, it still is a significant change in your life you didn't necessarily ask for. Of course, some aren't happy. That's 100% avoidable.