I have spoken to two people who have told me the same thing.
One is a former coach of one of the BTC runners, the other is one of our top female distance athletes who is familiar with the group. Do not be surprised if there are some more roster changes.
Didnt Shelby Houlihan of all people say on a podcast that people on BTC werent happy when they found out?
Regardless, doesnt take a genius to guess grown adults weren't excited to be given basically no warning that they had to move to a middle of nowhere small college town regardless of having homes, spouses, kids, and weren't asked for their opinion on the matter. And to no tangible benefit to yourself, just so your coach who is meant to be full time working with you who already makes north of 300k/year and has his own private basketball court, can take on another full time job that will pay him an additional $450,000 a year.
I can't think of a scenario where one of the aathletes given that prospect goes "yay that sounds like a great deal, that's an improvement, besides I don't like being asked my opinion anyway."
On the coffeeclub podcast episode with Elise Cranny she talks about this a little bit and says that the majority of the athletes were not thrilled with the move to Eugene and Jerry taking the Oregon coaching job. It was very interesting to listen to her perspective on this.
What can a distracted coach say or do for a runner positively to justify a (105 to 110) mile move?
The cost of living in Eugene "might" be cheaper than living in the Greater Portland Metro area? I don't think the coaches bought cheaper homes in Eugene (because they were given a pay bump), but the athletes might.
No insider info but this makes a lot of sense to me as late 20s-early 30s athletes probably don’t want to live in a small college town, especially since the reason behind the move is their coach taking on a big new role …
I don’t blame them. Have you ever been to Eugene? Not much to do there if you’re not a student…and unlike other college towns like Berkeley, there’s no surrounding cities within 1 hr with more activities to do.
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.
What can a distracted coach say or do for a runner positively to justify a (105 to 110) mile move?
The cost of living in Eugene "might" be cheaper than living in the Greater Portland Metro area? I don't think the coaches bought cheaper homes in Eugene (because they were given a pay bump), but the athletes might.
That might be the only upside, you could rent out your place in Portland, find a rental in Eugene, and possibly score a little extra income. The downside is having a spouse move their job, unless they can work remotely or want to commute by train up to Portland, uprooting kids from their schools and friends, moving everyone away from friends you have outside of running.
Oh now I see this thread was ahead of mine sorry about that.
Yes, the move makes no sense at all for the athletes. Makes dollars and cents for the coaches.
Wonder what Shalane Flanigans response would have been to such a move when she was still a professional athlete and not riding the coattails of Schumacher to advance her new coaching profession?
To hear the athletes weren’t consulted speaks volumes to how Schumacher rolls. So many previous posts from ex athletes speak volumes to his inability to work with them on specific needs etc.
He bumbled the Houlihan situation beyond imagination and did much to sully the reputations of current BTC athletes.
BTC athlete have been leaving and more may.
If Fisher were to leave the entire BTC would fall apart.
That is on Schumacher and Nike. Wonder how much oversight Nike has on BTC as it sounds like a miss managed entity from a guy who probably isn’t a very good manager and should not have been left alone to manage it His coaching is non debatable and produces if an athlete can survive. His personal skills are deplorable.
Dont see him lasting long in either position and he has only himself to blame.
If your office job suddenly moved two hours away and wasn't 100% remote, you think every single employee would be happy about it?
I would be furious and start applying for other jobs out of spite.
Jerry has helped athletes like Schweizer, Cranny, and Fisher have so much success. I can't imagine those three being as successful with another coach. Should they just suck it up and accept it or leave for another team? If I were them, I'd have a team meeting (athletes only) to discuss and try to let the emotions out and figure out what to do.