Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Arcadia fires nationally recognized cross country coach

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

that's how little school administrations think of cross country. what a travesty

Andrew said...

that's ridiculous. I mean, two time national champions! If the school wants to go in another direction, I guess that means not being national champions.

Albert Caruana said...

Unfortunately, accomplishments don't mean anything when you are deemed a loose cannon.

Anonymous said...

There's an obvious rift between XC and TF there, though. Probably just turned into a battle of which coach was better connected with the powers-that-be.

Anonymous said...

He's probably getting a lot of phone calls for coaching positions.

Anonymous said...

looks like some of his kids are starting to post on that caltrack "article". feel terrible for them

John said...

Probably didn't help that he convinced most of the team to compete for his club instead of the school's track team during the Spring....

ahs runner said...

Coach didn't have to convince us of anything, we all made the choice on our own. Go to the prepcaltrack.com story and you'll see some of our thoughts there.

Anonymous said...

It is well publicized on forums like letsrun that this guy is a wacko nutcase. However, he connected with his runners and got them to run amazing. But there are a few things to consider here: Administrators view cross country as a participation sport. They want many kids to do it but don't want any complaints. This is not football. Section, State, or National titles don't mean any more than a kid earning presidential fitness in PE. In the public school system creating rifts like this are a great way to get fired.

Fact is XC is the most popular sport by numbers of them all, I wish administrators would realize this. But football draws the crowds and brings in the money.

If you get along and lose you have a job. You do things a little different you get fired.

Lesson here, administrator don't care about XC.

John said...

ahs runner,

whether he convinced you or you went on your own accord, it didn't help his chances of being retained as XC coach.

This set up a situation where it was either run for the club or the high school. Do you think the administrators (who employed him) were happy with this?

As for the long-term, what happens if O'Brien lands at another HS program? Are you all going to transfer?

I'm sorry you are caught in the middle of this powerplay because ultimately you're the ones getting screwed...

ahs runner said...

John, you are right, it's a terrible situation and we're the ones that are being affected by it, which is why we are so upset right now. Why were we even put in the position in the first place when they wouldn't allow him to coach us in track? We were supposed to blindly accept and be okay with that? I don't know what is going to happen. Coach O'Brien doesn't want any of this to distract or worry us and to keep doing our thing, but that's pretty tough to do in this situation

CCS DejaVu said...

We've already been through this in the CCS, old news for us. You are going to hear that O'Brien was the greatest guy in the world and great for the kids, at the same time you will hear he is a wacko and bad for the kids. This will be an issue for a while and then like everything else it will be forgotten. The only ones who will remember are the athletes, coaches and families who are directly involved, the destruction of what they love will always be a big deal to them even if others say to just 'move on'.

John said...

ahs runner,

Unfortunately because of the coach, athletes and administration's actions, you have to make a choice again. They called his bluff and he's no longer the XC coach.

So do you continue to stick with him, even if it means no CIF nor NXN and only run JO, open races and Footlocker? Or do you go back and run for Arcadia?

Rightly or wrongly, he helped create this situation so needs to accept part of the blame.

Anonymous said...

By the look of the comments Arcadia English teachers should be fired, not the cross country coach. Can anyone at Arcadia spell or write a sentence that makes any sense?

As it has been said this is old news here. But Carlmont's club team is still going strong right? Or did they cave and get to train off campus and still race for the school? My guess is next year there is a club team but no XC... Just to cause a stink. But they will trickle back to mediocrity which is where they were probably headed anyways after the talent tricked through. No offense but your not winning NXN with 9:40 as your top track guy.

Albert Caruana said...

"You're"...quite ironic.

Anonymous said...

I go to Arcadia.

hank said...

yore, your, you're right albert

hank

Albert Caruana said...

You have discovered one of my pet peeves!

Anonymous said...

I think all the kids (and a few parents) who posted on the prepcaltrack article are mad because Rich chose the wrong word.

They took "convinced" to mean "forced" or "persuaded."

Obviously we all know no one forced you to join O'Brien's Army. But he did force you to make a choice.

O'Brien's Army ran at one of my college meets this year, and while the top few runners like De La Rosa did get to run against better competition (he definitely beat me), most of them were stuck in the last heats.

And actually the last 2 or 3 heats of every distance event were almost exclusively comprised of the high schoolers with almost no other teams involved. That's not "better competition." That's an intrasquad meet.

Andrew said...

ugh you guys saying that XC isn't important to administrators are right...just way too much politics for me. That's why I'm the assistant.

Anonymous said...

Albert, Eye fer won got you're "YOU'RE" comment. Eye isn't sew sure everbody did. It bee a pet peeve of me two.

Anonymous said...

It's not only ironic and pretentious, but STOOPID to put down English teachers, when you use "your" instead of "you're."
Callin' the kettle black.

ahs runner said...

for those races where it was like an "intrasquad meet", well that's pretty much what any Arcadia kid would have on the track team unless they were the top kids on the team that got to run at invitationals. Also, a lot or all of us that ran in the slower heats WOULDN'T HAVE EVEN BEEN ALLOWED TO RACE ON THE TRACK TEAM BECAUSE OF RIDICULOUS STANDARDS. As a freshman or a sophomore, you have to run a 5:20 mile before the season even starts just to make the team, so basically everyone on the track team at the end of the year are sub 5 minute milers. Do you see that anywhere else?

Anonymous said...

Actually-I like the idea of minimum standards in track. That might help dispel the impression that track and field is nothing more than after-school daycare with uniforms... So tired of the idiotic hacks that come out and make a mockery of the sport because it's no-cut and they can get away with it.

Anonymous said...

Point well taken. But for every "hack" there are also very serious athletes who just don't have the ability or the experience to hit marks that would get them on many teams. Good coaches should be able to monitor whose heart is in the right place and cut anyone, regardless of their ability, if they're not there to work hard.

Nils said...

I agree with Anon 10:20 AM that there are slow but serious runners. It should not be that hard for the coach to enforce a "train hard or leave" standard, which allows for slower runners but cuts the slackers.

Popular Posts