The Book CC Track & Field 2006-07

[cjr3888]

Why is the track program not funded by the university?

[RaginFan2]

Why is the track program not funded by the university?

$$$

[cajun4ever]

Well considering it is not funded by the University and can not even pay 3 full time coaches what do you expect. i would like to see you try and give the individual attention each track athlete needs to excell at this level when you only have one full time assistant and a part time distance coach. It can not get done.

I was done when Lancon and Badon were here in the early 90's!!!

[No_Namer]

A quick review:

-In 2004 UL's track team was the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Runner-up on the men’s side (Veazey was first year head coach riding on the coat tails of Charlie Lancon's runners)

-In 2006 (2 years after Veazey took over) UL's track team dropped from being 2nd overall (2004) to second from last (9th place out of 10 teams) in indoor track on the men’s side, the women finished LAST. In outdoor track, both the men’s AND the women’s teams finished LAST!

-Now, 2007 indoor track, the men’s AND women’s teams finished DEAD LAST!

The upcoming outdoor track season looks promising......to finish LAST on both the men’s and women’s side again!

Every year the team has gotten worse since Veazey took over the program. The program has become a joke; they are the laughing stock of the Sun Belt Conference. This is a team that used to be highly respected and did well year after year. It is now a big joke.

So, who's to blame here? Of course the athletes have to hold themselves responsible. But at what point in time do we hold the coaches responsible? In my opinion, when you have 99% of your athletes running slower than they did in high school after 1-3 years in the college system, there is something TERRIBLY wrong with the coaching staff. I have taken a few of the current UL track and field athletes, and found their best times/jumps/throws from high school and compared them to how they are currently doing while competing for UL. (I took these names at random from the current roster).

Name/ High School/ HS best time & Event/ Current time at SB Conference Meet

Stephanie Harris/St. Michaels/ 10:46 3k/ 11:31 3k
Stacey Fuller/ Dallas Skyline/ 49.12 400m/ 50.51 400m
Constance Robinson/ DeSoto/ 57.54 400m/ 59.52 400m
Brent Almand/ The Woodlands/ 15:36 5k/ 17:18 5k
Brandon Orso/ Denham Springs/ 16:14 5k (cross country) / 16:21 5k (track)
Jazmin Greer/ Dallas Skyline/ 24.68 200m/ 26:04 200m
Callie Picou/ Walker/ 18:44 5k/ 19:50 5k

This is just a few of the UL runners that are currently performing MUCH WORSE than they did in high school. I can list many more as I have them written down.

Not only are UL track and field athletes not running faster than they did in high school, they are less competitive. For example....

Jamie Blue finished 25th out of 27 runners in the 400m run and finished 34th out of 36 runners in the 200m run.

Stacey Enright finished 14th out of 17 runners in the 1 mile run.

Tiffany Saltzman finished 26th out of 26 runners in the 800m run.

Ashley Faulk finished 19th out of 21 runners in the 3k run and 23rd out of 27 runners in the 5k run, just ahead of teammates Suzanne Boudreaux and Stephanie Harris which finished 24th and 26th out of the 27 runners in the 5k.

India Bell and Chiara Obey finished 27th and 28th in the 55m dash out of the 28 runners.

On the men's side...
Joey Wynn, Quenton Jones, and Tramaine Cosey finished 19th, 20th, and 21st in the 400m dash out of 24 runners.

The men's 4x400m relay team finished 6th out of the 7 teams that finished the race.


Obviously SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE!!!!! There was a similar thread like this last year, saying that something needed to be done. Nothing was done and the team finished worse this year. The program is a complete embarrassment to this university. I do not understand why there is not a coaching change! From what I have heard, Lance Veazey spends the majority of his day surfing myspace and facebook while he should be recruiting new athletes and coaching his current athletes.

Lance Veazey (along with the part time distance coach who works at a local elementary school) needs to be FIRED RIGHT AWAY!!!!!!!!


I HOPE that Lance Veazey and Tim Lemaire read this. I hope that the UL athletic department reads this. I hope that the UL track athletes read this. I hope for these things because obviously most of these people are blind to the fact that our track program is A PIECE OF CRAP! Something needs to be done.....NOW! Fire Lance Veazey and his staff, hire a coach who knows ANYTHING about track and field, that will instill discipline (which seems to be a major missing component) and I'm certain the program will be back to where it SHOULD BE and WAS before Lance took over. If the appropriate measures are taken, the UL track team can turn itself around and re-establish itself as a Sun Belt powerhouse.

Dead last should NOT be an option. Lance and his staff seem to care less that they finished last....AGAIN!!!!! The sad thing is, it seems that they have corrupted their athletes into thinking that last place is an acceptable option!

Veazey, you should be FIRED!

-E.M.

[Pirogue]

What ever happened to Carl Lawson?

[Boomer]

Those were the days my friend I thought they'd never end!!!! Obviously they have!!!!

[cajun nation]

. . . I hope that the UL athletic department reads this.

Well I am glad to see that you got that off of your chest. But this university is not embaressed by the results of the meet and if you think they are your mistaken. Nothing will change in the near future either. if you are so passionate about that particular program then why dont you go out and raise 10 million for an endowment specificaly for track. So they would have a budget that would allow them to recruit and pay other coaches because we do have the lowest paid and lowest staffed coaching crew of any team in the sunbelt. A State has 9 fulltime coaches while we have 2. the sad part of that is about 6 of those makes more than Lance. So before you go out and start calling for peoples heads you need to take a closer look into the whole situation. I am not deffending the coaches here but they could both leave and make more monoey teaching and coaching in high school than they can at UL.

[cajun nation]

I was done when Lancon and Badon were here in the early 90's!!!

Lancon and Badon were both field event coaches. We do not have 9 javelin throwers on the roster, or do we have 9 shot putters, or discus guys. We do not have 9 hurdlers nor do we have any really good jumpers. that is how they won. They did not win with speed on the track, never. They took a huge lead coming out of the field and just held on. Badon coached the jumps and Lancon coached the throws. that is how it was done.

[cajun4ever]

Lancon and Badon were both field event coaches. We do not have 9 javelin throwers on the roster, or do we have 9 shot putters, or discus guys. We do not have 9 hurdlers nor do we have any really good jumpers. that is how they won. They did not win with speed on the track, never. They took a huge lead coming out of the field and just held on. Badon coached the jumps and Lancon coached the throws. that is how it was done.

They did not win with speed on the track, never.

Wrong. Badon coached some jumps but also sprints. Boo coached jumps in the mid 90's. And we did win with speed and field events. You have to have speed to win the 4X100 4X200 and the 4X400 at the Drake Relays. Two hurdlers in the top three of most meets. Two 200 meter men qualified to the NCAA championships. It was a team effort. No team was even close because of the points scored in the field. Which half were football guys. The sprints finished it off and no one else had a chance. It was done and can be again, but not with this staff.

[No_Namer]

this university is not embaressed by the results of the meet and if you think they are your mistaken. if you are so passionate about that particular program then why dont you go out and raise 10 million for an endowment specificaly for track. So they would have a budget that would allow them to recruit and pay other coaches because we do have the lowest paid and lowest staffed coaching crew of any team in the sunbelt.

If this university is not embarrassed by the results of the past few conference track meets then there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with this university! I feel like "Cajun Nation" is Lance Veazey himself, you sure do share some common personality traits! Both of you accept last place not only as ok, but it's like you think it's good or something?!?!?!?!

And I didn't mention anything about there not being enough money. Past coaches recruited athletes with the SAME crappy budget! Why can't Veazey? I'll tell you why....because he is a lazy BUM! So don't give me that crap!

And about fund raising. I happen to know that there have been MANY different people go to Veazey with fund raising ideas and he has shot the idea down. One person even offered to donate money to the program and Veazey told them "it's no big deal" and turned down the money.....WHY????

Even if Lance had a budget of $6 million he STILL WOULD NOT RECRUIT. He'd still be in his office surfing myspace and facebook looking a pictures of young college girls when he should be out calling kids or out coaching his current athletes.

Like someone said on the thread about Justin Arceneaux (the only person that got a medal at the indoor conference meet), NOTHING will change until Veazey is GONE!

The University of Louisiana Lafayette should be embarrassed of itself for allowing Lance Veazey to continue his role as head coach. Maybe it's because he's buddy buddy with the acting AD. Either way, it's pretty sad that 99% of his current athletes would like for him to be fired! That's just down right SAD!

E.M.