Sun Belt Cross Country - Should UL drop it?

[Boomer]

AAAAAHHHHH-Were Malcomb Robinson and John McDonald from the Acadiana area????? Get to your school who can win---BTW take a look at the commits for ULM and Tech!!!!!!

[Benchwarmer]

_ AAAAAHHHHH-Were Malcomb Robinson and John McDonald from the Acadiana area????? Get to your school who can win---BTW take a look at the commits for ULM and Tech!!!!!! _

I wouldn't recommend going to ULM to run track to my worst enemy.

Just so we understand each other by "out of towners", I mean those runners recruited from other countries instead of from this country.

[Turbine]

_ I wouldn't recommend going to ULM to run track to my worst enemy.

I thought Judge Doug Saloom was sending his son there? What happened?

[Benchwarmer]

igeaux.mobi

Ended up at Stephen F Austin in Nacogdoches. Lost a year of eligiblity as ULM wouldn't release him.

[Boomer]

_ I wouldn't recommend going to ULM to run track to my worst enemy.

Just so we understand each other by "out of towners", I mean those runners recruited from other countries instead of from this country. _

Those 2 guys are some of the best ever to run at UL---England and Ireland!!!! I was talking about the out of state ULM and Tech football commits!!!!

[GetTheFacts1st]

_ You would be wrong, the entire track and field program both men's and women's to include cross country was alotted 30 minutes with the S & C program and weight room. 30 fricken minutes, to work out 60+ athletes give me a fricken break. Contrary to what most people think, track and field is extremely demanding on the body and proper strength and conditioning is a must. The former S&C coaches gave them the shaft. _

another reason for Scott Farmer to call Boo Schexnayder and beg him to sign on as track coach...he knows more than ANY S&C coach UL will ever have.

[jjs9534]

You would never drop cross country! This is an obviously biased opinion, coming from someone who ran cross country, but it's like fall ball for distance runners. It's like saying let's get rid of track!

There are numerous long distance events in track(1500, 3000, 5000, 10000, steeplechase) that cross country running helps keep you in shape for. Long distance running is not like football where you can take a month or two off to recuperate, it's a year round sport and I would venture to say that most of the kids on the XC team are self-motivated to get better.

Also, I can personally attest to the "international" comment made by one poster. A number of teams recruit Kenyans, Ethiopians, etc...

Also, how much money are we really talking about saving here. That's the best part of running, hardly any equipment (shoes and a uniform) and transportation and lodging (which is the expensive part). As one poster has already said, the loss in state funding due to Title IX considerations would offset any gain by cutting Cross Country (which is probably part of the T&F budget if I had to guess anyway).

[Turbine]

You would never drop cross country! This is an obviously biased opinion, coming from someone who ran cross country, but it's like fall ball for distance runners. It's like saying let's get rid of track!

There are numerous long distance events in track(1500, 3000, 5000, 10000, steeplechase) that cross country running helps keep you in shape for. Long distance running is not like football where you can take a month or two off to recuperate, it's a year round sport and I would venture to say that most of the kids on the XC team are self-motivated to get better.

Also, I can personally attest to the "international" comment made by one poster. A number of teams recruit Kenyans, Ethiopians, etc...

Also, how much money are we really talking about saving here. That's the best part of running, hardly any equipment (shoes and a uniform) and transportation and lodging (which is the expensive part). As one poster has already said, the loss in state funding due to Title IX considerations would offset any gain by cutting Cross Country (which is probably part of the T&F budget if I had to guess anyway).

Thanks I learned something.
igeaux.mobi

[CajunRebel]

Why would title ix come in to play here? If you are cutting both men and women equally then it shouldn't be an issue.


igeaux.mobi

[jjs9534]

_ Why would title ix come in to play here? If you are cutting both men and women equally then it shouldn't be an issue.


igeaux.mobi _

I, personally, don't understand the Title IX ramifications (if there are any).

I think the stronger point is that cutting the program will not save any money as it is more than likely part of the track and field program. When I was going to school, the track coach was also the cross country coach. I'm sure it is still the same.

And until recently(like the last 5 years), UL (or USL) used to be one of the premier track/CC programs in the Sunbelt. There are banners around the track complex backing that up.

I think the Title IX ramifications come into the sports offered. For instance, almost every high school in the area has cross country and track and field, so we offer it. If you look across Louisiana, pretty much every college offers cross country. Title IX stipulates : respond to the expressed interests of students capable of intercollegiate competition who belong to the underrepresented sex. I would say Cross Country falls under women's interest. Now, personally, eliminating the program would not help alleviate any money problems. XC uses the same facility as Track & Field, so to the original poster's comment, I guess I would say let's get rid of the whole T&F program.

But using the orginal poster's logic, since football was so terrible when Baldwin was the coach, we should have just got rid of the football program back then. Nobody is advocating that. But as you can see, I am pretty passionate about cross country and track because I participated in those sports and still run to this day. It's been a life long passion of mine, so I defend it vigorously.

[Cajunrunner]

I know I'm late chiming in here, but I don't really view this board except about once every couple weeks. However, a few things:

1) Someone posted about the last place results being part of the "Tim LeMaire legacy." The only team conference championship within the UL Track & CC programs since '98 came from the LeMaire coached CC Mens team back in 2004. I'm not trying to pin sprinters vs. distance type thing here, just stating a fact.

2) Someone mentioned as an excuse the CC & Track teams getting something like only 30 minutes of weight room time. I would like to suggest that distance runners can do without weights, or at least traditional weight-room lifting, if need me. In fact, you can definitely be well off with core-body and endurance type strength training (push-ups, sit-up, pull-ups, etc.) For lower body, run the upper decks at Cajun Field. For example, during my college tenure, instead of lifting weights, I would peak out at 1200 sit-ups/day for 5 days/week, and would put in 200 push-ups and 50 pull-ups/day for 3 days/week. Besides, Skeeter (Mark Theall) suggested I layoff the traditional weights, and being his PR in the mile and other events, he knew a thing or two!

3) A former distance runner chimed in that at the most, college distance runners can take only one two months off out of a year. This is true. However, part of the problem I have found is that many in the last generation are NOT training year round. Running 5 miles/day is not training by college distance running standards.

But that's the thing with distance running. In sports like football, baseball, basketball, coaches can monitor training a bit more, unless as a coach you're going to have your distance runners just run around the same field or track the entire time so you can watch them closely, make sure there's no slacking.

That is not realistic.

I think much of what is needed at this time goes back to two basic principles, DISCIPLINE and DEDICATION. Track & Field/Cross-Country should be run no different than you would run a fine structured Football program (I guess I would have a tough time chewing out and challenging the "manhood" of the women in the program, but I'm mostly talking about my experience as a male T&F athlete).

Tim LeMaire was very good at taking simply an above average Louisiana high school distance runner and turning him into someone who could go out and score points come Outdoor Conference Championships...as long as that athlete was willing to work at it. If there was a negative about Coach Tim, it was I thought he hasn't nearly enough of a hard-ass on the team, especially when it came to guys who were much better than average high school runners, were recruited and given scholarships to run in college, but basiclly drug ass most of their collegiate careers.

Ok, rant over. Everyone have a good weekend. Geaux Cajuns!

[Turbine]

Skeeter (Mark Theall) suggested I layoff the traditional weights, and being his PR in the mile and other events, he knew a thing or two!

Ditto Dat!

ps probably still does.