Sun Belt Cross Country - Should UL drop it?

[Oiler]

_ Are you actually serious?

How about everyone who views this fricken site that complains everyday how we suck and how we need this and that pony up some money for the program. If your donating already, give more. If you are not giving any cash shut up. _

I'm all for every UL fan giving as much as they possibly can. Lord knows, in the coming months, we'll need all the donations we can get. The point I was making was simply that I did not realize that we were only fielding the minimum number of athletic teams that are required by Title 9 or whatever. I thought we fielded more, and that maybe we would eliminate some of the less popular programs in order to focus our resources on football, basketball, baseball, and softball.

[Benchwarmer]

Absolutely not! UL XC has a long way to go but really can't be judged this year. First, the XC coach was not hired until late August. Most other teams had already been practicing thru the summer. While I don't believe they have a "superstar" they do have a good group of kids that will form the basis for a capable team in the future. Give the new XC coach a chance to recruit and train.

The real question is does the XC Coach, sell out and go after the Kenyans and other international runners that so many other teams have done. Lamar is a prime example of a team that has turned its back on American kids in favor of the instant gratification of winning without needing to be a good coach. Made up of foreigners, many southern schools dominate while treating their american kids as tokens. McNeese leading runners are Kenyan & Irish but at least has some quality american kids important to their team. In the Southland, the first 7 runners were international students. With education money so tight, I find it very frustrating that American high school kids are shunned the opportunity to get an education and represent their school while our education money is spent on "out of towners" who will provide little or no post graduate benefit to the school or the school's community except to bring in more of their "out of towners" to take the place of american kids. This seems to be the new XC theme, "Give me your overaged international runner and I will instantly win championships rather than take four years coaching young americans into being champion runners".

The big question is who will replace Mahfouz. It is disappointing that his personal issues reared their ugly head at this time as it did appear he was building a decent track team.

[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