Coaching changes in the MVC and former Shockers doing well in the pro's

I took a few days away for vacation but there’s still lots going on in the world of track and field.

MVC Shake-up

I was out in Colorado for a golfing trip with Coach Rainbolt and some other buddies when we heard two MVC head coaches had left for new jobs.

Connie Price-Smith, from Southern Illinois, left her alma mater to be the new head coach at the University of Mississippi.  Northern Iowa’s head coach Dan Steele left to become an assistant at Iowa State University.  Earlier in the summer Bradley’s head coach Willie Wood left for the head gig at Miami of Ohio.

One of the reasons the MVC has been so strong in the past decade is because there hasn’t been a lot of moves by the head coaches.  These three coaches leaving the Valley mark the most significant change for our conference in quite a while.

Price-Smith was recently named the head coach of next year’s USA Olympic Track & Field Team and has had a lot of success at SIU.  This year their men upset us to win the MVC Outdoor title and their women’s team finished ninth at the NCAA Indoor Championships and 12^th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.  I’ve heard as many as two assistant coaches may be heading to Ole Miss with her along with the possibility of some top athletes.

Steele steadily built UNI into a contender in the MVC with this year’s men’s team finishing a strong third behind us at the MVC Outdoor Championships.  However, it sounds like their staff will remain mostly intact.

Wood was only at Bradley for one year after taking over for the departed Marc Burns (who went to Missouri two years ago).  Bradley also lost their top assistant Matt Esche to Alabama-Birmingham so they will have their third coach in three years as well as a new top assistant.

And who knows – there could be more changes before the summer is over.

What does it mean?

I’ve been coaching college track at the Division I level for 14 years now and at schools like the MVC (and the MAC where I was previously), it’s very important to have continuity in the coaching staff.  I think schools that have a larger national reputation could probably rebuild a little more quickly than a mid-major type school.

If SIU does indeed lose three of their coaches at once (and possibly some athletes), the next coach will have some significant rebuilding to do and the MVC is strong enough that it will take a while to get back to the top.  It’s a lot easier to fall to the bottom half quickly than to move up from the bottom to the top.

UNI’s future may be steadier since their assistant coaches appear to be staying but we don’t know who will be in charge at Cedar Falls.

Bradley, who focuses on cross country and distance, will probably be affected significantly although winning track titles isn’t a high priority for them.  Marc Burns built their program into a distance power and they have lots of quality athletes on the team.  It will be interesting to see what happens this fall for the folks in Peoria.

Our staff at Wichita State has remained together for the past five years and it appears we will all be together again for another run in 2016.  I think this is significant to why we have always been one of the teams to beat in the Valley year in and year out on both the men’s and women’s side.  Indiana State can also boast similar continuity and have been equally impressive with their success in the MVC.

It will be interesting to see who will fill these seats at SIU, UNI and Bradley.  Best of luck to Connie, Dan, Willie and Matt!

Oh I forgot we have a new addition to our program.  Coach Hetzendorf and his wife Amber had a baby boy this week!  Welcome Jack Hetzendorf to the Shocker family!

Vacation

I had the opportunity to play five days of golf in the mountains of Colorado with some great friends this week.  The courses were spectacular and my scores were spectacularly high!

Former Shockers doing well

It's been a busy summer for several former WSU Track & Field athletes as they continue their post-collegiate careers.

We had two alums compete at the Pan Am Games this week in Toronto, Candada.  Kellyn (Johnson) Taylor picked up a bronze medal for her effort in the 5000 meters while Austin Bahner finished eighth in the Decathlon.  Just yesterday Tomas Cotter, running in Europe, broke the 4-minute barrier in the Mile for the first time in his career with a time of 3:58.50.  Aliphine Tuliamuk-Bolton has also continued to run well on the road circuit this summer.

We are very proud that so many former Shockers are now out there in the professional ranks and having success.  It's a tough thing to be a pro track athlete but these athletes are showing what dedicated Shockers can do!

Movies

I used to write about movies in this blog but haven’t recently but I thought I’d mention about some I have seen recently.

One of the great things about living in Wichita is the large amount of interest in the arts and movies.  This year I have found a group that takes cult classic movies and plays them in the main movie theaters on select evenings.  In the past month I’ve seen Al Pacino in Scarface as well as Kurt Russell in Big Trouble in Little China.  Even though I had seen both movies previously it was awesome to see them on the big screen.  Watching at home isn’t close to the same.  And it was only $5 so win-win!

Next blog

Not sure when the next one will be but I do have a couple trips coming up.  In two weeks I will be in St Louis for the annual MVC coaches meeting, which should be interesting with all our changes, and I will also be heading “home” to Ohio to visit family as well as speak at a track and field clinic at my old high school.  Should be fun!

Until then thanks for reading -- Go Shocks!!!