Last, Last, Last and Last

[vu72]

Wonder to what I'm referring?

It is the results from the Horizon League swimming and track and field championships. Valpo has a LOT of work to do to compete in the Horizon in these sports.

Having a REAL track might just be a step in the right direction.

Listen, don't kill the messenger. I'm just reporting reality. Not good.

[okinawatyphoon]

It must be extremely difficult to recruit track students when you don't even have the facilities for the sport. But yes we do have a lot of work to do.....it's a little embarrassing.

[valporun]

During the indoor season, vu72, have you seen the three lanes of basically a plastic track that the team has to practice on, plus no sand or jumps pits for the teams to practice on that provide any kind of safety, as well as confidence in the ability to get better. These alone are difficult to talk with a recruit about when you don't have the facilities to show them that they can get better, maybe compete for a conference title or go to the NCAA Championship meets.
Also, I'm not really sure how much recruiting Ryan Moore or Mike Straubel actually do anymore, knowing that all they would have to show the kids are very underfunded promises, right now, for a new track facility around Brown Field, or even a fieldhouse for indoor practices/competitions.

I know when I competed at Valpo from 2000-2004, Tyler Wingard was actively recruiting athletes all day, all year long. He would come to the office in the fall and have letters typed to send out to every senior track and field athlete who competed at their respective state meet, as a previous school year's junior. We would be sending out hundreds of recruiting letters, as a team, in early September, just as he's getting ready to promote the fall camp and his program to the incoming freshmen and returning athletes. Tyler would consistently have large rosters of athletes, nearing 125-140 between both the men's and women's teams. Yes, we would lose many of those athletes due to commitment, or first sight of the facilities they would have train on. He always made sure that we knew that recruiting and team growth was happening at Valpo, even while he was struggling on a personal level with trying to get a math professorship in the Valpo math department. I do know that tangent got a little off the topic, but it is relevant to showing why our track team has seen a drastic downfall, in my opinion, and why the institution wasn't able to keep a strong, dedicated recruiter and dedicated coach in Tyler Wingard at Valpo to see our track program grow and become fruitful to our athletic community.

[vu72]

I fully understand the problem track and field athletes have at Valpo. I should have made it clear that inspite of the poor showing we should giv a great deal of credit for simply competing given the state of the facilities.

As for recruiting I have noticed some pretty good athletes coming on board. We have a women's pole vaulter for example who had marks in high school better than Valpo's school record. In the outdoor seaon everyone will get to see Raegan Moore run. Right now she is busuy with basketball. Her times in the 100, 200 and 400 meters are all better or lose to Valpo records.

Oh, and by the way, does posting "Last, Last, Last and Last" sound like I'm "promoting everything Valpo"??

[valporun]

Mar 1, 2010 15:17:15 GMT -5 vu72 said:

I fully understand the problem track and field athletes have at Valpo. I should have made it clear that inspite of the poor showing we should giv a great deal of credit for simply competing given the state of the facilities.

As for recruiting I have noticed some pretty good athletes coming on board. We have a women's pole vaulter for example who had marks in high school better than Valpo's school record. In the outdoor seaon everyone will get to see Raegan Moore run. Right now she is busuy with basketball. Her times in the 100, 200 and 400 meters are all better or lose to Valpo records.

Oh, and by the way, does posting "Last, Last, Last and Last" sound like I'm "promoting everything Valpo"??

That's two athletes out of about a combined 60 on both the men's and women's teams, but no one has been spectacular on this team, since Bartholomew and Rolf were the names that Valpo had to talk about regionally. That still doesn't answer why our roster size looks so small.
I also look at the entirety of the meet results, and often times we aren't competitive at all. Sure, we get one or two names that finish in the top 10 of an event, but that event may have only had 10 or 11 people. I would much rather see regression in meets because we're going against some tough competition that gets us ready for the next big invitational or conference, unfortunately our schedule gets us ready to get some times/distances/heights, but not much that puts any of our kids close to qualifying for national college meets or national championship competition. We're either regressing or becoming stagnant, and the recruiting seems to be almost non-existent, besides the pole vaulter from Lake Central.

[valpogal]

Both of these team-track and field and swimming have the same problems: lack of decent facilities and lack of funding( one or two token scholarships). It continues to amaze me that we can even recruit student-athletes into either of these sports. Props go out to the coaches who work hard to recruit these student-athletes and keep them at Valpo. These programs are certainly viable but a little more financial support would go a long way. Props also to those student-athletes who continue to work hard day after day for little or no recognition for their accomplishments.