A Sea Of Red

Past video interviews of LU's most prolific distant runner to date (with all due respect to Josh Cox):


http://www.flocasts.com/flotrack/speakers.php?sid=89

I had a feeling you would pleased about today's developments.

This was really 01's fight; but it will be nice to have a central place to post without having to dig through the "discount bin" to find threads among all of the general interest stuff.


That said, this thread will thrive even better if members of the current team would come on here and post workouts and about their road to a D1 scholarship (tricks and tips so to speak, how much they raced in high school, training, etc.) for high school runner lurkers who may happen to come across the thread (or there parents.)


I would say that McDougal, with the Liberty Flame Graphic emblazoned across his chest, has at least put the program name on the D1 radar of some potential recruits who may have been unaware of LU prior to his arrival. His performances hopefully will start to manifest themselves into attracting and landing high level and top notch recruits. They really have something potentially very special here these next couple of years to really build a solid foundation for an elite program if they can land some consistent top recruiting classes across the entire spectrum of events from Field Events and Sprints to Distance in addition to what they have currently in the stables (don't want to discount the talent already assembled.)


I think that his association with the program and the addition of a guy like Jimmerson to really shore up the distance coaching really signifies a commitment to rising to the top of Track & Field. You can see the evidence of the team "culture" shifting as Josh seems to really embrace the team success concept and with the huge drops in PR for the Jefferson chick (as far as distance)...it seems the mileage quotient and committment to training intensely has seeped into the psyche of the runners. A huge drop in time like she had really reveals the attention to training...


Now, not knowing Jimmerson or his coaching ability, from these results, one can reasonably assume that a portion of these successes most likely are attributed to the style and pedigree that Jimmerson brings to the program. It shows that the runners are trusting the coaching and buying into the what they are selling as far as training protocol goes. That's a thing that many aspiring collegiate runners want when going to college--that is they are hungry for direction and for someone with more experience than they to really help train them to reach beyond their potential.


If the coaches can show recruits that great to good runners are coming into the program performing with X times and are leaving the program by their Senior seasons with their personal bests lowered substantially and competing in the national meets, recruiting becomes significantly easier. Add the allure of competing on a potential NCAA qualifier and perhaps someday, if the stars align, a potential perennial player on the national scene, and perhaps LU will start nabbing some of the running talent that heads to the DII powers such as Abilene Christian and perhaps some more like Josh, elite faith-based athletes will choose LU.

I would love to know of any current athletes that are hanging around here. We have had hit-and-miss comments from a few of them (most notably, Josh) and I would love to see those continuing. I understand the need to stay away from specifics as far as team strategy and such (I coach a middle and high school team and we don't like the kids running their mouths too much on message boards), but any info would be great.

I do have one specific question...do you guys still run THE LIBERTY? I still have nightmares about that workout...

question: are you guys going to put X-country stuff in here as well?

Unless you plan on adding a Cross Country forum...I'm not going to push for that one YET.

I've been checking the forum every once and a while, but not really posting. As someone else stated, Josh also checks this out sometimes. Most of the other guys on the team aren't really into message boards so I don't think they've been on here much. I guess especially now that track/xc has it's own forum, I would be happy to answer any questions that people have and I'll try to give some insight into things from time to time.

Jarvis Jelen

welcome aboard.

most of us on here have no idea what we're talking about, but we don't let that stop us

JJ- what do you know about recruits/prospects coming in?

here's the thread we have started that specifically addresses the issue: http://www.flamefans.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4773

I'll probably try to post a bit of a 2007 men's cross country season outlook on that recruits thread if that would work.

Actually after looking at that thread I think this one would be more appropriate so I'll put that together and post it here.

would appreciate it either way, thanks

Great to have you aboard Jarvis, and I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say about the upcoming CC season.

Welcome to the board, Jarvis.

What has this year's success done for the entire squad collectively?

Are the rumors of transfers coming in legit?

Jarvis Jelen wrote: I guess especially now that track/xc has it's own forum, I would be happy to answer any questions that people have and I'll try to give some insight into things from time to time.

Jarvis Jelen

See...I told you so! We should have created this forum a long time ago!

Great to have you aboard Jarvis! Keep us posted on anything that can become public. I am a track/xc info nut (like most serious, or post-serious runners are).

Hopefully come the fall I can do some features on XC and track for This Week in Flames Athletics (I still have a good relationship with Coach Tolsma from all those interviews I got to do a couple years ago)

Just to let you guys know, I still plan on giving you an update on our team this year, I just haven't had the time recently.

Its summertime. We have nothing but time.