Coaches’ Blog

With another season of 12-hour track meets at BU upon us, allow me to be the first to start up the conversation about entries.  I’m always intrigued by coaches interpretations of what their athletes are capable of and how they rationalize their entries.  As I’ve said in previous posts, I am all for more transparency in the entry system.  (That has a different ring though after last night’s State of the Union.)  I feel that coaches will be less likely to fib their entry times if their decisions are posted across the internet and at the meet.

This weekend, we’ll be a slightly split squad as 5 Jumbos head over to BU to race while the rest of the team heads up to Bowdoin for one of the more competitive quad meets in the region.  I love the extreme dichotomy between these two meets from an entry standpoint.  They couldn’t be more different.

At the Terrier Invite, it’s always a question of how to get your athletes in the heat that’s right for them.  I don’t want my 14:50, 5k runner in a heat with a bunch of 14:30 guys, but I also don’t want him in a heat with a bunch of 15:20 guys.  When there are 15:20 guys entered at 14:40 and 14:30 guys entered at 14:00, you can see the dilemma.  What to do?  What to do?

This year, I went straight by the Purdy Tables.  They have a place, but I rarely put any stock in them.  I even used the tables for their current season best performance, not their lifetime PR.  It seemed like the common sense thing to do.  We’ll see how it works out.

As for Bowdoin, we enter our athletes, and then on Saturday the coaches get together and call each other out.  We all know each other’s athletes enough to know who should be in the hot heat of the 400m or 800m, so why not just sit down and make it right.  I love this process.  It really puts the common sense back into meet management.  Obviously it isn’t possible for bigger meets, but it works great for something the size of the Bowdoin Invite.

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