NEWS | Head coach Robert Johnson has announced the hiring of Ben Thomas as associate head coach for T&F and XC! Thomas spent the last 17 seasons as the head cross country and distance coach at Virginia Tech. Welcome to Oregon, Ben! #GoDucksRELEASE ➡️ https://t.co/IeFwsni8lU pic.twitter.com/Tfjbg93nAE— Oregon Track & Field (@OregonTF) July 16, 2018
This is a blow for sure. Track and Field was by far most successful program.
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Wait what? Oregon poached our head coach to become an assistant coach?
Could be difference in structures of programs. Head Coach for distance and cross country vs Associate head coach of track and field.
Oregon is kind of a mecca for distance running...
prefontaine was a century ago.
Actually, he arrived on campus less than 50 years ago, but anyway.
In the past several years they have been pretty good. Check out the Olympians since 2012.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Ducks_track_and_field
But that's like 150 in Duck Years.
It doesn't matter, the Phil Knight connection endures. As long as there's a cozy relationship between the University, the Oregon Track Club, and Nike, it will be a desirable place to train and coach.
Eugene also has very knowledgeable Track & Field fans. My SO is from Eugene and when we visit, the thing to do is go to the track meet, no matter which one it is. They just really enjoy watching T&F.
On top of that, they will be completely modernizing Hayward Field (which I have feelings about). They host the NCAA Championships every year, are hosting the 2021 World Championships, and are bidding to host the 2020 Olympic Trials, having hosted 2008, 2012, and 2016.
If you are involved in Track & Field, there really isn't a better place to be than Oregon.
They already closed the deal with Thomas, so you can stop selling now... /s
The combination of the gif and the username works nicely.
I'm guessing this may be a sort of HCIW thing???
So he takes a demotion and leaves his Alma Mater to go to Oregon. Interesting...must have thrown him some decent money.
Also helps that Oregon is the place for track and field.
best of luck to him at the big O! at least he gets some sweet gear out of it!
wow that is abysmal
Not good. Track & field was a whole bunch of Director's Cup/Commonwealth Clash points over the years.
😢
Ben Thomas was not the Head Track and Field Coach at VT. His title was Head Coach of Cross Country &
Distance Coach.
DAVE CIANELLI is the DIRECTOR OF TRACK & FIELD AND CROSS COUNTRY.
And the title of the thread needs to be fixed.
Thanks for pointing that out, makes a lot more sense now.
Also, thread title says they hired Johnson from us, but Johnson has apparently been their head coach for a while.
Yeah, the titles in Track and Field seem a bit confusing. What's a director vs a coach?
Everywhere else seems to have head coaches and assistant coaches.
yeah, in football you've at least got head coach, coordinators, position coaches, etc.
The director is basically the head coach equivalent but more so as a manager of the other coaches and the team in general. Cianelli didn't do any actual coaching directly with the athletes. Oregon may be structured differently in that their Director is called the Head Coach and may actually directly coach athletes.
So at VT there is the Director, and then the event coaches, and then the assistant event coaches. Distance, Sprints/Hurdles, Pole Vault, and Throws. So Ben Thomas was the distance coach and he is moving into that same role for Oregon but also gaining the Associate Head Coach title (which I guess at VT we would call Associate Director).
I blame the support staff for the lack of readin' and writin' skill amongst the fanbase!
I doubt BT would have considered leaving VT for many other schools, but hard to blame him, it's a dream job for a distance coach. Oregon is arguably the most prestigious distance job in the country.
For what it's worth, BT has taken primarily regional level talent and consistently elevated it to national class. IMO, It'll be exciting to see what he can do with the elite distance talent that Oregon attracts. I'd be surprised if his resume isn't loaded with Olympians he's coached by the time he's hanging them up.
Congrats to him. At least he left for one of the preeminent T&F programs in the country, puts us in a position of leverage to hire a great coach externally if that's the path Whit and the T&F program wants to go.