One complicating factor for any athlete trying to choose a college is the question of whether or not the coaches who recruit him or her will remain at that school for the ensuing four years.<\/p>\n
In football, that is extremely unlikely. \u00a0A typical DI player will have two or three position coaches during \u00a0their career. Many endure the upheaval that comes with a head coaching change.<\/p>\n
The funny thing about football is that many players don’t mind losing their coach (the recent upheaval at the University of Illinois is a prime example) \u00a0as the greed and thuggishness which permeate DI football tend to prevent players from bonding with \u00a0staff.<\/p>\n
It is different in track, though. \u00a0I\u2019ve spoken to many DI track coaches over the years, and they all seem to have entered the profession for the same reasons as us high school coaches: love of the sport and love of the kids.<\/p>\n
Ironically, the nature of the sport and the deep bonds that often form between coaches and athletes can make a coaching change in track and field all the more traumatic.<\/p>\n
Take the recent decision by John Smith, the throws coach at Southern Illinois University, and his wife Connie, the head coach at SIU, to accept similar positions at Ole Miss.<\/p>\n
For John, that meant facing the idea of leaving behind NCAA shot champion Raven Saunders, NCAA Hammer champion DeAnna Price, and NCAA 4th<\/sup>place finisher in the shot Josh Freeman. (It turned out that Saunders was able to follow the Smiths to Ole Miss, but SEC rules prohibited Price and Freeman from transferring as they are down to their final year of eligibitliy.)<\/p>\n Luckily for all parties involved, the Smiths (both SIU alums) were determined not to leave the program in a shambles.<\/p>\n I spoke with John this summer, and he emphasized that while the Ole Miss offer came out of the blue, he had for some time been preparing his former All-American hammer and weight thrower JC Lambert to take over as SIU throws meister.<\/p>\n According to Smith, \u201cJC has, for the last three years, been serving his apprenticeship. There have been times that he has been mad at me because I made him write his own workouts (note: Since graduating from SIU in 2013, Lambert has continued to train with Smith) but now he understands. I have full confidence in him.\u201d<\/p>\n I contacted JC after he was officially named to succeed Smith, and he concurred with John\u2019s description of his apprenticeship.<\/p>\n Via email, Lambert stated that \u201cCoach Smith has been sculpting me for this moment for a long time.\u00a0 After having a very good freshman year (2008-2009), I become very interested in how his program worked. I always asked questions about his training and why he did certain things. Coach would make a prediction on what would happen in my training down the road, and was always right about it. Whenever it did happen, I was very shocked and impressed by how accurate his predictions were. The one prediction he made that I will never forget: He told me after my first week of training that my best event was going to be the shot put. For those who don\u2019t know, I threw the 12lb shot a whopping 46 feet in high school. After he made that comment, I thought ‘this old man is nuts.’But, after six months of training, I threw the 16lb over 50 feet and eventually 52 feet at the end of my freshman year. The next year I progressed to 58’10” and had a foul at 61 feet. But an unfortunate wrist injury took me out of the event to where I couldn’t train it at all. I really believe I would’ve been a 20.50m guy. After realizing the accuracy of the comment he made, I began to understand why he was one of the best coaches in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBy my Junior year, he would quiz me on training. He would ask me what I would do if I was in his position and why. I began to answer questions correctly and he was impressed. He began to have enough trust in me to write my own training. I would write it up and show him. He would examine it and express his opinion on what he would do different.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlso during my Junior year, Coach Smith had enough confidence in me that he allowed me to start helping out with coaching the younger athletes. This is the point where I started to really like and understand coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy senior and redshirt senior year was when I gained the most knowledge. I finally learned how to put together a complete program. Not just for myself, but for others. Coach Smith came up to me and asked me to help put together the lifting and throwing for the 2013 outdoor season. We sat down and began to put the training together. He asked me how I would start the season and I began to explain what I would do for the weight room and the throwing. He kept writing down everything I would say and I would continue to explain up until it was peak week for Conference. He looked at the finished product and said ‘Looks like a winner.'”<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we had a great result at our conference meet. We scored a total of 71 points in the 3 throwing events on the men\u2019s side and 47 points with a young group of female throwers in a tough conference. I learned a lot from that experience and will always be thankful that coach had enough confidence to allow me to help put that together.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy two years as a post collegiate athlete, he allowed to design my training and experiment with different ideas I had. This is the point where I learned how to be creative and not so afraid to think outside of the box with training.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a volunteer assistant coach, he gave me several responsibilities. He allowed me to coach the hammer\/weight throwers at practice and some meets. I also got to run several lifting sessions and throwing practices if Coach was either sick or out of town.\u201d<\/p>\n After all that preparation, Smith has high expectations for his successor.<\/p>\n \u201cI watched JC coach every day and he is better than 95% of all coaches right now. In the end, he will be a better coach than me. Since he is young, he has the advantage of being able to get in a ring and show kids and be in the weight room with them. That\u2019s what I did at Ohio State with Dan Taylor. When you are older, you have to beat people with experience and treachery because I can\u2019t jump in the ring and show people any more like I used to.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut honestly, he has done most of the work with Deanna, and he has done a lot of work with a lot of our kids.\u00a0 When he threw in practice, I\u2019d watch him and coach him, and when he was done throwing he coached \u00a0the hammer and I coached the other events.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAfter we accepted the Ole Miss offer, the first thing Connie and I told the SIU administration was they have to keep JC if they wanted to keep the throwing program strong. He is the only one who knows how to do what I do. When I was in Canada this summer (coaching DeAnna at the Pan Am Games) he ran my throwing camp, and I had parents email me telling me how great the camp was and I wasn\u2019t even there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDeanna should repeat as NCAA champion next year, and has a chance to break the NCAA record. If not, I will hold JC responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n Lambert seems energized by the challenge, and agrees that DeAnna could have a monster year.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to build off of her spectacular Junior year, where she only had 5-6 months of hammer training due to a bad knee injury. She just has an outdoor season, so we will have the privilege to focus more towards hammer. She will throw the weight indoors at a few competitions. We use the weight as an indicator for her hammer. \u00a0But we will be building up her specific strength with heavy throwing and hammer related core work. We will continue to slowly fix her technique and keep working on what she learned last year. In the weight room, I want to bring her power up another level and make that level consistent. She’s already one of the strongest females in the nation, but continuing to grow her power while having her learn to transition it to more hammer strength will be another step towards getting a female hammer thrower on the podium at an international event. My ultimate goal for her this year is to have a repeat win at NCAA’s, break the overall NCAA record, go to the Olympic trials and finish top 3, and go to the Olympics and make the finals. I also for see her having a good year in shot put. This past year she had a few fouls at the end of the season that were over 17m. I would like for her to throw at least 18m in shot put and have a great finish at NCAA nationals.\u201d<\/p>\n Not to be forgotten is Josh Freeman, who had a huge PR on his final throw at this year\u2019s NCAA outdoor meet.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Josh, we’ve been working on some technical issues in shot. So far, it has paid off with great results especially while in base training. We will keep working and attacking the heavy implements, but really trying to learn to stretch out the light shots. Learning how to throw far, with mid-to-light shots, in base training is very important in my opinion. It gives you a look into how the future will play out. Everyone can throw far when you feel good, but learning how to throw far when your body is slow and sore will pay off big when it comes time to peak. Especially as an experienced athlete. In the weight room, his squats have become more powerful, which has resulted in more explosive legs. His bench has been climbing up, as well as his cleans. Ultimately, I want to get him to 21m this next season and to win 2 national titles. Also, I want to have him ready to make the finals at the Olympic trials and see how well he can fight for a spot against the professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, Smith is excited about what lies ahead at Ole Miss.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had certain training demands, and they granted all of them. For example, I run the weight room workouts and they will give me one or two strength coaches to assist me. I had a long talk with the strength coach and he is fine with it. When I am training kids, what they are doing on the throwing field dictates what we do in the weight room. I often adjust their lifting based on how they throw in practice. A strength coach doesn\u2019t see that, and one of the biggest reasons why we have done a good job peaking is that I control all aspects of training.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlso, it is the SEC. Connie will have a lot more help, including a director of operations. They are building a new track which will be done next May. They have a temporary throwing field four or five miles away. But all I need is a piece of concrete until they get the other facility done. At SIU, we felt like we had done about everything we could do. Connie was looking for a new challenge and I go where she goes.\u201d<\/p>\n “And there is no hostility there between us and SIU. It was a good breakup. We built the program and want to make sure it stays intact.\u201d<\/p>\n It sounds like anointing JC Lambert as his successor was a key step in ensuring that it does.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One complicating factor for any athlete trying to choose a college is the question of whether or not the coaches who recruit him or her will remain at that school for the ensuing four years. In football, that is extremely unlikely. \u00a0A typical DI player will have two or three position coaches during \u00a0their career. … Continue reading A smooth transition at SIU<\/span>