The FAMU women's track team finished 11th overall at the 2008 MEAC Indoor Track and Field Championship this past weekend in Landover, MD, while the men finished 7th at the two-day event. The Lady Rattlers earned a grand total of 18 points, while the men racked up 44 total points.
According to a FAMU press release, the men managed to pull off only 13 top ten finishes in over 100 events between Friday and Saturday.
On the women's side Maryland-Eastern Shore and Hampton tied for first place with 93 total points, while Norfolk State racked up 170 points to claim first place on the mens side.
Next year we should just save money and stay home!
ReplyDeleteTo put it nicely, our track team sucks !
ReplyDeleteMaybe we need new coaches on the track as well.
ReplyDeleteusually track is good, but this was a bad year. They'll be back.
ReplyDeleteWe definitely need a new Women's Track Coach. For some reason, she won't even wear FAMU shirts to track meets. It's hard to distinguish her from anybody else at the meets. I heard she was fired by FSU & hired by former AD, E. Newton Jackson. What's with Jackson hiring FSU rejects?
ReplyDeleteMen's Coach Rey Robinson is an outstanding track coach. He's been hit with injuries & eligibility issues. Also, he doesn't have a distance coach which explains why our distance runners and middle distance runners don't get any better. Coach Robinson really represents FAMU well and he's an outstanding role model for our young me.
10:10 am,
ReplyDeletethey were horrible last year also!
Coach Robinson really just needs some time for his team to heal and some money to hire a complete staff.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing wrong with either coach or team. They need financial support to field competitive programs. As long as FAMU keeps playing games in athletics, does not have a plan to market sports, expects coaches to do fundraising rather than hire professional fundraisers, prevents coaches from traveling to recruit students and the list goes on and on, we will not get better.
ReplyDeleteAll of our sports are struggling. Baseball, softball, track, women's tennis, football, basketball, swimming etc. Even the tennis coach is struggling; although they are not at the bottom of the heap, they are nowhere near where they used to be.
We need alumni who support athletics and not just football. The schools that are doing well in the MEAC are the schools that are supporting athletics. Norfolk State which used to be the bottom feeder is now top of the heap in football, basketball and now track. This does not happen by accident nor does it happen overnight. It happens with a concerted plan to fund athletics, to have competent administrators who know and are willing to do their job and a concerted plan to raise and appropriately spend monies.
Coaching is an easy scapegoat. Administration and management of FAMU athletics is what is needed. It is going to take some time for a program to come back after not being cultivated for many years under previous administrations. It does not help all of the money paid to buy out coaches' contracts and significant increases in salaries etc.
Our coaches are poorly paid and poorly supported.
The women's track has been bad for several years, not just recently under the current coach. For a few years Coach Robinson had both the men's and women's track team. The current female track coach is competent and committed to fielding a great program. Both teams are fielding very young teams. They can only get better.
As a person who has been going to the indoor track meet in MD ever since they have competed at the PG Sports and Learning Complex, it would be nice to see some Rattlers in the house. There are hundreds of FAMUans in the DC area, can't we get more than 5 to come out and support the team.
Both coaches are good people and knowledgable in their profession. They must be set-up for success which has not been the case for all of our coaches in recent years. The negative publcity about the school, the elimination of 4 sports, the constant changes in coaches, etc. has hurt our program and ability to recruit. We need stability in our athletic program. Hell, we need stability at the university.
I was there, and what I saw from the FAMU teams were disgraceful !!!!
ReplyDeleteMarketing money won't help them. They have nothing to market.
I was there and marketing money and facilities helps you get better athletes. Maybe we should do like the other schools and import our athletes from Africa. There were several from the continent participating in the competition.
ReplyDeleteYou can't recruit the best if you don't have good facilities, if your school is in the news with negative publcity and if your coaches have to spend an inordinate amount of time doing administrative tasks rather than coaching/developing the talent they have.
Coaches need time, budgets, facilities, positive name recognition o recruit top candidates.
Since you were there I am assuming you are an alumnus. Are you active with the local chapter? How much money are you giving to support athletics? Did you speak to any of the coaches to offer you services and connections?