Best Irish Coach in 2013?

ecoli

Not just the athlete who had the biggest breakthrough but the coach who contributed to athlete development most.

Few that come to mind for me are Chris Jones, Jerry Kiernan, Rob Denmead, Teresa McDaid and Enda Fitzpatrick, all of which seem to be cultivating not just one or two athletes but groups of athletes which is increasing the standards on the domestic level.

National Senior XC men this year was amongst the deepest in terms of quality in a long while.

Also interesting to note Sonia's success and the set up of the ag Rith group.

Who do people think have been amongst the noteworthy coaches this year in the country?

woodchopper

Teresa McDaid is clearly the number one distance coach in Ireland at the moment. She has taken Ann-Marie McGlynn and Conor Bradley to new levels this year coupled with the development of Chris Johnson as a very talented cross country runner. Her Letterkenny stable continue to improve.

Paul Robinson again has developed over the 1500 and Rob Denmead deserves credit for putting his program togther yet the influence of Nic Bideau in Paul's development cannot be underestimated. Training with Colis Birmingham and other Aussies for extended periods of time is a significant part to his development.

Jerry Kiernan in reality has had little success in comparison to Teresa and Donie Walsh. Mark Christie was a 13.27 5k man before he joined Gerry so its hardly a surprise to see Mark winning local 5ks in the mid 14s. While John Travers has been very inconsistent and Big Joe has had illness issues all season.

Donie Walsh has had a successful year in coaching his athletes. Laura Crowe has made significant progress but Nic Bideau again should be commended for putting Laura in a competitive training environment. Whilst in the marathon Lizzie Lee and Claire McCarthy have showed significant progress to improve towards International standard.

Chris Jones is endurance coach for the national federation so in theory he should get the cream of the crop when it comes to Irish endurance talent. Mick Mulhare's performance in the Euro cross coupled with the improved consistency of Dave McCarthy i.e not getting sick every two weeks has provided promise. However, Britton's track season was cut short due to illness which begs the question over her training and racing schedule over the past 12 months. Also Darren McBreathy has stagnated since he left Teresa McDaid and perhaps should return to her system.

Dic Hooper has transformed the fortunes of Sean Hehir over the past 3 years and coupled with his and Maria's win in Dublin deserves a great amount of credit. Yet, perhaps nots Dic's fault but Raheny Shamrocks have imploded on the domestic endurance scene. The Claw has regained some consistency yet aside from his return where he is based abroad the club has disintegrated when it comes to producing talent. Kevin Dooney whilst based in America is the only beckon of hope in a harbour of darkness. Vinny Mulvey, Richie Yeates, Richie Corcoran, Feidhlim Kelly, Mark Kirwan, Gavin O Sullivan etc all cease to exist at national level anymore.

Thomas Chamney is young coach of the year for reigniting Eoin Everard as a top domestic talent who could compete over 1500 in Zurich next year. He is based in sweden now so the chances of him taking on a few more are limited but he is worth a gamble if you know him well.

Dermott McDermott is another young coach who has successful athletes over a variety of events. The performances of Zac Irwin, Alberto Sanchez, Colm Bourke and David Harper mean Dermott must be considered perhaps the best all around coach of young talent in the Irish Athletics scene.

Honourable mentions: James Nolan, Enda Fitzpatrick, Noelle Morrissey

drquirky

I'm gonna vote for TRR

pconn062

Chris Jones has done great work with Britton, I don't know if you can blame a race schedule for her illness earlier this year. Think the track season will be her focus for next year.

pconn062

woodchopper wrote: »

Dic Hooper has transformed the fortunes of Sean Hehir over the past 3 years and coupled with his and Maria's win in Dublin deserves a great amount of credit. Yet, perhaps nots Dic's fault but Raheny Shamrocks have imploded on the domestic endurance scene. The Claw has regained some consistency yet aside from his return where he is based abroad the club has disintegrated when it comes to producing talent. Kevin Dooney whilst based in America is the only beckon of hope in a harbour of darkness. Vinny Mulvey, Richie Yeates, Richie Corcoran, Feidhlim Kelly, Mark Kirwan, Gavin O Sullivan etc all cease to exist at national level anymore.

Great post.


David Rooney? Also based in the States.

Rogue Runner

Hat tip to Gary Crossan with Maria McCambridge.

Timmaay

pconn062 wrote: »

Chris Jones has done great work with Britton, I don't know if you can blame a race schedule for her illness earlier this year. Think the track season will be her focus for next year.

Dammit, may avoid racing her again :P My claim to fame this year was not getting chicked during a 1500m race with her, She was beside me for long enough, and I'm sure would be well able to beat me if she focused on that distance!

Woodchopper gave an honorable mention to James Nolan, he has done fantastic work with Ciara Everard, who set a new indoor 800m time earlier this year, I haven't been training with the UCD group in a while, but the club has transformed with several victories over DCU recently, and a large part of this can be attributed to James!

woodchopper

Timmaay wrote: »

Woodchopper gave an honorable mention to James Nolan, he has done fantastic work with Ciara Everard, who set a new indoor 800m time earlier this year, I haven't been training with the UCD group in a while, but the club has transformed with several victories over DCU recently, and a large part of this can be attributed to James!

As a UCD alumni I was pleased to see UCD succeed again at Inter varsity level. Yet, bringing in Joe Sweeney and Alan McCormack to boost the clubs chances of winning the road relays has little to do with nurturing talent and more a reliance on older experienced runners to get the job done. Dont get me wrong the DCU mens team that won this year was a cod, with an average age of about 26 denying younger guys like Emmett Jennings and Jayne Rossitor a run out in the A team and the chance of picking up a national team title.

Also Britton did a pre Christmas cross country program in 2012, followed by a January International program followed by indoor racing in Europe followed again by a World cross country preparation program. Then she followed this with early season track races in May.

Cause and Affect. In my humble opinion she had no recovery period from October 2012 to May 2013 with constant racing at an International level. Her coach is involved in this process and should therefore take some responsibility for her track season downfall.