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Texas A&M Track & Field

Pat Henry discusses outdoor facility situation, World Championships

July 1, 2015
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Key quotes from Pat Henry interview

“We had a great meet at the (NCAA Outdoor Championships). Shamier Little, as you just mentioned, wins the intermediate hurdles. She’s running faster than anyone in the world right now. When you think of how big our sport is – I think you just talked about soccer on your program. Soccer and track are the biggest sports in the world, and to say that you’re the fastest in the world or the best in the world at anything – it’s a pretty outstanding performance by Shamier Little and as a sophomore. She’s done very, very well. Shelbi Vaughan had a great meet and qualified for the United States – our team – to go to Beijing later on this summer. Shavez Hart qualified. Bralon Taplin will go to the World Championships. Deon Lendore will go to the World Championships.”

“Deon hurt a knee at the NCAAs. He had a little bit of a knee issue, but it really came and really got him pretty good at the NCAA Championships. He’s recovering now. He’s training – not as hard as we were, but he’s getting going again. We look for him – the World Championships are at the end of August, so we have a little bit of time. He’s doing real well. It’s an injury that we can get through in time, so that’s what we’re doing.”

“Once again, just great performances from our team members (at the USA Junior Championships). For Audie (Wyatt) to go 18-feet and a half-inch for a freshman in the pole vault – it wasn’t many years ago when 18-feet was the world-record holder. That’s how much that event has changed, and Sara Kathryn (Stevens) went 13’9”-13’10” – both are freshmen. They’ll go to the Pan-American games in Canada at the end of July. I wish Sara Kathryn (Stevens) would have jumped that well at NCAAs. She might have scored. That’s a freshman. To come on at the end of the season – for both of them – is what we want to see. For those two to be jumping that high is really, really good right now.”

“Like I told the press up in Oregon, I don’t want to go up there that many times (for the NCAA Outdoor Championships). No one does, but every time you open the door, there are 12,000 people sitting there – every day. That’s good for TV. That’s good for our sport. That’s good for everything involved, but it’s not necessarily good for NCAA track around the country. It’s kind of A&M’s fault that it is there that many times. It’s other institutions’ faults that it is at Oregon, because we should be doing the same thing that Oregon is doing.

We should be pressing. We should be working hard to make our facilities great. We should be attracting crowds. We should be doing the things that it takes to put on a national championship. I don’t fault Oregon at all, they’ve done a tremendous job. I just don’t think it should be there until the end of our lives, and basically, it’s scheduled to be there for a long time. There’s still opportunity to step in there, because there’s a lot of dissension about that right now. I mean, there are a lot of people that are really upset. You wouldn’t have the basketball championships in Rupp Arena. The reason you don’t is because it’s not fair. This is really kind of bordering on whether this is fair or not.

We’re going to host the national championship here two years in a row, but two years in a row indoors in different than hosting it 7, 8, 9 years in a row. Plus, they have the U.S. Championships going there. They had the U.S. Juniors going there. They’re getting a lot of recruiting out of this. It’s a distinct advantage for them right now, and the NCAA coaches are stepping up to the front to talk about this thing a little bit right now. I think that the NCAA sometimes – in their wisdom – doesn’t listen to everybody involved. Maybe this is one that the NCAA coaches are going to come back and say, ‘We need to revisit this.’”

“We fill the indoor track facility up when we have a major championship. That’ s why we know -- if we can develop an outdoor facility – we’re going to fill it up. It’s an economic impact to this community. It’s not just great for the sport. It brings a lot of people to a town. Anybody who has been to a national championship understands the kinds of things that a national championship does for your community, especially for a community this size. I put it on two times at LSU, and the people that come and the amount of people that come to a national championship is significant.”

“We’ve developed a plan (for an outdoor facility). There was a group and there was a committee that sat down and developed a facility with the architects and everyone involved. It’s just gone on the table right now, and we’re just waiting to see when they want to try to get started on our facility.”

“Our facility outdoors right now – we have one of the best indoor facilities in the country. There’s no question, but you don’t train indoors. You don’t do anything indoors except for competition and bad weather days for track and field. Track is outside. We have one of the best indoors, but we have the worst outdoor facility of any institution who’s trying to be competitive on a national basis. Nobody’s facility is as bad as Texas A&M’s. We were the worst in the Big XII. We’re absolutely the worst in the SEC. We have people that are coming in and taking pictures to use in recruiting against us. That tells you how bad it is. That’s a little tough.

That doesn’t mean you can’t win, and we have. Facilities don’t win. People win. Our groups have won. In the last 14 championships outdoors, we’ve won eight of those. Our people have done very, very well. I just don’t think it’s the right thing for us and for Texas A&M to not be able to host home track meets. If you couldn’t have a home baseball game, people would be pretty upset. If you couldn’t have a home basketball game, people would be upset about that, and they need to get upset about not having a track meet.”

“We’ve had our degree of success. We’ve done very well. This group this week, really – Shamier Little, Shelbi Vaughan, Taplin, Lendore and Hart – those are some of the best athletes in the world right now. Jeneba Tarboh, one of our exes, will also be representing the United States, so we had a lot of people at the track meet and we had a lot of people be very successful.”

“It’s a tremendous competition between now and (the 2016 Olympics), but this last week was the first stage of showing where you are – who you are – in the world. We have some people that are going to this World Championship. Actually there are more countries that participate in the World Championships than there are in the Olympic games, so the World Championship is a huge competition. If you’re successful at the World Championships, you have a great opportunity to make an Olympic team and a great opportunity to compete on a world stage.”
Discussion from...

Pat Henry discusses outdoor facility situation, World Championships

7,663 Views | 15 Replies | Last: 8 yr ago by aggie67,74&76
Alex Parker
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AG
Pat Henry discusses outdoor facility situation, World Championships
Ronnie Woodard
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aggie67,74&76
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aggiealltheway
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AG
He's absolutely right on the outdoor track facility.
SA-AG72
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A black eye for Texas A&M.
Dave Robicheaux
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I don't think we have " the worst" outdoor facility, but it's hard to argue his points
BigJim49 AustinNowDallas
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MidTnAg
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We definitely have the worse outdoor facility. We have, by far, the worse facility in the SEC.

We are the ONLY SEC & Big12 university who cannot and thus, does not, hold any outdoor meets.

Extremely embarrassing. And yet, Coach Henry somehow has pulled off miricles with our T&F programs.

Just imagine how much greater success he could have accomplished if he had decent facilities.
redd38
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quote:
I don't think we have " the worst" outdoor facility, but it's hard to argue his points
Uh, have you been to our outdoor facility? It's not just the worst track in the Big 12 or SEC, it's probably the worst track in B/CS. It's in awful shape.
Expert Analysis
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I'm guessing we see lots of fundraising advertisements at the football games this year for the new athletics facilities they are planning on west campus. With Kyle being done I would imagine they are going to get after fundraising for softball and outdoor T&F.
MidTnAg
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Fundraising for an outdoor track & field facility should have started when Coach Henry was hired.

The facility should already be fully opperational, holding a few meets each season.
Ringo88
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Agree completely,
BigJim49 AustinNowDallas
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Did Pat want the indoor track first ????????????????
Houstonag
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The 12th Man needs to get this going now.
KVK77TexAg
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To contribute, and help this become a reality, please go visit the 12th Man Foundation and donate to the Next Step Campaign. Specify you want your donation to go toward the new Outdoor T&F Facility ONLY. Do this and encourage other Ags to do the same!!!
aggie67,74&76
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AG
quote:
Did Pat want the indoor track first ????????????????
Coach Henry, after he was hired, was asked by Bill Byrne which facility he wanted to be built first and he selected the indoor facility. I do not honestly believe Coach Henry, at the time, thought it would take this long to get the outdoor track started.
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