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Jordan announces retirement as heavyweight crew coach
Published: Saturday, July 18th, 2009
The opinions expressed here are those of the individual commenters and do not necessarily represent the views of The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc. We do not take responsibility for the opinions, facts, or claims presented by individual commenters, and reserve the right to moderate or delete inappropriate comments.
Sounds like a general housecleaning of the "old guard", bringing in younger outsiders who are willing to "get with the program."
Not so much as housecleaning as much as an awful awful performance on the part of the entire heavyweight squad this year. I don't know about Curtis's past accomplishments in addition to what is written in this article, but it doesn't take a genius to see that with his 1V finishing 13th (that is they were in the THIRD LEVEL FINAL) at Sprints, he is just too ashamed to continue.
Curtis might have had a good run in the late-90s but his team's and boats have been really really sucking for the past few years. It is a good thing too that he is leaving, he should take responsibility for his 1V's awful season.
Let's admit it, Curtis is and was NEVER a Harry Parker of Harvard. He might have had a few good rowers in and out like in 1998 & 2006, but he's not really a talented coach. In 2006 too, he never converted the awesome boat he had into IRA champs.
So no regrets he's going. It'll be interesting to see if Marty Crotty or Greg Hughes takes over his spot. Greg Hughes is more likely given his lightweight 1v's success this past year, but it should be considered in light of his mediocre performance for the previous 5 years.
Good bye Curtis!
I wouldn't be so quick to blame Curtis for the heavyweights poor performance. He has a talented group of guys with a lot of potential, but it takes dedication and hard work on their part to achieve results. In other words, in those weeks during finals when the rowers aren't coached, during Christmas break, and even during practice in the spring racing the lightweights, it puts the onus on the rowers to put in the effort and make the boat go. It is questionable whether or not 100% of those guys threw themselves into it this year.
Let's hope it's not Marty for the sake of the future. His results have been less than stellar with excellent classes of recruits.
As an admitted "boathouse outsider" I'd be very careful in what you say and whom you blame. Curtis was and is an amazing person and a good coach. I doubt he would have been coaching the olympic squads if he wasn't. As for his recent track record: 1) every coach is bound to have a couple of off years. 2) you might want to take a closer look at what else has changed for the heavies in those years aside from solely Curtis' performance. 3) No matter how good of a coach you are if some of your guys aren't 100% in it and don't have the drive you need to win 100% of the time you aren't going to have that great of a season.
Regardless of his past couple of years Curtis has been a wonderful mentor to many men and women coming through the boathouse; his contribution to the boathouse doesn't deserve your callous disregard.
Rumor has it that either Curtis has been pushed out or his contract has not been renewed given his abysmal performance of late. This sounds quite credible. It is unfortunate that whoever in the athletic department (Gary Walters?) didn't renew his contract or told him to get lost forgot to look at Curtis's glory years. Ok, '98 was long ago, but his awesome crew of '06 was just three years ago! Just look at that to see why he doesn't deserve to be kicked out.
All in all, this is all just a sign of the perform or perish culture prevalent at Princeton. With Professors it is Publish or Perish. With coaches it is Perform or Perish. Sorry Curtis but your track record for the past two years just ain't good and this year might have been too much for Gary Walters with your boat's 3rd level final. Gotta go man...
So any guesses on who is taking over? We should have a discussion on that!
Whoever you are, "brown rower '10" you need to grow up and get a life. Degrading the athletes who participate in the special olympics by calling them names is the low of all lows. My guess is you're a chump coxswain who got kicked out of the 2V and ended up coxing the four, only to have your rowers tell you to turn the mic off and just steer. Everyone gets the shit kicked out of them at least once in life. In your case, I hope it's at least 10 or 12 times.
Seems like a lot of coaches are moving on. Clearly the administration does not support athletics like they need to.
Jordan’s retirement follows the departure of men’s lacrosse head coach Bill Tierney, and women’s tennis head coach Kathy Sell from their respective programs.
Athletic Supporter --
With 38 varsity sports, even an average tenure of ten years per head coach, a generous number, gives you an AVERAGE turnover of four per year.
Your point is what, then?