The whispers about this have been swirling about for a while.
Georgia is about to lose the best track coach it has ever had.
Petros Kyprianou, who led the Bulldogs to both men’s and women’s national championships in the past three years, is leaving UGA after the conclusion of the NCAA Championships next month, several people with knowledge of the situation confirmed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week.
And this, Georgia fans, is why we can’t have nice things:
At issue is facilities. Kyprianou would like UGA to invest more significantly in track and field. The Bulldogs do not have an indoor track facility, as most of the major powers do, and they have to share the Spec Towns Track and Field facility with the university.
If that sounds familiar, it’s why Georgia no longer hosts tennis championships after a long period of neglect of its once stellar tennis facilities by Greg McGarity. It’s what you get when you don’t believe in a facilities master plan and commit to a policy of building things only after a significant donor pool is established to pay for it.
Meanwhile, Josh Brooks is Greg McGarity now.
Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks declined to discuss the situation.
“Our primary focus is supporting our coaches and student-athletes as they prepare for the NCAA regionals and nationals,” Brooks said via a text message.
At Butts-Mehre, it’s football or bust. And my bet is that’s just fine with a majority of the fan base (not to mention the boosters).
Get The Picture 
I definitely don’t blame him for leaving, and the master plan issue is a big deal. I don’t know what the reserves are for if it’s not to help our full athletic program be successful especially those non-revenue programs.
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By the way, the thing about the track program sharing the track with university shouldn’t be an issue. They aren’t practicing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I see no reason why the track can’t be used by others when the team isn’t using the facilities. OTOH, the lack of an indoor facility is classic Georgia Way and Greg McGarity.
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The Facilities Master Plan frustration many of y’all have (that have had to implement in your real jobs) is spot on. Here’s why
Right now the track is closed from 6am -6pm Mon – Sat. Unfortunately, sharing with the public means it’s Caddie Day at the pool the second the track opens. I (because I’m psychotic and am used to 0415 FOD Walks on the KittyHawk) am ALWAYS picking up trash on the track. Who the hell goes to the track to eat a Cane’s Combo? I mean, I guess if you’re training for selection, you want to get some of those awesome run til you puke evolutions in. I imagine having to rake the sand castles out of the long jump pits and re-setting the hurdles gets old. This is all stuff I see all the damn time when I’m at the track. I’m pretty old school and at my high school fixing up the track before practice was an important discipline lesson (show up early and get your stuff together) but I really don’t want Matt Bolling (or the dude with one leg that competes in veteran events) dealing with that anymore. Look, I KNOW it’s the People’s Track in Athens and it’s paid for by the people. It’s inspiring to run by the banners and being around younger, faster athletes makes me better, but give our Dawgs looking for Olympic Medals a space to ply their trade 24/7. Hell, the Band has a secured turf field out by Lake Herrick.
Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
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Back in the late ‘80’s when I lived in Hill Hall the track was a nice “girlfriend activity”. Meet there, walk at night, chill. It was oddly soothing to go over there and walk.
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That makes sense, but the same old question holds. Where is it going to go and who is going to pay for it? IIRC, the student fees pay for student use of the Ramsey pool and the track.
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Ask Jack about sharing the pool.
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Agreed, I bet the upgrade from the old Stegman pool to Ramsey probably helped ease the irritation. Coach B is so awesome he and Coach Humphries both actually gave my sorry ass some free coaching back in the day. It helped when I told him I had been at the Naval Shipyard in Philly, lol
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Student fees pay for portion of Ramsey. You can’t turn around and tell them they no longer can have access to the pool.
Once again, if there were a real master facilities plan, maybe there would be a swim facility only for the teams near campus because there’s nowhere on campus to put it.
We’ve gotten away with it in the past because swimmers come to Athens to work with Jack. When he decides to retire, that’s likely to be when the bill comes due.
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Baseball facilities need help too I like watching the college game better than pro. With TV coverage now I think College baseball is gonna explode. Georgia needs to catch up to be a player.
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I had no idea Dooley’s statue was at the track until a few weeks ago i was in Athens taking a stroll around town. They might have as well put it in Bogart. WTH gonna see it there
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The location of the Dooley statute is due to the Mike Adams/Vince Dooley fued fron the early 2000s. Adams could maneuver getting away with not renewing Dooley ‘s contract as AD, but Dooley still had friends and former players who wanted a statue as a lasting memorial. Adams resisted but he couldn’t prevent a statute of Dooley. Adams could, however. dictate where it would be. He put it on the southern most end of campus as far from Sanford Stadium as he could. using the excuse that it was on the :athletic complex.: He would have put it next to the Iron Horse if UGA owned that land.
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I can’t understand how we’re letting him skip away like this. He’s been in Athens since 2008 and worked his way up, and then built the current program.
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They could have easily spent about $2M more on the IPF so it could also function as an Indoor Track Facility, but no, McGarity, the King of No Foresight, could never see a reason why this was a necessity.
Fuck out ADs and fuck B-M.
Damn Bad Dawgs, all.
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My old HS has an indoor track. It is not a big deal once you are building other things.
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When you’ve said UGA football, you’ve said it all…
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You don’t need so many F-bombs to make your long-winded points.
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Well how about this, aim260:
I’ll take your fucking unwanted fucking advice under fucking advisement the next fucking time I fucking write fucking one of my fucking long-winded fucking posts?
How the fuck do you feel about that?
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You got a lot of fucks to give apparently
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LOL. I have one or two, for sure.
The wiseass in me couldn’t let that opportunity go.
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Stay classy…he tried to give you some good advice.
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The fuck you say?
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I think your cleverness has reached its limit, my friend. Time to move on.
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Our friend is puddy in the right hands.
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LOL.
You keep thinking Butch, that’s what you’re good at.
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Fucking A.
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It’s easy to spend other people’s money. I say let them eat cake.
On the flip side, if the rainy day fund survived a global pandemic intact then I assume we can spend a little of it on the actual, you know,… things it’s for. Like supporting excellence with excellence. Tennis kicking ass, you get facilities that kick ass. Track and field likewise. BM is run like a vulture fund.
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Exactly this. That was the biggest crunch you could have short of a nuclear war. Losing a year of revenue. And the reserve likely grew!
Time to trim the reserve and use a bit more of it. Especially on
tennis, track, golf and swimming facilities.
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Yeah, the thing of it is, it doesn’t make money. Just like 90% of every other sporting program at every university around the country.
But… I have to wire my brain to think NOT like a small for profit business (which is hard). If colleges are going to offer these programs knowing full well they operate in the red 100% of the time, then they should expect to fully fund them regardless.
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Evergreen quote from Josh Brooks:
Talk is all there is.
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Eggs-actly. Same as it ever was. It was unacceptable when it happened to the tennis center and it’s unacceptable now.
And sadly, they can’t even read the room. There won’t even be an effort to raise $$$ for this. We would actually donate for this. Butts-Money wouldn’t even need to dip too much into the hallowed reserve pond.
Football doesn’t need anymore help. We are there in terms of support.
I can’t even get started on the facilities master plan. . .talk about severe neglect of one of America’s first land grant institutions, FFShame.
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What is the “Master Plan” to which you allude? Master Plan and UGA Athletic Administration are not compatible and shouldn’t be used in the same sentence. Fact is, if it doesn’t make them a shit-wad of money, they don’t give a damn.
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What’s funny is that UVA a few years back unveiled a master plan while citing UGA as an inspiration!
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“Master plan” is the dark underbelly of the “BM masturbators club”
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That’s a shame. The Rivals guys recently did videos with both Tennis coaches and Bauer (Swimming). The reality is that those 3 + track & field + Gymnastics in the Youclan era are the strongest sports UGA has (not based on revenue… and maybe Women’s Hoops) and if we are going to maintain the shitshow that is Men’s Basketball and the rollercoaster that is Baseball where they are, then we should at least take care of successful sports with dedicated and productive coaches, since the AD will likely F-that up hiring a replacement… see gymnastics, etc.
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Bauerle
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Thanks. It was late here and I didn’t stop to confirm it.
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c’est le gênante!
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Too bad Pruitt doesn’t coach track
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Too bad a member of the Board of Regents isn’t sleeping with the track coach.
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This “sharing the track with the university” has been a thing with the old guard so long that it has become the epitome of the Georgia Way. Moving the track and using the space for football facilities has always been shot down quickly by the higher ups, and the reasoning is beyond ridiculous.
It goes all the way back to Dooley, but he and McGarity have both been quoted as saying moving the track is a non-starter because faculty members, athletic department personnel, boosters, and basically any old farts living around five points use the track for walking. That’s it. That’s the actual reason they won’t move the track to a new facility on Milledge. I’d bet there is no athletic department in the country so willing to die on a more stupid hill.
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Illinois had one of the most beautiful grass fields in the nation and a track that allowed them to host the NCAA Track and Field Championship in 1977 and then they tore it up, put in fake grass and built a track and field stadium that precluded them ever from having such and event. It was pretty stupid.
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I have never been to Illinois
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Came here to complain about. Glad you’re giving us a place to vent. The Georgia Way can’t fail. It apparently can only be failed.
Screw our administration.
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Damn, the more I think about this the more it pisses me off. The SEC just gave everyone $20M this week, we’re swimming in reserve fund money, and we won’t spend the few million it would take for long term success.
Good luck getting the next Matthew Boling. Hope we keep the current one.
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Losing Coach PK is near criminal. It’s been a long time since we had a quality T& F coach and he has really brought a great deal to the program. His recruiting has been international and effective. His getting Mathew Boling to the UGA was fantastic. Someone get Brooks’ attention to what this and other non-revenue mean to the university. We love our football, but damn, Josh we need quality sports and people in our other programs.
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The flagship university on the cheap.
Sad truly sad.
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Arian Smith made the SEC 100 M final and ran 10.18.
Nearly as fast as Herschel.
That was cool.
How many sec programs have indoor tracks btw?
Just curious.
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Inspiration would be for a partnership between the UGAAD, Athens, and the developers of, say, the Varsity site to build a joint venture project. I’m not saying that’s best or workable, but something that these various entities could coordinate to pool funds, improve the community and strengthen ties between all these parties. Where’s Billy Payne when you need him?
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So many people here just want to spend money like it’s a EBT card. $200+ million to replace Stegeman. $60 mill for indoor track. $10 mill fir baseball expansion. $30 mill for Sanford concessions and restrooms. All of that on top of the $80 mill that’s being spent in Butts Mehre now, the $65 mill that was West End Zone and $45 Mill that was on Indoor practice. Thinking that an extra $2 million would put a track around the indoor field just proves that there’s a lack of understanding the cost to build shit. Tell us all about all of the plethoras of indoor track facilities thru out the NCAA and SEC. could Uga quit being cheap asses in some areas, yes without a doubt. A master plan? Hell yes. It’s a no brainer. But do you want money spent on the A1 sport to achieve nattys or do you want to be average in all sports?
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I said what they needed to do was add a couple of million to the process of building the IPF to be able to have an indoor track convertibility. To do it now would cost far more. You’re spouting off insane figures here.
If you think it costs $60M to build an indoor track facility, you’re the one who has no idea how much it costs. FFS, our IPF only cost $30M. You’re talking $5M for a bare bones indoor track, and $10M for a really nice one.
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Money grubbers. That’s the Georgia Way.
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Just another Bulldog point of PRIDE!
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If it was raining blended scotch and hailing ice cubes some of the boys would complain that it wasn’t single malt and ice spheres. Got money running out the ass and the Dawgs are ascendant with a bullet. UGA is a football school that has failed to reach its ultimate goal for over forty years while every major school (except USCum) in the surrounding states have at least one. The pressure to win is so intense that it’s obvious the folks at BM have developed tunnel vision to the detriment of other sports. Until the Dawgs win that elusive NC I don’t believe it will get any better. The sense of desperation emanating from BM is palpable.
I tend to agree with that attitude even though it’s a shallow and cheap way to operate an athletic department. I’m not going to trash the administration as long as they’re doing everything possible to win. Winning solves a lot of problems.
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Commitment to winning championships requires conviction to spending money on facility improvements,
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