Chris Sandefur Reviews

Chris Sandefur was a horrible coach. He lacked communication and destroyed the team culture. He would never ask any of us how we were feeling physically, emotionally, mentally, etc. He also would make degrading comments during workouts that would discourage athletes instead of motivating them. He would also on several occasions bash our university and our team's work ethic. Sandefur was heard telling a recruit that "there are better places to go, other places that care more about this sport". He also would consistently bash the team by telling the men's team that "you guys are not hardworking" on runs with them, and then later denied it in a meeting with the whole team and the athletic director. He also hardly ever texted athletes back when regarding important issues like meet information or injuries. He would then lie and say he did not receive text messages. The lack of communication created an atmosphere of tension and frustration amongst the team. He also would never talk to the athletes while at meets, never giving splits or very much encouragement of any kind. He also seemed to primarily speak and give advice to the men's team, along with only giving them important information about meets or workout locations. All of that information had to be relayed through a male on the team to the women's team. It came off as sexist and like he did not care about the women's team, despite their success winning cross country conference. Additionally, Sandefur stopped creating training plans that differed for the men and women. Typically men and women have different training plans such as less mileage or less reps of a workout-- but the last couple months Sandefur did not differentiate and that resulted in a lot of the women's burnout.