The USEF open forum with David O’Connor and Leslie Law concluded here at Red Hills after well over two hours of discussion. Here is a very quick recap and I will hopefully have video from the entire meeting and more analysis this evening (uploading all the video with a slow internet connection will take a few hours). The discussion was polite and informative throughout the session. Each candidate probably only got one or two questions that made them squirm. Around 50 people showed up with other Search Committee and Eligible Athletes joining by teleconference. There were several pauses throughout the forum because of connection/wind issues causing problems for the listeners on the phone.
The forum started with a quick introduction of the process from Search Committee Chairman Eric Straus that basically recapped what was described in the Wednesday night USEF press release. Each candidate was then given an hour to talk, with the first 10 minutes dedicated to describing their ideas and the remainder of the time open to questions. David stated after winning the coin flip.
David spoke eloquently and was clearly comfortable talking about his application and fielding questions. David spoke directly to the riders and he often times expressed ideas from their perspective. He started by explaining that winning medals isn’t a goal. As he said it is a result–winning medals is a byproduct of the excellence of a program. Other points that David touched on include that he believes in specifically targeted trips to big European events for our riders, that as coach he would be involved in the program on a day-to-day basis including trips to watch developing riders and visit team riders working with their own personal coaches, and many other points. David described that he would put his full energy and time into the position. In 2012 all of his USEF and FEI responsibilities will expire, and he would only have a few minor responsibilities such as course designing a few events. As David said “for me, this is an outright 365 day responsibility.” David said that for us to be successful we consistently needed 2 riders in the top 5 world rankings and he often spoke with more of a focus on helping the riders build their programs rather than the specific technical aspects of coaching.
David is a tough act to follow when it comes to public speaking, but Leslie rose to the challenge. One point that Leslie consistently made is that he believes in early team selection so that we can focus on building team unity and strength rather than worrying about a final selection trials. The toughest question of the day to either of the candidates came when Buck read a texted question from Jan that asked Leslie about his experience compared to David and Phillip. Leslie handled the question well and pointed out that there was still time for him to develop before assuming the responsibilities of coach. As he was speaking, it was clear that Leslie understood the British program and why it is successful really well and I think he could bring a lot of those great ideas to the US. Leslie pointed out interestingly that if he got the coaching job he would continue to compete up to the 2* level. Leslie made the point that the owner is every bit as important to a program as the rider and building good relationships with owners is critical to team success. After just about 30 minutes no one had any more questions for Leslie and Eric Straus stood up to field questions about the search process.
The final part of the meeting was the most interesting. Boyd got up and asked Eric several pointed questions about how he couldn’t see why the Search Committee went from 9 applicants to 2 and wouldn’t let any more applicants present their applications to the riders. Eric explained that the Search Committee didn’t have a magic number in mind when they started making the selections and they based their decision on the stated criteria created by the riders and from the candidate interviews. He emphasized that the Federation had had very little involvement with the Search Committee. He said that following this open forum, the Search Committee will make a final recommendation to the Athletes Committee as well as the High Performance Committee. The riders continued to ask questions about the process and the protocol for adding more names to the list.
USEF CEO John Long then stood up to answer questions. John stressed that the Search Committee would simply make a recommendation and that the Athletes Committee could make a different recommendation to the High Performance Committee as long as they provide rationale. He also mentioned that after the public uproar over the weekend, the Search Committee met again for an hour and a half Monday night via teleconference and still unanimously decided to stick with David and Leslie as the only short list members. He explained that the hope was to have both committees in support of one candidate and reach a decision by Rolex at the latest.
Go eventing.
