University of Tennessee Athletics
NCAA Outdoor Championships Press Conference
June 09, 2009 | Women's Track
June 9, 2009
OPENING STATEMENT FROM UT HEAD COACH J.J. Clark
"It's good to be here (John McDonnell Field). We've been at this stadium a few times over the past few years, so we're pretty familiar with it.
"As far as our team is concerned, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't have any charts. I can't predict any scores, because they never turn out right anyway. We're going to come here, just do what we are capable of doing and have a nice track meet.
"We're in good company; there are a lot of great teams here. The plan is to do what we can, be in the mix and see what happens as the days go on. In order to win or do well at these types of meets, great things have to happen somewhere. Somebody up here (teams with coaches on the dais) or not up here is going to do something great to make a result favorable for them."
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF FRESHMAN 800M RUNNER Chanelle Price AND WHETHER HE IS GOING TO "UNLEASH" HER AT THE NCAA MEET
"If I could have unleashed her earlier, I would have, too. (laughter in the room) She is doing very well. She came in as a freshman, and there's a lot going on as you all know from being around. You come in and have teammates who are as good as you or better - you were number one (in high school). She has done an excellent job of holding it together...straight A student up to this point and has done a great job and shown some great strides over the past several weeks. She ran 2:03 at SECs and moved forward and advanced to this meet. I believe any moment, any day, she can be a sub-2 runner. She definitely has come along very, very well, and I am very proud of what she has done."
ON HOW HE HANDICAPS THE WOMEN'S TEAM RACE
"I think everyone (coaches on the dais) is saying the same thing over and over again. You have to run this meet to determine the champion. There are a lot of predictions, and I guess that makes it fun for you guys (media)...us? It makes it fun trying to predict what is going to happen. The reality of the situation is that we are going to know Saturday afternoon what's going to go down.
"To answer your question, you have A&M, Oregon, FSU and a couple other schools who could all get the job done. It's just who is going to show up on any given day? Who is going to exceed expectations and get it done? Hopefully, it's...(laughs).....us. The reality is it could be other teams. I'm excited to get going and look forward to a great competition on our end.
"Indoors - I really get this focused - people were telling me we had won the meet. I was in the grind; I had Sarah (Bowman) warming up for the 3K, and people were saying, `it's over; coach it's over.' You just get so into it, you are not paying attention to all of the hype. You just have to wait and see how it turns out."
