NCAA Headlines: UCLA Director Avery Anderson to Retire, Duke Distance Coach Angela Reckart to Depart After Season

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The often chaotic coaching carousel is seemingly getting off to an early start this year with a few key developments already unfolding. Earlier this year, major coaching positions at both Boston University and Boise State opened up. And now, within the last week, both UCLA and Duke will have two open coaching positions of their own.

Here's what you need to know about these recent developments...

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UCLA Director of Track & Field Avery Anderson Set to Retire

On Wednesday, UCLA announced that Avery Anderson, the school's Director of Track & Field, would be retiring at the end of the season. Anderson, who is an alumnus of UCLA, was hired for the team's Director role back in 2017 after serving as the Director for California State University, Northridge (CSUN) for six years.

There is an argument to be made that no other coaching position in the country will be more sought after this year than UCLA's open Director role. The Bruins boast prestigious academics, a proven ability to field nationally competitive teams (to varying extents) and a presumably reasonable number of scholarships to work with.

It also doesn't hurt that UCLA will be joining the rapidly ascending BIG 10 Conference at the start of the 2024-2025 academic calendar year.

But with an attractive job opening also comes a slew of potential candidates who are more than reasonable fits for this Los Angeles-based track and field program. And naturally, that makes predicting a future hire for this position that much more challenging.

It feels unlikely, although certainly not impossible, that the Bruins would hire a distance-oriented coach to lead their program for the future. That's because the last three coaches to assume UCLA's Director of Track & Field and Cross Country role (or "Head Coach" role) have covered areas such as the throws, sprints/hurdles, relays and multi-events.

Distance Coach Angela Reckart to Depart From Duke

Earlier this week, it was announced that Duke's head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach (distance), Angela Reckart, would be leaving Duke University at the conclusion of the 2024 outdoor track season.

At the moment, fellow distance coach Adam Cooke remains on the team's staff. Earlier this year, The Stride Report noted that Amina Maatoug, the team's focal superstar, had entered the transfer portal as a graduate transfer.

Reckhart was hired by Duke in 2021 after serving as the associate head coach of cross country and assistant coach of track and field at Penn State. Her introduction to Duke came as part of a massive roster revamp following the hiring of a new Director, Shawn Wilbourn.

During her time in Durham, Reckart has found mixed results between her men's and women's distance programs. While both cross country teams have been unable to reach the cross country national meet in recent years, a handful of individuals have found respectable success, specifically on the track.

Those successes include developing Nick Dahl into an All-American miler, recruiting and refining Amina Maatoug into an NCAA star, landing sub-four high school miler Jackson Heidesch, helping Zach Kinne qualify for the NCAA XC Championships as an individual and guiding Michaela Reinhart and Emily Cole to national qualifying spots at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

The Blue Devils have also begun to see quietly great middle distance depth accumulate on their roster, specifically over 800 meters. This spring, Duke had five different women run 2:05 or faster over the half-mile distance while the men's team had six different individuals run under 1:50.

With Reckart gone, a key opening at a Power Five school now opens -- and the candidates will be plentiful. Expect assistant distance coaches at other major ACC programs to be in contention to land the newly-opened position later this summer.

But if the Blue Devils do hire the head distance coach (rather than an assistant) from another program, then it wouldn't be unlikely for a number of transfer prospects to hit the portal and follow their coach to Durham, North Carolina.

According to one source, no Duke distance athletes other than Maatoug have entered the transfer portal since November.