Ryan Foster and Kara Foster Obtain New Officer Statuses

The news hit me over the weekend that Ryan Foster was no longer an Assistant Coach for the team.  Turns out that Ryan and Kara Foster are moving to Australia, the land of a thousand dangerous animals!  Ryan has always been a big help to our group and I will really feel sorry to see him go.

Both Ryan and Kara will now have the designation of Southern Hemisphere Outreach Specialists for our group.  This Officer Status comes with all the bells and whistles of even the Founder of our group.  Quarterly royalty checks will be sent via the East India Company's top-of-the-line ships.  Barring piracy and shipwreck, they can expect 10s of dollars per decade, subject to the vagaries of US and Australian taxes.

All kidding aside, I wish them Bon Voyage.  Maybe we can start a Happy Gilmore tee-shot contest at the next Golf Tourney in honor of Ryan?

Dear Alumni and Friends of Penn State Track and Field:

I hope your summer is going well.  It is hard to believe it is August already and another school year is right around the corner.

As I hope you know by now, we recently hired two excellent additions to the coaching staff here at Penn State.  Erin Tucker has joined us from the University of Florida and will be our Associate Head Coach in charge of sprints and hurdles.  Angela Reckart has joined us from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and will work with me in the middle distance/distance aspect of the program.  We are all thrilled Angela and Erin have  joined us.

The reason we were able to hire new coaches is because we have the departure of Ryan and Kara Foster.  After many years of service to the program, both as athletes and coaches, Ryan and Kara have decided to move back to Ryan’s homeland of Australia.  The Foster’s have been instrumental to the program and were a significant help to the program as we made the transition to having a new Head Coach this past fall.

On August 15^th  in the evening we will have a combination going away party for the Foster’s and a welcome party for Erin and Angela.  We hope if you are in the area or local to State College you can join us to say hello and goodbye at the same time.  I will send out details of when and where as we get closer to the event.

Hoping to see you in a few weeks.  Enjoy the rest of your summer.

John Gondak