"I have had some bad coaches since I started rowing but Preston has showed me that there are still coaches that care about the rower and not just results. His teams aren't without their ups and downs but you can always see how deeply he cares and how much he wants the team as a whole to succeed. The team has only continued to get faster under his leadership and they've achieved the highest team GPAs at the same time."
"Mediocre coaching skills… chooses to continually “break” athletes rather than build strengths and long term team cohesiveness. Justifies transfer portal… but look what that got the team in 2023… total lack of cohesive offense.
Players are constantly “walking on eggshells”… one wrong move will send them out of the line-up or even off the team, with the exception of the pet players who can do no wrong. Lacks maturity and is threatened by viewpoints that challenge his. Plays mind games with the players in order to see what kind of response he can get. Take a look at the number of players leaving and moving on to other programs before choosing this one. A good player does NOT always translate to good coach!"
"Stunned Coach John left JU. Still find it hard to comprehend why he walked away from a program he was so excited about building up over the next few years. Coach threw his heart and his soul and every ounce of energy he had in to the JU program and treated the players with respect. He has set the next coach up for a successful few years as the 2023 freshmen class he recruited and left behind are legit. It will be interesting to see if Coach decides to coach again or continues with his student athlete recruitment business he just started. Personally, I feel he is a loss to the game if he doesn't coach again. I have yet to see a more passionate coach or organized coach. The guy seemed to have a plan for every situation. A full alphabet worth of plans!"
"Coach Weinard is by far one of the worst coaches I have ever worked with. He is unorganized, unprofessional, and just flat out dumb when it comes to the sport of rowing. No wonder he is unsuccessful and couldn’t go anywhere else but the messy team that he was a part of years before. He cares more about being the rowers’ buddy than actually coaching them or coming up with a logical training plan. Preston has the unique ability of having athletes with so much potential and doing absolutely nothing with them. He doesn’t increase any rowers potentials or teach them improvements to their rowing skills. He also doesn’t know a thing when it comes to coxing or how to coach a coxswain. The program would be better run by a high schooler. It’s no mystery why the guys team does worse than the girls team every year, or for that fact, any other team. The program doesn’t send kids to national teams or any next levels of rowing. The only boats coach Weinard has produced that weren’t absolute embarrassments to the men’s college rowing world were boats that were thrown together at the last minute with absolutely no training plan. The most successful boat in his coaching career included a coxswain he just threw in who had never coxed a race before that one. He is the definition of laziness, pure luck, and “winging it”. There is no logic, strategy, or honestly a single decent thought that goes through that coaches head. He is wasting a program with so many resources and so much potential. If you have any respect for yourself as a rower, coxswain, or assistant coach, don’t waste a minute working with this man."
"Firstly John always treated my daughter well. That’s #1. Second, the program at JU got better each year under his guidance. Third- the student athletes gave their all under him and JU were no longer a pushover. I was more than a tad surprised to see that John and JU decided to go their separate ways recently. The future looked rather bright for the team. He left behind a young talented group at JU having just brought in over 20 freshmen. Personally I would have thought he would have wanted to hang around and reap the benefit of his own recruiting over the next few years. "
"I only got to enjoy playing for coach for 1 season. I believed in him as a coach and as a person. He set us up to still be very competitive in games even though all our keepers were out injured and we had a field player in goal.
Our loss at JU will definitely be someone else’s gain. He set us up in a way for each game that always had us believing we had a chance.
"
"He was perverted, if you follow Sam Mathers on Instagram and you look carefully, you will see stories of his inappropriate behaviors. He would ask assistant coaches to take them out for drinks, comment on athletes bodies. Asked me if I dress up in short clothes, and get men’s attention and if I know what that makes me… a good girl? Asking me if I’m being a bad girl on multiple occasions in a creepy disgusting voice. Touched my lower back to motion me to follow my nearby teammates like I couldn’t see or get the point, asked me to schedule a Microsoft teams meeting to show him stretches I was given at physio… I could’ve showed him at practice with everyone and more than enough space but instead he wanted me to bend my self in his office? Where you can’t lay straight in any direction becuz it’s that small… I reported this to student experience and he wasn’t phased at all… they’re all disgusting which is why they asked him to step down instead of firing him when it blew up on social media. The school was to worried about their income from donors because they’re private and need money that badly they brush off female athletes that desperately need help and allow for a coach to continue what he has been getting away with for years"
"Danielle plays an integral role to the success of the mens lacrosse program at Jacksonville. The support she provides to the players, coaches and parents is top notch. As a former standout player herself, she understands what’s important to create a successful and inclusive environment. She’s too in her field! "
"Played for him for 1 year.
Positives:
Passion
Drive
Organization
Work ethic
Held people accountable
Negatives:
6am's - Occasionally we had weights at 6am and now and again had a 6am practice. A bit too early for me. That part I will not miss.
"
"Played for him for 4 years at Nova.
Program was struggling when I got there. During my time there I played in 4 championship finals, won 2 championships and went to the NCAA tournament all 4 years.
Not every day was fun but not every day can be fun when working hard turning a losing program in to a winning program.
Coach is a winner. Outside of the fact we didn't win a national title in our last year as got to the elite 8 and ended up with a regional title, we built everything he said we would when he recruited me.
I feel very satisfied about my experience under coach and proud of everything we were able to build. Nova wasn't respected when we got there. By the time we both left, Nova was a powerhouse feared by most at that level.
Not sure if he still does now but he would do the running with us. I quite liked this as I felt no fitness could ever get too crazy if he was doing it too.
I always felt coach had an unwavering belief in himself and on where our program was going. This allowed him to make big calls, change systems and formations, handle setbacks and occasionally be humble enough to admit to the team if he got a tactic wrong once or twice.
"
"I hoped for a bigger role under him but it hasn’t happened. However, he does run a good program here at JU. We have went from not winning a game in 2019 to having our first winning season in a decade in 2022. If my memory is on point, I don’t think he has cut one player during that time either. The key thing he has done at JU is change us from easy to beat to difficult to beat.
I have struggled internally not getting the playing time I want but as I start to think about life after soccer I realize it’s nothing personal. Coaches will pick the team that they think is correct to win a game.
As someone that hopes to one day be in a leadership position myself, I admired how he led us in 2022 as he and the program were faced with some off field challenges. Some of those challenges, most coaches wouldn’t deal with in a lifetime. His strength of character I felt was evident through this. All eyes were on him and he passed multiple tests. Coach is a person too at the end of the day and 2022 wouldn’t have been easy for him.
Coach isn’t perfect. I don’t think he would claim to be either.
He does throw his heart and soul in to the players and the program. More than I have ever seen from a coach. I do think that is part of the reason why so many players give him every ounce of energy they have. It’s cause they see him giving the exact same.
"
"Coach likes to bully and chastise athletes. Likes to belittle athletes on short comings and takes pleasure in pointing out athletes flaws. He was caught by students taking “sports pic” of female athletes in the locker room. "
"Great coaches care and think about their team’s performances and skills all the time while building their confidence, skills and proficiency. Good coaches communicate well. Great coaches, however, create conversations. Good coaches listen carefully and truly try to understand. They ask clarifying questions to make sure they have an accurate picture of their team members’ strengths and offer opportunities to apply specific skills. Ron Grigg is none of the above.. while he has knowledge of the sport he has no idea how to put that knowledge into coaching players the correct way. Please stay away from this toxic man as he will destroy your children's drive for the sport in his pursuit of track and field supremacy. "
"Coach Constable is more than a coach to many of us; he has been a father figure and friend, throughout the entire student athlete and college experience. He has a love and passion for soccer that inspires us all to give our all! "
"Very tactical. We are improving each year. He helped us through a tough time and was very empathetic. He has us very organized. He is very demanding. He is a good guy and has been good for our program. He doesn’t seem to sleep! "
"It is absolutely saddening to hear of this man’s favoritism and mistreatment of athletes just because he “doesn’t like them”. It unprofessional behavior. "
"Coach John throws his life in to his team. I’ve never had a coach as passionate before. He cares about his players as people. He has a reputation for improving programs and that’s what he does. I enjoyed playing soccer for him.
He is all in. I was all in so I enjoyed playing for him. His team I was on reflected him. Passionate, driven and high energy and incredibly hardworking. "
"He was serious about the sport for sure. He cared about you as long as he was happy with you. Meaning he would switch on you for example if you were injured. In my experience, it took me months before I saw a doctor simply because they didn’t take me serious. The doctors failed at their job. Imaging showed nothing and nothing more was done. This lead to coach Grigg thinking I wasn’t injured or I wasn’t hurting. I was In pain because I continued to run to the point where I now suffer long term consequences (chronic injury). He made it clear that he won’t make an injured athlete run. On the other hand, his attitude, snarky comments, the idea of me letting down the team forced me to suffer every morning. It was mentally exhausting. Mentally exhausting feeling like I Had to prove I was hurting. Mentally exhausting going back and fourth whether or not I should continue and push through the season. Mentally exhausting to hear that maybe I should see a sports psychologist because “nothings wrong with me”. I felt stuck because I thought that even if I wanted out no other coach would want me because I dug my self into a hole making my injury worse and not putting up times. I looked down on my self almost forgetting that I’m so much more than a number in his book so much more than a scholarship. Many other girls had low self worth and the environment around me was toxic. I’m truly sad things have changed. He was saying inappropriate things to me and I witnessed it with others. I’m grateful for the opportunity and I wish I could say I had an amazing experience like some of his other athletes. It’s crazy to me because some of my teammates would claim that he would never try that with them. I guess he picks and chooses? "
"As a former athlete of Ron Grigg, I would highly rate him as a coach and a person. Stern-yes. Dedicated-yes. Knowledgeable - without doubt. Expected the best from his athletes and for his athletes - yes.
I'm so greatful for the coaching and mentorship I received from Grigg during my stint in JU. A great coach and person who instilled so many values into our practices which have stood to me since leaving the University."
"John was super motivational and such a great person to talk to during the recruiting process. He really was supportive and gave all the information to players when they asked about all aspects of the program and team! "
"John is such a cool coach and really knowledgeable about the game of soccer. He was super upfront on honest in the recruiting process and have off great vibes!"
"Great Coach. Very knowledgeable. Honest. If you don’t want to be great then he may not be the coach for you. But if you’re committed to getting better he’s the coach to go to!"
"If you are looking to play at a high level like JU, you will be looking for better facilities. Compared to schools we play, our facilities don’t compare. "
"He’s very passionate about our school and soccer. Unfortunately, his more direct style does not fit my possession play style and does not change practices much. He prepares you for game very tactically but hasn’t really developed my skill. Because of this I don’t really enjoy the sport as much anymore. I will say he is very good at creating team bonding activities. "
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