| Chat With Leroy Burrell Welcome to the UHCougars.com moderated chat room. On Monday, February 24, UH track and field head coach Leroy Burrell will drop by to chat about the 2003 season and the upcoming C-USA Indoor Championships. Former Olympic sprinter and world record holder Leroy Burrell will be leading the University of Houston men's and women's track and field team into contention for the Conference USA Indoor Track and Field championships. Burrell guided the Lady Cougars to their third C-USA indoor title last year and Houston returns 11 C-USA individual champions from last year's team. The men's track and field team also returns two C-USA individual champions from last year and look to improve upon last year's third place finish and contend for their fifth C-USA indoor championship. During his career in the sprints and long jump, Burrell wwas a nine-time All-American, two-time Olympian, two-time world record holder in the 100 meters and was ranked as the world's best sprinter in 1990 and 1991. In his first four years at Houston, he has led the Lady Cougars to three Conference USA championships and two Top 10 finishes at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships. He also led Houston to the 1999 and 2000 C-USA Men's Indoor and Outdoor championships. Coach Burrell won't be stopping by until 11:30 a.m. CT on Monday, but you can submit your questions now and we'll save them for his arrival. Click here for more on Cougar track and field! |
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| Mark (Houston): How is your men's distance program looking for the outdoor season and are there any good prospects for the next season. |
 |  | Leroy Burrell: We are really excited with the way our men's distance program is going so far. Our two freshman Sesar Figueroa and Cole Dailey have performed in the mile and 3K. Mike Olague broke the school record in the 5K . So we are very happy with what we are doing so far. |
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| CJ: What do You think about the freshmen (men) so far in the indoor season. |
 | | Leroy Burrell: I am really please with the way things are going. I already mentioned Sesar Figeruoa. Preston Perry has done well in the 200 and 60. Our throwers, especially Jacob Rodriguez, have done well. I think Derek Randall will really help us in the discus during the outdoor season. I am expecting to see some big things from Clayton Cretors and Jordan Mumford in the decathlon outdoors. I am also really excited about redshirt freshman Ronnie Broadnax, who is running as fast as our guys did last year in the hurdles. We have a good young team and they are going to start to lead the way as we progress into the outdoor season. |
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| J from Houston: If you got on the track right now, how fast do you think you could run the 100? |
| | Leroy Burrell: It depends on how much horsepower I have in the engine in my car. |
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| Braylon, Houston: coach Burrell,i have noticed that your team rosters for both men and women consists mainly of high schoolers and maybe an occasional transfer. is there a reason why you do not have any junior college athletes on the roster... |
| | Leroy Burrell: We have taken the philosophy to go after the best high school talent that we can sign. I think this says a lot as to the success we have had in recruiting high school athletes. We have 10 state champions on the men's and women's teams. If we don't get the kids who we feel can help us, then we will move towards the junior college ranks. We are actually looking towards bringing in a few junior college athletes, mainly in the men's 400 meters. I would be a little remiss in saying that it is important for a program to develop kids. It's really satisfying to bring an athlete in for four years and watch them develop into top flight athletes. We are going to have the opportunity to watch that in the future by bringing in so many talented high school athletes. |
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| Ft. Worth: With the conference meet in a few days, What are your expectations for the women team? |
| | Leroy Burrell: I expect us to defend our Conference USA championship. We had a really good year last year and ran our best meet as a team when it mattered most. I expect us to do the same thing this year. If we do that, we will have an excellent opportunity to defend our championship. |
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| Austin: Coach Burrell, I've noticed that you a number of freshmen this year. Who are some of your major contributors this indoor season? And are you pleased with the teams overall performance? |
| | Leroy Burrell: I spoke about our men's distance and field event athletes earlier. I am really impressed with our three first year women, Ebony Floyd, Keisha Howard and Renee Clarke. They have done some really good things in practice. Now, it's a matter of getting good marks this weekend. We have done a good job exposing them to college competition a little bit, but not hanging them out to dry. It's been a good year, but, we're not finished. |
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| San Antonio: I am really impress with the three young freshmen you have on the women 4x4 relay; With those addition alone with Courtnie, What do you expect to run this week at conference? |
| | Leroy Burrell: This week will be a little difficult for our women's 4x400 because we are doubling them in different events since or goal is to win the meet. We are also behind schedule because we have had to hold every quartermiler out of one meet during the entire indoor season, primarily because of the flu and nagging injuries. That being said, I think we can run 3:35, but it will be difficult this weekend. We also have enough depth because we can run Lauren Smith, who has run a 53 split for us, or Alicia Cave, who is a 57 400-meter hurdler. |
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| Houston: Coach Burrell, With additions of Ebonie, Keisha, Renee, and along with Jennifer Hunt, and Lisa Wilson your team seems to be headed in right direction. |
| | Leroy Burrell: You are absolutely right in your assessment. We think we got two outstanding signees in Lisa Wilson and Jennifer Hunt. Lisa run 11.41 in the 100 last year and is a two-time 3A state champion. Jennifer ran 2:09 in the half and was the state runner-up in both the 400 and 800 meters last year. We think they will provide us some depth and championship attitude I spoke about earlier. |
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| Rodney (LaPorte, TX): Our men's and women's teams have been strong during this indoor season. How do you expect them to fair at this weekend's C-USA Indoor Championships? |
| | Leroy Burrell: I expect the women to defend their championship and I think the men will do more of the same. I told them on our team meeting that we have to defend our home track. I think that we have people in position to fair well as a team for the men's championship. But, we definitely have to put it on the track. We will need a big day from Stanford Routt, Robert Foster, Milton Manson, Andrew Carruthers, Ronnie Broadnax, Jason Edwards, along with our distance runners and throwers I mentioned earlier. |
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| Ronald (Houston, TX): Where is the team's biggest improvement this season -- sprints, distance or in the field? |
| | Leroy Burrell: We have improved everywhere on the men's team. This weekend will determine where the biggest improvement is. I will say that Stanford Routt's 21.22 seconds was an eye-popping time. |
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| flo - houston: What do you think about the local high school talent? |
| | Leroy Burrell: You look at our roster and you will see that most of our athletes are from the Greater Houston Area. Two of our men's signees are from Houston. They are Brandon Dixon from Lamar (1:50 in the 800 meters) and Carey LaCour from Humble (21.00 in the 200 and 13.71 in the 110-hurdles). |
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| Houston: I am very impressed with the hurlders you have this year on both the men's and women's side. Do you think that the teams can sweep the top three spots in mens and womens at indoor confernce? |
| | Leroy Burrell: We are going to try. You never know what will happen in that event. We have the talent and our athletes are working hard. We just have to go out and execute. |
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