Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Best NorCal Track and Field coaches?

I was reading an article in Sports Illustrated that listed the best college football coaches including head coach, defensive coordinator etc. That got me thinking about our own sport and who are the best coaches in the north part of the state. Please comment below and include your candidates and their accolades. Once I have enough names, I will post a poll and you can vote for your choices so that we can find out who are the best of best when it comes to coaching the multiple events in TF.

Track and Field
Head Coach
Steve Nelson Mt. Pleasant CCS (Now SJCC coach)
Lee Webb James Logan NCS
Jay Lawson St. Mary's Berkeley NCS
Patrick McCrystle Bellarmine CCS
Dave Unterholzner Bella Vista SJS
Gordon Hubble Rio Americano SJS
Carin Marrs University NCS

Sprint Coach
Jay Lawson St. Mary's Berkeley NCS
Steve Nelson Mt. Pleasant CCS

Distance Coach
Bill Gregg Davis SJS
Patrick McCrystle Bellarmine CCS
Chuck Woolridge Campolindo NCS
Victor Santamaria Willow Glen CCS
Dan Gruber Aptos CCS
Chad Worthen Inderkum SJS
Walt Lange Jesuit CCS
Kevin Cruikshank University NCS

Hurdles Coach
Mike Papadopoulos Vacaville SJS

Jumps Coach
Jason Johnson Bear Creek SJS
Jeff Rogers St. Mary's Berkeley NCS
Dave Unterholzner Bella Vista SJS
Otis Campbell University NCS

Pole Vault Coach
Greg Wright Lodi SJS
Joe Myoshi Soquel CCS

Throws Coach
Pat Lewis Mills CCS
Tony Green Bishop O'Dowd NCS

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any Track & Field teams finish on the podium the last 10 years? Who has been nor cal state champions as of late?

My vote for head coach is Steve Nelson, formerly of Mt. Pleasant.

Anonymous said...

Lee Webb, James Logan!

Anonymous said...

Hurdles - Mike Papadopoulos - Vacaville
Pole Vault - Greg Wright - Lodi
Jumps - Jason Johnson - Bear Creek

Anonymous said...

Distance Coach - Chuck Woolridge, Campolindo. Just look at all the studs he's produced this decade, pretty impressive.

Anonymous said...

Coach Gregg from Davis for Distance. Pat McCrystle from Bellarmine as well.

Anonymous said...

Jay Lawson, St. Marys

Albert Caruana said...

Please include whether the person is a head coach or an event specific coach. Lots of good candidates so far. Keep them coming.

Anonymous said...

Head Coach Dave Unterholzner (Coach U) at Bella Vista in Fair Oaks. He recruits and directs coaches for sprints, hurdles, jumps, pole vaulting, throws and distance. He is incredibly supportive of the school's athletes. One of his biggest contributions is that he runs the BVtrack.com site, which schools from all over Northern California rely on for meet information, results, and quick links. He also directs numerous meets and co-directs the Sac Meet of Champions. He's an asset far beyond his own school.

Mark Snow said...

i have to second the suggestion on Dave at BV. I respect him alot. He always has competitive teams and really good athletes that he develops. His teams are always in the running for league and section championships.

I would also say that Gordon Hubble at Rio Americano does a great job with the distances( He also is the head coach of the teams at Rio) His boys and girls are always competitive for top spots in league and sections.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like Dave is a Director :-)JK...
How about just keeping the list for HEAD COACH, makes no sense for some to be on the list twice IMHO.

Anonymous said...

Jeff Rodgers St. Marys, Jumps.

Albert Caruana said...

It makes perfect sense for someone to be listed for both head coach and as an event coach. One can be a head coach and run the entire team coordinating all the athletes and coaches. That same person could also be outstanding coaching certain events.

Anonymous said...

Chad Worthen of Inderkum/Oak Hill Racing. A lot of SJS runners Rio Americano (Karperos, Gordon)/ Jesuit (Worthen) / Elk Grove (Vierra)/ El Camino (Barnes) / McClatchy (Cruz), St Francis (Fauria), have been coached by Chad and continue to run well in high school since he helped them along the way. Chad also has also coached Inderkum to several League Championships. A lot of top teams in SJS benefit from his coaching and he deserves the credit for being such a great coach.

Rob Collins said...

Distance - Dan Gruber, Aptos
Pole Vault - Joe Myoshi, Soquel

Anonymous said...

Walt Lange - Distance Jesuit

hkuphaldt said...

Totally agree with Dave Unterholzner for head coach, but he should be considered one of the great jumps coaches. By my count he has coached at least 15 state meet qualifiers in the Long, High and triple jumps.

Anonymous said...

Throws coach, Tony Green, Bishop O'Dowd.

Anonymous said...

Spencer Elliott - head coach and sprints Davis

Rob Collins said...

I would also add Laura and Jake Schmitt from Redwood to the Distance list! They have done a wonderful job with that program, with individuals they have had and there teams! There both are not going any where soon and will be just getting better every year!

Anonymous said...

Head Coach: Carin Marrs, SF University HS
Distance Coach: Kevin Cruikshank, SF University HS
Jumps Coach: Otis Campbell, SF University HS

Anonymous said...

This is a great topic - as a coach myself, it gives me a list of people I might be able to quiz in the future about various coaching topics. Another consideration of what makes a great coach might be when coaches' athletes overachieve, rather than simply make it to State, etc. An example might be our throws coach who retired a few years ago who took the weak, skinny kids we get at our school and made them very competitive at the League and Area meet levels. It was impressive to see how teaching them correct technique had them rubbing shoulders with competitors literally twice their size at meets. Another type of situation could be if, say, a coach routinely has runners who make it to the section meet when they were really slow as underclassmen (as opposed to runners who were already awesome when they entered high school). Please keep adding to this list!

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