a little history, a
little humor
CIF
Finals Pigeon race!?!
May 19, 1934 in the LA
Coliseum … the first event of the CIF Track and Field Finals was a 40-mile
pigeon race from the historic Olympic stadium in downtown
In memorium, a personal tribute to Dave Kamanski,
former long-time
Dave Kamanski
I first met Dave Kamanski in May of 1959. I was a senior at El Rancho
High School running on the track team. I was a pretty good athlete and
Dave asked me if I would be interested in running for
After graduation from college, I
coached and taught at a local high school and was in touch with Kamanski for eight years. He recruited many of my
athletes and was helpful to me as a beginning coach. I moved on to LBCC
for two years before Dave called and asked if I would be interested in coaching
with him at
People have asked what made him
special. I think the true answer is that he really cared about what you
were going to make of yourself. He taught me that the success on the
track was not the ultimate outcome! He felt that the success that we
achieve as coaches was measured in what type of person we turned out to
be. How we went through life, the respect we showed others and how we
raised our families. He was big on family!! He always talked about
his children and how proud he was of them. Funny thing though, I always
felt that we were all a part of his family!
Dave taught me the values of
coaching. He was a man who wanted things to be done right and
fairly. Probably why he spent so much time as a referee and a replay
official—a topic of a lot of fun for us each Monday after he did a game.
In closing, I would say that Dave
Kamanski was one of the early leaders of Southern
California Community College track and field. He has been missed and will
continue to be family for those of us who were lucky enough to run for him and
be associated with him.
Gary Gaudet-former
Any additions or
corrections, please contact Coach Larry Knuth at: knuthfam@hotmail.com
COACH KNUTH FIELDS
QUESTIONS FROM HIS READERS
Question from a reader: When did metric races and automatic
timing begin at the cc level? Also, when did all weather tracks come into our
state?
Answer: Automatic timing began with the 1977 track season and the
“metric world” came together in 1976. As far as we know the first all-weather
cc track was at Foothill CC (
Zoila Gomez
11-time NCAA
All-American
Honda Broderick
Award winner
2008
Costa Mesa HS: Gomez did not start
running until her senior year at Costa Mesa HS and the team went on to win the
state championship-she was their number two runner most of the season.
Orange Coast CC: During her
OCC Track: 1999: Gomez won
conference championships in the 3000, 5000, and 10,000- meters and went on to
win the state championship in the 10,000- 38:07.47.
OCC 1999 cross
country: Gomez won the San Diego Mesa Invite, OEC Preview Meet, OCC
Classic, Bakersfield Invite, Cuesta Invite, OEC
Championships and the Southern Cal Championship. In the 1999 state cross
country meet, she went after Rosemarie Lagunas, a
woman who placed in the top 10 of the Suzuki Rock and Roll Marathon. In
her heroic effort she paid the price and faded to 7th.
OCC 2000 track: Gomez continued to
roll winning three more conference titles and went on to win the state 3k,
5000-18:29.3 and 10,000-meters, 37:46.55-meet record.
OCC Coaches: John Goldman, Dave Fier
Honors: Honda Broderick Award
winner
National teams:
2008