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Los Angeles Indoor Meet (Saturday - February 15th - LA Sports Arena)

A press conference was held at the USC Track facility Monday, January 20th, 2003 as part of preparation for the 43rd Annual LA Indoor Track and Field Meet, at the LA Sports Arena. USC has done some great improvements to its track and field facility, including a great area where the coaches offices and a large team meeting room were utilized for the conference by Al and Don Franken as they presented some of the top athletes in the 2/15/03 affair!!

Duarte's Mohamed Trafeh - "I was improving so much all the time in Cross-Country, the 7th in Nationals was very surprising still! I was just coming off fasting because of my religious beliefs and was rebuilding my strength. I want to be a miler eventually. My mother came here seven years from Morocco and brought me here three years ago. North African runners are good runners because of Coaching, and focus on their training, which emphasizes quality, not quantity. I want to do a good job in the 1600 and 3200 this season, and win races at Arcadia and the Golden West Invitational. I would like to go under 8:50 for 3200 meters. I have cut back on my mileage, with as far as 20 miles per day runs as a sophomore, and 90-100 miles per week, to about 60 per week."

Thomas Mack (Bakersfield) - State Highs and Intermediate Champion - "Last season our coaches kept emphasizing that we could win state as a team, and while the team was not too sure along the way, it worked out that we were able to pull it off. I would like to focus on the 400 hurdles this season, with my goal at 51 seconds. I would like to run 13.6 for the 110 Meter High Hurdles. At the State Meet I relayed 46.9 in the 4x400 in the Heats, and 47.6 in the Finals. I have a 3.6 GPA. I spend all my time working on my grades and track, and have not played football." When asked how the team approached the state meet, and especially himself, with six races over two days, "I knew I had to run six races at the State Meet over the two days with heats and finals, the relay had to do its job, and Mackey had to win the 400 for us to take the title. I was a bit sick the week of the meet, and paced the 300 Hurdles in the Prelims. I could have run a personal best, but realized that I still had a lot of running to do still Friday and Saturday."

Don Norford - Track Coach Long Beach Poly - "There is a lot of tradition at Poly, and we ask the athletes who have left to come back and talk to the current group about competing at the next level. We have great academics at the school to help everyone. We provide tutors at school or to go into the homes to help families. I have coached Football at Poly since, 1971, and been with the Varsity since 1976. I was given the track program in 1989, and soon after took the skill people from the football team out of the weight room in the spring and worked on making them faster in track." On how he handles teams with so many top athletes and the potential for ego's to get in the team's way, "We try to work on keeping our athletes on the team humble, and have found that approach always helps to keep people working together. We ask our athletes to lead by example, and be thankful for the gifts you have been handed. If there are any issues come up, we bring it right up, and work on quickly getting it settled, and moving on. There were some learning lessons along these lines in the middle 1990's, but we have done a good job of working together lately."

Terrell Baker (LB Poly - All-State High Jumper - Coach Norford "Terrell may be the next LB Poly great running back."

Malik Muhammad (LB Poly) - Sub-1:55 800 star ready for big senior year

Derrick Jones - 10.58 (10.53w) and 21.24 junior sprint star according to Coach Norford, "Derek might be the best sprinter ever to come out of Poly. It is up to him and how hard he works over this year and next in the weight room and out on the field and track to achieve that possibility." Derrick Football Story (he does have another sport!) - a bit more on Derrick

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