Juan Robles (Valencia, Placentia) first year star at Central Arziona!

Orange County star on to Arizona CC Powerhouse to start Collegiate Career!!

Juan Robles and National CC Champ Central Arizona squad

Juan Robles (Valencia, Placentia) had a fine Golden State prep career in Cross-Country and Track and Field, and we noticed that he moved on this Fall to Central Arizona College, a two year school just north of Tucson in Coolidge, Arizona. Famed American Olympic level runner George Young and Kurt Van Hazel built the Track and CC programs up to a National Class level over a period of decades, with current Cross-Country Coach Mike Grey continuing the tradition with the squad the 2003 National Community College champions in the Fall sport, and a fine spring track season ahead.

We passed some questions on to Juan and asked him to answer them about his experiences in Arizona thus far, with a big congrats on his and the team's success this Fall!

1) How did you end up at Central Arizona CC?

A) One of the main reasons that I decided to come to AZ was that I wanted to try something different for running locations and people, If I stayed in California it would kind of be like running with the same people that I ran with in HS. Also my parents moved to Las Vegas and were not going to be in California, so I thought it would not be such a bad idea to move somewhere different too.

2) How has school and Arizona been so far??
A) So far it has gone well. At first it was really hard to get used to the no lower than 105 degree weather which we never had in California and not used to seeing many trees or much grass, but maybe the biggest thing was not being around any big cities or streets just desert. School has gone great so far learning a lot of new things as well as meeting new people. The Awesome thing about this school is there are people from all over the world it's really cool to have gotten to know so many people from so many countries.

3) How did the season go and what was it like to run in College??
A) The season went great it was nice to run and train with totally new people and get to run new courses. The best thing must have been getting a chance to run at nationals, specially after reading "Running with the Buffaloes." (about the University of Colorado program). It was really nice to run in the same course that I read about in the book. That is also one of the reasons that I came to Central because I would have a really good chance to come to a team where I knew would have a really good chance to be one of the best in the nation, and compete in the National Meet.

Juan was third man on the National Championship Central Arizona team, racing 26:43 for 8k on the Rim Rock Farm course in Kansas at the Championship event. CA won the very competitive championship event over Barton County (Kansas) 39-40. Best of luck to Juan and the Central Arizona program, which has had a smattering of California athletes attend over the years. - 2003 National Community College Championship Results

• Link to Central Arizona College
• Cross Country Program
• Track & Field Program
• Check the Track Top Tens (wow!!!) - Mike Sulcer (Muir) - John Montgomery (Independence, San Jose) - Anthony Bailous (Canoga Park) Californians who went on to Central Arizona
• E-Mail Coach Mike Grey of CAC (Cross Country Coach) - E-Mail Coach Al Shirley (Track & Field)
  

Back to DyeStatCal News