DyeStatCal California Boys Coach of the Week 9/23-27/02
George Wright (Long Beach Poly) - Amended 10/3/02

A Championship shot of LB Poly and Coach George Wright (Kirby Lee)

Coach Wright and crew were on the way to North Carolina for the Great American CC Meet when we tried to secure contact with him for this honor - following the couple paragraph summary he did take the time to answer some questions about himself and his program -

Congrats - Best of Luck George

Doug Speck - DyeStatCal

One of the more successful programs in recent years in Cross-Country has been the Long Beach Poly teams of Coach George Wright. A triathlete competitor himself, Wright has great background in what makes athletes tick, with his ability to round up a group of athletes from various personal backgrounds, put them on the course at Championship time, and produce like few in State History at the Large Schools level. His 2002 Jackrabbit group, highly ranked once again, is off to North Carolina to once again test themselves against the best in the nation in the Great American Cross-Country Festival. We are sure they will do us proud.

Long Beach Poly HS is a model urban school, a huge institution, the kind that is usually bogged down into mediocrity with a myriad of problems. The Poly tradition is "family" with an excellence in every area achieved by few others in the entire nation. Statistics like more NFL players from Poly than any school in the U.S., academic achievements at a very, very high level, and a permeating sense of striving for excellence in all areas should make it a mandatory study program for many other school districts. Coach Wright is once again expected to compete for the State Championship with his 2002 crew, with his announced final season at the helm of the program we are sure providing some extra motivation for his troops come championship time in November. Fourth in State 2001, a winner in 2000, the Jackrabbit tradition in recent years has been established that will continue this year. Best of Luck to the 2002 group, and our DyeStatCal Boys Coach of the Week, Coach George Wright of LB Poly.

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1) Briefly describe your successes at Long Beach Poly with your cross-country teams recently?
We first emerged as a power in 1996 when we won the CIF-SS Div 1 championship. We went on to State that year and finished 4th. That was a very young team and all of the top 5 returned in 1997 with an eye on the State Championship knowing they would do battle with a very strong Nevada Union team. We mapped out a training plan to accomplish that goal. They stuck to it all summer long and in the end won both CIF and State titles. Chad Durham was the overall champion in a close finish. The team went on to repeat in 1998 (by one point) despite the loss of our top 2 runners. In 1999, CIF-SS was split in to !-AA and 1-A divisions and we had a close win over Rialto in the 1-AA. The team then placed 7th in State which was good for that group. In 2000, with the addition of Ozzie Pina the team again reclaimed CIF and State titles (again by one point) This almost didn't happen as our number 3 runner had a high fever and a couple of others had end of the season injuries. The 2001 team was a gain plagued by injury and illness but finished second in CIF to Canyon and 4th in State

2) How do you think your teams have remained near the top recently despite a constant turnover of athletes with graduation and all? I give the credit to the kids. The team of 96 set the tone. They were highly self motivated and became a very close knit group in their quest. Our captains run summer practices on their own and all of our varsity runners attend. When I return in August, they are ready to go. This has happened every year since.

3) What is your personal athletic and coaching background outside of recent years? I was a swimmer in High School. Played water polo and swam at Cal State Northridge. I took up running at age 36. I began doing triathlons in 1981 and had great age group success including a couple of Ironman and national championships. This is my sport of choice and I hope to return to it when I am done here at Poly

4) What is the outlook for this year's LB Poly team? Baring health and injury issues, we will be in the hunt at CIF and State levels. This is the closest group of kids I have ever had. They are extremely motivated and have worked harder than any previous group.

5) How do things look heading into the Great American Meet next weekend? By now you have seen the results. We ended up 10th in a very tough field under the toughest of condition. I am very pleased and proud of how our team competed and conducted themselves in NC. We learned some things that will help us out down the road.

6) What advice would you have for new Coaches to Cross-Country? Hang in there. When I took over in 1985 I found no runners, no schedule, no uniforms. We could not even field 5 runners in some races. Things can only get better it time.

DyeStatCal News

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