Historic Year for High School Sports
20 Years of State Cross Country
50th Year of Moore League Sports
30 Years of Moore League Girls Cross Country

One year since passing of
George Wright
famed LB Poly Cross Country Coach

by Vicky Durham

 
George Wright out competing and with his LB Poly squad!! (right Kirby Lee photo)

This is a historic year for local high school sports. This week will be the 20th running of the State Cross Country Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno. 2006 is the beginning of the 50th year of Moore League Sports. (It is the 30th year of girls XC in the league.) One year ago this week, Poly XC coach George Wright passed away.

In tribute to George Wright, here are some interesting L.B. Poly facts and amazing highlights!

George Wright taught at Jordan and Lakewood before transferring to Poly in 1982. He began coaching boys XC in 1985. He told Kirby Lee in a 2002 article in the Press-Telegram that when he first took over as a last minute hire, there were no uniforms and the team had difficulty fielding a team of a minimum of five runners. “We weren’t very good, and it wasn’t a whole lot of fun.”

The first 10 years under Coach Wright, Poly never finished above 3rd in league.

In 1995, Poly finished 2nd in league, (after finishing 4th the previous year), but even more exciting, finished 6th at CIF prelims. The season was over, but they were left with very high hopes for 1996!

Finally, in 1996, Poly won it’s first league title since 1973. (Jim Arquilla was in his first of two years of coaching Poly XC, before moving to the Wilson program and a long successful career there.) That was the beginning of 7 Moore League Championships in a row for Coach Wright and the Poly boys’ XC team.

During those 7 years of League Championships, two years really stand out. In 1997 Poly runners went one through five. Jordan’s coach said at the time that he was pretty sure that had never happened before. That feat was topped in Coach Wright’s last year of coaching in 2002 when Poly swept the first seven places!!

In the 50 years of the Moore league, no boys’ XC team had ever won more than 3 league titles in a row. Only 2 schools had accomplished that feat. Millikan did it twice in 58, 59 & 60, and in 77, 78 & 79. Wilson repeated in 93, 94 & 95.

(The Poly tradition continued for 3 more years after Coach Wright retired, bringing their Moore League Championships to 10 in a row!)

Winning league in 1996 was great, but the Poly boys weren’t done. They went on to win CIF. It was the first time since 1943 that Poly had been the CIF XC Champions! Poly XC had become a better known sport on campus, and a respected team in CIF and State.

Poly followed their CIF win in ‘96 with wins in ‘97, ‘98, ‘99 and 2000. Since 1925 only 3 schools in Boys XC Major Division/Div.I had ever won CIF 3 times in a row. Two accomplished this feat twice. LB Poly did it in the late 20’s and late 30’s; and Compton did it in the early 40’s and the late 50’s. Royal is the only other school with 3 consecutive wins, by winning CIF this year, and in ‘04 and ‘05. Poly winning CIF 5 times in a row is a truly amazing accomplishment. As Coach Wright put it in the 2000 Poly Banquet program, “Division I is very competitive year in and year out with some of the best teams in the state and nation located in this largest of the CIF sections.”

On to State…another quote, this time from Poly’s 1996 Banquet program said, “Whoever would have thought that a team could go from 4th in league to 4th in State in just 2 years!”

Coach Wright had a philosophy he tried to instill in his runners, “You’ve Got to Believe it to See It!” Coach Wright believed it and soon his runners believed it could happen too! In 1996, Poly became the 1st and only boys’ XC team from the Moore League to qualify for the State meet. They went on to win State in 1997, and Chad Durham became the only Boy’s Div. I individual State Champion whose team also won. The announcer described the race as having “the most dramatic finish in the history of the CIF State Championships.” Poly beat Nevada Union 67-72, giving them the 2nd closest finish ever at the XC Division I State Championships. They would top that finish with wins in 1998 against 2nd place Santa Ana and 3rd place Saugas 115, 116, to 117 respectively; and in 2000 beating Buchanan 152 to 153.

Only 44 schools have had teams finish in the top 5 at State in Division I since it began in 1987. Of those 44 teams, 31 have been from Southern Section. Del Compo, in 1995, became the only non-Southern Section school to win State in Division I. Hart is the only other team to have won State 3 times, but had only one other appearance in the top 5, finishing 4th. Peninsula finished in the top 5 seven consecutive years, but won state only once. Poly finished in the top 5 six times under Coach Wright, becoming State Champions 3 times, and finishing 4th 3 times. This arguably makes them the most successful Division I XC school overall.

During those XC years, from ‘97 through ‘02, Poly was often ranked in the top 10 nationally during the season; including ranking 4th in ‘97, 3rd in 2000, 1st at the beginning of the season in ‘01, and 2nd in ‘02.

What makes a program so successful? Coach Wright wrote this in the 1996 XC Banquet program about Poly having the potential to be a contender in 1997: “There are a lot of “if’s” involved….if we want it….if we’re committed….if we’re healthy….if we are all willing to sacrifice….if we continue to get parent, school and community support, etc.

Poly’s program also had two secret weapons. “Mrs. Coach”, Barbara Wright, who was an unofficial assistant coach, trainer, and cheerleader and Joe Carlson, who coached the distance boys (and girls) during track season, keeping them in prime shape until XC started up again.

Of course, it does help to have some talented and dedicated runners. Here are some thoughts from a few of them.

Kevin Word, who is currently running for LB State, said this, “Coach taught me to have a positive attitude in spite of adversity. For example, he taught me to encourage myself, encourage my teammates, to love one another, lean on one another, forgive one another, and move on with each other. My attitude and my teammate’s attitude as a group under Coach Wright’s guidance will always keep us a group under the peace.”

Natan Bershtel, who is in his 2nd year as assistant coach to the Poly XC boys team, and was a senior on the 1996 CIF Championship team said this: “The other day I was at a teacher training and somehow the definition of the word “coach” came up. Somebody mentioned that it has its root in the Hungarian village of Kocs which was known for making fancy carriages; so pretty much a coach is a vehicle for getting you to your destination. That pretty much sums up Coach Wright. He got us athletes to where we wanted to go. I realize he never had success with the cross country team before 1996, but I think every year he coached he was there to take his athletes to their destination. (I guess the difference with us is that we wanted our destination to be winning CIF.) Coach got a lot of attention when his teams started winning, but I don’t think he ever cared for the attention. Coach Wright was a great coach long before we started winning. He realized that the team’s destination would always be dependent on his passengers. Once a bunch of his runners came in with middle school experience (myself, the Durhams, the Brulois’, the Conrads, Tyler Noesen, John Gould, etc.) and showed him they wanted more than just winning Moore League, he made adjustments to his program (i.e. mileage, travel meets, etc.). But his coaching remained constant – his job was always to transport his athletes to their desired destination. It was always about his athletes’ destination, never his own. Even to this day, George continues to take me to my destinations – every time I run. To me George was the epitome of the word “Coach”. In my dictionary, he is the definition of the word!”

And finally from Chad Durham: “There are many things to like about Coach Wright. Strictly on the coaching side, he was a master at helping us to peak. I never really knew what peaking was until my junior year, when I felt incredible at CIF Prelims. I had to rein myself in to save up for the following week. Coach had made a believer out of me by proving the things that he said were true. He already had my trust, but now he had results to back it up. Also, Coach Wright was always confident in our abilities but never let us get too full of ourselves. In 1997, the first year we won the State Championship, we worried about Nevada Union the whole week leading up to it. Not a detrimental worry, just an understanding that, although we had the talent to win State, so did they. And it was going to take a big effort to bring it home. The biggest factor that contributes to a team’s success, in my opinion, is trust between the Coach and his runners. We knew he was giving us the best workouts and the best guidance that he knew how. And he knew we were leaving it all on the course – for him and for each other.

The second thing that made Coach Wright such a wonderful coach was that he found a way to be our coach and our friend. That is a difficult line to walk as a coach. I’ve had coaches who were great friends and had a lot of fun with us but didn’t lead us like we needed. And I’ve had coaches who were great at discipline and motivation but we didn’t feel like we could talk to them. Coach Wright led us by example (running with us a lot), through motivation (great pre-race speeches, silly little contests), and through great workouts. But we also liked to talk to him, laugh with him, and run for him. He stood at the head of a team that wanted to be him. He took our jokes about his age with mock anger and a quick smile. Coach Wright and my father taught me all I ever needed to know about running. And I’m pretty sure a lot of his runners would tell you that same thing. He made a national power out of a team with no confidence. And those runners will think of him often. Coach Wright has a legacy in Long Beach, California, and perhaps it spreads even further. He will be missed.” Yes, he will be remembered, and missed by all who knew him!!