Former Leigh HS (San Jose) Coach Homer Latimer
has a lot of 'fans'
Former CCS All-Time Great Coach has inspirational visit from former athletes

The Central Coast Section area of California went through an amazing period in the distances in the late 1960's and early 1970's, with a Fall postal competition series of two and three mile events with five team members giving schools from across the nation a chance to compete against each other on the team time clock, with the CCS area an impressive series of results each Fall.  The success of a number of these cross-country athletes carried over into the spring track and field season.  A legend in the area with his successful individuals and teams was Coach Homer Latimer of Leigh in San Jose, with his groups as feared as any in the Golden State during his tenure there.  Bill Hotchkiss came to Leigh as a coach in 1973 and helped Homer with the Cross-Country teams for the next few years and split the year's duties with the distance crew, taking them through the spring track season while Homer had Head Coaching duties.  Hotchkiss continued the Leigh 'magic' for many, many years in the CCS and statewide. 

Jack Shepard of Track and Field News gathered the tip of his ice-berg of talented distance group during a review of the period of the early 1970's, with Jack Bellah the nation's top prep 10k runner at 31:33.5 in 1972 and a 9:18 2 mile and 2:48 marathon as a prep, John Tengelsen a 2:45 marathon in 1973, Matt Somer a 9:16.8 2 mile in 1973, Dave Hamilton a 1:52.5 880 in 1974, Conrad Suhr a 4:11.4 mile in 1974 and 1:51.0 880 yard effort while winning State in 1975, Dave Stock a 14:48 postal 3 mile in 1974, and Ron Fritzke sixth at the 1975 state two mile in 9:03 and a 14:06 3 mile.  The 1973 squad averaged 15:06 for three miles in a fall postal competition off 14:41-14:48-15:11-15:21 and 15:27 clockings, with a 9:36 two mile average while taking the National Title that Fall off a 47:58.2 total for five (with 14 on the team under 10:00 in that competition). 

As indicated in the article below from the Union Democrat in the Mother Lode area of the Sac Joaquin section Latimer moved from Leigh to Columbia Elementary in that area to finish out his career in education, with former team members rallying around their former mentor with the news that he had some serious health problems recently.

There is contact info at the bottom of the article if any of his contacts would like to pass along their best wishes.
Our best wishes and prayers are with Homer and his family--
Doug Speck
DyeStatCal.com 

Team champions former track coach

Published: October 29, 2007
By LENORE RUTHERFORD
The Union Democrat
Link to Original article

Retired Columbia Elementary School teacher Homer Latimer, now a cancer patient, was visited Saturday by the 1973 national champion track team and others he coached at Leigh High School in San Jose.
He was coach and athletic director at the school from 1968 to 1975.
" They were an awesome bunch of kids," he said. "Look at how successful they are now. They would have been champions with or without me."
His students disagree.
" It was the other way around," said Rod Robertson, who is retired after 18 years with Hewlett Packard. "We became what we are because of the life lessons he taught us."
Dave Stock organized the reunion from his Texas home after learning their old coach had cancer. Stock's a professional photographer with his own business.
" Usually, you invite people to something like this and about half of them show up," he said, "but this time, I invited five people and more than 10 showed up."
It was the first time most of the former classmates had gotten together since Stock's wedding in 1979. Some had never met.
They held the reunion at the Comstock Ranch home of Arnold Wong, a member of the West Valley Track Club in the Bay Area and a longtime friend of Jack Leydig, president of the club.
Wong and Leydig knew Latimer's reputation as a runner and as a coach.
He was heralded in a recent story about his illness in The Marin Independent Journal as one of the giants of the annual Bay Area Dipsea Race, which dates back to 1905.
John Beeson, owner of a financial planning company, was ahead of the 1973 champion team in school, which graduated in 1974. He graduated in 1970.
Still, he credits Latimer with being one of the biggest influences in his life. He said when he read about Latimer's illness, then heard about the reunion, he had to be there.
Twins Peter and Keith Maurer were also coached by Latimer. Keith is now a cross-country coach and science teacher at Bret Harte High School, and Peter is an El Dorado County planner.
Ron Fritzke, a chiropractor, said Latimer's life lessons about persevering through hardships and commitment to duty even helped his students maintain successful marriages.
" We found out that after we made strong commitments to our wives, our marriages became better," he said. "You showed us that hard work can be rewarding and satisfying, and we passed that on to our kids."
Latimer retired from Columbia Elementary School in 2005 after 19 years there as a fourth-grade teacher.
His fight with cancer began in April when he woke in the night with a terrible pain. It wasn't diagnosed until late June.
Since then, he's had cancerous tumors removed from his larynx, hip and spinal cord, but four remain in his brain. He has had radiation and is still undergoing chemotherapy.
" All of this attention blows me away," Latimer said. "It's just overwhelming. Two weeks ago, six coaches from San Jose spent the afternoon with me."
His family has also stepped up to the plate. Relatives are taking turns staying with him while he undergoes treatment for cancer. "My neighbors and some people from the school bring meals and take me to doctor appointments," he said. "It's all just so amazing."

Latimer can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] . His address is 590 Olive St., Sonora, CA 95370.

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