Gorton steps down from Flintridge Sacred Heart after 14 seasons

For 14 years, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy track and field Coach Eddie Gorton made it his personal mission to grow and improve the program he had molded for more than a decade.

Ask those who know him and they’re quick to tell of Gorton’s impact, especially after Gorton confirmed that he stepped down at the conclusion of the season to spend more time with his family.

“We had a good run and I enjoyed it, I enjoyed it a lot,” Gorton said. “We built something from nothing and that’s what I’m most proud of. When I got here, there wasn’t a real program or culture.

“Every year, we just built and built and built and the girls worked very hard. I get emotional even now talking about it, because I love the girls, the program and the challenge.”

Gorton, a multilingual and multicultural instructor with the Los Angeles Unified School District, said he was no longer able to balance the time between his job, coaching and the raising of his two young sons, ages 3 and 2.

“I never want to do something halfway,” Gorton said. “It became too difficult in the end and it was best I step away from Flintridge Sacred Heart and take on full-time duty with my sons. It’s tough for sure, but it’s best for me and my family.”

One person sympathetic to Gorton’s decision was athletic director Stephanie Contreras.

“We’re going to miss Eddie a lot, you just don’t find coaches like him,” Contreras said, “but you can’t blame him. He had to do what’s best for his family.”

Gorton is one of the last holdovers from when Contreras arrived 12 year ago from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame to take over the athletic director gig. Her first impression of the Occidental College graduate was one that stuck with her.

“When I was at Notre Dame, I had already got the job and people knew,” Contreras said. “Flintridge came out to Notre Dame to have a meet and I notice these two guys — Eddie Gorton and [assistant] Johnathan Keys — and they’re both bald and they both had a red ribbon around their heads just like the girls on their team.

“Kevin Rooney, my AD at Notre Dame, said, ‘That’s where you’re going to, with guys like that?’”

Perhaps Flintridge Sacred Heart’s best season during Gorton’s 14-year run came in 2015, when the Tologs won the school’s first-ever Sunshine League championship, finished seventh in the CIF Southern Section Division IV final and boasted a pair of standouts in Kayla Montgomery (St. John’s University) and Kayla Grahn (Georgetown).

Senior Olivia Mathews, a member of the 2015 championship squad, said what she appreciated most about Gorton was his hustle and effort.

“Coach ‘G’ is really a great guy with great energy,” Mathews said. “He really had to divide himself coaching shot put, long jump, triple jump, high jump and all the sprints all at the same time. He’d end up running more than we did.”

Gorton’s final season concluded May 21 at the Division IV championships at Cerritos College when his Tologs tied for 28th in the division, marking the first time the school finished outside the top 10 in four years.

Though the result fell below Gorton’s standards, the meet demonstrated the coach’s ability to develop athletes.

Tologs freshman Kelly Carney finished eighth in the Division IV triple jump with a mark of 33 feet, 7 inches.

Only a few months earlier, Carney had no interest in the event.

“I had been doing only the long jump for months and one day coach is like, ‘Hey, why don’t we get you to triple jump,’” Carney said. “I’m really grateful to have worked with Eddie for a year. He’s really motivational and if it hadn’t been for him, I would have never tried the triple jump or even known what it was. He’s a wonderful coach.”

Contreras said the school will hire Keys, Gorton’s longtime assistant, to take over the position.

“We have a lot of confidence in Johnathan,” Contreras said, “but it’s obviously hard to move on from Eddie. His impact was made all over the place.”