Orange County : Prep Wednesday : Coaches’ Lives Run Together : Former Titans Compete in Century League

It has been an enduring, sometimes stormy relationship for four cross-country coaches in the Century League. They share more than photos of long-haired, bony runners in baggy, blue shorts.

They did not all run at the same time, but one way or another they are bound to Cal State Fullerton’s championship cross-country teams in the late 1960s and early ‘70s.

As coaches, their battles often have been just as fierce as in their youth, although the intensity has diminished recently. All agree, it’s for the better.

Jim Schultz, the coach who led the Titans to the 1971 Division II national championship at Wheaton, Ill., is now an assistant coach at El Modena High School. Tom Weber, who ran at Fullerton from 1968-70, is head coach at El Modena.

Dave White, a member of the championship team, coaches at Villa Park. George Ryan, at 40 the oldest of the runners and a member of the ’71 team, coaches at Santa Ana Valley.

THE COACH

Jim Schultz has taught at El Modena since it opened in the fall of 1966. He was the Titans’ walk-on coach from 1970 until 1974, when the school dropped the sport in the midst of its success.

Fullerton dropped a number of minor sports--including cross-country--in order to concentrate finances on its then-new Division I football program.

He taught class in the mornings at El Modena, then drove to Fullerton for the afternoon workout.

After the Titans dropped cross-country, he returned to coaching at El Modena and a year after that became an assistant to Weber.

At Fullerton, Schultz was known for his strenuous workouts and his ability to recruit.

In the fall of 1970, his prize recruit was White, whom he had coached at El Modena. White was one of the top prep milers and two-milers in the state and set school records that lasted almost 15 years.

Still, what White remembers most about those times was how close he was to his coach.

“He practically raised me,” White said. “I was over at his house all the time. If people would call me at home, my mother would automatically say, ‘He’s over at the Schultzes’ house.’

“He gave of himself more than any other coach I’ve known, even myself.”

For a while in college, White lived in a small guest house Schultz built behind his family’s home.

“He had a real personal magnetism, a certain personality that I’ve carried on with my kids,” White said.

Schultz was a practical joker during workouts and White picked up on it.

“Every summer we take the (Villa Park) kids up to Mammoth for running camp,” White said. “And we tell the younger kids, the ones who are on their first trip, to make sure to bring 50 cents with them on this run to the top of Duck Pass because there’s a Coke machine up there.

“And when they get there, there’s no Coke machine, and we tell them, ‘Oh, they must have taken it down to refill it.’ It’s really funny, they’re so young they believe it.”

Payan was another who felt Schultz’s influence.

“The thing I remember most about Schultz was the workouts,” Payan said. “We’d be halfway through our track workouts and I’d be over on the grass throwing up, but somehow he got me back on the track for another 440.”

Schultz would say: “If you guys don’t beat George Payan, then you owe me another 440.”

And the others would beat the fatigued Payan. He’d have to run another 440 and get sick again.

THE FLASH

Dave White attended Fullerton from 1970 to 1975. He came from El Modena as one of Orange County’s most heavily recruited distance runners in the spring of ’70.

UCLA, USC, Stanford and Kansas each wanted White, but he chose to attend Fullerton.

In 1969, White set El Modena school records in the mile (4:15.9) and two-mile (8:59.0)--marks that lasted into the 1980s. He and Schultz moved from El Modena to Fullerton in the fall of 1970.

“I remember Schultz had this Rambler Cross-Country station wagon that he used to drive us around in when I was a freshman at El Modena (in 1966),” White said. “I thought he must have bought that wagon just because of the name. I was such a naive ninth-grader.”

At Fullerton, White made an immediate impact, joining the top seven (a team can only have seven runners as varsity entries in championship meets) and running in nationals his sophomore season. After his final season in ‘74, the program was eliminated.

White started teaching at Villa Park in 1975 and has been there ever since, although his first choice was El Modena. He says his alma mater was slow to act on his application, and he took the job at Villa Park before El Modena called for an interview.

Under White, the Villa Park boys have consistently been among the top teams in the Century League and in the Southern Section 4-A division.

Indeed, the competition between the Spartans and El Modena, in particular, has often been intense.

THE COMPETITOR

Tom Weber ran at Fullerton from 1968-70, then joined the National Guard. He was hired at El Modena in 1973, originally as a swimming and water polo coach. That lasted three years, then Weber became the cross-country coach.

In a way, Weber used White’s success at El Modena to motivate his athletes. And in the process helped create a bitter rivalry.

“Kids love to hear stories,” Weber said. “To them, 20 years ago is centuries. We use to say, ‘Let’s erase Dave White from the record books.’ ”

The Vanguard runners got carried away sometimes, however.

“The first to go was his two-mile mark,” he said. “Steve Valen broke it at the Masters track and field meet in 1981. And one of our kids stood up and shouted, ‘You’ve been erased. You’ve been erased.’

“And White was sitting down about two rows from us.”

The bitterness has softened recently.

“We’ve grown up a little,” Weber said. “We’re married now and have families. Where I used to stay and talk with the kids after practice, now I go home and do wallpapering.”

Said White: “I know our kids (Villa Park and El Modena) used to get very intense in competition, but now you see them patting each other on the back. That’s a lot better. Now, we’ve gone our separate ways, even though we’re in the same profession in the same league. We’re not into acing each other out anymore. (Tom’s) right, we’ve got other worries.”

THE REBEL

George Payan ran at Fullerton from 1968-71 and left quite an impression on White.

“George was a real entrepreneur,” White said. “He was selling these ‘CCCP’ shirts, you know, the Russian shirts. I was very conservative during college. I supported the war. I said, ‘George, that’s terrible. What’s going on here?’

“But that was the ‘in’ thing to do. Criticize the system.”

Payan was the late-comer to coaching in the Century League. He began coaching at Santa Ana in 1979, then moved to Santa Ana Valley in 1982. It took some time before he got any respect.

“When I first started in the Century League, I got baptized by the others,” Payan said. “It took me three or four years to beat somebody. It just was devastating to me. I was used to winning all through high school--I was all-CIF (Southern Section) at Santa Fe--and we were national powers at Fullerton.

“Those guys would just kill me.”

Payan said now that the others are not as intense, losing has been easier to take.

“George was never really in the team battles,” Weber said. “We used to be a lot more guarded with what we did. We were talking on the phone Sunday night about our meet (Thursday) and we agreed I would win the boys and he would win the girls.”

It’s not the sort of thing any of the coaches would talk about seven or eight years ago.

In many ways, the group has grown closer in recent years. The ties that bind haven’t restricted their respect and friendship.