Cross Country : Palos Verdes Girls Rely on More Than Tradition to Win

Say Palos Verdes and what comes to mind? Breathtaking, wind-swept cliffs perched high above the azure sea. Pastel ranch houses nestled in lush green hills. Expensive imported cars on steep driveways that lead into sprawling estates.

That is part of the allure of Palos Verdes Estates, a seaside community of 14,550 tucked onto a peninsula south of Torrance.

But in high school sports, Palos Verdes is synonymous with something else: It is home to one of the most successful cross-country programs in the nation.

In 26 years, the boys’ and girls’ teams have won nine CIF titles, 25 invitational crowns and a girls’ state championship in 1987. The 1988 girls’ team is seeking its fourth consecutive CIF title and second state championship in a row, while the boys’ team, winner of five CIF titles, has been 4-A Division runner-up each of the past two years.

The girls have been ranked No. 1 in the state all season, and the program has received national recognition from college coaches across the country. Six runners from the 1987 team are running cross-country for major colleges.

“There is no pressure being named the No. 1 team in the CIF,” said Joe Kelly, in his eighth year as the Sea Kings coach. “The polls say the girls’ team is No. 1, and unquestionably they are. I’d be downplaying it if I said anything different.”

This kind of success not only creates great interest in the program, it also spawns a couple of questions, namely why and how does this happen?

The answers are not simple. The Sea Kings have combined intangibles such as tradition and luck, emotions such as friendship and closeness and more solid particulars like talent and transfers, to produce a program that is unrivaled in the South Bay.

“There is a strong cross-country tradition here and we’ve tried to perpetuate that tradition and play on it,” Kelly said. “Our philosophy is that most kids coming into the program are average runners. But with training, they can become good runners.

“So we ask for commitment, and the ones that hang in there can become pretty good athletes.”

Said Laurie Lucas, a transfer from Durango, Colo., who ran on the 1987 Colorado state champion team: “I’ve seen a lot of dedication on this team. I heard of the great tradition the team has and I’m starting to understand it more and more.”

Tradition is a nice thing to have, but it can carry a team only so far. UCLA, the best basketball team in the country from the 1960s to the mid-’70s, hasn’t won an NCAA title in 14 years. The Baltimore Orioles have a great winning tradition, but that didn’t prevent the O’s from losing 21 straight games to start the 1988 season.

Obviously, something else is needed.

“Tradition is great, but the coaching staff puts in a lot of time with us,” said senior Ashley Black, who along with Traci Goodrich and Dana Sublett are co-captains of the girls’ team.

“Also, we have a lot of depth. There’s always somebody else coming up, so when we graduate there’s still going to be a good team.”

Supporting Black’s claim is the fact that the Sea Kings junior varsity team has not lost since 1981 and has won all five invitationals it has run in this season. “Four of those five were perfect scores,” Kelly said. “(The girls) are way too good for the competition they’ve been running against.”

Black, Goodrich and Sublett, who will be shooting for their fourth consecutive CIF title and second state title (1987 was the first year California ran cross-country championships), are the team’s nucleus. Lucas, with her championship experience, provides the team with depth.

Freshman Maya Muneno, who posted the team’s second-fastest time last weekend in the Palos Verdes Invitational; junior Cindy Scribe and sophomores Karen Zareski and Joanna Della Gatta round out the squad.

This is not a typical team, and it does not run typical practices. Each practice starts with a 20-minute stretching session. Then the runners break into groups to work on speed or distance.

Normally they complete a 3-mile course in league and dual meets, but last weekend they ran just 2 miles, due to the hilly, rocky conditions of the Palos Verdes course.

There are no complaints, and with a team like that one would think all Kelly had to do was turn them loose. That, however, is hardly the case.

“There are many things that make this a good program,” said Barry Sacks, an assistant track coach who helps out with cross-country.

“The athletes learn a desire to run and that they can achieve good things, which is all tied in with the ability of the coaches, who instill that desire in them.

“And when teams do well, it carries over. The athletes coming up learn how to win and achieve their goals.”

The Sea Kings are not content to sit on their laurels.

“You have to set goals for yourself and the team or else you’re not going to perform very well,” Black said. “We don’t want to lose our motivation, so we’ll do things like look at last year’s times and try to better that.”

Said Goodrich: “Primarily our goal is to win state and CIF, and we’d all be pretty disappointed if that didn’t happen. There’s a little pressure with that so we try to take it off by training hard every day to get ready for the end of the season.”

Kelly, 44, has taught English at Palos Verdes for 21 years, coming to the school after graduating from Long Beach State. Ten years ago he left Palos Verdes to coach basketball at Miraleste High but returned two years later. He coached basketball and football at Palos Verdes, then started running for recreation. Eight years ago, he took over the cross-country team.

Now the sport is in his blood. He says every year presents a new challenge. This season he has had to look only as far as the trophy case for motivation.

“Remember, this particular group has a chance to win its fourth CIF title in a row and no other PV team has ever accomplished anything like that,” Kelly said. “What stands out about this group is that these girls work really hard. It is a group that has been extremely close and has learned to love the sport.

“But, what stands out most is that it hasn’t always gone beautifully for them. There have been injuries and everything else so it hasn’t always come easy.”

Sublett, a senior in her fourth year on the varsity, echoed her coach’s sentiments.

“It’s been tough, very tough at times,” she said, citing the early morning practices and tough home course. “But it’s all been worth it. This team has become very close and it’s great to be with people you know so well all the time.”

Palos Verdes has become a close-knit group, despite the sport itself seeming so lonely and individual. The camaraderie on the team has helped foster a winning attitude that carries over into the meets.

“At first I missed my old high school,” said Lucas, the transfer from Colorado. “But the team has been so dedicated that it wasn’t too hard to change.”

Last weekend at the Palos Verdes Invitational, someone asked Black about her team’s chances for another state championship. The members of the boys’ team immediately began encouraging her and telling her they knew another crown was in the offing.

Black smiled and moved some dirt around with her toe. “We’re pretty confident,” she said.

For now, the Bay League season is foremost in the minds of the Sea Kings. The CIF championships are run in early November, with the state championships to follow shortly thereafter. Kelly said they are running and practicing with their sights set on peaking at that time. Slowly but surely, the seconds have been shaved from runners’ times.