The Terrors of Track : Hawthorne’s Teams Have Dominated the Last Six Years With Six State Titles--and This Season Doesn’t Look Any Different

With one team or another, Hawthorne High has dominated state track and field competition for six years.

The boys team has won the state title two years in a row and five of the last six. Three years ago, when the boys did not win the title, the Hawthorne girls did.

This year appears no different for the Cougars, guided by 11-year Coach Kye Courtney.

Hawthorne’s boys finished the regular season with a 13-0 record and won seven meets in the Bay League.

The Cougars, needless to say, have gone unchallenged.

The only real competition for the Cougars comes from within the team.

“We don’t worry about the competition,” said Courtney, whose team will compete in the Bay League finals today at Hawthorne before going to the Southern Section 4-A Division prelims, the divisional finals, the Masters meet and finally to the state championships in early June. “Our concern is that we don’t make a mistake. If we do, we are eliminated,” Courtney said.

“We have to go through six meets, and if we get through them healthy, we’ve got a good shot at winning everything. But I get nervous because we’re better then most people. You can drop a baton, have a false start or run out of your zone. You just never know what could happen.”

Courtney said his team’s experience, in addition to its talent, could become an advantage over the competition on the state level.

“Last year they said that nobody could beat San Jose Independence, but they collapsed from top to bottom,” said Courtney. “What that means is that winning is a matter of maturity. The kids have to be able to handle those pressure situations.

“That’s why we take kids to places like the Penn Relays so that they can understand what we’re dealing with here. But everybody who is running for us now has been to the state meet, so teams like Oakland have to prove to us that they can take the pressure.”

Courtney considers Oakland, Long Beach Poly and Muir his boys team’s toughest competition on the state level.

Along with the success Hawthorne has enjoyed this season, there have been disappointments.

Perhaps the most disappointing performance came last weekend at the prestigious Penn Relays for the relay teams.

For the second consecutive season, the Cougars were denied a championship after losing to Camperdown High of Kingston, Jamaica, in the 400-meter relay in a photo finish. The Cougars’ chances in the 1,600 relay were dashed when they failed to qualify for the finals.

“We went all that way and we lost by so little,” said Curtis Conway, who anchored both relays. “It’s hard to take, but we’ve got to bounce back.”

Hawthorne was considered the only team capable of defeating the Jamaican team, which Courtney said has the fastest 400 relay time in the world by a high school team this year with a mark of 40.41. Hawthorne ran 41.29 on a rainy day at the Penn Relays, considerably slower than their season-best of 40.66. The Cougars ran that time, the second-fastest 400 relay in state history, in March at the Pasadena Games at Occidental College.

Hawthorne’s best effort in the 1,600 relay was at the Arcadia Invitational in April when Conway anchored a time of 3:14.95.

The Cougars received an unexpectedly enthusiastic backing by the crowd of 27,000 Philadelphians at Franklin Field.

“We had a lot more fans than we thought we had,” said Ismael Delpino, who ran the first leg of the 400 relay. “People came to our hotel room and said, ‘Hey, beat the Jamaicans for us.’ We couldn’t believe it.”

But the disappointment from the relays may be a blessing for the Cougars.

Said junior Chris Alexander, another member of the relay teams: “We’re just determined to run better. (The relays) will make our performance in the state meet even better.”

Erik Allen, Alexander and Delpino should have little difficulty bouncing back from the loss to the Jamaicans, but it may not be so easy for Conway, who has other things on his mind.

One of the most highly recruited quarterbacks in the nation, Conway received a scholarship offer to USC. But Conway first must score 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test or the Trojans will withdraw their offer.

He has taken the SAT but is still 60 points short of the NCAA-required score. He has two tries remaining. He will take the test Saturday, the day after the senior prom, and will have one final chance June 3 on the morning of the state championships at Cerritos.

It’s a subject that Conway has declined to discuss.

“I don’t even want to talk about it,” he said. “I just want to wait until June 23 (a day after graduation) when everything will be over and I’ll know what’s going to happen.”

Courtney said the anxiety from the test has not affected Conway’s performance in track in recent meets.

“I think it bothered him in the beginning,” said Courtney. “But now he is working harder than any other member of the team.”

Delpino agreed: “It bothered him before, but he has confidence and he’s trying. On the way back from Phily he was sitting next to me on the plane and he was studying.”

Alexander, however, had a different opinion: “To me, the SAT is always on his mind. Maybe he doesn’t realize it, but it is. Every 20 or 30 minutes he would get the book out and start studying.

“If he had passed the test already, he’d be doing a lot better.”

But Alexander said he understands the circumstances.

“Now he can’t let it (SAT) slip from his mind,” he said. “It’s a matter of his career, but I think he’s handled it pretty good. That’s a lot of responsibility.”

Conway hasn’t been satisfied with his performance on the track, but he stressed other factors.

“I’m not really happy,” he said. “I’ve been feeling kind of sluggish the whole season. I have no idea why, but I think I need a little time off from sports.

“I’ve only had about a month off from sports since I came to school here, and that’s since ninth grade. I just haven’t had any time to rest.”

But he insists that he’ll be ready for the final part of the season.

“Now it’s do or die,” he said. “I’ve got to shake that off.”

Although the boys relay teams are perhaps the most visible part of the Cougars, there are also other areas of strength.

They include the hurdles, the shot put and the longer distance events.

Four of the five top hurdlers in the Bay League preliminaries on Tuesday were from Hawthorne, while Eric Tolbert has been impressive in the shot put and Alexis Sabio has had strong showings in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 runs.

Courtney also feels the girls may surprise some of the favored schools, which include Rio Mesa and Muir.

“They’d better watch out,” he said, “because we just might steal something away from them. We’ve got as good a chance as anybody.”

Among the girls that Courtney is counting on for strong performances are Kee-sha Adams in the 200 and 400, Kesha Marvin in the 400, Rhonda Kennerson in the 800 and Illana Mazingo in the relays.