St. Bernard High Sprinter and Coach Learn to Take Year of Challenges in Stride

This was a year of challenges for sophomore Kerrie Pegues and her track coach at St. Bernard High, and, judging from latest results, both have adjusted spectacularly.

In last week’s CIF 2-A Southern Section finals, Pegues took first place in the 200 meters in 24.98 and 400 in 56.60 and anchored the winning 400- and 1,600-meter relays.

And for Barbara Ferrell Edmonson, her girls finished second in team scoring in her first year of high school coaching.

Last year Pegues finished fourth in the 100 in a wind-aided 12.37 and was fourth in the 200 in 25.52 but eagerly sought out her new coach’s opinion on which were the best events for her to run this year. Pegues knew Edmonson understood track.

Edmonson, as Barbara Ferrell, was a silver medalist at 100 meters in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and co-world record holder at the distance and twice set American records in the 200.

And when it was suggested that Pegues move up to the longer sprint, she grudgingly agreed.

“I didn’t think I was ever going to run the quarter because I didn’t feel it was my race,” said Pegues, who is 5-1 3/4 and 102 pounds. “I thought it was too long for me. It is a hard race to run.”

“I think anybody who is a sprinter should run a quarter,” Edmonson said. “I convinced her. Usually if you get one kid that goes out well, it’s kind of easy to bring the others into it. They just hate to work for it.”

The sprinters now train with over-distance workouts from 300 to 600 meters, and it has paid rich dividends.

“It was the workouts we’ve been having that helped us in the mile relay,” said sophomore Lisa Moxley, who leads off both relays. “We worked on doing the 600s so we’d have more energy at the end when we raced a 400. Coach says you get what you put in your workouts.”

Edmonson was impressed with the attitude of the girls: “They’re very coachable kids, which makes it easier for the coach who wants to spend a little more time. You don’t have to fight for workouts.”

She has managed this with a demanding schedule of her own, which will soon include training her daughters, Malika, 10, and Miya, 6, who both may have potential based on their parents’ abilities. Father Warren Edmonson, a Los Angeles police officer, was an NCAA champion at 100 meters for UCLA.

After completing a coaching stint at West Los Angeles College, Barbara Edmonson was encouraged by a friend to come out of retirement and later agreed to take on the position at St. Bernard.

“I got hired in February on the 20th and the first meet was on the 27th, and I almost had a heart attack,” she recalled.

Another surprise was the unusual dimensions of the track at the Playa del Rey campus. It is a 353-yard configuration, about 4 7/8 laps per mile.

“I had never worked with anything but a 400-meter track before,” Edmonson said. “It took quite a bit of adjustment to get workouts together.”

She has also managed the adjustment from athlete to coach.

“As a competitor I never worried about anything because I had a coach whose responsibility was to worry about what you’re going to do. I just got out and did what I had to do. As a coach, I don’t feel the pressure there because it’s for the kids. You’re so wrapped up in what the kids are doing, and what event is next, that you don’t even think about it.”

Her background and her openness in sharing her experience have made a difference with the team.

“It really helped us a lot because she’s been on the other side of it, being an athlete,” Moxley said. “So she knows how we feel during workouts.”

Edmonson brings a steadying influence to the girls at St. Bernard, according to Tony Veney, who coached at the school until 1982 and is now an assistant coach at Cal State Northridge. “She’s a good one to have just from the standpoint of the experience she brings,” he said.

“When she would tell us about the good things that have happened to her, it makes those who are serious about track want to go further,” Pegues said.

Edmonson will be looking forward to seeing them go further at the state qualifying Masters Meet Friday at Cerritos College. Pegues will run in her two individual races and the 400 relay with Moxley, junior Kim Williams and junior Nikki Davis, and in the 1,600 relay with Moxley, Davis and senior Bonnie Jones.

“If they stay healthy and keep their heads together, they may go all the way to the finals,” Edmonson said. “And after getting a little experience under the belt, they’ll be even better next year.”