McBride Leaves Track Program at Northridge

Erick McBride, the 1990 NCAA Division II champion in the 800 meters for Cal State Northridge as a freshman, has transferred to Antelope Valley College.

McBride said he will not compete for the Antelope Valley track team this season because he wants to save his three years of remaining track eligibility for a four-year school.

McBride said he will take some courses this summer, then transfer to either Cal State Bakersfield, Adams State (Alamosa, Colo.) or Western State College of Colorado (Gunnison).

Although McBride declined to explain why he transferred, he said that he had differences with Northridge Coach Don Strametz.

“It would be fair to say that (Strametz) and I had a falling out,” McBride said. “Things just didn’t work out. We pretty much decided to go our own way.”

Strametz could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

McBride, who lowered the Northridge record in the 800 to 1 minute 49.09 seconds, said last summer that he planned to transfer to UC Irvine for the current winter quarter after the 1990 fall semester at Northridge. But when it appeared last fall that he would not have enough units to transfer to a school in the UC system, he decided to stay at CSUN.

“I made a deal with Strametz to stay (at Northridge) at least through the end of track season,” said McBride, a 1989 graduate of Palmdale High. “But I was very unhappy there.”

McBride is the second Northridge Division II All-American to transfer to another school since the fall semester ended.

Dave Burton, who finished third in the decathlon in last year’s Division II meet, transferred to Cal State Chico, partly because Northridge would not increase the amount of his athletic scholarship, and partly because he wanted to be closer to his girlfriend who attends Chico.

As a senior at Palmdale, he won the 1989 Southern Section 4-A Division title in 1:51.52, then ran under 1:50 three times last season. “I’d like to run 1:47 this season,” said McBride, who is training again with Palmdale Coach Rob Fairly.