Martinez, Casillas On Track to Compete Again

Less than a week after their cross-country season concluded in the Kinney national championships in December, Angel Martinez and Margarito Casillas were already looking forward to the track season.

Martinez, of San Gabriel High, who placed fourth at the national meet in San Diego, and Casillas, of Glendale’s Hoover High, who finished fifth, will begin their season in the Sunkist Invitational at the Los Angeles Sports Arena on Feb. 15, competing in the mile (1,600 meters) and the two miles (3,200 meters), respectively.

“I was supposed to relax for a week, but I still wanted to go and do more mileage to get ready for track,” Casillas, a junior, said. “I had to cut back so I wouldn’t burn out.”

Martinez, who placed third at 3,200 meters last year in the state track meet, is thinking of trying to qualify for the state meet in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters.

“I might double this season,” said Martinez, the nation’s top returning 3,200-meter runner, who has run that distance in 8 minutes 56.48 seconds.

“The two mile gets boring and I want to do something that’s more exciting and faster. There is a lot of drama in the mile. In the two mile, you go in a rhythm and if you have the rhythm that day there’s no stopping you and you try to keep it.”

Casillas, however, plans to concentrate on the 3,200 meters. He ran a personal best 9:18.78 in last year’s Masters Meet, but failed to qualify for the state championships. “I want to see how far I can go mentally and physically,” Casillas said.

Casillas won the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational and the Kinney Western Regional championships and placed second behind Martinez in the Southern Section Division I finals and the state meet in cross-country last fall.

“I just wanted to run better this season than I did last season,” said Casillas, who finished 16th in the state meet as a sophomore.

“At regionals, not many people knew who I was, but there was a lot of pressure at nationals. I was talking with guys from other regions and wondering whether he would beat me or finish after me. I was pretty happy with fifth.”

Martinez posted the fastest time in the state meet Nov. 30 in Fresno to win the Division I title and lead San Gabriel to a fourth-place finish in its first state meet.

He also won his second Southern Section title, despite being sidelined for nearly a month midway through the season with a strain in his calf.

“I accomplished what I wanted to and more,” Martinez said. “I wanted to become state champion and then doubt came when I was injured. I had mine and others had theirs. People came up to me at Southern Section finals and thought that I wasn’t going to run and that I was out.

“I came back pretty strong and ended up winning.”

When Valencia High in Placentia won the Southern Section Division VI football championship with a 27-7 victory over Tustin last month, it solidified Coach Mike Marrujo’s position among the elite of the local high school coaching ranks.

It was the fourth time in the past six seasons that Marrujo had guided one of his teams to a championship game. The Tigers beat Anaheim High, 13-0, for the section’s Central Conference title in 1987 and were the runner-up in 1986 after losing to Bolsa Grande High, 24-7. In 1988, Valencia lost to Corona del Mar, 17-7, in the Division VI title game.

Ironically, the 40-year-old Marrujo said he never intended to become a coach. He said he was at Cal State Long Beach majoring in history and planning to become a lawyer when a friend asked him for help in coaching a high school team. He had not played high school football but found the opportunity intriguing.

“One of the assistant coaches at Pius X (in Downey) got the head coaching job and needed some help, so I went over,” said Marrujo, who was born in East Los Angeles to Mexican-American parents. “I realized I liked it. That was 21 years ago.”

Marrujo later inherited the Pius X job and remained there for four seasons before moving to Valencia in 1981. By then, he had received his teaching credentials. He still teaches U.S. history at Valencia.

Does he have any regrets about skipping a law career for football coaching?

“I’m very happy being a high school football coach,” said Marrujo, who was named Division VI “Coach of the Year” and has a 109-26-5 record at Valencia.

Baldwin Park High had not won a Southern Section football championship for 11 years, but Marc Ruiz has helped to change that.

Ruiz, a 6-foot-2 senior quarterback, led the Braves to a 28-7 victory over La Puente’s Nogales High for the Division IV title in December.

Against Nogales, Ruiz passed for 221 yards and three touchdowns. He completed 194 of 380 passes for 2,758 yards and 24 touchdowns on the year.

“He’s one of the better quarterbacks we’ve had in the past 15 or 20 years,” Baldwin Park Coach Tony Zane said. “His main asset is poise. He has the ability to find the open receiver, and he’s able to play under pressure.”

Ruiz, selected “Player of the Year” in Division IV, said he wants to play football in college.