Esparza Hurdling Barrier After Barrier : Returning to Track in Steeplechase, Moorpark Runner Surprises Skeptics

Good thing Mike Esparza ignored the advice of family and friends.

Otherwise, the Moorpark College sophomore might not have qualified for the state junior college track and field championships that begin today at Cerritos College.

Esparza had given up the sport in 1990 when nagging back pain forced the 1989 graduate of Newbury Park High to quit the Moorpark team.

After working full time at an athletic shoe store and attending school part time at Moorpark for 2 1/2 years, he decided to make a comeback this year.

Family and friends who knew how much running meant to him supported Esparza. But they all questioned his sanity when they realized he planned to specialize in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, a rugged event in which competitors are required to hurdle 28 three-foot barriers and seven 12-foot-wide water jumps during the course of a race.

“I told him he was crazy,” said Mike Stewart, Esparza’s high school coach. “I told him, ‘That’s about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Why don’t you concentrate on a race like the 1,500, which isn’t as hard on your body?’ ”

Members of the Esparza clan--Mike is the youngest of seven children--also thought the decision foolish.

“They said, ‘Let’s see. You’ve had back surgery and knee surgery and you want to run the steeplechase,’ ” Esparza said, laughing. “ ‘Why not take up the javelin and tear up your shoulder too?’ ”

Manny Trevino, director of track and field at Moorpark, expressed similar sentiments, telling Esparza the most important goal was to “get you through the season in one piece.”

Through it all, Esparza held firm, saying he wanted to compete in “the most challenging thing out there and that was the steeplechase.”

Although his perseverance paid off Saturday when he ran a personal best of 9 minutes 28.18 seconds to finish second in the Southern California championships at UC San Diego, Esparza has sustained his share of bumps and bruises this season.

The most painful occurred at the Southern California preliminaries May 7 when he hit his left foot on a hurdle midway through the race and severed the tendon on the second toe.

Esparza was so focused on the race--which he won in a then-personal best of 9:35.18--he didn’t realize the severity of the injury until he took off his spikes and noticed his blood-stained sock.

His toe was just kind of “hanging there,” he said.

The injury will require surgery after the season, but Esparza never thought about quitting. Instead, he figured out a way to tape the toe so he could still train and race.

“I think his toughness is his greatest strength,” Trevino said. “That and the fact that he’s one of the few people we’ve had here who doesn’t get discouraged, no matter what happens to him.”

That determination seems linked to the fact that Esparza is close to completing his first full athletic season since 1988 and is once again part of a team.

“The camaraderie of the team and training have been the most enjoyable things about this season,” he said. “I really enjoy being out there training with the guys and joking around with them and talking about girls, cars, or whatever. That’s something I really missed.”

Esparza’s outgoing personality and quick sense of humor have made him the most popular member of the team, according to Trevino. Esparza is particularly close to the weight-event athletes.

“They like me because they’ve seen me (bench-press 225 pounds) twice,” Esparza quipped. “They think I’m one of them.”

The 6-foot-1 1/2, 170-pound Esparza more closely resembled a javelin thrower than a distance runner at the start of the year. He weighed 190 pounds back then.

“Some people took a look at me before the season, and said, ‘You want to be a runner? Hah!’ ” he said. “I have to admit that (teammate Ryan Luce), who’s about 5-8 and 125 pounds, and I were quite the odd couple when we were running on the roads.”

Esparza’s best moments in high school came on rugged roads. Esparza’s brothers, Gilbert and Danny, won Marmonte League cross-country titles in 1971 and ‘78, and Mike continued the family tradition with league titles in ’86 and ’87. Esparza placed fourth in the Southern Section 4-A Division championships in 1987.

In the spring of ‘88, he ran 1:57.6 in the 800 and 9:15.0 in the 3,200--but finished a disappointing seventh in the 1988 league cross-country finals as a senior after being plagued by back pain all season.

The pain eventually was traced to a herniated disk, which prevented him from running track in 1989 and required surgery in April of that year.

He enrolled at Moorpark in the fall of 1989 but did not run cross-country so he could give his back more time to heal.

He ran promising early-season times of 1:57 in the 800 and 3:59 in the 1,500 in 1990 before more back problems curtailed his season.

Esparza wound up in the operating room again, undergoing an emergency appendectomy in August, 1992, and ligament repair three months later. With that medical history, it’s no wonder those close to him questioned his decision to run the steeplechase.

He ran 10:18.65 in his first steeplechase at Bakersfield on March 19 and has set personal bests in each of his five races since.

“I had two goals at the start of the season,” Esparza said. “One was to run under 9:30, and the other was to qualify for the state meet. . . . Now I’d like to run under 9:20 and take a shot at the school record.”

Craig Ingram set the Moorpark record of 9:17.89 in wining the 1986 state title, but Esparza realizes a victory Saturday is an unrealistic goal. Australian Neil Smart of Riverside has a personal best of 8:48.

Regardless of how he finishes in the state meet, Esparza will call his 1994 season a success. It’s a trend he hopes continues. Next fall, he will attend San Diego State, which has no men’s cross-country program. Esparza will compete at the club level, he said.

“Realistically, I’m probably not going to win (at the state meet), but that’s OK,” he said. “As long as I give it my best shot, I’ll be satisfied. This is not the end of the road for me. I plan to run for a long time.”