NOTEBOOK : Ramirez Gets Back on Track at East L.A. College

The track and cross-country programs have returned to East Los Angeles College. And so has Louis Ramirez.

Ramirez, who coached at East L.A. from 1988 to 1990 and competed for the Huskies in 1977-78, was named to head the recently reinstated programs Friday.

Ramirez, 38, said ties to the community college and the school’s facilities influenced his decision to leave Trade Tech, where he has coached the past four years.

“I would have remained at Trade Tech,” Ramirez said. “I was very established there, but I was swayed being . . . (an) East L.A. alumnus.”

Teams coached by Ramirez have won the past seven Southern California Athletic Conference women’s cross-country titles. Ramirez led the East L.A. women to three consecutive SCAC titles before moving to Trade Tech, where the men’s team won their third conference track title in four years this year and the women have won two titles under Ramirez.

Ramirez hasn’t been fazed by a late start on recruiting at East L.A., which has not fielded cross-country or track teams since 1991. When he took over in 1988 the programs had been suspended for two years because of budget cuts.

“It’s going to be easier this time because I’ve established a wider region to draw from,” Ramirez said. “I’m very well-known around East L.A., but can also draw from City schools like Dorsey and Manual Arts. There has been a void at East L.A., but there are a lot of kids already there that want to come and run.”

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Randy Rodriguez has resigned as football coach at Lincoln High to become an assistant at Garfield High, where he will be the offensive coordinator under John Aguirre.

Rodriguez opted for the move after he was offered a teaching position in the physical education department. The opening was created as part of Garfield’s expansion from a three- to a four-year school this fall.

Rodriguez was 63-32-1 in 10 years at Lincoln after taking over a program that had won only three games in the two previous seasons. Rodriguez also led Lincoln to the City 3-A championship game and seven playoff berths, including three league titles.

No replacement for Rodriguez has been named.

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Ruth Wysocki, a 1984 U.S. Olympian in the 800 and 1,500 meters, will compete in Union Bank’s Heart of the City 5K run Wednesday.

Wysocki, 37, was one of 17 athletes and coaches who risked a lifetime suspension by defying an international ban by participating in three unsanctioned meets in South Africa in the fall of 1988.

Wysocki, who stunned favored Mary Decker to win the 1,500 in the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials, was given a four-year suspension by the Athletics Congress, the U.S. governing body of track and field, but in 1991 became the first athlete to win reinstatement after three years of appeals and hearings.

Wysocki will face a field that includes Sylvia Mosqueda, the 1988 NCAA champion at 10,000 meters for Cal State L.A.

The 3.1-mile race begins at 7 p.m. at the Union Bank Plaza and winds through Downtown.