1994 PREP PREVIEW / Girls’ Cross-Country : Irvine’s Corbin Just Wants to Have Fun When She Runs

Starring in two sports is not unusual, but Jessica Corbin’s combination is.

Last fall, she helped lead the Irvine cross-country team to the State Division I championship. In the spring, she played on the Vaqueros’ softball team, which shared the Sea View League title and reached the second round of the Southern Section Division III playoffs.

A unique combination indeed, especially considering the number of training miles put in by most successful distance runners in the off-season. But Corbin has chosen to take her time, accepting successes one at a time.

“I have a real fear of burning out,” said Corbin, the county’s fastest sophomore girl cross-country runner last year. “I don’t want to lose the fun in running. I see a lot of girls who take it too seriously and it just brought them down in the end.”

Randy Rossi, coach at Irvine, said of Corbin: “She’s really adamant that she has to enjoy running, and because of the kind of kid she is, I have to respect that. The worst thing I could ever do is pressure her into anything.”

But Rossi said he hasn’t always practiced what he preaches.

“I went to the softball coaches when she was a freshman and told them, ‘I don’t want to influence you, but if she is no good, will you please just cut her?’ ” Rossi said.

But Irvine’s softball coaches saw in Corbin the same diamond in the rough Rossi witnessed during cross-country season.

Corbin’s rise to prominence on the Irvine campus began when she was a freshman in the Woodbridge Invitational, her first high school race.

Corbin gave spectators a preview of things to come through the race’s first mile as she ran with with the leaders. But then she began to fade badly, and finally paramedics in attendance asked her to stop at the two-mile mark.

During that season, she fluctuated between being the Vaqueros’ third or fifth runner, eventually helping Irvine to a surprising runner-up finish at the State Division I championships.

In the spring of her freshman year, she started for the junior varsity softball team, playing mostly center field.

So far in her high school career, her success on cross-country paths has overshadowed her softball prowess.

As a sophomore, Corbin saved her best run for last by finishing third at Fresno’s Woodward Park and leading the Vaqueros to the State Division I title. Irvine edged national powerhouses Palos Verdes Peninsula and Agoura in the process.

Corbin’s season ended at the State meet, though. She decided against racing the same 3.1-mile course at the next week’s Foot Locker Western Regional Championships.

“She just flat out told me ‘I don’t want to run without my teammates,’ ” Rossi said. “How can I not respect that? I think it is a very admirable thing.”

That mature attitude has helped Corbin blossom into one of the county’s leading runners.

Her emergence can be marked to one race last season: the Sea View League finals at Irvine Regional Park. Going into the competition “not really having a plan,” Corbin said, she just stayed with the leaders in the early going.

She took off in the middle of the race, eventually winning in 17 minutes 5 seconds 34 seconds ahead of runner-up Amy Gomez of Santa Margarita.

“She made it look effortless,” Rossi said. “Although that’s never the case when you run that fast.”

After that race Rossi noticed that his leading runner had undergone a major change. Corbin went on to finish second in the Southern Section Division I-A race and third at State.

“The leap forward that I saw at that point last year was mental,” Rossi said. “She went into races very confident with goals rather than expectations, and responded in every way.”

Corbin has surrounded herself with success. In addition to what Rossi calls “very supportive parents,” Corbin’s older brother Ryan was a basketball and baseball standout at Irvine. Her grandfather is entertainer Pat Boone.

“She’s definitely a people person,” Rossi said. “She is just very good around others. When she finds her passion, whatever it may be, she will stand out at it.”

Rossi can only hope that passion has something to do with running.

Girls’ Cross-Country at a Glance

Top runners: Tiffany Boykin, Laguna Hills, Sr.; Stacey Brandon, Foothill, So.; Leslie Burton, El Modena, Fr.; Carrie Caulkins, Esperanza, Sr.; Tracy Clark, Corona del Mar, Sr.; Jessica Corbin, Irvine, Jr.; Maribel Delgado, Santa Ana Valley, Jr.; Nancy Dollar, San Clemente, Sr.; Katherine Duque, Tustin, So.; Eliaser Estrada, Santa Ana Valley, Sr.; Heather Garritson, Buena Park, Fr.; Jeannie Formosa, Edison, Sr.; Jennifer Formosa, Edison, Sr.; Elyse Homberger, Edison, Sr.; Dresden Howell, Corona del Mar, Sr.; Laurie Juranek, Orange Lutheran, Sr.; Katie Kennedy, El Modena, So.; Taryn Lawson, Ocean View, Sr.; Sidney Leonard, Dana Hills, So.; Erin Livermore, Irvine, Jr.; Nicole Luque, Canyon, Sr.; Kenna Masuda, Ocean View, Sr.; Stacey McMullen, Irvine, So.; Brooke Meek, Corona del Mar, Sr.; Angela Nelson, El Toro, Sr.; Katie Nuanes, Santa Margarita, So.; Kerry O’Bric, Edison, Jr.; Courtney Pugmire, Esperanza, Sr.; Jenny Speirs, Aliso Niguel, So.; Jenny Titus, Esperanza, Sr.; Jamie Vacairo, Katella, Sr.; Tara Whitfield, El Modena, Jr.; Keri Wright, Edison, Sr.

League favorites: Century: El Modena; Empire: Katella; Freeway: Troy; Garden Grove: Pacifica; Golden West: Ocean View; Olympic: Orange Lutheran; Orange: Brea-Olinda; Pacific Coast: Aliso Niguel; Sea View: Corona del Mar; South Coast: Dana Hills; Sunset: Esperanza.

1993 final poll: 1. Irvine; 2. Edison; 3. Santa Margarita; 4. Esperanza; 5. Corona del Mar; 6. Canyon; 7. Dana Hills; 8. El Modena; 9. Ocean View; 10. El Toro.

1994 preseason poll: 1. Esperanza; 2. Edison; 3. Corona del Mar; 4. Irvine; 5. El Modena; 6. Dana Hills; 7. El Toro; 8. Trabuco Hills; 9. Ocean View; 10. Los Alamitos. Others: Aliso Niguel, Canyon, Fountain Valley, Katella, Laguna Hills, Mater Dei, Newport Harbor, Santa Ana Valley, Santa Margarita, Tustin.

Key dates: Woodbridge Invitational, Sept. 17; Dana Hills and Sonora invitationals, Sept. 24; Brea-Olinda Invitational, Oct. 1; Huntington Beach Central Park Invitational, Oct. 8; Orange County Championships, Oct. 15; Mt. San Antonio College Invitational, Oct. 22; League finals, Oct. 29-Nov. 5; Southern Section prelims, Nov. 12; Section finals, Nov. 19; State Championships, Nov. 26; Foot Locker Western Regionals, Dec. 3; Foot Locker National Championships, Dec. 10.

Notes: Just when Edison thought it would catch a break with Ocean View moving to the Golden West League, Esperanza and Los Alamitos move in, keeping the Sunset League race an interesting one. . . . South county powers Trabuco Hills and El Toro have an abundance of talent and will be a factor by season’s end, and Tustin returns a number of runners.