Los Alamitos’ Bates Handles Role With Ease

Junior Kim Bates, one of the top girls’ cross-country runners in the county, handles pressure pretty well. Sometimes, though, her methods are a bit unconventional.

Before one of the biggest meets last season, the Sunset League finals at Central Park in Huntington Beach, Bates had her teammates a little worried.

“We all really wanted to win, but everyone was really stressing out right before the race,” Bates said. “I remember my coach got ticked and everyone was asking, ‘Where’s Kim, where’s Kim?’

“I was just playing on the swings.”

Whatever relaxation tactics Bates used, they worked. The Griffins won the team championship, Los Alamitos’ first league title since 1991. Then Bates helped Los Alamitos win the Southern Section Division I-AA title and finish second in the Division I team competition at the state meet.

But after that banner season, not much was expected from the Griffins this year because they returned only two of their top seven runners.

But Bates, a second-team Times Orange County selection as a freshman, and the Griffins are off to a fast start. They are ranked fifth in the county, second in league in the rankings only to top-ranked Esperanza.

“We’ve done a lot better than we thought,” Bates said.

Bates’ leadership is partly the reason.

She has won the divisional races at the Laguna Hills, Woodbridge, and Bell-Jeff invitationals this season and finished first at the dual-meet race against Esperanza last week.

“Kim has an easy-going personality and she’s a good leader for us,” Los Alamitos Coach Gordon Duff said. “Every team needs a front-runner for the big meets and Kim is vital to us.

“She gets us that first big low score. Some schools are strong, top to bottom, but they don’t have that front-runner who makes it tougher for them.”

Duff has had the good fortune of coaching Bates on the varsity since her freshman year and she showed she was ready to compete at the highest level in her first season.

At the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational that year, Bates posted the fastest time of any county runner in 18 minutes 45 seconds.

Her time was faster than that of Jessica Corbin of Irvine (now at UCLA), a four-time Times all-county selection, and other top county runners such as Santa Margarita’s Katie Nuanes and Dana Hills’ Sydney Leonard.

“Everyone was telling me how tough the course at Mt. SAC was and what a hard race it was going to be,” Bates said.

“I kept thinking during the race that this was going to get harder and harder, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t so bad that day.”

Duff wasn’t surprised by Bates’ effort either.

“We knew about her before she got to Los Alamitos,” Duff said. “Only a handful of girls have that kind of talent, to be able to step right in and perform at that level.”

Bates’ readiness has come from hard work and training since age 10.

She grew up in a running atmosphere and still trains with her father, Ron, and mother, Marilyn. Bates’ younger sister, Ande, is a freshman on the Los Alamitos junior varsity.

“When Kim was 12, I remember when I first asked if she wanted to go out on a training run with us,” her father said. “Marilyn and I train with Jeff Tribole and Team Runners High of Long Beach, and one of the runs takes us up Signal Hill.

“I remember when she used to run with us. Now she just passes us up.”

Bates knows she has to keep improving to maintain her status as one of the top runners in Division I.

But like everyone else, she won’t overdo it.

“I don’t remember how hard it was that first time I tried running up Signal Hill,” Bates said. “It’s a lot nicer driving it.”