Remembering Pat Logan

Pat Logan, 70, died last month while running near his home in Washington state.

The longtime La Cañada High cross country and track and field coach led the Spartans to a number of great years from the 1960s through the 1980s.

In 1971, his team snagged a CIF-SS Div. AA championship. Every year between 1967 and 1979, they placed in the top five. In his tenure, Logan nurtured many of La Cañada’s greatest individuals: Steve Whittle, Rich Monnell, Joe Sherburn, Pat Briggs, John Koningh, Todd Frame and Andy DiConti, who now coaches the Spartans’ cross country and track and field teams.

DiConti took a minute to reflect on Coach Logan: what Logan meant to him, what Logan meant to the school and who Logan was.

Coach Logan was an intense competitor as an athlete in the ’50s while at Oxy and brought that same intensity into his coaching approach in the late ’60s and up until his death while coaching in the Seattle area. In the ’70s, during the running boom, coaches were all “lumped” into that stereotypical mold—“old-school” if you will—meaning they did a lot of yelling at their athletes (maybe berate them publicly) to get positive results. That seemed to be the coaching norm, from my perspective anyway. And on the receiving end of many of Coach Pat’s tirades, I accepted it and took it as par for the course. But I never took it personally. Like most, I did what he wanted, and he got his results, and very few of us complained about it.

Again, at the time, we all figured that that’s what coaching was all about. And the best is what Coach Logan got. He knew how to get us ready. There was a time in one single season when we had nine guys who could break two minutes in the half-mile. Our relays (both 2-mile relays and the distance medley) led the country during some months of the season and held on to a top-10 position nationally by the end of it. In ’83, the Trevithick twins (John and Scott), Chris Smith and John Larsen broke the school record and ran a 7:45 relay that was fifth in the country. And in Logan’s first 10 years of coaching cross country, nine of those seasons end with top-five placings in CIF including first in ’71 and runner-up in ’79. His track record is staggering as his teams never lost at home and amassed a dual-meet win record of over 100 and as little as three losses ever.

As a new coach, I can already appreciate how Pat’s competitiveness got hold of him, and probably too much at times. I find myself wishing I could jump into the race right alongside my athletes while coaching them along the way; of course, you can’t do that. I can get frustrated, as Coach Logan would, when my athletes don’t always stick to a plan. Mostly though, Logan got his message across to us, we trusted his expertise, and so, we got the job done according to the plan. Pat Logan’s passion for running was obvious and he wasn’t shy about letting those of us who ran under him know about it. But it’s also important to mention that Pat loved working with his young athletes—and I’m sure he loved us, too—in his own unique way.

I think part of the reason I’m still running is because of Logan. Maybe that’s why I’m coaching too. I will miss him. But I’m glad he left the Earth doing what he loved.