SCVAL coaches strike gold at corporate track nationals

By Dick Sparrer

It was summer vacation--a chance for school teachers and administrators to take a break from the day-to-day routine of school life and just relax.

At least, that was the case for most school personnel ... not the teachers, coaches and administrators from the area who make up the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League team that competes each summer in the United States Corporate Athletic Association National track and field championships.

The SCVAL team entered for the third straight summer, and the locals brought home their second straight Division II National championship.

The SCVAL competes in the division for companies with less than 10,000 employees.

"They allow us to take the five school districts in the SCVAL and call that a company," said Hank Lawson, the Lynbrook track and cross country coach who organizes the effort.

"I've been doing it since they started 24 years ago," added Lawson. "I used to compete for Hewlett-Packard, but then I talked to some other coaches and said we should do this."

So they did in the summer of 1999, then a year later they won their first national title. This summer, the SCVAL squad defended that championship in Renton, Wash.

Competing on the SCVAL squad with Lawson were Anne Hammond, Ray Russell, Ericke Brigham and Andrew Sample of Lynbrook; Walt Van Zant of Wilcox; Ernie Lee, Sara Meyers and Eva Shu of Gunn; Pat Lawson, Mark Stauffer and Grace Voss of Fremont; Laura Lopez of Saratoga; Steve Headley of Homestead; Verdine Baker of Los Altos; Cary Matsuoka of the district office; Becky Kriege and Mike Kriege, Los Altos alumni; and Mike Regan, Ken Jones and Abe Gore of Metro Sport, an area athletic shoe store.

"You need 20 to 25 people to field a complete team," said Lawson. "Our depth is what really helped us."

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