On the move

Mike Sciacca

They haven’t even run a race or competed in an event, yet the Laguna

Beach High track and field program already has posted a big victory.

In just a year, the program has spiked its numbers, raising the

bar, so to speak, from roughly 40 athletes who came out for the teams

last year, to more than 120, who put on their running shoes this year

for the 2005 season.

“The number of athletes we have attracted is our greatest victory

of the new season,” Laguna Beach coach Dave Brobeck said. “Track is a

sport consisting of 16 very different events. You must have bodies to

fill all the slots to be competitive. This is a tall order for a

small school like ours, particularly when we go against mammoth

programs like Northwood and Tesoro.”

Brobeck said that the rise in numbers can be attributed to a

“variety of factors,” but feels that the new track and turf instilled

at the school is the main draw.

The new field has been enjoyed for game use this school year by

the Breakers football and boys’ and girls’ soccer teams.

The track and field team members also will be wearing new

uniforms.

“I feel that our new world-class facility is likely our greatest

selling point,” Brobeck said. “Kids just want to be on it. This

season has been the target season for the past five years.

“I was purposefully frugal with our money in the past because I

knew that an all-weather facility was coming and that we would need

the financial resources to buy new equipment. I felt like this year I

was on a track spending spree, buying what I coveted most for our

program. Our new maroon and gold uniforms are sharp.”

Brobeck calls the 2005 Breakers’ boys’ team, a real “team of

teams.”

“I never make New Year’s resolutions. I see the sham in it,” he

said. “However, this year I resolved to recruit a kid a day for the

month of January. I sought kids out on campus during break and lunch,

kids I didn’t know personally but heard were good athletes in other

programs.

“Track must be a ‘team of teams,’ in order to experience any

semblance of success. You need every type of athlete the school has.

I am really enjoying working with kids I never had before --

football, volleyball and soccer kids. I think we have some budding

superstars that will emerge and surprise people in league. But at

this time it is still all theoretical. It all looks great on paper.

We’ll see how this assortment of athletes choose to work together.”

Just like the boys’ team, the girls’ squad, Brobeck said, has

potential.

“The girls’ team is big in number, just like the boys, but much

younger,” he said. “The girls have five-to-seven legitimate varsity

competitors at this time, whereas the boys have 20-to-25. Several of

the younger girls have the talent to step into varsity slots later in

the season.”

A reputation for consistent winning has eluded Laguna’s track and

field program, but Brobeck says its time to change that pattern.

His boys’ cross country team won a state championship last fall,

and Earl Towner’s girls’ cross country squad also had a successful

showing at the state meet.

“No one can remember the last time we were successful as a whole

team,” he said. “I just won’t have losing anymore. I have tasted

victory at the highest level in cross country and I am ready for the

boys’ track program to rise up to this higher standard of excellence,

as well.

“I will not promise great things at this point, because there is a

lot that has to happen just right among the guys, but I will say that

we will field competitive, if not league champion-caliber, varsity

competitors in every event. I believe that we will have the

opportunity to hang with the big fish in league.”

Brobeck said that many of Laguna’s top frosh-soph and varsity

athletes will compete Saturday at the program’s first meet of the

season, the Irvine Invitational.

Laguna opens its Pacific Coast League season on March 24 by

hosting Tesoro.

“This will be a big, early season test for us,” he said of the

upcoming Tesoro meet.