Senior trip

Dave Brobeck has known the class of 2010 was special for a while now.

It made the Laguna Beach High boys’ cross-country coach’s decision easy, if he was considering leaving the program a few years back.

Really, there was no decision to make.

“When they were freshmen, they were amazingly talented,” Brobeck said. “I knew I was going to continue coaching for four years. I had no choice, because they were just so good, so dominant.”

Fast-forward to Saturday at Woodward Park, where the Breakers will be competing at the CIF State Cross-Country Championships. Junior Matt Neev is also one of Laguna’s most talented runners, but for seniors Blake Hofmeister, Tommy Newton-Neal, Andrew Shapero, Richard Mattingly, Sean Pigden and Jake Johnson, this is a chance to make a grand statement in their final race.

Laguna Beach, which easily won the CIF Southern Section Division IV championship last Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College, will be a favorite to win the Division IV title at state as well. It would be the Breakers’ third state title in school history; they also won in 1989 — Brobeck ran for that team — and in 2004.

So the seniors will go for it, as they’ve been doing that all season. But they will also be relaxed. No pressure here, even if, as Hofmeister said, “there’s no next year.”

“We’re relaxed,” Hofmeister said. “For me, it always works out this way, that if you have a relaxed attitude you perform better.”

He finished second individually at Mt. SAC in 15:23, two seconds behind Morro Bay’s James Shipe. But the Breakers were just too deep.

Neev (15:47), Newton-Neal (15:51) and Shapero (15:52) took fourth through sixth. Then there was Pigden in 15th (16:21).

These results helped Laguna easily outscore second place Big Bear, 27-95, a lopsided score for a dual meet, not to mention a CIF final.

And yet, Brobeck sees room for improvement with his special senior class. For one thing, they won’t let the success get to their heads.

“The way that I coach, and the way that they are with each other, we’re a very loose, light team,” Brobeck said. “We don’t talk about rankings ever, and we don’t go on the websites and read our articles. We don’t get too preoccupied with that. I think in previous years, maybe a No. 1 ranking would be a little bit of an anchor to us, but this year it just feels right. There’s no pressure associated with it. We know that we control our destiny.

“The other team that’s vying for this, McFarland [of Bakersfield], is a perennial powerhouse. They’ve got a very good shot at it. If they have fresh legs and they run a smarter race than us, then they deserve to win. The message I’ve sent to these kids in every race is, ‘All we can do is control ourselves, our emotions.’ We’ve got a good race strategy for Saturday and I think if the kids stay composed, there’s no reason why we can’t be the last ones standing at the podium.”

They didn’t get there last year, finishing fourth after what Brobeck called a couple of freak occurrences, like Hofmeister needed an emergency appendectomy the day before the meet. Only the top three teams see the podium. Yet, that has provided motivation for Laguna Beach this year.

“We’ve all been on the team and missed a few chances,” Shapero said. “We all want it pretty bad.”

Brobeck doesn’t need to rely on big speeches. He lets his mature team figure it out for themselves.

“This group is so mature, they know what’s at stake, they know what’s best for them,” Brobeck said. “My hands-off approach so far this season has worked well. Pressure never works well with high school kids anyway.”

So there’s no pressure from the coach, and the runners don’t feel any pressure, either. All that leaves is the track in Fresno on Saturday, and just over 15 minutes of a race that could turn out with the Breakers back on the podium.

No matter what happens, the senior class will leave Fresno as they came — as friends. And maybe more than that.

“We’re all a family,” Newton-Neal said. “That’s how I see it.”