HEAD COACHES FOR ANTIOCH CROSS COUNTRY

Running cross country has always been a special sport, individual determination and will power combined with team spirit to propel athletes to incredible accomplishments and to almost endless limits – or “without limits”. To run this sport – the bottom line is you have to have the heart and determination! Each runner has a heart that has proven to be a pillar of their strength and even the teams! Even before the point during the 1970’s when long distance running became a popular national sport, Antioch High School began developing a distinctive tradition of excellence in this sport that challenges the mind, heart, and body.

Antioch's had its first full teams in the fall of 1959, and by the 1960’s and early 1970’s, Antioch High had its first championships running under Coach Lou Coward and Coach Mike Hurd, Hurd being one of the most successful XC coaches at Antioch High. By the late 1980’s, championship fever hit Antioch Cross once again with league titles and Antioch's first team to the inaugural state meet in 1987. Championship fever again caught momentum one last time for the 20th Century in the late 1990’s with an NCS title a piece for both boys and girl's teams. Along with Coach Hurd, Coach Tom Torlakson (1986-1996) and Coach Michael Amorosa (1996-2008) made it possible for the Antioch cross contry squads to not only shine locally, but to be one of the most successful sports at Antioch High out of any sport - being a traditional revenue sport school for many years and in East Contra COsta County as a whole. Another key component to this success is consistency for Antioch cross. In almost a half century of the sport at Antioch High, there have only been six head coaches (the first with nine seasons and three others with over 11 seasons each) - where at numerous other schools, the head coaching turnover is vast - having over six different head coaches in one decade even!

These coaches, especially Torlakson and Amorosa, helped Antioch be recognized in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout California as one of the premier programs of the East Bay in the sport by the end of the 20th Century and beyond. With league and sections titles from the once small town of the eastern side of Contra Costa County – as well as having qualifying state team berths in 1987, 1998, 1999, & 2000 – and with over 40 Antioch runners making it to the state meet during these years, the most in all of east county - Antioch cross country is indeed a sport and group of athletes for the historical annals of sport at Antioch High, the S.F. Bay Area, and in California!

1959-1969 Lou Coward
~First X-country coach at Antioch Senior High School
11 Seasons
1960 Varsity Boy's individual league champion (Savage),
1961 Varsity Boy's individual league champion (Crawford),
1961 Varsity Boy's M.D.A.L. Champions, AHS' 1st!
1964 Varsity Boy's M.D.A.L. Champions.

1970-1978 Mike Hurd
~First AHS Panther alumni head coach
9 Seasons
1971 Varsity Boy's D.V.A.L. Champions,
1971 Varsity Boy's Individual League Champion (Smith ~ '72),
1971 Varsity Boy's N.C.S. D-II Championship Title, AHS' 1st!,
1971 Nor-Cal Championships - VB's 2nd Place Medal Round Finishers behind Fremont!
1974 First full A.H.S. Girl's XC team!
1978 Varsity Girl's D.V.A.L. Champions,
1978 Varsity Girl's Individual League Champion (Felix ~ '79).

1979-1981 Joe Olenchalk
3 Seasons
1979 Varsity Girl’s D.V.A.L. Champions,
1980 Varsity Girl’s D.V.A.L. Champions,
1981 Varsity Girl’s D.V.A.L. Champions ~ Four years in a row!

1982-1985 Scott Brady-Smith
4 Seasons
No titles under Brady-Smith, but had one good season in 1983 where the boys
placed 4th at DVAL to Qualify for N.C.S. placing 6th, then at the M.O.C. meet they placed 10th.

1986-1995 Tom Torlakson
~First off campus head coach
11 Seasons
1987 Varsity Boy's D.V.A.L. Champions, (Fastest AHS Modern Team Time of 79:46 at N.C.S.),
1987 Varsity Boy's 2nd at N.C.S.- First AHS Team at the first C.I.F. State Championships,
1987 JV Boy's League Title, D.V.A.L.,
1987 First Girl C.I.F. State Meet individual qualifier (Sells ~ '89),
1988 Varsity Girl's B.V.A.L. Individual League Champion (Sells),
1988 Varsity Boy's B.V.A.L. Champions,
1988 Varsity Girl’s B.V.A.L. Champions,
1988 JV Girl's League Title, B.V.A.L.,
1989 JV Girl's League Title, B.V.A.L.,
1990 Varsity Girl’s B.V.A.L. Champions,
1990 Top 10 finish at C.I.F. State Meet individual boy (White ~ 6th, 15:44 ~ '91),
1991 N.C.S. D-I Boy's Individual Section Champion (Byroads ~ '93),
1993 JV Boy's League Title, B.V.A.L..

~Coach Torlakson league winning percentage records
were about 76.1% for Girls & 77.6% for Boys.

***************************************************
1996 Amorosa/Torlakson
[Shared coaching responsibilities. Mr. Torlakson was campaigning
for State Assembly position and was rarely present during his last official
season – but on paper it was both coaches. However, Coach Amorosa
was the interim head coach for 1996 and basically ran the entire program]
***************************************************

1997-2008 Michael Amorosa
13 seasons
(13 as Head Coach, 15 total; 1989, 1995-2008)
1997 JV Girl's B.V.A.L. Title,
1998 JV Girl's B.V.A.L. Title,
1998 Varsity Boy's N.C.S. D-I Champions, Second Panther Boy's Team to C.I.F,
1998 Contra Costa Times/Antioch Ledger Cross Country Coach of the Year
1999 Varsity Girl's Individual League Champion (Nolan ~ '02),
1999 Varsity Girl's Undefeated regular season league title (9-0),
1999 Varsity Girl’s B.V.A.L. Champions, (Still no "99" marker in gym (Mr.Fisher forgot to make one))
(Team Time of 95:00 - Fastest AHS/East County Girl's Team Ever and TOP-TEN NCS TEAM TIMES EVER!),
1999 Varsity Girl’s N.C.S. D-II Champions, AHS' 1st Girl's Team to C.I.F.!
1999 Varsity Girl's C.I.F. State Meet, D-II 3rd Place Medal Round Finishers!
1999 Top 10 finish at C.I.F. State Meet individual girl (Nolan ~ 2nd, 17:56)
1999 Fastest Team Time at C.I.F. State for N.C.S. D-II girls (97:23 - 3rd All-Time NCS)
1999 East Bay - North Coast Section Coach's poll ~ voted Coach of the Year
2000 Varsity Girl's Individual League Champion (Nolan ~ '02),
2000 Varsity Girl's Undefeated regular season league title (7-0), ~ BVAL Champions!
2000 Varsity Girl's 3rd at N.C.S., C.I.F. State Meet team qualifiers,
2001 Varsity Girl's Individual League Champion (Perez ~ '02),
2002 Privaliged to have coached four CC-Times Top-100 Athletes (Perez, Nunez, Hernandez, Nolan)
2003 JV Boy’s Undefeated regular season league title (7-0) ~ BVAL Regular Season Champions!
2003 Eighth consecutive year of CIF State meet qualifiers from 1996-2003
2008 Varsity Girl's Marked 12 straight winning seasons above .500 for BVAL duals (or .788).
2008 Varsity Boy's 7 straight winning seasons above .500 for BVAL duals (or .622).
2008 Varsity Girl's Undefeated regular season (5-0) ~ BVAL Regular Season Champions!
2008 Varsity Girl's 3rd Undefeated season since 1999.
2008 Varsity Boys not been defeated by Pittsburg XC in 30+ years in a dual! V-Girls undefeated ever!
2008 Marks the 15th season of coaching at AHS-XC
2009 Marks the 50th Anniversary of Antioch XC & Coach Amorosa's 10th with AHS Track.
2009 Also marks that Antioch XC is the winningest sports program in the last decade and a half at AHS.
2009 Recently was privaliged to have coached two AHS Athlete of the Year (Humphreys-2008, Kovalick-2009)
2009 Have been privaliged to have coached numerous validictorians (Nekkab '09, Robertson '08, Nolan '02)
2009 Became the longest AHS XC Head Coach in school history with 13 seasons

Varsity League Stats under Coach Amorosa:
Varsity Girl's regular season league meet records 1997-2008:
1997.....6-3> >>2001.....5-2> >>2005.....6-1> .
1998.....7-2> >>2002.....4-3> >>2006.....7-1>
1999.....9-0> >>2003.....5-2> >>2007.....4-4>
2000.....7-0> >>2004.....6-1> >>2008.....5-0>
VARSITY GIRL'S WINNING RECORD PERCENTAGE: 71-19 = 78.8%
NEVER A LOSING SEASON UNDER COACH AMOROSA

Varsity Boy's regular season league meet records 1997-2008:
1997.....4-5< >>2001.....3-4*< >>2005.....4-3>
1998.....8-1> >>2002.....4-3> . >>2006.....5-3>
1999.....5-4> >>2003.....5-2> . >>2007.....5-3>
2000.....5-2> >>2004.....5-2> . >>2008.....3-2>
VARSITY BOY'S WINNING RECORD PERCENTAGE: 56-34 = 62.2%

* - Only 2nd losing varsity league record under Coach Amorosa
since his first full year in 1997 – but beating De La Salle this year
in a dual 28-29 for the first time since 1988, which took the place
of ANY record – snapping their 99 league meet streak dating way
back to 1988! This was also the first year that the Antioch varsity
teams lost to Deer Valley in both duals, girls and boys.

2009-? Lisa Lopez
1 season
2009 Marks the 50th Anniversary of Antioch XC, only the sixth head coach, and the team's first lady head coach

Varsity League Stats under Coach Lopez:
Varsity Girl's regular season league meet records:
2009 .....2-3< First losing season for VG XC since 1996, and for the first time in school's history,
AHS VG lost to Pittsburg VG's XC. AHS V-Girls went on to beat incomplete teams of Liberty and Heritage

Varsity Boy's regular season league meet records:
2009 .....1-4< First dual meet loss to Pittsburg XC in 30+ years. Boys only beat Heritage by one point,
just avoiding the winless season that would have been for the first time in the 50 year history of AHS XC.

ASSISTANT COACHES FOR ANTIOCH X-COUNTRY

Assistant coaches contributed greatly to the cross country program over the years at Antioch High. During the early 1980’s, only one assistant coach was budgeted by the school district. 9th graders attended Antioch Junior High and Park Junior High and were coached by a faculty member at each respective campus. With the likes of Coach Nancy Wilson at Park Jr. High (Now PMS) moving to other schools or other teachers retiring, like Coach Jerry Sassone at Antioch Jr. High (Now AMS), the junior high-middle school programs shrank considerably. In the early 1990's, Coach Torlakson proposed that the 9th graders be taken in with the high school program and that during the 1980’s, in many sports and at a growing number of schools, it became more difficult to find “on-campus” coaches who were part of the faculty that wanted to lead a cross country program at the junior high schools.

Over the years, and especially since 1986, Coach Tom Torlakson and Coach Michael Amorosa reached to former athletes to coach and invigorate the program and to “teach” the traditions of a Panther Strider and the history of the true meaning of cross country at Antioch High! Tom Torlakson was County Supervisor at the time when he re-entered coaching in 1985 under Coach Scott Brady-Smith before eventually taking over in 1986. Coach Peter Foster was an elementary school teacher at Belshaw Elementary in Antioch and became one of the first assistant coaches to be recruited as a former athlete under Assistant Coach Torlakson from the late 1970’s. Foster was the top harrier at Pleasant Hill High School under the direction of a Bay Area legendary coach – Bob McGuire in 1976-1978. Foster again came back to coaching in 2000 and took over the Liberty program in 2001 where he led the boy's team to their first state meet berth in 2004.

Leslie Adams, Michael Amorosa, Brante Dierke, Amanda Dillon, Peter Ferrante, Brian Wilson, and Brian White are just a few of the stellar and respectable names that hi-light the annals of AHS cross and returned to Antioch High for a season or more as an assistant and gave back what they learned through their years of running from the high school ranks as well as the collegiate ranks. One of the most accomplished of these assistant coaches from the alumni crew was Coach Michael Amorosa (Coach Hurd was an alumni too and assisted Coward as well in the late 1960's). He coached a few years under Torlakson’s direction in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, while running in college at DVC and at the University of Hawai’i. Mike established himself as one of the top harriers in the area from DVC and at the University of Hawai’i. After collegiate cross country, Amorosa returned to Antioch and eventually took over the helm at his Alma matter at AHS in 1997 - leading Antioch to two North Coast Section titles in the next two seasons in 1998 & 1999.

THE MODERN PANTHER XC ASSISTANTS:
1985 Tom Torlakson
1986 Peter Foster
1987 Peter Foster
1988 Peter Foster, Brant Dierke
1989 Brant Dierke, Leslie Adams, Michael Amorosa
1990 Dolly Ackerman, Bob Van Vliet (Amorosa p/t)
1991 Dolly Ackerman, Bob Van Vliet
1992 Dolly Ackerman, Chad Marquardt (summer – Amorosa p/t)
1993 Dolly Ackerman, Chad Marquardt (summer – Amorosa p/t)
1994 Dolly Ackerman, Aaron Rosselle
1995 Sue Laux, Michael Amorosa
1996 Peter Liotta, Brian Wilson, Peter Ferrante (Annette White p/t)
1997 Brian Wilson, (Peter Ferrante p/t), Amanda Dillon,
1998 Amanda Dillon, Brian Wilson, Rena Hoerntlein
1999 Amanda Dillon, Craig Avis, Charlie Petley, (Matt Hasty p/t)
2000 Brian White, Phil France, (Chris Hernandez, Alison Adams, Amanda Dillon p/t)
2001 Amanda Dillon, Brian White, Jason Linn (Justin Loomis, Chris Hernandez p/t)
2002 Amanda Dillon, (Brian White, Craig Avis both p/t)
2003 Amanda Dillon, Craig Avis, Steve Duffy
2004 Amanda Amorosa, Dave Rivera
2005 Amanda Amorosa, Brian Wilson, (Chrishan King p/t)
2006 Amanda Amorosa, Brian Wilson
2007 Amanda Amorosa, Brian WIlson
2008 Amanda Amorosa, Brian Wilson
2009 Mike Messer with help from father Bob