“You’re better than you think you are!”
Cesar Diaz, a junior at Santa Maria High School, vividly remembers those words being said to him. He would hear them during the most trying moments of his first season running cross country—when one more mile felt impossible, when Diaz felt like quitting the sport entirely.
It was just one of the ways that David Tyler Sr., the late Saints’ cross-country coach, inspired his players to recognize their potential.
“‘You’re better than you think you are,’” Diaz reflected. “He would really get that into our heads. He would tell me not to give up. It would really help. He was a very inspirational coach.”
Tyler Sr. tragically passed away in November 2015, just days after completing his first season as Santa Maria’s cross country coach. Though his life and budding coaching career were cut short, he still accomplished so much for the school.
With Tyler Sr. at the helm, participation levels in cross-country went up markedly. He injected excitement into a program that, for years, hadn’t seen much of it. He helped the runners believe in themselves, and their improved performances reflected that.
David Tyler Jr., his son and a senior on the team this year, said that his dad’s primary motivation was in building a true team.
“My father was focused on making everyone a family,” Tyler Jr. said. “His main motivation was making sure we were all together. That’s the main reason why we’re so much better now as a team.”
The coach’s imprint on the program lives on in the runners as the Saints gear up for their upcoming season.
Veteran area coach Brian Wallace, who arrived at Santa Maria High School in 2014 to serve as athletic director, is carrying the cross-country torch this season. In his 15 years of coaching, Wallace said he hasn’t led a team quite like Santa Maria’s this year. Part of that uniqueness is the emotional element. Another is that the majority of his runners had to juggle time-consuming work obligations in the agricultural industry over the summer.
“It’s the first summer where I had to hold cross-country practice at night,” Wallace said. “Normally, you train for cross country in the morning, but these kids were working every day. We ran at 6 p.m. instead.”
While most students enjoy the summer as a break from responsibilities, the Santa Maria cross country runners didn’t. They were working harder than ever.
“It was hard,” junior Javier Ventura said. “I had work in the morning and then after, I had to come to practice.
“When I was done I was, like, dead,” he laughed.
Another unique challenge for Wallace was trying to coach cross country in the middle of the city. Unlike at Wallace’s former coaching gig in Santa Ynez, where hills and open space are plentiful, Santa Maria’s sprawling urban environment presented a new dilemma.
His solution?
“We hit the streets,” he said.
Since sending 35 kids to run through the city all at once would be pure chaos, the team went out in mini waves.
“This is a big city,” Wallace realized. “If you run 10 to 12 miles through it, you really notice that.”
To cap off the summer, Wallace and his wife organized a team trip to Lake Tahoe, where they rented two houses and trained twice a day—with all the open space in the world.
“It’s part of my process. I’ve been doing it since 2006,” Wallace said. “We took 17 kids. My wife and I would cook for them. We’d make breakfast, pack a lunch, and run. We would hang out at the lake, go bowling, watch movies, and then go run again.”
For the runners who spent the majority of their summer days working in farmland, the Tahoe trip was their first true vacation all summer.
“It was pretty fun, because I got a break from working,” Ventura said.
Despite the work commitments and logistical challenges, the Saints ultimately completed a successful summer training program under Wallace’s leadership. They’re ready to show the Los Padres League what they’re made of this season. Tyler Jr., Ventura, and Diaz will lead the boys’ team as a trio of co-captains. Tyler Jr. was Santa Maria’s top runner last year, qualifying for CIFs as a junior.
“The kids all look up to David [Tyler Jr.],” Wallace said.
The girls will be led by co-captains Luz Genaro and Nancy Perez.
While an outsider may not peg the Santa Maria cross-country team as a threat to established programs like Santa Ynez, the Saints won’t give in to those thoughts. As coach Tyler Sr. used to say: “You’re better than you think you are.”
“We should be better,” Wallace said. “We have even more to run for this year.”
Send your local sports news to contributor Peter Johnson at pjohnson@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Sep 1-8, 2016.