Coach Steve Scott
A three-time Olympian and a member of the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame, Steve Scott has been at the helm of the Cal State San Marcos cross country and track & field programs since 1999, distinguishing himself as a coach much the same way he did as a runner.
As provisional members of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II the last two years, Scott has mentored a total of 10 All-California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) student-athletes, four in track & field and six in cross country.
As the architect of the Cougar track & field and cross country teams, Scott started the programs from scratch and turned CSUSM into a perennial powerhouse in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), highlighted by three consecutive women’s cross country national titles from 2009-11, until the school transitioned to NCAA Division II. While dominating the NAIA from 1999-2015, Scott coached 34 cross country All-Americans (16 women, 18 men), 86 outdoor track & field All-Americans (50 women, 36 men) and 13 indoor track & field All-Americans (11 women, two men). He was honored as the NAIA Women’s Cross Country of the Year three times and the Association of Independent Institutions (AII) Cross Country Coach of the Year 11 times.
As a collegiate runner at UC Irvine, Scott won the NCAA Division II 1,500-meter championship in three consecutive years between 1975 and 1977. As a professional, he won the 1,500-meter Olympic trials in 1980, but the United States boycotted the games later that year in Moscow due to the Cold War tensions. In 1981, he set the American record for the mile (3:48.68) and the 1,500 meters (3:31.96). He bettered his mile record to 3:47.69 the following year, setting a mark that stood for over 25 years. Scott won the silver medal in the 1,500 meters at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Outdoor Championships in 1983 and competed in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.
Over the course of his career, Scott was the national outdoor 1,500-meter champion six times. He has run the mile in under four minutes a world-record 136 times. For his feats in his signature event, Scott earned the moniker, “The Miler”. Following his competitive running career, Scott started coaching as an assistant at Azusa Pacific University in 1993.
Coach Devin Elizondo
UCLA alumnus Devin Elizondo enters his five seasons with the Bruins as an assistant coach for cross country and track and field. Now at Cal State Northridge coach Elizondo brings a wealth of distance running acumen and an extensive resume of coaching experience that will certainly benefit the Bruins’ distance program.
Elizondo previously served as head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach at UC Davis from 2014-2017. In his first cross country season at the helm, he led the Aggie women to their first Big West Conference title since 2011 and was named the conference Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year. In 2015, Elizondo guided both the men’s and women’s teams to third-place finishes at the Big West Championships, the highest finish for the men since 2013 and the fifth consecutive top-three finish on the women’s side. During his tenure at Davis, Elizondo helped coach 20 All-Big West runners (six men, 14 women) and six all-region honorees in cross country.
His coaching career began at the Brentwood School in Los Angeles. There, he served as the head track and field coach and assistant cross country coach for both boys and girls. With Elizondo on the coaching staff, the boys’ cross country team qualified for six state championship meets and achieved five top-five finishes. The girls’ program also enjoyed success, as the girls advanced to two state meets and sent an individual runner on two other occasions during Elizondo’s time at Brentwood.
Elizondo graduated from UCLA in 1998 with a degree in history and enjoyed great success as a distance runner for the Bruins. He was a member of three Pac-10 track and field championship teams and also helped lead the cross country team to a pair of third-place conference finishes. Elizondo was the UCLA cross country team’s Most Outstanding Freshman in 1994 and was selected to the All-District IX First Team in 1995.
Elizondo has also had an extensive history of youth outreach in Southern California involving athletics. He joined the LA84 foundation in 2007 and worked to organize cross country and track and field clinics at over 1,600 high schools in the Southern California Area. He has also been heavily involved in Runner’s Workshop since 1994, a summer cross country camp at which Elizondo regularly creates lecture series and workouts for campers.
Mark Celestin
Mark founded Runner’s Workshop in 1985, and has directed 104 Runner’s Workshop camps in the past 37 years. Coach Celestin has coached at Los Alamitos High School since 1984 and was selected as Orange County Coach of the Year in 1989, and Orange County Teacher of the Year in 1999. Mark was a 1:51.2 800-meter runner and national qualifier at U.C. Irvine. He brings a wealth of experience in running safe, athletically engaging and fun camps.
Bree Thorpe – Bishop – Gorman HS
Coach Thorpe 2021 State Champion coach was recently named Nevada Coach of the Year will be a guest speaker this summer at our Yosemite camp.
HOKA Elite Athletes
Each summer HOKA sends elite athletes / guest speakers who share their running journey with our athletes. From their start as high school runners through college and on to professional running. All runners face similar challenges – they give personal insight into their path to achieving their potential.
Collegiate Counselors
Each summer we hire over 30 top collegiate runners from around the nation to work with our athletes and share their training and running experience as camp counselors. The counselors lead each run, recreation activity, theme night and nightly “cabin talks” that focus on common running topics like nutrition, race strategy, dealing with pre-race nerves,…