Fall Season Preview - Valley Collge's Men's Cross Country

On Aug. 13, San Bernardino Valley College Men's Cross Countryhead coach Jim Ratigan, in his second year as head coach, collected his second consecutive Foothill Conference Coach of the Year Award last season. Needless to say, that once again, anticipation is high for the 2015 team. Coach Ratigan gives high praise of the knowledge and experience assistant coach Matt Sartori brings to the coaching staff at SBVC. Sartori, a graduate of UC Davis, was with SBVC in 2008 and 2009 when the team won five straight CCCAA Men's Cross Country State Championships from 2006 to 2010. Last season, the team grabbed their 19th consecutive Foothill Conference Championship and 24th overall. After a dominant string of eight consecutive South California Championships, from 2006 to 2013, last season they finished in 3rd place at the SoCal Finals and in 5th at the CCCAA State Finals. Daniel Aguilera (Fontana Jurupa Hills), Alejandro Castellonos (Romoland Heritage), and Derek Barnett (Redlands East Valley) were named All-Foothill Conference in their freshman season and are looking to lead the team this season. At the CCCAA State Finals, Aguilera finished with a time of 21:23.8, Castellonos finished 72nd, and Barnett finished in 118th. At the SoCal Championship, Aguilera finished 22nd with a time of 20:49.14, Barnett finished 49th with a time of 21:26.27 and Castellonos competed and finished 64th. Coach Ratigan praises this season's roster as one of the deepest in recent history. With a plethora of new recruits, multiple runners have come from winning teams. Michael Terran (Fontana Jurupa Hills) was state runner up in CIF Division 2 cross country only to lose the state title by a mere second while his team, Fontana Jurupa Hills, finished 10th in the nation. His teammate Luis Ortega (Fontana Jurupa Hills) will also be joining this year's team. To round off the immense talent coming in are runners Christian Sharp (Redlands East Valley), Josh Lopez (Jurupa Valley Rubidoux), Antonio Sanchez (Jurupa Valley Rubidoux), David Hughes (Redlands East Valley), and Juan Velasquez (Ontario Colony). This young group of talent has a great deal of potential to earn SBVC their sixth CCCAA State Championship. Always conveying to his team the importance of doing good deeds, Coach Ratigan expects his student athletes to put their best effort forward in all aspects of life. Coach Ratigan's commendation of this year's team of runners will likely be rewarded with another strong season of numerous accolades. He genuinely advocates the value of being an outstanding individual on and off the course and the influence you can have on the community. We can all expect another unprecedented season from the SBVC Men's Cross Country team.