By Bill Sheehan
Talk about ending on a high note.
John Elders closed out his 33-year head coaching career at Cal State Fullerton in the spring of 2021 with a men's track and field championship. His track and field and cross country teams won five titles in his final four years, excluding the Covid-cancelled 2020 campaigns.
"It was fun, it was exciting -- any words you can use to describe winning championships. For everything to come to fruition, it was very satisfying to me," said Elders, 59, the longest-tenured head coach in school history.
"If my career would have ended without a championship, I would have felt great about my success and the relationships I built over the years. But it's a heckuva lot more fun to win titles," said Elders, who is being honored with a tribute event Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Golleher Alumni House. He will retire at month's end.
Jim Donovan, Fullerton's director of athletics, praised Elders as someone truly devoted to his charges. "In John's 33-plus years at the helm of the program, he always first and foremost cared about his student-athletes, whether they were earning their degrees or competing in track and field and cross country," Donovan said.
Under his tutelage, 25 student-athletes earned NCAA All-America honors and 80 individual Big West Track and Field Championships were won. Elders' teams didn't win any Big West championships until the men's track team broke though in 2017. The men added two more, in 2018 and 2021. In 2019, the women won both track and cross country titles.
Elders credits the 2014 passage of the Student Success Initiative, or SSI, for paving the way for the Titans' championship run. The SSI earmarks money for athletic teams and facilities as well as campus technology upgrades, expanded library hours and increased course availability.
Elders celebrating the 2018 Men's Big West Track and Field Championship.
A salute to the Student Success Initiative
"I always knew we had the potential to be a championship program. It's an attractive school, an attractive location. Thankfully, the university was able to provide the funding because of the Student Success Initiative. [Former Cal State Fullerton President] Dr. Mildred Garcia and Jim Donovan helped make that happen," he said.
The SSI helped fund 18 full athletic scholarships for women and 12.5 for the men. The scholarships are split into partial awards to expand their reach. "We were able to recruit higher-level student-athletes and compete for elite athletes in California," said Elders. "For me, it was a confirmation of what I knew all along. We were a sleeping giant. The staff and student-athletes were able to prove we were a championship program."
"When coach Elders was given the appropriate level of funding and scholarships, toward the end of his career – he won five conference championships," said Donovan. "He surrounded himself with excellent assistant coaches, and while he created and instituted a strategic overall vision for the program, he allowed each assistant to develop the student-athletes in their respective areas. "
Marques Barosso, an assistant Fullerton track coach for the past seven years, including the last two as associate head, was recently named to replace Elders.
"I couldn't be more excited to be passing the baton to Marques. I've seen him grow from being a student-athletes to a young coach to a veteran coach He deserved the job and earned it. He's going to be a great coach," said Elders.
Barosso, a Fullerton grad who was the 2006 Big West champion in the 200 meters, said he absorbed valuable lessons from Elders. "I tried to pick his brain for everything. The biggest thing I learned from him was patience and knowing when to take a step back. When mentoring, teaching a new event or imparting life lessons to the young people, you must be patient with them."
'Zero budget' for XC, track teams in mid-1980s
Elders graduated from Villa Park High and Santa Ana College before transferring to Fullerton in fall 1984. He said the Fullerton women's track and field and cross country and men's cross country teams operated with a "zero budget" at the time.
He became an undergrad assistant the following year. Elders worked under former Titan head coaches Jeff Potter and Jim Stuart before taking the reins himself as a 26-year-old for the 1988-89 academic year. Men's track and field was restarted in spring 1989 after being inactive for many years.
With negligible financial support in those days, Elders said he learned to be thrifty. "I watched every penny. It became ingrained in me to balance my budget and not overspend," said Elders, who received his bachelor's degree in computer science.
For years, the track and cross country teams raised money by operating a fireworks stand in shopping center parking lots in Fullerton. "The stand was open for four days. We had to provide our own security, so the coaches and kids had to sleep on cots in the parking lot. But it was fun, and we bonded together."
Elders said he gained his footing as a coach after the last of his Titan teammates had graduated and new classes of student-athletes took their places.
One of Elders' early standouts was Mike Tansley, the men's individual Big West cross country champion in 1992 and 1993. Tansley also won the 1992 and 1994 conference 3000-meter steeplechase titles and became the school's first qualifier for the Division I NCAA Track and Field Championships. He finished sixth in the 1994 NCAA steeplechase final.
"What drew me to John was that he was approachable. He didn't take a military-like approach to running," said Tansley. "I was a surfer from Dana Point and didn't respond well to older adults. John was a relatively young coach, and that made it an easy transition."
A prank leads to a teaching moment
Tansley, who Elders dubbed "Big Race Mike," and distance runner Steve Frisone were the program's two stars and brought credibility to the program. They were also the team's pranksters. At a meeting at UC Santa Barbara, the pair were caught tossing food at people from a bus.
"John wasn't happy about it, and he made a point of telling us that it reflected poorly on Cal State Fullerton. But he didn't berate us – he was very professional about it.
"He is an amazing man who has had a huge impact on my life. But it's not just me. There is an army of former runners who adore him," said Tansley of Elders, whose decades-long popularity harkens back to the fictional hero of James Hilton's novella "Goodbye, Mr. Chips."
Another Elders fan is former Titan runner Heather Killeen-Frisone. In 1995, she became the first and only woman to win the 3000-, 5000- and 10,000-meter races at the same Big West Track Championships. Killeen-Frisone, who is married to Steve Frisone, placed 31st at the 1994 NCAA cross country Championships and 11th in the 10,000 meters at the 1995 NCAA Track Championships. She was named the NCAA Woman of the Year for California that academic year.
"John always made you feel valued as an athlete and a person. Whether it was a top-line athlete or someone scrambling for a position on the team, he treated everyone the same," said Killeen-Frisone. "He would take time to sit down and talk. I felt like I could talk to him about anything."
"I grew tremendously as a human being because of him. Twenty-five years later, my family and I have a very strong bond with him."
An evolution as a coach
The Pomona-born Elders said he has evolved as a coach during the past four decades. "Over time, I started to recognize each generation of student-athletes had different needs and issues. And to be more effective as coaches, we had to understand whom we were coaching."
Samantha Huerta, who graduated in June and is now an administrative coordinator for Titan Athletics, was the Big West Track Athletes of the Year in 2019 after sweeping the conference 800- and 1,500-meter races. She gives Elders high marks for his adaptability and guidance.
"He was a great coach – someone who would listen to what I had to say and was willing to adjust to help my training. But he was more than a coach. He was a father figure, a mentor I could reach out and talk with," said Huerta, who was on the 2019 cross country and track championship teams.
"In 2018, the women finished second at the cross country, and we were all disappointed. We wanted it so badly. The next year, our goal all season was to win the Big West. Elders helped us peak at the right time. And when we won, he had a huge smile on his face," she said.
Sam Pimentel, another 2021 graduate, was a standout cross country and distance runner for the Titans. "Elders brought great energy and enthusiasm every morning at the start of workouts. He was known for his super-corny yet funny jokes that he told every single day," he said.
"There were times when maybe we weren't on the same page, but he didn't mind taking the time to hear you out. He respected me as an athlete and a person," said Pimentel. "I will forever be grateful to him for giving me an opportunity to grow as a person and develop into a mature young man."
A new home in the Centennial State
Elders said he decided to retire after the Covid-19 pandemic hit. He and his wife, Nicole, began to reevaluate their lives and decided to move to Fort Collins, Colorado, where her sister and mother reside. "We had visited there regularly and also thought it would be a great place to live," he said.
Elders officially retired last December before returning in January as a part-time annuitant part-time employee. He retained his head coaching duties.
The couple have two daughters: Carlee, 19, and Gracie, 16. "We're looking forward to this new chapter," said Nicole, who was a volleyball player at Stanford. "It will be interesting for John. He is so used to going, going, going. He'll still be there for phone calls from former fellow coaches and athletes. And I'll keep him busy."
Nicole works remotely for Managed Mobile, a Placentia company that services truck fleets. Elders might rejoin the work force after getting settled into their new home. He said he would be open to becoming an assistant coach at a high school or university or working with an organization like Athletes in Action or the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
"For now, I'll be focused on supporting my wife and kids as we begin our new life in Colorado," he said. "And I'll see where the Lord leads me down the road."
John with his family in Colorado, Daughter Gracie, John, wife Nicole, daughter Carlee.