MEET THE (818)

By Jonathan Andrade

The chants can be heard from the packed Birmingham High parking lot.

“Fire It Up,” bellows a medley of riled up voices.
Teenage football players occupy the field, but the ruckus is coming from the surrounding track. Runners—old and young, experienced and novice—surround coaching legend Pat Connelly on
the west end of the Scott King track.

“Line up,” barks Connelly, a seasoned veteran of the sport who ran for Team USA and spent decades coaching high school and college distance runners. “We’re starting nice and easy.”

Another simple two-lap warmup from a once-in-a-generation sports figure. A humble Veteran who volunteers his time to host weekly track meetups, Connelly’s life has been more eventful than Forrest Gump. A self-proclaimed unathletic teen who turned star distance runner before graduating in Birmingham’s first-ever graduating class in 1957 eventually became a minesweeper for the Navy Reserve. He ran for Team USA before joining the Los Angeles Police Department, where he spent decades as a sergeant on the force. He once shook hands with George Bush Sr. and he was the catalyst for a local drug-free campaign called Drug Abuse Resistance Education, better known around the world as D.A.R.E.

He also created the official training program for the LA Marathon, used by more than 30,000 finishers and members of the LA Roadrunners club. He could fill a book with all the anecdotes from his life. (He’s already written one: The self-
published “Go The Distance!: The Official L.A. Marathon Training Guide,” which of course sold more than 35,000 copies.) Connelly’s list of accomplishments is endless, but most people still only know him as the surprisingly spry 85-year-old rocking in his red fold out chair during track workouts on Tuesday nights.

“I hadn’t heard anything about him,” said Alexis Huerta, a Birmingham High sophomore standout who joined TNT in April. “He came to a (high school) track practice and talked about form. I really liked that. I started coming Tuesdays and he’s really showed me how to go faster.” Huerta’s already cut two minutes off his 3-mile PR from last season, and he’s currently the second-fastest Patriot in the Birmingham varsity lineup. Connelly’s proven time and time again that he knows how to turn runners into winners. He created a special space for runners of all levels to thrive, from marathoners gearing up to chase medals to beginners looking to get into shape. Where else can the average joe try a sport and receive top notch coaching from a local legend on Day 1?
One of the few tracks made available to hobby runners in the San Fernando Valley, Birmingham’s friendly confines has been home to Tuesday Night Track for 43 years. TNT had 15 runners the first night. Many of them were members of the local New Basin Blues Run Club. These days, there’s 60 runners on Connelly’s active roster. Weekly attendance ebbs and flows. Some runners try out the organized workouts once and never come back. Others get a taste of the track and never leave.

“It’s a very friendly atmosphere,” Huerta said. “It’s always great to come out here.” Runners are broken up into smaller groups based on speed. The hobby runners can enjoy leisurely workouts while the elite runners push each other to new personal bests.

“It helps to pace with people who are faster than me,” Huerta said, noting one speedster in particular, former Cal State San Marcos distance runner Dylan Brown. “I see Dylan and I just try to stay a couple of seconds behind him.”

That healthy level of competition has been a staple for the club since the early years.
“Guys from Reseda (High) would come here,” said Gary Mills, one of Connelly’s pupils who graduated from Birmingham in 1968. “Guys from Taft, Monroe, Granada Hills, Notre Dame would all train under him. We were all friends working out together, but then we’d compete against each other when our schools did.”
The authentic camaraderie keeps runners coming back. Connelly’s genuine care for his athletes and his willingness to share his knowledge creates everlasting connections. Just a few months ago, the coach and nearly a dozen former runners got together for a reunion. Runners from Texas, Idaho and Arkansas traveled to see Connelly.

Waiting for his son to finish Tuesday’s workout, Mills flaunted a group photo from that reunion.
“He’s an icon in all of our eyes,” Mills said of Connelly. That sentiment is shared throughout the run community. Connelly’s adored by anyone lucky enough to learn from him. The coach said he’ll keeping coming out on Tuesdays until his health decides otherwise. He turns 86 in December.
He doesn’t consider it a job or a duty. It’s his privilege to give back to like-minded individuals who are infatuated by the sport that gave him everything.

“I was a guy with low self-esteem, a guy who failed PE in 7th and 8th grade,” the coach said. “I didn’t have a lot of appreciation for my talents, but track changed that. It was something I could do that people admired. There was nothing else before that so I gravitated to (running).” Connelly found his passion and he said he hopes to introduce runners to theirs when they’re ready. The coach assures anyone on the fence about attending that there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Everyone’s welcome Tuesday nights. “A lot of people stay away,” he said of those intimidated by organized workouts. “I think I’ve changed that in people’s minds now.”