Catching up with coach Ray Rodriguez in the heat of Tampa

Courtesy of: Tim Bamforth Ray Rodriguez, left, and Tim Bamforth caught up on old times at Jesuit High School in Tampa, Fla.

 

This week’s column is dedicated to a former Cape coach who also competed in several Seashore Striders events while living in Delaware in the late 1990s.

This week in Tampa, I was able to reunite with former Cape Henlopen assistant coach Ray Rodriguez as he currently lives and coaches in the Tampa Bay area working with high school athletes in cross country and track and field.

Rodriguez, who was 24 at the time, coached cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field with Pat Pollock and George Pepper from fall 1997 through spring of 2000. Rodriguez, an outstanding runner himself, played a big part of the success of distance star Chris Jackson as well as many other distance runners wearing Vikings uniforms. Jackson won the 1,600 meters, 800 meters, and was a part of the winning 3,200-meter relay team at the state championships in track. The Cape boys’ track and field team won the state championship in 2000, while the Cape girls’ and boys’ cross country teams won state championships in 1999.