Coast Coaches Corner -- Marco Ochoa
COSTA MESA -- According to Google Maps, it's 1,487 miles from Guadalajara, Mexico to Orange Coast College.
For longtime Pirate head cross country coach Marco Ochoa, it was a trek that consisted of thousands and thousands of miles of detours and alternate routes to his final destination.
After spending the majority of his young life playing soccer and growing up in Mexico, Ochoa came to America at the age of 14, where he attended Anaheim High School.
"It was quite a difference as a young man, to come to America," Ochoa said. Our family always took it as an opportunity ... all of the things that were made available. I remember we had a Salvation Army near my house and they had a game room for kids. Not having things like that in Mexico, even for free … right away I saw it was a good place for opportunities."
With years of soccer conditioning as a kid growing up, Ochoa began the long and sometimes painful career as a runner. "Running was harder to pursue in Mexico so I played soccer along with everyone else," Ochoa said. "Every time I would see someone run long distances, I thought that was pretty cool. My friends weren't runners, but when I moved to the States, I had some friends on the cross country and track teams. I asked the cross country coach to be a part of the team, but it took me a few years to get the courage to run."
It wasn't until his sophomore year at Anaheim HS when Ochoa began to compete, but right away, the potential was there. "With all of my soccer playing growing up, I was able to run longer than the rest of my teammates," Ochoa said. "We would play soccer for hours in Mexico and that really gave me an advantage right away when I began to run in high school."
As a sophomore, he was the fastest sophomore. As a junior, he was the fastest junior. As a senior, he was the fastest senior. But, Ochoa knew there was still so much to work on, both athletically and scholastically. "We didn't have a great program in high school, so even though I was the fastest on my team, I knew there was so much more I needed to improve on," Ochoa said. "I didn't have a sense if cross country was my way to improve my life due to my school work. I finally went from an ESL (English as a Second Language) class to a regular English class my senior year in high school, so I wasn't at my best in the classroom. I ended up at Santa Ana College (then called Rancho Santiago College) and it was there that (head coach Al Siddons) really instilled the education part of my life and from there, my goals shifted to the classroom.
"I was successful but my times weren't all that outstanding. (Coach Siddons) wanted me to redshirt so I can work on my grades and get bigger and faster and during that year, I had a breakthrough. I became passionate about running and I wanted to learn more about what the great runners did. There was a Runner's World magazine on the table and there was a story on how the Mexican runners were so dominant, training in Colorado. I began to follow what they were doing and I upped my training mileage. I started training twice a day and during that redshirt year, I actually broke the school record."
Ochoa wrapped up a successful community college career by finishing third in Southern California and fourth at the California State Meet. While Coach Siddons made a huge immediate impact on Ochoa's life, his final piece of advice proved to be a real life-changer.
"I remember Coach Siddons talked to me about this small college in Colorado with a great coach," Ochoa said. "They would come out to CA and compete in the Mt. SAC Relays and when I got a chance to meet the head coach, it ended up being the best thing that ever happened in my life."
That began Ochoa's relationship with legondary Adams State University head coach, Dr. Joe Vigil. "When we talked, he was interested right away … as a person, not just as a runner," Ochoa recalled. "By the end of the weekend, he said to me, 'If I want to go to school in Colorado, send me the paperwork and I'll make sure it's turned in … and you will get your college degree and run faster than you ever did in your life' … in that order.
"There wasn't any talk about scholarship money … HE was my motivation to run there."
From there, Coach Vigil and Ochoa began a bond that is still as strong as ever to this day. "He would always make sure our goals were always kept in perspective and we always did things for the right reason," Ochoa said. "His philosophy was we had to be great human beings before we could be great athletes. Our motivation and inspiration was through our coach ... he lives the way he preaches. To have this guy, a guy who has a PhD and three Masters Degrees and he wakes up at 4 a.m. every day and goes to our meetings and tells us that you are worth something and you believe it -- he helped me believe that not only can I be one of our best runners, but also I can be great as a human being.
"I didn't grow up with a father, but when decisions in my life had to be made, I would think about what HE would do if I make these decisions. I think that's something we are lacking in or society -- not only are their fewer mentors out there, but kids today aren't LOOKING for mentors. I was looking for someone to mentor me."
Ochoa was a two-time, All-American in both cross country and track and field at Adams State University. But he knew there were still more miles to run and more goals to achieve before his running career came to an end.
"After some time in Colorado, I moved back to Southern California in 1992 and was working at Santa Ana College with the hopes of getting a full-time teaching and coaching position," Ochoa said. "I spent 3-4 years there, but with not much progress. Plus I still wanted to run competitively and train for the Olympics as a marathon runner, but it was difficult to train during that time. I went to Pittsburgh and ran a 2-hour, 19-minute marathon ... it was great to qualify for the Olympic Trials, but I wasn't where I wanted to be, so I went back to Colorado to train. I slept on my friend's floor and trained for eight weeks. I went from running 110 miles a week to 130-145 miles a week and I was running in temps hovering around 0 degrees or colder.
"I was in 72nd position and I remember talking to Coach Vigil and he told me at the Trials that we are here for only one thing ... finish in the top-three. He would tell me, 'Every move the leaders make, you make' and for a part of the race I was leading everyone. I ended up going from 72nd overall to fifth overall and was a second-alternate in the U.S. Olympic Team in 1996. That race started at 23 degrees and I managed to shave off nearly a full minute off of my best-ever time. I broke a barrier that made me see that I can do better."
The miles logged began to take its toll on Ochoa as a herniated disk affected his performances the following year. However, he was still able to qualify and compete for the U.S. at the World Championships in Athens, Greece in 1997. "I was competing at maybe 80% and it was a total survival race for me, but it was a wonderful experience," Ochoa said.
Ochoa returned to Santa Ana College as an adjunct teacher and his hopes of staying with his alma mater weighed heavily on him, but, an opportunity at Orange Coast College proved too much to ignore.
"I was hoping to get hired full time at SAC, but that just wasn't going to happen so I had to look elsewhere," Ochoa said. "A job opened up at OCC after coach John Goldman resigned and I decided at that point, I had to do what was best. So, I applied for the position and I was lucky enough to get it."
Taking over an already-successful program was an interesting challenge for Ochoa early on. "I wasn't nervous, but I definitely didn't want to screw things up, that's for sure," Ochoa said. "Over the years I learned that when you take on a new role, you don't make 100% changes just because you got the job. For the first few years, I treated my position to that of an assistant. I first learned how they did things here and then I slowly started to tweak it to make it more how I wanted to run things.
"My early coaching style was pretty simple ... you're either in our you're out. I held the athletes accountable and taught them to think of more than just themselves. They were running for their teammates as well as themselves. I want them to know I care about them ... not just as runners, but has people and I want them to find success, both in cross county and in life."
That philosophy paid off in spades for Ochoa and the Pirates. With the help of longtime assistant Dave Fier, the Pirates continued their success under Ochoa. On the women's side, OCC delivered 18 consecutive Orange Empire Conference championships from 1995-2013 and during Ochoa's first 10 years in the program, he watched his Pirate women claim six state cross country titles. On the men's side, the Pirates won a state crown with Ochoa in 2004 and has been a consistent top-10 program in the state year in and year out.
"We've had a lot of great athletes in the past," Ochoa said. "They've moved on and transferred to better things, but we've also had many surprising kids ... kids that maybe weren't leading the pack, but they're just trying to prove to themselves that they can accomplish their own goals. I remember we had a runner that had some academic problems and had a learning disability. My goal was to keep him eligible and I couldn't see the hard work and effort he was putting out before and after practices. He would bus to and from Long Beach and he'd use his bus time to study. He ended up transferring to Vanguard University and graduated. I was so proud of him.
"I get more satisfaction when they hit their individual goals than the state titles. I'm proud that we have one full-time teacher and one adjunct teacher that both work at OCC and both of them ran for me. Maybe some of those runners aren't necessarily the fastest on our team, but they really make what the program is all about -- they're the core of the team.
"Coach Dave Fier was a great recruiter and his efforts were outstanding ... very persistent within the rules. He's the kind of guy who would convince them that OCC was the right place. Once we parted ways, I knew that would impact my program. I can't recruit the way he did. It's easier to get to the top, but it's harder to STAY on top.
This upcoming season will be a trying time, not only for Ochoa, but for his OCC Pirate runners, thanks to the COVID pandemic. With no in-person training and fall sports being moved to the spring, Ochoa has several obstacles in front of him in the hopes of bringing out the best in his runners. The Coast men won the Orange Empire Conference in 2019 and finished fifth at the CCCAA State Meet with a very freshman-heavy squad. The OCC women, also young and talented finished 13th in the state and both teams looked poised for another fantastic season.
"It's going to be hard to be as successful this year," Ochoa said. "With no state meet to work towards, it's hard to keep the runners motivated. It's hard to motivate an athlete in a Zoom meeting, but you have to realize that's just the way it is. At this level, 50% of the runners want to do something with this sport and the other 50% take part in cross country for the social aspect. Some runners are doing a good job with working hard on their own and some are not. We all just have to survive and make the best of the situation that we have. Give them talks, keep in touch with them and hope they're doing the right thing."
