Coaches

George Velarde (Head Coach)
Coach Velarde is entering his 26th year of coaching Cross Country/Track and Field. He received his Bachelor of Science from Point Loma Nazarene University in 1994 and his Masters degree from Azusa Pacific University in 2002. He ran Cross Country and Track for Central Union High and in college at Cal State San Bernardino and Point Loma Nazarene University. He has been married to his wife Erica for 20 years and has 2 children: Jacob (19) and Jayson (16). He has taught Physical Education at Pacific Beach Middle School, Jordan Middle School and at Sierra Vista Jr. High School. He is the Physical Education Department Chair at Sierra Vista Jr. High School for their Nationally Recognized Physical Education program. In his spare time he plays Frisbee golf, basketball, watching movies and rooting for his Favorite Sport Teams: L.A. Lakers, USC Trojans (Football), New York Yankees, San Francisco 49ers, and the Duke Blue Devils (Men's Basketball). In 2009, he was named the Physical Education Teacher of the Year for the State of California. Over the years, he has spoken to: US Congress at our Nation's Capitol, was a speaker at the 1st Global Conference for Sports and Science in Taiwan, he has spoken with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Bill Clinton regarding Health and Physical Education.

Chris Jackson (Head Coach)
My wife, Samantha, and I have four children. I've been teaching math and coaching at Canyon for seventeen years. As I get older, I keep getting slower. Probably because I enjoy Starbucks a little too much. I ran cross country and track at Morro Bay High School. I attended college at Point Loma from 92 to 96 I completed a double major in religion and business. I attended graduate school at Princeton Theological Seminary from 96 to 99 earning a M.Div degree. I then worked as a youth pastor for three years in Lake Elsinore, taught junior high math in Hacienda La Puente for a year, then came to Canyon. At Canyon, I am the club sponsor for Student Task Force (a Human Rights Watch club), and the Red Cross club. I have lost most of my hobbies, as we've had more kids. ...

Dave DeLong
Coach DeLong has been coaching for 24 years, 22 of them at Canyon High School and 2 years at Burroughs High School in Burbank, CA. He began his running career in high school running a 4:17 in the 1600m, then in college running a 14:55 in the 5,000m and a 4:10 in the 1600m. He attended USC and graduated from Point Loma Nazarene College in 1984. From there he began his first teaching job at Jordan Jr. High in Burbank, CA, then 2 years at Burroughs High School, and has spent the last 20 years teaching math at Canyon High School. He has competed in several marathons, with a PR at age 35 of 2:54. He placed 100th at the Boston Marathon in 1996. He’s been married to his wife Lisa for 25+ years and has 3 children; Jessica, Joelle, and Jacob. In his spare time, you can find him in the Jacuzzi, playing golf, or spending time with his family or alumni runners. You may find him screaming for more ice-cream as he watches his favorite movie “It’s A Beautiful Life.”

Paul Broneer: Field Events and Hurdles Assistant Coach
Coach Broneer has retired as Head Track and XC Coach in June, 2019. He has been coaching a variety of sports for over 45 years. Along with coaching he has been a teacher after receiving his degree from UCLA in 1972 and his master’s degree in Computer Education from USIU. Coach Broneer retired from teaching in 2009 but continues to assists with Varsity Girls Basketball, and field events and hurdles at Canyon. He has taught and coached at Burroughs High School for 4 years, Glendale High School for 17, Hart HS 1 year, and has spent the last 21 years at Canyon High School. In high school he was on the U.S. "all time top 10" high school decathlon list. He competed as a Triple Jumper & Decathlete at UCLA in 1968-69. He has completed 10 marathons. He placed 17th in the U.S. Olympic trials in the decathlon in 1968. (Coach Broneer has been around so long that he coached Coach DeLong in Jr. High Track.) He has been married to his wife Jan for 49 years and has 2 children; Eric and Jaime, along with 7 grandchildren Benjamin Eric, Emma Li, Ava Maureen, William Paul, Claire Elizabeth Mei, Charles Anthony, and Leah May. In his spare time he plays golf, helps home-school several of his grandchildren in math and science, and cheers on the UCLA Bruins. He tries to find time take long walks with his wife, Jan, and dog Skipper, take pictures, ride a bike, and go fishing. Paul and his wife Jan were inducted into the Burbank City Sports "Walk of Fame." in 2006.

Ron White
Ron is our sprints and horizontal jumps coach (Long Jump and Triple Jump). While attending High school in Ohio, Ron ran track (sprints), played football, wrestled, and was a musician in several bands. Ron also Sailed the Great lakes during his summer breaks. Ron ran indoor track for University of Michigan and outdoors at Henry Ford Community College. He later transferred to study Electronics and Play football at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. After college graduation, Ron Hired on with Hewlett-Packard Company in Los Angeles as field engineer then worked in different groups within HP. Ron started coaching when his children (Robert & Alexis) began running in the Warrior track program 1992. He then followed them to high school to assist high school staff and has done so to date. Robert & Alexis graduated from Canyon and Alexis went on to obtain her master’s at the University of Oregon. He currently is an independent consultant as a Project Manager and owns a company (Entertainment Services) that provides music, lighting, projection, Casino gaming services for corporate & private events/parties throughout Southern California. Hobbies: coaching Track, playing & listening to various types of music (mostly jazz), sailing, skiing, camping/fishing, Olympic pin collecting, watching sports games (football & basketball), and Travel.

Steve Low - Sprint Coach - Coach Low joins the coaching staff after previously spending three years as the assistant cross country and mid-distance coach at West Ranch High School. While at West Ranch, he helped lead the Wildcats to three league championships, three California State Championship appearances and one NXN appearance in Cross Country. In Track he coached athletes to the CIF championships and California State meet. Coach Low ran Cross Country and the 880, mile and mile relay in Track during High School. He ran the 800 and 1500 at College at College of the Canyons and California State University at Sacramento. He started coaching high school Cross Country and Track in the early 80’s. His coaching career was on hold as he did a short stint (30 years) in the Sheriff’s Department. During that time he continued coaching on and off until retiring. Coach Low has been married for 35 years and has three children, all Canyon Alumni. Tracey, ’06 (Cheerleader), Ryan ’08 (Baseball) and Chris ’10 (Baseball, XC and Track). Both Tracey and Ryan are now teachers. Chris is a Sheriff’s Deputy. Most of the Canyon Track family are familiar with Alumnus Chris Low, as he had a running career at Canyon High School, College of the Canyons, and Long Beach State. He also ran the 800m (PR- 1:46) professionally for 3 years making the Team USA U23 team and qualifying for the 2016 US Olympic Trails in the 800m. Coach Low enjoys babysitting his grandchildren, traveling, golf and coaching.

Kyla Danforth - This is Kyla’s first year as a coach. As a recent graduate from Loyola Marymount University she will be working with the distance coaches that convinced her to run while she was in high school. She is a retired soccer player and played one year at the Division I level at Seattle University. She is a Canyon High Alumni and ran for the program in 2015. She is 2nd on Canyon’s All-Time-Top-Ten List in the 1600m with a time of 5:02 and 4th in the 3200 with a time of 10:44. In college she holds bests in the 1500m with a time of 4:38, 5k with a time of 17:11, and 10k with a time of 35:26. In cross country she had a 6k best running 20:33. Her senior year in cross country she placed 15th in the West Coast Conference (WCC) and earned WCC All- Second Team honors.

Jim Gallivan- will be joining Coach Low in coaching our sprinters and middle distance runners. Jim has been married for over 20 years to his wife Liz and they have 2 daughters, Myriah 19 (who played varsity golf at Canyon in 2014 thru 2018) and Kayla 15 (who is sophomore at Canyon and is enjoying choir and Coach Jackson's math class this year.) He ran track and cross country at Mater Dei High School and continued to run track in college at Arizona State, Santa Ana JC, and California State Los Angeles.

Jimmy Dyson will be our strength coach and coach our throwers. Coach Dyson graduated from Canyon High in 1984. He lives in Canyon Country with his wife Valerie, and two children. He grew up playing baseball. Throughout the last 20 years, he has helped coach his daughter and son on many youth teams, including softball, baseball, volleyball, basketball, football and now, TRACK.

Dwain Whalen, joins our staff this year. He has coached football and softball at Canyon for many years.

Jacob Hetrick joins our staff this year as our new pole vault coach. Coach Hetrick attended Bayfield High School in Colorado, where he was a 4 time state competitor in the pole vault and ranked Colorado #1 and named team MVP as a senior. He went on to compete as a student athlete for Colorado School of Mines, before transferring to Fort Lewis College where he trained and competed independently. He began coaching pole vault and sprints for 5 years and assisted cross-country for 3 years at Durango High School in Durango, CO. He also worked to establish the women's track and field team at Fort Lewis College, the inaugural varsity season taking place in 2015. One athlete, Sky Webb, went on to set the NCAA DII Indoor National Record in the 800m and won multiple 800m national titles with UCCS.
During his college career, he trained and developed his coaching strategies under coach Pat Manson, US #1 in 1996 and 1997, and Rory Quiller, the 2008 NCAA National Champion. Since his graduation in 2016, he has trained under the 1997 World Bronze Medalist Dean Starkey with the Arizona Pole Vault Academy.

Taylor Gaines -Taylor is a 2013 Canyon graduate who is one of the top throwers in our school's history. She was a part of the last team to win a Foothill League title in 2013. Her Shot Put mark of 37-6 ranks 3rd on our "All Time List" and her Discus Throw mark of 107-5 ranks 7th.

Hello. My name is Cowboy, and I was named in honor of the amazing athletes on the Canyon Cowboy team. I became the team mascot in 2010 when Coach David Arellano rescued me, while on a run with the team, from the streets of Canyon Country as I was thrown from a moving vehicle. I have attended many practices, races, meets, as well as, trained with the cross country team every year in Mammoth, California. I am eternally grateful to the head coaches for putting the kids on that particular run that day. Because of them, I was saved from being run over. I promise to faithfully serve and inspire the Canyon Cowboys to never give up, because miracles happen everyday.

Canyon Track is always looking for event coaches. If you are interested in becoming a track coach, please contact
George Velarde at 661-713-5496 or email me at gvelarde@hartdistrict.org
All coaches must get certified by the Wm S. Hart Union School District
To to this, there are a few (12) hoops you will need to jump through:

1. Coaching Clearance Form/Contact Information (CLICK HERE)
2. Attend the district coaching classes.
3. Sudden Cardiac Arrest (https://www.nfhslearn.com/courses/61032/sudden-cardiac-arrest)
4. Concussion Awareness (https://www.nfhslearn.com/courses/61064/concussion-in-sports)
5. Sexual Harassment Login at https://hartdistrict-keenan.safeschools.com/login
6. Mandated Reporter Login at https://hartdistrict-keenan.safeschools.com/login
7. Workplace Bullying Login at https://hartdistrict-keenan.safeschools.com/login
8. CPR I suggest SimpleCPR at https://simplecpr.com/ or ecprcertification at http://www.ecprcertification.com/
9. First Aid I suggest SimpleCPR at https://simplecpr.com/ or ecprcertification at http://www.ecprcertification.com/
10. Fingerprinting
11. TB Test
12. Heat Illness Prevention: https://nfhslearn.com/courses/61140/heat-illness-prevention

Frank Rock (Retired in 2019): Coach Rock has been coaching the pole vault at Canyon for 30 years. Prior to that he coached a year each at Burbank High school, Occidental College, Boise State College and COC. He grew locally where he graduated from Hart in 1968. There he competed in football, wrestling and track and set the then school record of 14 feet in the pole vault. From there he spent 2 years at Glendale CC where he set the college's record of 15'6" and was twice WSC champion. He was awarded a scholarship to San Jose State University where he earned a B.S. degree in Criminal Justice Administration with a minor in Recreation and Leisure Studies in 1973. While competing 3 years for SJSU Frank vaulted a best of 16'6". He was the PCAA champion, placed 5th(tie) at the NCAA finals and 6th at the AAU (now USA Track) Nationals. For that he was ranked 8th in the nation in 1973 by Track and Field News. The next year he jumped a PR of 17 feet in club competition earning him a spot on the world list. Coach Rock lives in Canyon Country with his wife/college sweetheart of 43 years Carol. Together they raised 3 Canyon graduates. Sarah ('98), Kerry ('00), and Casey ('05). They are proud grandparents of Sadie and Wyatt. He is a professional artist/muralist with some of his work on display in Old Town Newhall. For 25 years he has been involved with the Canyon Theatre Guild and is an expert tour guide and lecturer on the St. Francis Dam Disaster of 1928. Frank promised to return as our home PV judge for all of our home meets. See you soon!

Coach Broneer and Coach Delong with Lauren Fleshman and Alysia (Johnson) Montano