In an effort to give context to this Saturday’s 38th Annual Avis
Kelley Invite being held at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex on the
Gilroy High campus, GHS track and field coach Jeff Myers introduced
his athletes to a man who has affected their sporting lives more
than they ever knew.
He brought them Avis Kelley.
In an effort to give context to this Saturday’s 38th Annual Avis Kelley Invite being held at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex on the Gilroy High campus, GHS track and field coach Jeff Myers introduced his athletes to a man who has affected their sporting lives more than they ever knew.
He brought them Avis Kelley.
A coach of GHS track for 22 years after coming to Gilroy to coach football in 1964, Kelley shared some of his stories with the kids in an effort to educate and inform. This wasn’t the old “In my day we had to train in ten feet of snow,” although GHS track athletes did have to carry equipment to Gavilan College and back just to practice each day. It was more about connecting past with present, letting the athletes know that there is an extended track family beyond their current teammates.
“I just gave them the history of track and field and my history at Gilroy High,” Kelley said.
A Central Coast Section Coach of the Year three times, Kelley more than just helped to lay the foundation. His programs are the foundation. The work of his wife Jan, who coached at South Valley Middle School, was also a critical part of molding CCS champions at GHS.
With 41 schools and more than 1,400 athletes from across Northern California coming to race on or near the weather-proof track, Myers felt it could be a unique way of motivating his team.
“Almost the entire (current) staff ran for him (in high school), so it was nice to have some of the old-school blood back in the program,” Myers said.
The person responsible for making the name change of the Invite, which was formerly known as Jaycee’s Gilroy Invitational, is Jim Deaver, a former track coach at GHS and runner for Kelley, who will be returning this weekend as the head coach of Enterprise High School in Redding.
“I saw what a wonderful job he did and the amount of time he put into the program there, and so when I coached [at Gilroy], I just really felt after a few years it was time to name it after Avis because he cared so much about kids and track and field,” Deaver said.
Myers, who received his first coaching job from Kelley in 1985, found his own way to honor the man.
“When I came along we bought all the new equipment and instead of putting Gilroy Mustangs (on the hurdles) we put Avis Kelley,” Myers said. “There wouldn’t be a program like this and have the staff we have here if it weren’t for Avis.”
The setting will be nostalgic, but that’s not to say it won’t be competitive. Many of the best high school athletes in the area will be competing, including the nation’s best pole vaulter, Los Gatos senior Nico Weiler.
The Invite has been split into two halves, with day events starting at 9:30 a.m. and the evening portion beginning at 5 p.m. For a full list of athletes and schedules, go to AvisKelleyInvite.com.
