Fittingly, the races for the CIF Track & Field Finals started with the gathered athletes and crowd paying their respects to recently deceased Compton track coach Curtiss Seymore.  Seymore had been with the Tarbabes’ track team for four decades, until he passed away due to a heart attack two Sundays prior to the meet.  During the moment of silence, former colleagues and rivals of Seymore, who won two CIF titles, got a chance to reflect on Seymore’s legacy.

But, in the style of a truly enduring legacy, they didn’t have to look too far to find Seymore’s influence—after all, four of his athletes were competing later in the day.  One of those athletes, James McConico, who also stars for Compton’s football team as a running back, took some time after his fourth-place finish in the 100-meter dash to talk about his coach.

“When he passed we took it real hard,” he said.  “But at the same time it motivated us more to train, to find our limits and then try to go past them, to take it harder and push ourselves.”

McConico, the Tarbabes’ lone qualifier for next week’s CIF Masters Meet, also placed sixth in the 200-meter dash, and ran on Compton’s seventh-place 4X100 Relay team.

He says he’ll continue to pay tribute to coach Seymore the only way he knows how: working hard to compete at his highest level.  “It’s what he’d want me to do,” he said.