The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 109, No. 29 - July 16, 2020
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................10
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................5
Legals.................................4,9
Letters...................................3
Obituaries.............................2
Pets......................................11
Police Reports.....................3
Outdoor Dining on Richmond
Have you been down to Historic Richmond Street for fabulous outside dining? It’s a wonderful experience...great food, drinks entertainment, fresh air and more. Photo courtesy El Segundo
Chamber of Commerce.
Real Estate..................6-8,12 Tennis Coach Jamie Sanchez
Weekend
Forecast
Still Going Strong
By Duane Plank
Long-time El Segundo resident Jamison
(Jamie) Sanchez has been a fixture on the
cement tennis courts, not only at our local
Recreation Park, but also at Westchester’s
Loyola Marymount University, and recently
completed his third year at Rancho Palos
Verdes’ Marymount California University,
coaching both the men’s and women’s tennis
teams.
Like all collegiate sports, the tennis season
fell victim to the March shutdowns mandated
by the scourge of COVID-19, which did not
allow the Mariners to complete their Spring
seasons. But coach Sanchez is already plotting
a return to the cement courts once; hopefully,
the virulent pandemic subsides, and he can
continue to build his nascent tennis programs.
Sanchez spent more than four decades
coaching tennis at LMU, where he was
selected as the West Coast Conferences
coach-of-the year on three separate occasions,
with his teams notching 724 victories.
Sanchez said he realized he might not have
been best suited for a desk job at LMU.
He mentioned that things were in a state of
flux at that time, administratively, at LMU.
“There is a big difference between being an
administrator and being outside (coaching.)”
He yearned to earn his paycheck coaching,
not dotting I’s, and crossing T’s on the administrative
paperwork.
Growing up, Sanchez played football and,
later, tennis, at his high school in San Jose. He
said that he became interested in tennis before
his senior year in high school, taking up the
sport following the lead of his brother, Rudy.
Once he matriculated to LMU, he continued
playing both football and tennis and has been
inducted into the LMU Hall-of-Fame three
different times for his sporting exploits. He
said he is “very proud that he could play a
small role (in the HOF) inductions.”
A graduate of LMU in 1975 with a degree
in English, Sanchez said he initially had
considered a career as a teacher. But he
never finished the work required to garner
his credential, and instead, his career path
took him quickly back to his collegiate
alma mater, where he was hired on to start
and coach tennis programs. Coaching is
teaching, except outdoors in the sunshine,
without the Power-point presentations and
tech screens, right?
During his early coaching career, he also
tried to make a few bucks, took jobs as an
assistant collegiate and high school football
coach, and even spent one season as the LMU
men’s soccer coach. Sanchez said that he was
eager to take advantage of any opportunity
that came his way at that point in his life.
He dove headfirst into those opportunities,
doggedly following “a relentless pursuit
of excellence.”
“I learned more about myself,” he said,
as he veered into coaching. “I am amazed,
looking back, what I could do while helping
others succeed at something with the right
intentions. I wanted to learn how to be better
and make every moment matter.”
But coaching on the collegiate level
was not enough to fill his plate for Sanchez,
who began a 32-year tenure as the
Director of Tennis for the El Segundo
Department of Parks and Recreation in
1978. Sanchez spear-headed a program that
offered lessons, clinics, and leagues
to locals during the tennis hey-day. In
1994, the Southern California Tennis
Association selected the Rec Park tennis
courts as the facility of the year, an accomplishment
He then transitioned into an administrative
position in June of 2015. He worked in
administration at the school for a couple of
years but said he realized that he missed the
day-to-day interaction with student-athletes
that he had been accustomed to as a coach.
So, when he was apprised of an opening at
the Rancho Palos Verdes college to start-up
a tennis program, he jumped at the chance
to resume his coaching career. See Jamie Sanchez, page 5
of which Sanchez is justifiably
proud of.
One of his tennis students was Billy
Traber, the current El Segundo High baseball
coach, who went on to gain sports stardom,
not as a challenger to the professional tennis
stars on the hard-courts in the early 2000’s,
Friday
Partly
Cloudy
73˚/62˚
Saturday
Partly
Cloudy
74˚/64˚
Sunday
Partly Cloudy/
Wind
76˚/63˚