Walt Lange
Jesuit High School
Impact Statement
“You’re working with more average talents every day. That’s really what it’s all about, it really is a privilege to be out there working with young people.” -Walt Lange
Biography
Lange is completing his 41st year as a boys’ and girls’ cross country coach and boys’ track and field coach, the last 37 at Jesuit, and those teams have combined for 37 league titles. He has led Jesuit’s boys’ cross country team to 25 Sac-Joaquin Section (SJS) titles, including a section-record 15 straight, and nine California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) state titles, more than any other SJS school.
Lange also has guided the girls’ cross country teams to four SJS titles, and in 15 years as head coach, his boys’ track and field teams also took four SJS titles (he has spent the past 23 seasons as an assistant coach).
Lange was named Boys’ Cross Country Coach of the Year by the California Coaches Association in 1981, and he was one of 13 coaches statewide to be honored with the highest honor the CIF bestows upon its coaches, the Model Coach Award, for the 2007-08 school year. Later this year Lange will be inducted into the SJS Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class.
Since being honored in 2010, Lange continues to lead Jesuit’s Cross Country teams. Lange was awarded the Legacy Coaches Award by the USATF Pacific Association in 2013. In 2015 Lange was inducted into the Sacramento Running Association Hall of Fame.
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