Anyone heard of Danny Aldridge

You'd be lucky to have him as a coach. As an athlete, he ran 1:49 on a dirt track in high school. I think he ran 3:55 in the mile and was always a tough competitor. Our coaching careers were very similar. I was coaching at Sacramento State and he was coaching at Sonoma State. After we both left coaching at the College level, Danny started coaching Julia Stamps who set many records. I know he has a very sound approach to training and a fairly easy going attitude. He definitely knows what he's doing.

DANNY! He is freaking awesome! He currently coaches at Maria Carrillo High School in Santa Rosa (north bay) and is doing a great job in improving young athletes. Before he started coaching there our program was pretty poor, and now we are starting to be a pretty decent force throughout California. Not only has he done many good things as an athlete himself (1:49.21, 3:38.70, 3:58.34, 5:04.41, 7:48.02, 8:31.94i, 13:30.95 and part of 4x1500m and 4xmile national records) but he knows how to make the sport enjoyable for everyone. When I started at MCHS I did it because I was a little lazy plump kid, who didn't really care. Yet somehow I ended up running decent times (4:29.2. 9:44.59 for 16/32) by the time I graduated. He has coached everyone from HS elites (4:13.67 male 1600, 4:49.63 female 1600 state champ) to the up and coming athlete. His pumas are now the dominant distance power in our North Bay League because, as stated above, he makes it fun, but also knows his stuff. I could go on about how awesome Danny is for forever, but yea, if you are in the North Bay stop by and watch the Pumas in action and talk to Danny. If you want his contact info send me an email.

I remember Danny as being a very tough runner and nice guy...

I think he was an answer to a trivia question back in the day...

If memory serves correctly he was the first runner to be on both a Div.1 National Championship team and a Division 2 National Championship team in track and field

USC and then Cal Poly SLO

Wow! Danny does NOT tell us these things! He is too humble, honestly. All he told us coming in was about his 1:49 800m in hs, the rest we found out throughout the years via stories or finding out stuff like this online. I never knew he was part of the USC national champ team. That's awesome. Thanks for the info KC.

When Danny was with AW he was one of the nicest, most humble people around. I don't think anyone worked any harder or gave more of an effort in every race or workout he ever ran. A fine person. If he's your coach you should consider yourself most fortunate.

I'll second that he's a great person and a knowledgeable coach. Truly one of the nicest people I've ever known.

He likely won't tell you either about being 2nd team All NorCal in hoops or his perfect game of miniature golf. Could Tiger Woods shoot an 18? He may have bagged the 19th hole too for a spare game, but that would have been a moot point because his friend, Stan, let him play at the friends' rate.

But, it's possible that he did none of these things I just listed; that instead I've built him into Paul Bunyan-esque stature in my own mind over these many years. If any of it is true, he'll likely deny it all.

Danny was at AW when I did testing there -- his real strong point was a high lactate threshold -- 4:50 pace didn't seem to both him much at all. As others have said, a class guy and a very good coach. Tell him hello if you see him

He has a daughter that is pretty fair however I have not heard much of he as of late. She is a class act as well.

He has a cousin named Marvin that is a great guy as well, helped me to fix my car once.

Yeah, I ran for Danny back in the late 80's and early 90's at Sonoma State. He took myself and a couple of other guys, Mike Stone, Phil Cox, Colin Davidson and Dan Held and turned us all into D2 All-Americans. He was the funniest person to hang out with. He always had cool stories about his days at AW. It was a shame when our school dropped mens track and xc, because other than soccer, we were they only sport producing All-American athletes.

So, if you can have Aldge as your coach, he will definately take you to a new level.

Oh yeah, if you see Aldge, tell him the "Ducks are still on the pond." He will know what you are talking about.

And ask him to tell you the story about how he pissed off Seb Coe.

I still see Danny every year at the famed Kenwood Footraces on 4th of July...at last year's race he told me he was hoping to crack 2 minutes for 800 this year as he turns 50...if anyone could do it, Mr Aldridge could.

MF

Wow, It is awesome to hear all these things you have to say about Danny. About his daughter, Jenny, she got a full ride to run, decided she didn't want to after a year, and is now finishing up school at SSU, running for fun. She also coaches with Danny at MCHS. Great girl also, but crazy. (I had her as a teammate and coach, so yea, weird...) And yea, Danny has been talking about a sub 2min 8 for a while, then it kinda turned into a sub 2:10, but we shall see. He could definitely do it. He still has crazy speed, so yea, it will be interesting to see what happens. O, and his Seb Coe story! O man. He told me that one maybe 2-3 years ago, it just completely blew me away. Hilarious. What other person can say they completely screwed with Coe? Haha. And as Mike said above, Danny is always at Kenwood with a whole Maria Carrillo contingent, so if any of you are in the Bay area on July 4th, stop by and say hey and run in one of the coolest road races ever.

what did he do to coe?????

yeah - the seb coe story - it's a classic!

If you see old DA please say "cows are still in the field". He'll get your meaning...

of course, nothing but good things to say about my former, one-time coach, danny aldridge...my soph. year at cal poly slo, danny and co-cap'n, manny bautista filled in as coaches after steve miller (not the guitarist but the pba man)took off

for kansas st...anyway, danny was a class-act! nicest and funniest guy...one of my only regrets leaving s.l.o. was not continuing to train with danny aldridge! oh, and previous posters to this thread mentioned his daughter being a good runner (yeah, you could say that) but no one said she won state in the 1600 (4:49?)...as a sophomore, i believe.

Now I want to hear the Seb Coe story.

I heard a second hand story about Gags wandering into a gay bar at Penn Relays that was pretty funny.

Danny Ainge? He used to play for the Boston Celtics.

So did I....so who are you?

I echo all that has been said about Danny. One hell of a fun guy, great coach, down to earth individual, etc. I watched him jump in a race at SF State once during one season. The runners were all very strong - but Danny just toyed with them. One lap he was in the middle of the pack, 5 seconds later 2 yards behind the second to last person, a second later he was in front. At the end he blew past eveyone and never broke a sweat. It was awesome.

I still remember the words of advice he gave us before one XC meet on how to beat the BYU team. Can't repeat them here though. :)