Club info

Coached workouts. The basics:
   Tuesday morning or evening track "interval" workout.
   Saturday morning longer run with "tempo" pacing.
   2007 the workouts will be for the months of April through October.
   Rusty Snow and Mike Swan are the coaches.
   $30/month fee with SBAA membership.

SBAA membership details and benefits: 
   $25/year membership fee and a $25 one time fee for those SBAA members joining the track workouts. The SBAA is subsidizing $25/month per participant for the coached workouts.
   discounts to the running stores - Santa Barbara Running Co, Outfooters. Montecito Sports - plus more.
   discounts into the SBAA races.
   opportunity to participate in the Grand Prix series ($5 fee).

Join!

Discounts

History

Board

Minutes, Board meeting, January 2007

Minutes, Board meeting, March 2007

Minutes, Board meeting, January 2008

Join the SBAA

We don't have the facility to take your entry fee over the Web so you need to use the US postal system. Please send your name, address, phone, date of birth, today's date, and (preferably) e-mail address, along with $25 (or $10 if you are under 18). For convenience, you can download this entry form; or, you can just write it all out. The address is on the entry form; it's:

    John Brennand, Secretary
    SBAA
    4476 Meadowlark Lane
    Santa Barbara, CA 93105

If you also want to join the Grand Prix, that's an extra $5. (You have to be a Club member to join the Grand Prix.) Please note that your membership runs for twelve months from whatever date you join, but the Grand Prix runs from January 1st to December 31st. If you're joining the club in the second half of the year, there might not be enough Grand Prix races left for you to complete eight races (or, if you're older, the required number for your age.) You can check that on the Calendar page.

History

Des O'Neill

Contrary to rumor, the Association was not founded by the Chumash, nor even by the original Spanish and Mexican settlers. After all, why run, if horses can do the work? There was a Santa Barbara Athletic Club established in this community, dating back to the 1890's, an era when similar organizations, such as the New York Athletic Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club, and San Francisco Olympic Club and such were formed, an era before big-time collegiate sports and, of course, professional teams, although to be sure professional runners were among the earliest of long-distance athletes (Pheidippides was one, and professional runners abounded in 18th and 19th century England, competing for prizes, and with legalized betting as well.A That still goes on in Australia and South Africa, by the way, but I digress...).A Anyway, the Santa Barbara Athletic Club in its original incarnation had a clubhouse on Chapala Street, a boathouse on East Beach, and supported rowing, rugby, baseball and polo competition, although there is no record of running or track.A The rugby teams in particular were noted for their genial brutality and cavalier disregard for the rules, and posted victories in the 20's over leading collegiate and club teams.A So far as the records reflect, this Santa Barbara Athletic Club (version 1) dissolved sometime in the early 30's, probably a victim of the Depression.A So much for that organization.

In approximately 1948 Marshall Booher reformed the Santa Barbara Athletic Club to provide summer competition and activity for the youth of the community, and over the course of time put on track meets, mostly during the summer, some in conjunction with the Santa Barbara City Parks & Recreation Departments.A The Club, under Marshall's genial sponsorship, also supported college athletes out-of-season, paying travel expenses to national and regional meets.A Some of its athletes seem to have competed in road races in the Southern California/Los Angeles area in the early 60's, and the Club (yes, still Club) had a major lucky find in 1962, when John Brennand arrived in town.A A runner already, he was steered to the Santa Barbara Athletic Club by an L.A. runner, who was the first to tell John that the Club even existed.A Contacting Marshall Booher, John gave up his treasured 'unattached' status and began running for the Club.A Since his training runs from General Research frequently brought him to UCSB, he became acquainted with runners there, including Mike Maron, Bill Anderson, Mike Kimball, Jose Dones and others (I'm probably leaving some out, and I apologize).A This nucleus, together with Jim Van Manen and Larry Pontinen from Ventura, was quite successful in team competition, winning several national team championships and many Southern California AAU team championships, and had some remarkable runners, including Mike Kimball, who made several U.S. national teams and at one time held the national one-hour record.A The Club also took over sponsorship of the annual July 4 15K, a race run in conjunction with Semana Nautica, began the original Santa Barbara Marathon and its descendent, the Santa Barbara Half- Marathon, and participated in cross-country and track, never really fielding a full team in track, although it had some notable athletes in non-distance events.A We also began the Winter Runs, subsequently the Chardonnay and now the Santa Barbara Winery 10-miler.

In about 1968 the Club became the Association that we know and love today, as a result of a Whoops! - a fictitious business name statement was filed with the County, reserving the club name, by a gentleman who proposed to open a bar under that name here in Santa Barbara, and since the Club had never protected its right to the name, that was lost.A The bar never opened, and later on the naming rights were picked up by the present fitness enterprise down on Castillo Street.A Pausing only to buy new jerseys, the SBAA soldiered on through the 70's, as the Running Boom attracted more and more members, and the Association put on, or assisted in, more and more races.A For a while, it seemed as though every charitable organization in the tri-counties was trying to raise money for various purposes through running events, and our dance card got very full.A John Brennand and various stalwart club members, including Cally Brennand, Ethel Byers, Patsy Dorsey ... put in countless hours either putting on these races or helping out.A The Association grew also, as running became popular and new members joined the ranks.A We had some notable Junior teams in the late 1970's, including the Aguirre brothers, George and Richard, and fine women runners, including Elaine Campo,A Anne Hayden (a California State Junior college champion at two miles), Dianna Hall, Mary Ryzner and Megan Riker (now Rheinschild) (if your name isn't listed, don't be hurt; we can't mention everybody, and you are appreciated).

In addition to the competitive successes, large numbers of recreational and fun-runners joined, presumably drawn by the friendships, group runs, races, and the Newsletter, which has over the years been edited by John Brennand, Des O'Neill, Dick Bartek, Shirley Sanders, Jim Robertson, Kevin Young, Jim Kornell, Jim Knox, and now Bill Rupp.A Although we have a few members living out of town, and even out of state, our primary interest is in the local running community, encouraging local races and activities, and now the very successful interval track workouts at City College Tuesday evenings, and the Grand Prix series of races throughout the year.

This is, we hope, a never-ending Story, to be continued into the future.A We have lots of members, lots of races, and have hopefully created an organization which, in a mostly invertebrate and undemanding way, seems to meet the needs of the local running community, and has outlasted and outlived many other running clubs without going bankrupt, becoming superannuated, or simply disbanding through lack of interest.A Much of this history has been the work of John Brennand, of course, and this history is intended, in some small way, to acknowledge his great career as a runner, organizer, and go-to guy.

The SBAA Board

The Board... well, there's John [Brennand], myself [Des O'Neill], Elaine [Campo], Wally [Marantette], Joe [Howell], Kevin [Young], Patsy [Dorsey]....seems to me there may be more, but I'll check that out. We've never really paid attention to our own by-laws about elections and terms of office; most people are smart enough to get outta the way when we ask 'em to join the Board, so those who do agree to serve just get co-opted onto the Board, without any vote, and stay there until they get tired and drift away, or actually resign or retire. It seems to work, although I can't explain or justify it. I've made suggestions from time to time to bring on new members, and we have done so when we see somebody who's a likely candidate or expresses an interest.

We're not clinging to office like aging Politburo members, believe me. For the most part it doesn't amount to a lot of work, mind you - most of my work for the SBAA has nothing to do with being President. I wouldn't miss it, and I have from time to time recruited new Board members, occasionally successfully, as has John. If anyone wants to be on the Board, we'll be happy to consider him/her.

Duties? Well, I preside at meetings, when we have any, and sometimes sign letters, appear at Athletic Round Table lunches when we give out money, rule on protests in the conduct of races, occasionally go to Board of Supervisors' meetings or City Council when we need some public support for a race.

John does pretty well everything else as Secretary/Treasurer, except that I usually write the minutes (he's terrible at that). You [jk] run the website, and Bill [Rupp] does the newsletter, with a lot of help from John and Kevin and Joe.

To contact Board members:
John Brennand
Elaine Campo
Patsy Dorsey
Joe Howell
Jim Kornell
Wally Marantette
Des O'Neill
Kevin Young

February 2004. Board additions:
Terry McQueen