After guiding Centurions to nine girls state titles, including seven in a row from 2006-12, as well as one boys state crown in cross country, along with eight combined appearances and three podium finishes at NTN/NXN, Paragas steps down after 16 years with program, but will remain at school as history teacher

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor 

Rene Paragas said Tuesday he would “prefer to disappear into the background.”

In doing so, one of the most successful and respected high school coaches, not only in California, but the entire country, has stepped away from the spotlight and left behind one of the most significant legacies, especially in prep cross country.

Paragas, 44, informed members of his Saugus High coaching staff that after 32 combined seasons during 16 years of coaching cross country and track and field, he would be stepping down from guiding the Centurions’ program.

Paragas will remain at Saugus as a teacher of AP World History and Modern Civilizations, but expressed a desire to spend more time with his wife, Jenny, and 8-year-old twins Israel and Emma.

“There is no dirt, or something that pushed me out,” Paragas said. “In short, COVID-19 allowed me to step away without letting anyone down, getting ready for an upcoming season, since we don’t have an upcoming season.”

The California Interscholastic Federation announced in July that the fall cross country season would be moved from December to March, instead of starting this month, as a precautionary measure in response to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

Paragas guided Saugus to nine girls state team championships – second all-time behind San Francisco University’s 10 titles from 1996-2012 – and one boys state crown in 2013, along with George Serrano, during his coaching tenure, including a California record seven girls state championship trophies in a row from 2006-12, the first two in Division 1 and the other five in Division 2.

A 1994 graduate of Hart High in Newhall, before attending El Camino College in Torrance and Cal Poly Pomona, Paragas also led the Centurions to eight girls and two boys Southern Section cross country team titles overall. He was also the distance coach for the 2010 Southern Section Division 2 girls track and field championship team.

Great Oak equaled Saugus’ mark with its seventh straight Division 1 girls state championship in 2018. Saugus also made eight all-time girls appearances at Nike Team Nationals or Nike Cross Nationals, a mark that was surpassed in December by Great Oak with its ninth girls trip to Portland, Ore.

Saugus placed second in 2007 and 2008, fourth in 2009 and third in 2010, one of the most impressive stretches by any girls team in Nike meet history outside of New York, as Fayetteville-Manlius won the national championship all four of those seasons as part of its streak of seven in a row from 2006-12.

Saugus still holds the Division 2 all-time girls record at Woodward Park in Fresno by clocking 89 minutes, 25 seconds on the 5-kilometer layout, and is one of four programs in history to run under 90 minutes on the California state course, along with Great Oak, Buchanan and Davis Senior.

In his final cross country state-meet appearance with the Centurions in November, Paragas guided Saugus to a third-place finish in the Division 1 final behind Buchanan and Great Oak, programs that went on to finish fifth and ninth the following week at NXN.

The significance of the achievement was even greater for Saugus, which overcame the tragedy of a Nov. 14 school shooting to place second nine days later at the Southern Section Division 1 final behind Great Oak and advance to a 15th consecutive state championship meet.

“We’ve had a lot of big meets here, won a lot of titles and had a lot of kids run incredibly tough, but I don’t think I’ve ever been as proud of any team as I am of what this group accomplished,” Paragas said Nov. 30 following the state awards ceremony.

“This is one of the closest teams I’ve ever coached and they just kept supporting each other, kept lifting one another up, kept the group strong, no matter what kind of adversity we faced.

“We never wanted to forget what had happened. In honor of our school, our city, our town, our family and each other, that we’re going to continue on and make the world a better place and we’re going to work really hard and we want to show other teams and other people that terrible things can happen to you and you can still rise up and do great things.”

After having its state-record streak of 12 consecutive podium finishes snapped in 2018 following a sixth-place showing in Division 2, Saugus secured a 13th all-time appearance last season, third among California girls programs in state history behind San Francisco University (16) and Campolindo (14).

Paragas is also one of only two cross country coaches in California history to have coached both state team and individual champions in both genders, joining Chuck Woolridge of Campolindo. Shannon Murakami won the Division 1 girls title in 2005 and Kaylin Mahoney captured the Division 2 crown in 2008, with Brian Zabilski securing the Division 2 boys championship in 2014.

“I’ve done my time,” Paragas said. “It’s time for me to move on.”