"I want to be in the Olympics while I'm still in college."

Schwartz runs down his dream
BY ZACH EWING, Californian staff writer
zewing@bakersfield.com | Thursday, May 21 2009 10:05 PM

Five years ago, as a 13-year-old eighth grader, Chris Schwartz visited Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.

"It was the first college I'd ever visited," Schwartz said. "It was like me. It's next to the beach; I love the beach. It was laid-back. It was cool."

This, mind you, was before Schwartz found a stable foster home, before he began to focus on academics at Foothill High and really before he started running in earnest.

It also, of course, was before he won a cross-country state championship, a state runner-up finish in the 3,200 meters on the track and a top-10 place at the Foot Locker national cross country race last fall.

So when Schwartz signed a letter of intent at Foothill on Thursday to attend Cal Poly, it was the end of a long pathway to the coast.

"He doesn't walk around like, 'Look at me, I'm the best,'" Foothill track and cross country coach Arron Rietz said. "He's matured. Earlier he was a little more cocky, but he's learned, especially with his personal problems. He knows that if kids have problems, they can talk to him, but he doesn't say, 'Hey, I was in foster care.' He lets his actions speak."

Schwartz has personal bests of 8:58.50 in the 3,200 -- that during the state-championship race last year -- and 14:59 in cross country. He was the first Kern County state cross country champion ever as a junior, and he won the Jim Tyack Award, given to the best boys and girls athlete in Kern County, on Monday.

All this after Schwartz grew up in a troubled home. His mother abandoned him at a mental hospital when Schwartz was 11. He then bounced around in foster homes and group homes until high school, when his life stabilized.

Now this.

Schwartz signed next to his foster parents, Robert and Martha Gonzales, and in front of a packed room of friends and teammates, plus Rietz and long-distance coach Paul Contreras.

"It feels great," Schwartz said. "I'm happy to go to a place where I really want to go."

He'll join a nationally renowned track and cross country programs at Cal Poly that typically rank in the nation's top 30.

That, Rietz said, is exactly what's needed for Schwartz, who thrives off of competition and doesn't get much of it locally.

"He's going to a place where he won't be the fastest guy, at least not at first," Rietz said. "They'll push him to be the best."

To Schwartz, this is a step on another pathway that one day he hopes will lead all the way to the Olympics.

"I want to be in the Olympics while I'm still in college," Schwartz said. "I want to be one of the fastest guys there."