Fresno City College has a strong sports program that includes football, baseball, volleyball, Soccer, basketball, plus men’s and women’s cross country coached by Gary Bluth.

Coach Bluth has had a long successful coaching career over the last 30 years .

Before coming to FCC in 1978, he initiated the first Women’s Cross Country Team at Skyline Community College, that team placed second in the Northern California and fourth in the California Community Colleges State Cross Country Championships (Div. II) following year.

In 1990, Coach Bluth led the women’s team at San Francisco State University to its first national ranking (NCAA Div II) in school history. Since 1991, he has been the Head Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Coach at Fresno City College.

In 1999, Bluth helped Michael Kasahun become state champion by being 19 seconds faster than the second place finisher.

He later received a full scholarship and started at the University of Oregon.

Coach Bluth is proud of his team’s performance on the track but he also cares about his team’s performance in the classroom. The team has an average G.P.A. of 3.0.

Bluth said he believes his job is to help team members prepare to succeed in all walks of life not just in sports.

He says this season was one of restructuring two of his best runners who graduated last year and working with new ones had to do the same.

Players say Bluth pushes his team to physical limits to make them better runners but not to the point of causing serious injury. He always gives players any length of time to recover after any injury.

Coach Bluth enjoys teaching as well as coaching at City College and hopes to be here for years to come.