Coach Devin Elizondo
UCLA alumnus Devin Elizondo spent five seasons with the Bruins as an assistant coach for cross country and track and field and four seasons coaching at UC Davis. Now at Cal State Long Beach coach Elizondo brings a wealth of distance running acumen and an extensive resume of coaching experience that will certainly benefit the Bruins’ distance program.
Elizondo graduated from UCLA in 1998 with a degree in history and enjoyed great success as a distance runner for the Bruins. He was a member of three Pac-10 track and field championship teams and also helped lead the cross country team to a pair of third-place conference finishes.
Elizondo has also had an extensive history of youth outreach in Southern California involving athletics. He joined the LA84 foundation in 2007 and worked to organize cross country and track and field clinics at over 1,600 high schools in the Southern California Area. He has also been heavily involved in Runner’s Workshop since 1994, a summer cross country camp at which Elizondo regularly creates lecture series and workouts for campers.
Coach Beth Niednagel
Coach Niednagels’ running journey began in high school, competing in three State Cross Country Championships, four State Track Championships, and the Foot Locker National Meet. At UCLA, she competed at the Division I level, earning All-American honors three times, and later raced for Asics and Adidas.
Now a mother of four collegiate athletes, she brings 19 years of coaching experience from Dana Hills and La Costa Canyon High Schools to Cal State San Marcos. She is passionate about using running as a catalyst for personal growth, inspiring her athletes to embrace the sport and unlock their potential, cultivating confidence, self-control, friendships, and determination that will last a lifetime.
Coach Mark Celestin
Mark founded Runner’s Workshop in 1985, and has directed 114 Runner’s Workshop camps in the past 40 years. Coach Celestin has coached at Los Alamitos High School since 1984 and was selected as Orange County Coach of the Year in 1989, and Orange County Teacher of the Year in 1999. Mark was a 1:51.2 800-meter runner and national qualifier at U.C. Irvine. He brings a wealth of experience in running safe, athletically engaging and fun camps
Bree Thorpe – Bishop – Gorman HS
Coach Thorpe 2021 State Champion coach was recently named Nevada Coach of the Year will be a guest speaker this summer at our Yosemite camp.
An additional Top Collegiate or High School coach will be added to the staff this Spring.
HOKA Elite Athletes
Each summer HOKA sends elite athletes / guest speakers who share their running journey with our athletes. From their start as high school runners through college and on to professional running. All runners face similar challenges – they give personal insight into their path to achieving their potential.
Collegiate CounselorsEach summer we hire over 30 top collegiate runners from around the nation to work with our athletes and share their training and running experience as camp counselors. The counselors lead each run, recreation activity, theme night and nightly “cabin talks” that focus on common running topics like nutrition, race strategy, dealing with pre-race nerves,…