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For the last 19 years,
Doug Wells has served at the Director of the
Cerritos College track and field program. In
two of the last three years, he helped guide
the Falcon women’s track and field program
to the state championship, including the
2008 season. He helped celebrate the
championship with women’s head coach Michael
Allen, as the team also won the Southern
California and South Coast Conference
championships on the year. One of the best
recruiting tools for the track and field
program is a new surface that is considered
to be one of the best in the country.
Acquiring the surface was the main goal that
Wells had been working on for years. Along
with the success of the women’s program and
the new surface, the men’s team program is
also very strong and a force at the state
championships each year. The success of the
women’s program recently includes three
Southern California and three conference
championships in the last four years.
Both the men’s and women’s teams this
season will be just as strong as last year,
and with the women’s title last year coming
with the college hosting the state
championship, it was a great opportunity to
showcase not only the facility, but the
strength of both programs. After the women’s
team won the state championship in 2006,
Wells was chosen
to serve as the Head Manager for the U.S.
National Track and Field Team and guided
them at the NACAC Under-23 Team, which was
held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
He was selected by a special staff selection
meeting of the International Competition
Committee at the USA Track and Field
National Convention.
In addition to running the track
and field program and serving as the men’s
cross-country coach for the past nine
seasons, Wells also spent 10 years as a
Falcon assistant football coach, until
retiring from the gridiron. Wells has had a
great deal of success as a track and field
coach, especially at Taft College. In 10
years at Taft, he guided his teams to a
state championship and seven conference
titles, while Wells was named the California
Coach of the Year twice. At Cerritos, he was
named the California Coaches Association
Coach of the Year for the third time in his
career, while he was awarded the Coach of
the Year honor by the California Track and
Running News five times.
Wells attended Porterville Union High
School, where he was a football and track
star. He transferred to the University of
Utah, where he competed in the NCAA
Championships and was an All-American as a
decathlete in 1970, while also playing
fullback on the football team. Wells
continued to compete in track events and won
several shot put and discus National
Championships in Master’s competition. Wells
earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in
Physical Education from the University of
Utah.|
Wells and his wife Darlene reside in
Carson and have five children – Ron, Rene,
Cherri, Gordon and Jason, along with six
grandchildren. His youngest son, Jason, was
an All-Big West selection in football in
1992 and his eldest grandson, Ian Crichton,
competed on the Falcon track team for two
seasons. In both years, he placed in the
state championships in the javelin. |