Samuel Vazquez

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Nearly 100 teams settled in to every available nook and cranny of the beautiful and spacious Embry Riddle Sports Complex, as competitors ranging from middle school to masters age groups pushed the limits of athletic performance. Included among them were national and international stars, not the least of which was ERAU alumnus (and Florida high school 4:02.46 1600 record holder) Sam Vazquez.

Sammy Vazquez always envisioned he would be coaching. When and where was the question. Vazquez, a former high school star at Flagler Palm Coast, ran collegiately at the University of Arkansas, and then at Embry Riddle in Daytona Beach.

Flagler Palm Coast graduate and Olympian Sam Vazquez has been hired as the cross country and track-and-field coach for Roosevelt University. (via www.palmcoastobserver.com)

Although it has been almost ten years since his graduation from Flagler Palm Coast High School, he is still affectionately remembered as “Sammy.” To put that in perspective, consider just how many great runners have run on the same tracks, perhaps won more races, and maybe even captured more FHSAA titles than he has, and yet a surname would be required for the proper identification of any one of them.  

Samuel Vazquez always knew he would be an Olympian… he just wasn’t sure when. The twenty-eight-year-old proved his athleticism through his high-school athletic career, when he was named the Adidas High School National Champion in the mile in 2003. Vazquez was also named the All-Time Florida High School Fastest Miler with a 4:03 mile, and owns six individual Florida State Championship titles.

After a long career of ups and downs, Flagler Palm Coast and Embry-Riddle grad Sam Vazquez is headed to London.

Conference championships are all about bragging rights for the coming year, and for the 5 Star it’s all about as close to a border war as you can have.  On the south side of the border are all the Volusia county schools, and just to the north the very formidable Flagler county powerhouse of Flagler Palm Coast High School.  A trip down memory lane can’t be complete without talking about the cast of characters that has made this event what it is now.  For Flagler Palm Coast the tradition was started with current Embry Riddle Coach Peter Hopfe, and continues under Coach Dave Halliday proudly counting as its own a cast of who’s who in Florida high school distance runners.  

For the past 10 years the 5 Star Conference Championship has only once left the familiar territory of Deland’s Sperling Sports Complex. In 2011 due to scheduling problems and some differences in opinion on what time would be safest for the runners to actually compete the meet will make a rare trip to the Flagler county fairgrounds for tomorrow’s event.  This meet is all about rivalries, and it is well evidenced when looking at the results since 2000.  In the years since the turn of the century the winning team has only had 2 choices in uniform color, either the green and white of Flagler Palm Coast or the black and orange of Spruce Creek. 

Capping their banner 2010-2011 Indoor Track Season with identical scores at the NAIA Championships (March 3-5 in Geneva, Ohio), the Men’s and Women’s team each drew upon the strong support of upper classmen Sam Vazquez (senior, Flagler-Palm Coast) and Crystal Bardge (junior, Jacksonville).  With 20 points each, the men finished 12th and the women 11th among the field of more than 200 member schools.

In different parts of the country, at this time of year the sport of track and field, by necessity, goes by several different names. Depending upon where you reside, and perhaps also depending upon the severity of the weather, it may be described as “indoor track,” “winter track,” or “conditioning.” (In Canada it is called skating, skiing, and ice hockey.) Winter, in Florida, as we all know, is absolutely perfect for track and field; subsequently we have an identification problem. In or out? The Embry Riddle people—who no doubt could have gotten the use of a nice cozy airplane hangar if they had so chosen—decided to turn meets inside, out.

TAMPA, Fla. – Embry-Riddle junior Sam Vazquez overcame a two-delay to pull out his first win of the 2009 season at the Early Bird Classic hosted by the University of Tampa on Friday.