Running great Scott to speak at LV banquet

Steve Guiremand

Friday, June 7, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

Steve Scott says he has cut back on his running now that he doesn't compete professionally anymore.

"I probably run about 40 miles a week," the 45-year-old Scott says. "I used to do about twice that when I was competing."

Scott, one of the top middle distance runners in U.S. track and field history, will drive, not run, from his northern San Diego County home for a speaking appearance at the Las Vegas Track Club's annual banquet on Saturday night at Arizona Charlie's West at 7 p.m.

However, Scott is planning to take part in the Legends Three Mile Run at Lorenzi Park on Saturday morning at 7 a.m.

The three-time Olympian is now the head track and field coach at Cal State San Marcos, a 13-year-old university near Palomar, Calif., that competes at the NAIA level.

During his prime in the late '70s and '80s, Scott was one of the sport's most recognizable names along with Carl Lewis and Edwin Moses. He was a silver medalist at the 1983 World Championships and finished fifth in the 1,500 meters in the 1988 Olympics. He ran 136 sub-four minute miles in his career, including 15 in one year.

Those kind of numbers are good enough for rock star-like status in places such as Europe, where track and field still draws big crowds and is considered a major sport. But in his native United States, Scott toils in a sport that has been pretty much relegated to the agate pages in the last decade or two.

Blame it on SportsCenter or Tony Hawk or soccer or the absence of major media exposure except for the Olympic Games every four years. Track and field, one of the nation's most popular sports 50 years ago, now is just a blip on the sports radar screen.

"It's difficult to say why," Scott said. "There's not the stars you had anymore. You look at the middle distance runners now and there's nobody who really stands out.

"Marketing is another problem. You have to market the athletes here to make them household names. But most of our top runners go to Europe to compete because the money is so much better. Athletes have kind of priced themselves out of competing here."

The increased popularity of sports such as soccer may have also hurt.

"I think soccer has taken a large number of kids away," Scott said. "But at the same time you look at women runners and they're still doing well. I don't know. Either we're not attracting the top male athletes to compete like we used to or it's laziness. They see our middle distance runners getting our butts kicked by the Kenyans and the Ethiopians all the time. But it doesn't have to be that way."

Scott, who grew up in Upland, Calif., before going on to star at UC Irvine, can attest to that. Who knows? Perhaps he'll bump into the next great U.S. middle distance runner on Saturday at Lorenzi Park.

"I don't really have the budget to recruit out of state," said Scott, who started the Cougars' track program from scratch three years ago. "But you never know. Maybe some kid will come out Saturday and want to leave the desert to come out and train in California."