"Three days after a 15-year-old boy was shot at Skyline High School in Oakland, 145 students from nine Oakland Unified School District middle schools safely competed in the Oakland Athletic League (OAL) Middle School Cross Country Championship on Saturday morning. Boys and girls stretched and warmed up in perfect weather - not cold, nor rain, but sunny - where families gathered to cheer on the young athletes. "This is been super fun, and it's awesome to have so many kids and families from all over Oakland showing up to local parks (every Saturday during the fall season) to run through our parks, and there is no better use for the East Bay Regional Park District than students running an event like this," said event coordinator Byron McGovern."
""I met John Beam when I was working for Oakland Lacrosse, and he was awesome! He opened the gates at Laney. He didn't care that it wasn't football. All he wanted was Oakland kids playing sports," McGovern said. "I was just a random 20-year-old Oakland coach, and he was super nice to me, asked me about the team. And, you know, he's like a god on campus, and he took the time for random people like me to know them. He wasn't too big for what his legend status was. He could have been bigger than that.""
Three days after a 15-year-old was shot at Skyline High School in Oakland, 145 students from nine Oakland Unified School District middle schools competed safely in the Oakland Athletic League Middle School Cross Country Championship. Runners stretched and warmed up in sunny, mild weather as families gathered to cheer. Event coordinator Byron McGovern praised the turnout and the use of East Bay Regional Park District spaces for student events. Medals were awarded to the top ten boys and girls. Montera boys' and girls' teams won first-place trophies after the 1.5-mile run. Clive Loveless Newton won the boys' division and Charley Gordon won the girls' division. Former Skyline coach John Beam was shot at Laney College and died the following day; McGovern recalled Beam's welcoming support for Oakland youth sports.
Read at The Mercury News
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