Marty Hauck inducted as high school Coaching Legend

The San Diego County High School Coaching Legends induction banquet Nov. 14 at the Scottish Rite Center in San Diego included the posthumous induction of former Fallbrook High School running coach Marty Hauck.

“It was a great honor and well-deserved,” said his brother, Tim, who accepted the induction honors.

“The family was very happy,” Tim Hauck said. “We were very thrilled.”

Marty Hauck was one of eight coaches inducted at the banquet, which also recognized four new recipients of the Meritorious Achievement Award honoring administrators, media members, officials, sports medicine personnel, and other non-coaches who earned distinction in the San Diego County high school sports community. “Congratulations to every coach here,” Tim said. “You all share the same first name: Coach.”

The Fallbrook Union High School District hired both Hauck brothers in 1979, and Tim is also a long-time member of the Warriors’ coaching staff. “There’s a special group in a school, in a town, where someone’s referred to as ‘Coach’,” Tim said.

Marty Hauck taught English and coached track and cross-country at Fallbrook High School for 27 years. “His first response would have been: ‘this isn’t about me’,” Tim said of his brother’s award. “It would have been for the wonderful staff.”

Tim also noted that his brother would have acknowledged the other league coaches from the 1980s and 1990s who raised competitive standards. “You had to bring your ‘A’ game to the track every single week,” he said.

“He would have said ultimately, though, it was about the kids,” Tim said. “He got performances out of his kids that were incredible.”

Marty Hauck’s 1988, 1989, 1991, and 2005 boys cross-country teams finished second in the CIF San Diego Section, and the Warriors were third in Hauck’s final CIF section meet in 2006. He was also involved in coaching the Fallbrook girls teams which won the 1996 and 2001 CIF section titles.

Hauck’s athletes won 18 league championships and three CIF San Diego Section championships. Nine of his athletes earned CIF runner-up status, and he had eight state qualifiers. “Marty cared about the kids who didn’t make it quite that far, those whose names never appeared on Breitbard certificates,” Tim said.

(The Breitbard Athletic Foundation issues certificates to all-league and all-CIF athletes.)

“He had a way of touching those kids,” Tim said of his brother’s relationship with the less-recognized runners. “It started with the things that he did and the way that he coached.”

Tim noted his brother’s statistical skills helped the Warriors win meets. “He was quite a tactician in placing kids in the right spots,” Tim said.

Tim added that Marty knew each runner’s times and used those to lower personal records. “He knew what they did and was able to talk to the group and make some kids really proud to be there,” Tim said.

Tim also noted that his brother ensured recognition of Fallbrook’s runners through the daily in-school news announcement system.

The 2004 Warriors were named the state CIF all-academic track team. Hauck himself was honored by the California Coaches Association as the boys cross-country coach of the year in 1996 and by the National Federation Interscholastic Coaches Association as the state’s girls cross-country coach of the year in 1995.

The Hauck brothers were military dependents. Marty Hauck was born in Palo Alto and spent much of his childhood in Imperial Beach. He graduated from Mar Vista High School in 1972. His Mar Vista school record in the half-mile still stands.

Hauck’s coach at Mar Vista, Ed Teagle, was inducted into the San Diego County High School Coaching Legends in November 2007, shortly after Hauck’s death. Tim Hauck also ran for Teagle and noted Teagle’s emphasis on a third-place track and field finish (each school can enter up to four runners or field athletes in an individual event), which provides that athlete’s school one point while depriving the other school of a point. Tim noted that Marty utilized Teagle’s emphasis during Marty’s coaching career. “He got that across to kids,” Tim said.

Marty Hauck ran track and cross-country at Fresno State University before transferring to San Diego State University, where he did not participate in athletics. He began his teaching career at Brawley High School in 1977 and was hired in September 1979 to coach and teach English at Fallbrook High School. After a short period as the Warriors’ assistant cross-country coach, Hauck took over as the boys head coach. He was also an assistant track and field coach before becoming the boys head coach in 1990.

“He looked towards the people around him, the people who supported him,” Tim Hauck said.

Marty Hauck died of a heart attack during a cross-country practice on Sept. 19, 2007, at the age of 53.

The San Diego Hall of Champions initiated the Coaching Legends inductions in 1999 to honor retired coaches with exemplary records and standing in the coaching community. A selection committee meets throughout the year to review potential candidates, who must have been a varsity head coach for at least 10 years. The criteria include outstanding performance and sportsmanship both on and off the field of play.

The induction of Hauck and the seven other coaches brings the total number of Coaching Legends to 168. Three of the previous inductees coached at Fallbrook High School: basketball coach Jack Sandschulte and water polo coach Joe Goss were inducted in 2004 and then-retired field hockey coach Kathy Waite became a Coaching Legend in 2011.