Six-plus decades later, Jerry Arvin still re the feeling in his legs — the muscle fatigue and how every step felt like his lower half might give out.
“The first two weeks of summer, I could barely walk and my mother begged me to quit because my legs were so sore,” Arvin said.
That first cross country practice at Warren Central High School in Indianapolis gave Arvin shin splints that lasted weeks. It also gave rise to a career that lasted a near lifetime.
“I’m from Indiana, so what I did back in the ’60s was play basketball,” Arvin said. “Our group of guys was all pretty good in middle school, so the high school basketball coach came over and said, ‘All right, if you want to play basketball [in high school], you either play football or run cross country.’ So I said, ‘What’s cross country? And I’m not playing football.’
“The basketball coach did me a great favor where I learned I could run … and after that I thought this might be a great career. I like teaching and want to coach.”
Arvin, 77, has been Point Loma Nazarene University’s women’s track and field head coach since 1995. From 1994 through 2022, he coached women’s cross country. Before the men’s programs ended, he was their head coach as well.
He also was an assistant coach for his first seven years with the university.
But now he is retiring at the end of the 2024 track and field season.
“Our jobs are never infinite,” Arvin said. “It’s been a good 37 years here. At my age, I just can’t keep up with everything that I’d like to do, so it’s time for someone else to come in.”
More than 150 All-Americans have competed for Arvin over the years in track and field, with 10 earning national championship victories. His accolades as a coach are nearly too numerous to go through: seven Golden State Athletic Conference titles with women’s track and field and two on the men’s side; eight Coach of the Year honors between 1995 and 2007; PacWest Coach of the Year for women’s cross country in 2018 after guiding the Sea Lions to their first conference championship; member of the PLNU Athletic Hall of Fame.
“I’m feeling good about the years,” Arvin said. “I love the place and hate to go in of missing the students, faculty and coaches. It’s a tremendous place to work and to be with tremendous people.”
“I would stay here until I died if I could; I just don’t think that’s feasible at this point,” he added. “Track meets start at 9 a.m. and don’t get done until 10 p.m. sometimes. The [long] day, riding a bus up or driving a van back — it’s probably not wise to keep doing that. I have a feeling of completion. I think I’ve done all the Lord has wanted me to do.”
Arvin sat in his office with a perfect view of the track and the ocean five days before the Franson Last Chance Meet, an event Friday, May 10, to give athletes an opportunity to improve their provisional marks and potentially qualify for nationals. It could be the final meet of his coaching career.
The NCAA Division II Championships are scheduled for May 23-25, but it is unclear whether PLNU will have any qualifiers.
Either way, Arvin is pleased with his final season.
“This has been a really good season with the girls,” Arvin said. “Three of the top 20 teams in the nation are in our conference. In the conference meet we had 32 season-best performances, four national qualifying mark performances and on the season 13 new top 10 marks. I think they have performed at their best. I was really impressed with how they competed all year. I told the girls they performed as well as any team I’ve had.”
Arvin described his life as fate.
“We came out to California for the ’84 Olympics and my wife wanted to move here,” he recalled. “We didn’t know what we were doing when we got here. We didn’t have jobs. My wife said, ‘We will get jobs; we are teachers.’ …
“San Diego didn’t need a visually impaired teacher or a math teacher. It took us awhile. This was God’s plan for me. I would have never dreamed that I’d be here. I’ve been blessed with many talented athletes and too many talented young men and women to single anyone out.”
Senior distance runner Aubrie Nex called Arvin a role model for “the way he treats people and our competitors.”
“It is so sad to see him leave, but then again, I guess I am leaving at the same time,” Nex said. “He always has so much confidence in me, even when I don’t have that in myself. It is so reassuring to know he believes in me.”
Beyond traveling to see an assortment of family , Arvin said he isn’t sure yet how he’s going to spend retirement. But he is looking forward to relaxing.
“I’ll take some time to watch some television and read some books,” he said. “I’ll piddle around until I get bored.”
