Gilroy High School track and field head coach Alvin Harrison, a
two-time Olympic gold medalist, has been charged on suspicion of
driving under the influence and is being held in an Orange County
jail after wrecking a van while on a school athletic field trip.
Harrison, 37, a Hollister resident, pleaded not guilty to the
charges.
Gilroy High School track and field head coach Alvin Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, has been charged on suspicion of driving under the influence and is being held in an Orange County jail after wrecking a van while on a school athletic field trip.
No students were in the van, GHS Athletic Director Jack Daley confirmed.
Harrison, 37, a Hollister resident, pleaded not guilty to charges of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs causing bodily injury to any person other than the driver, driving with a suspended license and driving under the influence while having 0.08 percent or more blood alcohol level, according to Orange County Superior Court records.
Harrison, assistant track coach Ryan Johnson and four GHS sprinters were in Southern California to participate in the esteemed Arcadia Invitational last Friday and Saturday. The accident happened on Thursday night.
The group left Gilroy for the event late last Wednesday. Johnson said he and the sprinters were in the hotel room when Harrison left with the van that evening.
GUSD administrators, including GHS Principal Marco Sanchez, Daley and Assistant Superintendent Joel Herrera, were closed-mouthed about the incident early Wednesday. “Personnel issues usually mean no comment,” Herrera said. “I’ll be happy to get back to you at a later time.”
Later in the day, after numerous phone calls to district officials, Superintendent Debbie Flores acknowledged the incident saying, “obviously drinking on a field trip is wrong and it won’t be tolerated. He has been let go.” Flores stressed that at no time were GHS students in danger. She said the van was not a school district vehicle, but was rented out for the purpose of ferrying the student-athletes to the meet.
Flores added that as soon as the district became aware of the circumstances, Daley traveled down to Arcadia to help supervise the rest of the sprinters’ weekend at the tournament and get them home safely.
Harrison is awaiting an April 19 court appearance at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach and is currently being held at the James A. Musick Facility on $50,000 bail, according to an employee in the records department at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Calls to Harrison’s cell phone go straight to a full voicemail box.
Harrison, who won gold at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics only to have his 1996 medal stripped after admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs, was just four months into his first season at the GHS helm.
Last week, Harrison fired longtime cross country and track and field coaches Art and Cathy Silva, resulting in a rift between some of the athletes.
“The way it was put is that we weren’t doing the job with the distance kids and they weren’t producing,” Art Silva said. “And that he figured that he could do a better job than us and that he didn’t want to coach with us anymore.”
Daley said that the Silvas are back coaching the distance runners and that all the other discipline-specific coaches will remain on staff.
“At this point I’m going to step in as the administrative head coach,” Daley said.
Superintendent Flores said she would seek answers on how the district polices employees whose licenses are suspended and whether Harrison rented the van using a district credit card.
The California Highway Patrol in southern California did not immediately return phone calls seeking details on Harrison’s blood alcohol level and the number of people injured in the crash.
