Annual letter-of-intent event has different look at Petco Park

In a non-COVID-19 year, Bill Johnston — executive director of the San Diego Sports Association — said crowds would have swelled to more than 1,000 for a National Letter of Intent Signing Day event inside Petco Park.

These, as we have learned since March, are far from normal times.

So Wednesday’s signing day event was held in the parking lot at Petco Park.

And Johnston and his crew of Christian Pedersen and Loni Lewis managed to make chicken salad out of chicken livers.

“This was a great experience,” said Logan Gutzwiller, a Torrey Pines High senior who has signed to play lacrosse at Notre Dame. “I appreciate the people putting on this event, especially with all that is going on.

“It’s not the same as it would have been without COVID-19, but this definitely lived up to my expectations. I got to honk my horn and scream for my Torrey Pines guys.”

The Sports Association had 230 cars registered for the Petco Park event.

Drivers were instructed to come down Imperial Avenue, swing through the Tailgate Lot, where vehicles were directed to the Lexus Lot, just outside the Homeplate Gate at Petco Park.

All the time, music was blaring on 98.3-FM.

There was a stage, a backdrop for photos and a giant video screen.

Families stayed in their parked cars while the athletes lined up along the fence on Tony Gwynn Drive, signed their letters of intent at a table and were directed to the stage, where names were announced and photos were taken.

“This was really cool,” said Tynan Walsh, a lacrosse player from La Jolla High, who is headed to the Ivy League to play for Penn. “I didn’t know what to expect, but with the music synced to our radios, it was much more lively than I expected.

“It was great to see my friends and all the other athletes from the other schools.”

More than 200 athletes walked across the Lexus Lot stage.

The list of signees and commitments, including those who didn’t attend the Petco Park event, soared to about 300.

With athletes signing with schools all over the country — from Big Ten powers like Michigan, Ohio State and Northwestern, to ACC schools like Virginia and North Carolina, to small schools like Washington University of St. Louis, the University of Chicago and Lipscomb — a pair of track athletes headed to Pac-12 schools were the biggest names to sign Wednesday.

La Costa Canyon pole vaulter Garrett Brown, the section record holder at 16-feet, 103/4 inches, is headed to Stanford.

Katriina Wright of University City, the State 400-meter champion in 2019 — the most recent state meet — signed with Oregon, known as TrackTown USA.

“I had heard so much about Oregon,” said Wright, who ran a 53.93 to win the 400 at the State Meet in 2019.

“I was a little intimidated on my visit. But the first thing I saw on campus was the track stadium (25,000-seat Hayward Field, which will host six of the next seven NCAA Championships).

“I knew right then that Oregon was the place for me.”

Wright had also considered USC, UCLA, LSU, Florida, Stanford, Cal, Arizona State and UNLV.

Brown, who set the San Diego Section pole vault record in August at the Vaulter Magazine Nationals in Menifee, considered Harvard, Princeton and the Air Force Academy before choosing Stanford, where he plans to study aerospace engineering.

“I wanted a school where I could balance academics and athletics,” Brown said. “And I wanted to stay close to home.”

Brown’s sister McKenna runs cross country at Cal. His father, Charles, was a 16-6 pole vaulter at UCLA.

Older brother Kyle, who has been beset with injuries, is a pole vaulter at UCLA with the potential to go 18 feet.

“We have a pole vault pit in our backyard,” Garrett Brown said. “It’s not ideal, but we can work on technique, then run and lift weights on our own.

“I was a gymnast as a kid. Those skills translate well to pole vaulting — body control, muscle memory. Pole vaulting is such a unique sport — speed, strength and agility.

The immediate goal for Brown is to clear 17 feet.

“Hopefully, we’re competing in the spring and I can get to 17 and beyond,” Brown said.