Tony DiMarco, who led the California High School cross country team to its best season in school history last year, was fired last week.

“It was a situation where he sought punishment for members of the team and what they did caused problems,” co-athletic director Jim Arnold said.

According to reports, athletes apparently failed to turn in required paperwork and DiMarco allegedly had the athletes do bear crawls on asphalt, which resulted in some athletes getting blisters on their hands. He reported the blisters to school authorities.

Strangely, it comes only months after the most successful cross country coach in the San Gabriel Valley, Arcadia’s James O’Brien, was fired.

Arcadia won last year’s CIF-Southern Section and CIF State title. California finished fourth in the CIF-SS meet and was runner-up to Arcadia in the state meet. The second-place finish earned the Condors a berth in the prestigious Nike Nationals meet.

Angelica De La Rosa, who was an assistant coach for the Condors in 2008, will lead the Condors. They will compete in the Great Cow Run this weekend in Cerritos.

– Keith Lair