Retired sports writer Mike Terry is one of 33 men and women who will be honored by the statewide California Coaches Association (CCA) in June, association officials announced.
Terry, 69, will receive the Ed Strelow Media Award, given annually “to a reporter who we recognize for their strong and supportive work of high school athletics in the state,” CCA President Paul Snow said in the association’s release.
“It’s a tremendous honor, coming from a long-standing statewide association whose members do all they can to help to teach high school athletes how to properly pursue their dreams and compete in their favorite sports,” said Terry, who covered high school sports for the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol from 2009 to 2022. It was at the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol that Terry provided a consistent focus on valley teams.
“It was my privilege to be able to witness and cover their pursuits, as well as watch them grow from teens into adults.”
While working at the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol, Terry also featured the accomplishments of a myriad of athletes — from boxers to LA marathoners who were from the local community.
During his long career, Terry also covered sports for the Los Angeles Times, San Bernardino Sun and Washington Post.
Other Valley area 2023 awardees include Kennedy High boys’ basketball coach and athletic director Ken Kanemura, Taft Charter High athletic director Mark Drucker, wrestling coach James Robert Medeiros II and girl’s water polo coach Vincent Kezman of Birmingham Charter High, Verdugo Hills girls cross-county country Luis Viana and Vaughn Academy girls’ basketball coach Israel Antonio Ortiz.
“Each June, the California Coaches Association honors dozens of coaches, as well as others who contribute to athletics, up and down our great state for the tremendous impact they have had on their campuses and in their communities,” Snow said. “The association would like to bring recognition to these coaches and fine people who have supported athletics in California for many decades.”
Kanemura will receive the Jim Brownfield Mentor Award for his “outstanding contributions” and providing “a positive and significant supportive effort worthy of special recognition to interscholastic athletics and the coaching profession,” the release stated.
Kanemura has been a coach and an athletic director at both Kennedy and Van Nuys high schools in a career spanning 28 years and “has served as a mentor to countless coaches and athletic administrators over the course of his career and has been a huge asset to the LA City Section,” the release stated.
Drucker was named the association’s boys athletic director of the year. Kezman, Medeiros, Ortiz and Viana were named coaches of the year in their respective sports.
All honorees will be saluted at the CCA awards dinner in San Diego on June 17.