Steve Frisone enters his first season as La Sierra University’s head cross country head coach in 2025-26. Coach Steve Frisone is the epitome of “lead by example”. He is a passionate coach and educator with first-hand experience running, teaching and coaching. He has been running competitively for almost 40 years within the high school, division 1 college, post-collegiate professional and masters (over 40) settings.
Frisone has been a dedicated lifelong educator, having taught math, business, and AVID for the past 30 years. His journey began at Narbonne High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District, where he taught math for three years and was the Head Track and Field Coach. For the past 27 years, Frisone has been a teacher at Norco High School, and most recently at The Academy of Innovation.
Coach Frisone coached the boys and girls Cross Country and Track teams at Canyon High School in Anaheim from 2018-2022. During that time, the girl’s program developed into one of the best teams in the United States. In 2021, the Canyon Girl’s team won the Orange County Cross Country Championship, was runner up at the CIF Cross Country Championship, and was 2nd in the CIF California State Cross Country Championship. The girls went on to place in the top 25 at the Cross Country National Championship held in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, Frisone (along with his wife Heather) was named the Co-Orange County Cross Country Coach of the Year. The boy’s team at Canyon won the Crestview League Championship in 2020 and qualified for the CIF Southern Section Championship in both 2021 and 2022.
In track and field, Frisone coached several school record holders and state qualifiers. Emma Hadley set school records in both the 800 (2:11) and 1600 (4:50) and qualified for the State Championship twice. Ethan Florez set the school record in the 800 (1:54) and was runner up in the 800 at the California State Championship in 2021. Isabella Frisone (10:37) qualified for the California State Championship in the 3200 in 2019.
Coach Frisone ran collegiately at Cal State Fullerton from 1989 to 1993. During his years as a Titan, Frisone set school records in the 800,1500, and 5000. His 1500-meter record lasted for 28 years until it was broken in 2021. Frisone was All-Big West Conference in cross country, and won the 1992 Big West Conference Track Championship in the 5000 meters. As a post-collegiate athlete, Frisone ran a personal best of 13:53 in the 5000 meters. He also qualified for and ran in the 2008 United States Olympic Marathon Trials. In 2016, Frisone won the U.S. 45-49 national championship in the half marathon
Frisone has been married to his wife Heather Killeen-Frisone for 29 years. Heather competed at Cal State Fullerton and was a 4-time Big West Track Champion and NCAA Division 1 All-American in cross country during her time as a Titan. The Frisone’s have two children, Ethan and Isabella. Ethan ran Cross Country and Track at Loyola Marymount University and Ohio University. Ethan is the indoor 5000-meter school record holder at Ohio University. Isabella is a current student-athlete at Boise State University. She boasts personal records of 2:10 and 4:24 in the 800 meter and 1500 meter respectively.
