Under Coach Corona’s guidance, the King Track and Field program became one of the best in the Inland Empire, if not the CIF-Southern Section. He was the head coach at Martin Luther King High School for nineteen years, from 2003- 2021, and his teams annually lived up to the motto-“Class, Character, Courage.”

With Corona at the helm, the Wolves had a combined total (boys and girls) of 251 dual meet wins; 11 league championships and landed in the Riverside County Top Ten polls every year since the poll started in 2005. Over the years, almost 100 of the top marks in Riverside County Track and Field history were posted by athletes under his watch and over 150 MLKHS athletes moved on to perform at the collegiate level. From 2008 through 2019, MLKHS track athletes missed the California State Championships once. Corona was also the driving force in the establishment of the Unified Sports Program on Martin Luther King’s campus.

Corona has been named a State CIF Model Coach of the Year and was named a State Coach of the Year by the National Federation of High School Coaches, He received the Riverside Sports Hall of Fame’s President’s Award and is honored on their Wall of Distinction. Corona has received the Dan Fukushima Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Coaches Association and was recognized as a CIF (SS) “Champion for Character.” As a Social Science teacher, he received many honors including being awarded California State Teacher of the Year three times by various organizations  honoring his work with King’s nationally renowned Veteran Oral History Project, “King High School Remembers.”

After 40 years in the classroom and 46 years in coaching, Corona maintains his ties to Track and the Field through meet management work for MLKHS as well as serving on the CIF Coaches Advisory Committee and is a Meet Referee for the CIF D-1 Prelims. He continues his annual work and contributions to King High Remembers and he is a member of the Martin Luther King Hall of Fame Committee. He and his wife Nanette, have been married for 36 years and they have three sons, Michael, David and Andrew, all of whom are MLKHS grads.

By Martin Luther King Wolves