One of Cerritos College’s Greatest Streaks Snapped

When you think of many of the amazing streaks in college sports history rarely does the staff working behind the scenes come to mind. In this case it deserves recognition. John Van Gaston has been the Sports Information Director at Cerritos College since December 1985, and before that was a staff writer for the Cerritos College student newspaper, the Talon Marks. John hadn’t missed a Cerritos football game for 31 years, dating back to September 1984. That’s an incredible 330 consecutive games worked and attended! Every streak comes to an end and this one unfortunately reached that point over this past weekend, in the Falcon’s 34-31 win over Orange Coast

John can still remember games, scores and specific plays dating back to the beginning of this amazing 330 game streak. From the press box he’s seen countless NFL players wear the Cerritos College blue and white, some remarkable individual performances at the community college level and plenty of team success with 18 bowl game appearances and five conference championships during his tenure.

John’s duties as SID range from keeping accurate game stats, writing releases, updating the school’s athletic website and social media, preparing media guides and so much more. Football is just one of 19 sports at Cerritos College, all of which John is involved with. 

In addition to his duties at Cerritos, John has had much involvement with the CCC Sports Information Association, including being a founding member. He’s been involved with numerous state championships over the years including consistently serving as the baseball and men’s and women’s basketball state championship SID, and is involved in the wrestling state championships each year and continues to lend his assistance more and more to the sport statewide.

It’s John’s tireless work ethic that led him through these 31 years of consecutive football games, all to be broken by a stomach flu. After the 330 game streak was snapped, John’s main concern wasn’t that it had finally come to an end, but that he couldn’t be there to help out in the press box during the team’s away game.