All schools in America probably have a person on campus whom everyone trusts and confides in. One who wears many hats, it could be a principal, a counselor, a coach, a security officer.
Cornell Myles is that person at Culver City High School and Middle School.
As a security officer and a coach, Myles has been serving the Culver City school community for 20 years. Adding to his diverse accomplishments, he was ordained a minister in 1998, and two years later, he married his wife Patricia.
Born in 1958 in Detroit, one of five children, his life’s journey has seen ups and downs, but he always has landed in an upright position.
When he was a teenager, Myles’s family moved to Southern California, the San Gabriel Valley. He attended Monrovia High School, and played cornerback on the football team.
Pasadena City College was his next stop. He enrolled with the hope of winning a Division 1 scholarship.
As a freshman cornerback, though, Myles had little playing time. “I was really upset,” he said. “But the linebacker coach realized that. He asked me to try the linebacker position. The rest is history.”
His position switch led to scholarship offers in 1980 from two Pac-12 schools, Washington and Oregon.
“I decided on Oregon,” Myles said, “because a coach from Pasadena was on the staff. But the year I came to Oregon, the football team was put on probation. Washington, ironically, went to the Rose Bowl.”
A Time to Move
After two seasons at Oregon, Myles’s Division 1 eligibility expired, and he transferred to a lower division school, Eastern Washington. One year later, he tried out for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League in 1983.
“I was one of the last players cut, but I learned a valuable lesson,” Myles said. “‘Some of you will make the team, some will not,’ the chaplain told us. ‘But God has a plan for all of you.’
“Right then, all the pressure was released. I was at peace with myself.”
After Canada, Myles moved back to Monrovia for his first coaching job. Next was a return to his college hometown of Eugene in Oregon. For five years, he coached a semi-pro football team, the Eugene Blast.
Homesick, though, for the Los Angeles area, Myles’s brother knew the Morningside High coach who said that Culver City High had an opening for a coach.
Becoming a Centaur
“Lou Lichtl, the head football coach, hired me in 1993, and I still am here today,” Myles said.
At the time working as a security supervisor for UPS, the School District hired him in January 1994 as a security officer. “I just love Culver City,” Myles said. “I lived in the community for seven years. I enjoy coaching and working here. This is a diverse community with a lot of good people.”
As a security officer Myles is a guardian of all students. “They are the ones we are here to protect and inspire,” Myles said. “It is important that we spend as much time with the bad students as we do with the good students. When they graduate, they come back and thank me for good advice. That lets me know that this is the type of attitude I must have all of the time. Culver City is my extended family.”
As a coach for 21 years at Culver City he has seen all sides of life, but he continues to stay positive, a leader on and off the field.
Of all of Myles’s accomplishments, one incident stands out above others.
During a junior varsity basketball game in 1999, a player made a layup and fell out of bounds, directly in front of Myles, the security officer at the game.
Myles picked up the player up and told him to get back in the game. How many security officers would have done that? The player was my son, Steve Finley II.
Mr. Finley may be contacted at sfinley50@aol.com
