Plato Yanicks, well-known cross-country and track and field coach at Menlo-Atherton High School, died peacefully of cancer on April 29, 2022. He was ninety years old. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn; his granddaughter, Ashley Carpenter (Patrick) and his first cousin, John Todd (Maria). He is predeceased by his brother, Milton, and his daughter, Karel Yanicks.
Mr. Yanicks (known to his athletes as Coach “Y”), had a gift for discovering students with potential and encouraging them to be the champion athletes he knew they could become. Many of these people, as adults, have communicated to Coach “Y” that they are still influenced by the principles of hard work, focus and integrity that he instilled in them.
His CAREER RECORD: 20 varsity league championships in cross-country and track and field (boys and girls).
Other innovations were bringing high school indoor track to the Bay Area; having high school athletes run the 220 yd. on the curve in dual meets; initiated putting an M-A athlete’s name on his/her uniform and originating high school decathlon competition for the SPAL and PAL.;
Mr. Yanicks was also the co-author with Verne Thorneberg of the All-Time West Bay and Northern California Track Honor Roll and provided the statistics for the state historical booklet, The California Track Meet.
In 2004 Mr. Yanicks was inducted into the San Mateo County Sports Hall of Fame and in 2014 he was inducted into the Menlo-Atherton Sports Hall of Fame.
Coach “Y” considered two projects his pride and joy. First was helping to implement a plan to join the Northern California cross county runners with the (southern) California runners into the California State Cross Country Meet. Although this required a number of years to accomplish, the drive behind it was Mr. Yanicks’ tenacity in overcoming an injustice. The southern contingent called themselves the California State Cross Country Meet, even though northern runners were not invited to participate. So Mr. Yanicks and other cross country coaches pursued a plan to rectify this inequity.
The second of Mr. Yanicks’ joys occurred after his retirement in 1994. M-A Principal Dave Theis, winning girls basketball coach, Ms. Wimberley and Mr. Yanicks worked together to develop a hall of fame for M-A. In the fall of 1994 The Hall of Fame Selection Committee chose the first 54 former athletes and a coach, baseball coach Frank Bettencourt, to be the first class in the Menlo-Atherton Athletic Hall of Fame. That effort led to the development of Pride Hall at M-A, a result of hours of work by parents, coaches and students.
A Celebration of Life for Plato Yanicks will be held at Bridges Community Church 625 Magdalena Av. at 11 a.m. in Los Altos.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.