By Jay Heater
On the football field, Cal quarterback Nate Longshore has been a tower of strength, knocking away potential tacklers as they attack his 6-foot-5, 230-pound frame. But that strength pales in comparison to the toughness and resiliency Longshore has shown during the most difficult 14 months of his life. Never mind the physical trauma of a serious broken leg and injured ankle that he suffered in the first game last season or the long, drawn-out quarterback competition to land the starting role this year. Longshore has had to deal with losing his dad. Todd Longshore, a longtime Santa Clarita parks commissioner, died of a heart attack on April 25 at Harry Newhall Memorial Hospital. He was 49 years old. On Friday, a day before Nate suits up to face UCLA in Berkeley, Santa Clarita Mayor Laurene Weste will head a ground-breaking ceremony to begin work on Todd Longshore Park, which sits only a stone's throw from the Longshore residence in an area of Santa Clarita known as Canyon Country.
The park also overlooks the Canyon High School football field, where Todd's three boys_Nick, Nate and Ben_tore it up or, in Ben's case, still is tearing it up. "It's up on a little hill, a knoll," said Nate's mom, DeAnn, who will participate in Friday's 10 a.m. ceremony. "It's not a park with fields. It's more like a walking trail, a meditation park. It overlooks the high school and the football field. "Since the city was incorporated, about 20 years now, Todd always was helping to develop its parks. We have a huge central park and a huge aquatic center, a skate park, lots of trails. This was just the next park on the master plan and the one he had been working on. It seemed appropriate (that it was named for him). It is Todd Longshore Park. It's a huge honor."
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