BRIAN GOLDEN 

Brian Golden, through his feature stories and columns for the Antelope Valley Press and his morning sports show on KAVL Radio, always put Marauder Athletics and its student-athletes on a par with the LA Kings, Lakers, Dodgers, Angels, Rams, USC, and UCLA, all of which he covered for the Antelope Valley community for 37 years.

Golden joined the Antelope Valley Dailey Ledger Gazette in May 1982 and moved to the Antelope Valley Press in January 1984. The Long Island native immediately allied himself with AVC Athletic Director Brent Carder’s effort to promote the “Proud Community Tradition” across the Pacific Southwest, becoming a self-described “unabashed promoter of AVC.”
Sometimes, informing the community stretched well beyond the Antelope Valley. When Hurricane Andrew destroyed the Palmetto, FL, homes of three Marauder football players and prevented them from contacting their families for an entire week, Golden free-lanced a story for the Miami Herald about the trio. Then, he donated his check to the Red Cross fund for Hurricane victims, encouraging others in the Antelope Valley to do the same.

Brian followed AVC alumni Kevin Appier, Lamart Cooper, and Isaiah Rider to Major League Baseball, the Arena Football League, and the NBA, respectively.

A two-time Associated Press top 10 sports columnist nationally, Golden was a 2000 finalist for California Sports Writer of the Year. L.A. Weekly also named him the top sports columnist in Southern California.

The Penn State graduate coined the term “An oasis of hope in the skies above Los Angeles” to describe the Valley. He retired from the A.V. Press in 2020 and now resides in Potomac, MD.