Community Volunteer Awards

2023 Honoree

Mike Marando

Distinguished Community Service

Mike Marando

Rancho Cordova has a rich sports history, the superstars of which are honored annually at the Rancho Cordova Sports Hall of Fame inductions. 

The process by which an individual is honored is lengthy and involved as a committee of volunteers combs through nominations, statistics, debate the merits and finally settles on a class of inductees.

When the big day arrives, inductees and hundreds of others are treated to a program which features highlight reels of their sports and other achievements. It is one of the best nights of the year in Rancho Cordova.

The attention to detail and care taken by Committee President, chief writer and narrator Mike Marando to make sure this extraordinary presentation is of the highest quality is a labor of love that is unmatched in our region.

A former sports announcer and public affairs professional, Mike began a long and successful career playing and writing about sports as a teenager in Rancho Cordova. He is a proud member of the Lancer class of ’73 which will celebrate their 50-year Class Reunion this year, and he helping organize.

Mike’s early love of sports, living in a 1970s Rancho Cordova overflowing with athletic talent, drove him to become was a sportswriter for the Green Sheet, one of Rancho Cordova’s early newspapers. He has closely followed Lancer sports through the decades and generously shares his wealth of knowledge with the Hall of Fame which will celebrate eight great years this September.

Along the way, Mike realized a boyhood dream to call baseball games as the in-park announcer for the Rancho Cordova River Cats. Wow!

He is a statistics superstar, rattling off Rancho Cordova sports trivia like a magician. He spends countless hours combing through websites, newspaper articles, high school yearbooks and anything else he can get his hands on to paint the most comprehensive, accurate picture of RC sports legends possible. Then, like the hard news reporter he is, he picks up the phone to interview each inductee before the ceremonies to make sure he’s got it right.

Last October, thanks in great part to Mike’s writing skills, the Lancer sports story came alive in a stunning exhibit called “Champions,” hosted by the Mills Station Arts and Culture Center. Visitors could stroll through the gallery and read about more than 100 sports figures – athletes, coaches and those with the “heart of a hero,” all carefully recounted by Mike. Together with curated Rancho Cordova sports artifacts, the Champions exhibit captured the best of local sports history, and gathered former athletes and their supporters for an unforgettable stroll down Memory Lane while reconnecting with the place that gave them their start.

We could try and quantify the hours Mike Marando has dedicated to this project over the past eight years, but you probably would not believe it. For Mike, it is not just “one and done” – but a devotion repeated year after year for a new crop of honorees. It’s a valentine to Rancho Cordova, Cordova High School, and so much more.

Mike is also responsible for the careful recounting of Rancho Cordova history in the documentary “From Gold Rush to Space,” another love letter to his hometown which debuted last October and will be shown many times during this anniversary year. It will bring additional attention to Rancho Cordova when it is aired on Public Broadcasting’s KVIE. There’s talk it may go national, and a sequel looking at the Rancho Cordova of the future is in the works.

Mike now lives in Fair Oaks, but his heart remains right here in Rancho Cordova and he has become a familiar figure around City Hall. He uses his considerable writing and editing skills to assure our rich history is preserved with accuracy and heart. 

A lesson learned from Alice in Wonderland is that curious people have more adventures.  Mike Marando would probably agree. For that, and so much more, in helping preserve our proud Rancho Cordova heritage, congratulations to Mike Marando, honored here tonight for Distinguished Community Service.