Eight years later, all Rickey Green wants is a 53.

What makes him different from his teenaged teammates on the Ventura College men's track and field team are all the other important numbers in his life.

Like the 1 years he's been married to his beloved wife, LaDonna. Or their two children, Fantasia, 8 and Rickey III, 21 months. Or the nearly six years he spent in the U.S. Navy, rising to chief petty officer, second class.

But on this day, at the brand new College Heights stadium overlooking the San Francisco Bay at the College of San Mateo, the entire Green family will be cheering not so much for a state title, which is certainly within reach, but for Rickey's 53.

"I'd be so happy," said Green. "It wouldn't even matter what place I came in."

The number, more precisely, is 53.23 seconds. That was Green's time in the 400-meter hurdles shortly after graduating from Sacramento's Florin High in 1999.

At the time, it was the third best mark in the country, earning Green a berth at the junior nationals. But, without a scholarship offer the previous winter, Green had already enlisted in the Navy and his schedule dictated he leave for boot camp before he put on his spikes in the biggest race of his life.

"I was upset," said Green, "but I already knew I had to leave."

Since leaving the Navy in 2005, Green has been making up for lost time. More accurately, he has been making up the time he has lost.

"For the last two years, that's what we've been trying so hard to do," said Green. "I've run myself into the dirt to try and get back there."

He enters today's California Community College championships as the No. 3 seed in the 110-meter high hurdles, the event in which he finished second (15.15) in last weekend's Southern California meet. He finished fifth in the 400 hurdles in a time of 54.56, which is good for the No. 7 seed today and, of course, just a blink behind his goal of turning back the clock.

"I'm not back to where I was when I was 18, but I want to get back close," said Green, now 26. "I want to get 53 something."

He's run a 54.56 exactly in his last two meets.

"I just have to push it more," said Green.

Perhaps he spent the week using the skills he learned in the Navy, where Green became a machinist mate, learning how to build up, tear down, repair and inspect plane engines.

"You have some long hours, which can be pretty rough," said Green. "It was a job and I was being paid to do it, so I did it a well as I could.

"Anything I do, I'm going to do to the best of my ability because that's who I am."

He's been deployed to Japan, Bahrain, and Diego Garcia, a footprint-shaped, coconut-dotted island in an archipelago in the Indian Ocean. He met his wife while they were stationed at Whidbey Island, Wash. LaDonna has since transferred to Point Mugu.

"I tried to eat new food, try new things, see how the rest of the world lives," said Green.

His adjustment to Ventura hasn't just been the re-entry of the scholastic life. For the first time, he's been a husband and a father (Fantasia is his stepdaughter), which means he often goes from class to practice to work to home.

"We do the family thing for real," said Green.

His son was born as he was breaking into the VC football team as a receiver, which helped him find another level of fatigue in the afternoons.

"The coaches noticed it," said Green. "But I was still there every day. I even went to practice the day he was born."

Tim Gutierrez coaches Green in both track and football.

"He's one of those guys that's a throwback," said Gutierrez. "He's going to clock in, he's going to do his work, he's going to be there on time, he's not going to ask questions and he's going to bust his (butt)."

Green didn't lead the team in catches as a freshman, but at 6-foot-1, 190 pounds he didn't miss many blocks. He worked his way up the depth chart and had 11 catches for 135 yards and a touchdown against Compton that's memorable to Gutierrez for Green's reaction.

"You would think that, after a year or not even touching the rock, he would be jumping up and down after scoring his first touchdown," said Gutierrez. "But he just gave the ball back to the referee and went back to the huddle. That just defines what he stands for."

And it's just another reason why Green, who was named the track team's Most Valuable Player for the second year in a row Wednesday, will today be running like it's 1999.