Family Ties - 1996 - 1997

I learned early in my coaching career the importance of families in successful programs. While my years at Sierra had a lot of ups and downs when it came to siblings, hopes and reality we had a lot of families that sent more than one athlete through our programs. In cross country alone we had: Marcus and Barb; Danielle and Jimmy; Desiree, Candace, and Audrey; Amanda and Alexis; Cassandra and Joey; Corey and Tamara; Anne and Mitch; Barry and Brian; Alejandra and Fabian and Mike and Anna are just some of the many siblings we had the opportunity to work with. There were many more but I think that gives a pretty good idea of what I mean by the importance of families to our success.

No family had more siblings run cross country at Sierra though than the Frandsens. Brian ran for Coach Payton and then I had the opportunity to coach Steve, Scott and Charlie. Additionally I coached Brian when I coached at UCCS and he and oldest brother Jeff ran for Harrison High School before Sierra even existed. Finally I coached Jeff's daughter Candace. In 2000 I created a new award for the cross country program to honor their father, Rulon who passed away. He was a great supporter of our programs and never hesitated to hold us accountable if he disagreed with something but as soon as we explained our rationale he was a loyal supporter. The "Rulon Frandsen Stallion Pride" award. "The athlete who wins this award represents what Sierra Cross Country stands for. Excellence in the classroom, excellence as a person in the school and community and excellence in Cross Country. The winner may not be the best runner in the program from year to year but it will be someone who exhibits all of the positive qualities we look for in our athletes".   I was happy to see that the coach who replaced me continued the award the year after I left. After that I don't know but I hope other coaches continued to honor the tradition.

Charlie Frandsen, Steve Frandsen, Coach Anstey, Scott Frandsen, Coach Payton
Sadly we lost Charlie too soon. He passed away at 23 years old in 2002

We had many sets of siblings in Swimming and Track as well. One disappointment that we dealt with through the years was when we knew a younger sibling was coming up through the school district and then for one reason or another we wouldn't get them in the program. 

While family was big during my 20 years at Sierra it didn't hold a candle to the importance of family participation in the programs I coached in New Mexico. Pancho Morris of the Hobbs News Sun wrote a column about it in 1984. 

'LHS Runners "Family"'

     The 1979 World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates and the Lovington High School cross country programs have one thing in common: Both can lay claim to the "We Are Family" title.

     The Pirates popularized the song by the same title en route to their World Series victory. Though very few, if any, of the Pirates were really related, the song symbolized the togetherness of the team. However close the Pirates were, they have nothing on Lovington, which is indeed a family-oriented program.

     "We can drive down one street and pick up half of our team," Lovington Lady Wildcat head coach Dana Anstey said jokingly.

     The funny thing is he wasn't kidding.

     No less than five sets of siblings are listed on the boys' and girls' rosters for 1984. But it's not something that "That's Incredible" would be interested in. Through the years, Lovington has had almost as many family members on its teams as it has outsiders.

     "Cross Country teams are naturally a close-knit group and I think that plays a big part in it," Anstey said, offering some kind of explanation. "There is a lot of camaraderie and I believe the younger brothers and sisters want to be a part of that."

     Whatever the reasons, Anstey knows that he has saved a lot of phone calls over the years.

     Eight families have contributed two runners apiece to the program at one time or another, while three other families have had an even bigger impact.

     In fact, the Marquez clan has had almost as much to do with the success of the LHS teams as have Anstey and LHS boys' head coach Scottie Watkins.

     Librado, Vincente and Reyes Marquez - all brothers - should receive the "All-time Leading Assist Award" for the contribution of 10 offspring to the LHS teams.

     Vincente has been the biggest contributor. Four of his children, Maria A., Marisela (Chela), Linda and Paul have run, or are running, cross country. Maria A. graduated in 1984 as did sister Linda. Paul was a 1983 graduate, while Chela, a senior is currently in her third year of competition.

     Reyes has two sons, Rafael and David, both currently on the team and another, Rene, who graduated  in 1982. The Marquez brothers are both seniors with Rafael running for two seasons and David one.

     Librado's offspring have all graduated. Daughters Sylvia and Maria V. graduated in 1981 and 1982, respectively. Librado Jr. was also a 1982 graduate.

     If that isn't confusing enough, the Marquez' sister's daughter, Irma Valencia, was a member of the LHS team last year before moving to Artesia.

     Right behind the Marquez family are the Carrascos and Rubios.

     Brothers Arturo, Filameno, and sister Amy Carrasco are all currently putting in their miles for the Wildcats, while Miguel graduated in 1983.

     Amy, a senior, is the eldest, while Arturo is a junior and Filameno a freshman.

     The Rubios have the distinction of being the only three-member family to include nothing but girls. Tina started it off, running her senior year in 1979. Cindy, who will graduate in 1985, followed and is joined on the team by Connie, a junior. Connie does double duty for the Wildcats also competing on the volleyball team.

     Other sibling runners include the Morleys, Becky and Carl, who are brother and sister, and cousins Lorena and Paula Arenivas, both sophomores.

     The list of other family units are:

     Lupe Martinez, a junior and Victor Martinez who ran in 1979

     Jesse Ontiveros, a junior, and older brother Elias, a 1978 graduate.

     Brother and sister Ruben and Mari Gonzales. Ruben ran in 1979, while Mari graduated in 1983 after three years of competition.

     Nora Attaway and sister Marie Attaway. Nora graduated last year while Marie is currently a senior. They are primarily track athletes who use cross country for conditioning.

     Quinn Smith, a 1977 graduate, and brother Dennis who ran in 1979-80.

     Tom Herndon and brother Brad. Tom graduated in 1984, while Brad is a current member of the team.

     Sound confusing? Hey, just wait a couple more years.

     According to Anstey, there are even more family runners on the way up. But that's okay. Considering all the success, they

are family trees Anstey enjoys watching grow".

While families and family involvement brought a lot of good times to the programs there were also times when a "little less" involvement would have been welcomed. I'm sure some of those will be shared in future posts.

We were faced with another new challenge for the '96 - '97 school year. Some administrators in their infinite wisdom came up with a plan to fix attendance by punishing students no matter what the reasons or what type of grades they had. If a student had X absences in a class regardless of the reason then they had to fill out paperwork and appear before a committee to get credit for the class. If I sound like I didn't support the idea I didn't for multiple reasons. First, as I said reasons for absences didn't matter so if a student had legitimate reasons for missing it counted the same as skipping class. So now if an athlete missed classes to participate in an athletic event and they had enough other absences no matter the reason, they had to appeal. If they didn't get the paperwork in on time they could lose credit for the class and subsequently become academically ineligible for participation. And this was true even if they had an A in the class. "We're treating everyone the same"! What a bunch of clowns. Oh and by the way who generally served on the committees that heard the appeals? Teachers who had the time because they didn't do anything extra to work with kids. And that is a second reason that I disagreed with the policy. If I remember right it only lasted maybe a year because it was so labor and time intensive.

The cross country scrimmage showed me that while we didn't have that standout #1 runner on either team we were going to have a chance to be successful if our packs would run close enough to the front. Once again the boys' team was swept with our first runner finishing 10th but their split times for 1-5 (:51) and 1-7 (1:28) were outstanding. The girls' 1-5 (1:18) was equally impressive but their 1-7 (5:40) was horrendous and a sign that we could be in big trouble score wise if we were ever missing one of our top 5 runners.

Mid-season after the Coronado Invitational I wrote this in their newsletter; Ladies we came away from this meet a little stunned. It was our worst showing there ever so we were surprised because we really didn't think you were running that bad. You weren't running bad, it was just that the competition was as good as it has ever been at that meet. The only negative as far as a team is that our top two runners were to far back and the pack was way to far behind them. You all know that is something that must continue to improve.

     Guys, the same things apply. Your pack time of 1:23 was pretty good it was just to far back. You must continue to move it closer to the front. In order for that to happen you've got to be willing to go out and take a risk. Going out comfortably in the back half of the pack will never bring the kind of improvement you want".

And after Pueblo Central Invitational 2 meets later; "Congratulations to all of you on a very fine effort. Hopefully you can take away positive feelings from this course and bring them back to the Regional meet in a little over two weeks. Of the 14 who ran, there were 11 Pr's and one season best. The other two were very close to PR's. If there is any negative that has to be pointed out it is the "pack". The boy's pack was way to far back in the field (although it was a good pack). 1:38 1-5 and 1:45 1-7. The girl's pack fell apart for the first time all season. Ladies, if you're going to State it won't happen with the pack that far behind Chrystal". There was 48 seconds behind Chrystal who was our 3rd runner and our 4th runner and only 27 seconds between 4th and 7th. Unfortunately Chrystal only ran one more meet before Region after it was determined that she had a stress fracture. And after Region she was too sore to compete at State.

Despite the loss of Chrystal and the fact that we never got our 1-5 split under 3:15 without her the girls still managed to qualify for state as a team for the 7th year in a row after finishing 3rd at Region. And despite the fact that our boys had an outstanding 1-5 split of 1:10 they once again missed out on qualifying finishing 7th of 11 teams and only the top four qualify. Places tell the story better than anything I could say. Girls 9-12-14-18-38 (41-47) for 91 points. Boys 28-31-33-43-48 (50-68) for 184.

After our first swim meet it was obvious that even though this was the second year for Coach Gross and I we still had a lot of work to do to change the culture of the program. Our first meet we lost to Wasson 103 -64. "Ladies, losing is never fun> I know some of you who do other sports continue to do those sports "because they are fun", and it's good that you can see that as a positive. The bottom line however is that losing is not fun. The beauty of a sport like swimming is that win or lose you can always find positives. And in spite of the fact that we lost as far as team score is concerned there were a lot of positives". We then emphasized that fact that if they did the good things as well as possible and improve the scores could eventually change in our favor.

We didn't expect the "change in our favor" to take place so fast. In our next meet we beat St. Mary's 103 - 76. The girls swam and competed very well. We were brought right back down to reality in our next meet though getting beat by Mitchell 114 - 61. Coach Gross' comments after the meet sum up what we were dealing with. First he reviewed things that had gone wrong during the meet event by event and then he said; "None of these things however is a major concern of mine. What does disappoint me is coming to practice and finding only 16 out of 33 swimmers present. I know some do have legitimate reasons to be absent occasionally, but I am tired of kids not swimming because they have a headache, the sniffles, a club meeting, etc. etc. I am tired of come-late, leave-early, sometime swimmers. And ladies, it better stop. This team is not about getting our pictures taken and having fun in the water. It is about being successful in a difficult sport; and it takes courage, commitment and hard work to achieve".  

  

We next went to Rampart to swim in the Holiday Relays and scored 4 points. By comparison the winner Rampart Gold scored 264 and their B team Rampart Blue scored 104 and finished 8th. There were 21 teams total and we were 16th. But the kids actually did a great job swimming and carrying themselves with class and dignity throughout the meet. We finished the season 1-6 in dual meets and our record stood at 3-14 for our first two years with the program. We were improving though and school records and top ten lists were indicative of that improvement.

The '97 track season started out just like most as far as weather, scheduling conflicts and getting kids out on time. It also started off with performances that showed promise for a successful season. After the first week of practice I wrote; "I'm very proud of your efforts the first seven days of practice. We didn't have one good day and yet we were outside everyday doing your best and doing it without complaining. You did a great job with the testing. Now you'll start specializing more. It may not be where you want to be but it will be where we think you can do your best". You never know how a team is going to respond to the start of a spring season in Colorado with the type of weather we had to deal with year in and year out and the girls did a great job.

This was the first season that I wanted to try something different as far as welcoming everyone to the program and making sure we were all on the same page in all areas. I got with the other coaches and we created a list of what we felt every team member should know and then we met with some key upperclassmen and went over the handout with them. Then, "The upperclassmen will meet with groups of you and tell you about expectations. Listen to what they say and take it to heart. If you don't want to do what it takes to help this be a winning program don't waste your time or ours. It is not simply about participation, it is about being the best individually and as a team that we can". That turned out to be a successful component of our program for several years.

And then of course before we could get everyone's focus on our program we once again had a successful boy's basketball season to work around. "Ladies we had an outstanding ride with the boy's basketball team the past three days. Having it end in a state championship and seeing so many of you there being a part of it was outstanding. Now it's time to focus on making our program be as successful as possible. That means being at all practices, keeping it together in the classroom, acting like ladies at all times and competing to the best of your ability wherever you are asked to compete". 

This was also the year that the swimming pool was available more than in the past and we decided to use it more for pool workouts, recovery days and fun in addition to rehab which is all we had used it for in the past. "Friday we will be going in the swimming pool for practice. Make sure you have your suit. This is not optional unless there is a medical reason. Bring your suit and a towel. Dry off good and change into dry clothes before you leave". We used the pool extensively for the rest of my career at Sierra. There were many benefits and we could still get a hard workout in using the pool. 

Competitively we had a very good season winning 5 varsity meets including the Cheyenne Mountain and Panther Invitationals. The Panther was a special victory for us because they brought in an outstanding team from Norman, Oklahoma. We not only won the girls division but scored enough points with the boys to win the coed plaque.

"Ladies congratulations on a total team victory, like I told the newspaper, we won because you are a group of hard working young ladies who will do whatever you are asked to help the team. We placed in every event, if we had complete results, I would bet that we wouldn't find another team that did that. Your efforts were outstanding and you pulled together like a team from the start and kept it together throughout the entire meet in spite of terrible conditions. (Some of you let the weather and extra load get to you. You know who you are and you know you have to work harder in practice and on your attitude so that it doesn't happen again).

There are to many of you who did a good job to try to mention you all individually but a couple I have to mention are Elise who ran a total of 7 races, Tanya B. who ran 2 800's despite the fact that she's a sprinter (and she ran one on only a couple of minutes notice), Tasha for going over 100 feet in the discus for the first time, Charity for filling in on the 4 x 800 and running the fastest 800 and Kharisa for setting a new freshman record in the shot put.

If the Regional Championship is our goal we must keep working hard and improving. Air Academy is certainly going to be a team to watch, as is Fountain Fort Carson and Falcon has some outstanding individuals. We are going to have to win it with depth which means everyone doing their best in every event. Do that every meet so that it becomes a habit".

 The two meets we didn't win, the Icicle Relays and the Colorado Springs Metro League meet we were 3rd both times but we were the highest finishing 4A team. And the future looked bright when we won the City Freshman - Sophomore Championship with 200 points, the second place team had 92. We won 4 of the 5 relays and finished 2nd in the other. And that 6th consecutive Regional Championship? It didn't happen.

"Ladies congratulations on a really outstanding performance. I know you all wanted to win and you were disappointed that we didn't but because you wanted to win badly enough you competed to the best of your ability and finished a strong second. As I told you on the bus Saturday, there were eight other teams that would love to have been taking home your second place trophy. Don't sell yourselves short, you competed hard, you scored in every event and you did your best throughout the meet. You will always be champions in the eyes of the coaches.

Let's look at some facts. You scored more points than we have ever scored in the CSML Region before. You had the 5th highest Regional point total in the school's thirteen years of competing. You finished 11.5 points behind the winner but you were 42 points ahead of 3rd place and beat eight of the nine other teams in our region. Fifteen of you qualified for state and only 5 of you are juniors and seniors. The future looks good for Sierra girls track and field. You did a very good job. I'm proud of you and you have a lot to be proud of.

As I told you on the bus after the meet, before the meet I predicted that we would score 133 points. We scored 133 points, if you did your best and got beat there is nothing you can do except start right now thinking about next year and what it will take to win again.

If you need anything positive to think about just remember the gutsy performances of the 4 x 800 after Elisa got knocked to the ground and the medley after Kawana and Patty dropped the baton on the exchange; both of them got back into it and qualified for state. Or think about what an exciting race the 4 x 4 was sticking Autumn in at the last minute because we had to put Charity on the medley. That's what this team is all about ladies and you each need to take pride in the fact that we are winners because you are winners.

As I wrote in a previous post it was always my final decision about who would run on the relays. At region Kawana and Autumn both freshmen ran as alternates after another runner or runners had to be moved to other events or couldn't compete. On Monday after region we worked out in the pool and I can remember almost 20 years later, as if it was yesterday calling them over to the southwest corner of the pool and telling them how proud I was of them both and what an asset they were to the team. I also explained that if the upperclassmen they had replaced was able to run that they would be alternates and get to attend the state meet but may not participate. I said, "make sure that you tell your parents so they don't drive all the way to Denver just expecting to see you compete". Well! One did and one didn't and after the meet when we were loading up the vans if looks could kill that would have been the last meet I ever coached because Kawana hadn't told her parents. Fortunately we got past it and she became a four year letter winner in track and ran cross country as well. 

Trying To Do It All - 1995 - 1996

It's kind of ironic that when I was making some notes for future topics to discuss in this blog that I decided to discuss conflicts and trying to do it all in this particular post. The irony comes from the fact that this is the post where I will start covering swimming season each year in addition to cross country and track because 95-96 was the year when I started coaching swimming for what I thought would be a year or two and ended up coaching it for 10 years right to the end of my career. I began coaching swimming because the previous coaches resigned and a friend of mine was going to become head coach and needed an assistant. I didn't know anything about swimming but I knew about practice organization, putting athletes in the best place to be successful individually and as a team and of course conditioning. One of the reasons that I agreed to coach with Joe gross was because there were some athletes from my track and cross country team who were seniors and had been on the swim team for 3 years. I wanted to insure they had a positive experience their senior year.

One of the toughest things I had to deal with as a coach was things that conflicted with time that our athletes should have been at practice or competition. It isn't anything that any coach didn't have to deal with but that didn't make it any easier. And it isn't as if many of the conflicts both legitimate and not included but were not limited to: academics, make up work or classes, detention, suspension, family conflicts for any number of reasons, clubs, fine arts activities, other sports (believe it or not), student government, jobs, outside activities, and on and on. I'm not going to go through specifics in this introduction, I'll let some comments from newsletters from all three sports tell the story.

Here is a comment from the first '95 cross country newsletter that will be worth thinking about later in this post. "Speaking of working hard, I want to make it clear to all of you. Do not get behind in your school work. If necessary get help from your teammates in subjects you are having trouble with. Ask your teachers if you don't understand something, don't just try to ignore a problem and expect it to go away. Come to every class prepared to work. If time is given, get a head start on homework. Do not waste time, you cannot get it back". 

 Once again the scrimmage gave an indication about the type of season we could have. "The good news is it was a better girl's score than last year and it is the first time in three years that one of our guys has broken into the top 5.

All indications are that we will have a very good girls' team again this year if you are willing to do the necessary work to get where we want to go. As far as the boys, you all ran well. But as I told you on the bus, if you are going to have a team that is not fighting every week not to be last, you'd better beat the bushes and do some recruiting. (Where are Nathan, Matt, Jimmy H, Nick B, Tony W, Pedro, etc. These are all people who signed up to run and haven't shown up). We need these guys and some new ones to build the team. Charlie, Troy and Joey give us a good start but until the newer and younger guys get some experience, you need some more depth".

Another example of time conflict every year was evident at the start of cross country season. We started practice up to two weeks before classes started and a lot of athletes were still working or babysitting younger siblings so they didn't show up until school actually began. This was a big deal because they were required to have nine practices before they could even run in any competition and would wind up missing some meets until they got them. Additionally many came back to school without their physical so that had to be done before they could practice.

Our first meet was hosted at Sierra and the girls finished 2nd by 2 points while the guys were last among scoring teams. And we barely had enough boys to run a scoring team. And again the focus even before the results were discussed was schedule awareness and conflict. Before I even start talking about the meet let me ask you to stop for a minute and think about your first day with your teachers. How are your classes? What are the expectations of your teachers? If you don't know, find out right away. If you are working in addition to running and school, have you come up with a plan to be successful? Are you going to have enough time to help around the house so as to avoid potential problems and conflicts there? If you answer no to any of these questions, step back and think. Get organized. The only way you'll be successful in all aspects of your life is if you have a plan. Do you have a plan?"

  
And the season played out just like you might have predicted from the scrimmage and the Sierra Invitational. Charlie and Amanda were our top athletes every meet they ran and the girls' team showed that they were once again going to compete for an opportunity to go to state. They weren't a dominant team but they were consistently competitive. Some of our toughest competition came from the weather this season. A good example of this was we ran the Hornet Invitational in 101 degree, high humidity weather and two weeks later when we ran the Coronado Invitational at Monument Valley Park it was 33 degrees. If that wasn't enough the next week at the Columbine Invitational in Denver they had to stop the Open race halfway through because of lightening.

Going into the Regional Championship meet we had high hopes for the girls' team after they had 1-5 and 1-7 time splits of :51 and 1:25. We also hoped that Charlie could qualify as an individual on the boys side. The girls not only qualified but brought home the runner up trophy. Charlie just missed individually. "As far as Regional is concerned, we were all disappointed for Charlie that he didn't qualify but he gave it his best shot and he did that all season. He went from a 19:20+ runner to a 17:49 runner and 2nd team All Region. Obviously his off season training paid off. There is no magic gentlemen it is very simple, if you train year round and work hard, you succeed. If you don't you'll always be back at the middle of the pack or further".

After Region and before State Charlie demonstrated a lot of class when he wrote the following note to me and letter to the girls' team. I can't do this season justice without sharing it.

"Mr. Anstey - I was wondering if you could read this letter to the girls either before or after they run, maybe on the bus depending on when you get it. I would also like to say thank you to you and Mr. Payton for helping me this whole year. I don't think you know how grateful I am. This has been a great season although I didn't go to state. That is why I wrote that letter, so the girls wouldn't take this for granted, because one day they might not get to state, like me. Again, I thank you very much for helping me grow and to be a better leader. I only wish I could have done more! I can't wait 'til next season so you two can coach me again! Sincerely - Charlie

To the Girls State Qualifying Cross Country Team and Their Coaches   - Oct. 27, 1995

My dear friends. I am writing this letter to you to let you know how happy and proud I am and all our other teammates are of you! We are all very impressed and proud of your dedication and teamwork. I have noticed all year how this team grew and worked together. You ladies all encourage each other and push each other positively and I admire that. When Coach Anstey was talking about our team as a family you ladies best exemplified that. All of you welcomed newcomers and made all of us feel comfortable and I commend you for that.

This will be the sixth season in a row for the girls' cross country team to go to state. I have had the privilege of seeing two girls' teams achieve this goal, this will be my third. I surely hope that each and every one of you are savoring and cherishing every moment of this wonderful experience! Never take something like this for granted! You never know if something may happen to you or that you could get hurt and not be able to run. Be very grateful that you have made it to state and always remember it. Years from now you will be able to look back at your High School years and will remember Cross Country. You will remember the pep talks you had with Coach Anstey at the beginning of a race. You will remember all those people yelling at you and cheering and what an exciting feeling it was to have people cheering for you. You will remember the practices and how much fun you had with your friends. You will remember going to state, that's something a lot of people never have and never will experience! You can tell your children about this. This is a great thing you have done and I hope that you realize this and never take it for granted.

To you seniors I hope that you will be able to look back on your seasons and have no regrets. Learn from the mistakes you made. Progress from your achievements and apply them to your life. I hope that you will remember always your years with us and never forget the wonderful memories you have made.

To the coaching staff, I along with everyone else applaud you! You guys have done so much for us. Both of you are constantly pushing us on and off the course. We all appreciate you so much. You are like two second fathers and we love you guys for it! Ladies always remember your coaches! They pulled you through this and you couldn't have done it without them! Again, Congratulations to you all, we love you! And may God Bless you!  Sincerely - Charlie P.S. Go Stallions!!!

State @ Aurora Reservoir  Dinner @ The Spaghetti Factory

I didn't really have any idea what I was getting into when I agreed to help coach the swimming team between cross country and track seasons because a lot of my runners swam. What I did know was that the history of the swim program was not one of success like many of the other "minor" sports program at Sierra, golf, tennis, soccer and softball to name a few as well as gymnastics that was finally dropped as a program because of lack of participation. The first coach led the program for 8 years and never had a winning season usually not even winning a meet. The second coach improved the team enough to win 5 meets over three years going 3-7 and 2-7 after being 0-10 her first year. Additionally she did a good job keeping records so we were able to start a history similar to what I did in cross country and track. We used that history to build from!

One thing that I learned quickly that I did not like was the fact that we had to hold practice over Thanksgiving and Christmas break something I hadn't had to do since coaching basketball back in the '70's. It had to be done though if we were going to help the kids be the best that they could. In most cases the other teams that they swam against had a majority of lifetime club swimmers. We literally had to teach from scratch including in some cases, how to swim! We finished that first year 2-7 while I was "getting my feet wet" as a swim coach. The highlight of the year was finishing 2nd at the Panther Relays an event that was part swim and part circus events like the centipede relay, inner tube relay and so on.

My newsletter after the Pueblo East meet, a 90-86 loss provides a pretty good overview of what we were up against trying to establish a new way of thinking.

"After a loss coaches generally look for all the positive things that happened to talk about. When your team has only won five meets in the past three years and you have a chance to win your third meet in a row and don't, it makes it tough.

There are no complaints about those of you who competed yesterday, as a matter of fact, there were many positives. The negatives and the reason we didn't win this meet have to do with those who didn't compete, regardless of the reason. We're not blaming, we just want those of you who did your best to realize that as a team you should have won a meet if everyone on the team had contributed.

I have one final thing to say and it doesn't apply to this meet. From time to time some of you have to miss or be late to practice to make up work or "catch up". If we question you, some of you try to throw it up in our face that, "You always tell us how important academics are". Yes academics are important. It is the reason you are in school and just like swimming, nothing less than your best should be acceptable there. Unfortunately, there are other things that are just as important to learn for now and later in life. If you learned these things, you wouldn't be doing "make up" or "catching up", you would be keeping up.

What are these other things? Commitment. Commitment to yourself to be the best you can instead of being satisfied to just do a little of everything and none of it well. Commitment to your teammates to always be there for them and doing your best for them. 2. Time Management. If you manage your time properly, it can all be done without something having to suffer. It goes back to what is important. If it is important enough to do, it should be important enough to do your best. The only way to be your best is to always be there when you need to be. 3. Prioritize. You need to learn to set priorities and stick to them. 4. Teamwork. Learn to be there when other people are counting on you. Let people know that you have made a commitment (there's that word again), to be a good teammate. I could go on with others but it all comes back to the same thing. If something is important enough to you, you will work hard to give it your best all the time not just when it is convenient. (You might remember some of this when you're in college and trying to keep it together or when you're married and have a family of your own). If you don't make a commitment it is always easy to find excuses. (Believe me I've heard them all in 20 years of coaching).

We lost one of our swimmers at Christmas break because she changed foster families. (Remember some of my earlier comments about transience?) She wrote this letter, a good example of how important a program can be to kids win or lose.

"Swim Team - I want to thank you all for allowing me to be a part of Sierra's team and for cheering me on. Good luck on the future and congratulations on the past. Always be grateful to Mr. Gross and Mr. Anstey because they do care a lot about you all no matter what some people say. I want to especially thank them for caring so much about me and my well being. So thank you.

Remember, you're a team. You must work together in everything you do. Without the others each of you would be nothing. You couldn't win any meets by yourselves. So work together and I'll see you next season when Widefield and Sierra compete. - Thanks Everyone M.J.B.

Another example of conflict came up at the very beginning of track season because the Boy's Basketball team was going to the state playoffs. We always did everything we could to work our practice schedule around the playoffs because so many of our kids as well as they coaches wanted to go support the team. We would run an early practice for kids who had last period off and we would even run practice at lunch time for those who couldn't practice any other time. Finally we made arrangements for supervision by a coach not going to the playoffs for the kids who wanted to practice at the regular time. It was a crazy time! In the scrimmage result newsletter I wrote, "Pay attention at the meetings and practices the next few days, the schedule will have many changes and we'll play it day to day with state basketball. Hopefully you'll be going to the game on Saturday". And the majority of the kids did everything we asked of them.

I think the best way to summarize this season is to share what I wrote in the newsletter after State.

"State Championship & State Record 4 x 800 Relay 9:43.17 Shawna - Erika - Rhiannon - Shaniquea. This was the first running event state record in school history and only the second overall along with Leilani's discus title. This was also the year that Sierra had their first state championship in boy's track when Jason W won the 400 meters. He went on to have a very successful track career at Colorado State University. This is another place to bring up transience. That 3200 relay had 2 juniors, a sophomore and a freshman and 3 of the four ran cross country. We hoped to convince the freshman to run cross country next year as well but whether we did or not the future for track looked very bright. Wrong again! One junior ran cross country and track and had a good senior year. The other junior and the sophomore left to go to a charter school that made them a bunch of unfulfilled and unrealistic promises. The sophomore eventually made her way back to Sierra and set the senior record in the 800 meters. And the freshman? She moved to Denver!

Back to the season summary. "Congratulations ladies for the many accomplishments you've had this season individually and as a team. The future looks bright if you are all willing to do what you know it takes to be the best you can. You all saw first hand this year that hard work pays off. Don't settle for anything less than your best. Your talent and your potential is unlimited, don't sell yourselves short. Take the same type of work ethic you showed on the track to the classroom. You all should be working to be the best that you can in the classroom. 

After the Fountain Fort Carson meet I told the coaches that you were a special group of young ladies. You handled our home meet great when I was out of town and then you performed so well at Fountain in spite of the fact that you had been at prom and after prom all night. You did it without complaining and you did everything you were supposed to without having to be told. That was the sign to me that you were special and it showed the rest of the season. 

You had victories at Lewis Palmer and Cheyenne Mountain and again at the Regional Championship. (Do you think Pueblo will be glad to see us move to the CSML next year)? Then you carried the effort through the State Championship meet. You did all of this in spite of the fact that we had more illness, more nagging injuries and more schedule conflicts that we've ever had in several seasons put together.

You were always there for us and for each other. If we needed someone to do a different event or an extra event you all did it without complaint. Down the stretch and right through State some of you were called on to carry a huge load. Again you did it and you didn't complain. Thanks to each and every member of this team from all of the coaches."

In winning the Regional Championship the girls:

• Set a Regional Record for most points
• Set a Regional Record for widest margin of victory
• Had the most Regional Champions with 8
• Won all five relays at the Regional meet
• Equaled the school record for number of events qualified to state with 13
• Elena became only the 7th 4 year state qualifier in school history
• Won the Regional Championship for the 5th year in a row
• The 9th Regional Championship for Sierra in 12 years. 2nd the other 3 years.

At the state meet the won the 4 x 800 relay in state record time in the closest finish in any relay at the meet. They scored the most points at state in school history. And their 4th place finish was the highest in school history.

Casa Bonita!

As always we celebrated our 4 year letter winners and our seniors. We had some outstanding representatives for the Rotary Club Champion award from all three sports. Two of our athletes, Anne and Melissa were chosen to be Olympic Torch Relay escort runners.

Assistant Coaches - 1994 - 1995

In my 20 years coaching at Sierra I had a total of 26 different assistant coaches some were only there for one season because they were only at the school that long while others coached for a year and more before moving on to other schools or even other states. I was blessed to have two coaches for a long time, Brent Garretson for 15 years and Ron Payton for 13. Brent was still coaching with me during my final season and Ron only left when he moved on to become the head coach at Woodland Park High School where his son and daughter competed. They were two of the assistants that I called the "Dream Team" along with Dennis Hill for 6 years and Kelly Smoote'-Eichman for 5. It was great working with such a skilled group of people all on one staff. When I wanted assistants I wanted teachers first and that is certainly what I had with that staff. They were all multi-sport coaches and Head Coaches of other sports. It was a fun staff to work with. I always wanted our staff to be on the same page about priorities and expectations so in addition to coaches meetings I provided them with handouts called, "Coaching Thoughts and Comments". This is part of the handout from 1991 when the above staff was intact:

Coach Positive: Emphasize the things athletes are doing right when teaching a skill event. Telling an athlete to not do something over and over will only reinforce the incorrect learning.

Flexibility: As you all know, with the weather we have in Colorado Springs, we've got to be very flexible with our workouts. Always have an alternative indoor workout planned. Another area where we'll have to be very conscious of flexibility is due to the large number of athletes who'll be working out at the same time. Make sure the athletes are all aware of the importance of being aware of everything going on around them. Please constantly remind the athletes that when an athlete behind them yells, "track", they need to get off the track immediately.

Records: Many of our athletes will only be successful by improving from week to week and may never be overly successful in a meet situation. If you're not timing and measuring in practice and recording those results, they'll never see progress and will get discouraged. If you don't have the time to measure or time yourself, get enough managers to do it. I want copies of all practices and results at least once a week. Probably every Monday from the previous week if that works for you. Obviously you won't measure and time the athletes specific event each time but there are many options and they can all help the athlete become successful. If you would like suggestions, let me know.

Keep Kids Out: I know you all agree with me but I want to say this anyway, every athlete is important, keep them out. It's up to each of us to help each athlete have a positive experience. After all, we're the people that encouraged them to come out.

Practice Routine: Every day we will warm up with two laps and stretch as a team. After the first week or two depending on how far we get and how fast, we'll break into our own events for the rest of the warm up. I use 10 x 100 with a jog back and incorporate sprint form drills. This gives the athlete over a mile of additional warm up and gives you a chance to monitor form running etc. It works for me.

Fun: Fun is a priority. One of the athletes who runs track and cross country both for me made it clear that she really enjoys cross country more than track and fun is the reason. In all honesty, she was right. I made the mistake in the past of letting one or more negative athletes ruin the fun for all of us. Let's make an effort to not allow that this year. We all deserve to have fun.

Group Gripes: Unless it's something that the whole group needs to hear about, I prefer not to have any general group gripe sessions, deal with the individual or individuals involved.

Document: If there is any problem that could lead to dismissal from the team or any other action that could require parental or administrative involvement, document it as it occurs, don't try to recreate the incident later. In addition, document any injuries. We're not a medical staff, we can't be sure how serious an injury is. Also, if there is an injury that requires medical attention fill out an accident report for Debbie in the office.

Check Areas Daily: Make sure you do a thorough check of your area daily. Be sure the pits, runways, throwing rings, etc. are safe. Your managers can help here but the ultimate responsibility is yours.

And there was more. It was very important that we be on the same page as a staff if we were going to be successful.  Two way, ongoing communication was critical. 

After the '94 cross country scrimmage with Ponderosa it seemed like a good time to revisit how cross country was scored and the importance of things like pack times and finishing an entire race. Little did I know when I wrote this newsletter entry how prophetic it would be in regards to the girls team chances to return to the state meet.

"Scoring: FYI in cross country, low score wins. This is because they add up the places of the top 5 finishers for each team. What does that mean? It means that every runner needs to not only finish finish as high as possible so they score as few points as possible but also to beat as many people on other teams as possible to run their scores up. For example, at the mile on Saturday, Sierra was running 1-4-7-8-9-(29 total) and 10. Ponderosa was 2-3-5-6-11-(27 total). At that point they were only ahead of us by 2 points. The final places were Sierra 3-6-8-9-10-(36 total) and Ponderosa 1-2-4-5-7-(19 total). We had almost double their score. What does this mean? They're in better condition than we are. There is only one way to change this. Don't loaf in practice. You have to get to the point where you can race for 3.1 miles not just 1 mile".

Here is a brief overview of why this turned out to be prophetic. The past few seasons there were as many as six teams qualifying for state from our region and this year we were not only changing regions but only four teams would qualify. We knew which teams were going to be capable of keeping us from qualifying if we didn't perform and even our best performance might not be enough. At our first meet we got beat by Liberty one of the teams we had to beat, they had 151 to our 259. 108 points is a lot to overcome.

The next time we saw them was at the Air Academy Invitational and we were beaten 163 - 228. (65 points). We were also beaten by Rampart 108, Air Academy 179 and Lewis Palmer 199 from our region.  Between Harrison and Air Academy the girls gained confidence by winning Pueblo County, Cheyenne Mountain and Falcon invitationals. At Cheyenne Mountain we beat Lewis Palmer 53 - 60 and at Falcon we beat Liberty 60 - 67. At the next meet, the Coronado meet once again Liberty wasn't there and we finished 5th. Two other teams from our region were there Rampart 2nd and Lewis Palmer 3rd. It continued to be obvious that we were going to have to beat one of the top four teams to qualify. At this point I handed out a "mid-season summary" for the kids with all of their performances and asked them to fill out a multi-page questionnaire and do an honest assessment of their season up to that point as well as what their goals, individual and team were for the remainder of the season.

Our next meet was interesting only because it showed that we were gaining respect in the cross country community. The meet was the Pueblo Invitational and was a two division meet. "That's the first time we've run Division I at Pueblo in 11 years. Why were we moved to Division I? Because we've earned the respect to be there. Ladies you finished 7th in a field of 21 teams. You were the 1st 4A team. I'm proud of your finish". Lewis Palmer won Division II.

At the Rampart Invitational Rampart 34 and Lewis Palmer 90 were 1st and 2nd, we were 4th with 127 and Air Academy 6th 164 and Liberty 9th 247. Both AA and Liberty were notorious for not always running their best team in every meet. While that might have worked for them in their programs because of the large teams they had I always ran my top seven in every meet unless they were injured or ill. Even though the coaches knew that Liberty did this we didn't say anything about it to the girls because they were feeling more confident about competing with them.

We next ran at the Pikes Peak Invitational and AA continued playing with their roster and finished 11th with 362 points. Lewis Palmer was 5th 214, Sierra 8th 293 and Liberty 9th 297. We also had a roster change in that Susan a young lady who transferred to Sierra from the Netherlands had enough practices to run her first meet. She finished 18th in the open division and earned a spot on the varsity for the next meet. At the final meet before Region Susan maintained her spot in the top seven so she would be running varsity at Region. We were the only team from our Region at Rangeview.

We made it to state for the 5th year in a row. The scores were as follows; Rampart 41, Air Academy 66, Lewis Palmer 81 and SIERRA 105. Liberty also scored 105 points but we got the qualifying spot because our 6th runner (Susan 37th) beat their 6th runner (50th). Susan was our 5th runner at the state meet. We were fortunate to have a strong 1-2 with Cassandra and Amanda but it was the work of the other girls 3 through about 9 that made it possible for us to become a state qualifying team.

And how did the school administration view this accomplishment? Go back and look at the send off for the 1990 cross country team and compare it to this picture.

The '95 track season was the last year that my staff included Brent, Ron, Kelly and Dennis and we also had Gayle Hinrichs that year. It was an efficient staff and with such a short season it was very important to be so. After the first week I wrote this in the coaches handout: "Good first week. I think we're right where we want to be. Some of you may be feeling a little restless because the weather is so good and we're not divided into groups yet. For the record, we didn't break into groups until next week last year either and we didn't even do the 200 time trial until next Monday and the 600 next Wednesday. We'll plan to do the 600 Monday. I'm sure they'll complain and swear they are not ready but we can get it over with while the weather is still good. Then if possible I want to do make yp with those who missed the 200 and the two jump tests. After Monday I don't want to test again until we absolutely have to".

Because we had such a good staff with Brent - throws, Ron - Distance, Dennis - Jumps, Kelly - Hurdles, Gayle - where needed and myself - sprints and relays we had a very well balanced track team, a real key to success. It gave the girls confidence to know that if someone messed up in one area someone else would pick up the points somewhere else. We finished 1st or 2nd in every meet in '95 including winning the regional championship for the 4th year in a row. While we only won 4 events at region we scored in all 18 events. This was also the first year that we moved our focus beyond the region to the state meet.

"In New Mexico our first goal was to win the District Championship but it was also our goal to win the State Championship. At Sierra it has always been our goal to win the District - Regional Championship but that's where it ends. It can't end there any longer. We have never been in a better position to win state than we are right now. It's going to take each of you getting focused on that goal right now, today, this morning and being willing to do what is necessary".

We didn't win state but we did have our best performance in the state meet up to that point.  We finished 6th. "In 11 years Sierra has won a total of 64 medals at the state meet. This year you won 17 and that represents 27% of all state medals in school history. In the first 10 years of Sierra history the girls track teams had placed in a total of 20 events at state. This year you placed in 7 events".

1995 GIRL'S TRACK