Hearing from a former athlete & 4 Year Letter Winners

Judy - Sophomore Year @ Casa Bonita after State

In November 1993 I received a letter from Judy who had been a 4 year letter winner on our track team. She was going to college at Trinidad State her freshman year and she wanted me to read a paper that she had written for a class. The letter and the paper were interesting because you never really know what kind of influence you had on a student-athlete and what they take away from their interaction with you. I'm going to share both the letter and some parts the paper in this post.

November 12, 1993
Dear Mr. Anstey;
I'm giving my sister my rough draft of my midterm paper to give to you. I still haven't received my final copy but I thought you might like to be able to read my rough draft. I hope you like it. Things over here are boring. We just ended our volleyball season with a 17 win 22 loss record. I don't really get along with the coach but then again I suppose there aren't very many coaches I seem to agree with besides you. I think it's because I have a big mouth and when I get mad I can't seem to keep it closed. It's getting better though. I think I've matured a lot since I've been here. I guess I had to being as these people are so much more different than the people I'm accustomed to. I've even taken to liking some country western songs and the Doors. My dad listens to the Doors! It's strange to tell my friends down there especially being that I was one of the most closed minded people while I lived in Colorado Springs. I miss everyone a lot. I even miss high school. If I could do it all over again I would. Then she shared some things about her grades and her social life. It was nice hearing from her.


I'll pick up her paper after she shared how we met in the hallway at school when she was a freshman volleyball player and I asked if she was going to join track in the spring.

"After that incident, I figures that I wouldn't talk to Mr. Anstey much until track season. However, he proved to be different from other coaches. He went out of his way to talk to me. He greeted me every day and attended almost all of my home games. Nobody else, even my own parents at times, could stand to watch a girls' volleyball or basketball game. They were so boring that if I didn't play, I would not have attended them.

He always gave me tips on controlling my temper and working hard. Whenever I was doing something wrong on the court, I would look at him before I looked at my coach for that specific court. He became one of my best friends. He was so much of a father figure that I even told him about personal aspects of my life. I even recall a couple of times when he told me I should date certain nice boys that went to school with me. I knew that I could trust him with anything.

Since I was somewhat selfish, I'd like to think that Coach Anstey used to treat me better than the rest of the girls' track team. However, that was untrue. He treated all the members of the track team with love. There were a couple of stubborn girls that wouldn't accept him or were just too much in their own worlds to open up to him. But Mr. Anstey would blow them off for the time being and focus more on the girls who would listen to him. He didn't disregard them, but rather paid more attention to those who wanted his advice. If ever they had a problem, he listened with open ears, as he did with all of the track members. He showed sympathy for those who deserved it and sneered at those who just wanted attention.

One of Mr. Anstey's biggest pet peeves was girls who would complain about small pains. They weren't injured, but rather hurt or sore because they didn't stretch well enough the day before. He hated that. At one time, he was so tired of bad attitudes and complaining girls that he had thoughts of resigning. But there were other factors involved also. If I remember right, his wife was sick. He was so stressed with problems at home and school that he felt that he had to let one go. Since his family came first, he thought that it was best to let us go. He loved the girls' track team and it hurt him to tell us that he was resigning.

The first and last time I had ever seen Coach Anstey cry was when he told us. Nearly the entire track team broke down into tears. My heart sank as if I just got news that a member of my family had died. We literally begged him for a second chance to prove that we could do our best with no complaints. He granted us our wish and, to this day, he still coaches track at my former high school.

Mr. Anstey wasn't a quitter, and he taught me to not be one also. The thing I appreciate the most about him is that he instilled confidence into me. Without his help, I would have quit participating in sports, and I would not have been able to go to college.

On a recent visit to my old high school, I met Mr. Anstey once again. He gave me a hug and said, "I'm proud of you." I will always remember those words that had such a great impact on my life....All the pain I went through to stay involved in sports during high school all paid off, in that I had someone who was proud of me, and I made it into college."

That feedback was valuable going forward in my coaching career because it reinforced that I was doing the right thing.

Lettering at Sierra for the athletes that I coached was different from a lot of programs, especially "team" sports. Most team sports based lettering on playing time. An athlete had to have so many quarters to even be considered for a letter. A lot of coaches of other "individual" sports lettered based strictly on how many points an athlete scored for the team during the season. The difference in the system that I used was based on some of that as well but if an athlete did their best, stayed out of grade trouble and was not a discipline problem in track or anywhere else then they had an equal opportunity to letter. An athlete could receive positive points for the points they earned in an event, for example 1st in a big meet would be 10 points all the way to 8th which was 1 point. An athlete would earn 2 points for participating in a meet and 1 point for each practice attended. If an athlete missed an event or practice and it was unexcused they would get -2. If an athlete showed up on the failure list then they would lose 5 points for each failing grade and 3 points for each near fail. If an athlete was academically ineligible for two weeks in a row and there were no extenuating circumstances then they would be in jeopardy of being permanently removed from the team.

Despite the fact that everyone had an equal opportunity to letter it was unusual for someone to letter four years and for that reason we placed a lot of emphasis on the pride in being a 4 year letter winner. Our 4 year letter winners were a good example of how an athlete could grow and become a contributing member of the team from one year to the next. In 1990, Alanna, Judy and Toi were all freshmen on the team. Alanna was a distance runner, Toi a sprinter and jumper and Judy primarily a jumper but she also sprinted some and ran the hurdles early in the season. At the regional championship meet they scored zero points between the three of them and none of them qualified for state.

Their sophomore year, Alanna was a state qualifier in cross country on the first Sierra cross country team to ever qualify for state where she contributed to a regional championship and a 4th place finish at state. In track they scored 27 points at regionals between the 3 of them and Judy and Toi both qualified for state. As juniors Alanna again qualified for cross country state and they each qualified for state in track after scoring 33 1/2 points at regionals between them. And their senior year, Alanna qualified for state cross country and Judy and Toi qualified for state track after they scored 44 1/2 points between the three of them at regionals. So after not scoring a point at region as freshmen the three girls scored 105 regional points combined the next three years. There were teams in our region who didn't score 105 points in those three years combined.

In the final newsletter their senior year this is what I wrote.

"This year our four year letter winners were also our team captains . These three young ladies were also our team captains as juniors. In my opinion the 4 year letter winner award is the highest that can be earned as a member of the Sierra girls' track and cross country programs. The reasons that I say this are many: the girls showed that they can start something and complete it;the girls kept their grades up throughout their four years; the girls provided leadership, more each year as new people became members of our programs; most important is the fact that the girls made a commitment to something and fulfilled that commitment, to themselves, to their coaches, to their teammates and to their school.

This year's FOUR YEAR LETTER WINNERS were: Toi, Judy and Alanna. These girls not only made a commitment to their track team but also to being outstanding leaders while they were student-athletes at Sierra High School. Congratulations to each of them and thanks to each of them."

I then provided a list of 6 juniors, 8 sophomores and 13 freshmen who had the potential to be 4 year letter winners. And how did that turn out? 4 of the juniors, 4 of the sophomores and 5 of the freshmen became 4 year letter winners. Sadly one of those freshmen was one of the most physically talented track athletes that I ever coached and she wouldn't even make it through her sophomore season.


It's really simple, the more opportunities you had to work with an athlete the more chance you had to help them be successful.