I had always encouraged my own children as well as my athletes to keep photo albums and scrap books. I would show them my newsletters from high school and encourage them to keep their own because I told them that they would mean even more to them in the future. After my conversation with Nina I also encouraged them to have an, "I Love Me Wall" and still encourage my grandchildren to do it to this day.
After we finished 2nd at State in 1998, Ann Tatko a sportswriter at The Gazette at the time wanted to do a preseason story on our team prior to the 1999 season. At the time I wasn't teaching I was the school's Portfolio Director so we met in my office. Here is what she wrote:
Going to the Wall
The photos adorning the office walls stand as more than a testament to Dana Anstey's 14-year coaching career at Sierra High School.
They represent the school's success in girls track and field better than even the plaques and trophies can.
The state runner-up award from last year may bear the label of the program's greatest achievement, but those are mere words.
The sport may boast the school's first state champion, Leilani Toloa in the '94 discus, but even she would be nothing more than a name -- if not for the photos.
Crowding inside each frame blanketing the walls of Anstey's office are faces of success. The athletes who built this program. The athletes who still inspire the heirs of Sierra's legacy.
"They want to be a part of the tradition," Anstey said as he cast a quick glance around his office. "It's as simple as having the pictures on the wall. The kids want to know why theirs aren't up there too -- and when they will be. They take a lot of pride in their program."
Pride comes naturally to a program that has placed first or second at regionals since the school opened 15 years ago.
Respect is a little harder to come by, even for a team that finished only 10 points behind last year's state champions, Mullen.
The Denver media tabbed Mullen as the favorite to repeat this season, while ranking Sierra No. 4. But rankings don't always tell the real story. Sierra looks like the strongest contender for the 1999 state title.
The Stallions lost only three of their state meet points and one of their relay legs to graduation. In return, they got Harrison transfer and state qualifier Leslie Banks, who placed second in the 400 and long jump and took fourth in the triple jump.
"Mullen lost two girls who their coach said were the heart of their program and we gained 22 points while only losing three," Anstey said. "But the bottom line is that it's not where you are now but where you are in May."
Sierra plans to be at the front of the pack in May when the class 4A meet takes place at the Air Force Academy.
The Stallions accomplished that last year, and they expect to do it again -- this year and in the years to come.
Merging success with continuity has become a hallmark for Sierra because Anstey and his assistants stress going the extra mile -- literally.
Unlike many track coaches, Anstey employs cross-country training with all of his runners, including the sprinters.
"Any team can have a lot of kids, but you only win with quality depth," said Anstey who has a squad of 60 athletes, including 22 letter-winners and 11 state qualifiers.
"Often we rely on kids, like the sprinters, to step up and fill spots where we have a real need, and sometimes that means doing another race."
At Sierra, the bar of success can always rise higher -- even for a young state champion. Last year Tasha McLaughlin won the discus title as a sophomore. Now everyone has targeted her as the thrower to beat. But McLaughlin's goals for '99 go beyond just defending her title. "I was eighth in state in the shot put, and this year I hope to do even better," she said. "That will help the team, so maybe we can all be state champions."
And maybe after this year, they will all find a place among the photos in Anstey's office.
While I didn't know it at the time the 1998 season had some indicators that it was going to get rough for a while after '98. At the scrimmage we only had 5 girls and 2 boys with enough practices to compete and 1 girl and 6 boys who ran the 5k time trial. Additionally there were 6 girls who only ran the first mile of the course for a time trial. Only 4 of the girls who would eventually be our top seven at the end of the season ran. Numbers continued to be a problem throughout the season and we still had only 12 of 15 boys and 12 of 15 girls compete when region came along.
We had a solid top 3 girls throughout the season as well as our top 2 boys.
Despite our issues with numbers we had a good finish to the season. After the Regional Championship meet I wrote: "Congratulations on an outstanding finish to the regular season. The 6th place finish by the boy's team was the highest finish since 1991, the last year the boys qualified for state. The 3rd place, state qualifying finish by the girls was only the 4th time in school history that the girls have finished in the top 3 at the Regional Meet.
Congratulations to Tommy and Kelly on their state qualifying performances. They are the first males to qualify for state since 1992. Congratulations to the girls' team for qualifying for state for the 9th year in a row. Like I told you on the bus, this year's freshmen were in kindergarten the last time the girls didn't qualify for state. Great job Ladies, you exceeded our best hopes. Great team work and great support for one another. If those of you in the top 5 hadn't passed the girls that you passed from the last 1/2 mile in, you would have finished 5th and been staying home."
At state 4 of the 7 girls PRed.
So what were the indicators besides having so few ready to compete by the time the scrimmage rolled around? It took a couple of years to see but looking back here is what it was. On the girl's team there were 13 who lettered. 4 of the state qualifiers were seniors in addition to a senior foreign exchange student so that brings the number of potential returners to 8. Two of the seniors were first year runners including one who went to Falcon her first three years even though her brother went to and graduated from Sierra. Of those 8, our #2 runner was a junior who was at Sierra for her first year because her mother was a new science teacher (she also had a very promising sister in the 7th grade), the next year her mother took a job in Leadville so she wasn't back. Now the number is 7 potential of 13. We had a junior who was a second year runner and didn't come out her senior year. We had two sophomores who would be four year letter winners when the finished including our #1 runner at the time, Tara. Finally we had 4 freshmen. One didn't come out as a sophomore. One didn't finish her sophomore year our #3 runner several times. One moved after her sophomore year and the 4th is the only one who ran and lettered all four years. Ironically she was the slowest of the four and we only had her run the first mile or two of races until the 4th meet of the season. She would graduate as a two time state qualifier and only an injury her junior year prevented it being three times.
And the guys were similar of the 15 who lettered 6 were seniors including one of our top two runners. Our usual #1 was only a sophomore but he chose not to come out his junior or senior years so he could, "focus on basketball". And our 3rd runner all season was an improving sophomore who would run his junior year but then move to Kansas and have a very successful senior season.
One of the seniors, Sheila wrote the following essay for her sophomore English class and her teacher shared it with me.
We had a solid top 3 girls throughout the season as well as our top 2 boys.
Congratulations to Tommy and Kelly on their state qualifying performances. They are the first males to qualify for state since 1992. Congratulations to the girls' team for qualifying for state for the 9th year in a row. Like I told you on the bus, this year's freshmen were in kindergarten the last time the girls didn't qualify for state. Great job Ladies, you exceeded our best hopes. Great team work and great support for one another. If those of you in the top 5 hadn't passed the girls that you passed from the last 1/2 mile in, you would have finished 5th and been staying home."
At state 4 of the 7 girls PRed.
So what were the indicators besides having so few ready to compete by the time the scrimmage rolled around? It took a couple of years to see but looking back here is what it was. On the girl's team there were 13 who lettered. 4 of the state qualifiers were seniors in addition to a senior foreign exchange student so that brings the number of potential returners to 8. Two of the seniors were first year runners including one who went to Falcon her first three years even though her brother went to and graduated from Sierra. Of those 8, our #2 runner was a junior who was at Sierra for her first year because her mother was a new science teacher (she also had a very promising sister in the 7th grade), the next year her mother took a job in Leadville so she wasn't back. Now the number is 7 potential of 13. We had a junior who was a second year runner and didn't come out her senior year. We had two sophomores who would be four year letter winners when the finished including our #1 runner at the time, Tara. Finally we had 4 freshmen. One didn't come out as a sophomore. One didn't finish her sophomore year our #3 runner several times. One moved after her sophomore year and the 4th is the only one who ran and lettered all four years. Ironically she was the slowest of the four and we only had her run the first mile or two of races until the 4th meet of the season. She would graduate as a two time state qualifier and only an injury her junior year prevented it being three times.
And the guys were similar of the 15 who lettered 6 were seniors including one of our top two runners. Our usual #1 was only a sophomore but he chose not to come out his junior or senior years so he could, "focus on basketball". And our 3rd runner all season was an improving sophomore who would run his junior year but then move to Kansas and have a very successful senior season.
One of the seniors, Sheila wrote the following essay for her sophomore English class and her teacher shared it with me.
"A Person Who Influenced Me"
"A person who has influenced me is my cross country coach, Coach Anstey. He has always been there and never let me quit, no matter how bad I ever felt or how bad I was doing. Even when I was doing horrible, he always made me feel good about myself, and he told me I was doing fine.
Coach Anstey helped me to realize that it is better to finish dead last than to quit and then feel bad about it. I remember my very first meet and I felt really bad and I did not feel like I was running very well, but he was on my side and never let me quit, and when I was finished he told me I did good.
I also learned that it does not matter what place I ever got in a race, it does not matter as long as I did the best I can. My coach pushed me and pushed me. It really paid off because the harder he pushed me the harder I pushed myself and the better I got. He never put me down and always made me feel good about myself." (She wrote this after her first season and two years later as a senior she was part of our state qualifying team).
Our 1998 - 1999 swim season was pretty much the same as the past three seasons. The girls competed hard, worked hard in practice and had fun. We were 2-7 tying the best record for the four years that Joe and I had been coaching together. The move to the Metro League continued to work out just as we anticipated. For example; at the League Championship meet we set school records in all three relays and finished 12th, 11th and 10th out of 13 total teams. As far as individual events our top finisher was Crystal who set a school record in the 100 freestyle and placed 27th. Joe announced that this was going to be his final season as head coach so the first order of business moving ahead was going to be finding a new head coach. I definitely didn't want the added responsibility on top of being head girls track and head boys and head girls cross country. Joe and I finished our four years working together with a 6 - 27 record and yet we saw a lot of growth in the program.
One of our athletes who was a four year letter winner and school record holder wrote the following narrative essay for her college freshman English class. Where she reflected back on her time at Sierra.
"Quit Does Not Spell Success"
" Freshman orientation was a scary day. I walked into Sierra High School unsure about everything, activities I wanted to do, who my friends were, and even where the bathroom was. I didn't know anything. Then a man walked up to me and introduced himself. He had dark brown hair with streaks of gray and a neatly trimmed mustache. The man was also wearing tinted eyeglasses. He was Dana Anstey, Portfolio Director, coach for cross country, girl's swimming and girl's track. Anstey was average build, and at a height of maybe five foot, nine inches. Not a very big man. I wish I could say the same for his ego, and how blunt he was. Instead of asking me nicely if I wanted to involve myself in athletics, Mr. Anstey rudely asked, "Do you plan on being a couch potato through four years of high school?"
My response was, no. Mr. Anstey then described a succinct explanation of how athletics would help me make friends, and get good grades. I accepted his offer and joined a few sports. I had no idea that Mr. Anstey would become my coach, friend, and teacher through the next four years. He has changed my life by teaching me that if I push myself one step further I succeed and that quitting is two steps backwards in success.
At the end of four years in girl's swimming, I achieved the title of team captain and most valuable swimmer for two years. Also I held fourteen school records at one point. Starting as a freshman I barely knew how to swim.
Coach Anstey put me in my first event, the five-hundred free style, which is ten, long laps. I knew the five-hundred was the most rigorous and stressful event. Every lap I did Anstey would walk along the pool and try to motivate me. I couldn't hear him, but I could read his lips. He was saying, "Kick your legs and beat the girls next to you. Truthfully I didn't want to win, I wanted to strangle Coach Anstey for putting me in this race. Then, I realized I was halfway done. I ended up finishing the race in fifth place, out of six swimmers.
The next practice I told Anstey and the other coach, I wanted to be a sprinter and to learn to do the butterfly. It happened, because a few meets later I was in the one-hundred butterfly. I really didn't know how to do the stroke. I was placed in lane six, and that is supposed to be the slowest lane. Before the event I went to everyone looking for sympathy. Most people said I will do just fine. Anstey just told me to "shut up and get on the blocks". I ended up being very nervous, but I stood at the blocks and waited for the start. I had butterflies in my stomach, and I couldn't think. Suddenly it was time, and the gun went off. I jumped in the pool and felt my body freeze. The water was ice cold. Within seconds I made it to the other side of the pool. I finished my first length. With plenty of confidence I pushed off the wall, ready to compete. Once again Anstey followed me back and forth across the pool cheering me on. I had a thrustful (sic) kick that made huge waves, until the last lap. My arms and legs began to slow down. I placed my hands on the wall with a death grip, for my last flip turn. My head was saying, "Don't you dare let go." but my heart was saying, "Finish the race". I let go of the wall and headed for the finish line. On my last stroke, I kicked hard and grabbed the wall, realizing I had finished in second place. My heart was beating faster than the speed of light. That race was the start of my competitive, passion for swimming. Mr. Anstey and the head coach ran up to me, gave me a big hug, and told me I broke a school record. Coach Anstey doesn't show how proud he is in the most obvious ways. He may only give a thumbs up, but coming from him that thumbs up is better than any award.
For the next three years I continued to break records and earn ribbons for first and second place. I became a swimming champion at my high school. I have Coach Anstey to thank, because he always knew what I needed to succeed, and that was opportunity and motivation.
From freshman to junior year, I played varsity volleyball. The coaches were not supportive and caused me to lose interest in the game. At the end of my junior year, I became deathly sick with mono. I lost energy, muscle and weight. Recovery was very hard. During the summer I had to make a decision. My choices were, to play volleyball with a team that really didn't get along, try to work with a new coach, or lose my position on varsity volleyball and try a new sport and plan to have fun. I remember Anstey asking me if I would consider running cross country for him. He promised me that if I tried my hardest at running I would build my strength back and have fun doing it. I agreed. So the fall of my senior year, I passed up my volleyball position and ran cross country.
Practices were difficult. I was not the fastest runner nor the slowest. Sometimes Coach Anstey would run next to me. He would give me advice on how to improve my running form and then tell me to catch the girl ahead of me. He always believed I could do better. After a few weeks I gained muscle weight and energy. With plenty of effort I ranked number four in the team and made varsity. When I looked up the history on girl's varsity cross country, I found out that as a team they went to state every year for the past eight years. I had never been to state for any sport. From that moment on I pushed myself to run faster. I wanted to go to state.
There was a meet at Monument Valley Park and I pushed myself too far. Suddenly after two miles I couldn't breathe, my legs became heavy. I slowed down considerably. Coach Anstey was standing next to the trail that I was running on, and I will never forget what he told me. He asked with a serious and angry voice, "Do you want to quit? Because if you do, stop right there and walk back to camp." His words caused my pain to decrease and anger appeared. With little effort I yelled out, "No, I will never quit." My speed increased and I finished the race, with an embarrassing time. I knew I could do better and so did he, and he tried helping me with advice. His advice has always been the best for me so I took it, and came out with a couple of personal best times.
At the end of the season, I qualified for state. The state race was in Kent, Denver. The temperature was thirty degrees, plus strong wind, and heavy rain. As if the weather wasn't bad enough, rules for state dictated that all coaches remain at the finish line and could not help runners during the race. Then standing at the starting line, seconds before the race was to begin, I motivated myself by thinking, "What would Anstey want from me this race?" I achieved all my goals throughout the season except to have fun. For this race, I was going to have a good time. Finally I heard the refs say, "Runners take your mark, get set, BANG!" The gun was shot, and I was off running. The rain was difficult to run through, but I imagined myself running through sprinklers in my front yard, and felt no worries. During the race I could hear Anstey talking to me. He was saying, "Amanda catch that girl ahead of you." I kept looking for him. Then I realized he was in my head. This man that I thought was so blunt was a part of me, and I know one of the best parts of me. My last obstacle was a huge hill that I had to run down. It was slippery and had bad footing. I pictured myself as a bird, so I could spread my wings and fly down the hill. I finished the race not even wondering what my time was. All I could think about was how much fun I had and how proud I was. About thirty minutes after the race, I found out that I had another personal best time and made my high school's top list for cross country. I have Coach Anstey to thank for helping me succeed.
The last time I saw Mr. Anstey was at the World Arena for my high school graduation. I was nervous, waiting for my name to be called. I had chills of joy and chills of fear racing through my body. I was happy because I successfully passed four tough years and scared because my future was unknown. Finally I stood at the bottom of the stairs and my name was next. All I could think about was, "What am I going to do after graduation, how can I face the world, and how scared I was to even try?" Then my name was called. As I walked up the stairs, Coach Anstey stood at the top, staring down at me. He was deep in thought with no expression on his face. I reached the top and made eye contact with my Coach. The air was thin, and I was sweating. Out of all the pressure I had in high school, I knew I was never as nervous as I was at that moment. Still having eye contact, Coach Anstey slowly said, "I am so proud of you, and you will always succeed just because you never quit." We turned and faced center stage. Anstey held out his arm for me to hold. I took a deep breath, realizing it was going to be okay, and then smiled. Coach Anstey walked next to me as I received my greatest achievement, my diploma."
After finishing second at State in 1998 we were entering the '99 season with high hopes and I wanted our seniors to take an active leadership role. In January I mailed a letter to 8 seniors who would be at least three year letter winners. Five could become four year letter winners and three, three year letter winners.
"LaTonya, Nora, Tanya, Christina, Danielle, Stephanie, Patty and Antoinette;
Happy New Year Ladies. I hope you all had an outstanding holiday break and that you are looking forward to your final track season at Sierra as much as the coaches are. For some of you, it will be your fourth year on the team and for 3 of you your third. You have all meant so much to us, not just as track athletes, but as fine young ladies who have represented Sierra in many positive ways.
I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to work with each of you one final time. Take a few minutes and think about all that you have accomplished as a member of either two or three Sierra track teams. Individually and as a team, you have been outstanding. I want this to be the best year you have had.
There is no pressure on any of you this year ladies. You have already accomplished great things. The only thing each of you need to do is have fun, work hard and make this your best season yet. No matter what happens, you will be remembered for a long time as the best girl's track team (over 4 years) that Sierra has had (and we've had many good ones). You have already won two Regional Championships and been 2nd once. On the State level, you have been 4th, 15th and 2nd. What will this year bring? We'll just have to work hard as coaches and athletes and see what happens.
There is one thing I am going to be counting on each of you for. I need your leadership. Because we have such an outstanding group of seniors, I am not going to designate team Captains. As far as I'm concerned, each of you will be acting as a team captain with the leadership you will provide. If you are filling out resumes or applications, feel free to put down that you were a team captain this year. I will be counting on each of you to act like one.
Then on March 12th we held our group meetings to go over tradition, expectations, pride, preparation and philosophy. These meetings were led by our seniors and some of our more talented juniors and a sophomore who was a defending state champion.
I wish I could say that all of this preparation resulted in an easy season but that would be a total misrepresentation of what the season was like. It was one of the hardest, if not the hardest coaching job that we ever had just keeping things together week to week. Part of the problem was that despite the fact that our seniors were talented, the most talented girls on the team were sophomores and they weren't always willing to be led. In in typical Sierra fashion we lost one of the seniors who received the original letter, she quit for personal reasons and then Autumn who was now a junior and one of our best hurdlers didn't finish the season, also for personal issues.
I'll share some newsletter entries from throughout the season.
After the Panther Relays that we won with 99 points. The next 3 teams were 5A schools and 5th place was defending state champion Mullen with 45. (April 7th)
"Ladies you won because this was a total team effort at least as far as performances go. As far as being a team and doing the things a team should do, you are quickly becoming the worst team I have worked with since my first year here as an assistant in 1986. It is going to stop now. If you can't put away your petty differences and petty attitudes towards one another, I would just as soon you quit. TRACK IS NOT AN INDIVIDUAL SPORT OR A SPORT WHERE EVERYONE DOES THEIR OWN THING. AT LEAST THAT IS NOT THE WAY IT HAS BEEN DONE IN THIS PROGRAM, IN THE PAST AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE DONE IN THIS PROGRAM, NOW AND IN THE FUTURE!!! I am only going to touch on these things briefly in the team meeting today. If that's not enough then you will never get it. I don't care how many meets you win, if you can't be a team and act like a team, I am ashamed to be your coach.
Warming up was poor, leadership was nonexistent, cool downs were ignored, stretching was poor, support for the distance runners in particular was nonexistent, the whole idea of team was missing. Go back and reread your meet expectations, I will probably mention some in today's meeting but in case I forget some, you are responsible for them. I want you to have fun in track but I want you to do it the right way. Please, don't embarrass me again or make me talk about this again."
And after the Canon City Invitational that we won with 104 points over 2nd place Rampart who had 56 and 22 other teams it was obvious that despite the hurdles we had throughout the season, we finally got things turned in a better direction. The meet was actually rained out with four events left. (May 4th)
"Ladies congratulations on another great effort. With that victory, you finished the season undefeated in meets where the entire team competed. You won the Icicle Relays, the Panther Relays, the Fountain Fort Carson Invitational and the Canon City Invitational. In addition you won two weekday League meets.
It hasn't been easy this year. The weather has been the worst I can remember in my 22 years as a track coach and there have been some unnecessary personnel issues. Hopefully you can put everything behind you now and just focus on the next two meets. Good luck at Regional on Friday and Saturday. Have fun and compete hard."
A week later after we competed in the Regional Championships and won easily. We scored 194 1/2 to 2nd place Lewis Palmer 106. (May 11th)
"Ladies congratulations on once again becoming Regional Champions. In Sierra's 15 year history the Lady Stallions have won the Regional Championship 11 times. You seniors have contributed to 3 of those wins. Great job! You are the only team that placed in every event. You are the only team that qualified all 5 relays to the state meet. You outscored the runner up by 88 1/2 points which was more than any team except Lewis Palmer scored. You set a record for points scored in a regional meet and for the widest margin of victory at Region. Individually and on relays you had some of the best performances of the season."
Going into the state meet we felt that we had an opportunity to beat Mullen the team that beat us by 10 points last year. The fly in the ointment turned out to be the fact that CHSAA in their infinite wisdom decided in February to add the pole vault as an event and instead of having it be a nonscoring event until schools could be brought up to speed it immediately became an official scoring event at the state meet. In 1998 we lost to Mullen by 10 points. In 1999 we again finished 2nd to Mullen this year by just 9 points. Mullen scored 10 points by winning the pole vault. We didn't have a pole vaulter qualify for state after finishing 4th, 5th and 8th at Region.
On April 1st the Denver Post had written the following story about our team's efforts to find pole vaulters from among existing athletes none of who had ever vaulted before.
"LaTonya, Nora, Tanya, Christina, Danielle, Stephanie, Patty and Antoinette;
Happy New Year Ladies. I hope you all had an outstanding holiday break and that you are looking forward to your final track season at Sierra as much as the coaches are. For some of you, it will be your fourth year on the team and for 3 of you your third. You have all meant so much to us, not just as track athletes, but as fine young ladies who have represented Sierra in many positive ways.
I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to work with each of you one final time. Take a few minutes and think about all that you have accomplished as a member of either two or three Sierra track teams. Individually and as a team, you have been outstanding. I want this to be the best year you have had.
There is no pressure on any of you this year ladies. You have already accomplished great things. The only thing each of you need to do is have fun, work hard and make this your best season yet. No matter what happens, you will be remembered for a long time as the best girl's track team (over 4 years) that Sierra has had (and we've had many good ones). You have already won two Regional Championships and been 2nd once. On the State level, you have been 4th, 15th and 2nd. What will this year bring? We'll just have to work hard as coaches and athletes and see what happens.
There is one thing I am going to be counting on each of you for. I need your leadership. Because we have such an outstanding group of seniors, I am not going to designate team Captains. As far as I'm concerned, each of you will be acting as a team captain with the leadership you will provide. If you are filling out resumes or applications, feel free to put down that you were a team captain this year. I will be counting on each of you to act like one.
Then on March 12th we held our group meetings to go over tradition, expectations, pride, preparation and philosophy. These meetings were led by our seniors and some of our more talented juniors and a sophomore who was a defending state champion.
I wish I could say that all of this preparation resulted in an easy season but that would be a total misrepresentation of what the season was like. It was one of the hardest, if not the hardest coaching job that we ever had just keeping things together week to week. Part of the problem was that despite the fact that our seniors were talented, the most talented girls on the team were sophomores and they weren't always willing to be led. In in typical Sierra fashion we lost one of the seniors who received the original letter, she quit for personal reasons and then Autumn who was now a junior and one of our best hurdlers didn't finish the season, also for personal issues.
I'll share some newsletter entries from throughout the season.
After the Panther Relays that we won with 99 points. The next 3 teams were 5A schools and 5th place was defending state champion Mullen with 45. (April 7th)
"Ladies you won because this was a total team effort at least as far as performances go. As far as being a team and doing the things a team should do, you are quickly becoming the worst team I have worked with since my first year here as an assistant in 1986. It is going to stop now. If you can't put away your petty differences and petty attitudes towards one another, I would just as soon you quit. TRACK IS NOT AN INDIVIDUAL SPORT OR A SPORT WHERE EVERYONE DOES THEIR OWN THING. AT LEAST THAT IS NOT THE WAY IT HAS BEEN DONE IN THIS PROGRAM, IN THE PAST AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE DONE IN THIS PROGRAM, NOW AND IN THE FUTURE!!! I am only going to touch on these things briefly in the team meeting today. If that's not enough then you will never get it. I don't care how many meets you win, if you can't be a team and act like a team, I am ashamed to be your coach.
Warming up was poor, leadership was nonexistent, cool downs were ignored, stretching was poor, support for the distance runners in particular was nonexistent, the whole idea of team was missing. Go back and reread your meet expectations, I will probably mention some in today's meeting but in case I forget some, you are responsible for them. I want you to have fun in track but I want you to do it the right way. Please, don't embarrass me again or make me talk about this again."
And after the Canon City Invitational that we won with 104 points over 2nd place Rampart who had 56 and 22 other teams it was obvious that despite the hurdles we had throughout the season, we finally got things turned in a better direction. The meet was actually rained out with four events left. (May 4th)
"Ladies congratulations on another great effort. With that victory, you finished the season undefeated in meets where the entire team competed. You won the Icicle Relays, the Panther Relays, the Fountain Fort Carson Invitational and the Canon City Invitational. In addition you won two weekday League meets.
It hasn't been easy this year. The weather has been the worst I can remember in my 22 years as a track coach and there have been some unnecessary personnel issues. Hopefully you can put everything behind you now and just focus on the next two meets. Good luck at Regional on Friday and Saturday. Have fun and compete hard."
A week later after we competed in the Regional Championships and won easily. We scored 194 1/2 to 2nd place Lewis Palmer 106. (May 11th)
"Ladies congratulations on once again becoming Regional Champions. In Sierra's 15 year history the Lady Stallions have won the Regional Championship 11 times. You seniors have contributed to 3 of those wins. Great job! You are the only team that placed in every event. You are the only team that qualified all 5 relays to the state meet. You outscored the runner up by 88 1/2 points which was more than any team except Lewis Palmer scored. You set a record for points scored in a regional meet and for the widest margin of victory at Region. Individually and on relays you had some of the best performances of the season."
Going into the state meet we felt that we had an opportunity to beat Mullen the team that beat us by 10 points last year. The fly in the ointment turned out to be the fact that CHSAA in their infinite wisdom decided in February to add the pole vault as an event and instead of having it be a nonscoring event until schools could be brought up to speed it immediately became an official scoring event at the state meet. In 1998 we lost to Mullen by 10 points. In 1999 we again finished 2nd to Mullen this year by just 9 points. Mullen scored 10 points by winning the pole vault. We didn't have a pole vaulter qualify for state after finishing 4th, 5th and 8th at Region.
On April 1st the Denver Post had written the following story about our team's efforts to find pole vaulters from among existing athletes none of who had ever vaulted before.
"AROUND THE STATE"
"When Dana Anstey went looking for pole vaulters, the Sierra girls track coach tried to round up the usual suspects.
"I started looking around and we didn't have any gymnasts or divers," Anstey said. "So I went with plan No. 2 -- I started looking for kids with better-than-average speed and good upper-body strength."
He found some.
Rachel Ernzen had run on Anstey's cross-country team and already was a distance runner on the track team.
Becky Durgin arrived from the Stallions cheer-leading squad.
"I asked four or five kids if they wanted to give it a try and they told me absolutely not," Then he ran into Ernzen and Durgin.
"They said they would give it a shot because of the kind of kids they are," Anstey said. "Rachel is just a tough competitor and Becky just said OK."
Ernzen has gone 6 feet, 10 1/2 inches while still running the 800 meters and a leg on the 3200-meter relay team. Durgin cracked the 7-foot barrier Tuesday.
"I really didn't like the way they added the event," Anstey said. "But I knew if we wanted to have a competitive team, we had to do it."
"We've done it."
The Stallions will get their first look at defending state champion Mullen this weekend.
"We won't have our whole team and I'm sure they probably won't have their whole team, " said Anstey. "But we will get to see bits and pieces of each other."
Notes from the State Newsletter:
"The state meet was an outstanding ending to a very stressful season. This was without a doubt, the worst season for weather in my 22 years as a track coach. I talked to coaches who have coached here longer and to people who have been here most of their life and they agree. The ladies on this team didn't let the weather be an issue. Good or bad (and there was very little good), they were outside and did the work we asked them to do.
In our previous 14 years, Sierra had won a total of 4 championships at the state meet. This year the team won 5.
What does the future hold? That will depend on what the girls who should return want it to hold. We have the potential right now, not counting next year's freshmen and any additions to the team, to be a very good track team again. What can prevent that from happening? If the girls decide that they are already good enough and aren't willing to train year-round to get better. I don't mean track year-round, I mean run, get in the weight room, do other sports and most important get the job done in the classroom.
We were our own worst enemy this year. The factions and cliques on this team were the worst I've ever dealt with and I've coached over 60 teams in 4 sports during my 23 years. It took everything we as coaches had to continue to work with the negative atmosphere that was caused by these things. If we are going to be successful in the future this will not be allowed to go on. To the girls who didn't get involved in the things I'm talking about, and there were many, thank you. You made it possible for us to sit down after practice and talk about the positive things that could and would happen in the future. Let's move on now and celebrate your successes and leave the negative behind."
And Kawana, the second young lady who went to state as an alternate two years ago as a freshman, she earned medals at state as a member of the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relays and qualified to participate in the triple jump. Additionally she just missed qualifying by finishing 4th at Region in the high jump.
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| 4 State Championships Long Jump, Triple Jump, 400 & Medley Relay |
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