JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
What more could a high school coach ask for than to go to the state championship, compete against the top eight schools in the state and then walk away with a gold medal?
That's exactly what Randolph High School Lady Ro-Hawks' head track coach, Stacy Bessire, got to do May 11 at the University Interscholastic League state track meet at Mike A. Myers Stadium, University of Texas at Austin.
"Going into the final race, we were 10 points behind," Bessire said. "Our 4x400 relay had to win the race to win the state championship, but I didn't stress that to them. Sometimes when you do that, the team can get real nervous instead of just relaxing, running and doing what they need to do."
The funny thing was that the kids didn't know, she said. When they raced, they raced because they wanted the gold medal.
"My senior who was the last leg ran a phenomenal 55.74; that brought us from fifth place to winning it," Bessire said. "She said it wasn't about winning the championship, although that was a plus; she said it was her goal for everyone to go home with a gold medal. I thought that was really neat for her to say that."
Along with the 4x400 relay, the Lady Ro-Hawks also took first place in the 4x200 relay race.
The female track team hadn't won a state title since their three-year winning streak ended in 2008, she said.
"This was a big accomplishment for them because coming in as freshmen, they had never won a state title until their senior year," she said.
The team improved its relay times each meet, Bessire said. She thought as long as the team stayed consistent, they would be fine. They ended up running their fastest times at the state championship, managing to knock two seconds off their 4x200 relay and three seconds off their 4x400 relay.
"I knew they had it in them," she said. "All year long I felt they weren't being pushed. I kept telling them, 'you guys do not know how talented you are because you haven't been pushed to your limits yet.' That just goes to show that when they were at state, they were pushed and they did their very best."
The team knew that for a lot of them it was going to be their last time running together, Jasmine Waring, Randolph High School senior, 4x200 and 4x400 relay team member, said.
"I didn't know anything about the state title, I didn't know anything about the points and I didn't know where we stood," she said. "I just went to run the race."