Sandite Track & Field celebrates successful season with donut relay
/This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.
The first Track and Field season of the Gloria Avey era may have been highlighted by Layne Kirkendoll’s High Jump State Title, but its glorious finale was a donut relay.
The Charles Page High School Sandites didn’t stop practicing just because the season ended last week, but they did make practice more fun with some end-of-the-year games that included “Red Light, Green Light” and a three-legged race.
“I want the kids to have fun, but I also want the kids to know that we’re serious about it,” said Avey. “So being serious and having fun are my two goals, and I feel like we accomplished that this year.”
Avey took over the Sand Springs program after three years as an assistant, working two years under Tim Dial and one year under Virginia Williams.
“I’ve had a lot of coaches that I’ve learned from over the years. I’ve been coaching for Sand Springs for four years and I feel like I’ve learned a lot, kind of taking things from different people.”
Avey’s first season was a definite success as the girls placed 15th at State for their highest finish since 2017, and the boys placed 22nd for their highest finish since 2019.
“I learned a lot,” said Avey. “I’m definitely going to do some things differently next year, but I think it was a really successful season. I think the majority of the kids had a really good time and they all improved on their times.”
The 28-year-old first-time head coach has spent most of her life in Sand Springs, but actually graduated from the now-defunct Moriah Christian Academy, which didn’t have an athletics program.
“I’ve always been a runner. I’ve always enjoyed running and I’ve just run on my own ever since I was in middle school. Fitness and exercise has always been a passion of mine so I kind of got recruited to (coach) track.”
In addition to running, Avey has also been involved in CrossFit over the years. She graduated Oklahoma State University in 2017 and is also a math teacher at the high school.
Her husband, Kevin, is the strength and conditioning coach for the Sandites, as well as the head coach of the brand new girls powerlifting program and an assistant football coach.
Of course, the Sandites can credit a lot of their season’s success to athletes like Kirkendoll - the senior leaper with Division I prospects.
“Layne has made podium every year of high school except the year she lost to COVID,” said Avey.
“She’s just got that God-given talent. There’s just a few little tweaks that we make and little cues that we give her, but she just pretty much knows what to do.”
Kirkendoll already had full-ride scholarship offers from Oral Roberts University and South Dakota State coming into her senior year and she has also collected some offers to play collegiate basketball, though she has yet to make a commitment.
In addition to Kirkendoll the Sandites will also lose shot put qualifier Matthew Shelton, discus qualifier Jestin Rawlins, and relay runner Jazmin Lopez, but will return Kelsi Hilton, Josie Myers, and Gracie Gifford from the 4x800 team next season.
