Promoting the Multi-Sport Athlete: Whatever it Takes

By Steven Coursey - Coordinator of Athletics, Canyon ISD

When you ask most coaches, "Why do you do what you do?", you will get a variety of answers. “It’s all about the relationships with the kids,” “I love the game,” “I had great coaches that helped me in my life and I want to be that person for somebody else,” “I want to make a difference in the next generation.” All of these are respectable answers and are most definitely true, but I have never seen it come to fruition like I did over the last couple of weeks.

Randall High School sophomore, Brooke French is a cross country runner, soccer player and track athlete. On Monday, March 31, 2025, the Lady Raiders soccer team beat Godley in the Regional Final 1-0 at Wichita Falls Memorial Stadium. This was a very exciting time for the program, but one young lady was already thinking about Wednesday and Thursday of that week when she would compete in the district track meet in which she would qualify for the area track meet in the 3200 meter run, 800 meter run, and the 1600 meter run. On Friday of the same week, Brooke would travel to Burkburnett High School with the Lady Raider soccer team to compete in the state semifinals against Aubrey. The Lady Raiders were able to win the match 1-0 and advance to the state championship game on Thursday, April 10th in Georgetown. This is the point where the story gets really interesting because the area track meet for District 3-4A and District 4-4A, which was to be held at Andrews High School, was also scheduled for Thursday, April 10th.

Canyon ISD Athletic Director, John Peterson reached out to the Athletic Director for Andrews ISD, Jaime Boswell and explained the situation. Without hesitation, Coach Boswell then reached out to the athletic directors and coaches of District 3-4A to explain the situation and ask if they would be willing to make the adjustment to run the 3200 meter run on Wednesday evening so that Brooke would have the chance to compete. Without hesitation, the district approved this change in the meet schedule. Coach Peterson of Canyon ISD sent the same message out to District 4-4A athletic directors and coaches and again, without hesitation, the change to the meet schedule was approved.

Now that this adjustment had been made, Brooke would have the opportunity to travel to Andrews on Wednesday with the track team, run her 3200 meter race and then travel to Georgetown and meet up with her soccer team to play for a 4A Division 2 State Championship at 11:00 a.m. This was not enough for this young athlete. She was convinced that she could make it back to the track meet in Andrews in time to run her 1600 meter race at 5:10 p.m. She was right!

Let's take a look at this 23-hour stretch for this incredible young athlete.

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

6:15 p.m. - 3-4A/4-4A Area Track Meet 3200 meter run. Brooke ran the 3200 in 11:10.34 and qualified first at the area meet.

6:45 p.m. - Brooke and her parents got in the car and drove the 353 mile trip from Andrews to Georgetown to get ready for the state championship soccer game.

Thursday, April 10, 2025

12:00 a.m. - Brooke and her parents arrive in Georgetown

11:00 a.m. - The Lady Raider soccer team kicks off their match against Wimberley at Birkelbach Field in Georgetown. Brooke scores the second goal of the game for the Lady Raiders that gives them a 2-1 lead.

12:45 p.m. - The game heads to overtime tied 2-2.

1:30 p.m. - The Lady Raiders win the UIL 4A Division 2 State Championship in soccer. The game went to penalty kicks and the Lady Raiders were able to pull it off 7-6. This is the first state championship for girls soccer in the school's history.

2:00 p.m. - Brooke gets on a private plane with her mom to head to Andrews.

4:10 p.m. - The plane lands in Andrews and Coach Tim McCune, Randall boys head track coach, and Coach Rebekah James, Randall girls head cross country coach, was waiting to drive her back to the track meet at the Mustang Bowl in Andrews.

5:10 p.m. - 3-4A/4-4A Area Track Meet 1600 meter run starts.

5:15 p.m. - Brooke ran her 1600 meter race in 5:14.3 and qualified second.

I have bragged a lot on this young lady as I am telling her story because it is incredible, and she deserves that credit; however, that is not the point of this article. The amount of people that it took to make this opportunity happen is unbelievable. To me, it starts with the track coaches and the girls soccer coach at Randall High School. Way too many times, I have heard coaches say that if a kid tries to do both sports at the same time, something has to suffer and they will be average at everything. These coaches refuse to buy into that lie and are all about their kids! If a student athlete wants to try to do multiple things, these coaches are willing to communicate and make a plan that they can agree on to make it happen. As coaches, we expect our athletes to give whatever it takes. In turn, we must take the same approach and do whatever it takes to create opportunities for our student athletes.

The next group of people that made this happen are the coaches/athletic administrators from opposing schools. On November 1, 2024, Brooke placed 3rd in the UIL State Cross Country Championships, so she is obviously a very talented runner. It would have been very easy for coaches/athletic administrators from the other schools to not agree to alter the meet schedule for Brooke to be able to compete because it would have given athletes from their schools the possibility of advancing to the regional track meet. They are in this business for kids and they are fighting for their kids. This is a very noble statement, and I agree that it is extremely important to be an advocate for the kids that we coach; however, this group of people chose to do what is right for all kids, even though it might not have been in their own personal best interest. When we take a step back and look at the big picture of this, 13 other schools unanimously chose to make an adjustment to the area meet schedule to give one student athlete an unbelievable opportunity to compete. The coaches and administrators from Andrews, Borger, Canyon, Dumas, Fort Stockton, Greenwood, Hereford, Monahans, Pampa, Pecos, Perryton, Seminole, and West Plains all deserve recognition for their work to make this day possible. These people are in it for kids…ALL KIDS!

Another group of people that did everything that they could to make this opportunity possible, are the parents and community members. With school funding and budget deficits like they currently are, there is no way that these things would be possible without their support. Phone calls were made to somebody that knows somebody else, that knows somebody else and they were willing to help make this day possible. Communities all across the state of Texas have people that are more than willing to help out and contribute to creating these once in a lifetime opportunities.

It takes sacrifice and compromise from all sides, but we are in this business for kids! Continue to advocate for, fight for, and promote your student athletes! They deserve every opportunity to be successful and if we, as coaches and athletic administrators, don’t give that to them, who will? Thank you all so much for your dedication, work, and time spent shaping these student athletes into awesome people by your actions, day in and day out.