by Mike Reeder
Hill Country View
| Ryanne Dupree |
The Fourth of July came early as usual this year for young athletes competing with the Boerne Striders, the city’s track and field team. From the first day of practice, they’ve been soaking up lessons about what it takes to be All-American from their coach, Ryanne Dupree, a UTSA graduate student and four-time All-American in the heptathlon.
Dupree took the Boerne job four years ago as she was embarking on what turned out to be a record-shattering career at UTSA.
“I knew that Boerne was looking for a coach, so I thought that’s right up my alley,” Dupree said. “I love to work with the kids, and it’s a chance to give back.”
UTSA All-American heptathlete Ryanne Dupree, seen competing in the high jump (above), long jump (below right) and hurdles (below left), is finding time between events to coach the Boerne Striders youth track and field team, the Boerne Striders.
Leaving aside her coaching duties, it’s been a busy spring and summer for Dupree, who’s already competed at major events in Indiana, Kansas, California, Iowa and at home in Texas. Most recently, she finished eighth in the heptathlon at the AT&T Outdoor track and Field Championships in Indianapolis, which was her highest finish in three appearances at the meet. Earlier this spring she shattered her own school record in winning the 100-meter hurdles at the Kansas Relays in Lawrence and then broke it again at the NCAA Midwest Regionals in Des Moines, Iowa. She finished sixth in the heptathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, Calif., nailing down her fourth All-American certification in the process. It was her highest finish in the NCAA Outdoors in three appearances, although she placed fourth in the pentathlon at the NCAA Indoors in 2006 and entered this year’s outdoor competition with the third best score in the field.
“She finished sixth, and that’s not bad, but her back was hurting or she might have done better,” said UTSA Women’s Track and Field Coach James Blackwood. “She’s already met the standard for qualifying for the Olympic trials. That’s a done deal. She’s the best athlete I’ve ever had since I’ve been coaching here.”
Listing all her accomplishments would require a book, not an article. Suffice to say Dupree, a San Antonio native and East Central High graduate, holds four individual UTSA records, is a three-time Southland Conference Athlete of the Year and is an honor student to boot.
But if the kids she coaches in Boerne know anything about her accomplishments, they learned about them from someone else, not Dupree.
“I don’t think many of them know because I don’t really tell it to them,” Dupree says. “I think they know I run track and I think some of them know because they’ve seen me in the newspaper and they’ve come to practice with the clippings. But they’re 6 to 15 in age, and I wouldn’t think the younger ones understand exactly what I do.”
Dupree says what’s more important is that the kids leave each practice with a good grasp of what it takes to succeed.
“I just want to give them a sound foundation, teach them proper techniques for running and introduce them to all the different events so they can take it back with them to the school track,” she says. “Even if they don’t run track in school, it can give them endurance and stamina and help them in whatever sport they pursue. I’m constantly telling them to push themselves because it’s how they’re going to get better. It may hurt now, but you’ve got to keep pushing yourself forward.”
Dupree says her own reward is simply the chance to work with children.
“I never grew up around kids,” she says. “I have a younger brother, but he’s only two years younger than me, so I really wasn’t around children a lot before. It’s made me appreciate my own coaches more. They’ll tell you after I started working with kids I didn’t give them nearly as hard a time. I respect my coaches more because I’ve seen how hard coaching is.”
As for her own future, the near term includes a trip to Germany later this summer to compete as part of Team USA. After that, her sights are set even higher and farther East, at Beijing in 2008.
“I’m definitely going for the Olympics in my event,” she says. “So if I can qualify and do that it would pretty much cap off my career.”