Anderson marks 51 years of coaching

A birthday cake, baked and frosted by two of his current pole vaulters, Andrew Snyder and Sara Small, greeted long-time track and field coach Jim Anderson at the Outlaws' practice last Friday, a day before he turned 75 years old. The 2012 season marks Anderson's 51st year in coaching young people in Oregon, and he has no plans to hang things up in the immediate future. 

Anderson, who moved to Sisters in 1994 after 31 years of teaching and coaching, primarily at Clackamas High School, is in his 18th year of working with pole vaulters and jumpers for the Outlaws.

"I was on a walk with my wife, Karen, in Tollgate during the first year we lived here and ran into Bob Johnson, who had taken the head track coaching job at the high school," said Anderson. "We knew one another from my years at Clackamas because he coached nearby at West Linn, so he recruited me to join his coaching staff, and I have been doing it ever since."

Anderson grew up in Baker, Oregon, (now Baker City) where he graduated from high school in 1955. Four years later he finished a degree at Eastern Oregon State College in La Grande, which qualified him to teach English at the secondary level. His first coaching stint took place at Waldo Junior High School in Salem during the 1961-62 school year, where he coached basketball.

"I moved on to Clackamas the next year and continued to coach basketball, but I eventually gave that up to become the head coach for track," he said. "Over the years, I also coached cross-country and assisted with track until I retired from teaching."

It didn't take any time at all for Anderson to begin having success in his new position, and since his start a number of Outlaws have earned state titles in events he coached.

Courtney Ellis, Nicolette Callan, Amy Cretsinger and, most recently, Sara Small last year, earned state titles under Anderson's guidance, while others have had remarkable careers as well, including David Martin and Matt Ehrenstrom, who cleared 14 feet 10 inches and 15 feet respectively in the pole vault.

"I suppose I can count many successes over the years, but it's really all the wonderful kids I remember," he said. "I truly love working with the teenage group because of their energy and their willingness to learn how to train and compete."

One of Anderson's fellow coaches from his years at Clackamas, David Busby, remembers him with a great deal of respect.

"Jim taught me a great deal about what it means to be a successful coach," said Busby. "He loved to win track meets, and he worked very hard to develop a winning program at Clackamas High School. Still, whatever appeared on the scoreboard at the end of a meet, Jim was always a caring mentor to his athletes. He understood as well as any coach I have known that coaching is teaching, and the best teachers are those who give heartfelt guidance to their student athletes, no matter the score. As a result, he enjoyed tremendous respect from his athletes. He certainly has my respect."  

Anderson gives credit to his wife of 48 years for his longevity in coaching.

"Let's face it," he said with a smile, "without a supportive wife who takes pleasure in seeing me enjoying myself so much, I wouldn't have continued this long."

That sentiment is echoed today by reigning state pole vault champion Small, who has been under Anderson's care since sixth grade.

"In all the years he has coached me, I have never seen him get angry or upset, even in a meet when I no-heighted when I should have easily won," she said. "He doesn't coach me to win as much as he coaches me to be an all-around better person and to do my best on a given day, no matter what the circumstances are."

With Small in her senior year and a crop of younger up-and-coming vaulters and jumpers on the team, Anderson is taking coaching one day at a time and savoring the time he has with them each afternoon. 

"I love everything about track and field, not just the events that I coach," he said. "I am feeling so good about the way this season is playing out already that I can't picture bringing my coaching year to a close right yet," he said.