Tamra Strano find comfort and refuge on the track

Tamra Strano always prefered to be the one in the back, but Saturday night at the Riverfront Community Center, she was the center of attention.

Current and former athetes, family members and close friends gathered to honor Strano, now in her 33rd and final year as the Leavenworth High School women’s track-and-field coach.

“I’m just so glad that I got to see all these people before I leave,” she said. “That’s what’s neat about it.”

The night featured numerous special presentations from close friends or family members to Strano and many former athletes telling stories of their coach. However, the night didn’t end before the Leavenworth Public Schools foundation made a presentation of their own.

Bill Geiger, a representative of the foundation, presented Strano with a framed sign listing of the years her teams have won state, regional and league championships and national and state teacher of the year awards. It was the first glimpse of a monument that will built at the Leavenworth High track when it is dedicated as the Tamra Strano Track. Strano said the dedication is honor, but by the end of the night it still hadn’t quite set in yet.

“It’s an honor, it’s something that’s very special,” she said. “I’ve always told my husband that if I had to die someday I’d just as soon it be right in the middle of a track and they can bury me there.”

Strano said that the track is where she’s found comfort and refuge in the midst of some rough days.

“I just love being up there,” Strano said. “I could have the worst day in the world during the day, but when I go out on the track with the kids, it just becomes the best day. They rejuvenate you, they make you remember why you’re there. They appreciate everything you do for them. Sure they grumble, but hey, they’re kids. Just being around them makes the whole day better. It makes a great day greater and it makes a bad day great. I could be in the worst of moods and I go up on the track and everything’s forgotten.”

When she retires, she and her husband — athletics director Bob Strano — plan to move to Houston to be closer to their grandchildren. With her, Tamra said, she’ll be taking a whole lot of memories.

“Memories of the kids,” she said. “It has nothing to do with state championships or the awards or the honors or anything. Just memories of what Monica Brothers did when she came out for track one year and Bridgett Moore or Bayzell (Davis’) mom did. All the memories of the kids.”

Which is something she’s kept many of. That was shown by how she told what times were ran in events by former athletes she coached years ago.

“It was just great,” she said. “I wish I had more time to sit down with every single one of them is all and just sit down and talk and enjoy reminiscing.”

Leavenworth High initially was to host their annual track meet earlier in the day. However, the threat of rain and wet conditions canceled this year’s meet.

“It would have been a long cold day,” Strano said. “Even though that sun came out, it wasn’t very nice. The meat of our team is speed and sprints and this isn’t the kind of a day where a sprinter likes to sprint. Their legs just feel tight, and they feel like they can’t get them going.”

Though it may been a blessing in disguise Strano admitted.

“If I would have had the meet all day long, I probably would have faded real fast,” Strano said. “You get up at 5:00 in the morning and you’re out all day long until probably 5:00 this evening. Then come straight down here at 6:00. But I wish those seniors would have had that last meet on their home track. I would have been willing to go through that for them.”

Source:By DOUG MAGILL, Times Assistant Sports Editor