Lower Merion High School Girls’ Track Coach, Sandy Hoopes, Receives Special Penn Relays Honor

This past Saturday at the 130th running of the Penn Relays, Sandy Hoopes, head coach of the Lower Merion (LM) High School girls’ track and field team was one of two high school coaches to receive the award of honorary referee. This award is for coaches who spent a lifetime promoting track and field.

The Penn Relays takes place the last weekend of April. Every year, over 15,000 elite track and field athletes ranging from the high school level to that of the Olympic, travel from all over the U.S. and from other parts of the world to compete in front of over 30 thousand track and field fans for three days at the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field.

“I was thrilled to get that honor,” said Hoopes who coached the LM girls’ track team for 52 years.She started the LM girls track program back in 1975 and to this day has been the team’s only head coach.

Starting the program was important to Hoopes because she remembered how frustrated and left out she had felt ten years earlier when she was in high school.

“My high school didn’t have a girls track team,” said Hoopes. Hoopes elaborated that , high schools in general did not have girls’ sports programs.

“This was about ten years before Title IX,” said Hoopes.

Title IX requires schools to give equal opportunities to boys and girlsin all aspects of school life ranging from academics to athletics.

One of the key people who helped Hoopes launch the LM girls’ track program was Tom Anderson (AKA Mr. A.) who coached the LM boys’ track team from the ‘70s through the ‘80s.

As head coach, Hoopes had the honor of helping some of her 4x100 relay teams win PIAA State championships.

Besides being ecstatic with receiving the Penn Relays honor last weekend, Hoopes was equally happy with how her 4x100 meter relay team and her 4x400 meter relay team relay team performed there.

The LM girls’ 4x100 relay team of senior Cheyenne Jackson-Gardner, junior Paige Evans, junior Camille Cohen, and freshman Ava Shippen finished first in their heat with a 49.62 seconds clocking.

In the High School Girls’ 4x400 suburban Central, the LM foursome of junior Viola Wilent, freshman Lucy Roper, freshman Anna Gilboy and Evans finished third with a 3:57.92 posting.

Prior to this year’s Penn Relays all these LM runners had already qualified for the PIAA District 1 Track and Field championships, which takes place this May 15-16 at Coatesville High School. They will be key runners to watch for at Districts.