What goes around comes around

Photo by Paul Robeson, Sports Editor

DISCUS PRACTICE - Anderson High School senior Kia Rohwer, left, watches as track coach Janie Reitan explains the grip which should be used when throwing the discus.

Photo by Paul Robeson, Sports Editor

LONG JUMP - Chad Dunlap sails through the air in the long jump at the West Valley – Anderson track meet.

Photo by Paul Robeson, Sports Editor

THROWING DISCUS - Europa Mataia from Anderson High throws the discus at a recent meet.

Janie Reitan threw the shot put and discus while she was a student at Anderson High School in the early 1990s. Now, as a track coach, she teaches students how to throw them.

This is her first year as a “walk-on” coach for track and Reitan says the team would not be where it is if it wasn’t for assistant coaches Dick Parks and Feren Reid, daughter of the Anderson coaching legend Bob Reid. She said her 4-year-old son, Keaton, is “an unofficial assistant coach.” Reitan was a walk-on coach for freshman girl’s basketball last semester.

“Parks knows everything about coaching,” said Reitan. Parks has been with Anderson for eight years as a coach and his total coaching years add up to 30.

Reitan also threw shot and disc while attending Shasta College but, after an automobile crash, she kept to her studies while working on her bachelor’s degree in biology at Chico State University. All that remains for her teaching credential from Simpson University is her student teaching. She wants to teach science and continue coaching.

The 6-foot 1-inch Reitan will be in her fourth season this fall as a professional women’s football player for the Redding Rage football team.

Part of her philosophy is to “lead by example.”

“If practice is from three to five and I expect the team to be there, and then I must be there. It should not be five after or ten after when practice starts,” she said.

She commented on the degree of commitment of students when she was in high school and now. She said “it does get a bit discouraging when you have 60 on your roster and only 30 show up for practice.”

“There is so much more for students to do these days,” she said.

“But the commitment has to be there,” Parks said.

“The kids look at McOmber (Josh McOmber, West Valley High School) and see a great athlete but they don’t realize the commitment and hard work that young man has put in to be that good athlete,” said Parks.

“It is a positive attitude that is needed,” Reitan said. “It is a way of learning and one must have the patience to work with people who learn at different speeds.”

Reitan mentioned the athletes who have contributed more than their share this track season — senior Kia Rohwer and sophomore Megan Ball who throw the shot and discus; Europa Mataia and Tyler Myers for their discus throwing and Chad Dunlap’s long jump; Brad Loomis in the pole vault and Cody McNamara in the high jump.

“These are all up and coming athletes you should keep an eye on,” she said.