THE FRONT ROW with Jason Elliott June 20, 2012

Coeur d'Alene High track and field coach and Community Colleges of Spokane hurdles coach Linda Lanker has a lot of reasons to be excited for next week's U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trails in Eugene at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.

Not only will Lanker be on hand as the secretary of the men's U.S. Track and Field program, but she'll also be following an athlete that has become like a son to her - Jeshua Anderson.

Anderson, 22, won the NCAA championship in the 400-meter hurdles in 2011 as a senior at Washington State - and has the fastest time among the Americans at 47.73 seconds in the event, in which the prelims are June 29 and the finals are July 1.

"It started at Junior Nationals," Anderson said. "I was trying to make the World Junior team and she was good friends with Marvin McDonald (WSU hurdles coach). We met up at the track and started talking and have been building on that from then until now."

"I met him because of my relationship with WSU," Lanker said. "They hired me to work at their Cougar Camp. Being a coach at the Community Colleges of Spokane, we compete during the indoor season against WSU, so I've gotten to know a lot of those athletes through camp."

Lanker was an All-American and won the 400 hurdles at nationals in 1974 and coached on the USA Junior Olympic team in 2007, when she got to know Anderson after his freshman year at WSU.

"I call her my second mom," Anderson said. "She really just takes care of me and asked about me and how I'm doing. Whatever she needs from me, whether it is speaking at a clinic in Eastern Washington or talking to her kids at Coeur d'Alene, whatever she needs - she is just a call away."

ANDERSON MET with Lanker and her husband, Glen, last Sunday in Coeur d'Alene.

"It's just nice to get out and be able to come up and get something to eat with her," Anderson said. "She's really been a great help for me."

"When you get picked as a coach for the U.S. team, you're kind of like a mentor," Lanker said. "You take their time in between the hurdles and going over the hurdles. We've just gotten close and I've adopted him just like a son. He has a good relationship with his parents, but we're always here to give him advice."

Anderson also played wide receiver for the Cougar football team for two seasons.

"It was pretty tough," Anderson said. "The reason I came to Washington State, I think why I made my decision, was because they let me do both sports. My main focus was to play professional football and run track."

After his sophomore season and a 3-22 record in his first two years, Anderson left the football team to focus on track.

"I didn't want to hurt my chances of being an Olympian by continuing to get banged up and get hit," Anderson said. "I'm sure once my dreams of doing track are done, I'll still be able to go back to playing football at some level if I want."

"I remember sitting and discussing the conflict between it with him," Lanker said. "He was having so much success with track and field and the football team wasn't doing too well. There was a chance he'd get injured - and when you've got an opportunity to make the Olympic team and the football team wasn't doing too well, he just didn't want to take the chance."

Early on, competing at a high level was difficult for Anderson, who often found himself running against other athletes he'd admired on television.

"I ran well during the college year, but once I got against the pros, I wasn't running that well," Anderson said. "I didn't accomplish what I wanted to. I had to figure something different I had to do, whether from not getting out of the blocks fast enough to being too worried about others in the race. At times, I was racing against guys I'd admired from watching TV and had to get over that feeling that I could run with the best in the world."

Anderson also competed at the Olympic Trials in 2008, and qualified for the finals and admits that he wasn't as prepared.

"Mentally, I wasn't ready at that time," Anderson said. "As a freshman, it was a rude awakening. I came out running well and then in the second round, they just blew me out of the water."

IN HIS final year with the Cougars, Anderson won the NCAA title in the 400 hurdles.

"It really started at the Pac-10 Championships," Anderson said. "When I won my fourth straight title, it wasn't that big of a deal, but the time (48.1 seconds) was. It showed me what we'd been doing to get out of the blocks faster had been working. We just kept doing it and building on that, and I started working on running even faster than that and had confidence going into nationals."

The top three finishers at the Olympic Trials will advance to the London Olympics in August.

"I've got lots of confidence going in," Anderson said. "I've had lots of good times there, as well as a few bad times. It's about being mentally strong. I've had a few nagging injuries that haven't quite set me back, but mentally might have to work through it. I'm looking forward to running at Eugene. This is the toughest team to make and running against the best in the world is a big accomplishment for me. I'm just looking forward to racing against the best in the world and finishing at the top - or at least the top three."

"He's such a great young man," Lanker said. "With his faith and hard work ethic, my husband and I have enjoyed getting to know him and pray for him before he competes. We kind of let this be a home away from home for him. If he needs anything, we're here for him."

Lanker traveled to be with Anderson for nationals in 2011, as well to the world championships in China.

"It's everyone's dream," Lanker said. "Looking back as a woman in the field, just to get to go to the trials is one thing, but to make the team - it's as good as it gets. We've won the gold medal for many years and have really dominated the event. He has a huge chance to make it, but a huge shot at a medal. He's so young, he's got more than one shot. It could be the first of many for him."

Anderson will also celebrate his 23rd birthday on Friday - one week before the prelims.

"He's got a huge chance as long as he stays healthy," Lanker said. "There's two other guys he beat last year that want the title too. There's no reason he doesn't have a shot at it. We're very proud of him and just thankful. All of our kids are gone, so it's fun to have another son. My husband loves it and so do I."

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected].