Learning the Lanker way

She's well known for clearing hurdles as a national champion in the 100- and 400-meter hurdles at Arizona State.

If all goes well next week, Coeur d'Alene High track and field coach Linda Lanker might have cleared another one to be a part of Team USA in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Lanker was selected to be a team mentor for the U.S. for next week's IAAF Junior World Championship in Eugene, Ore., running July 22-27 at Hayward Field.

Competitors are 19 years old or younger.

"I feel very humble, but so excited to get to have this opportunity to work with the coaches," Lanker said, "as well as the kids and youth coaches that are coming up."

Her duties will include meeting with the coaches as well as athletes to get them prepared for the international competition.

"I'll be in the dorm with the team," Lanker said. "Every day, I'll be taking coaches to their different assignments. One day will be with management, the next with the hurdles and sprints coaches and another day with the jumps coach. What we're doing is mentoring and teaching these coaches that have never been on the national level, and teaching them what their responsibilities are."

Lanker, 58, who also coaches hurdlers at the Community Colleges of Spokane, impressed the Olympic coaches in 2006 without even realizing it at first.

"We were at a meet in 2006 at Moscow and our junior college boys were beating the D-1 kids from Idaho and Washington State," Lanker said. "The boys were doing quite well and the Olympic coach was in the stands and was impressed with how well the kids were doing."

One thing led to another and then ...

"He asked if I'd like to coach a men's USA team and be on the men's staff, and I looked at him with an 'are you serious' look, and a month later, he had me on staff as the hurdles and sprints coach. I found out through the Internet that I was going to China."

As for that experience?

"It was an amazing time," Lanker said. "We were there for three weeks and worked with the athletes in Eugene before going. Then we won the competition and did really well. It was just a great experience and took the kids to see the Great Wall and what China was all about. We got there early enough to get them acclimated and past the jet lag."

One of the main things Lanker will help with is how to get the athletes ready to compete, and ready for all the chaos that comes with competition at the international level.

"These kids have been coached up," Lanker said. "Some are collegiate and some have had really good high school coaching. But when you go out of the country, you've got a huge responsibility to keep them focused and where they're supposed to be on time. It's just a huge responsibility. Usually the kids at this level, you don't have any (behavior) problems, but making sure they get to the check-in tent on time and if they don't check in and get on the track when they're supposed to, they'll get disqualified and it's a terrible representation of the U.S. if that happens."

Lanker has a plan for what she'll say once arriving in Eugene to those athletes and coaches.

"I sat down and made a list of things that I've learned on the trips I've been on and what to do and not to do," Lanker said. "I'll try to help the kids when their coaches aren't around and communicate with the coaches and work with them."

"The kids are going to be nervous," Lanker said. "This is the next group of kids that are going to be on the Olympic team. They need to know what they're going to be in for. There's a lot of pressure and also, being there to help and guide them and mentor them is a big deal."

Lanker added that she can expect to be working with the team anyway from 14 to 16 hours a day.

"I'm going to be swamped," Lanker said. "But I'm really looking forward to it."

She'll also have the chance to make her way around to each of the different events, instead of focusing on just a few events.

"It's good for me because hurdles, sprints and relays, that's been my thing," Lanker said. "It's good for me to be a part of the other events and learn other things. I need to do that as a head coach."

Some of the connections she's made throughout the track and field community have begun to help her high school program as well.

"Just the opportunities to get to know some of the coaches around the country is really helping our kids as well," Lanker said. "(Sprinter) Victoria (Goetz) is being recruited by three D-1 schools, and (hurdler) Kaitlyn (Gunnerson) wants to go to BYU and I met their coach and they want to offer her a nice scholarship. Another bonus is that what I'm doing there (with Team USA), it's benefiting my kids here because when they do well, it's getting them a chance to go onto the next level. I'm doing my job well if they're getting an opportunity to go on and compete in college, I'm happy."

Lanker also mentioned Morgan Struble, who she coached at Coeur d'Alene High, who is a junior at Arizona after starting her college career at Hawaii.

"She finished fourth in the 400 hurdles in the Pac-12 Championships this year," Lanker said. "Just having that year-round track training and getting her hooked up with a good coach, it's unbelievable. What she's doing now, her goal is to make the Olympic Trials."

And it's still fun for Lanker helping kids.

"I'm very humbled about this, but I look back and I've put 31 years into coaching kids and helping them," Lanker said. "We don't get paid the big bucks for doing this, so you do it for the love of the sport and the love of helping young people. To get this honor, it's a bonus for me. It makes it worth all the years I've put in to get this opportunity. It's awesome."

So, Rio next?

"That's the goal and what I'm hoping for," Lanker said. "In the '70s, when I tried out for the Olympic team and didn't make it, to be able to go - I'm almost 60 - to have a chance to get to go to Rio would be amazing."

First things first, she'll have to impress again at the Junior Worlds next week in Eugene.

"It's great it's here in the United States," Lanker said. "It's been a long time and to have it in Eugene, where it's standing room only, they'll pack the house. There won't be an empty seat in the house and so to do it where the Prefontaine Classic is held, and have all those countries come and see what happens on this side of the country, it's going to be a blast."