The News-Gazette's All-Area girls' track and field team: Long wins Coach of the Year
Jun. 20—Why he’s Coach of the Year
The Danville Vikings enjoyed plenty of success in 2026, with Samantha Brown and Jamia Esther winning individual state championships to propel the Vikings to a runner-up finish in the Class 2A state meet. Danville coach Carl Long joined his wife Jenny, sons Timmy and Joshua, daughter Katie and assistant coach Emone’ Davis at The News-Gazette for a chat with staff writer Joey Wright.
➜ Making history. It’s the highest DHS has ever placed on the girls side with a third-place back in 2010, I think it was. So, this was the highest team finish for us.
➜ I think just at the beginning of the season, our coaches were telling us this could be a good year. There’s a lot of opportunity for us to achieve. As the season went on each day, each meet, it just got closer and closer and clear this is happening and we can do this. Each practice, (Davis) pushed us to our limits every day. In all events, all of our coaches just pushed us. Once sectionals came, and we got as many girls as we did to state, it just opened our eyes. It was really a great season.
➜ They’ve really all been by everybody’s side, not just mine. But they’re constantly supporting, even when we’re at our lowest or going through a hard day, or just because it’s really a mental game — track is truly an individual mental game — and when coaches see that, or you’re in your head, they’re really, really good at pulling us out of it. That’s really what carries through and shows in our accomplishments.
➜ We were able to come back to town and see our community join us, coming into downtown, to show them that we’ve been watching them put in all this work all season. Like Sam said from day one, our motto was, ‘Let’s make history,’ and that’s what we did. From the sprinters to the jumpers to all the field events, that’s what we did, from our head coach on down. It was just a historic season.
➜ It was great. It was an emotional day, and being able to watch our community line Main Street and cheer us on coming down back to school was really neat. Hopefully, the kids really enjoyed it, as well. It was neat to see teachers, family members and people you didn’t even expect to see out there come out there.
➜ Well, it was exciting for sure. Carl ran track at DHS way back in the day, and so it’s been fun. He’s loved track from day one, and since we moved here about 16 years ago, he’s been a track coach. It’s been fun watching him grow as a coach, and just being there, meeting the kids, and being able to support them. I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing Jamia before, but Sam was a student of mine, as well. I teach at the high school, as well, so it’s fun seeing the kids succeed and grow, and they’re a great bunch of students, too. A really good representation of Danville High School.
➜ The other coach is the announcer for graduation. So, we got the girls off, headed to the state meet, and he and I drove and went through graduation, and then we hustled back in the truck and followed (the meet) online, and were rooting from inside the car.
➜ Growing up, he was always coaching everything. When I was playing my own sports, he would have to juggle that, as well. I knew he was able to do it, and then seeing him at graduation, I knew he was going to be there, but it definitely made the day better.
He’s always had to juggle his schedule with ours and my siblings as well being the athletic family.
➜ It’s awesome. It’s where I grew up running, and it gave me a lot of opportunities to just give back to the kids and coach them through. What we’ve learned throughout the years and experiences that we’ve had, not only myself as a coach, but our other coaches, as well, because almost all of our coaches, in some way, shape, form, or fashion, have competed at the next level. We have a really good opportunity to reach different kids.
➜ My dad played college football. And then I was always playing sports as a kid, everything from soccer to football to baseball, and then I just really started enjoying track and field when I was in middle school and then once high school came, I was probably going to gravitate to track. I ended up doing that in college as a decathlete at Arkansas State.
➜ The 2009 financial crisis. The company I worked for went bankrupt, and actually a friend reached out to us about a job at Danville High School, and we made some contacts back in town, and they told me what I needed to do. The Super Bowl weekend, we moved out of Denver and 2009-10 was our first year at Danville High School.
➜ Well, first and foremost, my wife is great. She juggles a ton of stuff at home with me being gone all the time, and then having three kids in sports at the high school made it much easier at home because I knew that she would be able to stay on top of stuff and let me know where I needed to be, when I needed to be. When I’m at track, I’ve got great coaches that surround me that help us be successful, so it’s not just a one-coach show. It’s everybody.
YEAR COACH SCHOOL
2026 Carl Long Danville
2025 Tony Reetz Unity
2024 Drew Sterkel Tuscola
2023 Drew Sterkel Tuscola
2022 Drew Sterkel Tuscola
2021 Steve Trompeter Salt Fork
2019 Cully Welter Monticello
2018 Kelly Steffen St. Joseph-Ogden
2017 Kelly Steffen St. Joseph-Ogden
2016 Gail Biggerstaff Salt Fork
2015 Tyler Germain Monticello
2014 Bonnie Moxley Mahomet-Seymour
2013 Jerry Hewerdine St. Joseph-Ogden
2012 Erica Kostoff Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley
