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An inspiration to students and staff

Cross country coach leads girl’s team to 20th consecutive league title

Carmen George

(Updated: Friday, November 19, 2010, 5:25 PM)

As the last runner neared the end of the Badger Half Marathon long after all the others, cross-country coach Ellen Peterson waited at the finish with every member of the team, cheering her home. When the runner labored forward through the final steps, the small army of athletes erupted with congratulations and Peterson, full of smiles, went to embrace her. As they hugged, tears ran from the runners eyes.

‘For me, the last one’s the first,’ Peterson said.

That kind of Peterson compassion led her varsity girls cross-country team to their 20th consecutive league championship this year. Peterson, who started coaching sports at the age of 12, has been a part of Yosemite High School since the campus opened its doors in 1976, teaching history and coaching softball, basketball, and track & field over the years in addition to coaching cross-country for 26 years.

‘A lot of people say, ‘When are you retiring?’’ and it’s more like I can’t imagine life without coaching and teaching,’ Peterson said.

‘She puts her time and effort into the students — she’s always been like that — always energetic, always fun-loving,’ said YHS athletic director Tammy Thacker, who played basketball for Peterson as a YHS student. ‘Literally, she will die doing it, she loves it that much. If I could be half the teacher and coach that she is, I would think I’ll be doing all right.’

‘She’s probably inspired more history teachers than you can imagine,’ said Kellie Solomon, YHS English teacher and a former student of Petersons. ‘There was a student just yesterday who said, ‘I’m going to be a history teacher,’ and I didn’t even have to ask why, it’s the same reason I said it.’

Betsy Blum, YHS librarian and an original staff member at the high school, said that in the early days before there were walls between many of the classrooms, no teacher ever wanted a class beside Peterson.

‘Everyone would listen to her instead of the teacher in front of them,’ she said with a laugh. ‘Ellen has this wonderful voice and tells these wonderful stories.’

Peterson has been known to teach while dressed up as historical figures like Teddy Roosevelt or Richard Nixon so students can learn through interviewing first-person, and hosts an 80’s Day every year with Solomon as part of her unit on contemporary history.

‘She just makes the subject come alive and history so relevant, starting with the kids life and moving back in time,’ Solomon said.

Peterson begins the year with an autobiography assignment, where students write the history of their own life, and finishes in the spring with Its a Wonderful Life, where students present to the class about why another classmate has enriched their lives. The assignment was created after a Yosemite student committed suicide.

‘She has been a light in the darkness, she is the creme of the crop,’ said Kathleen Booth, whose son runs on the cross-country team. ‘The energy she has is over and beyond what anyone would expect for a coach, let alone a teacher. My son has history this year with her, and he hates history, but he loves it this year.’

District Superintendent Steve Raupp said what impresses him most is that every student who comes out for cross-country finds a place and finds success. ‘Whether they’re an outstanding runner or an average runner, they enjoy the experience,’ adding that the way Peterson defines success is by the improvement that athletes see, something you don’t find in every program.

As a coach, she hosts spaghetti dinners for her team at her home, wraps feet and ankles of injured runners before races, organizes an annual Half Dome hike, and encourages volunteerism at events like the annual Smokey Bear Run in Bass Lake. She is in her classroom at 7 a.m. and doesn’t leave until the last member of her team is picked up after practice so students and athletes have a place to wait. When she’s not coaching or teaching, she can be found cheering student athletes at as many games as she can make.

‘She genuinely cares for students,’said Sonja Mazaira, one of the advisors with Peterson, for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Club at YHS. ‘She is not afraid to get involved in the lives of all students, not just her athletes — Her excitement for life is contagious.’

She wasn’t just a teacher, she was also the person to help you get through high school, said Tyler Wilhite, a YHS graduate who had Peterson for history. ‘If there’s anything you need, she’d be there for you,’ said Ryan Broomfield, another graduate and former runner.

Valinda Clevenger, an original school staff member who has coached with Peterson, said Peterson has taken in many students over the years that need a safe haven to help them stay in high school. ‘She’s a fearless inspirational leader and friend,’ she said.

Peterson’s fearlessness extends to a history in the Army Reserves, where she served as a lineman climbing poles and cooking between 1980 and 1988 while teaching at YHS. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 1972 in social sciences and physical education, receiving her teaching credentials the following year from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

‘She’s just an inspirational person,’ said Dave Dooman, who coached cross-country with Peterson before retiring from coaching this year. ‘She just gets the most out of kids because they like and respect her and want to do their best for her.’

‘She made you want to run,’ said Brett Adney, former Badger runner and close friend. As a coach, she leads by example, running hundreds of races and marathons over the years, including the Western States 100-Mile Run, alongside her husband, John Peterson. The two met through cross-country, when John’s three children had her as a coach. They’ve been married 15 years, and coach, run and hike together.

‘Everything she’s doing is happy and excited and that permeated into the team,’ said stepson Isaiah Peterson, who know has that energy mixing in his family. ‘She’s a really, really good grandmother.’ ‘I wish she’d be my shadow and follow me around and tell me what to do in life,’ said freshman Bailey Setaro. Like so many others, Setaro has a long line of family that have had Peterson either as a teacher or coach, including her mother and two older sisters. Peterson recently discovered that she’s taught three generations of one family.

‘If we want something from the store and we’re in a hurry, I go,’ said husband John. ‘If she goes it takes a half hour minimum. She’s been teaching for 35 years, you can imagine how many students she’s had in that time.’

It’s a legacy extending beyond the Mountain Area. While running at the Los Angeles Marathon last year, Peterson stopped in the middle of the race to talk to a former student shouting to her from the sidelines.

‘For her the time is not the important part of running the marathon,’ John said. ‘It’s the people, the environment.’

Peterson shares a great lesson through her example, that life is about how you deal with people and can always be fun, and that there is joy in every moment. ‘You don't need to be a teacher to apply that,’ Solomon said.

Near the back of her classroom, a large poster of baseball player Jackie Robinson hitting a home run hangs with the words — ‘A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.’

Beside her desk, pink sticky notes with words of appreciation from her team, arranged in the shape of a heart, say it all.