Inductees

When the Smithville High School girls track program began its impressive run of success in the 1980s, it wasn’t just the girls on the team who played a role. Ask the former athletes who created the success, and they’ll tell you it was much more. Even more than the school.

It was the entire community.

“When we looking back at it all, we really remember the community support,” said Sandy Cummings, a multi-time state champion in the mid-80s. “It was so much fun to have what seemed like the entire community there at the end of meets. You see some track meets and by the time you get to the last even, it’s just the kids who are running. Everyone stuck around in Smithville, the team the community, everyone.”

Sometimes the best sports stories come from small high schools like that.

It was definitely the case at Smithville, where the girls track and field teams from 1981 to 1991 became among the most competitive in the state. For that run of success, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted the 1981-1991 Era of Smithville High School Girls Track & Field into the Class of 2025.

“Smithville hosted a lot of the major tack meets in area,” Cummings said. “The teachers and staff would come out and run events, run the press box, do everything. At that time, we still had a chat track and they would come out and line the track before the meet. If we didn’t have that kind of community support, I don’t think we could have had the success we did.”

And what success it was.

The Warriors finished in the Top 15 at the state meet in eight of 11 seasons. The highlight was winning the 1991 state championship in Class 2. The run began with a fourth-place finish, and featured two state runner-up finishes. Additionally, Smithville placed eighth in 1982, sixth in 1984, 15^th in 1988 and 11^th in 1990. Coached by Diana Tingler (MSHOF 2017), the team saw state champions in Cummings (100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters in 1983 & 1985, and the long jump from 1983-1985); and Melissa Clark (triple jump in 1991). The 1983 team came oh-so close, just four points of topping Stockton.

“Once we started having some success it was a bit of a snowball effect,” Tingler said. “The girls gravitated to it. They saw the ones ahead of them doing well and they didn’t want to let anybody down. They came in and worked hard too.”

The former athletes are quick to point out Tingler’s impact.

“Coach Tingler was the steadfast one through all of it,” Cummings said. “Her willingness to make it a team sport when, so often in individual sports it’s hard to stress the team aspect of it. She focused so much on the team dynamics, being part of the team, supporting one another.”

And it wasn’t just that. The track athletes never felt like they were the only ones putting in the hard work.

“She was big with ‘just do the work.’ Come to practice every day, say extra if you need to work on your steps or the blocks or whatever, just put in the work,” Cummings said. “But the big thing with her was she was there guiding you through it. She didn’t just say ‘do the work,’ and then expect you to do it on your own. She was there with us. She had small kids at the time and they’d be there running around with us. It made for such a great atmosphere.”

Smithville was blessed with good athletes, but more went into it than just being talented.

With Smithville being Class 2, all the athletes were needed. That meant volleyball players and basketball players also joined the team to help score points at meets.

“We had girls who focused mainly on track, but there were the volleyball players where that was their thing, but they wanted to be contributors,” Cummings said. “At a smaller school, you play all of the sports and we wouldn’t have had the big team wins if we didn’t have a full team like that.”

And like most successful programs, the legacy lives on, not just in trophies and press clippings, but in the relationships that were built in the hours on that chat track.

“It’s been 40 nears now and some of the memories have faded,” Cummings said. “But we still have the friendships with our teammates. We’re still in contact with each other all these years later.”