A former runner for the Vulcans, Sandy Estep enters her eighth season as an assistant coach at California (PA) working with sprints, hurdles and relays.
Estep has developed some of the fastest sprinters in both school and PSAC history while with the Vulcans. She has mentored a combined 20 individual league champions and 42 All-PSAC individual honorees, plus five championship relays, since joining the coaching staff in November of 2015.
A native of Virginia, Estep has proven instrumental in the development of standout Divonne Franklin. She enters her senior campaign having claimed nine individual titles in the 60, 100 and 200 meters, rewriting the school record book in each event, while also establishing four PSAC Championship records and a pair of all-time league marks. Franklin is a four-time All-American in her career, placing as high as fourth in the 60 meters at the 2022 NCAA Championships, and was voted a CoSIDA Second-Team Academic All-American last year. Additionally, the Philadelphia native was chosen as the USTFCCCA Atlantic Region Track Athlete of the Year and PSAC Track Athlete of the Year during both the indoor and outdoor campaigns in 2022.
Estep also mentored one of the fastest men’s sprinters in school history in Jae’Len Means. He closed his career as an eight-time PSAC Champion in individual events and received All-PSAC honors a combined 17 times (13 individual). Means completed a three-peat in the 200 meters at the indoor championships from 2017-19 and set indoor school record in the event when he finished fifth at the 2019 NCAA Championships. The Monroeville native also set outdoor school records in the 100 and 200 meters as a senior when he repeated as the league champion in both events.
In 2020, Estep was honored as the USTFCCCA Atlantic Region Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year. The Vulcans placed fourth at the PSAC Championships, which tied their best-ever finish at the time, behind a pair of individual league titles by Franklin and a relay crown in the 4x400 meters.
Estep has worked with a pair of PSAC Champion hurdlers in the last two seasons. Jalessa Mackey became the first women’s league champion in the 100 hurdles in over two decades in 2021. Kailee Bunyard then swept the 60 and 100 hurdles last year and set the indoor school record in the 60 hurdles.
The Vulcans have won a relay title at the league championships in each of the last three years with the women’s 4x400 relay claiming conference titles at the 2020 indoor meet and the 2022 outdoor event. On the men’s side, Cal captured a league crown at back-to-back outdoor championships in 2016 and 2017.
While a student at Cal, Estep competed on the cross country and track & field teams from 2008-13 and also served as a graduate assistant for the program during 2013-14 academic year.
In track & field, Estep was a nine-time individual qualifier for the PSAC Championships and set three school records as part of relay teams. As a sophomore, Estep helped the 4x400 relay claim the first women’s relay league title since 1985 and qualified for the NCAA Championships.
Estep received USTFCCCA All-Academic honors for track & field three times in her career and earned D2ADA Academic Achievement Award status as a senior. She also garnered PSAC Scholar-Athlete laurels five times in her collegiate career and was a 10-time member of the Cal U AD Honor Roll.
She earned her undergraduate degree in sport management with a concentration in wellness and fitness in 2012. The following year, she completed her master’s degree in exercise science and health promotion with an emphasis in performance enhancement and injury prevention. Estep also earned a post-master’s certificate in sport psychology from Cal U in 2014.
Estep and her husband Brady, an assistant coach for the Vulcans, reside in California.
