UPDATE (5/20): Estep named 2020 USTFCCCA Regional Assistant Coach of the Year
A former runner for the Vulcans, Sandy Estep enters her seventh season as an assistant coach at Cal U working with sprints, hurdles and relays.
In 2020, Estep was chosen the USTFCCCA Atlantic Region Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year. She mentored a group of sprinters and hurdlers that received All-PSAC status a combined eight times at the indoor meet, including three league champions. Divonne Franklin registered a breakout season as a sophomore and was chosen the Outstanding Track Athlete of the PSAC Championships after setting the all-time conference and championship record in the 200-meter dash. She also captured the league title in the 60-meter dash while setting school and championship records, plus anchored the winning 4x400-meter relay.
Estep helped Jae’Len Means develop into one of the top sprinters in program history, as he finished his career as a two-time All-American and eight-time individual PSAC Champion. Means, who holds three school records, captured the outdoor league title in the 200 meters in three-straight years and also repeated as the 100-meter champion as a junior and senior.
In her first year on the coaching staff, Estep helped Gabby Irving set then-indoor school records in both the 60 and 200 meters while earning All-PSAC status in both events. In 2019, Estep mentored the program’s first league-champion sprinter since 2012 with Alicia Collier claiming the conference title in the 100 meters and setting the outdoor record in the 200 meters.
Estep has worked with six relay teams that have placed among the top three at the league championships. In 2016, the men’s outdoor 4x100 and 4x400-meter relays both earned All-PSAC honors with the 4x100 relay winning the league title by nine-hundredths of a second. The Vulcans again received All-PSAC laurels in the 4x400 relay in 2017 before winning the conference crown during the outdoor season in dramatic fashion – again by nine-tenths of a second. Last winter, Collier and Franklin helped the 4x400-meter relay capture the league title by just one-tenth of a second.
While a student at Cal U, 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-meter relay claim the first women’s relay league title since 1985 and qualified for the NCAA Championships.
Estep also competed on the cross country team for three years. She placed sixth on the team as a freshman in 2008 at both the league and regional championships.
A native of Virginia, 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.
Estep 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.
She and her husband Brady, an assistant coach for the Vulcans, reside in California.
