60. Teri Steer
Track & Field / Crete / Born: 1975
QUICK FACTS:
Played for: Crete High, Southern Methodist Mustangs and U.S. Olympic team
Best athlete from Nebraska played with or against: Bloomfield native Tressa Thompson, a 10-time All-American at Nebraska from 1994 through 1998. "It's pretty cool to have had a great athlete from your home state that you've competed against from high school all the way up to the world-class level," Steer said.
Best moment as an athlete: "Walking into the Olympic Stadium in 2000. It was just an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and of a dream coming true."
From the first day Dave Wollman started recruiting Teri Steer, the Southern Methodist coach told Steer she'd be an NCAA champion and an Olympian.
So no, Wollman isn't surprised by anything Steer accomplished over her illustrious career in track and field.
Steer, from Crete, won four straight Class B shot put and discus titles, including three straight all-class gold medals in the shot.
She was a two-time NCAA shot put champion at Southern Methodist. She was the 2002 USA indoor and outdoor champion as well as a 1999 World Indoor bronze medalist, and Steer competed in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
"She has tremendous self esteem in every area of her life, and she just had every ingredient you could want in a student athlete," Wollman said. "I just knew she was going to be successful."
Wollman said one of the lasting influences Steer had on the program at SMU was her shattering any lingering perceptions that women shouldn't train with the same intensity as men.
Now that Steer is getting into coaching, she wants to keep spreading a similar message.
"I think a lot of women are afraid of a sport like ours, because you do have to be strong," Steer said. "Some women are afraid of being a little bit bigger, but you can be strong and athletic and still be feminine. I preach that to every young girl I come across."
-- Chad Purcell
QUICK FACTS:
Played for: Crete High, Southern Methodist Mustangs and U.S. Olympic team
Best athlete from Nebraska played with or against: Bloomfield native Tressa Thompson, a 10-time All-American at Nebraska from 1994 through 1998. "It's pretty cool to have had a great athlete from your home state that you've competed against from high school all the way up to the world-class level," Steer said.
Best moment as an athlete: "Walking into the Olympic Stadium in 2000. It was just an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and of a dream coming true."
