Coach Nat Sawyer Stepping Down

Coach Nat Sawyer is stepping down after this season as Lake View High School’s track and field coach after 34 years. The coach who led Lake View’s track team to 25 UIL state track meets over his tenure said it’s time to slow down.

Here are some highlights of Coach Sawyer’s career:

• Two-time Lake View Hall of Honor inductions. In 2012, he was inducted for winning the State Championship in 1993; and in 2014, inducted again for individual coaching achievements from 1983 until 2014.
• His athlete Marcell Williams placed 12^th out of 24 contestants in the long jump at the Olympic Trials at Sacramento, California in 2000.
• He coached 18 college scholarship recipients, including seven Division I, five Division II, five junior college, and one N.A.I.A. athletes.
• He coached Jeff Lewis, Lake View’s two-time state champion in the 3200 meter cross-country, 1992-1993; state runner-up champion in the 1600 meter; and Lewis won 59 out of 66 races in his high school career under Sawyer.
• 25 total state track meet appearances and 43 Top 2 finishes in cross-country and track from 1983-2015.

Sawyer saw the transformation of the track and field sport from the early 1980s when cross-country became the backbone of schools having great programs. “When I started here in 1983, we were good, but we were not going to be great until we started the cross-country program,” Sawyer said.

Starting in August of every year, cross-country runners from Lake View were a familiar sight running to “The Hills”, an inclined over-the-road course to a place off Mercedes St. near O.C. Fisher Reservoir. Sawyer said that the visibility of his runners working hard every day was a recruiting tool for the junior high kids, in addition to its intended runner conditioning.

You needed that conditioning, Sawyer said, because to be competitive today in the 1600-meter run, you had to run the four laps in the “low fours,” 4:08, 4:09, he said. The Lake View record for the 800-meter is 1:55:01, Sawyer said.

Sawyer’s most memorable students are his winners. He fondly recalls Terrence Norris, the two-time state champ in the 400-meter in the early 1990s, Marcell Williams, and Lewis.

“We were awfully successful with these kids. But if anything I have missed is the time to enjoy all of these victories,” Sawyer said. Right after a state meet, Sawyer said you had to start working on the next season. There was never any time to reflect on the wins.

Running, Sawyer said, is a positive life skill to teach kids. For one thing, he said, it teaches discipline and how to succeed. “I don’t see my kids in the paper [getting arrested], so I know my program has been successful,” he quipped. More than that, Sawyer believes that the healthy lifestyle consisting of staying in shape and running daily leads to better health. Sawyer said it saved his life. In 2004, Sawyer underwent two brain surgeries for cancer. The docs at M.D. Anderson in Houston credited Sawyer’s excellent physical shape to his survival, Sawyer said.

Sawyer has two sons who had successful football careers at Central High School. Logan Sawyer was the starting quarterback in 2011 when the Bobcats began their winning streak under Coach Brent Davis. Landon Sawyer was a receiver for the Bobcats, graduating in 2014. He is a walk-on red shirt freshman at wide receiver this year at Texas Tech.

Sawyer said that in retirement he would continue to serve the San Angelo ISD part time as a substitute teacher.