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Megan Sprabeary, center, poses with former Guyer athletes, from left, Ashley Griffin, Jade Thompson, Mia Thompson and Eni Akinniyi after they won the 800-meter relay at the 2018 area track Meet. Sprabeary recently resigned her position as Guyer girls track coach to spend more time with her family.

Megan Sprabeary, center, poses with former Guyer athletes, from left, Ashley Griffin, Jade Thompson, Mia Thompson and Eni Akinniyi after they won the 800-meter relay at the 2018 area track Meet. Sprabeary recently resigned her position as Guyer girls track coach to spend more time with her family.

After 15 years as a coach, including 10 leading the Guyer girls track program, Megan Sprabeary resigned late last week and is stepping away from the profession.

Between being a math teacher, head track coach, wife and mother to three children, Sprabeary could no longer reach the standard she sets for herself in each of those roles. This led her to a difficult decision — prioritizing her family while stepping away from a team which had become like a family to her, too.

“For me to feel fulfilled, I have to give 110% effort into whatever I’m doing and it just became impossible to do it all and do it all well. I had to prioritize and family comes first,” Sprabeary said, fighting back tears. “I had to put family first, but those girls are my family too. That was the hardest part.”

A 2003 graduate of Denton High, Sprabeary’s local ties brought her back to the city after spending four years working in Lake Travis ISD and one year at Lake Dallas High School.

She took over the Guyer program prior to the 2012-13 school year and quickly found success as the Lady Wildcats won the district meet in her first season. They repeated as district champions in 2014, Sprabeary’s second season, while also securing the program’s second-ever regional title.

Over her decade leading Guyer, Sprabeary’s teams won five district titles, an area championship and one regional crown in nine full seasons (excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign). The Lady Wildcats most recently topped the District 5-6A meet in 2021 before taking the area title that season as well.

“As coaches, it’s just an honor to be around such impressive young women,” Sprabeary said. “We’ve just been really fortunate. You can have the greatest workout plans, etcetera, but it’s what kind of talent you can put on the track that really makes you a successful track program. We’ve had great staff members, a lot of people who have been there a long time and love track. It’s a very fortunate place to have been for the last 10 years.”

Guyer took third place at this past season’s district meet led by a record-breaking performance by leaper Sophia Day. She set school records in triple jump (40 feet, four inches) and long jump (19-2) at the competition, eclipsing 2018 Guyer graduate Eni Akinniyi’s marks. She was also part of the first-place 1,600-meter relay team in addition to the runner-up 400-meter and 800-meter relay quartets.

Day went on to place seventh in triple jump at the 6A state track meet.

Decorated graduate Brynn Brown was another standout athlete during Sprabeary’s tenure, winning state championships in the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter races in both 2019 and 2021 while setting multiple state records in the 3,200. She now competes in cross country and track and field at North Carolina.

Brown, Day and Akinniyi are a few of the many athletes who excelled during Sprabeary’s tenure. One of her biggest emphases during that time was not on-track success, however, but rather the lives her athletes would lead after hanging up their cleats.

“At some point you’re going to hang it up,” Sprabeary said. “Then what? You have to be happy with who you are and who you become because at some point, you’re no longer going to be known as an athlete.

“From what I’ve seen, I’ve been really proud of what all those girls have done after that time has come.”

Making that jump to life beyond track has been challenging for Sprabeary as she moves on from such a significant piece of her identity. A slew of current and former athletes reaching out after she stepped away, though, helped Sprabeary realize the lasting impact she made.

“Every day at 3:20 I got to see the 30-plus girls out at the track and we went to battle together. I’ll definitely miss that every day,” Sprabeary said. “The good thing is, I have a good relationship with a whole bunch of current and former athletes, and a lot of them have reached out in the last couple of days.

“It really validated that the last 15 years was time really, really well spent.”

JOHN FIELDS can be reached at 940-566-6869 and via Twitter at @JohnFields0.

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