Rachel Hinker breezes through the 100 meter prelims in last year's state meet. Photo by Paul Jaeger.
Rachel Hinker didn't start out looking at the University of Northern Colorado as the answer to her college questions. But sometimes the answers we aren't expecting find us, rather than the other way around.
"My plan was to get as far away from Colorado as I could. I looked at a school in Montana and even flew to Maryland to look out there. But a week before I had to give Wyoming a decision, the new women's head coach at UNC called Mr. Roberts and asked me to give her a call. I don't really know why I even went. I hadn't applied or been thinking about it at all. But I guess I didn't want to miss out on any chances. So I went up for a quick unofficial visit, and I felt really comfortable there."
"Their new head coach [Amanda Schick] was GREAT; she is fun and intensely passionate about what she does. I think that she will coach me to be the very best I can be. I get a feeling from the school that it is big enough to give me every opportunity that a very large university would but also small enough that I will get quite a bit of individual attention, which I have become accustomed to going to Lyons."
Part of the formula for getting Hinker to come to UNC was leaving open the idea of letting Hinker focus on her favorite events: the 100, 200, and long jump. Most of the other schools she was considering had her penciled in as a 400-meter specialist. "Coach Schick, and Coach Whipple have been very open in letting me know that they want me for short sprints and long jump. I will be a power athlete which means I'll get to do what I love."
Hinker will enroll in the nursing program at UNC.
But, before she matriculates at UNC this fall, there remains some high school business to take care of. There isn't much question about what's foremost in her mind for this spring, "to help the Lyons girls claim another state championship before I leave." With personal bests of 12.31, 25.18, and 17-6, she is most definitely in a position to do exactly that. And between Hinker, Coach Roberts, and the staff at UNC, there are a bunch of people anxious to see her take those marks down this season. Who knows, maybe the weather will cooperate this spring?
When you've won as many races and events as Hinker has, it may seem like picking a favorite memory would be difficult. Not so for Hinker.
"At the St. Vrain Invitational my sophomore year, before I ran the 200m dash, Mr. Roberts pulled me aside and told me that there was a super fast girl [Liz Tremblay of Thompson Valley--now running for CU] running in my heat and that it was going to be a really good race. He also told me that he thought I had a little better 100m speed then she did and that if I didn't have the lead at the 100m mark that he was going to make me run the open 400m dash at league... I decided that I would rather die at the 150m mark in this race then run a 400 at league so I ran what is to this day the fastest 200m of my high school career... We both ran PR's that day."
"I knew I was a competitor after that race. It gave me a lot of confidence; I remember everything about that race."
Meanwhile, the rest of us learn from this little story that Coach Roberts plays hardball with his top athletes 
.
And, you do not have to read very deeply between the line of that story to understand why Rachel Hinker was excited enough about UNC's call to pitch a several months' worth of work in trying to narrow down a college selection.