By Greg Oshust
Marietta Daily Journal Sports Writer
Lauren Hines figured that her young Kell girls track and field team was a year or two away from contending for a state title.
The future turned out to be now for Hines and her Kell squad as the Lady Longhorns emerged as a team to watch in the state with a fourth-place finish in Class AAAAA this season.
For Kell's rise to the state girls track elite, Hines has been selected as the Marietta Daily Journal/Cobb County Girls Track Coach of the Year.
Kell's fourth-place finish was its highest state meet placing in school history, with the Lady Longhorns' also recording their best showings in school history in the Region 6AAAAA and county meets with second-place showing in both.
While Hines knew her young team would eventually be a top-five state contender, the second-year Kell coach wasn't expecting it to happen this year.
"Last year was my first year and we had all sophomores," Hines said. "I knew that we could be a very good team in a year or two, but I didn't expect this much so soon."
The presence of Lauren Chambers was a big factor in Kell's success at the state meet with her state title in the shot put and third-place finish in the discus providing 16 of the Lady Longhorns' 29 points.
Kell was also boosted by the development of its young sprinting corps of Adiyah Crute, Ioni Christian, Shelly Lester and Liz Bond, who constituted the Lady Longhorns 400-meter relay team that finished second at the state meet.
Hines said Crute's rapid development was especially crucial.
"Adiyah started to come along in the hurdles last year and she stepped into our (400 relay) team when one of our seniors chose not to run this year and she gave us a big boost," Hines said. "Our sprinters worked hard to improve and they really came along this year."
Hines first saw the signs of Kell's ultimate state meet success at the season-opening Ridge Invitational, where the Lady Longhorns finished third behind state powerhouses Alpharetta and Redan.
Kell was overcome by Lassiter's superior depth as it finished second behind the Lady Trojans in both the county and Region 6AAAAA meets.
However, Hines realized that her Kell squad could do well at state as she analyzed where the Lady Longhorns stood against their state meet opposition with her husband Craig Hines, who was the Kell boys track coach last year and is currently the school's golf coach.
"I sat down with my husband and we looked at who we had going and looked at the point thing and we figured out that if everyone did as well as expected, we could score 26-30 points," Hines said.
Which is exactly what happened as Chambers' state title in the shot put and third-place showing in the discus as well as Kell's second-place finish in the 400 relay, Crute's fourth-place result in the 100 hurdles and Chrstian's sixth-place finish in the 100 propelled the Lady Longhorns to their fourth-place finish.
With all of its key performers returning next year, Kell looks to improve on its state meet performance of 2008 and possibly make a serious run for the state title.
"We want to win our region and finish higher in the state meet," Hines said. "I know we have some tough competition like (defending AAAAA champion) Collins Hill, but I think we have a good chance. We're going to take it one step at a time."