Chelsea Standley competes in the 200 meters for Powers during the Jack Blum Invitational at Reedsport last Friday. World Photo by Susan Chambers.

POWERS — With long, forceful strides, Powers junior Chelsea Standley works through her long jump steps on a narrow strip of asphalt surrounded by maintenance equipment above Powers High School. She crosses over the pit and pulls up to avoid smacking into a metal shed several feet past the sand.

After one run-through, Standley trips over a broom leaning against a cluster of potted plants next to the long jump track.

Welcome to the Powers track and field complex.

But the school’s lack of facilities — the absence of a real track is a big one — hasn’t kept Standley, in her second year as a sprinter and long jumper, from becoming a quiet force in the Skyline League and the state.

“You don’t want to use it as an excuse not to do well,” says Standley, soft-spoken but clearly competitive. “It’s all just about what you can do.”

After two seasons of track and field, Standley’s already set three school records: 13.41 seconds in the 100-meters, 28.05 in the 200-meters and 15 feet 7 inches in the long jump. Those scores are good enough to be fifth in state for Class 1A in the 100, eighth in the 200 and fifth in the long jump. She’s racked up myriad first-place finishes in all three events this year, and coach Cayne Pedrick says the lowest she’s placed all season was fourth, at the Prefontaine Invitational, which involved many larger schools.

For Standley and her teammates, training for running events without a track can be interesting. Pedrick, in his first year as coach, uses everything he can, including hills, city streets and the football field to work out the seven-member varsity team — he began the season with 10, but lost athletes to injury and a friend’s wedding, among other things.  

“We do most of our workouts on grass, parking lots and city roads,” says Payne. “I’d be more comfortable if we had even a two-lane track.”

The hurdles course consists of a bunch of hurdles lined up at intervals in the daisy-filled football field. For sprints, the team has measured off distances in the parking lot and elsewhere to denote the 100 and 200-meter marks. Outside that, local landmarks work well. Main Street to High School Hill is about 400 meters, for example. And the post office to the county park is roughly a mile.

As Standley works on her long jump, senior Mason Lieuallen tosses a discus from the end of a sidewalk that terminates at a concession stand next to the football field.

“For the throwers, it doesn’t really make too much difference,” says Lieuallen, who also does the javelin and shot put, with a shrug.   

Back at the long jump pit, Standley is on her second practice try. She scratches by perhaps an inch, but from the looks of it she soars well over 16 feet.

On her next try, she plants her foot right in the middle of the board and again flies beyond the 16-foot mark. Breaking 16 feet is her long jump goal for districts, set to take place Saturday at Rogue River High School.

With a long jump pit and a high jump pad and bar — sitting on a concrete slab across a gravel road from the football field — Powers athletes can get a pretty good idea of where they stand before meets happen in jumping and throwing events. With running events, though, it’s not so easy, since they’re working with a different surface and inexact distance and time measurements.

“It’s kind of interesting, not really knowing what to expect,” says Standley with a laugh.

Working without good facilities requires a certain amount of drive from athletes, and Standley’s coach and teammates say she has plenty of that to go around.

“Chelsea’s sort of a quiet worker, she just gets things done. It’s kind of ridiculous, she goes from one level to the next,” says Lieuallen.

“She’s a good example of working hard. It kind of drives some of the other guys and gals to work a little bit harder, I think. She’s very positive with them,” adds Pedrick.

Standley says she gets her drive to do better from her parents, but she has her own reasons for running.

“I’ve just always enjoyed running. Even if I weren’t competing, I’d probably still do it,” she says. “Running for me is something that keeps me from getting stressed.”

Given Standley’s quiet demeanor and easy smile, it’s probably safe to say it’s working.