MWC honors former Y. leader Michaelis

PROVO — A year after she retired, former BYU athletic administrator Elaine Michaelis is still being honored for the contribution she made to the lives of countless athletes in her 43-year career.

The Mountain West Conference announced this week that Michaelis has been awarded the Dr. Albert C. Yates Distinguished Service Award. Named for a former Colorado State University president, this award is given each year to someone who has promoted positive experiences for athletes and promoted the goals of the conference and its member schools.

"I was deeply honored," Michaelis said, "because I know the significance of that award, having worked on the Mountain West council when it was created, and knowing what they look for in giving that award."

Michaelis was a coach at BYU from 1961 to 2002, in which time she was the head coach at one time or another for four sports: field hockey, softball, basketball and volleyball. Her passion, however, was volleyball, where she became the NCAA's all-time leader in wins among female volleyball coaches and was among the first class inducted into the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2003.

"You never realize the influence you have on people, so to have others recognize that influence is rewarding," she said.

She is still a strong supporter of BYU athletics, and though Michaelis admits it is hard at times to watch from the stands after being involved for so long, she said she is enjoying the time to dedicate to her family, church duties and home projects.

CROSS COUNTRY: After a three-week break, the men's and women's cross country teams will be back on the course Saturday in their biggest meet yet this year, the Pre-Nationals in Indiana.

Both teams come into this meet with a No. 4 national ranking and will have the opportunity to compete against other top-flight talent from around the country and earn valuable qualifying points for the NCAA Championship meet next month.

BYU automatically qualifies for the title meet if it places in the top two at the Mountain Region meet in November, but coaches say they would rather gather enough points to qualify at-large and take a relaxed approach to the region meet, since the NCAA meet is just nine days later.

"Since the Mountain Region is a very strong region and has a lot of good teams in the region, we don't really need to be in the top two teams, but we need to have beaten enough schools from other, weaker regions that we'll have enough points to get us through," men's coach Ed Eyestone said.