For Grace Academy coaches Fred Howard and Dawnell Holt, track and field is more than a sport, it’s a family pastime.

The father-and-daughter pair have coached together at the small private school in Marysville for 14 years. Last spring, Dawnell’s oldest daughter and 2000 Grace Academy graduate, Brittney Klingenberg, joined the coaching staff. This year, Dawnell’s youngest daughter, Sydney, joined the team as a freshman sprinter.

The Howard family has been involved in track and field since the early 1970s. Dawnell’s decision to join an Edmonds club team at the age of 9 led to Fred’s first coaching gig. Dawnell continued to participate in track as a student at Cascade High School, setting a school record in the long jump and earning a track-and-field scholarship to Eastern Washington University.

In 1995, while Brittney was on the junior high track team, Dawnell began working with the Grace Academy track program. Not long after, the head coach quit and Dawnell suggested her father for the position.

“I went in on Wednesday and interviewed with the athletic director and on Thursday I was the coach,” said Fred, who had retired the year before after 32 years in the workforce.

In 2000, Fred and Dawnell coached Brittney to a second-place finish in the shot put and a fourth-place finish in the discus at the state meet. Brittney has since graduated from Seattle University and now coaches the throwers at her alma mater.

Dawnell said the best part of coaching alongside her father and daughter is “just having the opportunity to spend the time together and share in the experience.”

As a Class 1B school, Grace Academy draws about 18 track-and-field athletes each season. This year that group includes Sydney, who joined the team as a sprinter and relay runner.

“We’re just starting to train the kids and we like to give them the opportunity to try any event that they like,” Fred said. “When (Sydney) was in junior high, she threw the discus and the shot, like her older sister did, but now she wants to be a sprinter.”

Sydney practically grew up on the track team, as Dawnell and Fred have been coaching her entire life, but this will be the first year that they’ve served as her coaches.

Nathan, the youngest of Dawnell Holt’s children, will have the opportunity to carry on the family tradition in three years when he starts high school. Last summer, at the age of 11, Nathan joined his family in a local competition and proved that he has the talent to compete with the rest of the clan, winning his age group in the shot put.

“He had never held a shot in his hand and he not only won his age group but he broke the series record by six feet, which was pretty dramatic,” Fred said. “I’m looking forward to getting him at the high school.”

Nathan wasn’t the only member of the family to break the record in the shot put. Fred, Dawnell and her husband, Rick, all won their age groups with record throws.

“Track and field helps you stay healthy and in reasonable shape,” said Fred, who competes in senior competitions in the long jump, broad jump, shot put and sprints.

As coaches, Fred and Dawnell put more emphasis on the health and developmental benefits of track and field than winning.

“To see kids who maybe didn’t think that they could do much of anything go out there and improve each week, for me, that’s the best thing,” Dawnell said. “They don’t have to be the best in state or win some amazing award, it’s that they come out here and do something they didn’t think they could do.”