DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:Cotton leads Mesa by example

After cleaning up with first-place times, Emily Cotton stayed to help clean up.

Cotton, a senior team captain for the Costa Mesa High girls’ track and field team, won two events and anchored a winning relay in the Mustangs’ season-opening 107-20 win over Westminster on March 20.

Those wins in the 1,600 meters, 300 hurdles and 1,600 relay were big for the girls’ team, helping the Mustangs get off to a winning start. They’ve earned her Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week honors.

Yet, for Coach Diane Bjelland, it wasn’t only the times she noticed after the meet.

After most of her teammates were long gone, there was Cotton, trash bag in hand, helping to clean up some of the litter at the Mustangs’ track.

“I didn’t even think about it,” Cotton said. “My mom helps out at the snack bar too, so if there’s something left out, I’ll help put it away. I just kind of do whatever there is. Even if I wasn’t a captain, that’s something I would do.”

It’s this kind of leading by example that makes Bjelland realize just how valuable an asset Cotton is to Costa Mesa.

“She’s a very mature and very intelligent young lady,” the second-year head coach said. “She’s really been a contributor for all four years of high school. She’s just very responsible; she’s a great gal.”

In part, it’s a commitment to service that her family has taught to her. Cotton’s older sister Sarah (now Nguyen) was a member of the 1997 state-championship Mustang cross country team.

Nguyen was also a first-year co-coach of the Mesa cross country team last fall, of which Emily was the best girls’ runner, placing 29th in the CIF Southern Section Division III finals.

Sarah Nguyen has also been helping out with the track team before having a baby three weeks ago. For Emily, it’s been a interesting relationship, having a sister as a coach.

“All the kids would tease me, like, ‘Just call her Sarah,’” Emily Cotton said. “She wanted me to call her coach, and that’s understandable. I didn’t want her to treat me differently than anyone else. It’s a very different relationship than sister to sister … but she’s been a great help.”

And it’s also been an interesting relationship with her teammates this track season for Cotton, who is one of the Mustangs’ few seniors.

“She’s wonderful with all of the kids out at the track,” Bjelland said. “She’s just a quiet leader.”

But, quietly, Cotton has always been willing to do what the team needs. Last year, that meant running the 3,200 meters to help Costa Mesa score points in dual meets.

As a senior, she has a bit more flexibility. For Cotton, that has meant picking up the 300 hurdles, which she first attempted midway through last season.

“I never really thought about it before,” she said. “I thought it would be fun to try, then I went out there and was actually pretty good at them.”

But, as hard as she works, it wasn’t long before Cotton started trying to master the event.

Her time in the hurdles against Westminster was 52.76 seconds; the goal is to hopefully break 50 seconds by the end of the season.

The close tutelage of Bjelland, who also coached Cotton when she was in seventh and eighth grade, has also helped the Mustang senior’s progression.

“We’re really close,” Cotton said. “I know what she expects. It can be hard when you don’t know who your coach is.”

Cotton, who has above a 4.0 grade point average, plans to stay a Mustang. She was recently accepted to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she wants to pursue an architecture degree. After taking four Advanced Placement classes last year, she’s in three more — English, government and chemistry — this year.

She’s not sure if she wants to run at Cal Poly. If she does, it will be as a walk-on, but she probably won’t have to pick up trash after the university track meets.

Not that Cotton would mind if she did.

EMILY COTTON

Hometown: Costa Mesa

Born: April 7, 1989

Height: 5-foot-7

Weight: 124 pounds

Sport: Track and field

Events: 300 hurdles, 800 meters, 1,600, relays

Coach: Diane Bjelland

Favorite food: Any type of salad

Favorite movie: “Forrest Gump”

Favorite athletic moment: “It’s not anything big, but when I first started doing hurdles. I love doing them.”

Week in review: Won the 1,600 meters and the 300 hurdles, and anchored the winning Costa Mesa girls’ 1,600 relay in the Mustangs’ 107-20 win over Westminster on March 15.