RAPID CITY - Sheri Keck of Rapid City is a leader. And her peers recognized her as such.

Keck received the South Dakota Girls and Women in Sports Leadership Award on May 31 from the South Dakota High School Activities Association. The award is to recognize her achievements through 35 years as an athlete, coach and judge.

Keck is a physical education teacher at Rapid City Stevens and a gymnastics coach for the Raiders and Rapid City Central. She is also a member of several athletic organizations at the state and national levels, serving as the president on several of them. She said that the award should serve as an inspiration for women to "step out there and become leaders."

She first became interested in advancing women's sports as an athlete herself. When she was a freshman in high school at Stevens, she spoke to the school board about allowing her to compete on the varsity volleyball team. Coincidentally, that year - 1972 - saw the implementation of

Title IX, a law that allows schools to set up equal opportunities for girls in sports at the high school level. The only two sports available at the time for girls at Stevens were volleyball and gymnastics.

By the time Keck was a senior, she participated in the first state-sanctioned tournaments for volleyball and cross country. Though she said that she was not much of a distance runner, she was encouraged by coaches to run cross country because of her leading role in athletics. Also at the time, girls golf and basketball were starting to take root.

"I see how fortunate girls are now," Keck said. "They have a lot of activities now."

Keck credits her involvement as an athlete and a coach to some female mentors when she was young. One of those women, Linda Kushman of Sturgis, recruited her to coach high school gymnastics at Sturgis, after she graduated from South Dakota State University.

"She was a great mentor," Keck said. "She had a big influence on me as both a teammate (at SDSU) and as a coach.

Other mentors she credits are JoAnn Sterner, Bobbi Martin, Lucy Lindskov, Ruth Rehn and Lolly Forseth.

"She was constantly fighting for us at the high school level," Keck said about Sterner. "I was mentored by strong women … they made me more stubborn and made me fight too for equality for girls."

One of the girls taking full advantage of athletic opportunities today is Amy Sykora, a recent Stevens graduate. Sykora accompanied Keck to the banquet and was one of the honorees of the Elite 15 award, which is given to 15 South Dakota high school senior women each year. One girl each from the state's 93 schools is nominated by the respective school's athletic director to attend the South Dakota Girls & Women in Sports Awards Banquet. Most of the athletes nominated were two- or three-sport athletes.

Sykora is the first Raider to win the award.

A standout on the volleyball and basketball courts for the Raiders, she was also named the Female Athlete of the Year by The Officials and the Rapid City Chamber of Commerce last month. She is also an all-state volleyball player and was the captain of the state championship team last fall. She is also a volunteer for her church and at the YMCA. Sykora listed on her application for the award that she wants to remain a positive role model and wants to "stay true to who I am and what I believe in."

Seeing Sykora earn the honor had special significance to Keck. Sykora's mother was also a cheerleader with Keck in their high school days.

"She's just been involved in all sorts of things," Keck said about Sykora, who plans to attend Concordia College with several of her family members.

"It was a really big honor," Sykora said about the award. "All of the girls that got it are such good athletes. It was kind of cool to be one of only two girls from (Class) AA to win."

Although Sykora was never coached by Keck, she has some admiration for the coach.

"Girls sports were not around forever," Sykora said. "She is one of the women to make girls sports happen in South Dakota."

Since the Elite 15 award began in 1995, Keck wishes that she could have previously nominated some of the women she has coached. But in that time, she has also had the pleasure of watching several of her athletes go on to be teachers, coaches and leaders.

"A lot of what I've been able to do is because I've had great mentors," Keck said. "I owe my success to those ladies and to my assistant coaches."

Keck said that women need to be coaches in all sports because they have a different perspective for all athletes, in all sports.

"It's really positive to have that mix," Keck said "You need both perspectives."

By equality, Keck does not mean to take anything away from the boys, but to open more doors for women.

"You don't want them to take away a boys sport to have a girls sport," she said. "That is not what it was designed for."

Keck has been active in several organizations that make sure athletic rules are fair for women, and she hopes that women take further roles after participating in athletics. She said that Title IX is designed to give girls "a fair playing field," and so far, it is meeting the objective.

Sykora agrees.

"I think today there is equality in women's sports," Sykora said. "Girls sports are becoming really big now."

As one of the longest tenured coaches at Stevens, she said that more women should become coaches - even with the challenges of career and family.

"It's really important for all women in sports to get involved at every level," she said. "you can get in the position to make changes."