It is the end of both the school year and an era in Powell education and athletics, as longtime legend Dale Ann Meeker decided to make this her endless summer and retire.

Meeker, the former Dale Ann Feusner, has a star-crossed history, having been on the Powell girls basketball team that won the “mythical” state championship in 1975, and then accepting the first basketball scholarship offered to a female athlete at the University of Wyoming, following the Title IX ruling.

Title IX passed in 1972 and states that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

“Women’s sports were beginning to blossom and people were starting to take notice,” Meeker said. “Doors were opening for young women and barriers started to come down.

“I never really looked at it in regards to being equal or being fair,” she added. “For me, I was just grateful to have the opportunity to do what I loved.”

She was certainly a standout in high school, having led the Lady Panthers in scoring and rebounding all four years, was track and field MVP her junior and senior years — having won four first-place medals and two second-place medals at the District meet, along with four second-place and two third-place finishes at State.

Her athletic prowess spread to the swimming pool and the volleyball court, and in the summer of ‘74, after her junior year, Meeker was featured in an issue of Women Sports Magazine and awarded the “Woman Sports Athlete of the Year” for Wyoming, an award signed by pro tennis legend Billie Jean King.

Her successes carried on at UW, where she played on the team all four years. In her senior year, she helped lead the team to its best record in history, 25-7, that stood until 2006-07.

That team would be inducted, as a whole, to the UW Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.

Meeker is still fourth all time for UW with 21 rebounds in a game, seventh in rebounds for her career with 770, and 20th in career scoring with 904.

Her final season coincided with the first year of the Women’s Basketball League, and Meeker had offers to join the league as a free agent, as well as offers to play overseas in France.

“It was flattering, but by then I was already married,” she said. “I knew I wanted to teach and be a coach and help young girls learn the valuable lessons I had learned through athletics. To make a difference as my coaches had done for me.”

Meeker returned to Powell, with husband Mike, and began teaching and coaching at the middle school.

During her 15-year run as the Lady Panthers varsity basketball head coach, Meeker was named the Wyoming 3A Coach of the Year once, Conference Coach of the Year four times and led her teams to five conference championships, three regional championships, nine Final Four finishes at State and three second-place finishes.

After retiring, she continued coaching track and field at Powell Middle School, where she also was a member of the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sport and received the 2009 Wyoming Coaches Association Middle School Track Coach of the Year.

And though she’s had phenomenal successes throughout her career, it isn’t so much the wins that spark her memories, which caused the tears to well up as Meeker brought those to mind.

“It’s the young women I worked with day in and day out,” she said. “Having the opportunity to work with them and see them grow, not as just athletes but as young people. Being able to pass on the things I learned, and pay it forward. I’m very proud that I’ve coached a number of girls that have gone on to become coaches.”

Meeker takes such pride in those she has influenced, and recognizes those coaches who had influenced her on her journey, including Jean Mills, who coached her at Powell her first three years, Nan Barber her senior year coach, and UW head coach Margie McDonald.

“Margie was such a role model and very accomplished as a player and as a coach,” Meeker said of McDonald, who is in the UW Hall of Fame. “She was so encouraging and showed me that you could have a family and still have a successful career. She came up to Powell to recruit me and I am eternally grateful to her for believing in me.”

And though she has enjoyed her career, she’s an avid outdoors person with a strong family bond, and knew the time had come to move on.

“I have been so lucky to have been blessed with the opportunities that I’ve had, but there’s a lot on my plate that I want to be free to do,” she said. “I love scuba diving, I’ve taken up fishing and am falling in love with that. I also have three grandkids and I want to be able to help my kids, just as my parents helped me with their grandkids, during my career.”

Doing what is her passion, with success, and being there to be an influence for others — that is the legacy of Dale Ann Meeker, both in her career and life.