Sanstrom new girls basketball coach at Shiloh
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The Shiloh Junior High Lady Raiders will have a new coach in Jaye Snyder Sanstrom, daughter of Leigh and the late Randy Snyder.
In 2011, Sanstrom served as an assistant coach for the Lady Eagles. It was then that she realized how much she missed the game. “I became a mother for the first time in December 2011, so my priorities shifted to raising a family and my career,” Sanstrom told us.
Jaye graduated from Chrisman in 2003 and played basketball for seven years as an Eagle and a Cardinal. “Some of my friends today were teammates I had during those years,” Jaye said. “Being teammates creates a bond with your peers and an opportunity to make memories that last a lifetime.”
After high school, Sanstrom graduated from the U of I with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Leadership, Education & Communications with an Agricultural Education concentration. “I founded and continue to serve as the President of the Chrisman-Scottland FFA Alumni, which I started in 2004 to help support the Ag program and FFA members,” Jaye said.
With her husband, Pat, Jaye owns Honest Abe Insurance in Newman as well as Sanstrom Transport and Sanstrom Farms. In 2021, they began helping family and friends get healthy as weight loss coaches after they lost a total of 125 pounds together.
Pat and Jaye have two children: Anchor, who is going into second grade in the fall at Shiloh and Layke who is entering the fifth grade.
After hearing from a school board member that a coaching position was available and having the opportunity to coach her daughter, Sanstrom went for the position and was eventually hired.
Being a coach, Jaye draws inspiration from her playing days as well as a coach who helped her become a better player. “I felt I could instill that love of basketball and sports that Coach (Greg) Lientz and my teammates introduced and ingrained in me as an eleven year old uncoordinated girl,” Sanstrom said. “Win or lose, the benefits of team sports can increase self-esteem, build relationships and develop critical thinking skills that all of our youth can benefit from.”
Overall, Jaye hopes to improve the team’s win/loss ratio while teaching the girls how to work together as a team and all while building the girls’ communication skills and worth ethic skills. “I hope to teach life through the game of basketball to each girl. That life isn’t always fair and all that you can control is the effort you put into it.”
