LOUDONVILLE — Hank Williams Jr sang, “Family Tradition,” and while the Shultz family from Loudonville is not the topic of the country song, it fits.
Sophie Shultz, a Loudonville High School junior, broke the Knox Morrow Athletic Conference 800-meter record with a time of 2:20.76 at the league meet earlier this spring.
Her older sister, Tess, is running on a cross country scholarship for Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. While the younger Shultz has excelled in track, she revealed a secret:
“Honestly, if I am being 100 percent truthful, I hate running. But I hate losing more,” she said.
One person who has had a substantial impact on Sophie’s track success is her father, Jim.
“I have trained both of them (Tess and Sophie) from a very young age. If you are going to get somewhere, you have to put the time in and be willing to work hard,” Jim Shultz said.
The young runner agreed with her dad.
“I’m not sure I would have even come out for track this year, but my dad said, ‘If you will go out for track, I will coach.’ So I decided if he would coach, I would run track.”
Shultz said that her dad does not expect perfection.
“It doesn’t always have to be first place, but just understand what you can do better,” Sophie said.
In addition to the patriarch of the family, Shultz notes that her older sister has supplied plenty of encouragement.
“I just need her to push me,” Sophie said. “She has helped me with my work on the track, and told me that I should come out again this year.”
For someone who has excelled in track, Shultz admits that when it comes to athletics, track takes a backseat to another sport.
“Yeah, volleyball is my favorite,” she said with a smile. “It is what I train for almost year ‘round. I use track sort of like a second hobby.
“(Volleyball) is a lot of technique, a lot of hand-eye coordination, and I am more of a hand-eye coordination person.”
Vanessa Byers, boys track coach for the Redbirds, has had the responsibility of coaching both of the Shultz runners.
“They both set their minds on a goal and have an unwavering determination to achieve that goal,” said Byers, who shares coaching with girls coach Jackie Bilger.
Byers argued that the 800-meter run may well be the most difficult event in track and field.
“It’s a little bit of distance and a little bit of sprinting and you have to be really good at both,” Byers said. “A lot of people think of the 800 as being a distance event, but you don’t get to the state unless you have the speed of a sprinter.”
Shultz agreed with her coach, saying that the 800 meter takes a psychological awareness.
“I would say that about 30 percent is physical and the other 70 percent is mental,” Sophie said. “The first lap is super easy, but the last 300 meters are the most difficult. You tell yourself to speed up, but you have already run 500 meters.
“When your legs get tired, just remember, you run with your heart.”
The young runner knows that her success has not come in a vacuum.
“I’d like to give a huge shout out to my family for always supporting me, to my boyfriend who always shows up at my meets, and to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” she said. “I always say a prayer, and I wear gray socks — they just look good with my shoes.”