Shippensburg freshman, and NCAA Division II runner-up and all-American Neely Spence, tells PennTrackXC that she has decided to remain at Shippensburg for the remainder of her collegiate career. Spence had been weighing a decision to transfer to a Division I school, but a variety of factors influenced her choice to stay in PA. Spence is a two-time Foot Locker all-American.
One of the easiest things for a teenager to do is to leave home when it comes time to head off to college. Between parents and siblings and the others parts of growing up, it is a time when independence beckons and the call is an easy one to hear and to answer.
But it's not always as simple as it sounds, and it's not always the right thing to do for each individual.
For Neely Spence, the decision turned out to be one of the toughest things she has done in her life.
Spence, a four-time state champ in cross country and track, and a two-time Foot Locker all-American, always assumed she'd reach the day when she would make a Division I college selection.
Homeschooled; Spence had taken classes at Shippensburg University - where her dad Steve is the head cross country and track distance coach - for a year-and-a-half before graduating. To ease the transition to a larger, Division I program, she had decided to spend her first year of college competing in Division II.
She had even narrowed her college selection for her Division I choice to one... Baylor. It's a women's program that finished 19th in at NCAA DI in cross country this season, and Spence would have fit right in. More importantly for Spence, it was a school where she was extremely comfortable with the Christian environment, and the coaching and team.
She even had gotten to spend time with the team at the hotel when both Shippensburg and Baylor were competing in the Paul Short Invitational in early October. For most of this past summer, she had been reasonably certain that when August 2009 rolled around, she'd be heading for Texas and the start of her DI career.
But after her 2nd place finish at Paul Short in which she had broken the previous meet record, Spence started to think that she could remain in D2, and still be successful.
A perfect example of those possibilities resided in her own home 'd0 her father had competed for Ship, and gone on to become an Olympian and earn a Bronze Medal in the Marathon World Championships in 1991.
But knowing that it's possible, and believing that you can also make it possible can sometimes be two different things.
Helping to weigh the decision toward staying at Ship was the fact that first-time collegians on her Ship team were having a bit of homesickness. Neely says she even was feeling some stress with the transition to full-time college.
Neely describes what was happening to her teammates and to her as being out of their comfort zones.
But most athletes don't have the kind of 'comfort zone' that Neely says is what finally swayed her to decide in favor of staying home.
Spence said that both the academics and the running have been working very well so far. "The training venues and the coaching are what I am used to and very comfortable with. And we have everything. Mountains, country roads, trails, flats. Even 2000 foot elevation."
By early November, she had pretty much made up her mind that she was going to forgo Division I in favor of all the advantages she has at home.
"It would have been a good situation either way. But this is what is best for me."
"Baylor is an amazing place. If it had just been about DI, I would be there in a second."
In the short team, Spence is training for both cross country and indoor track, simultaneously. She hopes to qualify for the USATF World Cross Juniors team on February 7 and is hoping to help her Ship team continue to improve an already very good DMR.
Proving that sometimes you don't have to go very far to get the best of all worlds.