Shadle Runner Dashes From Slow Start Into Fame

Her parents wanted her to concentrate on more important matters.

Her coach thought of the adjective “frail” when she first came to practice.

She risked aggravating an already delicate asthma condition.

Few would have faulted Amy Sawatzky for quitting track after running her first 800 meters in a tortoiselike time of more than three minutes.

As people have discovered, however, Sawatzky isn’t the type to accept mediocrity.

Whether it’s her academics, her musical pursuits or her religious beliefs, Sawatzky prefers to go all out.

Track was no different.

“I don’t like to lose, and I don’t like to let myself do worse than I think I can do,” said Sawatzky, a junior at Shadle Park High School.

Now Sawatzky is one of the finest girls 800 runners in the state. The 2:23 she ran earlier this spring during a relay at Yakima isn’t far behind state leader Kristen Parrish of Ferris.

Parrish and Sawatzky were to have met last Thursday during a Greater Spokane League meet. Sawatzky, after missing two school days with the flu, won the event in 2:23.9 while Parrish ran shorter distances.

Until last spring, Sawatzky had never competed in an athletic event.

Sawatzky gravitated toward running in an indirect way, courtesy of younger sister Julie.

Shadle cross country and distance coach Bob Isitt attended a 1993 junior high cross country meet to assess upcoming talent.

Isitt was struck by the fluid motions of Shadle-bound seventh-grader Julie Sawatzky. When Isitt asked about Julie, he was told she had an older sister at Shadle.

Isitt reported his finding to Shadle track coach Ivan Corley.

“If her younger sister runs, we figured she might be able to,” Corley said. “We hunted her down and found her.”

“I heard we’d never get her out for sports because she only cares about music and her studies,” Isitt said.

Sawatzky, a straight-A student who has played piano since second grade, wasn’t an easy sell. Yet friend Jenny Coleman, a former distance runner and current cheerleader, advertised the track team as one big family.

Sawatzky, despite her parents’ reservations, agreed to try out for sprints.

“(Parents Mike and Joy) weren’t especially thrilled about us getting into sports,” Sawatzky said. “They don’t like it if it interferes with music or church. But they’re probably one of the most competitive sort of parents I’ve seen.”

Sawatzky switched to distance running to be near her best friends. Isitt held out little hope.

“The first workout, she was so frail,” Isitt said. “I was concerned for her, wondering if she could run a couple of blocks.”

After Sawatzky’s first competitive race - with a humdrum time - Isitt noted that she had a strong kick in the final 200 yards. He told her to sprint earlier in the next race.

Soon her times dipped to less than 2:30. Anything near that range is considered swift.

“I think what helped me the most was I didn’t know what I could do, so I never set limits on myself,” Sawatzky said.

When the District 8-AAA meet rolled around, Sawatzky had the fourth-best time. She advanced to regionals, ran close to 2:22, and finished seventh among stiff competition.

“Her parents were as shocked as the rest of us,” Corley said.

Sawatzky figured her running days were over. She wanted to take an after-school French class at Spokane Community College.

“The coaches suggested otherwise, and I must admit I was bitten (by the running bug),” Sawatzky said.

Her training expanded to off-season running in summer and winter and cross country in the fall. She was the No. 3 or 4 cross country runner for the state AAA sixth-ranked Highlanders.

Sawatzky didn’t curtail her piano lessons or her time with the Northview Bible Church choir.

She did cut back on classes, from seven to six. The six this semester, by the way, are precalculus, molecular biology, architecture, third-year French, advanced placement English and advanced placement history.

Sawatzky has the third-best score (95 out of 150) among Shadle students in the American High School Mathematics Examination. No Shadle junior had a better score.

“Math has always been my favorite subject,” she said. “I hope to have a career in math. I’m competitive in that, too.”