Shared success: Group of five juggle multiple sports at Delaware Hayes
Monday, September 25, 2023
By Michael Rich
mrich@cbussports.com
Delaware Hayes athletes (from left) Sammy West, Gianna Leiter, Addison Reed, Reghan Gist, and Cali Kent are five of the top runners on the Pacers’ cross country team while dedicated to muliple sports. Photo: John Hulkenberg
Cali Kent loves running and she loves playing soccer. So, the sophomore has found a way to do both.
She’s become a standout running for the Delaware Hayes girls cross country team, while being a goalie on the girls soccer team.
Her love of doing both wasn’t always the case, though.
“I’ve been playing soccer since I was 3 years old – it’s just always been what I’ve done,” Kent said. “When I was little, I really, really hated running. So, I would ask to play defender because when you’re little you don’t really have to do much – just stand there until somebody runs at you.
“I was always a kid that would cry when they tried to get me to play goalie because I really, really didn’t want to play goalie. But I was really good at it.”
Kent’s love for both sports grew out of some healthy competition, namely Addison Reed, a junior who also plays soccer and runs cross country.
“I really wanted to keep getting better,” Kent said. “During my seventh-grade year and (Reed’s) eighth-grade year, she would beat me every time. I always looked up to her so much.”
Kent and Reed aren’t the only ones moonlighting in multiple sports at Delaware this fall. Senior Sammy West and junior Gigi Leiter also play soccer and run cross country and a fifth athlete – junior Reghan Gist – juggles cross country and tennis.
“I’ve had several really good runners that were really good soccer players,” 19th-year cross country coach Jim Bibler said. “It’s possible (that we’ve had this many multiple fall sport athletes), but never this many that were important in our varsity scoring. They’ve been really good about telling us what they can do. We just don’t want them to overdo it.”
Priorities
Kent continues to get better and better. She set a personal record of 19 minutes, 14.7 seconds while finishing fifth of 161 runners at the Bob Reall Invitational on Sept. 23 at Ohio University’s Lancaster campus.
In soccer, Kent was thrust into the primary goalie role last year after 2023 graduate Porter Barickman suffered a season-ending knee injury.
This year, sophomore goalie Josie DeRosa has emerged as Delaware’s top goalie with 31 saves in seven games. But Kent is still contributing with seven saves in three games.
Kent, Reed, West, Gist and Leiter have been able to make it work this season. Cross country meets are mostly on Saturday mornings. Rarely have the athletes had to choose competing in one sport over the other. But one of those rare occasions happened on Sept. 23.
Kent chose to run in Lancaster and West, Reed and Leiter were on the pitch for the Pacers’ 5-1 win over Hilliard Bradley to move to 8-2 overall.
Addie Reed of Delaware Hayes goes up for a ball against Westerville South on Sept. 19 at Delaware. Photo: John Hulkenberg
“We pretty much consider the other sports as their priority,” Bibler said. “In soccer, they can get enough conditioning. Cali is a goalie, so she always feels like she’s behind. She doesn’t quite get the conditioning that the other girls get. She’s just a competitive beast. She’s going to get the workouts in. We just don’t want her to get burned out by October.”
Kent wanted a first run on the course that hosts the OCC-Capital Division race on Oct. 14.
“Cali asked if I would be O.K. with her missing a game to go run in this race to prepare for (the league meet),” Weakland said. “I know with Cali, running is her main thing and we have two keepers on varsity. So, it’s one of those things that if she wants to give it a go, I have no problem with it. We have plenty of (substitutions) to go.”
In soccer, Delaware is 3-1 in OCC-Capital Division play, tied for third with Westerville North behind Big Walnut and Dublin Scioto (each 4-0). The Pacers only league championship was in 2020 when West was a freshman. They play the Irish at home on Sept. 28.
“I had one or two guys that ran cross country,” said first-year coach Nathan Weakland, who also served as Delaware boys soccer coach from 2010-13. “I was Bradd Smiley’s assistant for the last six years. We always had one or two, but we’ve had a series of them over the last few years with Sammy West, Cali Kent and Addie Reed.
“The nice thing is that cross country practice is right after school and we don’t practice until 5 or 7 at night depending on the night. Their meets are all on the weekends and we rarely have a weekend game. So far, it’s worked out really well.”
Smiley retired after last season after eight seasons with the Pacers and the previous three at rival Buckeye Valley.
‘I just never stopped’
Like Kent, Reed really didn’t like running all that much when took it up in middle school. And like Kent, her love for the sport grew as she improved.
Reed, who has two goals and three assists as a midfielder in soccer, last ran at the Central Ohio Invitational on Sept. 16 at Three Creeks Metro Park, setting a personal-best time of 19:55.8 to finish eighth of 152 runners.
“I started doing cross country in middle school to stay in shape for soccer,” Reed said. “I just never stopped. I started playing soccer when I was 4 and you can start running cross country in middle school. I did not want to do it. I tried it and I actually hated it, but for some reason I kept coming back and I’ve been doing it ever since.
Delaware Hayes sophomore Cali Kent has been the top runner for the Pacers’ girls cross country team this season, running a personal-best time of 19:14.7 to finish fifth of 161 runners at Lancaster’s Bob Reall Invitational on Sept. 23. Photo: Michael Rich
“Once I went into eighth grade, we established this team with the seventh-graders. The people on my team have just made cross country a thousand times better.”
‘She’s kept us together’
One of those people is West, who has one assist as a midfielder on the soccer team and has been doing both sports all four years at Delaware.
“Sammy is probably one of the most disciplined people I’ve ever met,” Reed said. “She’s always keeping me, Cali and the rest of the girls right in line. She’s either 100% focused in soccer or cross country or school. So, she’s never distracted or anything. She’s kept us together.”
West’s time of 21:46.7 at the Highland Flying Scots Invitational on Sept. 2 is her best time in four races this season.
“Honestly, it’s a lot,” West said. “I really liked doing both. So, when I got to high school, I couldn’t pick one.”
Bibler’s advice for the other soccer players is pretty simple, “Just talk to Sammy West and do what she does,” he said. “She knows how to figure it out. If she’s coming to practice, then come to practice. If she’s going to race, then you can race. She’s been really good about telling us what she can do.”
A recruiting artist
Bibler, an art teacher at Delaware, uses class as a recruiting tool. He convinced Gist, who is also a distance runner with the track team, to run cross country this season for the first time.
“She’s in a lot of my drawing classes and I would put a uniform on her back,” Bibler said. “She would take it off and say, ‘I’m not running, I’m not running.’ Her family has a lot of runners, so I figured we’d get her eventually. I think I wore her down.”
Gist, who also set a personal-record in cross country at 21:59.8 at Watkins Memorial’s McGowan Invitational on Sept. 9, is having a strong season on the tennis court for the Pacers as well.
Playing mostly third singles, Gist is 14-4 this season helping Delaware to a 13-5 record overall. The Pacers are fourth in OCC-Capital play at 4-3 behind champion Worthington Kilbourne (7-0).
Leiter, who plays mostly junior varsity soccer as a midfielder or forward, is also in her first season as a runner. Her time has improved in each of her four races, topping out at 22:23.7 at the Central Ohio Invitational.
“The girls are all amazing,” Weakland said. “They’re self-motivated and want the best for everyone. They’re not the ones we have to worry about. They do their thing.”
The five have yet to run in the same race. Bibler changed the uniforms from grey to orange a few years ago so that his runners would easily be able to find each other on the course.
The orange uniforms worked out particularly well last season. Kent, Reed and West as well as a few injuries prevented the team from running with each other most of the season.
When Bibler finally had his full complement of runners for the postseason, the Pacers won their first league title since 1983 with Kent leading the way (fifth, 19:51.7). All they had to do was find the orange unis and stay together.
“(The uniforms are) very bright,” West said. “They’re a bright orange and checkered, so they’re kind of funny-looking. We definitely stand out.”