Shea Snow Article (NC)

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Flying High: Snow handles triumphs and tragedy

By Mason Linker
JOURNAL REPORTER

Shea Snow learned during her four years at Starmount that there was only one person she could count on to get a job done - herself.

It's not that Snow doesn't have a support group. She does.

But becoming a standout in an individual sport such as track and field - especially pole vaulting - requires a certain amount of self-reliance.

That trait helped Snow to have what was, in many ways, a magical senior year that included state titles in two sports and other honors.

More important, Snow's inner strength helped carry her through the tragic loss of her father this spring, a battle she said she is still fighting but seems to be winning.

"I think it all balances out in some ways," Snow said. "You have all these great things happen to people, but yet something very tragic can come around and offset the great things. Along with all the great things, bad things can also happen."

Snow had plenty to look forward to heading into her senior year.

She was going to start for a Starmount volleyball team that was the defending state champion. She ended up having a big year as a setter and was selected as the Northwest 1-A player of the year. The Rams made it back to the NCHSAA final and won the title again.

Also in the fall, Snow was voted homecoming queen. As is tradition at Starmount, her father, David Snow, escorted her. Snow's parents, David and Lisha, were divorced, but Lisha Snow said that her daughter and son, Kason, had a good relationship with their father, even though the three didn't spend much time together.

"They didn't get to see each other nearly enough, but he drove a truck for a living and was in and out of town a great deal," Lisha Snow said.

Snow was a cheerleader during the winter. A 5-1 dynamo, she was the one hurled into the air by her fellow cheerleaders, something that agitated Robin Vann, her pole vaulting coach.

"It used to drive me crazy," Vann said. "I would get goose bumps imagining something happening to her."

The NCHSAA added girls pole vaulting in 1999, and Vann has coached a girl from Starmount to a state title six times in seven seasons. Vann said he starts by finding girls with the right builds, then teaches them the fundamentals.

The rest is up to the athletes.

"Shea is the best athlete I have ever coached, and I have had a lot of good ones," Vann said. "She took weightlifting all year long. She can bench-(press) 130 pounds or better, and she can box-squat about 370. She is maybe 5-1, 113 pounds, so that's incredible.

"She is just a very competitive young lady, and she wants to get in there and do better than everyone else in everything that she does."

Late in the winter, Snow switched her attention from cheerleading to track and started the home stretch of her senior year. During the last week of March, in a tri-meet at Starmount, she vaulted 11-feet, 1-inch to set a school record.

Less than a week later, on March 26, David Snow was killed when a car driven by his ex-girlfriend, Sharon Dorminy, hit him. The incident is still under investigation, Lisha Snow said.

After their father's death, Shea and Kason missed more than a week of school. And since Shea was 18 and David Snow's next-of-kin, the process of getting her father's affairs in order fell to her. Shea and Lisha eventually decided to sign those duties over to David's parents.

"Her grandparents and I decided that was not something Shea needed to deal with right now," Lisha Snow said. "And with everything else going on, with sports and competition, the timing wasn't good. We chose to make her grandparents the administrators of the estate.

"Almost every day since then, there's been something we have all had to be a part of in terms of making a decision and getting affairs in order."

Shea Snow said she was determined to continue with her business.

"My dad passed away during the season, and I knew I had to still take care of business and stay focused," she said. "But it was really hard to handle both. I was trying to work really hard in track, and the tragedy happened. I had a job though, and I had to do it.

"I didn't go to practice for a week or two. But when I finally did, my friends were very supportive, and it helped me take my mind off things. It's still hard, but it's getting better every day. I think sports and school did kind of take my mind off of it."

At the Class 1-A track-and-field championships May 14, Snow had a different routine from 2004 because she was also entered in the 100-meter dash and the 4x100 relay.

The pole vault was going on during the sprint trials, forcing Snow to go back and forth between events. She didn't qualify for the 100-meter final, and she had chosen a starting height of 10 feet in the pole vault - seven inches lower than her winning vault at the 2004 championships.

By the time Snow attempted her first vault, the other competitors were finished, and the best vault recorded was 9 feet. Snow said she was frazzled.

"It seemed like the pressure house fell on her," Vann said. "All she had to do was clear, but she had no one to jump against."

Ten feet was good enough for Snow's second straight title in the pole vault, but it wasn't good enough to satisfy her competitive spirit. Perhaps she was vaulting with some extra baggage that day, but she said the load gets lighter every day.

While on her senior beach trip last week, Snow talked by telephone about her senior year and her excitement about attending Appalachian State, where she said she will pole vault.

"It's an individual sport, and it's up to you to be successful and whether you want to work hard," she said. "It's all about determination, and you either you do it or you don't. You don't have to worry about a team or anybody; it's all up to you.

"I had a great time my senior year. I was very lucky and had a lot of great opportunities. I couldn't ask for a greater year - I had two state championships, and I was homecoming queen. I never even had a clue that I would have that success in high school.

"The tragedy was a terrible thing. I am making it today, though. I am getting through."