Soccer, Track & Field
Favorite athlete: Aaron Nola
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning SOL Liberty for Track in 2021 and making it to playoffs for soccer in 2021 and 2022.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When I was high jumping at Alvernia for a meet and almost completely missed the mat.
Music on Playlist: Miley Cyrus
Future plans: Attend Allegheny College where I plan on studying Environmental Science and continuing to run Track and Field
Words to live by: “Nothing is as contagious as enthusiasm. It is the real allegory of the myth of Orpheus; it moves stones, and charms brutes. It is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it.” ― Samuel
Taylor Coleridge
One goal before turning 30: I want to see the Northern Lights
One thing people don’t know about me: I like to take pictures of nature in my free time and I am currently working on attaining my Eagle Scout Rank in Scouts BSA.
By GORDON GLANTZ
All anyone can really ask for is leaving behind a legacy.
For Upper Moreland senior Skye Kramer, there will be a phrase to remember her by.
“We have a saying on our team, when it comes to Skye,” said soccer coach Lisa Benvenuto. “Her last name is Kramer, and we say, ‘You just got Kramed.’ That’s the kind of intensity she brings to everything that she does.”
As a defender who doesn’t get onto the stat sheet – unless one is calculating winning 50-50 balls in the air and other “effort” plays – Kramer is proud to wear her motto on her sleeve.
“It came about because I always went 110 percent on the field, so I ended up accidentally knocking people over so I could get the ball, which is like the legacy I’m going to leave,” she said. “It feels really cool to have this name left behind because it’s something that people are going to remember.”
In reality, though, Kramer is not going to be easily forgotten.
“She is one of those kids who leaves a lasting impression,” said Benvenuto. “There is definitely going to be a void. Each girl that passes through the program leaves their own individual mark – whether it’s a practice player or a game player. When you are losing a strong captain, someone who puts out that effort that you want to see from everybody - as a teacher, you say ‘I could take a classroom full of them.’ As a coach, I would take a team of all Skyes for sure.”
Added track coach Doug Smith: “It’s going to be a hole, of course. And it’s not just a hole on the track, with the points she gets us. It’s also the person she is. It’s that smile that she has. She is really one that you can’t replace. Every day is another day of fun with her. She is just an amazing girl.”
Growing up, Kramer tried every sport/activity under the sun, including dance and karate (earning an orange belt) since she was a toddler, but she settled on three – soccer, track (winter and spring) and softball (splitting her time between that and track in the spring season).
Committed to Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., to run track, she gave up softball as a senior to train full-time on high jump and learn the pole vault while running middle distance in individual events and relays.
Although there are a few months left in her scholastic career, a period of mourning has already set in.
“I’m definitely going to miss it,” said Kramer, who admitted that there will be mixed emotions returning to watch her twin sisters, Emma and Hailey, compete year-round in soccer, basketball and softball. “I grew up playing sports for Upper Moreland. It’s coming to an end now, and I’m just not ready for it to happen. I’m going to be devastated. I’ve given so much to these programs. Now that it’s almost over, I don’t know how to go about it.”
Carving her own Identity
Ironically, Skye entered Upper Moreland very much in the shadow of her older sister, Chloe, who is two years older.
“One of the cool things with Skye is that, when she first started out, she was always known as Chloe’s sister,” said Smith. “Now, she’s Skye. It’s no longer, ‘Oh, that’s Chloe Kramer’s younger sister.’ Now, she’s Skye. She has created her own identity and she is leaving her mark on Upper Moreland.”
It is also something that Kramer was keenly aware of early in her athletic career.
“My older sister was there for my first two years of high school,” she explained. “She is the reason that I started indoor track. I was always Chloe’s little sister. When she went off to college, I became my own person. I found the events that I liked. She also ran the 400, but she was a miler and threw javelin.”
The coaches will also remember Kramer for being unable to wipe the smile off of her face, no matter how hard she was pushed.
She pretty much never had a bad day in her life, at least not that they could tell.
“Skye is just one of those kids, whether as a student or as an athlete, who just never loses the smile on her face,” said Benvenuto. “I have some high expectations for the girls and I would always push them. Since Skye was a freshman, we would be doing some sort of rigorous drills. And, whenever she finishes her spot, she would just have this big old smile on her face. They could be running 120s. She is getting to the end, and she’s smiling. I’m thinking, like, ‘What’s up with this kid?’ But that’s just who she is.”
Added Smith: “Oh yeah, even during and after what we put them through, there’s a smile – and maybe a few tears coming out, too.”
Part of forging her own identity included honing leadership skills that were certainly shaped as a girl scout and now an Eagle Scout.
She carried those traits over to athletics as a captain for soccer and both indoor and now outdoor track but also within the school community as one of the students running the Mini-Thon dance marathon.
She felt the experience of being a team leader in sports was easily carried over.
“It helped a lot,” she said. “It was the same positive vibe that I had to give to the committee members, helping them to do their job and making sure it was a fun night overall.”
Kramer went on to explain that there are subtle differences in being cast in a leadership role in soccer, as opposed to a more individualized sport like track and field.
“Being a captain on soccer, it’s more of a team-building sort of thing,” she said. “It was more of a team environment.
“With track, it is more individualized. It’s more supporting them, and cheering them on, as they are running.”
Her coaches saw her as a true leader, one who could be vocal but also lead by example.
“She is just a phenomenal kid who will work hard and help the others, like with the high jump,” said Smith. “At a normal high jump workout, we probably have 6-7 kids who are younger. It doesn’t matter, boy or girl, Skye is going to help them out. She is a team leader who helps out with whatever we need.”
“She’s a true leader,” said Benvenuto. “She was one of our captains. And she came up through the ranks, from JV through to varsity.
“She’s easy to talk to. She’s available. She is able to relate to all the girls on the team, and she’s always positive. That is such a great trait for a student-athlete and a leader in the school.”
And what makes it unique is that she is not necessarily a star on the pitch (although she rarely came out of close games as a senior).
“She is a kid who doesn’t take anything for granted,” said Benvenuto. “She might not be the fastest kid on the field. She might not be the most skilled soccer player on the field. But what she lacks in those things, she has in heart and grit. She’s a competitor. When she goes out to do something, there is no level other than 100 percent.
“If you are watching our games, she is not necessarily going to be that player that stands out. Instead, she is the kind of player who is consistent. She is going to be a player who does everything that she has to do to help her team win.”
The soccer team has made districts on a semi-regular basis, and it has done so the last two years with Kramer as a key defender.
“Your team can only be as good as its chemistry, and it’s built around the kids,” said Benvenuto. “She’s like that glue that kept everybody together.
“She has been a part of that success the last couple of years. She has been a big part of our program.”
Beating Time
The daughter of Deloris and Michael Kramer, Skye is also lifeguard and swimming instructor at the Ambler Area YMCA.
With a class rank of 40 out of 222 and weighted GPA of 4.0, she takes two AP classes (Physics with Calculus, and Government) and has a course load heavy in honors classes.
Add in her time-consuming Eagle Scout project (a food drive for a local church), and Kramer has no choice but to become a master juggler of her time.
“My calendar on my phone became my best friend,” said Kramer. “I’ve gone from school to practice to work multiple times and just kind of enjoy every moment.”
That approach was not lost on her soccer coach.
“She’s a very strong student,” said Benvenuto. “She certainly has a skill with time management. She’s kind of an old soul, but she is able to relate.
“I can’t stress enough that she is a student-athlete who takes advantage of every opportunity. Whether it’s preseason or practice or a game, she’s living in that moment. She’s reflective. She is understanding that - while she might not be able to do it forever, she’s certainly enjoying it now. But, she is saying, ‘Not only am I going to enjoy it, but I’m going to push those around me to do it better.’ That’s such a great characteristic.”
The Perfect Fit
An aspiring Park Ranger, Kramer was at a scouting event at the University of Tennessee and came to the realization that a large school was not the atmosphere for her.
Looking to study environmental science, she found a match in Allegheny College.
“I went and I just fell in love with the campus. I wanted to get back, just to make sure that was where I wanted to go,” she said. “This past February, I stayed overnight with a member of the track team. I fell in love again, and I decided to commit.”
Initially, Kramer did not envision herself as a student-athlete at the collegiate level.
She filled out a simple questionnaire, stating that she participated in track and field, and the coach, Ben Mourer, took it from there.
“He reached out to me,” she explained. “He said, ‘Hey, I see you are going to the open house, do you want to sit down and have lunch and talk about it?’ I answered all the questions they had. I was, like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ I knew that my times were good. It was just really interesting how far I came since my freshman year.”
Given her length, at 5-7, Allegheny is also intrigued with Kramer as a high jumper and brought up being a pole vaulter, which she is working on now in practice.
As it stands, Kramer has a personal best of 4-9 in the high jump, three inches shy of the school record of 5-0 set in 2010 by Shaneen Datts.
“With a season of work, she could get the school record,” said Smith. “Before the end of the year, she is probably going to be the school record holder. I wouldn’t have a doubt about that. She is going to have a full year of track (to train).”
The fact that she even finds herself chasing a school record in the high jump while preparing to do it in college seems almost surreal, considering she has not been at it a long time.
“I decided that the high jump looked extremely cool, so I started jumping when I was a dual athlete in 2021,” said Kramer. “It’s just something that ended up sticking. I’m 5-7, so I decided high jump was the event for me.”
Joy to the World
On one of her lock screens on her phone, and on her Apple watch, Kramer has the following quote from English poet, philosopher and theologian Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “Nothing is as contagious as enthusiasm. It is the real allegory of the myth of Orpheus; it moves stones, and charms brutes. It is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it.”
It was shown to her by a guide at a leadership seminar for scouts who said, “This reminds me of you.”
She is keenly aware of her effervescent nature and how it can positively have an effect on others.
“I just want to be a positive person and inspire the people around me and just go from there,” said Kramer. “I’m always the one smiling. Ever since I was younger, I always had a smile on my face. That’s just how I grew up, so that’s something that stuck with me.”
Her positivity can be seen in the way she appreciated the chance to play at home in what turned out to be her final soccer game in districts.
“We hosted first round at our school,” said Kramer. “It was really nice to have a playoff game at our school, and it ended up being my last game, so I’m glad it was played on our turf.”
Community Effort
Kramer says she became the de facto family photographer as a kid, but that soon morphed into another passion, photographing nature or animals, like the hawk that paid a visit to practice one day or her grandfather’s dog, a Husky, who stayed with the family while he was in the hospital recovering from a fall.
“I decided that I didn’t really like taking pictures of people,” she said. “I’d rather take pictures of nature and of the environment around me. Nature just comes out in different ways, so I just take pictures whenever I find something really pretty or that I think I’ll like later, so I just take the pictures from different angles and mess around with it later.”
Kramer went on to say that she wanted to thank her family, friends, coaches and teammates for their support.
“And the community that helped raise me,” she added. “There are so many people who helped me to become the person that I am. It was a community effort to help me to become the young lady that I am.”
