Track & Field
Favorite athlete: Allyson Felix
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: I can’t pick one memory that I have experienced in my track career at Neshaminy. All of the big meets are a lot of fun and extremely memorable, but to be honest, I enjoy every day. I have been given the opportunity to grow and improve as an athlete with some of my best friends. Being a part of this team has allowed us to realize that we all share this unexplainable passion and love for track and field.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: My favorite memory from track has been the dance parties that we have at our hotels when we travel for meets and on bus rides. We always play music out loud off of someone’s iPod, and a bunch of girls are just dancing in the aisles. I think half the track team learned how to dance from the other girls. Also, when we went to States this past year, we had another one. No matter where this team is…there is always a dance party.
Music on your iPod: Basically, everything except no heavy metal.
Future plans: Attend Penn State University and eventually become a Nurse Practitioner or a Physician’s Assistant
Words to live by:
“Some people want it to happen,
“Some people wish it would happen,
“Others make it happen.”
--Michael Jordan
One goal before turning 30: Have a stable job and start a family.
One thing people don’t know about you: I am terrified of birds.
Jessica Stecklein’s part time job is leading her down a career path.
The senior on the Neshaminy track team works as a dietary aid at Pickering Manor in Newtown, an assisted living facility for senior citizens.
“I help serve the food and drinks to residents in the dining room one day a week,” she said. “I really get to know the people there.
“I’ve met so many interesting people. So many of the residents really have led interesting lives and have a lot to say and a lot of times I get to meet their families and spend time talking to them, too.
“You wouldn’t think that this would be a fun job, but it really is and I enjoy it a lot.”
So much so that she is pointed toward a career in medicine.
“Right now I’m going to go to Penn State and at the time I applied I didn’t know what I wanted to do so I went in undecided but I basically picked a major in biobehavioral health,” she said.
“I really decided on nursing, but by the time I came to that conclusion, it was too late to because the applications for the nursing program were already due. At Penn State you can only apply to the nursing program as a first year student so now I have to wait until my senior year and go into an accelerated program.”
Her long-term career goal is to be a physician’s assistant or a nurse practitioner, which would require an undergraduate degree and then getting into one of the two programs.
“Working at Pickering Manor gave me that idea,” she said. “I see the nurse practitioners there and what they can do and how much they really help people and that’s what I want to do.”
It’s an unusual career choice for someone who once had a terrible fear of hospitals.
“When I was younger I was literally terrified of hospitals and nursing homes,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to go and I’d shut my eyes as a walked down the corridors.”
A spate of health issues changed Stecklein’s opinion.
“Last year I broke my wrist, hurt my leg and got lyme disease,” she said. “I was in the hospital three times in four months.
“You wouldn’t think that being in the hospital was a good thing but the silver lining for me was that it got me over my fear. My mom had told me I should be a doctor, but all my life I felt that I couldn’t do anything with medicine because I didn’t want to be in hospitals.
“Now I don’t have that fear anymore and it really did open up a lot of doors for me. There are so many opportunities to help people in the medical profession and that’s what I want to do.”
Her desire to help others isn’t limited to health or medicine. She also volunteers for Middletown Township as part of her community service commitment through the National Honor Society.
She connected with the township through a friend and classmate, Annie Kopera, whose father, Paul, is the township’s parks and recreation program coordinator.
“He sets up birthday parties and we worked at them, and during Christmas, Annie and I did this thing where she dressed up as Frosty the Snowman and I dressed up as Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer and we handed out candy canes,” she said. “We had a great time.
“I also helped out with a teenage basketball league and a few other things that the township did. They really do have a lot of nice events and it was a lot of fun to help out.
“I really enjoyed doing it. I got to meet a lot of new people and we all really had a good time. It doesn’t feel like a job when you’re enjoying it and it’s not a burden when you know you’re doing something for a good cause.
“I didn’t get paid but I was helping others and there’s honestly something really rewarding in that that doesn’t have anything to do with money.”
Stecklein is focused on her final track and field season at Neshaminy. She is, according to coach Margie Stefan, the team’s most valuable in long jump as well as the sprints, excelling in the 100 and 200-meter dashes as well as the 4x100 relay.
“Ever since I got started running track at Neshaminy I’ve been doing the long jump and that’s my favorite event,” she said. “I want to break the school record, which is 17-5. My highest is 17-3¾ so I’m getting really close. That’s a big goal of mine.
“I’d like to go as far as possible - districts, states and hopefully nationals.”
The senior standout began running in the second grade for the Our Lady of Grace CYO team. Before that, she’d played soccer.
“I was the fastest one on the team and my dad said I should run track,” she said. “At first I hated it. I’d get so nervous before the meets, but after awhile I started liking it and I stuck with it.”
Stecklein qualified for indoor states in the 4x200 as a junior and senior. Last spring, she qualified for districts in all four of her events (long jump, 100, 200 and 4x100 relay), and she is a member of the 4x100 team that is top five in Pennsylvania and has qualified for nationals.
Not surprisingly, Stefan relies on her senior captain.
“There are so many events in track and I can’t be everywhere at once,” the Redskins’ coach said. “If I’m working with a group of girls on handoffs I can ask Jessica to go work with the jumpers and know that she is capable.
“She’s a great captain and a real leader and role model for our team.”
