Danie Kelso’s story is not all that much different than thousands of other athletes.

She has had coaches who coached her, coaches who inspired her, coaches who pushed her, coaches who motivated her, coaches who encouraged her and coaches who helped put her on the path to success.

The roles of many of her coaches spilled over into various categories.

The recent St. Joseph-Ogden graduate has committed to Millikin University, in Decatur, to continue her track and field career.

The decision, however, didn’t fulfill a lifelong dream.

“I got a few letters from a couple different colleges approaching me about running, but I was never very interested,” Kelso said. “By about January of my senior year, I knew that this was something I wanted to do.”

Kelso had a star-studded running career, which started before she reached high school. She ran on a state runner-up relay while in junior high and was part of a state championship relay team in high school.

The constant throughout her running career is the contributions from those who were called, ‘Coach.’

“In middle school cross-country, Coach (Corey) Plotner and McD (John McDannald), had a huge impact on me as a runner,” Kelso said. “They pushed the team to be the best we could and to keep going when it gets hard, but to also have fun while doing it.”

Kelso ran cross-country through her freshman year at SJ-O, when she decided to focus her attention on being a sprinter in track.

“Even after I decided to no longer continue running cross-country, I took these life lessons with me to track and life in general,” Kelso said. “Cross-country helped me build up my character.

“The middle school track coaches were Mr. (Grant) Risley and Mr. (Zach) Steele. My passion for track started while being coached by them and they set the foundation for the rest of my running career.”

Kelso’s high school coaches picked up where her predecessors left off.

“Going into high school, my coaches consisted of Mr. (Jason) Retz, Ms. (Kelly) Steffen and Matt Umbarger,” Kelso said. “These coaches pushed me to be the best athlete that I could possibly be and helped me see my potential.

“Throughout all of high school, I felt very cared about and loved by the coaching staff and I wouldn’t be the runner I am today without their support.”

The impact of each coach was tremendous, Kelso said, but one person in particular played a recurring key role.

“Ms. Steffen had the greatest impact on me, as a runner and as a person,” Kelso said. “She has been a role model for me and I am so grateful to have had her as a coach and a teacher.”

Despite Kelso’s contributions to the Spartans’ program, continuing to run after high school was not a long-time goal.

“I actually did not have the plan of running after high school,” Kelso said. “I have always been more focused on starting my path to being a nurse more than anything.”

What changed, she said, was discovering a place where she felt right at home.

“My recruitment process was pretty simple, in all honesty,” Kelso said. “On my visit to Millikin, I met a few coaches and some of the teammates and I loved the environment. It almost reminded me of SJ-O.

“I was convinced pretty quickly after meeting everyone there and I started envisioning myself on the team as a sprinter. After visiting the Millikin track team, I was set on continuing my running career.”

Competing in college became more of a priority for Kelso after her senior season was cut short before it began due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I am heartbroken by the way my last high school track season ended, but this taught me to never take anything for granted,” Kelso said. “I didn’t know that when I crossed the finish line (as a junior) it would be my last time. That’s why it’s so important to give all you have, every chance you have.

“Track has shaped my character in many ways and I have learned some hard and good lessons from this sport. Everything I’ve achieved has been through hard work and sacrifice. I’ll carry on these lessons in life.”

Kelso’s last high school race on an outdoor track was the one that enabled her to gather a state championship medal.

She ran the leadoff leg for the 800-meter relay and was followed by Atleigh Hamilton, Hailey Birt and Maclayne Taylor. Anchor runner Taylor was the lone senior on the foursome, which was timed in 1 minute, 44.81 seconds.

In all, Kelso earned two state medals during high school track. In junior high, she ran on the second-place 1,600-meter relay as a seventh-grader.

Kelso said Millikin met all of her needs as she looks to the future.

“I picked Millikin because of their great nursing program,” she said. “It is also very close to home. Being able to come back and see my family is very important to me.

“They have a small campus (about 2,000 students) and this is also very appealing to me. Millikin’s track team was really just the icing on the cake. I’m thankful to find a school with the major I need and great athletics.”

As she conducted her college search, Kelso had a single-minded purpose.

“All of my college searching was surrounded by the school’s nursing program,” she said. “I didn’t really look into track programs or communicate with other schools about running.

“After deciding to attend Millikin University when I was accepted into their nursing program, running track practically just fell into my lap.”

There was a mutual interest.

“The first coach that really reached out to me and pursued me was Andrew Craycraft, the director of Millikin Track and Field,” Kelso said.

Kelso’s ultimate life goal, she said is “working as a registered nurse in either labor and delivery or in the NICU.”

She was involved in a multitude of activities as a youngster, including softball and cheerleading, before finding a favorite sport with sprinting.

“Once running came into the picture, I focused on that more than anything,” Kelso said.

Coaches helped to foster her love for running.

“I started to focus on track mostly because of my passion that grew for sprinting throughout the years,” Kelso said. “I just wanted to be the best that I possibly could. I loved the feeling after a good race, nothing beats it.

“The appeal of track and field was the team environment and the satisfaction of seeing your times drop from meet to meet. Once I first started running track in middle school, it became first on my list of priorities.”

She didn’t consider herself a natural.

“It took me a while to see the talent and potential that I have,” Kelso said. “I used to always think of myself as the ‘underdog’ or just a few steps behind my teammates, but as I made it into high school, the coaches really lifted me up and they believed in me.”

The coaches showed their support, not just with words, but also by actions.

“They trusted me with a lot, especially my freshman year when they decided to have me lead the 4×4 relay at state prelims,” Kelso said. “There was a lot of pressure placed on me by going out of the blocks and starting a relay at state.

“By doing this, my confidence was boosted. Not every freshman gets a chance to run at state, but the coaches believed in me and this made me believe in myself.”

Kelso didn’t get the opportunity to run in the state finals as a freshman, but she knew nonetheless that she could compete on the state’s largest stage.

Her teammates knew it, too, voting her as the team’s Spartan Award winner as a ninth-grader.

After stepping away from the track for a couple months this spring during the pandemic, Kelso has resumed her workouts.

“Once the track season was officially over, I decided to take a break and focus on the end of the school year and let my body rest for a while,” she said. “Once June started, I began to get back into shape.

“Ms. Steffen creates workouts for me to do on the track, and I’ve also been running some distance as well to build up some endurance.”

Throughout the years, Kelso has learned the value of hitting the weights.

“Lifting was a big part of my growth as a sprinter,” she said. “I gained so much strength and speed from lifting in the weight room. I also built up my confidence in the process.

“Lifting was my favorite part of practices at times. I am proud of the gains I made by lifting and I wouldn’t be the sprinter I am without strength training.”

Kelso hit a squat max of 230 pounds, but added, “I was shooting for much higher during my senior year. It is disappointing to not have been able to see what more I could have done.

Now that she has signed a letter of intent with Millikin University, Kelso has four more years to continue seeing what she can do.

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What are your goals and where can they take you?

Although they may not realize it yet, runners on the St. Joseph Middle School cross-country team are realizing the answer to this question as they prepare to compete at the IESA State level on Saturday.

For the first time in school history, St. Joseph Middle School captured the IESA Class 2A Sectional title.

Eighth-grader Helene Jones said, “after all seven of our runners finished, Coach P (Corey Plotner) pulled us to the side saying we just made St. Joe history! There has never been a St. Joe 2A cross-country team win a sectional before.”

After the St. Joseph Middle School boys’ cross-country team finished with five runners in the top 10 spots at the sectional, the Panthers were on their way to sending both teams to the 2A IESA state meet at Maxwell Park in Normal.

The catalyst for the teams’ accomplishments has been goal-setting.

Many of the participants began running in fifth grade, looking to beat an older sibling, to have something in common with a parent or to hang out with friends, but it didn’t take long for each runner to find some intrinsic value to their time spent on the course.

“I’ve kept with it because I enjoyed the coaches, people, and I realized I did enjoy running,” Jones said. “After the first season, I knew I had to do next year.”

Coming into her third year on the Panther team, Jones decided that if she puts her mind to it, she might be able to finish the 2-mile course in under 13 minutes. With that time, Jones believed that she would be included on the Sectional roster, and it would be another step to her whole team making it to the State finals.

“All of the goals I had set were crushed,” she said.

With the same mindset, Jones wanted to finish a race to get onto the Panthers’ “board.”

“The board contains the top 20 boy and girl runners of St. Joe Middle School history,” she said.

Currently, Jones sits at No. 12.

But that wasn’t enough for the athlete who knows that time in junior high is short.

Coming into the IESA Sectional on Oct. 12, Jones wanted to finish in the top five of the 86 competitors.

Coming in at 13 minutes, 13.74 seconds, she finished in second place.

Finishing right in front of her at 13:06.69 was teammate Savanna Franzen.

In her seventh-grade year, Franzen had her teammates on her mind as she crossed the finish line.

“I felt a rush of joy because I knew my teammates were not far behind,” Franzen said.

The Panther runners are encouraged to give 100-percent throughout the season.

“My coaches have supported me by telling me when I need to push it, giving me advice for my legs, and being with me every step of the way,” she said.

Keeping her individual goals in sight, Franzen has also encouraged her teammates throughout the year to do the same as the Panthers had their eyes set on a team state-bid from the very beginning.

Jones and Franzen will work to place in the Top 25 runners at State while the entire team looks to place among the top 10.

The St. Joseph Middle School boys’ team also believes it has what it takes to finish in the top 10 on Saturday.

In fact, they’ve set the goal of finishing in the top four teams at State.

Leading the seven-member Panther pack consistently throughout the season has been Carson Maroon.

Maroon finished the two-mile IESA Sectional course in 11:38.23.

“I felt great!” he said. “I knew then that I couldn’t have accomplished anything more.”

Finishing in first place, at sectional ticked of a goal box for Maroon — now he hopes to accomplish his other two goals, finishing in the top 25 at State and finishing a race under 11 minutes.

Being part of a fun team that challenges each other day-after-day is not only what keeps Maroon coming back year-after-year, but he also believes it’s the recipe to finding success.

“The better we do individually the better we are as a team,” eighth-grader Spencer Wilson said.

Wilson finished third at the IESA Sectional meet with a time of 11:57.10.

Finding out he is “pretty decent at running” came on the back of working with great coaches.

“Coach P and Coach G (Michele Guido) are great coaches! I’m glad I got to run with them the last four years “

For Wilson, though, the reason he started cross-country in fifth grade is the same reason he still loves to come to cross-country every day.

“The best part about being on the team are game days and being with my friends,” he said.

The girls’ Class 2A state race is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday, followed by the boys’ race at 11:45 a.m.

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Corey Plotner is on pace to run 2019 miles in 2019.

The Ogden native picked up running as a freshman at St. Joseph-Ogden High School in 1991 just to stay in shape for basketball season.

“I played basketball that one year and it was all running after that,” he said.

But Plotner didn’t choose to stick with running because it came easily to him.

“My first distance race was freshmen year of high school,” he said. “I only beat one kid that day and he had the nickname of ‘Pumpkin Head’ for certain reasons. Needless to say, I was not fast at all.”

Since that day, Plotner has run countless races, participating in everything from the mile to a 26.2-mile marathon.

“I will probably never race farther than that, my body likes the mid-level races like the 10k and half marathon,” he said.

There have only been a few highlights he can remember.

Beating St. Joseph-Ogden’s Chelsea Blaase, who went on to run at the University of Tennessee, is one.

“I made a wrong turn and ran about a half mile farther than her,” he said. “I still give her a hard time about that whenever I can,” Plotner said.

The other moment happened last fall.

When his daughter, Jillian, who is a junior and a distance runner at SJ-O, finished a 1600-meter indoor race at the UI Armory, Plotner told her he was going to beat her time when he ran there a few days later.

“She laughed at me,” Plotner said.

When he crossed the finish line, his time was one second ahead of Jillian’s.

“My wife told me that Jillian was stunned and a little mad in the bleachers, but we had a great laugh about it when I walked over to her,” he said.

“I think she finally has figured out that trash talking me just gets me more motivated, and it makes me work just a little bit harder.”

Plotner relies on a consistent workout schedule to keep in shape.

“I try to get out and run six days a week and average somewhere in the 40 miles per week range,” he said. “I just passed 900 miles for the year at the end of May, on my way to at least 2019 miles this year.”

With the end of the year in December, Plotner may get to end his feat in some of his most favorite conditions.

“For me, there is nothing better than a nice run in lightly falling snow,” he said. “It is the most calming and peaceful time. The beauty of the fresh snow with the quietness of the world is truly breathtaking.”

But it was in warm spring temperatures that Plotner surpassed his goal of receiving the Masters Award on June 2.

“As a runner, you always have to have goals, both short term and long term,” he said. “Ever since I came home with my first trophy in high school, it was a goal of mine to get a diverse collection of awards.”

The Master’s Award is given to the first-place runner when the runner is over 40 years old.

“I have had my share of race wins and top five places, but the one that I had trouble getting was the Master’s Award,” he said.

“It truly is hard to achieve, because as we all know, life gets in the way.  The older that we get, the harder it is to get back the fitness that we may lose due to injury, sickness, or just things in your life that take you away from the sport for awhile.”

Plotner experienced one of those moments in 2018 where he lost some ground he’d gained, but he resolved to get back into shape.

“For me to race last weekend and finally grab the overall Master’s Award at a race was great,” he said.

“It was a huge confidence boost. I am happy with it, but not satisfied by any means.  I have another goal to get after now and we will see if I can reach it by the end of the year.”

He also hopes to help his athletes on the St. Joseph Middle School Cross-Country team reach their goals in the upcoming fall season.

He can relate to those who do not enjoy the work, but said runners always have to find a reason to keep going.

“Every runner has times that they want to quit,” Plotner said.

“Truly, knowing that my children were growing older and starting to run kept me going.  I have always told them that one day they will beat me in a race, but that they would have to work their tails off to accomplish that feat.”

As of today, his children have yet to beat him.

Jillian, he said, is close.

“I don’t think she truly started to love the sport until she got to high school,” he said.  

“I also think that that was partly my fault, as her father and coach all the way through middle school, she couldn’t ever get away from it.  

“It wasn’t until I stepped back that she learned to love it for herself.  But now, she truly loves it and is having some success at it. I am very proud of her.”

While running has been an outlet for staying in shape, Plotner has learned so much more just by staying the course.

“Running has truly saved me on more than one occasion in my life.  It has given me an outlet to deal with a lot of stressful times that otherwise might have swallowed me whole.

“Through the friends that I now call my family, to all of the athletes that I have coached for the last 10 years, I can say that I am truly blessed.

“The running community is one of the best to be a part of. Everyone knows each other and wants to see everyone flourish. There truly is nothing like it in the world.”

Like all things in life, Plotner said that there are no shortcuts in running.

“To make a goal and reach it, the only way to get there is to be honest with yourself and toe the line with purpose every day,” he said.

“It is a great life lesson, natural talent will only take you so far, but to truly be the best each of us can be, we have to work for it.  

“I will be out working on my goals. How about the rest of you?”

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