The notion simply caught Jaclyn Pfizenmaier completely off guard.
 
Even though she and her husband, Luke, had a love for running, it never crossed their minds that their daughter, Caylyn, might become involved in the sport as well. Namely, competing for Clay Center's cross country team.
 
But during a visit with Caylyn's orthopedic surgeon four years ago, he informed the Pfizenmaiers that he recommended it. Strongly.
 
"I was like, 'Excuse me,'" Jaclyn said upon hearing the news. "So we went out in the hall and I said, 'What do you mean?'"
 
An orthopedic doctor for nearly 30 years, his response was straight-forward.
 
"It is the sport she needs. Mentally and physically."
 
Jaclyn's skepticism was somewhat natural. Caylyn, then a seventh-grader and now a sophomore at Clay Center, has cerebral palsy – a congenital disorder that affects a person's ability to maintain balance and posture.
 
Caylyn was born with the condition, as was her twin brother, Blaine, who has such a severe case he is confined to a wheelchair. They were triplets but the third sibling died from an infection less than a month after the three were born at 24 weeks.
 
When Caylyn was born, doctors told Jaclyn and Luke that she probably wouldn't walk or talk.
 
And now she runs.
 
"She's defied everything," Jaclyn said of Caylyn, this week's Capitol Federal True Blue® Student of the Week. "When we walked back into the room, he said, 'You're going to go out for cross country. Don't be mad at your parents.' She went to the first practice and fell in love with it. He was spot on."
 
Caylyn shared her mom's skepticism initially as well.
 
"I was like, 'OK. Sure,'" she said upon being informed that the decision for her to run cross country had been made. "And then my parents told me I was going to do it. So I did. And when I did it my seventh-grade year, I was like, 'This isn't bad.'"
 
Those feelings have only intensified as the years have passed.
 
"My eighth-grade year I grew to love it," Caylyn said. "Then my freshman year, I was all in. It's just, 'Wow. This sport is amazing.'"
 
Now a sophomore, Pfizenmaier has thrown herself into the sport so much that she has temporarily given up one of her other loves, dance. She's taking a break in order to focus on her running.
 
"I think I've embraced it a ton, especially now," she said. "It used to be 50-50 with dance and when running was over I was all dance. As a middle-schooler, (running) was just for fun. As a high-schooler, it's competitive. You have to be more into it and run it more so you can be more competitive."
 
Pfizenmaier's competitive spirit has shown.

 
She's made huge strides from where she started as a seventh-grader. That year, Pfizenmaier competed in one-mile races, but never completed a two-mile run. As an eighth-grader, the two-mile distance was still a challenge.
 
But even as the progress to increase her distance was somewhat slow to come, Clay Center cross country coach Tyler Nelson said he's never seen her determination waver.
 
"For her, just making some of the distance, it's a bit more of a struggle for her," he said. "But she's always shown up and always been here and always done everything we've asked of her."
 
Able to handle the two-mile distance last year, Nelson eventually put Pfizenmaier to the ultimate test, completing a traditional 5-kilometer race. And even though she took dead last and needed more than 40 minutes to navigate the course, Pfizenmaier met the challenge.
 
This season, she's gone the distance in all of her races and seen her times improve. Early last month she completed the ultra-tough Wamego Country Club course and last weekend improved her time at the Junction City Invitational by nearly four minutes.
 
Pfizenmaier's best time is 38 minutes, 30 seconds run at last year's Class 4A regional at Buhler.
 
"She kept working at it and she's improved," Nelson said. "What she's doing this year is a little faster than what she did last year and that just shows that she's improving."
 
Pfizenmaier credits her teammates, which includes cousins Grant and Lauren Smith, for helping her journey stay the course.
 
"I've learned a lot and all my teammates and coaches make me so much better," she said.
 
Nelson agreed.
 
"I think they look at her and that she's just another teammate," he said. "Like any teammate, they take care of her and she takes care of them. If we're going out for a 36-minute run, most are going to make four miles, but she's going to make two and a half. But they're there for her, helping her along. They just love having her around.
 
"She always has a smile on her face and that just counts for a ton. That's how we see her, she's just another member of the team that fights the same battles that everybody else fights. Which is the beauty of cross country. You don't have to beat anybody to succeed. You just have to beat a time you're looking at or whatever. There's a million different ways to look at success in cross country."
 
Not only has Pfizenmaier grown as a runner, but Jaclyn and Luke have seen her blossom in other ways. In addition to also having been on the school's dance team, Caylyn is the secretary for Clay Center's Future Business Leaders of America club and also is the editor for the school's audio-visual production Tiger News Television.
 
"The sport itself, being a part of the team and the people she's around as well as the physical part of it, it's been huge for her," Luke said. "It's just the normalcy of being a part of something like anyone else."
 
Jaclyn agreed.
 
"She's just a different kid the minute she's around the sport and around the people," she said. "It's so huge for her confidence and it carries over into school, her friendships, her health."
 
Running with cerebral palsy, there are physical challenges Pfizenmaier has to overcome.
 
"Sometimes I trip myself while I'm running," she said. "I always try to catch myself. It doesn't really affect me that much. I just have to make sure I have solid footing for it to go smoothly."
 
Luke is there every step of the way during her races. Most times Caylyn enjoys the encouragement. Other times, well, she's a typical teenager butting heads with her father.
 
"I just try to keep her moving," Luke said. "It's just a dad encouraging her and the 15-year-old daughter not always accepting that."
 
Caylyn routinely gets hearty cheers as she finishes her races from spectators lining the course, acknowledging what she is accomplishing. But her goal is to hear a different cheer before her career is over.
 
"I just want to beat one person, passing them and staying ahead of them," she said. "But overall, we have one junior on our team this year (Annie Larson) and she is so good. When I was a freshman, I told my coach I want to be just like her when I grow up. I just have to keep working for it."