OVERCOMING THE ODDS – THE CIRCLE CHRISTIAN STORY
By: Noel ‘Bravo’ Francis
History was created on Saturday, November 7, 2015, when Circle Christian School won its first ever Florida High School State 1A cross country championship at the Apalachee Regional Park (ARP) in Tallahassee. The seven-member girls’ team along with their coach Mark Caulfield deserves the highest praise for their stellar performances on the day. The girls epitomize the very essence of the words – Ambassadors for Christ. They worked diligently, demonstrated faith, teamwork, steadfastness, camaraderie and self-sacrifice.
The Circle Christian team throughout the season was getting encouraging results, meet after meet, which catapulted them from pretenders to contenders to eventual winners. The youthful team was quietly confident from the beginning of doing something special and at no time behaved like a ‘doubting Thomas’. However, the road to success this season was not easy for the champions as they had to endure and overcome a few obstacles along the way including a major scare to one of their top athletes in the most important cross country season thus far in the school’s history. We now take a look at the ‘Centurions’ incredible journey from the perspective of head coach Mark Caulfield and Brandy Parker his assistant.
Q. Coach Caulfield, How long have you been coaching at Circle Christian High School? “I have coached at Circle the past two years. I have had two stints at Circle. First in 2009 for two years and then came back again in 2013 after coaching at another school for a couple of years.”
Q. Is this your first State title as a coach? “Yes. Although our girls’ program has qualified for the State Championships 6 of the last seven years, the highest finish before this year was 9th place in 2012.”
Q. How was your team’s preparation this season, did you have a great build up and things went according to plan? “Overall, the preparations were pretty good. We remained healthy and only had one athlete miss any races this year due to illness or injury. The kids had a good summer and a good progressive build-up throughout the season. Much of what we do is built upon progressive development through the season going from one phase of training to the next with the hopes of peaking at the right time at the end of the season. Overall, this season, it was probably as good as it could get concerning training and preparation.”
Q. What is the main strength of your team? “Probably the main strength of the team is that they are young, talented, and coachable. They do what is asked and work hard to be a close knit team. With age differences within the team of 12 to 18, which can be sometimes challenging but our two senior leaders, Karah Hammontree, and Camila Murphy, did a great job of relating and being sensitive to the difference while encouraging them and being good examples.”
Q. What was the team’s motto for this season? “We had some team mottos as the season progressed. It began with “One Team – One Dream” and then morphed into “No Reserves; No Retreat; No regrets” (from missionary William Borden) by mid-season and finished with “Daring Greatly” (from Theodore Roosevelt’s great speech, Man in the Arena.)
Q. Did you believe at the beginning of the season that you would become State Champions? “Not at the beginning of the season. But after the first meet of the season at the Jim Ryun Invitational when we finished second and beat Oak Hall, the defending State Runner-up team for Class 1A by 1 point, we started thinking we might be heading towards something good. To start the season, we returned a team that had finished 11th in the State the year before and had graduated our one of our top runners from that team. These kids were young and talented, but I am not sure we expected six athletes to improve over 2:00 each from what they ran last season. By mid-season though when we were the second class 1A team in the Elite race at FSU Pre-State we started to believe we might have a shot at the podium (top 2 teams) at the State Meet. But there a lot of good teams all close together in the Top 5 with a lot more experience than us.”
Circle Christian School - Girls 2015 1A State Champions
Q. What made this victory so special and unforgettable? “We learned that if you dream big, work hard, have faith, and consider each other as more important than yourself, some pretty amazing things can happen. We strive for excellence and define success as working towards fulfilling the potential within each athlete. It is running the best you are capable of doing each race. It was pretty awesome to see the potential within each athlete to run their best on November 7 was enough to win a State Championship.”
Q. Who are the persons you would like to thank for the team's success? “Since we are each a Christian, we believe first that God provides the gifts and opportunities within each of our athletes so naturally we begin there in giving Him thanks. Secondly, our kids trained 24 weeks for the opportunity to run well at the State Meet and were deserving of great thanks for their efforts, patience, perseverance and trust in what we do. Lastly, this team comes from a hybrid home schooled community (school offers both home schooled and college-style classes) with parents that are engaged, active and supportive along with the administration of the school. Each has an enabling part in any success we might have. We are grateful and thankful for each.”
However, coach Caulfield pointed out that the outcome could have been different this season for his team. Before the start of the District meets one of his leading runners was diagnosed with viral encephalitis – a condition that affects the brain. Although this latest development was not terminal, it began the untold yet remarkable story of Sinkenesh Parker overcoming the odds.
First let us look at a little history of this cheerful individual. She was born in an impecunious household in Ethiopia a country also famous for producing several renowned long distance runners including Meseret Defar and the Dibaba sisters (Tirunesh & Genzebe). For most Ethiopians running is as natural as breathing air.
Sinkenesh and her younger brother Aschalew became orphans at an early age in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and were adopted by the Parkers (Brandy and John) both missionaries of Christ and founding members of the Summit Church in Orlando, Florida. The two newest Parker siblings made the 8,000-mile journey to North America in 2010. The Parker clan had now grown to six as Sinkenesh joined forces with her two adopted sisters Mulunesh and Archike, who are also members of the victorious Circle Christian team, and another two brothers who had all arrived in the States years earlier.
Brandy Parker describes Sinkenesh as a joyful, hilarious and energetic child, who is very determined, hardworking and a fast-learner. Sinkentesh, who was seven years old at the time of adoption, wanted to attend school the very first day she arrived in the United States. Some of her finest qualities include being tender-hearted, helpful and the ultimate peacekeeper.
Sinkenesh Parker is living proof that GOD works in mysterious ways. Her health challenges this season were so sudden and frightening for the Parker household casting doubts all around for her well-being. The outlook at times was not encouraging, and it was during those critical moments that it was agreed that healing was required from a transcendent source. It provided the biggest test for coach Caulfield and his team.
Q. Coach Caulfield, What was your biggest challenge this season? “I think every team striving to accomplish something big goes through some form of challenge or adversity during the season that threatens to alter your dreams and goals. We had a big scare early in the season with one of our top runners, Sinkenesh Parker. Shortly after our first meet of the season, she was hospitalized and diagnosed with viral encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that affects the central nervous system. She could not speak and was having trouble processing cognitive functions. When I saw her in the hospital, the bright, vibrant, always smiling Sinkenesh was not there. It was hard and very scary for her family. The doctors ran a series of test over the next few days, including a painful lumbar puncture (spinal tap). She was released and told that the inflammation and damaged brain cells would heal with time, but the doctors could not give any specific time of recovery.”
Unfortunately, this was not the first or only medical predicament young Sinkenesh encountered this season. Her mom (Brandy) made the revelation while responding to the following question. Did you ever think of calling it quits for Sinkenesh this season after seeing what she was going through? “Before the season even began, she had a tough summer. She was very short of breath while running and diagnosed with a significant iron deficiency -anemia. For her, it was so challenging not to be able to run fast. When she recovered, it became clear to us that running brought her joy. It is like she was made for it.”
Q. Coach Caulfield How did you and your team deal with that situation? “We are a school and community of faith. We did what most would. We prayed. The Parkers are founders of Summit Church in Orlando and they extended a pretty wide range of prayer as well. Anytime you go through something as scary as this was, your team draws closer together. We have no explanation for what we witnessed with Sinkenesh other than God’s healing hand upon her. It was remarkable but at the same time was so encouraging and caring and inspirational as well for the kids on the team who watched Sinkenesh and her family work so hard to be available to run with her friends and team.” The doctors advised her family that Sinkenesh would continue to have episodes of being scared because the brain is still healing.
Brandy Parker added, “After she had got so sick with viral encephalitis, our focus and prayers were just to get our daughter back, for her speech and smile to return. We did not have any idea if she would be well enough to run again. Her doctors were clear that running would be safe for her when she recovered, and when she did recover, running is what she wanted to do. She was so excited to run, and to be back with her team. As long as the doctors said it was safe, we didn’t think of calling it quits for her. She was made for this. I guess there is a part of each parent that wants to protect their kid, to wrap them up in a bubble, so they never get sick or hurt. But you cannot do that, and if you try, your kids may miss out on who they are supposed to become.”
The nature of such a delicate matter requires calm and cool heads making critical decisions. Maternal instincts took over when Brandy Parker was asked - Considering that you wear two hats at the same time, that of being a parent and a coach; How conflicted where you when it came to making a decision in Sinkenesh’s best interest as it relate to her competing after being hospitalized? “No. I was not conflicted at all. My first priority is that of a mother. If there were any doubt that competing would hurt her, then she would have to stop. I kept asking the neurologist over and over just to make sure, though. They felt it was good for her.”
Sinkenesh came back to the track a more puissant force reeling off mind-boggling performances getting faster with each run. According to coach Caulfield, “Two weeks later she was able to race again and set personal best of 21:37 at the Katie Caples Invitational. Having seen her in the hospital and then running two weeks later, I have no explanation for outside of God’s intervention. Though she has struggled from time to time for the remainder of the season as her brain cells continue to heal, she has continued to run faster (beyond explanation) as she progressed to 20:27 the following race at FLrunners Invitational and then 20:04 at the FSU Pre-State Meet and then 19:32 at the Satellite Fall Classic and then 19:21 at the Regional Meet and then finished in 19:39 for 10th place at the State Championships.”
During the State finals, the 12-year-old seventh grader was like a guiding light and led her teammates like Moses did with his people many centuries ago. She ran with a level of maturity well beyond her years. Apart from those in her inner circle, no one knew that day what tribulations Sinkenesh had to undergo before being triumphant. In the words of the author Joshua J. Marine - Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
Brandy Parker Sinkenesh’s mother is coach Caulfield’s assistant. She provides mentorship, leads team devotions and teaches the team yoga to help with flexibility and preventing injuries. Coach Parker summed up the emotions on November 7, 2015.
Q. What was the feeling like to win the school's first State Championship title? “It was overwhelming and an unbelievable feeling. It was surprising, and everybody was amazed and humbled. We had a feeling we would do well. We were overjoyed. I doubled over and started crying and laughing at the same time. It was such a sweet moment. The girls were hugging and crying, happy tears.”
Q. In your opinion, how important is this State victory? “I feel that this will be a marker in the girls’ lives. They will always remember this victory and the lessons that they learned from working so hard to achieve a goal, and trusting God.”
Q. How proud are you of your team and their accomplishments this season? “I am so very proud! I still can't believe they won State. Each of the girls amazed me with their heart and work ethic, and determination. They are a tight-knit group, and they compete for each other.”
Coach Parker shared that one of the team’s favorite scriptures was Isaiah 40:31. The scripture reads, "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
In the final analysis, coach Caulfield felt the conditions assisted his team as the temperature was a bit warm for November. He said, “The girls adjusted and were a little bit more conservative and came home strong.” This tactic was most evident in the performance of 13-year-old Mulunesh Parker, who ran a blistering last mile passing over two dozen runners to finish 41st overall in 21 minutes 11 seconds. Mulunesh’s strategy was to run the first two-thirds of the race with relative ease and conserve energy before unleashing a devastating kick in the final third overtaking opponents as if they were stationary targets. Coach Parker said, “She loves to come from behind and pass people.” In fact, the top five runners on the team ran the last part of the race in such an efficacious manner that they moved up 33 places on average from the mile mark to the finish line. The seven-member squad is Karah Hammontree, Camila Murphy, Brooke McEwwen, Jaden Ault, Archike Parker, Mulunesh Parker and Sinkenesh Parker.
Many persons feel that if it were not for an act of Divine intervention, Circle Christian would have remained in the trophy wilderness this season. The school is celebrating its 30th year of existence in 2015. The exalted feeling of winning its first State title for this Christian school and community might not reach the fulfilling heights of getting to heaven; nevertheless, they are certainly over the moon and will be chilling out on cloud nine for the next few weeks. Everyone certainly has a lot to give GOD thanks for this year.
RELATED - Coach Caulfield and the 1A Girls State Championship Cirlce Christian Team
About the Author:
Noel ‘Bravo’ Francis is a very exciting and creative freelance sports writer from Jamaica specializing in the fields of athletics and cricket. His colourful down to earth yet professional personality makes him a favourite amongst athletes and fans. Readers are often exposed to his detailed knowledge and passion that usually increase their interest in the athletes, events and the sport overall. He has a first degree in Banking & Finance and works in the financial industry. Contact Noel at [email protected]
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