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Photos by Neal Jackson.
Lainey Phelps
Lainey Phelps placed second at the AHSAA Class 6A state cross-country meet as a seventh-grader in 2014. She then won five of six cross-country races at the middle school level in 2015.
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Photo by Neal Jackson
Lainey Phelps
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Photo by Neal Jackson
Lainey Phelps
Speak with 14-year-old Lainey Phelps for five minutes, and you will quickly realize that she is not your typical teenager.
She embodies contagious cheerfulness alongside wisdom and discipline. Plus, her jaw-dropping speed puts into question the constraints of age.
Lainey deflects praise and attention, instead crediting coaches, family and friends for her myriad achievements. Perplexingly busy, she divides her limited time between academics, athletics and community service.
To someone meeting her for the first time, it’s hard to believe she’s only a rising high school freshman.
But to people like Genie Christian, an assistant cross-country and track and field coach at Homewood Middle School who has known Lainey since her days at Shades Cahaba Elementary, the maturity and jubilance are nothing new.
“She’s been that way all along,” Christian said.
It’s evident.
Even amid her distinguished tri-sport career at HMS in cross-country, track and field and lacrosse, Lainey’s athletic prowess has never overshadowed her impeccable character.
“She’s like the whole package,” said Susie Ankenbrandt, an assistant cross-country and track and field coach at HMS. “The sportsmanship is phenomenal, and our practices are fun and joyful because she brings so much, and her teammates catch on, too. I think she helps brings an ease to them.”
Young veteran
Unlike most kids her age, Lainey wasn’t new to the sport of running when she joined the HMS cross-country team as a seventh-grader in the fall of 2014.
Dating back to her elementary years, Lainey said she knew running was the sport she wanted to pursue. That’s why — as a first-grader — she would charge into her parents’ room at 5:30 a.m. to ask her mom, former Homewood High School cross-country coach Alli Phelps, if they could go for a 3-mile run.
“It was my favorite part of the day,” Lainey said. “That’s when I really fell in love with it.”
Her passion — and speed — has grown ever since.
Once she was old enough to compete, Lainey blasted onto the prep scene at the state level. Competing for HHS at the conclusion of her first middle school cross-country season, she ran against girls who were up to six years her superior.
Undaunted, she claimed a runner-up finish at the 2014 AHSAA Class 6A state meet.
“You wouldn’t expect it from her sometimes,” said Eric Swope, HMS head cross-country and track and field coach. “If you didn’t know who she was, and you were out there getting ready for the race, you wouldn’t know that that was Lainey Phelps.”
She continued her success the following spring.
By scoring 11 points across three events at the 2015 state outdoor track meet — in the 1,600 meters, 3,200 meters and pole vault — she helped spur the HHS girls track and field team to its second straight title.
Enjoying her time
But, wanting to cherish the present, Lainey decided she would compete only at the middle school level as an eighth-grader.
“I realized that I’m in middle school right now, and I’m only going to be in middle school once,” she said. “I need to enjoy the middle school career with my teammates because I’ll have high school years that I can enjoy, too.”
Her competition felt the impact throughout the 2015-2016 school year.
Of the 22 events she entered, Lainey won 20 of them, including four Metro South titles.
She supplemented a 46-second victory at the fall’s cross-country championships with triumphs in the 400 meters, 1,600 and pole vault at the spring’s track and field competition.
What’s more, she clocked a pair of middle school state records this past season in the 1,600 and 1 mile. Her blistering time of 5 minutes, 16.69 seconds in the 1,600 would have earned her a fourth-place finish at the high school state meet.
That’s part of the reason why, at the school year’s conclusion, Lainey was named the female recipient of the HMS Jack Lee Page Award, which honors athletic and all-around excellence.
“From the very beginning, from the second I met her, I knew that she was incredibly talented,” Ankenbrandt said. “We haven’t even scratched the surface of how talented she is.”
Luckily for the coaches at HHS, they have four years to tap into that potential once Lainey starts ninth grade this fall.
“It's going to be fun to watch; that’s all I know,” Swope said.
