Triple-threat athlete is the Lightning in the Thunder
by ACAC Sports Writer Curtis J. Phillips
Shelby Edgar comes from a sporting family.
Her father Doug Edgar played NCAA Division I hockey for the Ferris State University Bulldogs.
Her mother Barb Edgar completed her first Ironman in 2009.
Her younger sister Karly Edgar is a libero for the Canada West Universities Athletic Association's McEwan University Griffins women's volleyball team.
At age 25, Shelby laces on the laces for the cross-country, indoor track and women's volleyball teams at Concordia University of Edmonton.
"In high school I played volleyball, soccer and ran track but there was no cross country at our school because it was the same time as volleyball," said Shelby Edgar, who attended Bev Facey Community High School in Sherwood Park, Alberta.
"After graduation, I took a couple of years off and went to work (in sales)," recalled Edgar, now in her fourth-year at Concordia and enrolled in Bachelor of Education. "During that time I ran leisurely and would enter races.
"At (21 years-of-age) I decided to go back to school as I wanted to be a teacher and I emailed (Thunder cross country/indoor track coach Matt Norminton) and asked him if I could try out."
In her first season with the Thunder, the 5-foot-8 Edgar was part of the inaugural ACAC indoor track season for 2013-2014, placing 9th in the 400 metre (m) run (1:09.25), 10th for the 1,500 m (5:21.68) and 11th in the 800 m distance (2:37.61).
In 2014-2015 her best finish was 10th in the 600 m (1:46.36) while last year (2015-2016) her best finish was fourth in the 1,000 m (3:18.97).
She also had a seventh place in the 1,500 m (3:18.97).
In her three years of ACAC cross country running, Edgar's best finishes were a sixth place in the 2015 Grand Prix No. 1 and Grand Prix No. 4 races with clocking's of 21:09 and 21:30 respectively for the five-kilometer distance.
Edgar took the 2016 ACAC cross country season off to concentrate on studies.
Her playing for Thunder's women's volleyball came by chance.
"I was taking a volleyball course at school and the (Thunder women's volleyball coach) asked if I would be interested in playing," recalls Edgar. "I guess I was still Ok at it."
It was for the second semester that she hit the hardwood in 2014-2015 and 2016-2017.
The only down side of participating in both sports, is that with different shoes needed for each sport, Edgar admits that, "I was getting bad shin splints from jumping from one sport to another and wearing different shoes. That was challenging."
The 2016-2017 ACAC Running Room Indoor Track Championships will be held March 3-4, 2017 at the University of Lethbridge - 1st Choice Savings Centre for Sports and Wellness and hosted by the Lethbridge College Kodiaks.
"I love the ACAC having indoor track," said Edgar. "I haven't been running super strong this year as I have been busy with school and a teaching practicum but I think our team will do well overall.
"It would be great to see indoor track be a (Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association) national championship."