Queen’s inks Adam Woehl
Like many high school athletes looking to land a university scholarship, Adam Woehl’s expectations were dampened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was very difficult actually,” the Grade 12 student at Greater Fort Erie Secondary School said. “COVID definitely had a large impact on how I was training and my view of how I was going about getting recruited.”
“I thought more universities would be reaching out to me but I discovered that I had to reach out to a lot of universities.”
Woehl certainly had the bonafides to be recruited. The 18-year-old Fort Erie native won the Zone 3 cross country title at the midget, junior and senior boys level. At the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations cross country level, he placed 16th in Grade 9, 13th in Grade 10 and in Grade 11, he finished 33rd overall and seventh out of first-year seniors. In track and field, he won the 3,000 metres at the OFSAA South Regional in Grade 9 and placed ninth at OFSAA.
Woehl wasn’t fazed by the lack of attention.
“That was fine with me and it allowed me to go at my own pace,” he said. “It wasn’t overwhelming but it was very nerve-racking wondering if I was going to get anything at all.”
He was interested in attending Queen’s, McMaster and Guelph but quickly zoned in on Queen’s.
“Queen’s were the first ones to reach out to me and the only ones to offer me money,” he said. “They were one of my top two schools from the get-go so it wasn’t like I had to settle.”
Queen’s was at the top of his list for a number of reasons, starting with the coach.
“The coach at Queen’s, Mark Bomba, was very interested in recruiting me. We had multiple Zoom calls and he was active in the recruiting process,” Woehl said. “He showed great interest and that made me feel very welcome, It was a nice change that I wasn’t having to reach out to him all the time.”
Academics also played a large role in his decision.
“The program that I chose I can really see myself doing in the future,” he said. “I chose the politics, philosophy and economics program and I can see myself doing that all four years, running for four years and eventually going off to law school.”
Despite the pandemic, Woehl has tried to keep up with his training.
“It is not as intense as it would have been if we were having meets and stuff like that,” he said. “I took a little break but now I am getting right back into it. I have tried my best to maintain things. I have done an upper body program with weights and a lot of distance and endurance training.”
He recently received a training program from Queen’s that he is eager to begin implementing.
“This is the first week of the program and I was excited to get started. It feels really good to get back into the swing of things.”
He is eagerly anticipating becoming a university runner this fall, pandemic willing.
“Because I have ran as an individual for so long, I am really looking forward to going more into a team environment. I trained briefly with Athletics Niagara and I really enjoyed the team aspect there. It made me faster and I enjoyed the company of going out on a run with someone else instead of having to do it by myself.”
He knows running at the university level will be an adjustment.
“I have heard from a lot of university runners that first year runners struggle with getting the distance and the amount of training,” Woehl said. “I want to adapt well to that and a big thing for me is maintaining my academics and athletics at the same time. I think I will be able to do that because there is a lot of extra help for athletes at university. They will make it easier for me.”
His goal is to qualify for the USPORTS championship.
Woehl started running in Grade 3 and began competing in Grade 7. He has been coached for his entire career by Ray Benard.
Dear reader. If you liked this story or one of the 3,300 other stories found on our website, please consider hitting the Support Us button on the right-hand side of our home page and making a PayPal contribution to our website. Your support would be much appreciated. If you are a business owner, please consider advertising on our site. Our rates are reasonable and we provide plenty of exposure for your business. Contact bpuchalski@cogeco.ca for more information.
