In the summer before her freshman year, Valerie Bobart, a 16 season varsity athlete, challenged her older sister to a race. The stipulation was that the loser had to buy the winner slushies for a year.
Bobart won that race over her older sister and it sparked her interest to join the Glenbrook North cross country team.
She would go on to qualify for state all four years as a varsity cross country runner, a feat never accomplished before in school history. In her final state meet race this year, Bobart set the school record for the three mile race by finishing in 17:36 minutes.
Along with her success as a runner came a leadership role on the team. According to Head Coach Bob LeBlanc, Bobart was not a very vocal leader, but the team followed the example she set as a runner.
“She knows she is going to go set the pace and everyone is going to follow behind her,” said LeBlanc. “A lot of times on non-meet Tuesdays we do intervals, which would be like doing six 800 meter runs one day. You knew she was going to be in front of everyone setting the pace and getting faster every time, and all the other girls knew they could pattern themselves off how close they can come to beating [Bobart]. She was out there setting the pace, and they were all just trying to stick with her.”
Following the end of the cross country season this year, Bobart had only one Sunday to rest before the start of the sport she has been doing since she was 5 years old: gymnastics. According to Bobart, the transition between the two sports was a difficult one to make.
“They do not mesh well,” said Bobart. “I go from the peak of my athletic ability to starting from the bottom and working my way up. Cross country is all stamina, but gymnastics is all strength. So I need to lose all of my endurance and build up muscle.”
Bobart competed on the beam, vault and bars, and has made it to regionals three times. Despite admitting that gymnastics had “faded out in importance” to her because of her focus on running, Bobart chose to stay on the team.
“I don’t really like to quit things, and I have done it my entire life, so I just wanted to finish [it] out,” Bobart said.
As the only two seniors on the gymnastics team this past season, she and teammate Miriam Mikhelson contributed by helping encourage their fellow teammates to continue with their success.
“We tried to be good role models for the rest of the team and also be as supportive of everyone as possible,” said Mikhelson. “A lot of the time, people would get really frustrated with themselves and we tried to bring up the mood and morale of the team. When [sophomore Carli Betman] made it to state, we made her a T-shirt and brownies to support her.”
Following the conclusion of gymnastics, Bobart returned to running by joining both the indoor and outdoor track teams. She specializes in the 3200-meter race for which she has made it to state both her freshman and junior seasons. Distance coach Peggy Holecek believes that Bobart did not have much trouble coming into this season despite gymnastics being a much different sport.
“In gymnastics you train for short bursts of a routine,” said Holecek. “And running is just a different mindset and a different muscle group. She definitely did prepare herself for this season because she came in decent running shape, which indicates to me that not only was she doing gymnastics, she was also training for running at the same time.”
Holecek attributed Bobart’s success to her willingness to work and an attitude to never complain about workouts.
After graduating from GBN, Bobart plans on competing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign cross country and track and field teams.
“The people there are so much better, but I would rather be a smaller fish in a bigger pond,” said Bobart. “I can’t imagine not running, so I signed up for another four years.”