Former track star focuses on life’s little successes

Baldwin High School alum and English teacher Krystal Schulte broke the Baldwin High School long jump record with a jump of 16 feet, 11 inches in 2000. But her most memorable moment as an athlete came at a college conference championship where it was down to two competitors: Schulte and her opponent. 

“I was really nervous. My opponent had cleared 10 feet earlier than I did, so when the bar got put up to 10 ft 6 inches, there was a lot of pressure on me,” Schulte said. 

If Schulte had failed to clear the height sooner than her opponent, she would have lost. But on her first attempt she cleared it, and she proceeded to win. 

What made the moment more special, though, was a surprise visit from her family. 

“My family, who had secretly come to surprise me, jumped up from the bleachers screaming when I cleared the height. It was a very happy moment for me,” Schulte said. 

Schulte also recounts a moment from when she was an assistant track coach at Baldwin. 

“In 2005, our top male pole vaulter, Ronnie Walters, broke the all-time record for the WPIAL Championships when he cleared a height of 16 foot, 3 inches in 2005,” Schulte said. “I was right there next to him when he did it, so that was something really incredible.”

Schulte knew she wanted to continue track and field beyond high school when she met former athletes who graduated from Baldwin and continued sports in college.

“When former athletes came back and spoke to us about how much they enjoyed the different opportunities that being a college athlete provided, and I saw how successful they were, I felt inspired,” Schulte said. 

Schulte said she found the travel opportunities really memorable, and thinks of them as something she would have never gotten to do if it wasn’t for sports. 

“Once I got to go to Reno, Nevada, to watch the top 20 collegiate pole vaulters,” Schulte said. “While we were there we even got to tour Lake Tahoe and crossed the border into California.” 

Schulte said competing in sports and coaching have helped her become a humble person.  

“I think sports are good character builders both in success and in failure. With pole vault, it helped me learn that you are always going to end in failure – you will always knock the bar down eventually,” Schulte said. “The most important thing is to remember to enjoy the little successes, like improving a few inches day by day.”