By Mark Schmerling

From the time she moved to Polk County as a toddler, through her standout athletic career at Polk County High School (where she was a member of Polk’s first graduating class in 1993), to her current position as the Wolverines’ assistant track and field and cross country coach, Jenny Wolfe is not shy about promoting the Polk County community or its athletes.

Her mother’s family has lived in Polk County for many generations, and is represented by place names and public officials.

“It’s neat that a lot of people in my family are leaders in the community,” Wolfe noted with pride.

“Community connectedness” is Wolfe’s term for this close connection with place.

Wolfe has been the Wolverines’ assistant cross-country coach since 2003. Prior to that, she was athletic director, plus women’s volleyball, basketball and softball coach at North Hills Christian School in Salisbury. From 2001 through 2003, she taught gymnastics at Brevard, and ran a community outreach program.

Her first coaching experience came at age 16, coaching the then-Green Creek Tarheels.

For some eight years, Wolfe coached, or helped coach, ten teams per year including PCHS men’s and women’s cross-country, men’s and women’s track, Polk County Middle School men’s and women’s cross-country and outdoor track, and had two recreational teams in Polk County.

Before that, Wolfe was a star basketball player for Polk, where she recorded the highest one-season scoring average (19.7 points per game) of any female in Wolverine basketball history.

She also starred at track, where she was a member of the women’s 4×800-meter relay team that holds the school record, and was part of the 4×400 team that won a state title.

Though Wolfe was offered full basketball scholarships, she attended UNC Asheville on a full track scholarship. There, the slim, but talented Wolfe, threw the javelin, hammer and shot. As a senior, she was all-conference in the javelin.

“I was recruited (for track) because I ran with Karen Godlock,” Wolfe modestly stated. Karen Godlock is known as a legendary runner and is also the mother of India Godlock, a talented Polk cross-country runner. India plays basketball, as well.

“She was amazing,” Wolfe said of Karen Godlock, who once broke four track records in one day.

“This girl was the real deal,” Wolfe noted.

“The scariest day of my life,” Wolfe recalled, “was when Mary Feagan asked me to speak at Karen Godlock Day.” Mary Feagan is currently the principal at PCHS, but at the time was a guidance counselor.

It went well, of course.

Wolfe comes by her athletic talent honestly. Her father, Jim McGrane, a volunteer assistant PCHS track coach, set a school record in the one-mile run at 4:36 at Upper Moreland High School, in southeast Pennsylvania.

Has Jim been an inspiration?

“Absolutely,” Wolfe answered. She noted that her dad sought jobs that allowed him time to attend her athletic events.

The credit doesn’t stop with her parents though.

“God’s given me a lot of abilities,” Wolfe emphasized, “not only to be an athlete, but to share what it takes to have the drive and dedication to be a good athlete.”

Around Polk County High School and within the school system’s administration, Wolfe sees immense support for scholastics and athletics.

She credits Polk County School’s Superintendent Bill Miller with taking the time to attend many athletic events, as does PCHS Principal Mary Feagan. Miller is also president of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.

Wolfe praised Geoffrey Tennant, chair of the Polk County Board of Education, who “has been one of my biggest fans.” Wolfe credited Tennant’s generosity to the schools and community.

“The amount that man gave to the community, and still gives, has been an inspiration.” Wolfe described Tennant, who also serves as the football team’s public address system announcer at home games, as “eloquent.”

Polk County High School Athletic Director Jeff Wilson, once a teacher of Wolfe’s, is also high on her list of those who get abundant credit for their dedication.

That’s all part of the “community connectedness” that keeps Wolfe here.

“I’m here because it make me feel like I’m connected to the community. It’s been a good home town.”

Further, as a mom and a coach, she’s passing on her energy to two sons, Jacob and Jared. Jacob, a high school junior, stars on the indoor and outdoor track teams, and in cross-country, while Jared, a freshman, plays basketball, soccer, baseball, and is on the ski and snowboard team, for which Wolfe serves as assistant coach.

Wolfe pointed out that Polk’s ski and snowboard team competes against local schools, including Hendersonville and Madison. The Wolverines have recently earned two gold medals.

Though an athletic standout herself, and a coach of other standout performers, Wolfe recognizes that success cannot always be measured by pure speed.

Her advice to team members is, “Find your pace, and go with it. You’re still scoring points for your team.” On what inspires her, she says, “Success doesn’t always have to be the kid who’s the best, or who wins. It’s about finishing the race.”

She also proclaims, “Bless it.”

As a long-time assistant under legendary track and cross country head coach Alan Peoples, now in his 28th year at Polk, Wolfe dishes plenty of credit.

“I’ve had someone to learn from,” she noted, “to learn what to do and what not to do from a veteran in the business.”

Wolfe said this has helped her learn “what to do and what not to do in terms of dealing with my kids.”

She also noted that when she began coaching at Polk with two young children age three and five, Peoples supported her being a mom.

An attribute that Peoples brings to the much younger team members is not asking them to do anything that he would not do. When the Polk cross-country teams run up very steep While Oak Mountain Road each October, Peoples runs the entire three miles as well.

Coaches need to provide positive messages.

“I try to lend kids a sense of greatness,” Wolfe notes. “If they think they’re great, they’ll be great.”

One of Wolfe’s pleasures is coaching her son Jacob.

“I get to coach my own kid,” she remarked proudly.

It was Jacob who pointed out without great fanfare to his mom that both of them have been on 4×800 relay teams that set school records.

“He’s very humble,” Wolfe noted.

Of only nine runners in North Carolina who qualified for state honors in the 1,000-meter run, Jacob was one.

What is difficult to Wolfe about coaching?

“It’s hard to make your own child hurt,” she noted, pointing out that the rigorous and demanding training of runners does make them hurt, especially when they run 16 consecutive 400-meter distances at no more than 70 seconds each, with maybe a minute and one-half break separating those runs.

In spite of that, Wolfe said she gets more criticism from kids for not making them work harder, than for making them.

“This coaching thing,” Wolfe insists, “is not a job. It’s a lifestyle.” Wolfe also runs hard and often; there are no weekends off when you’re a track coach.

“Being an athlete,” Wolfe noted, “is part of my identity. When people identify me as a runner, that’s a cool thing.” That goes for how others address her, too.

People don’t call me Jenny,” she noted. “They call me ‘Coach Wolfe.’”

So dedicated is Wolfe to promoting Polk’s track and cross-country teams, that she provides meet write-ups for the Tryon Daily Bulletin. She pointed out that runners don’t get much recognition, though she feels strongly that they deserve it.