{"id":10096,"date":"2016-04-08T04:30:25","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T09:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/?p=10096"},"modified":"2016-04-07T09:10:42","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T14:10:42","slug":"nsr-answers-prayers-of-philly-area-track-standout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/nsr-answers-prayers-of-philly-area-track-standout\/","title":{"rendered":"NSR answers prayers of Philly area track standout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life has never been easy for Elayna VanArsdale<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her mother, Elizabeth, has been on Social Security disability for more than 10 years, the result of chronic back pain suffered in an automobile accident. Her father, William, a full-time chef, suffers from scoliosis and degenerative disc disease.<\/p>\n

\"Bensalem<\/a>
Bensalem Township High School discus and shot putter Elayna VanArsdale earned a scholarship to William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because money always has been tight for her family, Elayna works several days a week as a server\/busser at a local restaurant. She also has helps raise her five younger siblings.<\/p>\n

In addition, she attends classes each day at Bensalem Township High School in suburban Philadelphia; trains and competes in track and field; coaches Catholic Youth Organization track and field athletes; and participates in numerous other extracurricular activities.<\/p>\n

But Elayna has persevered.<\/p>\n

Not only has she not missed a day of classes in high school, the 2016 National Scouting Report prospect maintains a 3.65 grade-point average; has emerged as one of the top discus and shot put throwers in the powerful Suburban One League; and recently earned an athletic scholarship to William Penn University<\/a> in Oskaloosa, Iowa.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life has been filled with so many ups and downs due to my parents having severe medical conditions,\u201d Elayna wrote in her personal message to college coaches. \u201cMy parents couldn\u2019t afford many extras. I took it upon myself to get a couple jobs, so I wouldn\u2019t burden them with things I needed. Working part-time while a full-time student made me more responsible. I never let [work] get in the way of anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six years ago, Elayna, 19, began competing in track and field. At 5 feet 7 and 265 pounds, she found her size and strength to be perfectly suited for the discus and shot put. After working hard to perfect her form, she watched her personal-best distances improve dramatically.<\/p>\n

Since the start of high school, Elayna has improved from 94 feet, 11 inches to 113-9 in the discus and from 31-0 to 34-11 in the shot put. Last season, she captured second in the outdoor conference championships and seventh in the district championships in the discus and fourth in the outdoor conference championships in the shot put.<\/p>\n

Hoping her daughter would be discovered and receive scholarship money, Elizabeth enrolled Elayna with NSR of Southeastern Pennsylvania<\/a> before the start of her senior year. Soon after, several college coaches began emailing and calling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only pray she gets a scholarship somewhere she deserves and wants to attend,\u201d Elizabeth said back then. \u201cI pray for her every night. I\u2019ve never known a child to work nearly as hard as she does or is more deserving of [a scholarship].\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to NSR, Elizabeth\u2019s prayers were answered.<\/p>\n

Elayna received interest from schools on all levels. It ultimately came down to Indiana Tech and William Penn. Elayna chose William Penn — an NAIA school near Des Moines with a rich track and field tradition — because it offered a secondary education major.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe without NSR, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to find those kind of schools,\u201d said Elayna, who plans to major in secondary education and biology with hopes of becoming a high school science teacher. \u201cThey were able to discover me because of NSR.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although she is very close to her parents and siblings, Elayna said she looks forward to college life more than 1,000 miles from home.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom and dad wanted me to have a real college experience away from home,\u201d she said. \u201cThey thought it would be good for me to get away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to this new time of my life, continuing my education and helping to educate other children.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life has never been easy for Elayna VanArsdale. Her mother, Elizabeth, has been on Social Security disability for more than 10 years, the result of chronic back pain suffered in an automobile accident. Her father, William, a full-time chef, suffers from scoliosis and degenerative disc disease. Because money always has been tight for her family, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[602,600,601,222,285],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10096"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10122,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10096\/revisions\/10122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}