Skiing Solie: How one Chambersburg native is excelling at a unique sport

There have been plenty of elite athletes to come from this area in recent years. Football players, wrestlers, track stars — and water skiers.

That's right: Even in central Pa., almost four hours from the shoreline, someone has found a way to excel on the water.

Solie Stenger, 16, has competed in various competitions around the world. She recently took home first place in the U17 Girls Slalom at the Jr. Canadien Open, as well two other top-three finishes.

Other recent events include the Jr. US Open, the International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation Junior World Championships and the Pan-America Waterski Championships, with the latter two events taking place in Santiago, Chile.

Stenger was born in Chambersburg, and her family moved to Gettysburg when she was in the second grade. And while this level of competition is new for the Stengers, this sport is not unchartered water for the family.

Solie's grandparents had a house at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia, where the family would ski for fun. Her whole family has grown up water skiing.

But even when Solie was young, getting to this point seemed far-fetched.

"At that age, I think it was more so family vacation and just having fun on the water," Solie said. "I didn't even know, I don't think any of us really knew that it could get so competitive like it's gotten."

Her family moved to the Lake Heritage community in Gettysburg, in order to live right on the water. While lake living provided family recreation, it also provided the potential for Solie to be competitive.

"Some of the adults (at a competition in Virginia) who ski competitively said she had potential, and we got her some coaching in Virginia,” said Karli Richards-Stenger, Solie’s mom. “She has a coach, he's a professional water skier. And then once he saw the potential in her, you know, we started to do more tournaments. And she started to win more things. And it kind of took off from there."

She’s competed at numerous events, and will continue to do so, while balancing the normal things that teenagers do, mostly school.

Richards-Stenger said that her daughter was an excellent student, and that makes it an easy decision to miss school in order to compete.

But going off to compete means time without her friends. But it’s a decision that Solie would make over and over again.

"It's definitely a commitment,” Solie said. “I think it's escalated over the years, like at first, I started just traveling to Virginia, which was fine but it's definitely a commitment leaving my friends here and family for so long. But I would do it again in a heartbeat, it's so worth it. I made so many new friends along the way."

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Solie doesn't come across many people from the Northeast. She knows a few, but it’s a sport that stretches far and wide.

"That's the coolest part of the sport,” Solie said. “I have friends from all over the world like on Snapchat, I look at my snap map, and it's everyone everywhere, which is so cool. Like, my friend group is someone from California, Florida, Midwest, Texas. It's so awesome... There's definitely a lot more [in Pennsylvania] than you would think, but yeah, it's so cool."

The sport isn't common in the central Pa. area, which helps make Solie stand out.

"Whenever I go tell my friends, 'Oh I'm a water skier. I'm going away this summer to waterski,’” Solie said. “They kind of look at me and they're like, 'Oh, that's a little weird,' but I love it."

While her friends, coaches, and tournaments stretch across the globe, she still is able to work on her game close to home.

The community of Lake Heritage has its own ski club, providing water sport instruction for members of the community.

They haven’t had somebody compete at the level that Solie is at, so the community is rallying around her. The club recently held a fundraiser to support Stenger and her travels for tournaments.

"They've been so awesome,” Solie said. “They're the ones who taught me how to ski and taught me the course and told me what tournaments are, so I wouldn't be anywhere without them. And this huge fundraiser that they're doing for me, I'm so honored. I had no clue until like, two days ago that they were doing this. So they've been an awesome support, and they're like a family to me here."

Since she is not professional yet, she doesn’t win money from the events. So all expenses come from their own pocket.

"That's been the hardest part, from a personal standpoint, because we, her parents, are funding all of her travel and her coaching and the equipment is relatively expensive,” Richards-Stenger said. “And because of all the international things she's done this year, it's been a little bit tight."

It could be a stressful experience all-around for Richards-Stenger and her husband, Scott, because as Solie gets older and more skilled, her jumps get higher and her runs get more advanced.

"There's a lot of excitement but it is stressful,” Richards-Stenger said. “Sometimes she goes over jumps close to 90 feet. So that's a little nerve wracking. And she wears a helmet and a lot of protective gear. So I say a little prayer and hope that she does her good technique because as long as she focuses on technique, then she's safe. But like any other sport, it's exciting. It's stressful, but we're so proud."

The Stenger family is full of athletes. Her mom and grandparents were competitive springboard divers; mom at Notre Dame. Her dad played soccer at Elizabethtown College.

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Solie adds soccer to her schedule, as she played for Gettysburg’s varsity team for the last two years.

"At ski tournaments, there's always free time, and my dad's normally the one with me, and he's a huge soccer nut,” Solie said. “So we always have a soccer ball, kicking it around, hanging out with friends. When we went to South America, there was soccer everywhere. We would just go play pickup. And during the summer, at Gettysburg College, there's pickup games every day.”

“So normally we'll go do that, I'll ski in the morning, play a game of soccer, ski again, and then sometimes hit the gym. So that's normally my routine, trying to balance everything out."

It’s a tough balancing act. Skiing, school, soccer, friends. But she’s doing it and excelling at it.

She is transferring to Mercersburg Academy to continue her education, and continuing her family’s legacy, with many, including her mom, attending the academy.

Solie has many more competitions ahead of her and hopes to parlay this success into competing in college and hopefully professionally.

And even though her family basically all grew up in the water, she’s still taking in how crazy this is.

"I honestly had no clue like at all. I think last year was really the first year where I started looking at like US Open and bigger tournaments like that and worlds,” Solie said. “But yeah, I had no clue that it would escalate this quickly or that I could even get to this level, but it really has."

This article originally appeared on Chambersburg Public Opinion: Skiing Solie: How a Chambersburg native is excelling at a unique sport