Bucs' Shuhart finds home at 800 meters

This article appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on May 1, 2003.

By JAMAL THALJI

Not everyone finds their niche, their place, right away in this life.

It takes some longer than others. Sometimes, you don't even realize you're in the wrong place until something better comes along.

Even athletes can get lost in their own sports. But this season Amber Shuhart finally found her place on the track: the 800-meters.

Not that the Gulf junior knew she was in the wrong place to begin with. Nor did Buccaneers coach Dean Lofton.

Ever since she transferred in from Dunedin her freshman year and joined Gulf's distance teams, Shuhart thought she was meant to run the mile. So did Lofton.

Shuhart became the No. 2 runner on the cross country team behind Melissa Dattoli. But come track season she wasn't happy.

"She ran good splits, she was extremely competitive," Lofton said. "But her heart just wasn't into it."

Lofton kept putting her in the 1,600 and 3,200 races, and kept training her as a distance runner. But Shuhart became frustrated.

"I wasn't getting any better," she said. "It seemed like no matter how much I practiced I wasn't really improving in those events."

Finally, Lofton received an epiphany that maybe, just maybe, Shuhart wanted to do something else on the track than run endless laps: the junior started begging her.

"I guess this year we just realized she wasn't meant to run the mile or 2-mile," Lofton said.

Instead Shuhart wanted to turn her attention to the middle distance races. She quickly took to the 800. The result: a personal- best district-winning time of 2:32.27 last week. And that's on top of her duties on the 4x400 and 4x800 relays.

Now Shuhart is poised to thrive in her new event and today can qualify for her first state meet.

"She's really come a long way," Lofton said. "She came from relative obscurity to win a district title. She used to always be overshadowed by Melissa Dattoli's accomplishments. But now she's winning in her own right."

It's obvious the way Shuhart thrives in the shorter races, Lofton said. "She is a speed-oriented distance runner," the coach said. "When we do the longer workouts, Melissa crushes her. When we do less than a mile, Amber crushes Melissa."

Shuhart is enjoying her new-found success.

"It feels good when you know where you belong," she said. "I wasn't enjoying track as much until I figured that out."