Schuckman: Wolf’s run to glory comes with angel helping guide his way

LIBERTY, Ill. — The distractions needed to be muted, so Cannen Wolf did his best to ignore everything coming at him as the week progressed.

He drowned out any chatter regarding the start of basketball practice and the fact the Liberty boys were being touted as a top-10 team in Class 1A. He brushed aside any talk of setting a personal-best time at the state cross country meet. He made sure his focus stayed on his training above all else.

Still, he listened to one voice for inspiration and confirmation.

It was the voice of an angel.

“She was right there with me,” Wolf said. “I had her on my back the entire time.”

Grace Schell is ever present in his heart and soul, too.

Thirteen months ago, an ATV accident resulted in the death of the 15-year-old Schell and sent Wolf to the hospital with traumatic injuries. It was a harrowing time for the Liberty cross country program and the community as a whole, but through their grief and tears, they found a way to recover and make a run at glory.

They did so to be like Grace.

“We’re always there for one another,” Wolf said. “No matter what hits our community, we come back from it together.”

That is why the community, the coaches and his friends and family allowed Wolf to run at his own pace and without distraction in the postseason. Liberty coach Jared Schmidt pushed him, trained him and encouraged him every step of the way without being encumbering.

“On my last long run before regionals, (Schmidt) was biking behind me and I was like, ‘OK, hypothetically, what do you think the PRs are I can get the next three races?’” Wolf said. “I wanted to break into the 15:00s at sectional. I missed it by a couple seconds, but I knew I could keep going.”

After posting times in the mid-16:00s throughout the season, Wolf finished third at the Class 1A Liberty Regional in 16 minutes, 7 seconds. He followed that with a third-place finish at the Class 1A Elmwood Sectional in 16:02.

Wolf knew a faster time was possible at the state meet at Peoria’s Detweiller Park.

“It was all depending on how the race went out,” Wolf said.

The pack didn’t go out as fast as expected, but Wolf adjusted and found his rhythm early.

“That first 400, I was searching for someone I knew I could run with,” Wolf said. “I look over to my left and see (Arthur-Lovington’s Logan Beckmier). That’s who I latch onto. We latched onto each other and pushed each other.”

It propelled Wolf to incredible heights.

He finished 12th in the Class 1A field, posting a personal-record time of 15 minutes, 18.91 seconds — nearly 10 seconds faster than any race he’d ever run. It made him just the ninth runner in Liberty history to earn a state medal.

Six of the other nine runners are Oberts, a family Wolf knows well.

“I go to church with Danny Obert, who is their father,” said Wolf, who may run cross country in college but has plans to study finance with a goal of working in professional sports management. “I’ve talked to him since junior high, and back then, he was telling me, ‘You’re going to be good.’ 

“Ever since that, I had it ingrained in my mind I was going to be as good as them someday. I always had an idol to look at because of them.”

He had his angel to keep him focused on chasing the Oberts, too.

When the state race ended, Wolf said there was a sense of gratitude and relief.

“It’s done. The goal is finally complete,” he said. “After the hit of last year, I had to make the most of this opportunity. It was my last opportunity to get anything done.”

At that moment, Wolf felt Schell’s presence.

“I know how she’d be, just a little butterfly right there with me,” Wolf said. “She’d have been there right at the end giving me a hug, telling me I’d done great. She’d have latched on to me forever. It would have been awesome.”

Wolf paused momentarily and took a deep breath.

“It’s been rough without her,” he said.

The night after the state championships, Wolf spoke with Grace’s parents — Dustin and Holly Schell, who started the #BeLikeGrace movement to keep their daughter’s spirit and engaging personality alive — and they expressed what it meant to see him accomplish his goals.

“They were just very, very proud of me,” Wolf said.

And everyone knew Grace was running alongside him.

“Oh, yeah,” Wolf said. “For sure.”

She hung from his neck all 3 miles he ran. Wolf wears a necklace with a cross that has “14:14” engraved on the front for the Bible verse Exodus 14:14. On the back, it reads “Be Like Grace.”

“She’s with me all the time,” he said.

That won’t change with the season. Although he won’t wear the necklace during basketball practices or games, Wolf will feel her presence.

“You can’t let what they did and the impact they had on you go to waste,” Wolf said.

Wolf didn’t waste the opportunity to create his own legacy and honor that of a friend he truly loves.