Stephanie Hoffarth: One Tough Cookie
In this week’s From then.. To Now, we have another Hi-Liner senior that won’t let any grass grow under her feet. Partially because she is running and partially because she is busy, just the way she likes it.
Stephanie Hoffarth likes to stay busy, to a point. Athletically she is in Cross Country and Softball. As a youth, soccer and basketball were mixed in. Outside the sports world she is in band, Valley City FCA, speech (up until senior year, more on that later) and theatre. She was in FFA when she was younger and has been in 4-H for nine years.
Her cross country career started way back in her younger years and it wasn’t cross country, it was track. As she puts it, she found her niche, cross country, because she was not a fan of turning left all the time. “I wasn’t a big fan of running in circles,” Hoffarth said. “I would tell my track friends, who were like you should be in track, and I was like more into seeing nature and stuff while I’m running then just running in circles.” Before she went into cross country she had some hurdles to clear, not the metaphorical kind, actual hurdles. “I was horrible at the hurdles, I’m like this tall (hand out, palm down about four feet from the floor).” Hoffarth continues, “I still remember Carly (Goven), Sydnee (Ingstad) and me, we’re all competing in hurdles and I got dead last, I mean it was out of three, but still.” It was then she realized “I can run though. My mom was like you should try out for running,” Hoffarth remembers. “Mrs. Beilke is friends with my sixth grade teacher Mrs. Ihry and she sent Mrs. Ihry a pamphlet for the cross country team my last day of sixth grade year and I was like, ‘well, I might as well try it.’ so yah I got into it that way, through track.” For Hoffarth, running was a double-edged sword, it was more than just getting out there and enjoying nature and being with friends, it was therapeutic. “It’s stressful but it is also a stress reliever,” Hoffarth said. “It’s stressful being in the race and you know you’re in your head the whole time, like running a race it’s just you against yourself so it’s stressful
in that sense. But then, I mean nothing beats going for a casual run just in the summer evenings just because you want to. It’s a great way to clear your head.”
Like track, Hoffarth found out at an early age that basketball may not be her sport either. “I played basketball fourth grade year, the rec basketball program and I think I called it quits when they paired me with Brooke Eggermont,” Hoffarth said with a smile. “Like she was guarding me and I was like I can’t compete with this. I mean look Brooke now (Hoffarth refers to Eggermont’s ability and skill), it definitely showed who was in it.”
Hoffarth also tried volleyball at one point but that wasn’t going to make the cut so cross country won out as far as the fall sports. In the spring, since track went by the wayside, softball became the sport of choice. That to was started at a young age. And, the best part about those early years, she found out there to she got to run. “Rec softball, rec tee-ball actually is where it started,” Hoffarth thinks back. “I really liked playing softball. I think it was also that I was so small, that when we were younger nobody could pitch in my strike zone and I just walked. And I had fun cause I could steal, I could be a runner. I just stole bases left and right.” Then she got older and found out that pitchers can throw strikes. “
And then they started throwing them down the middle, I was like ooh, I gotta start getting serious about this.”
For Hoffarth, with her two sports, she had the best of both worlds. She had the individual sport of cross country/ running and she had the team sport of softball.
Hoffarth is also in band, where she plays the tuba. Because the tuba is the largest brass instrument, Hoffarth will get some looks when she walks around with that or the sousaphone, which is in the tuba family. “I think when I set the sousaphone down on the floor, it comes up to about my chin,” Hoffarth laughs. “People look at me pretty funny when I carry that thing around.”
Hoffarth has also been a State Champion in speech. As a junior, she took first in Extemporaneous Programmed Reading. She also took fourth in Persuade, which led to a very difficult decision she made heading into her senior year. After five years in speech, she stepped away this year. “It was a VERY hard decision for her and one she did not take lightly, “Alicia Hoffarth, Steph’s mom said. “She feels very strongly that finishing what you start is important. At the same time, we have taught her to find balance in her life and keep yourself healthy - mind, body, and spirit. Her decision to step away provided her more time to spend with family and friends as well as time to focus on setting herself up for her future endeavors.” “I felt like I was letting a lot of people down,” Hoffarth adds. “I set a goal for myself, I’m not going to quit if I don’t set a goal for myself. So my goal was that, I’m going to get top five in the two events that I competed in at state. Well I got fourth in Persuade and first in Extemporaneous Speaking. So it was like well I guess this is my way of saying goodbye to the program. It was really hard but I think it was best.”
With softball, cross country, speech and band, she is out front people are able to watch her perform, run, and compete. But there is one aspect of her busy life where she is behind the scenes, theatre. She started out on stage, but then ended up back stage. “I acted in the seventh and eight grade,” Hoffarth remembers. “Then they were looking for back stage people and I was also looking for something that fit my schedule a little bit better. Being in cross country and theatre is a lot and I mean I have a lot of friends who do it but I was like, I want to be in it but I don’t know if I want to do it right in the middle of cross country season. So I didn’t have to be at theatre until after cross country season for crew because I did not have to memorize any lines.” Stepping away from the acting part of theatre did not make her very popular with the director. “Mrs. Kvilvang was not happy with me.” Hoffath enjoyed being part of the stage crew and actually became a leader of sorts. “I have been kind of dubbed the back stage manager a couple of years now. It’s nothing official but I do pretty much man the back stage. I really enjoy being part of the crew.”
When asked how she would describe herself, after a long pause Hoffarth responded, “Outspoken or outgoing. I’m pretty tough, I would consider myself a tough cookie,” Hoffarth answered when asked to describe herself. Mom agrees, “Yes, she is a tough cookie. She gets some of her resiliency from her birth mom. Our philosophy of hard work and perseverance has also shaped how she takes on challenges.”
As a senior, that means all this stuff that she has done for the last nine or ten years as part of Valley City School will be coming to and end. And sometimes that end can be harder for mom and dad than student. “It will be a bittersweet day,” Alicia said. “We will be sad that her time in high school sports and activities is over and yet we are so proud of all she has accomplished. Her spirit, dedication, and leadership throughout the years has been a joy to watch.” Hoffarth says she like helping people, that is a big part of who she is. She plans on attending North Dakota State University and going into social work.
In no particular order - and in this reporters opinion - friends, family faith and fun are the ingredients that makeup this cookie.