Junior Corey Grove (Chambersburg, Pa., Chambersburg) competed in his first meet of the 2009-10 indoor track season last weekend, setting a personal best and finishing seventh in the 1,000-meter with a time of 2:33.94 and winning his heat in the 800-meter and finishing 10th overall with a time of 1:57.05.
 
Grove's performance at the Virginia Tech Invitational earned him High Point University Student-Athlete Feature honors. Each week throughout the athletic year a student-athlete who has done something significant or unique will be featured on highpointpanthers.com.

The Chambersburg, Pa. native missed the first meet of the indoor season in December because he wasn't ready to compete. The meet was just a few weeks after Grove had ended his season as a member of the men's soccer team at High Point and he wasn't in running shape yet. Initially, he came to High Point just as a runner, but after playing soccer his entire life he said he just couldn't give it up.

“When I was in high school I originally committed to play soccer at West Virginia University,” Grove said. “But the coach was fired and my commitment was broken. I had started running competitively so I looked in to track programs and came to High Point on a track and cross country scholarship.”

The decision to give up soccer was difficult for him, but he said the hardest part was telling his high school and club coach, who is also his father.

“I was scared to tell him at first,” he said. “My family had put so much time, money and travel in to my soccer career and I didn't want them to feel like I was throwing that away but in the end I just made the decision. “

As a freshman at HPU he ran cross country and the indoor and outdoor seasons but after a year without soccer he said he missed it too much.

“Sophomore year I decided I had to find a way to play soccer again. I went to men's soccer head coach Dustin Fonder and talked to him, he had seen me play in club and said he would try and work things out so I could play here. The money situation was complicated because I knew I would lose money from cross country and I couldn't afford High Point without it. In the end we worked everything out financially and I am able to do both soccer and track.”

Balancing two sports made Grove happy but it hasn't been easy. Balancing two teams and two separate schedules is difficult. There is also no break between the soccer season ending and the indoor track season beginning.

“I never have a day off. We lost our last soccer game and the next morning I was running with the track team,” he said. “I don't really mind that though, what is harder is that when I am with the track team the soccer team is working out and lifting. At the same time I am playing soccer during the cross country season so I am balancing being in shape for two very different sports.”

The two sports require very different things of Grove in terms of training.

“Soccer is more short speed and strength and I need to gain weight for soccer and then I have to lose it to get ready for track. I can play a full game of soccer and not be tired at all and then I go to track and I feel out of shape. Or I can run eight miles for track, like right now I feel like I am in the best running shape of my life, but if I try and play soccer I am exhausted in 15 minutes. I use my body in different ways and the transition from one to the other is always tough. I always struggle.”

This year Grove has made the transition look easy, coming out strong in his first meet at Virginia Tech and he said he feels good about this weekend's meet at East Tennessee State University. He will compete in the 800-meter, the distance medley relay and the 4x400 meter relay.

“This year I started off better than I expected,” Grove said. “Last year transitioning back to running was really tough so I didn't run very well in indoor and finally peaked during the outdoor season. This year I started off strong and I hope to really do well in the indoor championships.”