Junior Kurtis Koffkey sought out Cornerstone because of its missions program, while Cornerstone’s track team sought out Koffkey because of his talent.

While he has struggled with a few injuries, Koffkey has found a way to include God and continue on.

Koffkey has been playing soccer since the age of 4, but in eighth grade he had always wanted to give track a try, and when he did, he ended up finding another hobby.

“I always wanted to try hurdles,” Koffkey said. “That’s basically what got me started, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

One of the things that Paul Koutz, track and jumps coach, noticed about Koffkey was his spiritual leadership.

“When I was recruiting Kurtis, I knew instantly he wanted to be a missionary,” Koutz said. “He wanted to go someplace very remote, places where Jesus may have never been heard of. How much that trickles down into everything that he does! He’s a great athlete, and he’s a great teammate, but his passion just exudes who he is.”

Koffkey found Cornerstone because he was looking for a good missions program and wrote down track as a hobby. Soon Cornerstone began recruiting Koffkey. Since being here, Koffkey has enjoyed Cornerstone’s community.

“I like the encouraging people around you,” Koffkey said. “They always push you to become who you’re supposed to be.”

Koffkey came in as a freshman playing both soccer and track, but he injured his knee, and he was not able to play soccer. This year, Koffkey quit the soccer team and decided to focus on track, but he had to have ankle surgery, so Koutz does not feel like he has really had Koffkey full time this season.

“He didn’t even get to start running again until early October,” Koutz said. “Then he wasn’t even back to doing full workouts until the end of October, which is about the same time when soccer season gets done, and we got him anyways.”

Koutz remembered getting a call this past summer from Koffkey telling him how he was going to do track full time, but Koutz has not seen the difference of Koffkey playing with them full time.

“I really didn’t notice a difference yet,” Koutz said. “Yes, Kurtis was at practice every day, and he was there for the team, but he wasn’t with the team doing all the things, because he was still trying to rehab. Maybe next year, once we get him for a full year, we will actually see how the transition is.”

Koffkey quit soccer thinking that it was the reason for his many injuries and opted for track thinking it was a little safer than soccer, but recently Koffkey has been wearing a boot.

“My parents, doctors and I all thought it was soccer,” Koffkey said. “But mostly because of the physical ailments, my body just couldn’t keep up.”

Through the problems Koffkey has had physically, he has worked hard to make sure that it did not interfere with the way he performed on the track, and Koutz is already impressed with what Koffkey can do in spite of his injuries.

“With what Kurtis has done, if I haven’t seen him at his best, I’m really going to be blown away if I get him healthy for a season,” Koutz said. “He has a tremendous work ethic, but we’ve always had to balance some of his workouts because of his injuries.”

Even though Koffkey has had a rocky few years, he will continue to run track no matter what.

“I ran on a fractured ankle, and this year I’m going to pretty much be doing the same thing,” Koffkey said. “I’ve already had two surgeries, and I’m not looking forward to a third.”

Koutz hopes to see Koffkey healthy and fresh.

“I would like to see him finish his career at nationals, being in the finals in the 400 meter hurdles and 4×4 as well. I think those are the two events that he really loves, and for him to end the track season that way would be awesome.”

Koffkey has kept his eyes set on God and has learned perseverance through Christ, and it has helped him to strive through all of his issues.

“I learned a lot about God’s character,” Koffkey said. “There’s this message going around that once you become a Christian things are easy, but that definitely is not true. We are able to see different characteristics of God through each of the moments — God’s grace, God’s power, God’s plans — even though we don’t understand it all the time.”