Wearing many shoes

The organized athletics career of Sophie James kept everyone on their toes.

A recent graduate of Vestavia Hills High School, James just completed a journey that saw her play three sports in a five-year span, overcome a rash of leg injuries and come out on the other side with a set of great experiences and a desired career path.

For several years, it looked like the path would be simple enough and that softball would be the way to go. James started playing at such a young age that she had to play baseball for a few years before softball was offered. But after 12 years, that fell by the wayside for another sport: track.

James ran with the high school teams while in seventh and eighth grades, but once she became a high school student in ninth grade, she had to make a choice. Running track required a yearlong commitment, so she would not be able to balance that with softball as she had the previous two years.

She gave up one set of spikes for another, and dedicated her time to running.

“I had more friends in track, I was better at track, so I said, ‘Let’s just stick with this and see where it leads,’” James said.

It turned out to be a great choice at the time. James qualified for the state outdoor track and field meet as a freshman in 2014, running in the 800-meter race. A few college coaches even saw enough potential to express interest. 

Unfortunately, trouble was looming. The warning signs began with shin splints and only worsened from there. From there came hip problems, knee problems and ankle problems; so much to keep up with that James does not even remember which order they came in. 

She found herself on the physical therapy treatment table two or three times a week for two years, and the injuries forced her to quit running midway through her sophomore year.

“I was always at the physical therapist, working something out, trying to strengthen this, strengthen that, and it eventually all just came back and haunted me and I couldn’t run anymore,” James said.

Not that she would have sat on her laurels on her own volition, but there is a rule in the James household: “You have to be active in something.”

With running competitively off the table, James began searching for something to occupy her extracurricular time for the remaining two years of high school. She couldn’t run, which her older brother, Slay, had done as well. She hadn’t played softball in a few years – her younger sister, Mary Sanders, just completed her sophomore season on the varsity team – and needed to find something she could pick up easily.

A handful of Sophie James’ friends were on the lacrosse team, and they only had to convince her once to give it a shot. After that, she was hooked. “My friends who played lacrosse were like, ‘Hey, come out, it’s easy. It’s not that stressful, it’s not everyday.’ I joined and I loved it.”

Lacrosse was the perfect fit for James. It satisfied her competitive desire, gave her the challenge of learning something new, and allowed her the opportunity to be around familiar faces and be part of a winning team.

“It’s a great sport,” said Dennis Lipford, lacrosse coach at Vestavia Hills. “You get to be on a school team and try to win a championship.”

But unlike softball and track, lacrosse admittedly did not come as naturally to James.

“Last year, I couldn’t even keep the ball on my stick,” she said, laughing. “I would run down the field and drop the ball.”

She called this past year a “big change,” because her teammates had more confidence in her and she could do the things needed of her to be successful on the field. She went from seeing the field sporadically her junior year to becoming a first team all-state performer during her senior campaign. 

“She got way more aggressive her second year, she got her confidence up and got more comfortable,” Lipford said. “She struggled knowing what to do [her first year] and having the aggressiveness to take the ball from people.”

Lipford said that James was probably the fastest girl on the team each of her two seasons playing, as she put her running abilities to good use. That helped with learning the game, but there was still a steep learning curve for James. Even at that, one thing she never lacked on the field was a tremendous spirit.

Lipford said, “She had a great attitude and she was voted one of the team captains as a senior, which was big for a second-year player.”

James even managed to put the ball in the back of the net for the first time this past season. She’s a defender and doesn’t play offense, but she took advantage in a game against an overmatched opponent.

“The first time I scored, I was jumping up and down like a 3-year-old who scores in soccer,” she said. 

Not only did her trips to the physical therapist ultimately lead to stumbling upon a sport she thoroughly enjoyed, but they also began to shape James’ vision for her future. 

At some point in those countless hours spent making visits she hoped would not be necessary, something clicked. James realized that she had been sitting in an environment she wanted to stay in. 

Now, James wants to be a physical therapist, and will begin to forge her next chapter in the fall at Auburn University.

There’s no way to tell what new twists and turns life will throw at her, but the likelihood of James continuing to keep people on their toes is nearly as likely as her slipping on her signature pair of aqua-colored shoes before every lacrosse game.

In other words, a near certainty.