Staff photo.
Pole vault is one event that Hewitt-Trussville High School senior Stone Shelnutt excels in. He has signed with Auburn University.
One anecdote tells you all you need to know about Stone Shelnutt.
Two Decembers ago, during his junior year at Hewitt-Trussville High School, Shelnutt underwent emergency surgery to remove his appendix.
That meant no running, no jumping and no throwing for a month post-operation.
No matter.
Two days before the lone pentathlon competition of the indoor track and field season, in January 2018, Shelnutt’s doctor cleared him to start exercising again. He didn’t delay.
At the Last Chance Invitational, he set the school pentathlon record and placed second overall.
“People don’t get cleared from a major appendix surgery ... and then come back and break a school record, which was a state record at one time,” said David Dobbs, Hewitt-Trussville’s head track and field coach. “He’s a gifted guy.”
That has become abundantly clear over the past two years, as Shelnutt has transformed from a promising track and field talent into a blue-chip recruit.
In November, he signed a letter of intent to continue his career at Auburn University. He chose the Tigers over a host of other elite programs, including Air Force, Alabama, Ole Miss and Kentucky.
“I had no idea that I would be taken this far in this event,” said Shelnutt, who likely will compete in the heptathlon and decathlon in college. “When I started getting those calls and talking to those colleges, it was unreal.”
In Dobbs’ 40-plus years of coaching, he said he has never coached an athlete as highly recruited as Shelnutt. That’s because athletes like him do not come along often.
Finding success in the pentathlon and decathlon mandates mastery of multiple disciplines. They include sprinting, hurdling, vertical jumping, horizontal jumping, pole vaulting and distance running.
“It’s just all guts,” Shelnutt said. “You’ve got to be dedicated, tenacious. You’ve got to have a lot of mental strength.”
His mental fortitude complements his physical proficiency. Shelnutt, a 6-foot-3 former basketball player, possesses the length, leaps, strength and speed to excel around the oval.
At February’s state indoor meet, he won three individual events: 60-meter hurdles, 400 meters and long jump. His outstanding showing carried the Huskies to a third-place team finish.
“He’s got great speed, and he’s very, very, very coachable,” Dobbs said.
Shelnutt’s coachability has enabled him to make great strides, particularly in the one event he struggled to grasp as a junior.
High jumping didn’t come easily to him, but he can now clear bars that he looks up to. That improvement helped him place first at this year’s pentathlon competition.
In January, Shelnutt broke his own school record in the event with a mark that has ranked No. 1 in the nation for much of the indoor season.
“God has put me in this position and He’s given me the ability to thrive in what I do,” Shelnutt said. “All glory and honor to Him.”
