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Kelly Watt Memorial Race
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About Kelly Watt Kelly
Hansen Watt was born on Sunday, November 2nd, 1986 in Lake
Forest, Illinois. He lived
with his parents, Paul and Paige and sister Morgan Pattishall Watt, who
arrived on September 19th, 1989 in Deerfield, Illinois until
April of 1994, when the family moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he
began running Cross-Country in the 7th Grade.
In June of 2000, he and his family moved to Charlottesville,
Virginia where he resided until his tragic and untimely death on
Saturday, July 30th, 2005, at the age of 18 years, 8 months
and 28 days, from complications resulting from heat stroke, 3 1/2 days
following the completion of an 8 mile training run on Ridge Road in
Western Albemarle County, Virginia.
In just 19 more days, Kelly would have begun his college career
at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Following is an excerpt from his application essay to that
college:
As I entered high school, I thought
I would merely utilize cross country running as a tool to remain in good
physical condition. Instead
I discovered, and soon fell in love with a sport that has driven me to
succeed in anything I pursue. Cross
country has taught me the truth regarding hard work and discipline.
Some individuals are born with more talent than others, however,
if one is willing to accept the painful challenge that every workout
presents, then one will eventually be rewarded at the finish line.
In so doing I have become addicted to an extremely grueling
activity. I have also been
fortunate enough to have developed some of the closest friendships of my
entire life. Signature
Kelly H. Watt
Date:
December
18, 2004
Kelly's first love was the game of
baseball. He knew all of the
player's statistics, played many positions in the game, and also
played basketball and soccer as well, the latter for which he was a paid
certified referee.
His other love was sports journalism,
starting his own magazine entitled Sports Weekly at the age of
12. Kelly soon had 26 paying
subscribers nationwide. He
was the magazine's sole writer, editor, publisher, illustrator, design
manager and printing technician, all rolled into one.
During Kelly’s 4 years at Albemarle
High School in Charlottesville, Virginia, he ran Cross-Country, becoming
the team’s co-captain, and Indoor and Outdoor Track, eventually
becoming the fastest Cross-Country distance runner in Central Virginia.
He also became a Staff Reporter and
later the Sports Editor of his high school's newspaper, The
Revolution. He loved
the written word and couldn't bear to think of eliminating any of
them. His idea of editing
his work so that it could fit on to a single page was to make the
picture smaller. He was
also a staff writer for a local running website called www.milestat.com.
Then in the summer of 2004 he began interning for a local weekly
newspaper called The Hook, and in 6 month's time was hired as a
journalist, debuting his own column called Sports Wrap, by Kelly
Watt, which he wrote until his death.
Kelly pursued life with courage
and with a goal, living each day to the fullest.
He accomplished more by the end of the day than most of us did in
a month. He was determined,
driven, a team player with an unparalleled work ethic.
He was humble and compassionately loved his team, his family and
the people with whom he worked, always wanting everyone to feel
respected and valued. Kelly
made an impression, and he made all who were fortunate enough to have
known him, better people. Kelly's sister Morgan also ran Cross-Country for Albemarle High, for 3 years, and has played tennis year-round, since the age of 5. She was co-captain of her varsity team in 2008 and upon her graduation from Albemarle that year received the first annual Claudia Dodson Women in Sports Integrity Award and scholarship. She is currently pursuing her college degree at The George Washington University in Washington D.C. ! Articles Featuring Kelly: The Hook: "Runner down: The life and death of Kelly Watt" Runner's World: "The Last Run"
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