One of the best sprinters in the state of Florida is preparing to finish up an outstanding high school career on the track.
Sophie Haag, who committed and signed with the University of Miami, has achieved great success on the track this season. She’s run 11.41 in the 100m, which is No. 3 in the state of Florida and is No. 20 in the U.S. In the 200m, her time of 23.65 seconds is No. 7 in Florida and is a top 40 time nationally. She’s a three time all-state performer, with more accolades on the way as the FHSAA Track and Field State Championships are soon to kick off.
The talented sprinter, who attends East Lake High School in the Tampa area, transferred from nearby Calvary Christian Academy for her senior year. The transition to East Lake, in addition to committing to the Hurricanes helped take the stress off of her early on, leading to great things in her senior year.
“My senior year, I actually transferred to a public school,” she said. “So that was kind of just a big change. But after being committed, and knowing where I’m going, before the season even started, that took so much pressure off of trying to prove myself to everybody. Now I kind of just was able to just enjoy the time with my team and just enjoy the process and everything, which when I tend to enjoy it, I tend to do better. So it’s really just been a successful season on and off the track for me.”
Track and field used to be daunting for Haag when she was younger. She even cried on the way to the track meets when she first started competing years ago. It wasn’t until she lined up against her future Hurricane teammate in the 100m early in her high school career where she realized how good she was, even though she didn’t think she’d reach the level of success that she has when she first started racing against high level competition.
“Not initially at all,” she said. “I was kind of like, oh, well let’s try it. I mean, why not? But it wasn’t really until my freshman year, I was actually like, oh, I think I kind of want to, I think I actually want to do this. And it wasn’t until for real that there was a freshman, my freshman year, I had a meet at Calvary, and I was racing Mariah Oliveira, the 100. And Mariah is actually a junior at Miami this year. And the 100m is not her main event. But they announced her saying, ‘Oh, she’s committed to Miami, her and her twin sister.’ I said, I want to see how close I can get to her. So we raced her in the 100m, and I wasn’t far off. And I was like, oh my goodness, okay. If she can do that, and I can do this as a freshman – I think I could possibly go to college for this too. And that’s when I was like, I actually have a chance, I really want to try and do this. So now we’re gonna be teammates. So that’s actually pretty cool.”
Haag has had the opportunity to be coached by her mother, Lisa Haag throughout her career. Sophie started running on the varsity track and field team at her former school, Calvary Christian Academy when she was in the 6th grade, which is where her mother was formerly the head coach. Now, Lisa is the sprints coach at East Lake High School, and she continues to help Sophie reach her full potential on the track, as well as off the track.
“She has been my coach from the start,” she said. “When I first started running track, there was not really any club teams that were close by. And so she’s like, I’m not going to send her an hour away at 10 years old to go train just to run a track meet. So she just kind of learned a few basic things, and then just continued to educate herself and kind of fell in love with the sport as I did, too. And so we’ve just been in it together. And having my mom as my coach – I can trust her and know that she knows me. So that allows her to help me in different ways than she might not necessarily know about other people. There’s advantages, obviously. And then there’s also disadvantages about our personal relationship that sometimes in the past, it’s been hard to kind of separate the home and the track. But I think after doing it for so long, and making an effort to designate the different areas, we’ve been able to find the dynamic that works for us. And I’d say this year is definitely our best year, both at home and at the track.”
Haag will head down to Coral Gables to compete for the Miami Hurricanes and their legendary coach, Amy Deem. During Deem’s 32 years at Miami, she coached 193 All-Americans and 15 national champions. She was also the women’s national team head coach at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2013 World Championships. Her pedigree was a big reason why Haag committed to Miami.
“Honestly, it was coach Deem,” she said. “The program obviously – we wanted to see if it was a good fit at all of the schools that I looked at, but it’s really the coach that makes all of the difference because that’s who I’m going to be training under for the next four years. Just how much she cares about her athletes and how much she does for them, and just her training philosophy is similar to what I’ve kind of been used to. I’m so excited to learn from her, obviously she has a great track record as well. I can’t say enough good things about her, and I haven’t even been coached by her yet.”
Another reason that Haag committed to the Hurricanes is due to the culture and atmosphere that’s been built by the athletes who are on the team.
“I’m just excited to be a part of the dynamic that the team has,” she said. “Going on the visits, seeing the girls there and how much they care about what they do and the culture that they’ve created there, I’m excited to be a part of that, and just to see what’s to come of it.”
When Haag crosses the finish line for the final time at the FHSAA State Championship meet soon and very soon, her hard work and relentless effort won’t be in vain. She hopes that her legacy inspires others to have faith, and continue to put in the work needed to be successful.
“I just want people to know that if they trust in themselves and they put in the work, it will pay off,” she said. “Just putting your trust in God, knowing that He equipped you with everything you need and just working with Him, having faith in Him and then putting the work in on your own part in the track and in the gym – when you put those two together, it’s a force that can really help.”
