From Farm to Fire on Ice

   

Emily Scott ~From Farm to Fire on Ice

by Brenda Black ©2017

First printed in The Cattleman’s Advocate July 2014

 

Not everything that grows in the farm land of SW Missouri has to sprawl tall or turn green to be valuable. Olympic Short Track Speed Skater Emily Scott is proof of that. At only 5’2” tall, the little dynamo turned her petite farm girl frame into pure muscle and raw speed. She represented the U.S. in Sochi, Russia this winter, and this year, she’s stepping up on platforms of a different kind, speaking on behalf of beef’s benefits as the Missouri Beef Industry Council’s (MBIC’s) first-ever Beef Ambassador.

“I think she would have made a good farmer if I’d stayed in it,” says her dad, Craig Scott, who raised Angus and Limousin cattle between 1978 and 2003 near Everton. He partnered with his father, Edward Scott. “I had two girls and they loved going out to the farm. Emily was running a tractor when she was a little ol’ thing. She’d help me feed and round up the bales. If we were fixing fence, she was right out there with us. She’s a tomboy for sure.”

Speed Skater Raised Farm Tough

Emily’s desire to take on all things tough didn’t just factor on the farm. She developed a cool-headed, mature quality that helped her overcome many life challenges and win on the ice during intense competitions.

“She’s real responsible,” Craig says. “Emily is a caring person too. When we used to live near Stockton Lake, on the weekends when we were done with the chores, we’d go to the lake and go swimming. Emily was only seven or eight years old when she saved a little girl from drowning at the lake. I could go back through her life and tell you hundreds of things that make me proud.”

Emily honed her disciplines from a very early age. She first learned to roller skate at age two and a half, later taking up inline skating at the local roller rink. At age 14, she moved to Florida for three years to focus on her inline training, returning to Springfield in time for high school graduation.

“When she started inline speed skating,”he says, “they had practice two nights a week. On the other nights, we’d go to parking lots and practice on asphalt. She’d fall down and scrape herself on that asphalt and I had to pick it out of her knees. The next night, she was doing it again. I’ve seen her go out with her feet blistered and bloody. If she wants something, she’s going to do it.”

In all, Emily Scott won five World Championship crowns inlining before transitioning to the ice in 2008. She found the shift from wheels to blades very difficult and nearly quit, but continued on the advice of her father. At the 2010 Olympic Trials, her third ever meet as a short track contender, Scott placed ninth overall. She quickly improved, making the United States World Cup and World Championship Teams every year from 2010 to 2013.

The sport she’s conquered consumes most of her time and energy. To stay in top shape for her demanding events, Emily trains year round and incorporating cycling, inline skating, running and weight lifting into her eight hours a day, six days a week regiment.

“I absolutely love training,” Emily says. “I like the feeling of each day working toward something. I love competition and although my nerves can get the best of me sometimes, in the end, I love all aspects. It’s a huge adrenalin rush!”

The Olympian comes by her work ethic honestly. “I’m very thankful for the experience of growing up on the farm; of being able to share that with my grandfather and dad,” Emily says. “It was important to Grandpa to get us kids involved and teach us the hard work he put in. He didn’t sleep in or miss a day’s work because his family depended on him. He taught me to work hard and stay close to my family.”

Her dad didn’t fall far from the family tree. “My claim to fame,” Craig says, “as my dad said one time: ‘One thing about my kids they’re hard workers.’ I worked hard all my life.”

The Beef Backstory

Like minds and strong backs helped share the load when it came to raising beef cattle on the Scott farm. When Craig’s dad retired from the Navy, the family moved from Idaho to Missouri and landed between Ash Grove and Greenfield.

“Dad bought a little 20-acre place and then bought another 80 just up the road,” Craig says. “That’s when we got into cattle harder and heavier.”

They started with only about eight cows on the 20 acres, then ran a few stockers before getting into the registered Angus and Limousin business. “We could run 45 head on 80 acres with fertilizing,” Craig says. “We fenced 40 acres into 5-acre strips that made it possible to run that many on that much land. The other 40 acres went into hay.”

“I actually worked in Springfield,” says Craig, who installs commercial signs. “So early in the morning before I went to work, in the evenings and on the weekends, I farmed. Dad and I really loved it.”

Edward read up on management practices and Craig went to A.I. School. They cleaned up and fenced Craig’s little brother’s farm and weaned calves at his place. Craig remembers the first six Angus cows he purchased from Mrs. George in Mt. Vernon and he can still picture the Limousin bull he  bought from the McCleans family of Springfield.

“I tried to buy that bull several times,” he recalls. “He was beautiful, long, lean; he looked like he had three 55-gallon drums strung together. One day I drove out by the pasture where he stayed and just pulled over to the side of the road, wishing I had the money to buy him. Mr. McClean pulled up in a pickup truck and asked if I was still interested. That’s how I ended up with my Limousin bull.”

Though the genetics took the herd to a new level, it wasn’t enough to underwrite the exorbitant cost of an illness in the family. Craig’s mother contracted Multiple Sclerosis.

“Mom was diagnosed with MS at 45 years of age when we had the first farm,” Craig says. “It hit her hard and finally got to the point where she couldn’t get out and she had to take an experimental drug in the form of a shot every day. Insurance wouldn’t cover it so we ended up having to sell the farm to more or less just take care of Mom.”

Craig says, “That was my dad’s dream – to have his own farm and raise cattle. We had the fattest cattle in the county and he took care of them like you wouldn’t believe. He took it hard and even dealt with some depression as a result of selling out. I had to go to my dad and say, ‘I know we didn’t want to do this, but it’s done and you got to pull up your boots and man up and take care of Mom now.’ It took him a few months, but he’s taken care of Mom ever since. She’s 74 now and they’ve been married 57 years.”

Edward wasn’t the only one who struggled with seeing the farm and cattle go. “To be honest, to this day, if I could afford it, I would do it again,” says Craig. “We never got rich doing it, but we enjoyed it. When raising cattle, the hardest part was having to wait for that calf. It seemed like forever for those calves to start dropping. There’s a lot of work to it, but if you’re a farmer and raise cattle, there’s got to be more to it than it just being a job.”

Cold Hard Realities Render Heartfelt Respect

By the time Emily was 12, the cattle and the farm were just good childhood memories. But they helped make up for personal, heart-wrenching tragedies: the divorce of her parents and a mom with a drug addiction.

“When I noticed a problem, it got bad enough that she was paranoid about everything,” Craig remembers. “I knew something was going on so I put my wife in rehab. Two weeks after she got out, she was right back on meth. We tried another rehab. It didn’t work either. Then the marriage pretty well went sour. We divorced and she got the kids in the divorce. Two years after that, I got full custody.”

Even before the court reversed its decision, Craig says he had his daughters 80% of the time. “The straw that broke the camel’s back happened when I picked them up for Christmas and she never came back to get them,” he says. “I decided it was time for me to get something done.”

Emily’s mother didn’t have anything to do with them for several years and served a four-year prison term when the girls were younger. She is currently incarcerated again for selling drugs.

Emily’s grandparents and her dad provided a loving and stable alternative and the farm proved to be a place of healing and happiness for all of them…along with skating.

“Whenever I was younger, I wouldn’t say that I had too many friends,” recalls Emily. “I was always a home body. I always wanted to spend time with family and my sister. Dad was always the one taking me to competitions and he saw the path that my mom was showing me, so he pushed the sports to protect me. Truth is, I would rather just be with him. He’s always supported me and I’ve always been an open book with him. He makes it easy to be his friend.”

Craig attributes their close relationship to simple togetherness. “We did everything together as a family,” he says. “Emily always wanted to do everything I did. If she had a state meet, we all went. If I was going to the farm, we all went. On Sundays, we’d have a meal and everybody sat around and talked.”

Over the years, the father-daughter bond solidified through mutual respect.

“He’s always worked seven days a week,” says Emily of her dad. “Still, to this day, he’ll get a side job to get extra cash. I think the farm taught him that. And skating is not cheap at all.”

Together, they traveled thousands of miles to competitions from coast to coast, pouring money into a gas tank and barely getting by so Emily could qualify for the U.S. skating team. She did in 2010. All the effort and expense seemed jeopardized when in 2013, the team suffered through a poor season, compelling the U.S. Speed Skating Federation to whittle Emily’s monthly team stipend from $1950 down to $600. Rent on her apartment alone takes $500 of that and then there’s all of the training and equipment – gloves; goggles; helmet; knee, shin and sometimes neck guards; customized skates; and wind resistant, skin-tight suits.

“Our housing is all on our own, Emily explains. “We’re funded by the U.S. Olympic Committee, but it is strictly performance based so we have to find our own housing and provide our own food. Equipment can cost a hundred a month. It’s a full time job that doesn’t pay like a full time job. You have to love what you do. None of us do it for the money.”

With most of her funding gone, in desperation, Emily began the humbling process of applying for food stamps and made an appeal over the internet. A meager $190 came in from donations until USA TODAY Sports published her story. In two months, 689 supporters contributed $48,425. Some sent $5 and some sent thousands and many from Emily’s hometown of Springfield, MO, came to the rescue.

“It saved my career,” Emily says. “I was able to continue to skate and pay rent, buy healthy food and survive. … I felt like I had this huge family that actually cared about me and what I wanted to do and accomplish. I can never thank them enough.”

Emily continued to train because of their generosity; she also used a portion of the funds to get her father to Sochi to watch her compete.

“The most memorable part of the experience was sharing it with my dad,” she says. “This has never been just my dream; it has always been our dream. He’s my biggest fan and supporter and to have him be there in the stands…In a way, I just wanted to show him I was trying hard and working hard.”

Craig counters his admiration for Emily’s drive. “Honestly, I never have to motivate her. She loves skating. I always knew that she could be really good. During practices, I watched kids dropping out, but she’d still be out there puffing and going after it. All I can think to call it is ‘internal fortitude’.”

“I want to say dynamite comes in small packages,” says Emily. “I’m about average size for my sport; maybe on the short side. I have to be strong. This sport isn’t supposed to be contact, but it is. Competitors elbow you or knock you down. I’ve always been kind of a fighter because of my mom and the path she took, and with sports.”

Though Dad’s not always rink side to see her determination these days, Craig gets daily reports from Emily, who calls regularly from her training location at the Olympic Oval in Kearns, Utah.

“’Dad, you’ll never believe what I did,’ Craig says Emily told him recently, “’I went inlining today for 22 miles. I haven’t been on them for years; now I know why I’m on ice. My feet are numb and my hips are so sore.’”

“That’s the same girl that I didn’t have to worry about with drugs or drinking or running the streets,” Craig says. “Because she was always trying to keep her goal.”

Emily may have cast the vision, but she sees all of her efforts from a Team Scott perspective. “I’ve lived away from home since I was 14 in order to train,” says Emily. “I think that was a huge sacrifice for my dad. But I call every single morning no matter what, if I have had a bad day or good. He supports me by telling me he’s working hard to make money to accomplish my dreams so he wants me to work just as hard and not give up. The thing I love most about him — he never expects anything in return. I asked him what he wanted for Father’s Day. He said, ‘You don’t have to get me anything ’cause there’s no such thing as “Daughter’s Day” so it’s not fair.’”

Making Connections with the Beef Community & Consumers

The bond that started on the farm and the ongoing work ethic father and daughter share seem a good fit for the Beef Ambassador role Emily now holds. Both are grateful for the new opportunity to reconnect with the hard-working folks in the beef community. They met the MBIC board in St. Louis this spring just prior to Emily throwing out the first pitch for her favorite Cardinal team.

“They seem like my kind of people,” Craig says of the MBIC board members he met in April. “I could sit for hours and talk to people about cattle.”

Emily adds, “I just immediately felt comfortable. It felt genuine I think because I was able to talk about real life experiences and had something in common with them.”

It has been 12 years since Emily bottled a calf or shifted gears on a tractor, but she’s eager to come up to speed on her agriculture knowledge. For someone who can fly 500 meters around an icy track in less than half a minute, this race should be a breeze. Beth Outz, MBIC’s Director of Communications and Education, is working with Emily as her beef coach to make it happen.

“Emily is in the process of receiving media training and a form of  ‘beef camp’ by receiving beef nutritional facts and how to make it relatable to consumers,” says Outz.

“She is a young, energetic personality that will appeal to consumers of all ages. I think her greatest appeal will be to people who like to live an active lifestyle, or are looking to become more active, and are looking for facts and real life examples as to why beef is so important to an athlete’s diet.”

To the last point is where Emily speaks with first-hand and every day expertise. “I actually suffered with anemia a couple of years ago and lost a lot of weight and couldn’t gain any muscle,” she says. “Iron tablets just don’t do it. The body doesn’t absorb it. Since I changed my diet to include more lean beef, I feel healthy. I’m 25 and my body feels good and strong. I think it all has to do with my diet and building muscle.”

Most people have the misconception that building muscle means gaining weight, Emily says. The trick to staying lean, but strong according to Emily, is to keep metabolism high. “And protein is a huge part of that because my sport demands a huge amount of muscle,” she emphasizes.

During competition, powering up on protein is likewise important. “You don’t have long between races,” says the compact contender. “Contestants race all day long and there’s only 20 minutes between races.” To keep her going, Emily says she depends on beef jerky “It’s easy, simple and always available. At night, we eat carbs to rebuild for the next day.”

Outz clarifies that Emily’s role as Beef Ambassador is one way to raise awareness of the benefits of eating beef for those striving for a healthy active lifestyle. “Emily is a very charismatic person,” says Outz, “so her approach to talking about her experiences, not only about competing in skating, but how she maintains her healthy lifestyle will be relatable to everyone.”

The Olympian already has part of her message down. It comes straight from her heart. “I work hard every single day to be successful and to accomplish my goals and dreams,” she says. “And I have to support myself out here. It’s the same with farming. They have to love what they do and work hard to be successful.  We both want to make it all worth it.”

Dad gets the final word on his own appreciation for beef producers and his country girl turned Olympian and Ambassador.

“Raising beef is a good life,” he says. “My dad and I had that life and I think Emily would have loved it even more if we’d had the time to keep at it.  My dad is 79 now. When we’re out driving, we’re always pointing out cattle to each other, looking at them and talking about them.  It’s still in our blood, even if we never own another cow as long as we live. Yep, if Emily hadn’t been a skater, I’m pretty sure she would have been a farmer.”

Sidebar #1 – She Can Skate…But She Can’t Cook

Lest Olympic fans begin to think Emily Scott has no flaws, she admits and her dad validates, the girl can’t cook. Even that little juicy piece of information might come in handy relating to young women intimidated by beef cuts they find at the meat counter. Emily’s hectic schedule, limited resources and lack of experience parallel many of her peers. As she shares her beef story, she’s sure to be an encouragement to any who are just learning.

“It’s a weird thing having to raise two girls by myself,” says Craig Scott, the U.S. Olympic speed skater’s father. I had parents and my sister was a lot of help, but I’m just one of these people who can cook five or six things so that’s what we ate.”

He taught Emily how to drive a stick shift. She learned on a tractor. He taught her how to build fence. And he even taught his daughters how to braid their hair. But cooking slipped under the skills-to-impart radar.

“Emily’s sister Bridgette is a good cook,” Craig says, without taking credit. “She cooks the best meatloaf I ever ate. But Emily just never got that.”

“We joke all the time about that,” says Emily. “I always say to him, ‘you’ve been the best mom and dad to me, but you didn’t teach me to cook!’  He did teach me how to make some mean french toast.”

Every time Emily goes home, Dad grills. “I might be a little biased, but I think it’s pretty delicious.” Emily is trying to pick up on his tips and recipes. She’s learned it can be pretty simple.

“I like Top Sirloin to grill.” Craig says. “I still just use an old Webber grill, salt, pepper and garlic and the trick is…don’t burn ’em. Buy steaks thicker. I barbeque everything. I do it all on the grill.  It doesn’t take me but a minute to throw charcoal on the grill and get it fired up. Then it doesn’t take me any time to get cookin’.”

“I am learning,” says Emily. “The easiest way for me is to broil. Eventually I hope to move to the grill.”

Sidebar #2 – Behind the Scenes with Emily Scott in Sochi

Routine, results, significant events, her training and living arrangements as she pursues the next Olympics 

Eleven straight days of Olympic contests awaited Emily in Sochi, Russia. She competed about every other day.  In the gold medal round, she finished in fifth place.

“It was an amazing experience!” she says. “The most spectacular part was sharing it with my dad; it’s never been just my dream. It has always been our dream.  He’s my biggest fan and supporter and to have him be there and be in the stands – in a way, I just wanted to show him I was trying hard and working hard for both of us.”

incorporate some of the info about fundraising, food stamps, controversy and her response to all of it.

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