Photo by Erin Nelson.
Spain Park’s Mackenzie Culpepper competes in the girls Class 7A, Section 3, 1,600-meter run during the Hewitt-Trussville Sectionals at Hewitt-Trussville stadium in Trussville on April 23, 2021.
After years of success in basketball, track and field and cross-country, Spain Park High School senior Mackenzie Culpepper is racing to college on a track and field scholarship to Vanderbilt University.
“I am blessed to announce that I will be continuing my academic and athletic career at Vanderbilt University,” Culpepper said in a Twitter post. “I am so thankful for my family, coaches and friends for their continuous support over the years. I hope my younger self is proud! Anyways… anchor down!”
Culpepper said she has found success in sports since she started running when she was 5 years old and found a love of basketball soon after.
Her coach recommended track to her after she won a “cheetah charge” racing event at her elementary school, she said. She then saw her brother play basketball at a summer camp, which spurred her love for the game, Culpepper said.
Years later, she became a well-known dual sport high school athlete that’s been recognized at the state and national level.
“It became hard for her to choose during the summer time because you could either travel for track or basketball,” said Shonteria Culpepper, Mackenzie’s mother. “She started choosing basketball over track because if you didn’t continue doing AAU basketball, you didn’t get any better. I think a lot of her training for track came from just running the basketball up and down the court.”
Spain Park High School track and field and cross-country coach Michael Zelwak has been Culpepper’s coach since seventh grade. When she was in middle school, she was spotted by both Zelwak and Spain Park’s girls basketball coach Mike Chase and both suggested she join their respective teams.
“Without a doubt, she’s one of the most driven athletes I’ve coached,” Zelwak said. “She doesn’t need to be told when or how to practice. She’s responsible and she works hard. She has that drive to do well and pursue excellence that a lot of students her age just don’t have and she’s consistently worked toward that over the years. It’s helped her improve and reach the success that she’s had.”
Zelwak said he has high hopes for Culpepper at Vanderbilt because she will be given the opportunity to specialize in track and field as opposed to maintaining her skills for two sports.
“I think she’s got a great setup at Vanderbilt,” Zelwak said. “I think the coaching staff there understands Mackenzie and I know she’s going to be tight with coach Althea Thomas up there. I think that they’re really going to bring out her strengths and allow her to focus on all of the things that we wish she could have focused on all through high school. Mackenzie was a dual sports athlete, so we kind of had to share her with basketball and we’d have to go back and forth. I don’t want to say they took away from her ability, but she was just a true dual sport athlete.
“She could excel in both and I think allowing her the specialized attention that she’s going to get at Vanderbilt, I think she’s going to go really far.”
