In Her Wake: Jill Snyder-Kerr Reflects on Induction into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame
3/4/2024 9:33:00 AM | Track and Field
Kerr looks back on the lessons and friends she made at Wake Forest.
Under the impression she was just being asked a quick question, former Wake Forest All-American track star Jill Snyder-Kerr jumped on a Zoom call with former teammate and current Associate Athletic Director Mike Piscetelli.
As the supposed one-on-one call started, several others popped on the call and Kerr realized it was going to be much more than just a simple question. It was then that Kerr was told she was going to be inducted in the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame.
"I was not expecting it," she said. "When I sat down, all of a sudden all these people started popping into the Zoom, and then they told me. I was just really, really shocked and most of all very honored.
"It's just really exciting and it's been really fun because I haven't been back to campus in 13-15 years. It's been a long time. So I was just really excited to have the opportunity to go back and to bring my kids, to show them around."
The induction provided an opportunity for glorious memories of her days at Wake Forest to flood to the forefront of her thoughts.
"I've been reaching out to teammates and I have some teammates who are coming to be there, and it just brought back all kinds of memories," Kerr said. "It's been really fun because I was there for a while. I was there for four years as an undergraduate and then a year and a half in graduate school, and then I worked as a coach there for four years. So a huge part of my life was spent in Winston-Salem at Wake Forest, and it's been really fun to think about those memories."
As her children have grown older, Kerr has been able to better keep track of the progress in recent years by coach John Hayes and the track & field program.
"I've been paying more attention in the past year," she said. "My youngest children are triplets, born almost seven years ago. And when they arrived and I went from three to six kids, I just went into survival mode for a while. I just didn't have a lot of time to spend following programs. And so the first three years were really a beautiful blur. But now that they're older and they're so much more self-sufficient, I have more time to follow. So it's been really fun seeing the success they've had the last couple of years."
Of course, going from three children to six in one fell swoop would lead to a lot of internal reorganizing at the family level, and it's something Kerr had just a few months to get ready for.
"I found out at eight weeks, and it was the shock of my life to find that out," she said. "It was just such a surprise. I was so grateful for my athletic background because that pregnancy was very, very difficult and it was hard the whole way through from that eight weeks until they arrived at 35 weeks was like a long interval workout.
"So yeah, I was just really grateful that I was an athlete. I could break my day into pieces and just think about taking it one hour, one minute at a time at the end."
Kerr won four ACC championships and earned seven All-ACC awards, competing in the Mile, the 800-meter and the distance medley relay. She earned All-American honors in both the mile and the distance medley relay in 2001, and was named the Wake Forest Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 1998-99. The individual title she most cherishes in the indoor 1500 ACC Championship, in 2000.
"As an individual, my favorite was winning the ACC outdoor 1500 meters, which they call the metric mile," Kerr said. "So that's like the outdoor version of the mile, and that happened my senior year, and I had been runner-up the previous two years, and I had won indoor mile twice, but that outdoor title really eluded me.
"My coach and I really studied this one particular competitor who beat me out twice, and we came up with a strategy. We practiced it, and then come race day, I was able to execute it and finally win that title. That had eluded me. So I was just really happy to do that for my team."
Kerr considers that championship her cornerstone achievement while competing at Wake Forest.
"It was so amazing," she said. "It was such a long time — it took a long time to work towards it, and my family was there. My family lives far away, so they were able to be there and see it, and it was really special to cap off my senior career that way. The season wasn't over at that point. At that time. The ACCs were run in April and the national championships weren't until early June, but that was really important. So to be able to do that for my team was amazing."
While the championships and athletic acclaim certainly were highlights for Kerr, it was the complete Wake Forest experience that has helped lead her to success throughout adult life.
"I have such fond memories, but also just life skills that I learned that I apply," she said. "I mean, my degree in education, the skills, the critical thinking skills that I developed as an English major, and then I was a studio art minor. I was just one class shy of being a double major, but I ran out of time and I took those art classes because I loved having a chance to just take a break from the intensity of the athletics and the academics. So I have incredible memories academically and then socially.
"I developed really close relationships with my teammates, especially, we still keep in touch today. I had a great experience with the Catholic Campus Ministry, so I was involved with that, and that was a really great anchor in my life during that time. I had an incredible experience all around. It was amazing."
As the supposed one-on-one call started, several others popped on the call and Kerr realized it was going to be much more than just a simple question. It was then that Kerr was told she was going to be inducted in the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame.
"I was not expecting it," she said. "When I sat down, all of a sudden all these people started popping into the Zoom, and then they told me. I was just really, really shocked and most of all very honored.
"It's just really exciting and it's been really fun because I haven't been back to campus in 13-15 years. It's been a long time. So I was just really excited to have the opportunity to go back and to bring my kids, to show them around."
The induction provided an opportunity for glorious memories of her days at Wake Forest to flood to the forefront of her thoughts.
"I've been reaching out to teammates and I have some teammates who are coming to be there, and it just brought back all kinds of memories," Kerr said. "It's been really fun because I was there for a while. I was there for four years as an undergraduate and then a year and a half in graduate school, and then I worked as a coach there for four years. So a huge part of my life was spent in Winston-Salem at Wake Forest, and it's been really fun to think about those memories."
As her children have grown older, Kerr has been able to better keep track of the progress in recent years by coach John Hayes and the track & field program.
"I've been paying more attention in the past year," she said. "My youngest children are triplets, born almost seven years ago. And when they arrived and I went from three to six kids, I just went into survival mode for a while. I just didn't have a lot of time to spend following programs. And so the first three years were really a beautiful blur. But now that they're older and they're so much more self-sufficient, I have more time to follow. So it's been really fun seeing the success they've had the last couple of years."
Of course, going from three children to six in one fell swoop would lead to a lot of internal reorganizing at the family level, and it's something Kerr had just a few months to get ready for.
"I found out at eight weeks, and it was the shock of my life to find that out," she said. "It was just such a surprise. I was so grateful for my athletic background because that pregnancy was very, very difficult and it was hard the whole way through from that eight weeks until they arrived at 35 weeks was like a long interval workout.
"So yeah, I was just really grateful that I was an athlete. I could break my day into pieces and just think about taking it one hour, one minute at a time at the end."
Kerr won four ACC championships and earned seven All-ACC awards, competing in the Mile, the 800-meter and the distance medley relay. She earned All-American honors in both the mile and the distance medley relay in 2001, and was named the Wake Forest Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 1998-99. The individual title she most cherishes in the indoor 1500 ACC Championship, in 2000.
"As an individual, my favorite was winning the ACC outdoor 1500 meters, which they call the metric mile," Kerr said. "So that's like the outdoor version of the mile, and that happened my senior year, and I had been runner-up the previous two years, and I had won indoor mile twice, but that outdoor title really eluded me.
"My coach and I really studied this one particular competitor who beat me out twice, and we came up with a strategy. We practiced it, and then come race day, I was able to execute it and finally win that title. That had eluded me. So I was just really happy to do that for my team."
Kerr considers that championship her cornerstone achievement while competing at Wake Forest.
"It was so amazing," she said. "It was such a long time — it took a long time to work towards it, and my family was there. My family lives far away, so they were able to be there and see it, and it was really special to cap off my senior career that way. The season wasn't over at that point. At that time. The ACCs were run in April and the national championships weren't until early June, but that was really important. So to be able to do that for my team was amazing."
While the championships and athletic acclaim certainly were highlights for Kerr, it was the complete Wake Forest experience that has helped lead her to success throughout adult life.
"I have such fond memories, but also just life skills that I learned that I apply," she said. "I mean, my degree in education, the skills, the critical thinking skills that I developed as an English major, and then I was a studio art minor. I was just one class shy of being a double major, but I ran out of time and I took those art classes because I loved having a chance to just take a break from the intensity of the athletics and the academics. So I have incredible memories academically and then socially.
"I developed really close relationships with my teammates, especially, we still keep in touch today. I had a great experience with the Catholic Campus Ministry, so I was involved with that, and that was a really great anchor in my life during that time. I had an incredible experience all around. It was amazing."
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