Sisters in arms

Malarie Yoder has two uniforms: one for Waynesburg University cross country, the other for the U.S. Army.

As a member of Waynesburg University’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and a standout for the women’s cross country team, practice is never truly over for her.

Multiple times a week Yoder travels to West Virginia University, completes an hour of physical training and returns to Waynesburg before some students are even awake. That same afternoon, she’ll run anywhere from three to eight miles at practice.

With days beginning at 5 a.m. and ending only when her school work is complete, it’s the experience that pushes Yoder forward and the opportunity to serve her country.

“As a [future] leader for the armed forces, I’m going to have to manage multiple things at the same time,” Yoder said. “Getting that experience now is going to help me a lot more, later, than using the excuse that I don’t have to run cross country.”

Mentally tough

At the starting line for the team’s conference championship in October, nervousness and uncertainty ran through Yoder. When would the signaling shot be fired? How would she perform? Could the team win a second title?

She remembers this same feeling at the edge of WVU’s pool before her Combat Water Survival Test.

Then, Yoder finished 12th out of a field of 118 runners, similar to how she passed the water test she failed the year before.

“For the Army, you have to be mentally tough,” Yoder said. “You can have emotions and you can cry, but you are going to be leading people. You’re going to be in charge of people. You’re going to have to be able to handle it – so you’ve got to come in and push yourself to the next level.”

In cross country, Yoder said she feels the benefits of the mindset and incorporates it into every race.

“We’re running as a team, so even if I’m hurting, I need to push for my team and get my team to where we need to be,” Yoder said. “That mental toughness just follows throughout both [ROTC and cross country].”

The support Yoder draws upon in cross country and the ROTC mirror each other: a group of individuals working towards a singular goal. In cross country, Yoder runs with the same group of women on the team every day. In the ROTC, she attends classes and training with two other students from Waynesburg University.

As a nursing student, Yoder said it was these two support groups that’s kept her going during the difficult stretches of the semester.

“I honestly think I would not have made it into my sophomore year of nursing, because I came off workouts for cross country last year and I would be in tears,” Yoder said. “All the nursing majors in cross country would come over and be like ‘its ok, you’re going to do fine.’”

Teamwork mentality

The other members of Yoder’s ROTC group are also athletes.

Sophomores Taylor Clarkson and Erin Joyce joined the program shortly after Yoder did. Clarkson runs for cross country with Yoder, and Joyce is a guard on the basketball team and averages nearly 20 minutes a game.

With all three athletes together in the program, Joyce said the common goals between the three of them is invaluable.

“They get it; they understand how hard it is to go from a sport to school and Army,” Joyce said.

The military runs deep in Joyce’s family. With a brother in the Army and a grandfather and an uncle in the Navy, joining the ROTC program for Joyce wasn’t an unfamiliar transition.

Joyce said portions of basic training resembled what she had heard playing basketball throughout her life.

“A lot of the things I heard over in basic [training] was a lot of the things I was told by coaches growing up – team work mentality, trusting each other,” Joyce said. “You can’t be by yourself in either one or you aren’t going to be successful.”

Military lifestyle

John Dowling, an ROTC recruiting operations officer, serves as one of the instructors for Yoder, Joyce and Clarkson and leads the classroom segments of the program on campus.

Being a member of the Army Reserve since 1985, Dowling said in his experience that athletes are typically the most comfortable in the ROTC program.

“Athletes are predisposed to knowing how to compete and knowing how to dig down and give that 110 percent,” Dowling said. “They are competitive and ROTC and Army Operations is a competitive environment. We want students who are going to go out and push people to be their best.”

While some of them have only been in the program for less than a year, Dowling said he’s already seen Yoder, Joyce and Clarkson fully embrace the military lifestyle – and the sacrifices that comes with it.

“They are a very positive group; they want to learn,” Dowling said. “They seem to enjoy and embrace the military concepts we put out. I think they developed a really good understanding of what they are doing and why they are doing it in the military.”

Fighting the battle

Following graduation from Waynesburg University, each of the students will immediately commission as an officer and serve varying amounts of time in the military.

Yoder, Joyce and Clarkson understand the fundamental structure underneath the uniform of an ROTC officer: the heart and courage required to serve America.

Joyce said she wants to pursue law school following graduation while still with the ROTC. Clarkson said she’s anticipating traveling the world through serving with the military once she finishes her degree.

And for Yoder – it’s a matter of fighting the battle so others don’t have to.

“It’s really just having that idea that no matter where I’m placed, even if I’m a nurse, I will lay down my life for anybody here,” Yoder said.

“Any American. Any refugee. Anybody. I will go and fight your battle for you.”