Orienteering Teenagers Use Learned Skills to Strengthen Their Testimonies

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By Joe Wirthlin, Church News

Clara Sherwood was lost. As one of the varsity team captains of the Tahoma Orienteering Club in Maple Valley, Washington, getting lost was part of the adventure. Armed with a compass and paper map, the 16-year-old began using her skills to try to identify where she was. She ran to the top of a nearby hill to get her bearings and paused. A “gorgeous view” of the Cascade mountains in western Washington state lay before her.

“I might be the only human being who’s ever seen this view,” she recalled. “No one gets this lost to see this view where I am. But God still made this view for me to see.”

After finding her bearings, she continued through the course outlined on her map, returning successfully to her cheering parents and team members. Of her teammates waiting for her, nearly 60% of the 33 team members are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After congratulating her on her successful run, the whole team turned back to the course, waiting for their other team members to finish.

What Is Orienteering?

Orienteering is a trail-running sport that uses detailed maps and compasses to navigate to checkpoints scattered around a large area. Depending on the course, the area could be a wilderness of bushes, trees and streams, an arid desert wasteland, or a local college campus. Runners follow brief instructions from checkpoint to checkpoint, using an electronic key to track the timing of the runners. This year, there were five runners on the varsity team, eight runners on the junior varsity team, and 20 runners from various middle schools around Tacoma.

“Orienteering is a sport for all ages,” said 16-year-old varsity team member Greta Leonard. “It’s honestly something that I want to do my entire life.” Leonard joined the orienteering club during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. She liked to run, and being alone on the course allowed her to run while avoiding close contact with other team members. Greta recently won the Orienteering USA’s 2024 Wilson Character through Competition Award through her dedication and excitement to the sport.

Many of the Church members joined the club during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, encouraged by youth leaders and parents at their local congregation. Clara, Greta and 16-year-old varsity team member Bryce Winters have been racing for years, and each of them work together to support their teammates.

“I was super proud of the people who raced well,” said Bryce. “We cheer for our teammates a lot after races, we do course reviews, and we talk through the mistakes we made and talk about strategies, how not to do it in future, and share intelligence and praise.”

Each of the team members competes for the fastest time. The top three scores are then calculated per team, with the best overall team score winning. Both speed and accuracy in hitting each checkpoint are important factors in the best scores. Over the past three years, the Tahoma Orienteering Club brought home five first place victories in the Orienteering USA Junior Nationals — three for the varsity orienteering team and two for the junior varsity team.

Gospel Applications of Orienteering

Two of the team’s coaches — former coach John Brady and current coach Chris Cooper, who is Ben Cooper’s father — both saw that there was something different about the team members who belonged to the Church. Brady wrote in an email to the parents of Church team members that he “can’t help but be impressed and humbled by you guys. I just need to stop and tip my cap to you all and acknowledge what you guys have consistently done since I’ve known you ... selflessly help.”

Chris Cooper agreed with his predecessor, complementing Church team members. “I would say that they are more positive, more open, they share the experiences — both high and low — together, but they’re very much open to those who are not of the faith, and that speaks to me.”

Erin Winters, Bryce Winters’ mother, has often heard the youth use examples from their orienteering experiences to relate to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. “I’ve heard a whole lot of sacred meeting talks using orienteering stories and experiences and parallels,” Erin Winters said. “So it’s always when an orienteering kid gets up to speak, we generally expect they’re gonna use some orienteering parallel.”

Greta shared an experience when she was lost in the forests of Washington state for nearly 30 minutes, unsure of where she was or where to go. “I felt alone and kind of ... helpless.” Rather than sitting down and giving up, Greta turned to God for help. “I said a little prayer, ... ‘I need courage to figure this out and perseverance so that I don’t just sit here crying,’ and I’ve just felt a lot of comfort from the Holy Ghost in those times, like ‘You know what, you might not know where you are, and you might not know where you’re going, but it’s going to be OK.’”

Examples for Others

As these team members share their experiences while lost in the woods, they can be inspiring to their teammates, their family and their peers. Junior varsity team member Leah Jergensen had an older sister who first started orienteering. Even though her sister decided not to pursue the team after her first year, 14-year-old Leah decided to stick with it, in spite of it occasionally getting “really scary.”

“During the race, you can get lost, and it can get really scary,” Leah said. “I don’t know if I can make my way back or if I could finish the race. And so sometimes, I’ll say a little prayer, and then I take a few deep breaths ... And sometimes that just helps me to finish my race. I think how that builds my testimony is how I know that Heavenly Father will always be there for us, and He’ll make sure that we’re safe and that we always know what to do in difficult times.”

Thane Winters, Bryce Winters’ 14-year-old brother who competes on the junior varsity team, began orienteering when he was just 10 years old. Thane said that before each of his races, he says a prayer the night before. He prays “to be able to do well and not get super lost,” and in four years of racing, he feels like his prayers do help him.

Clara said, “One of the biggest parts of this sport is that you’re constantly going to fail at it. Even the best of us have bad races, and it’s about learning how to make those mistakes and move on from them.”

She said that some of her team members would occasionally let a mistake they had made get to their heads. “Part of the strategy is learning how to move past a mistake without letting yourself fall apart.” After difficult races, team members would rally together to go over maps and reassure one another to encourage them to continue.

Ben Cooper said that he was really impressed with the members of their team, and especially members of the Church on the team. “I’m really impressed with the athletes, personality-wise and moral-wise. Plus they always do well on race day, so that always helps.” Ben Cooper was also honored with the 2024 Wilson Character through Competition Award.

“If someone wants to ask a question [about religion], the kids don’t shy away from that,” Chris Cooper said. “They’re very proud of where they come from, they’re very proud of what they believe in, they’re never afraid to discuss that with anyone. But yet they’re not overt, they’re not in your face. And I really respect that.”

Navigating Towards the Future

As these young orienteering members of the Church look to their future, they plan to keep competing as much as possible. Greta and another varsity team member, 17-year-old Jackson Rupe competed at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Czechia, also known in English as the Czech Republic, in July. Greta has already made plans to continue competing until she turns in her application to serve as a full-time missionary. After returning from serving the Lord, she plans to start right back up where she left off.

“Orienteering is really a sport for all ages,” Greta said. “it’s honestly something I want to do my entire life.” She said that the lessons she has learned while competing transfers really well to everyday life, including trusting in the Lord. “Those are all things that I use in daily life and things that I need in daily life to get through it.”

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