SHADY SPRING, WV (WVNS) – Shady Spring High School Sophomore Jack Billeter is making waves on the state level of track and field – and soon enough, he’ll be taking his talents to the international level.
In 2024, he took ninth place at states in the 300-meter hurdles. This was just one of the many events that Billeter competed in as a freshman at states.
Billeter’s meteoric rise did not go unnoticed.
He just recently received an invitation to represent Team USA in the Coast2Coast International Athletics Track and Field Meet in Queensland, Australia.
“I was sitting in class one day. I got called out for a moment. They handed me the letter and did not say anything about it. Came back and it was addressed to me and to the school. I opened it, I see it. I was just like – I did not know what to think about it at first because of this because it was so out of nowhere. It [arrived after] the end of the soccer season. Track was about to come up. I was like, this is random. It is great though,” said Jack Billeter.
Despite the attention Billeter gained through track, he is most passionate about playing soccer, as he plays goalkeeper for the Shady Spring High School boys’ soccer team.
Devin Billeter is Jack’s father. Devin played college basketball at Howard Junior College and Youngstown State University.
Jack credited his parents and his soccer coaches for pushing him to strive for excellence in whatever sport he competes in.
“There is not much pushing that that my wife and I need to give him. He is a self-starter. He is a go-getter. He gets his mind set on something and he goes after it pretty hard, whether it be in soccer or track. He is a straight-A 4.0 student. We just keep encouraging him and whatever advice we can give him or if he needs some support and some downtime. That is pretty much what we do for him. Of course, having to run around everywhere all the time for him is probably the biggest support we need to give him,” said Devin Billeter.
Jack Billeter will be traveling to the Gold Coast Performance Centre in Australia for 11 days in July, where he will be coached by an NCAA Division 1 track coach. He will be training for the meet over his first few days there. That will lead up to the actual competition – which will span the final 3 days of the trip.
“[At] the beginning of the track season, I was I was purely focusing on just like getting my my ...
