Ashland Source will select one student athlete to be recognized as the Park National Bank Athlete of the Month during the 2023-24 school year. Nominations for Athlete of the Month are accepted from Athletic Directors and Coaches, but are ultimately chosen by Ashland Source and are based on the student’s exceptional athletic performance, effective teamwork and achievement in their communities. Park National Bank is proud to support this initiative and is giving the athletic department of each school $1,000 in honor of each athlete chosen.
ASHLAND – Perhaps it’s because he has run an emotionally taxing gauntlet in life that K’Tyo Hendershott can get on a cross country course and seemingly thrive with ease.
The Ashland High School senior qualified to the state meet for the first time last month.
While, for many runners, that end-of-season pressure may be the most they’ve ever felt, the soft-spoken yet confident Hendershott had been through enough already in life to know it was just another test he could handle.
The Arrows senior, who clocked one of the Top 5 times in AHS cross country history at his regional meet in Tiffin (15:54), is being recognized as the Park National Bank Athlete of the Month for October.
“I have not seen him mentally struggle yet in the form of running and performance,” Ashland coach Cameron Johnson said. “He runs with heart, at the end of the day, and he puts his best foot forward but also is willing to learn and think about how he needs to push himself in different parts of the race.”
“Coming into the season I was kind of second-guessing myself with how the season would go,” Hendershott said. “But I also am a kid that loves to work hard and not give up on goals that I have set in mind.”
The path to success this season didn’t come without steep challenges. After spending part of his early youth living in Ashland with adoptive parents Joe and Dardi Hendershott, the family moved multiple times, and K’Tyo eventually attended Gahanna Lincoln.
It wasn’t until after multiple immense life hurdles that he and his family found its way back to Ashland for his senior year.
While a freshman at Gahanna Lincoln, one of Hendershott’s running mates and best friends, Noah Long, tragically died in an accident.
It was a deeply impactful moment for Hendershott, who has a hard time remembering the year it happened because he said it always feels like he just got the news.
Running after that was difficult mentally for him, but he said not having the sport would be like losing his friend again.
A little more than a year later, he began feeling like he was completely sapped of energy while running.
The unsolved obstacle was a frustrating one, and while struggling through his junior year, a blood test revealed he was anemic.
Hendershott said the realization was a weight off his shoulders and helped him mentally and physically work through the issue.
“Once I got that problem fixed, I felt a lot stronger, didn’t feel sore anymore (and) there was nothing really stopping me,” he said.
By the time he was on his way back to Ashland, the test was simply to start fresh with new teammates and a new high school after a summer often running alone.
Hendershott began forging new relationships and rediscovering old ones from his previous time in Ashland.
Johnson, a four-time state qualifier at Mount Gilead before running collegiately at Ashland University, said it was easy to see his talent as soon as they met during the summertime.
“You could tell from the get-go he was very, very passionate and just wanted to run really well,” the coach said. “He came in this year like, ‘I’ve got stuff figured out. It’s time to get to work and do the thing.’”
As the season unfolded, Hendershott consistently worked his times into the 16-minute mark. The senior said he could feel his confidence ratcheting up as the lead man for the Arrows.
But amid his running rise, Hendershott and his teammates had to cope with the tragic death in early October of senior Andre Harrison, who had been part of the Ashland squad and was a co-MVP for the cross country team as a junior.
Hendershott believes the team felt more connected when Harrison was around early in the season, and he said – as with Long at Gahanna Lincoln – he had a strong running bond with his classmate.
Johnson, a youth pastor at Park Street Brethren Church, said Harrison’s death was an extremely difficult time for his team and for AHS as a whole.
“We just had to create space for our kids to mourn and celebrate (his life),” he said.
Ashland athletic director Jason Goings said Hendershott stood out as a true light among the students during the trying time.
“His maturity and leadership was on full display this fall as the leader of our boys cross country team,” Goings said. “He was instrumental in the healing process needed when we lost Andre Harrison.
“He was in constant contact with Andre’s family.”
On Saturday, almost exactly a month to the day after his friend’s passing, Hendershott placed 95th in the Division I state meet in 16:37.
That effort followed a fifth-place finish in the Ohio Cardinal Conference Championships, a sixth-place finish at the district meet and his seventh-place, 15:54 effort at regionals, where he said he will never forget the support his teammates showed him while competing.
Hendershott, whose 3.56 GPA qualifies him to be academic All-Ohio, also is active at Park Street Brethren Church. He said that constant prayer on the way to and before starting his races helped calm him, and he thanks God every day for how far he’s come.
“(Long and Harrison) were a big motivation for me to keep going, because both Andre and Noah loved running,” he said, “so I dedicated my races and runs for them to be able to accomplish something they couldn’t do.”
Hendershott was the first state qualifier for the Arrows since Josh Hawley in 2020, and he said he plans to run indoor and outdoor track this school year.
He gets some of his love of running from his mom, who he said has run marathons and is like his second coach on the sidelines.
He thanked his teammates and coaches for helping push him through his first few months at Ashland, adding that Johnson helped keep him relaxed.
“Almost every race I learn something new from him,” Hendershott said. “… He’s showed me what it’s like to race a mature race and to feel like I’m having fun with it but also competing really hard.”
Hendershott said he has a dream to run at the college level, but isn’t sure yet if that will happen. If it does, Johnson believes his star senior is built for that next test.
“(All the challenges he has overcome are) a big testament to his resiliency and his ability to mentally transition,” Johnson said. “It tells a lot about his mentality and how he’s able to take all the things and somehow turn them into a positive.”
