Lady Airedales’ Zoye Wofford thrives with NJROTC, volleyball, and track events 

By Kevin Taylor

Alma Schools 

Senior Chief Troy Peel’s drive from Russellville to Alma isn’t always a piece of cake. That can be especially true during the bleak, dark winter months—fog, occasional snow flurries, and cold rain showers.

But no matter how he’s feeling when he walks through the door to the adjoining NJROTC rooms, Peel knows one person will not let him down.

Zoye Wofford has his back. 

“I can be having the worst day or just not feeling it after a long drive, and she will always make me smile,” Peel said. 

“I try,” gushes Wofford.

It hasn’t been a perfect year for Wofford, the Alma senior explains. She lost her dad, Tom, three days after Christmas. There are pitfalls and ups and downs of being a teenager, not to mention a heavy dose of classes, including AP English Language and Composition, Algebra III, and US History and Civics. 

But her dad, Tom, and his remarkable gift of storytelling and love for his family aren’t far from Zoye’s mind. 

“He was a pretty big part of my life,” she said. “This being my senior year, I was really looking forward to him seeing me graduate and prom, and stuff like that. Since he’s not able to be here, I know that he’s here with me. I’m religious and I go to church. It was really difficult for me, but I know that God’s got me, and with that, I know I’m in good hands.

“That’s really helped me a lot.” 

Between her blended, extended family at home and her unique bonds between multiple school activities, Zoye Wofford has trudged forward with a resolve some might find uncomfortable. 

“For Zoye, to go through what she went through, and to continue to come to work in multiple activities, says so much about who she is,” Alma track coach Joseph Potts said. “I’m positive her staying active in ROTC and track has helped her get through a lot of it.”

In addition to track, Wofford is involved in volleyball and Alma’s strong Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) program. The NJROTC program brings a smile to her face.

“I think they’re the funniest group of people I’ve ever met in my whole life,” Wofford said. “They would be my second family if I didn’t have anybody.”

Being active isn’t anything out of the ordinary for Wofford, whose love of flying led to her choosing to join the Air Force following next month’s high school graduation. “I saw the Blue Angels with my mom and brother a few years ago,” she explained. “I was hooked.”

It’s 2:45 p.m. on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. Wofford is traversing Fayetteville Avenue for the five-minute drive to Alma Intermediate School and a date at the Tom McMurray Track Complex. She pauses after pulling up, looking toward the front door of AIS. It wasn’t that many years ago that she walked these halls. 

Time doesn’t stand still. 

“I feel like being involved in all of these extracurricular activities has allowed me to see different groups of people, and get to know different groups of people, and not just one specific group,”  Wofford said. “It’s allowed me to see how other people live and how others do things.”

There’s a different vibe with volleyball. The same is true of track and NJROTC, Wofford said.

“Seeing kids flourish in the NJROTC program is incredibly powerful,” Peel said. “It means watching young people—often from diverse backgrounds and with different levels of confidence, discipline, or direction — find purpose, structure, and pride in what they do. It’s about transformation. It’s not just about military training — it’s about character development. Seeing that growth can be emotional and deeply rewarding for instructors, families, and even the students themselves.”

Wofford fits all those categories. “She’s one of the best kids I’ve ever been around,” Peel said. 

Life in the fast lane

Wofford has excelled in track and field, too, competing in the 400, the 4x200 relay, and the long jump.

“This is one of the first years we’ve gotten to do the 4x200 because we’ve always only had three girls on the track team,” Wofford said. “This year, we actually have more than three (girls). We’ve done it a few times in the past, but we could only do it if we had enough girls. This year, we know that we can do this.

“We’ve gotten first or second every time.”

“We’re not very deep as a team, but we’ve got the right group of girls on our team to run that 4x200 and compete well,” Potts said. “We’ve run a few different combinations of girls in that relay this year, and there was a week that Zoye wasn’t on, but the next week she worked as hard as I’ve seen her work, and she ran her best split she had run all year in the 4x200.”

Potts said this current group of seniors—Wofford, Kenadie Farris, Vivian Beneux, and Yoseline Gonzalez—has been tough as nails, with some battling injuries. 

“They’ve all competed in track since seventh grade, and that just doesn’t happen much anymore due to all the options that our girls have,” Potts said. “They also won the Arkansas River Valley Conference (girls championship) as ninth graders (2021), which was the last year for that conference.”

Wofford’s best race, Potts said, might be the 400. 

“The 400 is what Zoye works at the most, and she was frustrated with her times early in the season because she wasn’t seeing the results she wanted,” Potts said. “We've been working on her focusing on her stride because she’s got such long legs. She ran her best time of the year last week at Greenwood, and we hope to see that time get better. That’s one of the toughest races in track, and you’ve got to be mentally and physically tough to go out and give it your all.” 

“It is so painful,” Wofford said of the 400. “When I’m running, I feel like I’m about to die. But after I’m done, it’s so refreshing.”

All the right moves 

Wofford's extended family includes sisters Emily and Hannah, and brother Noah, as well as stepbrothers Connor, Jackson, and Logan Lind — all of whom make her proud to represent Alma High School.

“To represent this school, you don’t want to put a bad rep on the school, so you try your best at everything to show like, ‘Hey, I’m from this school and this is how we act.’ For me, representing the school, I’m also representing my family at the same time,” she said. “They put me here; they chose for me to be here. 

“I feel like it’s important to have a good outlook on the way you hold yourself.”

“It means a lot to see our students and athletes put in the work it takes to be successful in multiple activities,” added Potts. “Sometimes we have to deal with the mental and physical burnout that they experience, but they are learning some amazing life lessons in the process. There’s no doubt our students who compete in multiple activities will find success as adults because they know what hard work is, how to budget their time, and how to deal with adversity.”