SPRUCE PINE - When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in spring 2020, Phillips High School senior Katelyn Frazier lost her part-time waitressing job when health protocols required the restaurant to close. A friend and local poultry farmer, though, offered a new opportunity - working in a chicken house starting at 5 a.m., each day. "I thought, 'Sure, how hard could this actually be?" she remembered. Everything changed after that first day.
Frazier - then a 16-year-old sophomore cheerleader, basketball player and standout student - started at the bottom. Her job required culling dead or injured chickens from the chicken barn and performing routine maintenance such as removing fecal matter to prevent disease. It's an extreme environment filled with constant noise, intense heat and stomach-turning aromas - not the place where 16-year-old girls are typically found. "You will sweat," she said with a laugh. "It's not something where you can wear shorts and T-shirt. Sometimes it's cooler outside, even though it's 90 degrees. It is really not a job for the weak." Working in a local chicken house is just one of the challenges Frazier has embraced, and it's one that showcases the grit and determination she's exhibited throughout her life. At Phillips, she's played three sports - basketball, volleyball, and track - and has been a cheerleader, despite undergoing knee surgery in the seventh grade and again as a freshman. Intense family turmoil led Katelyn to move in with her aunt and uncle, Betty and Eric Jackson, in middle school. Frazier declined to discuss details about her turbulent family situation but conceded it caused anxiety and uncertainty.
Through it all, Katelyn has excelled academically and athletically. She's on track to finish as Phillips' valedictorian - "Nothing is official yet," she cautioned - and she also serves as SGA President and Beta Club President. Katelyn's ability to thrive while overcoming multiple challenges explain why she's a 2022 Regional winner in the Bryant-Jordan Scholarship Program's Achievement category, which honors senior student-athletes in the AHSAA who have overcome personal adversity to excel. All 52 regional winners in the Achievement category and 52 scholar-athlete winners receive a $3,000 scholarship and could win more when statewide winners are announced at the statewide banquet Monday night in Birmingham.
Katelyn's family situation prompted her to seek that part-time waitressing job midway through her sophomore year of high school. "Because Aunt Betty and Uncle Eric did take me in and nobody was expecting that to happen, of course, I got the job for the sole purpose for being able to pay for my own stuff," she said. "And I wouldn't have to ask them for money every so often. I got that money for that and also because I would be starting college, and college isn't cheap."
But then COVID swept the globe in March 2020, leading to school shutdowns and other precautionary measures such as restaurant closures. AHSAA officials canceled the 2020 spring sports season and teams weren't allowed to have offseason workouts until mid-summer. Katelyn suddenly had time on her hands, but no waitressing job available. That led to her job working in a chicken house, even if she doubted she could keep doing it after that first day.
"I called Aunt Betty and I was crying - real big girl tears - and said, 'I don't know if I can do this,'" she said. Her aunt gave her some sage advice, however. "I told her, 'Well, you've told him you can help him out right now. Try it for a couple of days. You've got to at least try and do what you said you would do,'" she said. Katelyn refused to quit. She eventually worked both jobs - at the chicken house and the restaurant - during that summer. Her schedule required her to arrive at the chicken house by 5 a.m., return home to shower, attend volleyball practice, eat lunch, attend basketball practice, rush home for another shower and report to the restaurant for the dinner rush. While she no longer works at the chicken house, she helped during an ice storm and even assisted with the birth of a calf. "I know so much about it now," she said. "I've learned so much from this. That is a whole different job level. Nobody ever really thinks about the people who get you your chicken at a restaurant. I have learned a lot. Everybody needs to do a job like that."
As if her life wasn't busy enough, Katelyn began running track as a junior and qualified for the state meet as a hurdler. She is chasing another state-meet berth this spring. She's also served as an athletic photographer for the school - emulating her aunt's photography skills - and said receiving a sideline press pass for a playoff football game was a highlight of her senior year. Thanks to her part-time jobs, she banked money for college and even bought a computer with her earnings. Katelyn plans to enroll at Northwest-Shoals Community College in the fall and study diagnostic imaging, a two-year program that leads to a career as a radiology technician. Those who know Katelyn point to her laundry list of accomplishments as proof of her perseverance and bright future.
"Through it all, she has done it with her infectious, vibrant personality that truly makes me feel like I am watching a true underdog story unfolding in front of me," Phillips teacher Kaylen Peppers wrote in a letter supporting Katelyn's Bryant-Jordan candidacy. "I cannot help but cheer for Katelyn Frazier."| Added Jackson, "She had to mature earlier than what most other kids do. She's had to make adult decisions when she shouldn't have had to. ... She does have a story, but she's had the support and baseline there where she can accomplish anything. Her story is not going to bring her down, it's not going to weigh her down." What has Katelyn learned through what she calls the "hills and curves" of her journey?
"I say this to everybody: Just because anybody has gone through hardships, that should not stop them from going and being successful. It will not stop me," she said. "Just because this has happened, it will not stop me from being successful and being a better person in the end."