As a three-sport athlete and academic standout in high school, Warriors Mark native and Tyrone Area High School Class of 2001 alum Christie Shreckengost has always enjoyed a good challenge.

Whether it was on the track, pool, gym, or in the classroom, Schreckengost has always dedicated herself completely to whatever she has chosen to do.

“What keeps me driven is doing the absolute best job I can do,” Shreckengost said. “I discovered early on I was driven towards a life of service. Serving the public, giving back, and providing the best product I can.”

Her desire to serve and her exceptional work ethic motivated her as a student in both high school and college, then as an officer in the United States Coast Guard, and today as a project manager for the town of Leland, North Carolina.

In addition to being an honor student in high school, Schreckengost was a captain on Tyrone’s only district championship-winning swim team, a member of the school’s first-ever girl’s volleyball team, and a multiple district medal-winning track and field athlete.

Schreckengost’s leadership-by-example style in all the sports and activities she was involved in made everyone around her better.

“Christie would constantly challenge herself at practice,” said Tyrone High School teacher Todd Cammarata, who was the assistant swimming coach at the time. “At the end of a workout, she would often ask to do another set or a few extra laps because she still had something left. Her teammates would see that and it would challenge them to work harder.”

In track and field, Schreckengost was good enough at her signature event, the javelin, to earn a partial scholarship.

When it came time to choose a college, her love of the water and desire for a warmer climate led her to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where she could go to school near the beach and work as a lifeguard.

At UNC, she competed in track and field and was named an Academic All-American. She earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with a minor in psychology in 2005.

However, instead of going into criminal justice after graduation, a random sighting of a Coast Guard vessel from the beach set her career on a very different course.

“I was working as a lifeguard on the beach in North Carolina when a 47-foot Coast Guard boat drove by, and that was it,” Schreckengost said.

She and a friend began discussing the Coast Guard as a career option. Her friend encouraged her to follow up.

The rest, according to Schrekengost, is history.

“If it was not for that Coast Guard boat driving by, who knows where I would be today,” Shreckengost said.

Combining her love of the water which began at a very young age on the Tyrone YMCA swim team, with her drive to challenge herself and serve others, the Coast Guard was a perfect fit.

The same drive that motivated her to put in extra laps at high school swim practice, motivated her to become one of the first female graduates of the US Coast Guard Marine Diving Officer Course.

Schrekengost trained as a diver and completed the Marine Engineering Diving Course at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Florida.

“Dive school was the hardest thing I ever did in my life,” Scheckengost said.

She was one of only two women out of a hundred candidates. Making it even more challenging, she had to deal with an instructor who thought that women did not belong in dive school.

According to Shreckengost, the instructor made every task harder than necessary, with challenges like pushups on her knuckles in gravel and diving to extreme depths.

But Shreckengost never let it stop her from chasing her dream. She graduated from dive school and became the Department Head for Regional Dive Locker East, overseeing a 19-member dive squad that supported port, waterway, and coastal security.

During her active duty Coast Guard career, she was a diver on both U.S. coasts, the US Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska.

She said her most memorable dive was under 16 inches of ice off the coast of Alaska.

“The water was crystal clear, sun stars as far as you could see. At the surface, it was -11 degrees and under the water, it was quiet, calm, and surreal,” Schreckengost said.

According to Schreckengost, the proudest moment of her military career was when she was promoted to Lieutenant Commander.

“It was my biggest promotion and one that I never thought I would make,” Srchreckegost said.

Shreckengost left active duty in 2013 but still serves as an officer in the Coast Guard Reserves.

She is currently the Reserve Emergency Manager for the U.S. Coast Guard Sector North Carolina in Fort Macon, NC.

“Every day is a challenge with personnel issues, prioritizing deployments, ensuring members get training, budgets, and making sure readiness standards are met,” Schreckengost said.

In 2015, Schreckengost earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of North Carolina.

That same year she moved to Oregon to begin her career in public administration where she managed projects for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

In 2020, she began her current job as project manager for the town of Leland, North Carolina where she oversees improvement projects like roads, utilities, sidewalks, and infrastructure projects.

“I don’t work for the money. I work to make people’s lives better,” Shreckengost said. “I still have career goals to be a town or city manager one day, and I do not plan to give up on that goal,” Schreckengost said.

Christie’s mom Becky, who is the administrative assistant in the Tyrone Middle School Guidance Office, is certain that she will accomplish that goal as well.

“I am extremely proud of my daughter for all that she has done with the Coast Guard and in civilian life. I know that she will succeed in all that she does in her future,” said Becky.

Schreckgost hopes that her story can help inspire other Tyrone students to work hard and chase their dreams, no matter what those dreams might be.