Tara Zartman played volleyball and soccer while attending North Meck High, and the last time she wore a Viking uniform, she walked off N.C. State University's soccer field as a member of North's first state title team.

Zartman and the Vikings had survived an overtime thriller with Wilmington Hoggard to win the 4A championship on penalty kicks.

"Tara was just a great leader, a leader by example, a first to practice, last to leave kind of kid," recalls North soccer coach Neil Roberts.

Roberts felt so strongly that Zartman would be a success in life that, during the team banquet that spring of 2010, he re-worded the title of a team award just before presenting it to Zartman. Instead of naming her most likely to succeed, Roberts said Zartman was guaranteed to succeed in whatever she tackled in life.

Little did Roberts know at that time that Zartman would be trying to succeed in a new sport altogether: fencing.

But sure enough, Zartman, now a sophomore at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., is a member of the Air Force fencing team. She competes with the épée, a heavy sword that is used to target the entire body of an opponent.

"It's great to see her doing something like that," says Roberts. "It doesn't surprise me at all."

But if someone had told Zartman two years ago that she'd be fencing at Air Force, she's not sure she would have believed them. She initially tried out for the Air Force soccer team, but when that didn't work out, she looked to get involved in another sport. She heard about fencing tryouts and decided to take a stab at the sport, although at first, she didn't know anything about it.

While taking Thomas Madre's math class at North Meck, she heard he had fenced in college. What she had heard about the sport from her former teacher was all she knew about it. Her inexperience didn't dampen her spirits, however.

"It was pretty exciting to walk on," says Zartman of how she found her way to the fencing team.

She worked hard in tryouts, and it paid off. Air Force coach Abdel Salem saw potential in Zartman, and she made the roster. Now, she practices up to three hours per day and travels the country competing in five-touch bouts. Collegiate fencing is not limited to one season; competitions are held throughout the calendar year. And Zartman will be in Durham next month to compete in a tournament at Duke. She recently faced an Olympian in competition.

It's taken Zartman some time to get acquainted to the new sport, but she has. She likes the one-on-one aspect of fencing, the quickness and accuracy it requires, and the strategy involved.

"You really have to stay focused and have to understand what your opponent is thinking and doing," says Zartman. "It's a lot about tricking them and getting into their mind."

In soccer, Zartman played defense, and she says while fencing and soccer have little in common, there are some soccer skills that have helped her in her new sport.

"There were a couple of times when it'd be me and (an opponent) and I had to focus on getting the ball," she says of defending a breakaway in soccer.

Sandi Skidmore, now the volleyball coach at Hough, coached Zartman and her sisters Jill (three years older) and Paige (two years younger). Paige is a senior at Hough. But Skidmore says she doubts she passed along much at all that could help Zartman in her fencing.

"I don't know that I did," says Skidmore. "I'm trying to think how volleyball would correlate with fencing. Competitiveness, maybe. I don't know."

What advice would Skidmore give Zartman now?

"I know nothing about fencing," she says, with a laugh. "Make sure you keep your face covered? I don't know."

A different path

Roberts remembers the day after his soon-to-be state championship soccer team suffered a demoralizing early-season loss. He was in his room at school when Zartman stopped in to visit. Roberts was still feeling the effects of the loss, but Zartman was upbeat. She told her coach not to worry about it, that the team would be fine.

"She came to talk to me about the game, and it was so incredibly positive," says Roberts.

That was one moment when he knew he was coaching the kind of young lady who was going to do something big with her life.

Zartman was a member of North's Junior ROTC program for four years, and it was while on a family trip that she visited the U.S. Naval Academy. She was intrigued, and told her father, Col. David Zartman, that she wanted to go there.

He suggested she think about it and, if she was serious about attending a service academy, she should also consider the Air Force Academy, from where he graduated in 1982.

Zartman immediately fell in love with the Colorado Springs campus and the idea of being a part of something larger than herself. But she knew heading to Air Force would mean taking a big step.

"I just kinda went for it and jumped in," she says.

Zartman graduated from North on June 15, 2010, and started her six weeks of basic training eight days later. Now, she's planning to be a pilot, just like her father, who flies C-130s in the Air National Guard. That means she will be required to serve active duty for nine years upon graduation.

Until then, she'll do her school work and try to perfect her skills with an épée.

"I didn't really picture any of this," says Zartman, "but things just happen and fall into place."