TAMPA — Tampa Prep girls soccer coach Cindy Schofield was once the best high school player in the state of Florida, then she rewrote the record books at Florida State.

But last month, the 28-year-old accomplished perhaps her greatest feat.

She finished a 5K.

Schofield finished last month's Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K in St. Petersburg in 36:49 — 553rd overall. Every stride was a challenge. Throughout the race, Schofield was worried her legs might tangle and she'd tumble to the ground.

The true magnitude of her finish, however, lies in Schofield's sometimes tumultuous, other times uplifting journey of the past two years.

"A tearful thing to watch," Schofield's father, Bob, said of watching his daughter cross the finish among a pack of runners. "To know what she had to go through to get there, before everything came so easy. Now, nothing was easy."

Schofield was in and out of hospital beds two years ago, first given a death sentence when she was told she had a brain tumor and just two years to live. Two rounds of chemotherapy followed, then she was told she didn't have a tumor, but multiple sclerosis.

She lost feeling down the left side of her body. She had to learn to walk again, to tie her shoes and put her hair in a ponytail. But she slowly went from wheelchair to walker to cane to back on her feet.

And finally back to running.

"It's a good thing I don't remember much about those couple of months, because it can shatter a person," Schofield said. "But then once I started feeling better and realizing what was going on, my competitiveness and the athlete in me kicked in and said, 'I'm not going to let this beat me.' "

Now back on the sideline as first-year coach of the Terps, a team that won a Class 2A state title two years ago, she is proof that every step holds great significance.

"No one ever expected her to recover the way she did," said Tampa Prep junior Jackie Rosenthal. "It's just amazing to hear that she was able to push through everything. She battled, just like she did on the soccer field."

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Schofield left Lakeland George Jenkins as the state's all-time leading scorer. She is also the all-time leading goal and point scorer in Florida State history.

Two years ago, Schofield, then a Tampa Prep assistant, began having blurry vision. She couldn't see across the soccer field. She shrugged it off as a side effect of the Lasik surgery she had two months before. But within the next four days she knew something was wrong. Fatigue crept in quickly, until she felt "like I was hit by a truck."

An MRI exam revealed her brain was swelling. Doctors told her she had an inoperable brain tumor, then a brain biopsy found something different. It was MS.

"At that point, you're jumping for joy," Bob Schofield said. "As bad as it is, you know your child is going to live."

Meanwhile, Tampa Prep was marching through the playoffs, and went to the state tournament in Fort Lauderdale while Schofield stayed back for treatment. They wore wristbands with Schofield's No. 11. When they won their state semifinal, they crowded around a cell phone, telling Schofield they had dedicated the victory to her. The next day, the Terps won a state title in penalty kicks over Plantation American Heritage. Schofield was in the school parking lot, in a wheelchair, when the team arrived home.

"She was such an inspiration that year," Tampa Prep senior goalkeeper Jordan Hatton said. "She was such a driving force behind that."

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Schofield's recovery has been tedious, with constant physical therapy sessions to learn how to use the left side of her body. She still doesn't remember some of the details, and her memory is foggy in general. But she has learned to compensate.

"I just have to write everything down," she said. "I just know what works for me. That's the good thing. I've grown up and matured about it. You have to learn what works for your body."

She maintains the MS with three shots a week, but also has to make sure she doesn't overexert herself and stay in the heat too long.

"There were definitely days that you doubt," Schofield said of her recovery. "I remember a couple days when I thought I'd never run again. I told myself, 'It's okay. I'll swim or I'll find another way to exercise.' And then I thought, 'No, that's not going to happen to me. I'm not going to let that beat me.' "

Now as a head coach again — Schofield coached one year at Gaither in 2004-05 — she said she has learned a different approach. "I don't sweat the small stuff," she said. "I know a lot of people say that, but it's true."

As for her team, most of them have taken this journey with her. And they'd like to take Schofield with them on another title run, this time just across Cass Street to the University of Tampa, where this year's state tournament will be held.

"It was life changing watching her through the whole process," said Rosenthal, one of six juniors who were freshmen on the Terps' state title team two years ago.

"She had such a big role as an assistant coach that now as a head coach, I think it's just going to take us to the next level because of how much she's put into this team and the situations she's taught us how to deal with."

Eduardo A. Encina can be reached at eencina@sptimes.com