By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher When Ambar Kluger competed at Saturday track meets this season, usually she was running on just three or four hours of sleep. That wasn’t because she was up all night watching scary movies or texting her friends. It’s because she was working her job at a casino until 4 in the morning. Ever since she found out near the end of her sophomore year that she was pregnant, the now 18-year-old senior hurdler and sprinter on the Mainland Regional track team has had to grow up. Fast. She juggles schoolwork, her track season, a job and a rambunctious 17-month-old little boy named Ayden. It’s not exactly how she envisioned her high school career turning out, but Kluger is not one to sit around and make excuses or wallow in self pity for the situation she put herself in. Ambar recognized quickly that real life was suddenly upon her and that she had to own up to the decisions she had made. She had to face the difficult challenges of being a teen mother head on, and her hard-working mother, who was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, wasn’t about to let her daughter simply pass the buck and go on living a normal teenage life. Dayana Panno said to her daughter that she had better get her priorities in order, go out and get a job, continue to improve her education and not let her current circumstances hold her back from being the best she can be. 
Ambar Kluger captured the Cape-Atlantic League championship in the 100-meter hurdles this season, and went on to place 10th in the state in that event. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) While it’s true that Dayana and husband Robert Panno do a lot to help Ambar raise Ayden, Dayana and Robert both made it clear that the responsibility of taking care of her little boy would primarily rest on Ambar’s shoulders. “She had to grow up, like it or not. I’m not saying she should be an example, but compared to other girls who drop out of school (after having a child), it can be done, if you chose to. If you believe, it can be done,” Dayana said. “She does everything, but she doesn’t have a choice. She has to, whether she likes it or not.” “She became more responsible. She had to grow up really fast. It’s a big change. She has to go to practice, drop her son off. She has a lot to do, but even with all those distractions she manages to do pretty well,” said Robert. “You lay out things like you may get a college scholarship and it will be better for your son if you do that, so you have to work hard now.” Ambar showed a lot of promise after transferring from the Atlantic City school district as a freshman. Her sophomore year, she was a state qualifier in the 100-meter hurdles. And that was while she was already pregnant with her son. Her junior year, however, was a struggle after having Ayden in December of 2012, right in the middle of the winter track season. But this year things have begun to come together for Amber. She graduated from an alternative school in Egg Harbor Township that is affiliated with Mainland Regional, she’s begun to learn how to handle being a teen mother, and despite everything she has to do now she still managed to become a Cape-Atlantic League champion hurdler and finished 10th in the state at the Meet of Champions. “She’s really grown up. As a sophomore she was kind of irresponsible, but now she does what she’s supposed to, she teaches the younger girls. In winter track she was working with some of the younger hurdlers on the boys team. It’s been a 180, and it’s nice to see someone go from a kid to an adult and become someone you can count on and really enjoy being around,” said Mainland girls track coach Mike Colombo. “She handles it very well. She has a strong family that helps her with Ayden. Without Ayden, I don’t think she would be as successful because I think her priorities would still be a little screwed up. I think having Ayden has put her on the right track. She’s made the best of a tough situation. As an 18-year-old woman she is pretty mature and wants to do well for her child. “You see this girl who is fast and nobody really knows what is going on in her life and how busy she is. But she never complains about it. She just does what she has to do.” 
Kluger gave birth to Ayden during her junior year, but accepted the challenges she would face after having a child while still in high school. She recently graduated from Mainland’s alternative school in Egg Harbor Township, continued to have success in her track career, works a job at a casino in Atlantic City on the weekends and is working toward continuing her education in college to provide a better life for she and her son. Ambar said that when she first realized she was pregnant it was a shock and she spent some time in denial. However, her parents refused to let her do anything other than accept responsibility and get to work on changing her priorities and the way she went about things. “I saw the signs that a lot of teen moms don’t graduate and I didn’t want to be that, I want to be something. I want my son to be proud of me and what I do, and I want to show him that nothing can stop you from reaching where you want to reach. I don’t want to be like, ‘oh, I have a son so I can’t do anything and can’t accomplish what I want to accomplish,'” Ambar said. “When I had him, I said to myself that I can’t play around anymore, I have to be serious. Everything I do affects him. I watch what I do now. I just go to school, go to practice, go to work, come home. It’s like a routine for me now. But it’s good, because I don’t get in trouble anymore.” Colombo said that he is surprised just how well Ambar has handled an unexpected change in her life. “I think she has handled it as well as anyone could. She’s doing her job in the classroom, on the track, doing her actual job, doing her job as a parent. She’s being responsible, which isn’t easy at that age. She’s dealing with the same kinds of things I am and I’m 35, and she’s only 18,” Colombo said. “Her work ethic has really changed. Sophomore year she was looking for the easy way out and now I have to tell her to go home, to get off the track.” Colombo said Ambar most likely will be attending Atlantic Cape Community College this coming fall in the hopes of perhaps working her way onto the track team at Richard Stockton College in a few years. And Ambar said that she knows getting a good education will be a big key for her as she moves forward in her new life as being an athlete who also is a mother. “Having him, everything changed. I used to be more careless. I think more now,” Ambar said. “If I get in trouble now I could lose him and you have to be smart. When I look at him I know I have to do better. I have to get a good education and a good career.” While Dayana doesn’t condone the decisions Ambar made that created the situation she is in now, she said that the rambunctious boy who rides his little car around her living room certainly has brightened the lives of everyone in the household. “He’s a blessing,” Dayana said. “He came sooner than expected, but he’s a blessing. I think he will be a runner, too. He’s very strong.” Ambar said she gives a lot of credit to her parents for being so supportive and believes that because she has such a good support system
she can one day achieve whatever she might dream of. “Having a kid does not stop you from doing what you want to do. But my parents really help me out a lot,” Ambar said. “I have to balance things, and thankfully I have my family. I do have a life when I want to have a life. Like, I’ll go bowling or something just for a couple of hours. I have a good support group and I’m very lucky to have that, and I’m very grateful for them. Because of them I have the chance to do what I do and try to chase my dreams.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]
Mainland Regional track star Ambar Kluger is clearing life’s hurdles
