In 2016, the Sheppard sisters burst onto the track and field scene in the U.S. After their babysitter signed them up for the sport on a whim, the girls took to it, gaining national attention after their wins at the Junior Olympics and being named “SportsKids of the Year” by Sports Illustrated Kids magazine. When “Sisters on Track” begins, the Sheppard sisters, who were living in a homeless shelter with their mom Tonia Handy, appear on “The View.” While getting their makeup done backstage, the girls are excited, giddy, and chatty, and explode into screams of joy when Whoopi Goldberg informs them that filmmaker Tyler Perry has secured them a furnished two-bedroom apartment and will be paying the rent for two years. This moment in spring 2017 is the launching pad for “Sisters on Track,” which follows the family as they try to balance the demands of everyday life and the girls’ highly regimented track and field schedule. 

Tonia, who escaped an abusive relationship and refuses to date again until the girls are grown, tries to save all she can from her minimum-wage job, knowing that two years will pass quickly. Single-handedly supporting three daughters in New York City means an array of expenses—everything from braces to bookbags—and planning for the girls’ future includes a whole other set of costs. Private high schools would best prepare the older Tai and Rainn (12 and 11 years old, respectively, when “Sisters on Track” begins) for college, but scholarship spots are limited. Running outfits, sneakers, and travel to meets also add up. “Sisters on Track” never gets nitty-gritty into the numbers—there’s no explicit scene of, say, Tonia whipping out a checkbook and balancing the girls’ expenses—but there is an undercurrent of tension throughout the documentary that clearly is inspired by the cascading costs of youth sports. 

While Tonia shoulders all the demands of being a single mother, “Sisters on Track” also follows the girls as they train and compete as members of the Jeuness Track Club in Brooklyn. Onscreen text informs us of the events the girls are practicing for, like the 800m or relay, and Grøttjord-Glenne and van der Borch often set up in one area of the track and use wide-angle compositions to capture the girls as they run alongside their teammates and competitors. Most of the time in the club is spent alongside Coach Jean, an administrative law judge who for 33 years has volunteered as a mentor, guide, and advocate for the girls who are part of Jeuness. “How would the girls describe me? Mean, nice, loud, caring, fun, scary,” she says with a laugh, and she certainly is all those things over the course of “Sisters on Track.” Most of the film’s humor comes from Coach Jean’s no-nonsense attitude, like her analysis of the girls’ body positioning before a relay handoff: “You’re standing there like the Statue of freaking Liberty!”

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