By Terry Mosher
Editor, Sports Paper
Christina Foresha probably should thank the authorities at Mountain View Middle School because without them denying her the chance to continue playing baseball the Bremerton junior might not be the state 2A title threat in the sprints as she now is.
“I played baseball since I was four and in the seventh grade I went to tryouts for the baseball team, but the staff told me I had to play (softball) fastpitch,” says Foresha.
Turned away, Foresha didn’t want to play fastpitch so she went out for track and field. But she wasn’t serious about the sport, so the next spring when she was in the eighth grade she again tried to turnout for baseball and was again told that girls had an alternative sport – fastpitch.
“They told her girls only played fastpitch,” says Ron Atkins, head of Kitsap Fliers who trains her in the off-season. “That sport was not aggressive enough for her.”
So again, Foresha turned to the track and Field program where she ran into Atkins, who was then the coach at Mountain View. Atkins saw the potential in Foresha, worked with her, encouraged her, and lo and behold, Foresha found herself liking it.
So years later, Foresha is now the third fastest sprinter (100 and 200) in the WIAA District 3 for 2A and the second fastest 100 runner behind North Mason’s Tegan Daviscourt in the Olympic League 2A. She is the fastest in the OL 2A in the 200, just ahead of Daviscourt.
Foresha now has the school record in the 100 (12.35) and the 200 (25.24). Last year she finished fifth in the 100 (12.68) and sixth in the 200 (25.68). This season, Foresha has a top time of 12.76 in the 100 and 26.03 in the 200.
While her times are off from last year – but improving – there are reasons why that is so. During the basketball season she suffered a hamstring injury while working with the Bremerton drill team and that caused her to miss the winter indoor season at the University of Washington.
More tragically, Foresha’s dad – Tim Van Foresha – died last Oct. 14 at the young age of 44. He was a big part of her life and without him Foresha has had to step up and be the family anchor that keeps things steady.
“It’s been hard,” says Foresha. “I am just running on auto pilot. School and sports keeps me busy. I just go day to day.”
Its little things that pop up that remind Foresha of her day that stops her or slows her down. Just the other day in the hallways at school she thought she saw him.
“There was a man in the hallway hat looked exactly like him,” Foresha said. “I was a wreck.”
Time moves, on, though, and the living have to move forward with their life in order to survive. It’s difficult at times, but Foresha is making it. She has her sights on some goals, and she will do whatever it takes to reach them.
Atkins doesn’t believe that her dad’s death has increased pressure on her to perform better. She has dedicated the season to him and wants to do better for her dad, but her performance really gets down to putting in the extra work and striving hard to perfect her running techniques.
“I’m looking for her to get in the running problem his summer and get down to 12.1 in the 100,” says Atkins, who has nearly 50kids in the Kitsap Fliers program. “She has two more summers, a winter and another high school season to run and I’m pretty confident I can get her down under 12 seconds and 25 seconds. She has to get down to (at least) 24.9 in the 200 to get D-1 interest. That’s been her goal since the eighth grade.”
Foresha has a 3.1 grade-point average and has drawn the typical interest letters from various colleges, including University of Mary in South Dakota, Idaho and the Naval Academy.
Nothing is set in stone because Foresha has another year of high school left, but she is looking at going to a four-year school somewhere and study for a double major in Chemistry and English and perhaps work in a chemical research facility or for the FBI or CIA.
Foresha has already competed in nationals at the Junior Olympics and would like to do that one more time. Last year’s meet was held at Turner Stadium in Humble, Texas, and, boy was it hot.
“I wasn’t used to the heat and humidity and I didn’t make it past the first round,” says Foresha. “It was like walking into a sauna.”
Foresha finished 36th in the 200 (25.88) and 37th in the 100 12.50).
Traveling is not unusual for Foresha. She arrived her from Waverly, Ohio when she was nine when her grandmother moved here to be with a friend. It took some time to get used to being around mountains because Ohio is a state almost devoid of hills.
Someday, Foresha may wind her way back to Ohio. But for now, the goal is to run so fast that colleges will scramble over each other to make a scholarship offer. There is still time to do that, too. It starts this week (May 9) with the Olympic League meet and continues on until the state meet late this month.
Life has not been fair to Foresha, but if she can steady herself the following weeks could be good.
“Life throws a lot of curveballs,” says Atkins. “If everything was a 99-mile fastball, there would be a lot more people hitting home runs in life. We have to deal with what life gives us. She has been a strong cornerstone for her family, and she has had to embrace that role even more with the passing of her dad. She’s definitely the leader of her family.”
Now Foresha is hoping to be the state leader in both the 100 and 200.