Andrea Foley

[Papa_Bull]

Chris Anderson  May 05, 2004

Foley sees state dream disappear

The principal found Andrea Foley in the hallway last Friday morning, and led her into his office. She sat in a chair and cried. He passed her a tissue, and felt like crying, too.

When the bell rang for her home economics class, she entered the room and the teacher gave her a hug. A lot of people at Charlotte High hugged her that day. They also kept saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'' "Our whole school was in shock,'' Charlotte High track coach Wade Taylor said.

The day before in Tampa, all Foley had to do was clear one final hurdle, saunter 10 yards to the finish line, raise her arms in triumph, become the region champion in the 300-meter hurdles, and prepare to place high in the state meet.

"Everyone on our team just expected her to go,'' said Teressa Taylor, who coaches Charlotte's hurdlers.

One last hurdle. She could have cleared it balancing an egg on a spoon. She had never fallen before in a meet. Yet, this time she did.

"It was probably the worst thing I've seen as a coach,'' Wade Taylor said. "It was like one of those 'agony of defeat' things on Wide World of Sports.'' She hadn't lost a race all year, and in the prelims no one was within an area code of her. She advanced to the Class 3A-Region 3 finals with a time of 45.74. The next closest girl came in at 47.35.

Foley's main goal was to break the school record, and surely if she didn't do it in the region finals that afternoon she would have another shot at state. The school record is 45.47. Foley missed it by one-tenth of a second in the district meet.

She exploded out of the blocks in the finals, and was quickly ahead of everyone. She approached the final hurdle easily in first place, and she knew that the top four advance to the state meet.

But her lead leg, for some reason, clipped the final hurdle and she fell hard to the track, landing on her upper body. The crowd gasped, and everyone seemed aware of how unlikely the sight was.

"Everyone was kind of numb and in shock,'' said Teressa Taylor.

She tried to get up, but kept stumbling. So she began crawling to the finish line.

"You could just see the determination,'' said Teressa Taylor. "She wanted to go to state so badly that she was still fighting to get across the line. She was a competitor to the end.'' As she neared the finish line, she began counting the legs of runners now going by her.

One girl crossed the line, then another, then another. She knew she had to get fourth place to go to the state meet, so she frantically extended her hand across the line just as another girl ran across it.

"I remember reaching for it and I looked up and I saw three girls cross,'' she said. "I thought, 'If I could just get fourth …''' It was close enough that officials would look at a camera replay to see who came in fourth.

It wasn't Foley.

And since she is a senior, she will never get another chance to run the hurdles in the state high school track meet.

After the fall, she managed to keep her composure until she finally saw her family, friends and teammates.

"When she got off the track she collapsed in her dad's arms,'' Teressa Taylor said.

"It was the worst moment of my life,'' Foley said. "I just felt sick to my stomach.'' Off to the side, Charlotte assistant AD Jerry Voss told Teressa Taylor it was the most devastating thing he's seen in high school sports.

"It hurt me so bad I didn't know what to say to her,'' Wade Taylor said.

"At that point what do you say to someone who worked so hard? There was nothing I could say to change it.

"I've coached track for 12 years and she's the most talented I've ever been around. It was heartbreaking.'' Foley was in just her second year of running the hurdles, and had made tremendous strides. She finished eighth in the state meet as a junior, and based on her times this year, she could have finished third, perhaps even higher.

"She wanted to break the school record and stand on the state podium,'' Wade Taylor said.

She never missed practice, according to her coaches, and always encouraged her teammates.

She plans on attending USF next fall, and will run track there. She has a weighted GPA of 4.47 and will enter school as a sophomore because of the college classes she has already taken.

"If anyone ever deserved to go to state it was Andrea Foley,'' Taylor said.

She will still run at the state meet Friday in Gainesville, however.

She runs the first leg on Charlotte's 4x400-meter relay team.

One day, she will appreciate that. It's just a little tough right now. She has cried each night since the race.

"I probably haven't cried so much in my entire life,'' she said.

"This is what I lived for, and it was all taken away in not even a second.''

Last modified: May 05. 2004 12:00AM

***

I just wanted to wish Andrea much success in overcoming the hurdles at USF in the coming years.

[BULLO12]

Good article Howie...Thanks for posting it.  That girl has heart

[Markeymark]

"It was the worst moment of my life,'' Foley said.

Oh, please.

GET OVER IT.

[Velcro]

Oh, please.

GET OVER IT.

That wasn't an unrealistic statement... i know the feeling of choking in the home stretch of the HS state final golf tournament, having the lead by 3 with 3 holes to go and losing by 3... to that point, it was the worst moment of my life... but now looking back, its a funny story.  I feel her pain now, but she'll have plenty of chances to make up for it at USF.

[Velcro]

If this truly is the worst thing that evers happens to her, she should feel fortunate.

Understatement of the year

[bulls96go]

Oh, please.

GET OVER IT.

that is a little harsh

for a HS'er with her last HS race with States on the line

i would say at this time in her life this qualifies. some people never recover from similar events.

[smazza]

choke

[bulls96go]

choke

man the peanut gallery is brutal on this HS'r who BTW is coming to USF