Post by elp525 on Jun 7, 2011 22:14:55 GMT -5
Tuesday June 7, 2011
by Mike Casazza
Charleston Daily Mail
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- There are times when one sees Chelsea Carrier out on the track and remembers all of her accomplishments and wonders this: What if?
Carrier is West Virginia University's outdoor track & field superstar senior on a team that sends an unprecedented seven athletes to the NCAA national championship this week.
It begins Wednesday in Iowa.
Carrier will compete in the heptathlon Thursday and Friday and the 100-meter hurdles Thursday.
She is, quite simply and without any exaggeration, one of the best in her sport in all of the country. That might be hard to grasp because this is, after all, at WVU. It doesn't remove the truth, though.
As far as her sport and her peers are concerned, Carrier is no afterthought. Still, what if people don't properly appreciate her accomplishments thus far?
"How good is Chelsea?" said Sean Cleary, her coach and the Mid-Atlantic Region Women's Coach of the Year. "I think if Chelsea was in any other country in the world, she'd be going to the Olympics. She just happens to live in the best track & field country in the world. I hope that puts it into perspective a little bit. I think if Chelsea sticks with her sport four more years, she's an Olympian."
That would be in 2016. The next Olympic games are in 2012.
"If Chelsea has one more step of improvement in the next 12 months, she'll go to the Olympic trials and believe she can make the Olympics - and rightfully so," Cleary said.
Carrier was named the Mid-Atlantic Region Women's Field Athlete of the Year Monday and is aiming at All-American and national championship prizes this week.
But what if she had stayed on the original path?
Her mother, Andrea, was a gymnast and Chelsea was actually very good at that growing up, from age 5 through eighth grade.
She was a Level 9 gymnast and all of those trips from her home in Buckhannon to work out three hours a day six days a week in her gym in Morgantown had her just a step away from Level 10, the highest possible. She was hailed in a 2001 newspaper as the next Mary Lou Retton.
What if she kept going?
"If I had done four more years in high school," she said, "I would have competed here."
Don't mistake that for arrogance. Not from someone with a grace and humility that defies her success. It's quite likely true.
And if you don't believe that, understand she didn't run track or do the field events at all before she started the sport at Buckhannon-Upshur and ultimately won 11 state titles, set one state record and three state meet records and was the high scorer at all four of her state meets.
Carrier has the blend of natural ability from her mother and father, Rick, who played football and ran track at West Virginia Wesleyan and owns the school record for the 200 meters, as well as a flat-out talent to apply her discipline and determination.
Put it this way: There is little doubt she's at least an Olympic level athlete. There is doubt about what event she'll pursue, but not because she's a fringe prospect. She's a possibility in multiple events.
"I want to do the heptathlon and the hurdles," she said. "Maybe I'll start doing more in the 400 hurdles."
Carrier has been dominant in the 100 hurdles and the heptathlon this year and was the Big East champion in the long jump before having a bad day at the NCAA regional. Yet she started messing around with the 400 hurdles this season with great success.
She ran the event three times. The third time saw her win the Big East title in the fastest time in the conference this season.
"It's not as hard as I thought," she said.
Not much is for Carrier once she puts her talent and attention to the task.
"My pole vault coach wants her," Cleary said. "My last pole vault coach would have done anything to get her. He said, 'That girl could do it in two weeks if she started practicing it.' "
Why limit the conversation to gymnastics or track? What if Cleary let Carrier run cross country?
"That's something we won't even tease ourselves with," Cleary said, "but I wouldn't put it past her."
It's totally out of the question, particularly at this stage of Carrier's far-from-finished career.
No one will deny her the possibility of the 2012 Olympics in London, though the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro are probably more realistic, but she's going to have to specialize sooner rather than later and certainly within the next 12 months.
Then again, the very beginning of Carrier's career was rooted in constructive indecisiveness. Cleary saw this high school phenom projected the grandest of goals. The thought, though, was greatness could be achieved by narrowing her focus.
Only no one knew how to do that. Cleary sat down with his predecessor, Marty Pushkin, and got his opinion. Then Cleary went to his jump coach and got that opinion. Then Cleary met with the entire staff.
"Nobody could agree," Cleary said. "Out of that meeting came the decision she was going to be a hurdler and a multi-event kid - and thank God we did that."
Before you wonder what if she made things simpler, understand complications are only challenges she seeks to overcome like hurdles on the straightaway.
This is a person who prefers a two-day, seven-event competition. Why, she even wears her engagement ring, a stunning 18th century piece with a dazzling display of diamonds, on her left hand as she performs.
Remember, this is someone who runs and jumps and throws for show, where drag and resistance and hundredths of seconds are priceless, and she's at ease and never distracted carrying her grandmother's heirloom.
"It's not loose so it won't fall off," said Carrier, who is to marry former Bridgeport High School star sprinter Wes Eades this summer. "It's a big rock, but it won't fall off."
by Mike Casazza
Charleston Daily Mail
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- There are times when one sees Chelsea Carrier out on the track and remembers all of her accomplishments and wonders this: What if?
Carrier is West Virginia University's outdoor track & field superstar senior on a team that sends an unprecedented seven athletes to the NCAA national championship this week.
It begins Wednesday in Iowa.
Carrier will compete in the heptathlon Thursday and Friday and the 100-meter hurdles Thursday.
She is, quite simply and without any exaggeration, one of the best in her sport in all of the country. That might be hard to grasp because this is, after all, at WVU. It doesn't remove the truth, though.
As far as her sport and her peers are concerned, Carrier is no afterthought. Still, what if people don't properly appreciate her accomplishments thus far?
"How good is Chelsea?" said Sean Cleary, her coach and the Mid-Atlantic Region Women's Coach of the Year. "I think if Chelsea was in any other country in the world, she'd be going to the Olympics. She just happens to live in the best track & field country in the world. I hope that puts it into perspective a little bit. I think if Chelsea sticks with her sport four more years, she's an Olympian."
That would be in 2016. The next Olympic games are in 2012.
"If Chelsea has one more step of improvement in the next 12 months, she'll go to the Olympic trials and believe she can make the Olympics - and rightfully so," Cleary said.
Carrier was named the Mid-Atlantic Region Women's Field Athlete of the Year Monday and is aiming at All-American and national championship prizes this week.
But what if she had stayed on the original path?
Her mother, Andrea, was a gymnast and Chelsea was actually very good at that growing up, from age 5 through eighth grade.
She was a Level 9 gymnast and all of those trips from her home in Buckhannon to work out three hours a day six days a week in her gym in Morgantown had her just a step away from Level 10, the highest possible. She was hailed in a 2001 newspaper as the next Mary Lou Retton.
What if she kept going?
"If I had done four more years in high school," she said, "I would have competed here."
Don't mistake that for arrogance. Not from someone with a grace and humility that defies her success. It's quite likely true.
And if you don't believe that, understand she didn't run track or do the field events at all before she started the sport at Buckhannon-Upshur and ultimately won 11 state titles, set one state record and three state meet records and was the high scorer at all four of her state meets.
Carrier has the blend of natural ability from her mother and father, Rick, who played football and ran track at West Virginia Wesleyan and owns the school record for the 200 meters, as well as a flat-out talent to apply her discipline and determination.
Put it this way: There is little doubt she's at least an Olympic level athlete. There is doubt about what event she'll pursue, but not because she's a fringe prospect. She's a possibility in multiple events.
"I want to do the heptathlon and the hurdles," she said. "Maybe I'll start doing more in the 400 hurdles."
Carrier has been dominant in the 100 hurdles and the heptathlon this year and was the Big East champion in the long jump before having a bad day at the NCAA regional. Yet she started messing around with the 400 hurdles this season with great success.
She ran the event three times. The third time saw her win the Big East title in the fastest time in the conference this season.
"It's not as hard as I thought," she said.
Not much is for Carrier once she puts her talent and attention to the task.
"My pole vault coach wants her," Cleary said. "My last pole vault coach would have done anything to get her. He said, 'That girl could do it in two weeks if she started practicing it.' "
Why limit the conversation to gymnastics or track? What if Cleary let Carrier run cross country?
"That's something we won't even tease ourselves with," Cleary said, "but I wouldn't put it past her."
It's totally out of the question, particularly at this stage of Carrier's far-from-finished career.
No one will deny her the possibility of the 2012 Olympics in London, though the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro are probably more realistic, but she's going to have to specialize sooner rather than later and certainly within the next 12 months.
Then again, the very beginning of Carrier's career was rooted in constructive indecisiveness. Cleary saw this high school phenom projected the grandest of goals. The thought, though, was greatness could be achieved by narrowing her focus.
Only no one knew how to do that. Cleary sat down with his predecessor, Marty Pushkin, and got his opinion. Then Cleary went to his jump coach and got that opinion. Then Cleary met with the entire staff.
"Nobody could agree," Cleary said. "Out of that meeting came the decision she was going to be a hurdler and a multi-event kid - and thank God we did that."
Before you wonder what if she made things simpler, understand complications are only challenges she seeks to overcome like hurdles on the straightaway.
This is a person who prefers a two-day, seven-event competition. Why, she even wears her engagement ring, a stunning 18th century piece with a dazzling display of diamonds, on her left hand as she performs.
Remember, this is someone who runs and jumps and throws for show, where drag and resistance and hundredths of seconds are priceless, and she's at ease and never distracted carrying her grandmother's heirloom.
"It's not loose so it won't fall off," said Carrier, who is to marry former Bridgeport High School star sprinter Wes Eades this summer. "It's a big rock, but it won't fall off."
