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A rescheduled exam allows Alison Foster to compete in the state meet.
By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 10, 2002
LAND O'LAKES -- Academics and athletics. No surprise, they don't always get along.
In Alison Foster's life, they're at war with each other.
Foster is an honor student in Land O'Lakes' exclusive international baccalaureate program, which requires hours dedicated to intensive study. But the sophomore is also a letter-winner in volleyball, basketball and track.
School and sports collided. Foster placed second in the shot put in last week's Class 3A, Region 3 meet to qualify for her first state meet today at Coral Springs.
There was one problem: She had an advanced placement test scheduled for today. A makeup date would have been difficult to arrange, considering her trip to Colorado next week with the Odyssey of the Mind team.
Coaches Rock Ridgeway and Al Claggett managed to wrangle a compromise: Foster will take the A.P. exam after the school year.
She's thrilled, to say the least. She hasn't felt like this since ... well, since she threw the shot put a school-record 36 feet, 8 1/4 inches at last week's region meet.
"Oh my God, when it happened I was like walking on cloud nine the whole rest of the day," Foster said. "It was like the coolest thing in the world."
What would be even cooler to Foster would be to master the shot put and one day place at state. She got her first taste as a freshman at last year's region meet.
"If I could place last year, surrounded by 20 or 30 upperclassmen," Foster said, "I knew if I could do that, I could get better at it."
Ridgeway said Foster started to find the balance between school and track late this season, when she realized how good she could be if she concentrated.
"She missed state last year only by a foot," the coach said. "She's missed a lot of early practices, but in the last two or three weeks, when she realized now it counts, she improved herself by 2 feet to make state.
"When she's here, she's a hard worker. When she's here, she trains hard."
Foster is glad to be going to state, the first of many trips, she hopes.
"It's hard to balance everything," Foster said. "But I have to thank my coaches so much for going to bat for me."