by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Latrika Allen was a long way from home, half a continent away, when she learned she was an All-American.
And it made little difference to her.
“It really didn’t matter,” said Allen, a junior at Edward Waters College. “I just wanted to run track.”
She was in Olathe, Kan., in May for the 2003 NAIA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field competition. She became an All-American after posting a third-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles and coming in fifth in the 400-meter hurdles.
The physical education major was offered a track scholarship to compete for EWC after graduating from Rickards High School in Tallahassee.
Though she accepted, she wasn’t sure what to expect as she came across state to Jacksonville. She wanted to be away from her hometown, but, then again, not too far.
“I just wanted to be in school and do something positive with myself,” she said.
In high school, she ran the 100, 200, 4x1 and the 4x4. She then switched to the 100 and 400 hurdles.
“It’s mainly hurdles, but I do a lot of everything,” she said. “I also run the 4x8 and do the high jump.
“But my coach has made me stay running the hurdles.”
She also averaged around 16 points a game last season as a guard on the basketball team. And she’s a cheerleader.
Allen began taking her running seriously in elementary school, preferably against boys. Not all of them appreciated the challenge.
“I’ve always run, and I like competing against boys,” she said. “I played against them, and I made sure I beat them. Some of them would race me, and some of them wouldn’t.”
Allen isn’t sure what she will do after graduation, but it may very well be in coaching, “something dealing with kids,” she said.
“We’re very, very proud of Latrika here at Edward Waters College, both with her specific sports accomplishments and being named All-American,” said Athletic Director Bob Alan. “We’re also very proud that she’s an exemplary student.
“She’s just an all-around wonderful young lady.”
Ileita Thomas is Allen’s track coach. This is her first coaching job, but that’s not to say she doesn’t know her way around the track.
The graduate of Jefferson Davis High School has “a couple of track records over there that can’t be broken” in the 100, 220 and the quarter mile.
“I’ve still got a little something in me,” she said with an easy smile. “It’ll keep you in shape.”
Thomas got a bachelor’s degree in physical education at EWC and then earned a master’s degree in business administration.
She was working at the Jacksonville Job Corps when she was recruited to help Coach Regina Mosley with the women’s basketball team. Then she was asked to be track coach.
“It’s really great working with these kids,” she said. “They really love the sports, and I love giving back to the college.”
Allen is a special sort of student athlete, Thomas said, but she’s not the only one at EWC.
“We’ve got lots of others running around campus here,” she said.
Allen maintains a regular training schedule of five or six times a week, perhaps 10 to 12 hours total, she said. Basketball also goes a long way toward keeping her in shape before track season begins.
She agreed that track can be a lonely sport, requiring a little something extra of those who would be champions.
“Sometimes you don’t have any help; sometimes you do,” she said. “But it’s up to you.
“You don’t know how far to push yourself because you don’t have anyone to push you. You just have to do what you have to do.”
Thomas said she know just how Allen feels.
“Sure it’s lonely,” Thomas said. “But it also gives you time to think. Like you’re in the wind.”