Forsythe Looks for One Last Shot
by Frank Burlison, Long Beach Press-Telegram
May 11, 2006 A little more than a month from now, Emily Forsythe will jump into her training to become a salesperson for Automatic Data Processing, a New Jersey-based company that handles accounting, payroll and tax services for businesses, big and small. But, for the next couple of weekends, at least, her focus will be on jumping of a different sort into a high jump pit for the final few times in a Long Beach State track and field uniform.
And, after picking up her bachelor's degree in business, she'll hop into her Mustang and head to Oklahoma City, where she will live and work once she completes ADP training that will also take her to Dallas and Roseland, N.J.
"Yeah … you're going to make me cry," she said with a touch of mock melancholy before breaking into a smile earlier this week.
"It was easier to ignore before, with all of the other stuff going on packing up and having to
move and the job and all of that. But, when it comes down to it, it's better to think about it now, then letting it all hit me at once.
"This (the conference championships at Cal State Northridge Friday and Saturday) will be my final Big West meet and then it (two weeks from now, in Provo, Utah) will be my final (NCAA qualifying) regional meet.
"It's all very sentimental. The smell of the grass … the track … wearing my uniform and why would I ever wear spikes again?"
And then it will be time to start earning a living.
"Yeah," she said, smiling again. "Welcome to the 'real world." "
But she can still "feel like a kid" for a bit longer long enough, if everything is clicking for her late Friday afternoon, to win a Big West high jump title for the first time after finishing third over the past two seasons.
And, if she is among the top five finishers in Provo, she'll advance to the NCAA Championship meet (which will be held in Sacramento, June 7-10) and she can delay her move to Oklahoma (where most of her relatives, other than her mother, who lives in Missouri, now reside) and the "real world" will have to wait a few more days for her.
Forsythe has a season's best of 5 feet, 8 3⁄4 inches, a half-inch behind conference-leader Lauren Collins of UC Irvine.
While at Long Beach, she cleared a personal best of 5-10 "four or five times" in meets and "came close" on a few attempts at 5-11 1⁄4.
She has sailed over the bar when it was set at six feet during workouts on Jack Rose Track. Doing so in Northridge, Provo or Sacramento would certainly make for a nice topic of conversation if she ever runs into any prospective ADP client with a strong interest in track and field.
Dave Rodda, who works with the jumpers (men's and women's) in coach Andy Sythe's program, thinks Forsythe is capable of becoming the fifth Long Beach State woman to clear six feet in a meet.
"I think she has a great opportunity to win the conference," he said. "And if she can get 5-11-plus or 6-feet, that will get her to the NCAA meet."
But if she doesn't win the Big West title or go over six feet in the new couple of weeks, it's not going to be something she finds herself daydreaming about while she makes the rounds for ADP.
"It's not going to be a thing where I think, 'I could have done it, if I had just worked a little bit harder," " she said. "That's not the case because I know I've worked very hard. But six feet is a barrier that every woman who high jumps wants to clear."
ADP executives found her resume on www.Monster.com and, although she was originally interested in a possible internship in the company's marketing program, one of those who interviewed her thought she seemed a natural for sales.
And when they found out that she had so much family in Oklahoma, a new ADP office in Oklahoma City seemed the natural fit.
"It's an adventure-type of thing," she said. "I'm going to grab hold of it and put everything I have into it. That's just my personality."
And that's exactly why that trip to Oklahoma might have to be postponed for a bit. |
