See Althea Run : A Wiz on the Court, She Also Sets Records on the Track

Although she was a starter and valuable member of Morningside High School’s CIF 4-A basketball championship team and state runner up in Division I, Althea Moses is best known at the school for her track exploits.

And, why not.

The 5-foot-8 senior’s name appears on the gym wall for record performances in the triple jump, 800 meters, mile relay and the 440 relay.

Tremendous strength and speed have made Moses successful in what she refers to as “my sport.”

Moses uses the term specifically to differentiate between basketball, which she competes in to “keep from just sitting around,” and track, her specialty.

Basketball is a time-consuming hobby for Moses, who was a member of a team that was top-ranked in the state for much of the season. She played to remain active during the track off season and says there was little glory in being a forward for the Monarchs.

“I was just there to rebound, rebound, rebound,” Moses said, who averages three points. “It was really no big deal to me. I was there for defense and to get rebounds. I never really scored or worked on my offense.”

Morningside girls’ basketball Coach Frank Scott said Moses’ role was strictly rebounding and defense because that’s what she does best.

“At first, it didn’t sit too well with her,” Scott said. “She wanted to score like everybody else. But she never gave up. Althea always gave 100% out there.”

Moses felt inferior playing on a team with all-stars like Carla Gladden, 6-foot-5 center Lisa Leslie and All-American Shaunda Greene. Moses rarely scored or received media attention and claims she was lucky to be noticed.

“It’s hard not to think about all the publicity they got,” Moses said of her teammates, “because it went on and on and on. I felt like an outsider all year, but I would just think about what I’ve done in my sport.”

Greene, the team captain, said Moses made herself feel like an outsider because she always kept to herself.

“As captain I always felt I could talk to anyone on the team,” said Greene, who will attend the University of Washington on a basketball scholarship next year. “Not her. Her attitude wasn’t the best. She really didn’t accept her role on the team, and she felt she didn’t get enough notoriety for the part she did.”

So why did Moses do it? Why sacrifice long hours in the gym to feel inadequate ?

“It was just something I had to do to help the team out,” Moses said. “It wasn’t helping me, but I felt I had to be there.”

Moses said that going to state finals was an exciting end to her basketball career, but it hurt her in track. Since the Lady Monarchs went all the way in post-season play, Moses lost about three weeks of intense training in her sport. The late start was evident in her performance at the beginning of the track season.

For example, at the Arcadia High Invitational, the season’s first big meet, Moses placed last in the 800-meter race and fouled on all of her jumps. In the same meet last year, Moses jumped at least 38 feet in all six of her triple-jump attempts.

“I just came from basketball,” Moses said last week. “It’s hard to come back and do well. Right now I’m performing off strength and what I’ve learned in the past.”

Morningside track Coach Ron Tatum says Moses will be in full force for the CIF finals in May and the state meet in June.

“Missing that much training really put a damper on her whole performance,” Tatum said, “but Althea is like the kids from the old school, from when I grew up, when the coach told you to do something and the athlete would do it and do it right. You tell today’s kids to do something and you have to watch them or they won’t do it. Althea does it right. She’s very dedicated.”

The sweat and sore muscles that result from hours of sprinting and jumping are well worth it to the 18-year old.

“It isn’t easy,” she said. “It takes a lot of energy, but I just have to let my body take the strenuous pain. I like to be a winner and that’s what it takes to be a winner.”

Moses was an All-American last year when she set the CIF 2-A triple-jump record, 39 feet, 9 inches, in the CIF preliminaries at Gahr High. Moses fouled both triple-jump attempts a week later at the CIF finals, however, and didn’t qualify for the state meet.

“It was ridiculous,” said Darryl Taylor, who coaches Moses in the jumping events. “She ran the mile relay, and five minutes later they made her jump. Of course she fouled both jumps.”

Moses had just led Morningside’s mile-relay team from fifth place to a second-place finish by running a 56.4-second split as the third leg. She also placed first in the 800-meter race at CIF finals at 2:14.1 with the best time in the southern section and had a third-place finish in that event at the state meet.

“Althea is not super-talented,” Tatum said. “A lot of other athletes are more physically talented than her, but she works very, very hard. That’s what has allowed her to surpass so many.”

Moses may not have gone all the way in the triple-jump during CIF competition last year, but she proved her strength in the event a month later in the Track Athletic Congress junior meet in Arizona by jumping a personal best of 39 feet, 10 inches. Then in August, she set an Amateur Athletic Union record in the junior Olympics at Syracuse University by jumping 40 feet, 1 1/2 inches.

“Afterwards, there were all these photographers in the pit taking my picture,” Moses said. “I felt like Jackie Joyner. I just felt good and I was looking good too.”

Moses also ran a personal best of 2:13.4 in the 800-meter race at the age-group nationals in Pennsylvania last summer. She placed fourth in the event.

“There’s pretty tremendous versatility in someone who jumps as far as she jumps, then runs the 800 meters,” said USC track Coach Fred LaPlante, who is recruiting Moses. “She just has a lot of power.”

Moses has narrowed her college choices to USC and Louisiana State University, both of which have offered her track scholarships.

But Moses has a few things she wants to accomplish before college. First, she’s concentrating on a strong performance in her first big meet this weekend at Mt. San Antonio College, then she wants to win the state title in the triple jump.

“She can do it,” Tatum said. “The sky is the limit. If her mind is into it, not too much can stop her.”