When Tadese Is Running, He Doesn’t Have Any Trouble : Cross-Country: Still adjusting to U.S. college life, he has been perfect for Point Loma Nazarene this season.

Ask Goshu Tadese about his running goals or what he wants to do with his future, and his only reaction is a slight, pleasing smile that is an attempt to mask his confusion.

When one has lived on a day-to-day basis, it is difficult to conceptualize long-term goals and future plans. Life, for as long as Tadese can remember, has always been taken one day at a time.

Tadese was born in Ethiopia, which he left when he was 9. With his father, a government official-turned-guerilla fighter, Tadese walked across his homeland to the Sudan. There he spent four years in a Red Cross refuge camp, working in a restaurant and picking cotton, until he moved to the United States.

This country has also proved to be a daily challenge. Learning the language while going to school has been a struggle. During one three-month period, he lived alone in a garage, surviving on the wages he earned hawking peanuts and Cracker Jack at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

But while language and academics are still somewhat of a problem, running is not.

Tadese, the San Diego Section champion as a senior at Crawford, has run six races for the Point Loma Nazarene College cross country team this year and won them all, setting course records twice.

Saturday at La Mirada Park, Tadese and the Crusaders both won at the NAIA District 3 championships, advancing to the nationals Nov. 18 at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha. Tadese, third in the district meet last year as a freshman, covered the five-mile course in 26 minutes 31 seconds to defeat teammate Rick Penman by eight seconds. The team easily defeated runner-up Fresno Pacific, 38-67.

PLNC Coach Jim Crakes wonders just how good Tadese could be. He never trained in high school--mainly because he was always working--but he won the Mt. SAC Invitational and finished second in the state championships as a senior. Crakes is finally getting Tadese to understand the importance of training.

“Last year, with school work and everything, I wasn’t ready,” Tadese said before Saturday’s race. “I started running in September. This year I started running July 25.”

Said Crakes: “I think he’s made a lot of progress. He was a winner at everything in high school, but his freshman year was a tough adjustment in college. He had not done a lot of training. I don’t know how fast he can run since he hasn’t been beat.”

Crakes has little doubt that Tadese can be a successful runner. His concern is whether Tadese can be as successful a student and make it through the demands of college.

“It’s been real tough on him because he still has a hard time with the English language,” Crakes said. “He’s working hard and trying hard. But I don’t know. It’s like the guy who is a really good runner but doesn’t train until a month before the championships. Is there enough time to get ready? That’s where Goshu is academically.

“I don’t think anybody knows what he’s been through. It’s almost like taking a street person and putting him in college. That’s not very good preparation for college.”

Tadese just looks upon the situation with wonderment.

“I think how lucky I am, where I grow up, and where I am now,” Tadese said. “I just thank God. I came out of a garage without a penny.”

Tadese and his father were sponsored by a nonprofit organization and moved to the United States from the Sudan when he was 14. They spent six months in Kentucky because they had some friends there but moved to San Diego because of the weather.

Tadese’s relationship with his father, who now lives in Fresno, began to deteriorate.

“I had a hard time when I was in high school,” Tadese said. “My father kicked me out when I was 15.”

Tadese had a friend who rented a garage to store his car, and Tadese asked him if he could stay there. The friend agreed, but Tadese could not let the family living in the apartment above the garage find out.

So he took baths in a children’s plastic swimming pool and did his homework at night at a baseball field at a nearby park. He subsisted on the money he made working at the stadium--a 10-mile trip on his bicycle.

After three months, some friends found out that he was living in the garage and made him move into an apartment with them.

But he still struggled socially at high school, mainly because of his limited understanding of English.

“(In the refugee camp) there were a million people like me,” Tadese said. “I was not different.”

But Tadese’s social life began to change when he discovered running.

When he was in the ninth grade at Horace Mann Junior High, Tadese and the other boys in the physical education classes were required to participate in a mile run at the end of the year.

Tadese, who had never run competitively before, set a school record in 5:08.6.

His reputation followed him as he started his sophomore year at Crawford. The cross country coach approached him and asked if he would be interested in running.

Tadese was entered in a 3.1-mile sophomore race at the South Bay Invitational. He ran 5:05 for the first mile and won by a quarter mile.

Tadese got a medal and instantly wanted to know when was the next sophomore race. He was told not to worry about that, he would be running varsity.

“Before I didn’t know anybody, but when I wore my letterman’s jacket, everybody would say, ‘Hello, Goshu.’ Even if I didn’t know their name, I would say hello,” Tadese said. “I like people. That’s one of the benefits I had growing up with different cultures. No matter where I go, I always be something. It’s good to have friends.

“I always liked to travel. I always wanted to know what kinds of people live in the world. I think that’s important. When you mix it up, it’s more together.”

Tadese never thought of going to college. It wasn’t really a concept he totally understood. But when he started getting recruited by NCAA Division I schools, he started thinking of college as an option.

After considering the larger schools, Tadese decided on Point Loma Nazarene.

“It’s a Christian school and I am a Christian,” Tadese said. “People at a Christian school are more family people.”

Family is very important to Tadese, though he is still alienated from his father and his mother, sister and four brothers still live in Ethiopia. He has not heard from them since he left, although his father keeps sporadic contact.

“That’s who my parents are now,” Tadese said. “My teachers and my friends.”

But it is not the same.

“It hits me when someone will say ‘I’m going home to see my mom and dad’ or ‘My little brother did this,’ ” Tadese said. “I would like to see my mother again. I don’t remember much, except that she was very nice. A while ago I had this dream she was dying, and I was crying. I woke up, and I cried all night.

“Sometimes my dreams come true.”

Cross-Country Notes

Goshu Tadese and Rick Penman both made first-team all-District 3 with their finishes Saturday. Sean O’Hara of PLNC missed by a spot in eighth to make the second team, as did Gus Arce (13th) and Scott Lardner (14th). The Point Loma Nazarene women surpassed expectations by finishing second behind Westmont, 53-59. Azusa Pacific was third with 65 points. PLNC did not advance as a team, but Annette Ronnerman did advance by finishing sixth in 19:24 for the 5,000 meters. Genevieve Graff of Christ College Irvine was first in 18:24.