Making of a Phenom

Candy Roberts would love to say, “I told you so.”

The Cal State Northridge track and field coach for weight events would love to brag about seeing what other Division I coaches did not.

She would love to claim she knew that Matador freshman Cheree Hicks would be one of the top first-year collegiate throwers in the nation this season.

She would love to say she knew that Hicks would rewrite the school record book in the women’s discus and approach the school record in the shotput.

She would love to, but can’t. Roberts has been as stunned as anyone by Hicks’ accomplishments .

Four months ago, Roberts would have laughed if told that Hicks would enter the California-Nevada state championships--which start today and end Sunday at Northridge--with personal bests of 178 feet 4 inches in the discus and 50-6 1/4 in the shotput.

“She’s just one of those phenoms that got by [other recruiters],” said Roberts, the 1994 Pacific 10 Conference discus champion for UCLA. “And I got lucky.”

And to think it all started with phone calls from two coaches at Littlerock High, Hicks’ alma mater.

Bernie Kyman, the baseball coach, got the recruiting ball rolling last April by telling Northridge track Coach Don Strametz about Hicks.

Football Coach Jim Bauer, who coached Hicks in track when she was a freshman, told Roberts that he couldn’t understand why a thrower of Hicks’ ability was drawing such scant attention from Division I programs.

Hicks won the discus and placed third in the shotput in the Southern Section Division I championships in mid-May and improved her personal bests to 145-6 in the discus and 43-3 in the shot by the end of the month. Yet, Sacramento State was the only Division I school that pursued her seriously until Northridge stepped into the picture in mid-June, well after the heavy recruiting period ended.

Roberts wasn’t entirely sold on Hicks’ ability at the time, but Northridge needed another discus thrower. So Hicks and her mother, Tina, drove to Northridge for what Roberts called a “very low-key recruiting” visit.

There was no hard sell, but it was enough to convince Cheree to sign a letter of intent shortly after.

Roberts soon feared she had made a recruiting mistake.

“[Hicks] was one of the most uncoordinated girls that I had ever seen,” Roberts said. “She couldn’t even chew gum and walk at the same time. . . . She could not do a 360-degree pivot on her right foot correctly. It’s a basic fundamental skill that any [discus thrower] can do and she couldn’t.”

The solution turned out to be an introductory ballet class.

Roberts had threatened to enroll throwers in the class in previous seasons if they didn’t improve their footwork, but Hicks was the first one required to take it.

Hicks’ coordination has improved by leaps and bounds since she started attending the class in January.

“I’m not willing to say that it’s all because of the dance class,” Roberts said. “But I think it has combined with all the other things to make her a very good discus thrower.”

Hicks, a journalism major, concurred with Roberts. She said she is training harder in the weight room and is learning the technical aspects of putting the four-kilogram (8 pounds 13 ounces) shot and throwing the one-kilogram (2 pounds 3 ounces) discus.

“I think the dance class has helped,” Hicks said. “But I also think that I’ve improved in a lot of different areas.”

Her performances, especially in the discus, have reflected it.

After opening the outdoor season on March 2 with a winning throw of 165-10 against UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, Track West and host USC, Hicks has topped the former Northridge record of 168-3--set by Karen Marshall in 1977--in five of six meets.

She set her first school record of 172-1 to finish third in the Northridge Invitational on March 22 and bettered that with a 178-1 effort to place second to UCLA freshman Seilala Sua in a four-team meet at Drake Stadium two weeks ago.

She was even more impressive last weekend, winning the discus at 176-1 and the shotput at 50-6 1/4 in the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational on April 18. She then launched a school record of 178-4 in the discus to place seventh in the invitational section of the Mt. San Antonio College Relays on Sunday.

“[Hicks] is such a competitor,” Roberts said. “She loves throwing against the other top people. I have not seen her tie up in a meet because of who she is throwing against.”

In high school, Hicks’ performances suffered at times when she became overly concerned about her competitors.

“I just had to have a different mind-set for this season,” Hicks said. “I knew that I wasn’t going to be winning everything in sight because of the level of competition. So I decided that I would just concentrate on doing my best and getting [personal records] and everything would come out fine if I just worried about me.

“When I was in high school, I would be worried about other people and I would choke at some big meet. Oh, I hated that so much.”

Hicks’ newfound intensity has been encouraging, but coaching the happy-go-lucky freshman hasn’t been easy for the fiery Roberts.

“She’s not my typical athlete mentally, by no means,” Roberts said. “Cheree is not the type of athlete who I can blow up at and get in her face. If I do that, she just looks at me with this blank stare.”

How much more Hicks can improve remains to be seen.

She and Roberts feel that a 180-foot throw is imminent. Roberts also thinks Hicks’ potential in the discus could lead to a spot on the 2000 Olympic team.

“She has good flexibility and fast-twitch muscles for a thrower,” Roberts said. “When she strikes it, she has a beautiful delivery. She doesn’t do it all the time, but when she does, she nails it.”

Robert said she plans to have a long talk with Hicks about her future when the season ends in June.

“That’s when I’ll ask her how serious she is about this and how far she wants to go in this sport,” Roberts said. “If she wants to try to be one of the best, we can plan accordingly. But if she wants to just keep doing what we’re doing, that’s fine too.”

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California-Nevada State Track & Field Championships

WHO: Teams from 35 colleges in 2-day meet.

WHEN: Qualifying in field events starts today at 9 a.m. Running events start at 11:15 a.m. All but two finals will be held Sunday, when field events start at 9 a.m. and running events start at 12:30 p.m.

WHERE: Cal State Northridge track and field facility on Lindley Avenue, south of Lassen.

WHO TO WATCH: Amy Acuff and Suzy Powell of UCLA and Melissa Price of Fresno State are among the nation’s best in their respective events. Acuff is the NCAA’s two-time defending champion in the high jump and Powell was the runner-up in the discus last year. Price was ranked second in the country in the pole vault last year. In the men’s meet, Sean Brown and Andrew Sverchek of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Michael Granville of UCLA are favored to win the pole vault, discus and 800 meters, respectively. Brown has cleared 18-6 3/4 in the vault, Sverchek has thrown the discus 198-3 this season and Granville set a national high school record of 1:46.45 in the 800 last year while competing for Bell Gardens.

TICKETS: $8 for adults today and $10 on Sunday or $15 for a two-day pass. $5 for students and children each day.