THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 3, 1994 TAG: 9406030904
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940603 LENGTH: PORTSMOUTH
Colander has repeatedly beaten all the competition her city, region and state could muster. Twice, she's won national titles.
{REST} But recently, the question on the floor at the Colander household, one debated frequently, was whether she is the fastest member of her own family.
``You know,'' said John Colander, eyeing his daughter from across the living room of their home on Crystal Lake, ``I really don't remember her beating me.
``Tasha,'' he continued, in the manner of a man who has discovered some great irony for the first time, ``You know, you haven't beaten me yet.''
LaTasha Colander grinned.
``He always says that.''
If he has raced LaTasha Colander and crossed the finish line first, the Rev. John Colander can count himself a member of a very small club.
At the Eastern Region meet last week, Colander won the 100 meters by more than half a second, the 100 hurdles by more than a second, and the 200 meters by two seconds.
In other words, it was Colander, then - one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two - the next runner.
When Colander runs locally, the only race is for second place.
``We all get a gift of talent from the Lord,'' John Colander says. ``It's how we use it.''
LaTasha Colander, 17, has used her talents to the utmost. She's won a full track scholarship to the University of North Carolina. She has run the nation's fastest time in the 100 hurdles (13.70), and is among the nation's best in the 200 meters. She has nine state titles. She's a member of the National Honor Society, the pride of a large extended family and the toast of her hometown.
``At the supermarket, they'll see me writing out a check,'' says Hortense Colander, LaTasha's mother. ``They'll look at it and ask, `Do you know LaTasha Colander, the girl who runs?' ''
At the Church of The Solid Rock Of The Apostolic Faith in Suffolk, where Colander's grandfather, Obadiah, is bishop, LaTasha is equally well-known.
``After service, there's always someone asking her, `When are you going to race me?' '' Hortense Colander says.
Invariably, it's a man. Like John Colander, they can't resist teasing her.
That's appropriate. Colander started her sprint career running against boys during field day at Hodges Manor Elementary.
``The boys and girls ran together, and I would try to get up with the boys,'' Colander says. ``Jay Clarke (the current Norcom football and basketball star) would be up front, and I'd get ahead of him.''
``She used to always bring home those certificates,'' Hortense Colander says. ``(John) ran in the Army, so he'd challenge her.''
They'd run at night, in the streets, after John Colander finished mowing the grass.
LaTasha continued running, and made an immediate impact at I.C. Norcom High. Too immediate, in fact. Colander was still in the eighth grade at Waters Junior High when an overzealous coach entered her in varsity meets.
``She was giving Lisa Curtis (the district's hurdles champion) fits, even as an eighth grader,'' Wilson coach John Crute said.
Colander won the district title in the 300 hurdles as a freshman, but by the end of the year, she was ready to move on.
Norcom had a small girls track team, and Colander was frequently the only girl at the larger meets.
``It got to be a lonely road,'' Hortense Colander said.
At Manor (which became Wilson this year) where Crute was then coaching, things were different. Crute and his volunteer assistant coach, Richard Drake, a hurdles specialist, had produced a long line of state champion hurdlers. The most recent one, Lisa Wells, had won a national championship.
Colander lived in the Manor zone but had opted to attend Norcom, where her sister had gone. She enrolled at Manor for her sophomore year.
Crute contacted the Virginia High School League and got a letter promising that Colander wouldn't be penalized for meets she ran as an eighth grader.
Crute and Drake gradually moved Colander out of the 300 hurdles and concentrated on the 100-meter hurdles, and the 100- and 200-meter dashes.
``Something had to give, and we just kind of drifted that way,'' Crute says.
The rest is local track history. Colander won the state indoor 55-meter hurdles championship as a sophomore. She finished fifth in the same event at the National Scholastic Indoor Meet in Syracuse, N.Y.
She won two state titles the following indoor season, and went on to win the national championship in the 55-meter hurdles in Syracuse. She won three more state titles - the 100, 200 and 100 hurdles - last spring.
This year, Colander has won three state indoor titles. She missed winning the national title in the 55 hurdles indoor, but she made up for it by winning the 200.
An entire room of the Colander house is devoted to her trophies, ribbons and medals. The only problem is that each time Hortense Colander makes a dent in the giant task of organizing them, her daughter wins a few more. Medals, stacked in their plastic cases, sit on an end table. On another is a pile of ribbons.
All are the product of natural talent, honed by hard work.
``If you look at her from the waist down, you know why LaTasha Colander is fast,'' Crute says. ``But she works very hard in practice. Sometimes she wants to whine, but she doesn't.''
Colander, 5-foot-7, has long legs and the kind of natural speed that no amount of coaching can produce.
But if sprinting is a natural burst, hurdling is more measured, and technical, something not every sprinter can master.
``At first it seemed kind of hard, because I was jumping up in the air,'' Colander said. ``Then it got like I was stepping over the hurdles.''
Drake and Crute have Colander's hurdle races planned, down to the step. Her job is to practice those steps, until they become second nature.
``I try not to remember my steps,'' Colander says. ``I just try to get the feeling, and go with the feeling.''
When she really has the feeling, there are none better. She ran her 13.70 in a semifinal heat at the Eastern Region meet, into a headwind.
Colander's combination of speed and skill makes her quite simply the best sprinter/hurdler the area has ever produced. Crute, who has been a fixture on the state track scene for 20 years, says he's seen only one better: Betina Fitzgerald, who won five events for Gar-Field at the 1978 state meet and went on to win a gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles at the 1984 Olympics.
Colander likely will get a shot at making the U.S. Olympic Team in 1996, and it's those kind of goals that keep her working hard.
``I know she'll do well at North Carolina, because of the discipline she has,'' Hortense Colander says. ``She leaves the house at 7, and doesn't get home until 5 or 5:30. Then she has to study. On weekends, when most kids can sleep in, Mr. Crute is here at 6 or 6:30 to take her to a track meet.''
Colander doesn't have much time for anything but track and school, but says she's found: ``If you keep going after it, you'll get more out of it.''
On both fronts. Colander, who plans to major in broadcast journalism, will graduate in the top 10 in her class.
``I didn't want to put my eyes on just one thing,'' she says. ``I've always said my dad and mom wanted me to do things that they never did.''
Colander's family ties extend far beyond her home. John Colander is one of eight children, and much of the family remains in Suffolk.
On the wall of the Colander home are pictures of family members at track meets all over the country.
``Mr. Drake always says, `Oh, Lord, here come some more Colanders,' '' Hortense Colander says.
There are more Colanders on hand the day of the Eastern Region meet. There are scores of other people too, and most of them have stopped what they are doing to watch Colander run the 200.
``As soon as they announce her name, people start coming to the fence,'' says Hortense Colander.
This day is no exception. People drift down from the stands and lean on the chain link fence surrounding the track, to get a close-up view of the race.
Among the local track community, Colander races are events. And not just because Colander is the fastest. A big part of her appeal is her personality.
Colander seems to have a smile for everybody, and a minute to talk, to the point where Crute assigned one of his former runners, Jackie Kendall, the job of ``keeping people away from her.''
``Her success really hasn't gotten to her,'' Crute says. ``There are some girls I've known with her success who wouldn't give you the time of day.''
Colander holes up in a pup tent or in the shade under the stadium before her race. As the starter gives instructions to the runners in the infield, she's in constant motion, flexing one leg, then the other, then putting hands on hips and twisting side to side.
The gun sounds and Colander is off. From the finish line she's easy to spot - she's the one eating up the stagger in large strides, passing runners like they're standing still.
``The 200 is won in the turn,'' Crute says. ``You have to burn the turn.''
Colander incinerates the turn. She heads into the straightaway in the lead, a lead that grows with every stride.
As Colander speeds by, arms swinging, with what appears to be a huge smile on her face, a wave of euphoria ripples down the fence. Teenage boys double over in laughter. Women smile. Coaches shake their heads and look at their stopwatches.
23.57.
The arm swinging is actually a slight technical flaw, something that should go away when Colander gains more upper-body strength. The smile has been a subject of debate for some time.
Colander says it's just what happens when she relaxes her facial muscles.
Hortense Colander thought that, too. But then last Saturday, watching her daughter in the 200, she came to another conclusion.
``My sister and I looked at each other, and we said, `You know, she is smiling.' ''
Maybe she is. Colander has plenty to smile about.
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