Camden's Marshall back on track

For 5/30 issue.

Camden senior Matt Marshall lugged more than just a briefcase while on the college circuit this spring.
Flown from university to university, Marshall was given the campus tour, a spiel on why this or that school was the right fit for him, and praise – lots and lots of praise.
Such is the life of a highly-touted wide receiver. But while recruiters vied for his signature, a heavy conscience tugged at Marshall, one of the state's top hurdlers.
"I wanted to be there. I wanted to be there with my teammates. I wanted to be the one to put it out there," Marshall said. "But for me, I knew I was helping my future, which is a blessing that I have the opportunity.
"Still, the selfish part of me wasn't where it was supposed to be. I wasn't thinking about me."
After missing major meets and months of practice, Marshall regained form at the right time, winning the South Jersey Group 3 title in the 110 hurdles in 14.43 Saturday. He traveled far before returning in the basics.
From early March to early May, Marshall followed up on offers from the University of Arkansas, the University of Iowa and the University of North Carolina, living in and out of hotels while missing big meets – including a possible fourth appearance at the Penn Relays – and precious practice time on the track.
As a hurdler, Marshall soon found that training, while traveling, was challenging.
Unable to practice with college teams, Marshall did so individually, using hotel hallways as staightaways and walks to lecture halls and cafeterias as training grounds. Look ma, no hurdles.
"I was trying to do straddle jumps as if I was going over the hurdle," the University of Arkansas-bound student said. "Even though a hurdle wasn't there, I was imaging as if there was."
Enough of those workouts and Marshall's most sought touchdown involved a plane touching down on a nearby runway.
Between college visits Marshall competed at the Woodbury Relays – his only major meet – and at a few dual meets. Any illusions of being the same athlete who won the 55 hurdles at the Indoor State Group 3 Championship this winter were dismissed then, when sophomore teammate Syteek Farrington and lesser competitors beat him in the 110 hurdles, his premiere event. He was sluggish, running high 15s and losing his form by the seventh hurdle.
"Guys that used to fear him wouldn't fear him," coach Greg Foster said.
"I couldn't be mad at them," Marshall said. "I was always taught there're always guys doing something when you're not. And what they were doing, I wasn't doing."
While he could have hung it up when he arrived home for good in May and coasted on his two-sport, full-ride scholarship to Arkansas, Marshall insisted on persisting for his team and himself.
"He would work extra hard in the practice, come back the next week, and get beaten by guys he had no problem beating before, but he never got frustrated," Foster said. "It showed me a lot about his character."
An epiphany – and his Aunt Becky – woke Marshall up on a free Saturday, both telling him "you better start running."
He took his household hurdle, sat it on his driveway and practiced jumping over it and jump rope for two furious hours, an old training regimen that shaped him into the athlete he was – and came to be.
"I had to build the hunger back," he said.
Marshall spent the next two weeks at another gear. That's why he expected to speed to a season-best time Saturday.
"I honestly was training for that kind of performance," he said. "The great thing with that is there's a lot of room for improvement."
Marshall feels capable of breaking his personal-best 14.28 and hopes to dip down to 13.8 at the State Group 3 Championship Saturday at South Plainsfield. He will be joined on the line by Farrington, who placed third in 14.61.
Marshall won't race in ruby red slippers. After all, now that he's home, he has no need for them.
"It feels good to be back," Marshall said, "Home with my teammates and family."

Decade best
Along with tossing a personal-best 156-7 in the discus Saturday, Washington Township senior Kwabena Keene threw a personal-best 59-3 in the shot put, becoming South Jersey's best shot putter since Paulsboro's 1998 alum Jon Kalnas.
While Kalnas' high-school best of 64-4.25 may be out of reach, there is no state thrower closer to 60 feet than Keene.
"I really want to break it," said the University of North Carolina-bound senior this season. "I'm so close."
Keene is the top seed in the Group 4 meet today and if he doesn't reach the mark then, will get another chance at the Meet of Champions Wednesday provided he places in today's top six.

In Memory Of...

Like all good drivers, Bridget Bayliss routinely looks into her rearview mirror to check who's behind her.
But no matter her location or speed, the Clementon resident already knows who's riding just inches off her rear bumper: her mother, Janine Cara Bayliss, who passed away from cervical cancer 20 years ago at the age of 35.
Last year, 19 years after Cara Bayliss' body was buried, her memory was resurrected through a growing trend: a memorial car decal.
While tailgaters may look at the decal and read the ``In Loving Memory of Janine Cara'' inscription, Bayliss sees something else.
``I see her face and I see her smile,'' Bayliss, 37, said. ``And that reminds me of her. She always had a smile on her face.''
Bayliss is not alone.
While death may be final, many folks are finding innovative ways to commemorate their loved ones by etching - and stretching - one's memory across their car, shirt or skin.

My Mother the Car
To a stranger, the epitaph may be considered morbid, a mobile reminder of mortality, but to Bayliss, it's the stuff of bedtime stories.
A mother of three, Bayliss said the sign sparks her children's wonder about the grandmother they never knew.
Bayliss tells them of her mother's constant laugh, her unshakable love for her and her sister, Kara, and her struggle to raise the two of them as a stay-at-home mom. They want more.
``They know her just as Grandma, but she was a real person. And I like to keep her memory alive,'' said Bayliss, a state worker. ``I don't want to bury it.''
Bayliss bought the customized decal at Mr. Auto/Tire at the Berlin Farmer's Market for $20 last year, applied it to the outer back window of her 1997 Dodge Caravan, dampened the backing and peeled it off to reveal the memorial.
She hopes people read in to it.
``It's a reminder of who she was and I wouldn't be the person I am today with out her,'' Bayliss said. ``I just want to share with the world how great of a person she was. My kids missed out.''
Lucy Bregman, a religion professor at Temple University who teaches the course ``Death and Dying,'' said the need for such pub lic exercises of grief is nor mal and as old as the color black.
Before the end of World War I, bereaved Americans would wear black clothes, arm bands or special hair styles often for longer than a year to show others they were still suffering.
``It was something like a uniform. Think of professions and jobs,'' Bregman said. ``It's to let the world know this is who I am, treat me in a certain way.''

Threads of Love
Not every automobile is reared with remembrance.
Najeeb Green-Lewis was riding his electric scooter last May when a fellow Winslow Township resident, driving a rental car with a suspended license, a previous DWI conviction and a blood-alcohol level of .20, struck and killed the 12 year old.
As his guardian grandmother, Monica Durell could have languished in despair, but instead has taken up the mightly task of living for Najeeb.
Months after the former football and basketball player made his last pass posthumously by donating his heart, liver and kidneys to four grateful recipients, Durell has picked up where he left off.
Durell drafted a bill, the proposed ``Najeeb Green-Lewis Law,'' that would force car rental agencies to confirm a driver's legal status before releasing a vehicle.
``I'm trying to make [his death] positive and to save a life,'' said Durell, also of Winslow. ``If that law is passed, you don't know how many lives you can save.
``It's amazing to see a 12 year old have such an impact on people.''
Durell has also set up a couple foundations in his name: a $500 scholarship open to area high-school seniors who were raised by their grandparents, and a sports fund eligible to youth athletes of Winslow.
To raise the funds, Durell will sell T-shirts of Najeeb's image that read ``You will be missed But not for gotten!'' at a commemorative basketball tournament on May 24. First, however, she needed to find a T-shirt printer that could meet her specifications.
``I wanted [the photo] in color. I did't want it black and white, or ironed on because it would crack,'' she said. ``I wanted it to last.''
Karl Baker has handled such orders before.
The owner of GTM Signs, a printing press in Deptford that specializes in custom signs and apparel, said even though he receives requests like Durell's monthly, each job is unique.
``We care,'' Baker, 56, said. ``We've all had pain.''

Rest in Pieces
Baker lost his older sister, Jaine, to brain cancer four years ago. Her memory remains grounded in him, her remains, though, scattered.
With cremations becoming increasingly more common in America, public tributes have grown even more fleeting, often ending with the funeral procession's caboose or yesterday's obituary.
Professor Bayliss said the longer the dead - particularly those who die young - rest outside of society's consciousness, the more restless some of the living become.
``There's a lot more cremations and the graves are tucked off in the cemetery. ...,'' she said. ``It's important to claim that they are remembered. It's important to carry some symbolic thing to remember them with.''
According to the latest survey by the Cremation Association of North America, 32.3 percent of the American deceased were cremated in 2005, up from 27 percent in 2001.
During that period, New Jersey cremations rose from 23.9 to 27.6 percent.
Unlike most who are cremated, Najeeb was entombed in a mausoluem. Durell can't bring herself to visit, though; not when it only causes her to revisit May 3.
``Who would want to visit their kids like that, to be honest?'' Durell said. ``This is the last way we would want to think of him, not being here. He had his whole life in front of him.''

Lasting Impressions
Four years ago when Spanky's Tattoo Studio opened in Camden, like thunder to lightning, tattoo artist Spanky needed only to hear gunfire - or word of it - to know business wasn't far behind.
The heavy hearted would file in, pull up their sleeve, bite down and leave with the most traditional tat: R.I.P., name of the fallen and birth-death timeline.
``It seemed like we were the stop between the church, which is four doors down, and the after funeral gathering,'' said Spanky, the husband of owner Aileen Metzger. ``It'd be the funeral, the tattoo, I guess they'd pick up their shirts and that was sort of how it was.
``And then in the last year and a half it's really started to change.''
Commemorative tattoos continue to be the Levittown, Pa. couple's ``bread
and butter,'' but nowadays people give the design a bit more thought, said Spanky, 50. The ``R.I.P.'' has given way to portraits and personal symbols for loved ones.
No names are mentioned, no reminders of death given.
``The whole feeling of finality goes away in terms of seeing their name and [that] they died as opposed to us ing that far more euphemis tic type of wording like 'Sunrise' and 'Sunset,''' Spanky said.
For most of his 27 years drilling tattoos, back when tats were considered signs of rebellion, not accessories, Spanky's clientele consisted mainly of ``hooligans, ruffi ans and bikers.''
Like many of its wearers, a certain memorial tattoo also caught the eye of the law.
Before being outlawed, a teardrop tattoo, worn within a too-close inch of the eye, signified when someone, often a gangmember, lost a loved one or killed a rival, Metzger said.
Having inked memorials on hundreds of patrons since then, Spanky knows how the tats trend; they're common on the upper bicep and shoulder areas, among first timers and for all ages 18 and older.
But despite fitting the profile, even Sparky was surprised when a 75-year-old woman came into the Camden parlor nine months ago. She was too.
``She sat there and she swore she never thought she would get a tattoo in her life,'' he said.
She lost her vow after she lost her son. Unsure how to pay her son tribute, the woman consulted with Spanky and proceeded to remember his love for basketball and tattoos.
Spanky drew up a basketball player going up for a dunk with heaven bursting outside the rim, a design that adorns her right arm today.
During the process, she spoke about the tattoo hurting the least. This didn't surprise Spanky.
``Almost always the people end up crying and it's not about the tattoo,'' he said. ``We'll be talking about it and they start to relive everything. They'll be all happy and say it's something they really wanted. And then they'll look at it and it all kind of comes back and hits them again.
``They'll say the least I can do is this little bit of pain to remember them.''

Cherokee wins first BurlCo Championship

MAPLE SHADE -- The Burlington County Open turned 70 Saturday and the Cherokee boys' team made it a pre-season priority to be there to celebrate.
The Chiefs have made the trip to the meet's Maple Shade location the last 14 years, and before that, met wherever the competition was since establishing themselves in 1975.
But the Chiefs have never come so far as they did Saturday, improving upon fourth-place finishes their previous two years to win their first county championship ever, outscoring runner-up Northern Burlington by 59.5 points to win with 111.5 points.
Although the Chiefs never trailed after the first event, coach Steve Shaklee said they won this championship from behind, claiming only two events – both starring senior Chris Steliga – but scoring in all but two of the meet's 16 events.
"It was a definitely an overall team effort and that's what makes it so rewarding because, other than [Chris Steliga], we don't really have superstar athletes," Shaklee said. "They just nickel and dime you to death.
"Thirds, fourths, fifths, it all adds up. And if you do that in enough events you win a meet."
Steliga leaped 22-3.5 to win the long jump and collected two of Cherokee's four silver medals in the 400 (50.1) and the triple jump (41-4.25) all before coming back to anchor the 4x400 relay team of Kevin Merrigan, Niraj Patel and Will Rapp to a 3:25.96 come-back win, catching front-running Burlington Township with a 49.6 split.
"He's like a one-man team," Shaklee said of the senior.
Despite clinching the meet before the 4x400 finale, the relay team was still pressed to perform by coach Chris Callahan.
"He wanted us to go in with a winning mindset, to walk away as champions but to be completely honest, we all felt like total crap," Steliga said, laughing. "My legs were shot and I'm thinking like 'I don't wanna do this.' I get the baton in second and I'm like 'Great, now I actually have to do some work."
Senior runners Alex Yersak scored major points in the distance events, taking second in the 3,200 (9:36.14) and third in the 1,600 (4:30.4), just ahead of teammates Kevin Schlicking and Steve Burkeholder and behind winner Shawnee sophomore David Forward (4:26 .8) and runner-up Lenape junior Ryan Garvin (4:27.53)
After winning the 3,200 in an outdoor-best 9:29.11, Forward passed Garvin with about 300 to go in the 1,600 and managed to hold off the fleet junior on the homestretch. Teammate Ian Boyle won the 800 in a personal-best 1:58.0, passing Cinnaminson's Kenny Hoff (1:59.0) along the outside lane of the final bend.
Willingboro senior sprinter Tyrone McRae was the other male athlete to double victories, taking the 200 (22.38) and the 400 (49.57)
Thanks partly to wins by Cherokee's high hurdler Rachel Montague (14.91) and discus thrower Erika Cotton (104-3), the Lenape girls trailed 42-41 after six events, but won five of the next 10 en route to their second straight county championship, beating Seneca (57) and Cherokee (54) with 146 points.
Sophomore Caitlin Orr and senior Erika Griffith started the Indians' party, going 1,2 in the 3,200.
Orr later coupled her 11:31.18 win with a gutsy 5:13.68 performance in the 1,600, one in which an early kick – to stave off Moorestown's tandem of Allison Tetreault and Brianna Rogers -- slowed to a crawl.
"I poured it on so much with 300 to go, and I couldn't keep it. I could barely move," Orr said, smiling. "I don't know whether [Tetreault] was right behind me, but I heard [distance coach Jack] Walsh yelling at me, 'Go, Caitlin.' And I was like 'Oh, God' so I really just tried to go."
Senior Lindsey Walsh won the high jump with a modest 5-2 win, but was challenged on the second leg of the 4x400 relay.
After lead-off runner Mikki Livingston gave Walsh the lead, a Willingboro runner pushed the boundaries of sportsmanship by pushing Walsh off track, literally, a foul that went uncalled.
"It fueled me to finish the last half of the race," Walsh said.
Walsh remained focused, speeding past the runner with 200 meters left to give a lead that neither teammates Brianna Beddall nor Moira Cunningham would relinquish, winning in 4:01.53.
Walsh looked at the bigger picture of the championship.
"We're just trying to start a tradition so that even when we're gone, everyone else is still keeping the program strong," she said. "We want to make ourselves known throughout the state. You gotta start somewhere."
Northern Burlington senior jumper Ariel Woodard-Stephens was the only athlete not from Lenape to pair wins, taking the triple jump (35-9) and long jump (16-3.5), the latter achieved in a fewer number of jumps than done by runner-up Lenape senior Dana Cataldo.

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