Jacksonville University 's Harvey
Natasha Harvey competes in the long jump at the Atlantic Sun Conference meet earlier this month.
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As one of the greatest athletic careers in Jacksonville University
Once Natasha Harvey completes her final long jump or sprint, either this week at the NCAA regionals in Greensboro, N.C., or at the NCAA championships June 10-13 in Arkansas, there will be a lot more to replace than her record times and distances. The near-impossible challenge for Grigg is filling the void that Harvey
Whether you spend a few minutes with Harvey Harvey 's tragic past, and how she refused to let it get in the way of her Olympic dream, helps to understand why this 21-year-old from West Haven , Conn.
"It's the way she leads her life; she's the whole package," Grigg said. "She gets it more than most adults. Just when you think she's the most incredible person you ever met, there's something deeper. I don't want to sound gushing, but she's just that kind of a kid. She's an inspiration to watch how she handles situations.
"I'm supposed to be the authority figure by nature of being the coach, but there's so much I need to model after her. She has perspective. She chooses to act in a way that she's proud of the consequences."
By themselves, Harvey
And here's the amazing part: Harvey Penn State and Clemson to come to JU, stayed in Jacksonville Harvey
"I had to reverse it," Harvey
Where "everything" begins is probably when Natasha was 9, living in New Haven
The firefighters were amazed that all six people - Natasha's parents, along with her three siblings - got out alive. Natasha nearly died because the rest of family escaped and forgot about the little girl, who had to be rescued at the last second by her oldest half-brother, Carlos Ashe.
"In panic, they just escaped while I was asleep," Natasha said. "I remember [Carlos] waking me up and saying, "Baby girl, I'm going to get you out of here.' I watched my house burn down from across the street."
Sadly, that fire was only the beginning of a family unit breakdown. Natasha's father, who never married her mother, Theresa Ashe, went to live with his mother after the fire and grew apart from the family. He kept his distance from Natasha and her younger brother, Antonio, separating himself from his two kids with Theresa, leaving Natasha perplexed to this day why her father remains out of her life.
"We didn't really ask too much of him, except for his time," Natasha said. "I couldn't fathom why he didn't want to be my father, while I was trying so hard to be his child."
If only that was the extent of the hardship. But her two older half-brothers both got caught up, as Theresa says, "with the wrong crowd," and paid a heavy price for it.
In December 1996, at about the same time of the fire, a gang-related murder in New Haven led to the conviction of Carlos - in a second trial, following a mistrial - and three others on four counts, including murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Carlos, a child by Theresa's first marriage, remains incarcerated.
During Natasha's freshman year at JU, just as the indoor track season was beginning, her other half-brother, Steveland, was shot and killed near an uncle's house. While Natasha went home for a week to comfort her grieving family, she also had to cope with the pleas of Antonio - whom she helped raise while Theresa worked a job at a Walgreens - to either stay home or transfer to a school closer to West Haven
"It was a huge deal for me to be so far away from my family," Natasha said. "And now, the family was disrupted [by Steveland's death] and [Antonio] felt alone. It was hard for us to get through it."
But that's the remarkable part of Harvey Wesleyan College
"The thing about Natasha is she's never going to give up," said her mother, Theresa. "When Stevie got killed, and my other son was incarcerated, for her to leave [to go back to JU] was hard. But she understood she had to make her own life.
"She had to deal with a lot of stuff on her own. But if you don't learn how to push past the difficult times, you'll just be miserable because you wouldn't be able to function."
Natasha is quick to credit God and her coach at Career (Conn. Harvey
"[Jackson ] played a man in my life who would accept me as his own daughter," Harvey
No matter what personal adversity she battled off the track, Harvey Nigeria
Except for a bulging disk that has flared up recently, which has limited her weightlifting regimen, Harvey
And when someone asks her about what looks like an engagement ring on her left hand, Harvey
"It's a covenant between me and God," said Harvey
"I don't need a lavish life," Harvey
"The plan is to be part of the Olympic training program and see where that takes me. The 2012 Olympics [in London
Looking back at where Natasha Harvey has been, two things seems pretty certain: She will live a life of fulfilled promise and leave a favorable impression along the way.
