FORKS — Forks senior Shane WhiteEagle approached his coaches after running the 40-meter dash at Spartans track practice on Monday.
“I turned around, saw their faces, and asked them how slow it was,” WhiteEagle said.
It was the first time White-
Eagle had sprinted since injuring his knee in June cutting against the grain at the Forks football camp at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore.
WhiteEagle said he felt a little pain, but played a few more plays before realizing something serious might be wrong.
WhiteEagle tore his anterior cruciate ligament, which forced him to miss his senior football season and threatened to prevent him from running the 100- and 200-meter dashes in his final season of track.
“I was shocked and sad,” WhiteEagle said.
For six weeks, WhiteEagle, — who was All-Peninsula in football and track in the 2011-12 school year — was forced to just sit around.
“The hardest part was trying to take it easy,” he said.
“I’m not used to taking it easy.”
Slowly, he was able to do more on his knee. Four months ago, he started jogging.
But Forks head track and field coach Pam Gale said the decision was made for WhiteEagle to be cautious about testing his knee, and that he wouldn’t start running until after spring break.
“Oh my gosh,” Gale said of seeing WhiteEagle’s first sprint in 10 months on Monday.
WhiteEagle, who had the best 100 and 200 times on the North Olympic Peninsula in 2012, will compete in the 100 for the first time at today’s meet in Elma.
“I’m really excited to see what he does,” Gale said.
At the Crescent Invitational in Joyce on Saturday, WhiteEagle will run both the 100 and the 200.
He admits being nervous prior to his first sprint, but said his knee felt “really good” during the run.
Now that he is running again, WhiteEagle is chasing state and chasing Brian Gale.
Brian Gale, Pam’s son, holds the Forks records in the 100 and 200.
Both school records were set in 1994 when Brian Gale won state in the 100 and placed second in the 200 in a photo finish in which it took an hour to decide the winner.
Pam Gale said that before his injury, WhiteEagle was especially close to her son’s 200 mark of 22.65 seconds, reaching 22-second territory by the end of his junior year.
“I’ve kept up with the grade records each year, and [beating the school records] has always been a goal,” WhiteEagle said.
But he isn’t putting too much pressure on himself.
“But it’s fine if I don’t get them,” he said.
Brian Gale is equally content to see his school marks fall.
“He loves it,” Pam Gale said of her son. “Those records have been there long enough.”
And despite WhiteEagle’s injury, she still likes his chances of setting new school records.
“He’s the best work-ethic kid,” Pam Gale said.
“His brain is so focused. He’s one of the best athletes I have ever seen.”
One positive effect of WhiteEagle’s injury is it forced him to improve his technique in the shot put.
“I’ve really stepped it up with my technique; I’m spinning more,” WhiteEagle said.
Last year, he made state in the shot put, and competed in the discus at the district meet.
WhiteEagle currently has the second-best shot put distance on the Peninsula, and the fourth-best discus mark.
“He’s going to be doing everything at state,” Gale said.
