Jeff Sowards remembers a time when Amber Nash’s nerves got the best of her.
As a Lakewood High School sophomore, the pressure of competing in high-profile meets flustered Nash.
Sometimes it made her downright sick.
Sowards, co-head coach of the Lakewood track team, recalls one occasion when Nash’s sophomore-year anxiety caused her to lose her lunch in a track-side gutter just minutes before a race at the Class 2A state meet.
But that’s a distant memory.
The owner of Lakewood individual event records in the 100, 200 and 400 meters, and both hurdles events (100 and 300), Nash has come a long way since the days of her pre-race stomach ills.
As a senior at Lakewood, she won the 300 hurdles and took second in the 100 hurdles at the Class 2A state meet in Cheney. She also won both hurdles races at the prestigious Eason Invitational.
Nash, currently a freshman who runs for Community Colleges of Spokane, also qualified for the 2005 Deaflympic Summer Games based on an impressive resume that included ownership of the U.S. deaf women’s record in the 300-meter hurdles (45.54 seconds).
“By the time she was a (high school) junior and senior,” Sowards said, “she kind of thrived at those (prestigious) events. She really was in control of her races and herself.”
For her efforts, Nash has been nominated for the Herald’s 2004 Woman of the Year in Sports award.
At the Deaflympics, which were held Jan. 5-17 in Melbourne, Australia, Nash ran in several individual and relay events. She placed second in the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 1 minute, 5.30 seconds, just .13 seconds behind winner Inna Zyerynska (Ukraine). In addition, Nash was fifth in the 400 relay, sixth in the 100 dash, and contributed to a sixth-place finish in the 1,600 relay.
According to the Deaflympics Web site, more than 3,000 deaf athletes from 75 countries competed in the 20th Summer Games. The International Committee of Sports for the Deaf has run the event, which is sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee, since its debut in Paris in 1924.
Nash, who has been legally deaf since birth, has a 90 percent hearing loss.
Sowards said Nash, who is 5-foot-3 and weighs about 115 pounds, has achieved greatness through a mix of dedication and natural talent. She made an impact that extends beyond the Lakewood record books by taking some younger athletes under her wing last year.
“She helped teach them,” Sowards said. “Part of her greatest legacy won’t be the school records. It will be helping the other athletes around her as she became more confident in herself.”
Nash’s disability also helped Lakewood’s coaching staff broaden its methods. Sowards and the other Cougars coaches learned new ways to communicate.
“She was very patient with us,” Sowards said of Nash. “I can only imagine how scary it is to wander into a world of the hearing and not be able to hear. It’s kind of mind boggling what she’s been able to do.”
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