Marshall University Athletics
BOGACZYK: Fulks Leaves Scholarship Behind, Jumps to Herd Happiness
3/22/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
By JACK BOGACZYK
HERDZONE.COM COLUMNIST
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Karena Fulks' personal record in the long jump is 18 feet, 5¾ inches. Her goal is to eclipse that - "over 19 feet," she said - in Marshall's outdoor season.
However, you might say Fulks already has made a much longer leap in her college life and track and field career.
After three years on full scholarship at Northern Kentucky, Fulks decided she wanted to finish her college - and track - days at Marshall … without a scholarship.
It was a gamble that paid off for Fulks, of Jackson, Ohio, after she wanted to attend Marshall when she started college back in the fall of 2012. MU may have been her father's and sister's alma mater, but it didn't have a track grant-in-aid. NKU did.
She even gambled that Northern would give her a release from its program, and that Coach Jeff Small's Herd program would welcome her.
"My dad (former Jackson High basketball coach Daniel Fulks) is originally from South Point and my family has always gone here; we've always been a big Herd family," said Fulks, who won the long jump in a 39-competitor field last weekend at the Wake Forest Open - the Herd's outdoor season opener. "I looked here my senior year, loved it, instantly knew this is where I wanted to go, but scholarship opportunities took me to Northern Kentucky.
"I spent three years at Northern; it was never home and I really was never happy. I was coming home to see family all of the time. I really never connected with my teammates. I had great coaches; they really helped me out, but I never felt like myself; never felt like that was where I was meant to be."
So, on Easter Sunday a year ago, Fulks applied to Marshall.
"I didn't tell my parents," she said, "and then I realized I put my home address on the application, so I'd better tell them before I get the acceptance letter. I hadn't even asked for my release from the team at Northern yet. I just took a chance. I understood I'd be losing a full scholarship to come to Marshall, but I know going to Marshall benefits my happiness - that's where I was meant to be - and that would be greater than the financial loss."
The 5-foot-3 Fulks was the 2012 Ohio Division II high school champion in the long jump, with a leap of 18-5 that topped all of the competitors in the higher and lower divisions, too. She was hoping for more NCAA Division I scholarship interest, and she said Cincinnati talked to her … but she had given a commitment to Northern Kentucky, "and in our family, your word is good."
Fulks, 22, praised her NKU jumps coach, Paul Longano, and said he eventually talked to the Herd staff about her. Convincing her parents it was the right move had a different degree of difficulty. Then she landed a paid internship with IMG, the multimedia marketing partner of Marshall Athletics.
"That does help," said Fulks, who is on schedule to graduate with a marketing degree in December 2016. "I've been lucky. I kind of knew if I got onto the track team that my parents would be more understanding, because at first, they were like, 'No, you're not doing that, not giving up your scholarship.' But I knew if I got onto the team, I'd be happy here and I knew that's what they would want.
"People were like, 'Wow, you're crazy giving up a full scholarship,' but my own happiness was worth it. If I had to take out student loans, it was worth it to me to have to work a little harder to find my happiness. And everyone here has been so welcoming.
"I love my IMG family. I always joke, 'Hey, I'm graduating in December; you're going to have to fire somebody.' I'm a property assistant, and help put on the promotions with other assistants. We set up gameday activities, do the hospitality tent at football games. It's a long day but it's fun and worth it.
"And with my internship, I'm so excited about my major. I didn't know what I wanted to do at first. I think I changed my (desired) major six times my senior year in high school. I wanted to be a nurse. I wanted to be a dental hygienist. I wanted to be a lawyer.
"And then I just kind of went into marketing without really knowing what it was. I just knew it was about sales, so I'd like to stay with it, get into sports, account managing. I'd like to work with a professional team, the Cincinnati Reds, or go to Cleveland with the Cavaliers … something like that."
At Northern, Fulks didn't reach her personal best until hitting 18-5¾ (5.63 meters) last April 17 in a meet at Centre (Ky.) College. She set her indoor PR last month in the Chipotle Marshall Invitational on the Jeff Small Track, finishing in second place at 18-3 (5.56m).
At NKU, she also had run the 55 and 60 sprints indoors, the 100 outdoors and was part of the 4x100 and 4x400 relays - and set a few school records.
"If they needed me somewhere, I ran it; I never trained for it," she said. "I only trained for the long jump. Once I got here, in indoor, I PR'd for first time in three years (18-3). Before that, I'd only really jumped 17-11 indoors. In three years at Northern I didn't really improve until finally last semester last year.
"The weight room made a big difference here … I flatlined for three years and really lost my love for the sport and when I left NKU that last meet I remember walking out of (the Kentucky Relays in early May) thinking, 'This is the last time I'll walk away from my sport.' And as an athlete that's like' Ugh.'
"But I was OK with it. I'd lost all of my love for the sport. I had no idea I was going to be on the track team here at that point. It was still a guessing game by me. I did know I was coming here. As for the team, I didn't know. But I had already decided I was going to do this. I was ready to take the chance. I feel like I'm the risk-taker in my family, and I thought, 'I just need my family to see I can do this."
Fulks said NKU gave her a release, but not for Cincinnati-area colleges. "I was OK with that; I'm going to Huntington," she said. "I was willing to take the risk on getting on the team. When I found out, Coach (Don) Yentes (the Herd sprints and jumps coach) called me in July said they knew I'd been released and I was eligible to talk to them. He said, 'We want you on the team,' and it went from there."
Small said Fulks has contributed to the Herd in solid fashion in her last track and field season.
"Karena is a great girl and has been a good addition to our team," the veteran Marshall coach said. "She's a hard worker and has a very pleasant personality and gets along with everybody. She's got the talent where if she really hits it on the right day, she could do really well in the conference meet.
"It was terrible conditions the other day at Wake Forest - cold, rainy, wet and jumping into a wind - and she won it. She needs to improve a little bit to place at the conference, but she can do that."
Fulks said she's discovered plenty in recent months through experiences like her victory at Wake, where she managed only 5.34m (17-6¼) in "a jumper's nightmare."
"Goals, yes," she said. "I haven't hit my (Jackson High) senior PR. I've hit it, matched it, haven't topped it. My goal is to jump over 19 feet. That's the number in my head, know I can do it. The matter is: When can I do it? I'm a better jumper outdoor than indoor. I did a PR indoors, so does that translate into outdoor?
"I've learned a lot about me as an athlete and learned a lot about my sport from Coach Yentes … The biggest thing is my runway. Long jump is so technical. In high school, I just went off my speed. Three years, I'd gone off my speed. And when I came in here, I was nervous. I don't know how to jump. I learned watching YouTube videos in high school. I didn't get a jumping coach until my senior year in high school.
"The biggest thing Don has taught me is on the runway. We're constantly working on it. One thing that has dramatically changed is my landing. I wasn't landing the proper way, and the difference can be 8-plus inches of jump if you land the right way. My last four steps are probably the biggest thing holding me back from a PR right now. I just have to have a little more confidence in myself."
Fulks and her Herd teammates are entered this weekend at the North Florida Spring Break Invitational in Jacksonville, a familiar setting to her. NKU competed there in the Atlantic Sun Championships in her previous seasons. However, there is no going back for her in another fashion.
"Now I look back, and I was ready to walk away and be done with it," the Herd senior said. "But Day 1 of practice here, I knew it. It was 'No, I still want to do this.' I have goals, things I still want to accomplish … the weather the other day at Wake Forest. On Friday, it's 70 and sunny. You walk out Saturday and it's 46 - cold, rain, windy.
"Sometimes, you have to learn to adapt. That's just part of all of it, learning what you want to do and then coping with it."
