CHARLESTON - Parkersburg South graduate and current University of Charleston student-athlete Debbie Amos never has been one to have much idle time on her hands.
A double-major at UC where she is set to graduate with degrees in biology and education this coming spring, Amos is currently quite busy on the athletic front where she runs cross country, track and competes on the crew team as a coxswain for the Golden Eagles.
This past week, Amos earned the West Virginia Conference's cross country female athlete of the week award for the third straight time. For her most recent award from the WVIAC, Amos posted a winning effort in the Golden Eagle Invitational as UC won its first meet of the season. Three weeks ago, Amos earned a top four finish at the Davis & Elkins Forest Festival and then the week before last she placed 13th at the Virginia Tech Invitational.
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Debbie Amos
In high school for the Patriots, Amos competed not only in cross country, where she was a four-year letterwinner, but she also earned three letters in both crew and track as well as a pair of letters in soccer.
Currently, Amos is unfortunately dealing with a foot injury and is hoping to make it back for the WVIAC championship on Oct. 20 at Seton Hill.
"Yes," Amos replied when asked if she was worried about her sore foot. "But you know, God has a plan for me and everything is going to work out so I trust him and it's going to be OK."
Amos, who is a senior academically but still has one year of running eligibility left after this season, wasn't an all-state cross country runner for the Patriots. In fact, Amos was recruited by UC and got money to compete on the crew team out of high school.
However, following her freshman year in school she decided to go out for the cross country program and managed to finish 19th at the WVIAC championships, which was good enough to earn second team all-conference accolades. Last year, Amos' time of 22 minutes and 53 seconds allowed her to take third overall and pick up first team all-WVIAC honors.
"I'm so proud of her. She always had good talent," said former Parkersburg South cross country head coach Steve Fox. "She has just physically blossomed in what she has done. She has gotten physically stronger."
Amos said she kept running to stay in shape for track and crew season and that "going into college I didn't expect to run at all. I expected to do crew because that's what my grant was for. I just kept running on the side to stay in shape.
"I found out running helps you in every single sport and that's what allowed me to excel in soccer when I was in high school. That's what helped me with crew, too, because I had the endurance to push it."
No matter what happens the rest of cross country season, Amos said the UC crew team is preparing for a couple races this fall and will get things into full swing come this spring. With that being said, she still hopes to return to running as soon as possible.
"I tried to run this (Wednesday) morning and it's sore. I have to be very, very careful right now," she admitted. "My foot has been tender and it could be a stress fracture. They think it's something to do with the bone.
"It's across the top of my foot. I'm just trying my best to stay in shape in other ways and do what I can and pray about it."
Amos, who hopes to run during the Charleston homecoming race the first week of October, said after she finishes her dual major this spring she's either going to pursue a masters degree in biology or start the process of being a physicians assistant.
"I'm leaning a little bit toward a masters in biology," said Amos, who is currently student teaching at Capital High School. "I'm not sure if I will be able to run in that (Charleston homecoming race). Because of my foot, I have a feeling the conference might be my next race."
