Eleven years ago this week, Cheri Selby had just graduated from St. Dominic Academy as the school’s most acclaimed and accomplished track and field athlete ever, and received a plaque as The Hudson Reporter Athlete of the Year.
“I still have that plaque,” Selby said. “I still have the article in a photo album.”
Now 28, Selby is married, living in Boston and serving as the chief of staff for Massachusetts State Rep. Liz Malia. Selby graduated from Northeastern University, where she competed in track and field, with a degree in political science and public policy, hoping to someday attend law school.
Selby also continues to compete, running in road races now.
“Even though I still consider myself a sprinter, I am now more of a middle distance runner,” Selby said. “I’m training for my first half-marathon in August in New York. I’m not sending out the mass e-mails yet, telling people about it, because after all, it is 13.5 miles. But I’m getting ready.”
Last week, Selby came home to her Hudson County roots, where she was inducted into the Hudson County Track Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame.
Selby, who still holds several SDA records in several different events (both hurdles and the 200 and 400 meter dashes), was shocked when she heard the news that she was being inducted into the HCTCA Hall of Fame.
“The first thing I thought was that I was too young,” Selby said. “I remember talking with (SDA track coach and athletic director) John Nagel about the Hall of Fame and I didn’t even know it existed until last August. When I got the call from Stan (Fryczynski, the president of the HCTCA), I was initially shocked. I always thought I was too young for it. I thought I had to experience life a little more.”
However, Selby was happy to return home and receive the award.
“It’s a great honor and I appreciate it,” Selby said.
The presentation also became a reunion of sorts, as several of Selby’s former SDA teammates were on hand for the dinner.
“The funniest thing is that I never expected any of my teammates to present,” Selby said. “I knew my mother and brother would be there, but I didn’t expect to see the tremendous outpouring of respect for me. It really was a great evening. It’s nice to reminisce with people I care about and remember how it used to be.”
Selby said that she vividly remembered being able to defeat the county’s best sprinter at the time, Dine Potter of Marist, when Potter, a future Olympian, was a senior and Selby was a sophomore.
“That was always a goal of mine to beat Dine Potter, because she was so good and two years older than me,” Selby said. “When I finally beat her, that was one of my fondest memories.”
Selby was introduced to Hudson’s current track superstar, Leslie Njoku of McNair Academic, at the dinner, which also proved to be the HCTCA’s All-County awards banquet.
“I had heard so much about her and I wanted to meet her,” said Selby, whose achievements in high school were very similar to what Njoku was able to do this year. “I was so happy to hear that she’s doing so well and I want her to be able to supercede anything I’ve ever done. That would be so great.”
Selby said that she had so much fun seeing her former classmates and teammates that she is planning to hold a track reunion in September.
“I learned from this that we should keep in touch with each other,” Selby said. “A reunion would be so much fun.”
Selby said that she shared her Hall of Fame award with her mother, Connie.
“My mother was such a huge supporter of me,” Selby said. “Having her there and having all my teammates there really meant so much to me.”
Selby, who married Steven Pearson, a native of Hempstead, N.Y., last August, is trying to turn him into an athlete as well.
“I met my husband at Northeastern, but he wasn’t an athlete,” Selby said. “But I’m making him into a runner.” And they compete in road races together.
“That competitive side is still with me,” she laughed.
Selby still hopes to attend law school one day as well.
“I still have those law aspirations,” Selby said. “But I don’t mind being a chief of staff either. I have my hands on everything, especially the policy part.”
Just like she has her hands on her keepsakes from an athletic career that was truly worthy of Hall of Fame status.
– Jim Hague