Harmony’s Dan Foshee claimed OBC hurdles championship again

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Daniel Foshee struggled two years ago as he ran the hurdles for Harmony High.

It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy the sport, or that he wasn’t working hard enough. It was actually something he had little control over.

“I wasn’t that big, and I didn’t have a long enough gait to three-step between the hurdles,” he said.

A little more time, and a little more height, turned things around for Foshee.

During his junior and senior seasons, he was Osceola County’s most consistent and most dominant hurdler, making two state meet appearances and sweeping both the 110 (high) and 300 (low) hurdles races as a senior last season.

“I grew a little after my sophomore year, and that made all the difference,” he said.

Foshee was one of two Osceola County athletes to place in two events at the Class 3A state meet, finishing seventh (40.01) in the high hurdles and eighth (15.14) in the low hurdles at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

Foshee shares the Osceola News-Gazette Male Track Athlete of the Year honors with Liberty High’s Markel Brown, who placed in the triple jump and long jump at the state meet.

Foshee, at 5-10, is still on the small side for a state-qualifying hurdler, but he makes the most of his ability. He elected to compete in the hurdles after arriving at Harmony because he enjoyed success in the sport at middle school.

“There was a kid I used to run with in middle school, and I could always beat him in the hurdles, so I thought that’s what I’d put down as the sport I’d like to try in high school,” he said.

Harmony Coach Jake Grantham encouraged Foshee to work on his technique.

“Coach Grantham thought it was something I could do, so I stuck with it,” he said.

He won OBC and district championships as a junior and reached the state meet, but he went home early after failing to qualify for the finals.

“When we got to states, it was like I just showed up. I didn’t think that I proved that I belonged there,” he said.

Foshee used that as motivation to have a successful senior season, although it took him awhile to equal his junior times.

“Early in the season you don’t have the same amount of focus, not that I don’t want to PR every time I’m on the track,” he said. “Later in the season, I still hadn’t equaled my PR from last year, and I was getting a little frustrated even though I was only off by like four-hundredths of a second.”

His times began dropping dramatically at the district and regional meets. He clocked a best-ever 14.6-second time in the 110 hurdles regional finals, and he ran 38.92 seconds in the 300 hurdles in the state meet preliminaries, earning him a spot in the finals.

“He worked really hard this year, and it was a great way for him to end the season. We are really proud and excited for him,” Grantham said. “He definitely gave it his all.”

Foshee cut his hair short, not for aerodynamics or aesthetics, but to help him with his technique.

“With your hair in your eyes, you tend to tilt your head down and that’s not good. It was kind of like out of sight, out of mind,” he said.

Foshee’s older brother, Jacob, was a multi-sport athlete at Harmony when the school opened eight years ago, and his sister, Michele, competed in track, flag football and cheerleading.

Foshee would like to continue his track career at the college level.

“I love it. I love being out there for practice, I love everything about it. I definitely want to compete. Even if I don’t do it for a school, I’d like to enter USATF or AAU open meets,” he said.

He isn’t ruling out a career as a coach.

“I have a lot of admiration for coaches, especially the coaches at Harmony,” he said. “They put so much effort into it. They have to clean up after everything is over and then get right back to work planning strategy for the next race. It takes a lot of dedication, and it’s an important job.”