By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

CHERISH Walker is not your ordinary student-athlete.

This 16-year-old phenom has been a versatile athlete for the Knights and a high academic achiever in the classroom at CR Walker Secondary High.

She brought a lot of that tenacity from her humble beginnings at Oakes Field Primary and with the SC McPherson Junior High School where she starred for the Sharks.

“I started dancing when I came out of the womb, and I was born on the track,” said Walker in trying to describe how she got involved in some of her favourite sporting activities, although she lists her hobbies as singing, dancing, swimming and reading.

“I started competitive track and field at the age of four or five, the same as dancing.”

With a 3.9 grade point average, Walker plans to take her talents to the University of Missouri St Louis in August where she hopes to major in data science.

While her focus is on academics, Walker said she plans to pursue her athletic career as well in whatever sport she can become part of. She considers gymnastics her favourite sport where she is a member of the Paradise Gymnastics Academy.

Although a late bloomer in the sport in 2019, she moved up the ranks from level one without any experience. Her biggest accomplishment came at the Atlantis Crown Invitational where she got the All-Around gold and finished first in every event. Three months later, she competed in her first international tournament where she got first all-around and captured gold in all of her events.

A couple months later, she was elevated to level six where she secured a third place all-around. She also was placed in the America’s top 100 gymnasts where she was pegged at number 30.

“I feel very proud of myself since I didn’t have as much training as the other gymnasts did and I was still able to excel and achieve all that I have,” Walker said. “I felt like I took a big step and I succeeded.”

As for track and field, Walker held her own in just about every event she competed in as a member of the Ambassadors Track Club, headed by coach Fritz Grant.

“I feel accomplished in that as well because even though it wasn’t my first love, I still took the time out to run because it was fun, and I love to do it and I felt I did good in that aspect as well.”

Additionally, she is a very competitive swimmer, but she also runs track from the 100 to the 800 metres as well as swims and plays soccer. Her latest feat came last week when she played with her Knights team-mates as they won the Bahamas Football Association’ senior girls title at the National High School Championships.

She credits a lot of her success to her mother, Cherrise Walker, whom she admits pushes her to the limit. Her sister, Vanaillan Walker, has been a big inspiration as a former athlete and a math wizard.

Cherry Walker, who serves as an official in the Bahamas Association of Certified Officials, said it was roller coaster ride moving from one sporting event to so much social and Church activities that she was more exhausted than her daughter, but she admitted that her efforts were not in vain.

“She had me going on the road and on the road from the Bahamas National All-Stars to dance, so whenever something comes up, and now she wants to get into junkanoo, so it’s something that I have to be there and support her,” Cherry Walker said.

“With the accolades she has achieved, I just want to ensure that she obtains the best for her life. She adapts to everything and every situation she finds herself in as she goes after what it is she wants to achieve.”

Vanalllan Walker, a former track star, who also played soccer, golf and softball, is now a teacher at the Patrick J Bethell High School in Abaco. Cherrise Walker said she’s proud of both of her daughters as she constantly stressed to them both to “impact and empower” the people around them.

“I just thank God for having kids like them,” she said. “UI can see how God is moving through them. We hear about how parents talk about their children being rebellious. I try to instill in them to please God and everything else will fall into place for them.”

During her ninth grade, Cherish Walker said she remembered how her mother took her and her sister to New York where they met Mother Delores from Africa at the United Nations. Also, during that visit, Walker said she made a presentation on while Colombia should choose a woman as their president.

As a government high school student-athlete, Walker said she can make the case that people should not judge them because of whether they go to a private or public school but look at them at their achievements.

As the deputy head girl at CR Walker, Walker said she doesn’t feel any peer pressure to do what she has done.

“It isn’t any pressure. Once you have your mind set on what you want to accomplish, nobody can take that away from you,”: she pointed out. “I know that all these worldly things that are lined up with what I want for my future, I just have to distance myself away from them and focus on what I have to do.”

As she prepares to leave for college, Cherry Walker said she will miss Cherish just as she did with Vallanillan, who is ten years older. But she is confident that she has instilled in her the will of God and is pleased to know that she is heading in the right direction.

“I know I’m going to miss being home,” Cherish Walker said. “But I am looking forward to what is ahead of me.”