How these ‘track sisters’ became two of Episcopal Academy’s most decorated athletes

Black excellence comes in various forms and can, at times, also span generations.

For proof, consider Episcopal Academy senior track and field stars Avery Elliott and Saige Forbes, late bloomers who come from resilient stock and will compete next year at Penn and Harvard, respectively.

Elliott is a standout in the hurdles, high jump, long jump, and pentathlon, while Forbes is a star sprinter and long jumper.

Last week, the duo, who hold 19 combined school records, helped secure Episcopal’s first Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association girls’ track title since 2016. The previous week, Elliott and Forbes, who didn’t become serious about track until high school, led EA to its first Inter-Ac League crown since 2015.

“I think it’s official now,” said EA coach John Goens. “I think they are the two most decorated girls we’ve had come through our program. … They’ve done us proud.

“Episcopal is a place where if you dig in, you can really pull something from it and take it with you. It’s rigorous. It’s demanding. It asks so much from these kids on a daily basis. And to come through in the manner in which Avery and Saige have speaks volumes.”

Their early chapters, however, began with resilient mothers who blazed paths for their daughters, who are now close friends.

Elliot descends from talented, hardworking, and focused musicians and athletes, while Forbes’ family emigrated from Jamaica, where her uncle was an Olympic sprinter.

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“I think our girls represent promise and the culmination of belief in oneself, commitment, hard work, and not limiting oneself,” Elliott’s mother, Tara, said of the two during a phone interview.

“I think it’s important for them to know that there are no limitations placed on them. They can literally achieve whatever they want to achieve.”

Elliott’s family has no shortage of achievers.

Tara is an attorney and former hurdler at Georgia Tech, where she also earned an engineering degree before studying law at Penn.

Her mother, Loretta Dawson, is a classically trained pianist who also plays 12 other instruments. Dawson’s mother, Goldie Saunders, also played the piano.

Elliott and her older sister Jadyn, now 22, are musically inclined as well. Jadyn also was a standout volleyball player in Delaware before playing at Haverford College.

Tara’s father, Charles, excelled at football.

Still, in a family filled with achievers, Elliott’s mother, who grew up in Ohio, marvels at her youngest daughter’s ability to focus.

“I am unabashedly bursting with pride at how much she’s accomplished and how dedicated she’s been to excellence in and out of the classroom,” Tara said. “She’s an exceptionally committed hard worker.”

During last year’s PAISAA finale, Elliott — while also managing advanced schoolwork — had been juggling a daunting training schedule with SAT preparation while maintaining relationships with college coaches during the recruiting process.

Then on the day of the championship, four of her events, including two hurdles, long jump, and the high jump, were contested at the same time.

“I don’t know anybody else who wouldn’t have been completely overwhelmed, mentally, under that,” Tara said.

Elliott won three of the four events.

“She makes it look easy to people who don’t know what it takes, and I can tell you it’s exceptionally difficult to compete at that high of a level in all of those events, which are all very technical events,” Tara said.

She added that her daughter is the better athlete, though both acknowledge, with smiles, that Elliott still hasn’t bested her mother’s high school record in the 300-meter hurdles.

“It’s like a running [joke],” Elliott said. “When I got close to her record, she was really excited, but she was also still bragging like, ‘No, you haven’t beaten it yet.’ But once I beat it I’ll be so excited and probably rub it in her face.”

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It seems that would be just fine with her mother, who has known since she was 8 years old that she wanted to study law after her father told her, perhaps during an argument (though she can’t exactly remember), that she would make a great attorney.

“I was the beneficiary of positive seeds planted by my parents and my early coaches, who never doubted my ability to do anything,” Tara said. “They didn’t cap my potential success. And that’s what I’ve tried to do for my children. And that’s what I hope other folks see when they see Avery and Saige; that they, too, can do whatever they set their minds to, if they are willing to commit.”

Forbes, 18, still has the picture of her 8-year-old self holding a sign with the Jamaican flag and a note imploring her uncle, Allodin Fothergill, to run during the Penn Relays.

Last month, Forbes and Elliott became the first girls in school history to compete in field events at the Penn Relays, finishing sixth and 11th, respectively, in the long jump.

“I think [it’s] just like flying,” Forbes said of the long jump. “It sounds weird, but being in the air, I feel like correlates with things I need to focus on in life, like being patient and trusting.”

Her uncle competed for Jamaica in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where his 4x400 relay team finished seventh. He was also an All-American at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Track, Forbes said, has always been important to her family, especially when she returned for summers as a child in Jamaica, where she saw how the country celebrated her uncle’s track team.

Forbes’ mother, Tameka Fothergill, reluctantly left Jamaica at 16 when her mother, Dorrette Harris, sought a better life in the U.S.

“It was terrifying,” Tameka said in a phone interview.

She was a sophomore when she arrived — with a thick Jamaican accent — at a predominantly white high school in Unionville.

Sports, however, helped ease at least some of the transition.

After graduation, Tameka spent a year at Cheyney University before eventually giving birth to her only child and finishing a finance degree at Immaculata. Now, she is an accountant at a major financial institution.

Soon, she’ll be able to say she raised a Harvard-educated child. For now, words escape her.

“To express how proud I am,” Fothergill said, “I would be struggling for words.

“As a single mother raising a daughter, it can sometimes be challenging. Sometimes when I tell people my daughter is going to Harvard, I still don’t know what to say. It still doesn’t feel real.”

What should feel real is the appreciation her daughter feels for the work ethic her mother instilled.

“I’m an only child,” Forbes said. “I feel like I saw everything that my mom did for me, how hard she worked, and all the sacrifices she made for me. So hard work was always a thing I knew — even my grandmom. They are the two most influential people in my household. Both of them are just really hardworking Black women and I want to continue to be [like them] in the future.”

The girls will compete as high school teammates one last time at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals from June 13-16 at Franklin Field. It seems, though, their bond transcends the track.

“They push each other on and off the track,” Fothergill said. “Saige doesn’t have siblings, so it’s like Avery is her track sister, and that brings joy to my heart …”