TAMPA – Amanda Quick remembers when she her whole little third grade world was nearly destroyed by an insensitive teacher who told Amanda she would never amount to anything.
"My teacher said I couldn't read and would never graduate from high school,'' Quick said. "My self-esteem was so low and I felt awful about myself. They said I couldn't see well, and I could see perfectly. It was terrible.''
The little girl didn't know what to do, but she told her father, Ron, a former high school runner, and was encouraged to take up running just for fun as a means to earn back some self-esteem when his daughter needed it the most.
She started running and never stopped. She kept defying that third-grade teacher and now makes all A's and B's at Gaither High School while weighing college scholarship offers. When she entered her junior season last year, it seemed that all of her problems were behind her. She finished fifth in the state Class 4A meet last fall, and had the best time amo...
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