Jeneba Tarmoh is a rare combination of fast-twitch muscles and easy-going attitude, a sprinter who kept her balance despite being forced to spend a year out of the fast lane.
Tarmoh will make her debut with the Texas A&M track team as the Aggies start the indoor season by hosting the Reveille Invitational at 4 p.m. Saturday at Gilliam Stadium.
The World Junior champion at 100 meters, Tarmoh was forced to redshirt at A&M last season after transferring from the University of Tennessee when Tennessee coaches didn't grant her release.
Elite sprinters often are mercurial, gunslinger types. Starters often ask them to reset before a race if they've been in the starting blocks more than a few seconds, yet Tarmoh had to wait a year for the gun.
"I'm very excited about Saturday," Tarmoh said. "I'm ready for the season to start. I'm happy that I can compete for A&M. I feel very blessed that I can actually say that. I tried to take advantage of having a redshirt year. I was able to become more religious. I was able to focus more on my school work. I think it helped me more off the track than on it."
Tarmoh watched the Aggie women capture the team title at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last season, getting a huge boost from its sprint corps. Now assistant coach Vince Anderson adds Tarmoh, who ran 11.37 seconds to win the 100 at the World Junior Championships in Poland last summer.
"I think she'll be a spectacular addition to our team," Anderson said. "The thing you hope for as a coach is that she's able to maintain reasonable expectations and enjoy the process of getting better."
As special as Tarmoh has proven as a sprinter, Anderson said she's a more special person. Tarmoh was born and grew up in San Jose, Calif., the child of African immigrants from Sierra Leone.
"She's an amazing human being," Anderson said. "I don't know if it has to do with her immigrant parents, her humble background or what it is, but she is an amazingly well-grounded person. Some people are born easy-going and even-keeled. They're really, really pleasant to be around. Even when they're having a bad day, they don't go home and kick the dog. She's going to behave with courtesy at all times, regardless of how her day is going."
Tarmoh went to the A&M track meets last season and tried to use the time to learn about her teammates, coaches and future competitors. Under NCAA rules, she could have competed for the Aggies immediately if she had been given clearance by Tennessee officials.
Her upbringing showed in how she handled the disappointment of not being cleared, and in the way she made the move from Tennessee to A&M.
The Volunteers and Aggies were Tarmoh's top two choices as a senior at San Jose's Mt. Pleasant High School. She picked UT because she wanted to compete for a female coach at a school where the men's and women's programs were separate.
But Tarmoh says she felt uncomfortable in Knoxville, Tenn., almost right away, though she stayed at UT through her freshman year to honor her scholarship agreement.
"I didn't feel too happy there," Tarmoh said. "I rely a lot on my feelings and my intuition. I didn't like the feeling I was getting there. I feel that this is where I'm supposed to be. I think I did the right thing by staying at Tennessee, and also by leaving eventually. The reason I stayed the whole year is I signed a contract, and I wanted to honor that even though it was hard."
Anderson made a lasting impression on Tarmoh while she was being recruited. He spoke to Tarmoh then something like the way he spoke about her Thursday, near the starting line where she'll make her Aggie debut.
"From Day 1, I remember coach Anderson coming to my house," Tarmoh said. "He introduced himself and told me that I was a special person ... nobody had ever said that to me in that sense. Coming here and being around a coach that believes that I am different as a person and as an athlete makes my happy.
"I will be nervous Saturday. I'm just not going to let that determine how I do. I just want to do what my coach taught me, and try to run right."
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NOTES -- Tennessee coaches may have saved themselves a national championship by forcing Tarmoh to sit out a year. A&M finished second, five points behind the Lady Vols, in the NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station last March. ... The Aggies will compete against Baylor, Houston and TCU in the Reveille meet, with 10 events per gender.