FAMU Track Star Lays Disqualification to Advisement Process

By Akeem Anderson
Black College Wire

Chris Hargrett has been reduced to a spectator.

Mark Sutton/FAMU FAMU's Chris Hargrett, shown at the MEAC championships in Greensboro, N.C., in 2006, will not be allowed to run in the coming track season.

The legs that won him a gold medal just months ago were off the track as his former teammates competed in the Florida A&M University relays in the spring semester.

"I was just on the sidelines, and it hurt," Hargrett said. "It hurt to see them smiling and laughing while they were running their hearts out," said the track star. "It was precious stuff, man."

Hargrett was forced to the side during the 2007 track season after he was declared academically ineligible.

According to the university, Hargrett was 4 1/2 hours short of the required hours for his criminal justice major. He will also not be allowed to run in the coming season.

In Hargrett's heralded junior year, he won the 2006 MEAC 100 conference title and the 200 meters.

"Actually, my coach came right around the end of the season and told me I wasn't going to be able to run," Hargrett said.

An award-heavy summer had no bearing on the university's decision to sideline Hargrett for the 2006-07 campaign. Hargrett said that while he accepted the decision, he was never actually sure he was ineligible to take the field.

"I never actually got a real explanation," Hargrett said. "They never sat me down and said, 'OK, here is what's missing.' There was no paperwork. No conversation about what I needed to do. They just said I couldn't run anymore."

Hargrett's misdirection started when the advice from his academic adviser did not mesh well with what he'd received from the adviser in his major.

Hargrett said his academic adviser did not really know about any athletic department requirements.

"She was just telling me the classes I should take," he said. "She did everything she was supposed to do. There just wasn't enough communication."

While he doesn't blame the advising process completely, he said the cloud of inconsistencies that hovers over the advisement process has frustrated him and the Rattler track team.

"I love my school. But at the same time when I heard it, I was kind of like 'Here we go again'," Hargrett said. "There has been so much back and forth with them for so long. It was just a lot of built-up frustration."

The advisers could not be reached for comment.

After hearing that he would be hobbled in his anticipated senior campaign, the Orlando native took out those frustrations on a broader stage in the 2006 North American, Central American and Caribbean U-23 Track and Field Championships. Hargrett went to the Dominican Republic and took home a gold medal in the 4x100 relay and a bronze medal in the 100-meter final.

"That was a really great time for me. I really enjoyed running in that competition," Hargrett said.

The impressive showing in the Dominican Republic made Hargrett the third Rattler in the last three years to compete nationally, after Sheldon Morant (2004) and Kevin Hicks (2005).

Still, Hargrett had to deal with the fact that he wouldn't take the field wearing the Rattlers' orange and green.

Hargrett wasn't the only Rattler trying to cope with the loss. The men's track team had to compensate for the void left by the star.

"I was definitely in shock," said sophomore Ernell Cook. Cook ran with Hargrett in the 4x100 the 2005-06 season. "I just couldn't believe he wouldn't be running with us this year. He played such a key role for us, and to not have him there was tough," he said.

Cook said Hargrett served as a mentor to him in his first season.

"He made us work harder in practice. He made everyone around him want to step up," Cook said.

But with Hargrett no longer suiting up for the team, Cook said the Rattlers have had to step up more now than ever.

"Without Chris, everything just got a lot harder," Cook said. "At first we kind of struggled to adjust, but now things are finally starting to be OK."

Rey Robinson, the men's track head coach, said the team could have benefited from Hargrett's presence on his freshman-heavy squad.

"We have such a young team, and when you lose a guy like Chris it hurts your team," Robinson said. "We are rebuilding. If he were eligible it would have been a big help."

"For now, Chris is ineligible. Barring a different result from our next audit, he won't be able to run anymore," Robinson said.

In the meantime, Hargrett will have to wait in a place that has become all too familiar — the sidelines.

"I really love the University," he said. "Hopefully I will be able to run for us again."

Akeem Anderson, a student at Florida A&M University, is editor in chief of the Famuan. To comment, e-mail .

Posted July 2, 2007