By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Rachelle Williford-Treadwell calls her daughter "my medicine."
It's not just Christine Williford's achievements on the track that renew and heal her mom. It's the way the Sun Devil freshman handles adversity. Christine and Rachelle have endured plenty of it.
Rachelle just went through a messy divorce, she watched her son and Christine's older brother, Chad, get sidetracked by drugs and land in jail, Christine suffered a major foot injury her junior year at Peoria Liberty High School that nearly derailed her athletic career, and Christine has stood by her mom through her decade-long battle with stage 2, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma -- a disease that requires between two and five doctor visits per week, a massive cocktail of daily pills and regular chemotherapy.
"I told her once, 'you can be weak sometimes, mom. You can lean on me. I can take care of you,'" Christine said, "but when people see her they would never know she has cancer. She always has her hair done. My mom looks so good. She's so strong. I don't know where I'd be without her."
Rachelle was an accomplished athlete at Phoenix Cortez High School where she ran the 400 and 800, just like her daughter, but there was never pressure for Christine to follow in her footsteps. Christine's decision to pursue track at Liberty High was more a product of growing up in a house that stressed fitness.
As a girl, Christine would wake up early and sit on the couch, watching Rachelle do Tae Bo or other workout videos. She wanted to do everything Chad did, no matter the sport or its difficulty.
"She would probably never tell you this but she's a phenomenal swimmer and would be an awesome triathlete," Rachelle said. "She can do a lot of sports, volleyball, basketball, but she really loved track and field."
Christine's first love took a major hit when her Liberty coach asked her to fill in on a relay for an injured teammate. Despite an aching foot, she rose to her team's need. The next day she couldn't walk. She had suffered a painful navicular stress fracture that would require surgery, end her junior season and remove her from the eyes of recruiters during a crucial recruiting season.
"I went to the ER and they told me I'd never be able to run again," Christine said. "That kind of kills your spirit."
Rachelle remembers sitting in the car outside the doctor's office, watching her daughter cry, but like mom, she wouldn't accept the fate others had planned for her.
"I just decided, 'no, that's not my destiny. I can fix this,'" Christine said. "So I got into rehab, did a lot of pool work and strength training, started training with my high school coach and I told myself I was coming back stronger than ever."
She did.
Christine always considered herself an average runner in high school, but in her first meet back from the injury, running unattached up at NAU, she ran a 55.7 in the 400 when all she was hoping for was a high 57.
"I looked at the clock and didn't even believe it," she said. "I was like 'stop messing with me.'"
Rachelle always tells Christine to visualize succeeding, visualize winning, so by the time she stepped on the track at Mesa Community College for the Division I high school state meet, she was brimming with confidence. She won the 400 with a time of 54.76 and then, despite a short rest between races, she won the 800 with a time of 2:09.25.
Sun Devils mid-distance and distance coach Louie Quintana was like a lot of other coaches when Christine arrived at ASU to run in the high school portion of the Sun Angel Classic last spring. Because of that lost junior season, he was in the dark.
"I watched her run the 800 here at Sun Angel and she ran a 2:09," Quintana said. "I was like 'wait, who is this girl?' I got her number and called her mom the next day but she had already committed to TCU."
That commitment didn't last long. Early in Christine's freshman season at Texas Christian, Rachelle told her that her cancer had spread and she was facing breast cancer surgery. That was all Christine needed to hear. Cancer runs in the family. Christine's great grandmother and grandmother had it, and her aunt died of breast cancer. It was time to rally around her mom.
"When we got the call and the release on the back end for her transfer, obviously we knew [TCU coach] Darryl Anderson because he was the sprints coach here at Arizona State when I first started here, so we have a good relationship," Quintana said. "He hated to lose her but he told me this funny story about her leaving. He told her he'd release her to Arizona State because he understood her situation, but he said, 'Christine, you've got to understand everybody is replaceable.'
"She said 'coach, you can't replace me.'"
Though she never asked her daughter to come home, Rachelle felt the same way. She is facing yet another medical battle with a dose of tuberculosis thrown in to further complicate matters and delay the surgery.
"I told everyone, 'before I go anywhere, I will see that baby girl again," Rachelle said, her voice choking back tears. "I was extremely shocked that she came back home, but she's always known what the right environment is for her and she's always known how to do what's right for her. She sounds like an older woman when you speak to her and I think that's because of all she's been through. With all her family trials and tribulations, that is what has made her stronger."
A minor setback with the same foot prevented Christine from taking part in the preseason aerobic training that would have set her up for this season. In the face of Christine's high expectations, Quintana is preaching patience.
"I told her keep everything in perspective," said Quintana, who has focused on speed-based training. "You're going to run way faster than you were probably ever thinking about, but it will take a little bit of time.
"Just watching her work out, she's someone who at some point in her career will probably challenge [former Sun Devil] Shelby Houlihan's [ASU 800] record of 2:01.12. If she can do that, that's an emerging, world-class type of performance, and Shelby ran 2:05 her freshman year.
"If we can get her to 2:06, 2:08, and get to first round of NCAAs, there's nothing better than to make the final and score in Eugene [Oregon] where there will be 15,000 people watching. She has high expectations but a realistic thought process is it takes time to get better. I just want to see her come off the track happy with her performance."
Christine is already happy with her decision to come home. She loves her new coach, she loves having a familiar support system, she loves seeing her mom up in the stands at all her meets, and she loves driving home on weekends to spend time with the woman who shaped her, strengthened her and passed on this palpable positivity that seems to radiate off her as she speaks.
"I accept everything that happens and I just move forward," she said. "You've just got to be positive. You've got to love life. It's so short. What else are you going to do?"
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Rachelle Williford-Treadwell calls her daughter "my medicine."
It's not just Christine Williford's achievements on the track that renew and heal her mom. It's the way the Sun Devil freshman handles adversity. Christine and Rachelle have endured plenty of it.
Rachelle just went through a messy divorce, she watched her son and Christine's older brother, Chad, get sidetracked by drugs and land in jail, Christine suffered a major foot injury her junior year at Peoria Liberty High School that nearly derailed her athletic career, and Christine has stood by her mom through her decade-long battle with stage 2, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma -- a disease that requires between two and five doctor visits per week, a massive cocktail of daily pills and regular chemotherapy.
"I told her once, 'you can be weak sometimes, mom. You can lean on me. I can take care of you,'" Christine said, "but when people see her they would never know she has cancer. She always has her hair done. My mom looks so good. She's so strong. I don't know where I'd be without her."
Rachelle was an accomplished athlete at Phoenix Cortez High School where she ran the 400 and 800, just like her daughter, but there was never pressure for Christine to follow in her footsteps. Christine's decision to pursue track at Liberty High was more a product of growing up in a house that stressed fitness.
As a girl, Christine would wake up early and sit on the couch, watching Rachelle do Tae Bo or other workout videos. She wanted to do everything Chad did, no matter the sport or its difficulty.
"She would probably never tell you this but she's a phenomenal swimmer and would be an awesome triathlete," Rachelle said. "She can do a lot of sports, volleyball, basketball, but she really loved track and field."
Christine's first love took a major hit when her Liberty coach asked her to fill in on a relay for an injured teammate. Despite an aching foot, she rose to her team's need. The next day she couldn't walk. She had suffered a painful navicular stress fracture that would require surgery, end her junior season and remove her from the eyes of recruiters during a crucial recruiting season.
"I went to the ER and they told me I'd never be able to run again," Christine said. "That kind of kills your spirit."
Rachelle remembers sitting in the car outside the doctor's office, watching her daughter cry, but like mom, she wouldn't accept the fate others had planned for her.
"I just decided, 'no, that's not my destiny. I can fix this,'" Christine said. "So I got into rehab, did a lot of pool work and strength training, started training with my high school coach and I told myself I was coming back stronger than ever."
She did.
Christine always considered herself an average runner in high school, but in her first meet back from the injury, running unattached up at NAU, she ran a 55.7 in the 400 when all she was hoping for was a high 57.
"I looked at the clock and didn't even believe it," she said. "I was like 'stop messing with me.'"
Rachelle always tells Christine to visualize succeeding, visualize winning, so by the time she stepped on the track at Mesa Community College for the Division I high school state meet, she was brimming with confidence. She won the 400 with a time of 54.76 and then, despite a short rest between races, she won the 800 with a time of 2:09.25.
Sun Devils mid-distance and distance coach Louie Quintana was like a lot of other coaches when Christine arrived at ASU to run in the high school portion of the Sun Angel Classic last spring. Because of that lost junior season, he was in the dark.
"I watched her run the 800 here at Sun Angel and she ran a 2:09," Quintana said. "I was like 'wait, who is this girl?' I got her number and called her mom the next day but she had already committed to TCU."
That commitment didn't last long. Early in Christine's freshman season at Texas Christian, Rachelle told her that her cancer had spread and she was facing breast cancer surgery. That was all Christine needed to hear. Cancer runs in the family. Christine's great grandmother and grandmother had it, and her aunt died of breast cancer. It was time to rally around her mom.
"When we got the call and the release on the back end for her transfer, obviously we knew [TCU coach] Darryl Anderson because he was the sprints coach here at Arizona State when I first started here, so we have a good relationship," Quintana said. "He hated to lose her but he told me this funny story about her leaving. He told her he'd release her to Arizona State because he understood her situation, but he said, 'Christine, you've got to understand everybody is replaceable.'
"She said 'coach, you can't replace me.'"
Though she never asked her daughter to come home, Rachelle felt the same way. She is facing yet another medical battle with a dose of tuberculosis thrown in to further complicate matters and delay the surgery.
"I told everyone, 'before I go anywhere, I will see that baby girl again," Rachelle said, her voice choking back tears. "I was extremely shocked that she came back home, but she's always known what the right environment is for her and she's always known how to do what's right for her. She sounds like an older woman when you speak to her and I think that's because of all she's been through. With all her family trials and tribulations, that is what has made her stronger."
A minor setback with the same foot prevented Christine from taking part in the preseason aerobic training that would have set her up for this season. In the face of Christine's high expectations, Quintana is preaching patience.
"I told her keep everything in perspective," said Quintana, who has focused on speed-based training. "You're going to run way faster than you were probably ever thinking about, but it will take a little bit of time.
"Just watching her work out, she's someone who at some point in her career will probably challenge [former Sun Devil] Shelby Houlihan's [ASU 800] record of 2:01.12. If she can do that, that's an emerging, world-class type of performance, and Shelby ran 2:05 her freshman year.
"If we can get her to 2:06, 2:08, and get to first round of NCAAs, there's nothing better than to make the final and score in Eugene [Oregon] where there will be 15,000 people watching. She has high expectations but a realistic thought process is it takes time to get better. I just want to see her come off the track happy with her performance."
Christine is already happy with her decision to come home. She loves her new coach, she loves having a familiar support system, she loves seeing her mom up in the stands at all her meets, and she loves driving home on weekends to spend time with the woman who shaped her, strengthened her and passed on this palpable positivity that seems to radiate off her as she speaks.
"I accept everything that happens and I just move forward," she said. "You've just got to be positive. You've got to love life. It's so short. What else are you going to do?"