- Details
- Category: Past Issues
Bullet inspires
perspective
It all changed for Tarique Foster the night of June 25, 2021.
An incoming postgrad player on the PSA prep basketball team who recently committed to Virginia Commonwealth, Foster was at a graduation party back home in the Bronx, N.Y., when gunshots rang out. A bullet hit him in his right calf. He actually didn’t know it until later that night, after he had run away, when a friend told him there was a hole in his pants leg.
“When I remember it, the shot just sounded endless,” Foster said. “It was scary but it wasn’t like the movies where I was screaming in pain. But it definitely affected me. It went straight through the flesh but it was close to my bone.”
Besides making him more aware of his surroundings and not being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Foster, who was cleared to resume playing just 13 days later, said it changed his outlook on so much more.
“It put things in perspective, for sure,” he said. “It was like, ‘I need to work seriously to reach my potential.’ I had to take basketball more seriously. I had to take life more seriously. I had to take my education more seriously. At the end of the day, it could have been so much worse.”
As a result of the more mature outlook, Foster has taken off. After helping lead Cardinal Hayes to city and state championships as a senior, the 6-foot-8 wing decided he needed another year to get ready for college. He had a number of conversations with PSA assistant coach Dana Valentine and agreed that PSA was the place for him to do that.
All the while, he was being heavily recruited by VCU, particularly assistant coach J.D. Byers. He went on an official visit recently and committed shortly thereafter.
“Coach Byers was there for every AAU game and giving me support through every one, good or bad,” said Foster, who held another half-dozen or so offers. “That plays a big part in choosing the right school. I was always told ‘Go where they love you, not where they need you.’ I really felt like making the decision was up to me because it’s me who’s going to wake up early or stay late to put in the extra hours of work so I really felt when I went there that this is what I wanted to do. They had a plan for me. It felt really natural, really comfortable, like a family.”
So that’s a year from now. As for the season ahead of him, Foster – who loves to get up and down the court and dunk but is extremely versatile on both ends – said his goal is to help PSA win another national championship. He added that while he is an aggressive player, he is quiet, as in no trash talking.
“I feel like if you’re doing that, you’re not focusing,” he said. “People will say it helps them focus but not for me.”
Said PSA coach Tom Espinosa: “Ty fits our program and our style perfectly. I honestly believe he’s going to be one of our top guys this year and hopefully lead us to some special things this season. He’s a winner and a leader on and off the court. I can’t wait to really start coaching him.”
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
.