GIRL'S VICTORIES BELONG TO TOWN, TOO.

Byline: Bill Reynolds Providence Journal-Bulletin

This is a story about a 14-year-old girl who has come out of nowhere to become a prodigy of sorts.

Her name is Rosie Woodford. She is a freshman at South Kingstown High School, and all she did this past fall was win the state cross-country championship and the New England cross-country championship and qualify for the National Junior Olympic Cross-Country Championships in Baton Rouge, La.

But it's also a story about a town, and about caring, and a lot of the other things that we like to think sports are about, but so rarely are anymore.

When Rosie Woodford qualified to go to Louisiana by winning a regional race, she had a problem: Her family didn't have the money to send her.

And because she wasn't going to be representing South Kingstown High School at the national tournament, the school system couldn't pay to send her.

So Rosie wrote a letter:

"My name is Rosie Woodford. I am a 14-year-old freshman and I am on the cross-country team at South Kingstown High School. ... I would like the opportunity to attend this competition, and believe I have a good chance to place well. Any donations to help me pay for this trip would be most appreciated. I promise, as an athlete from South Kingstown, Rhode Island, to do my best at the National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships."

"I was really discouraged when I first realized how much it was going to cost," says Sue Woodford, Rosie's mother. "And I felt kind of funny at first. I figured people needed money to buy Christmas toys. But people said, no, that the town wanted this."

It's unusual for a freshman to have so much success so quickly, and the surprising thing was that it was so unexpected. Sure, Rosie had won a statewide junior-high meet the year before, but now she was on the varsity, running against older, more experienced girls. In fact, she'd been surprised at the first practice that she'd been able to run with some of the older girls on her team.

So when she started having success she even surprised herself. It really wasn't until midway into the season, at a New England invitational meet in Connecticut where she finished ninth, that she convinced herself that she was as good as others thought she was. She never expected to win the state meet, and she certainly never expected to win the New England title. But she did, and everything started to change.

And making it all the sweeter was that it came at a time in her life when Rosie Woodford needed something good to happen to her. Her parents have gone through a divorce, and in a family where there are six children, it hasn't been easy.

"We've really had a tough year," says her mother, "and Rosie's success drew our family together. It was something to rally around. It's made such a big difference in our personal lives."

Certainly Rosie's.

She started out the school year as a shy, willowy 14-year-old, and now is the state's newest running prodigy, something she couldn't even have fantasized about last summer.

How did this happen?

Rosie just shrugs her shoulders and smiles self-consciously, as if it's all some mystery that eludes her.

"I just run," she says.

Ah, the simplicity of youth. For there is a naivete about her, with her lucky necklace and her superstitions, as if she's not old enough yet to fully comprehend just how unique the past few months have been.

In fact, she probably felt more pressure writing the letter asking for donations to go to Louisiana than she did running.

Enter the town of South Kingstown.

Specifically, the South Kingstown Chamber of Commerce.

Since Heather Walsh of the chamber and Bob Cavanagh, the high school's athletic director, are sister and brother, it wasn't long before the Chamber of Commerce took over the unofficial role of raising money to send Rosie and her mother to Louisiana. Ultimately, Rosie didn't even need her letter.

"By the end of the first day we had raised $1,000," says Walsh, "and after four days we had the $3,000. But I really wasn't surprised because we have a very giving community."

The donors, 48 in all, spanned the community. They ranged from the Lions Club and Rotary Club, each of which donated $500, to individuals who kicked in $10. One anonymous donor gave $250, the only explanation being that once upon a time he had qualified for a similar race and couldn't afford to go.

The town raised enough to send Rosie, her mother, and coach Sherry Hathaway too.

Once again, Rosie didn't feel nervous before the race in Baton Rouge, even if she never had been that far away from home before. To her, it was just another race and she doesn't get nervous, right? She just runs. If anything, the National Junior Olympics was easier than her high school races. Certainly they were shorter, 2.5 miles compared with the high school distance of 3.1. And now she was running against other 14-year-olds, not high school seniors three years older.

Rosie came in fifth.

All this happened Dec. 9, but the lessons endure. Rosie Woodford, the self-described athlete from South Kingstown, R.I., did indeed do her best. And her success became a town's success too.