'Complete turnaround'

Billy Forbes viewed his son’s most recent triumph from a mountain in Utah.  

While on a ski trip in mid-March, Forbes stepped into a slopeside warming hut to stream the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships.

He thawed as he watched the younger of his two boys, Charlie, win the 60-meter hurdles title by a fraction of a second in Pittsburg, Kansas.

“You’re sitting there trying to keep it all together, and then kicking yourself,” Billy Forbes said. “If we had known, we would have made arrangements to be up there.” 

It was not the first time that he had seen his son emerge in a big race. But this victory meant more than the others, mainly because of how improbable it once seemed.

Three years ago, Charlie Forbes was as close to washed up in his sport as a 21-year-old can be.

His glory days at Mountain Brook High School had faded, and an athletic career that at one point held so much promise was defined more by what it could have been rather than what it was.

That is no longer the case. 

Now, Charlie Forbes is a national champion at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs whose ceiling appears sky high.   

Redemption, not regret, characterizes his story. 

“I knew this was my last shot to do something,” Charlie Forbes said, “and I couldn’t take it for granted like I had in the past.”

WHAT IF?

The past six years in Charlie Forbes’ adult life can be divided into two chapters.

During the first, which spanned from 2013 to 2016, he lived to pass the time.

During the second, which began in 2016 and continues today, he strives to make the most of it. 

Forbes did not intend for this dichotomy when he signed a full scholarship to Auburn University as a high school senior. But life, as he has discovered repeatedly, rarely goes according to plan. 

“Just stay resilient,” he said. “That’s one of the hardest things.”

Not many things were hard for Forbes in high school, especially not athletically. He established himself as one of Alabama’s top high school hurdlers before he could drive, winning individual state titles his sophomore year in the 110- and 300-meter races. 

That Forbes attained such soaring success while training very little validated his innate ability. 

“He was truly exceptional,” said Greg Echols, his high school coach. 

But even Forbes’ top-tier talent could only take him so far. The discipline he lacked during practice sessions on the track extended to the classroom.

Forbes learned on the afternoon of his high school graduation that he would not be able to walk because he had failed a course. Shortly after, he discovered that he was not academically eligible to run at Auburn. He lost his scholarship, and any hope of regaining it would require a stint on a junior college roster.

That option didn’t appeal to Forbes at the time. Instead, he decided to enroll as a student only at Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa. He took a couple of classes each semester, adopted a dog and embraced the stereotypical college lifestyle. By his own admission, Forbes spent the better part of three years living more aimlessly than aimfully. 

“I was just kind of killing time,” he said. 

Forbes didn’t train much during this chapter. Track was an afterthought, though still a thought. He said a voice in the back of his mind always told him that he would run again, even if he didn’t see a clear path toward realizing that vision. Forbes was out of shape and out of touch with the people who could help make it happen.   

His dad provided encouragement.  

“I told him, ‘You will always wonder, what if?’” Billy Forbes recalled. “‘There’s no reason not to do it. You can’t be a party boy all the time.’”

Echols said that he did not expect to hear from Charlie Forbes when he fielded a surprise phone call in 2016. The two hadn’t communicated in a couple of years. 

Forbes expressed to Echols his interest in getting back into track. He did the same with Bobby Humphrey, the former University of Alabama running back and father of his old hurdling rival, Hoover alumnus Marlon Humphrey.

Forbes ran for Bobby Humphrey’s Speed City Track Club in the summer during high school and knew he had connections in the college ranks.

Maybe, Forbes thought, he could help.  

“It was kind of a realization that if I didn’t make a change, I wasn’t going to go anywhere in life,” Forbes said. “There was kind of a reality check.”

Humphrey pointed him in the right direction. 

FRESH START

The resurrection of Forbes’ track and field career began on an oval in the heart of Kansas, in a town called Great Bend. It is two hours northwest of the closest notable city, Wichita, and is home to Barton Community College. 

For two years it became Forbes’ home, too.  

“To leave everything he knew to go to Kansas — and he was in the middle of nowhere — that’s the part that makes me so proud of him,” Echols said. “He made a conscious choice to take hold of his future and leave everything he knew to start over.” 

But starting over can be painful, and in Forbes’ case, it was. 

He endured workouts that pushed him to the point of exhaustion as he sought to regain the speed and strength that had waned when he was away from the sport. 

“I can’t tell you how many times I was just face-first in pain after a workout,” Forbes said. “If you were to ask my coach, he’d probably tell you I was on the ground every single day.”

Forbes tore one hamstring soon after he arrived on campus and then the other a few months later, on the eve of his first competition since high school. He ran only two meets as a Barton freshman during the 2016-17 academic year. 

“It was definitely tough,” he said. “I knew what I was capable of doing, and I just had to tell myself every day to just get through it and continue to work.”

Forbes’ fortune began to turn after that tumultuous reintroduction to track.

He stayed healthy for most of his sophomore year and rounded back into form.

In 2018, Forbes won the junior college national championship in the indoor 60 hurdles and placed fourth in the outdoor 110 hurdles. His outdoor performance helped Barton secure the team national championship. 

Sandwiched in between those feats was a third-place showing at the Texas Relays, a revered meet that draws top college and pro athletes. 

Forbes’ breakthrough performances garnered recruiting attention, primarily from schools like Minnesota State and Colorado Springs. Both wanted him to compete for them at the Division II level. It was Forbes’ best option. 

He was not eligible to run Division I due to an NCAA rule governing the length of time an athlete spends in college.  

A visit to Colorado Springs convinced him to commit. 

“I just thought the potential for school and for life after school was big,” Forbes said. “That was the main reason I came out here.” 

BRIGHT FUTURE

There is consensus that Forbes, now 24, changed during his two years in Kansas. 

He applied himself athletically and academically, making the dean’s list and president’s list in addition to excelling on the track. 

He became detail-oriented, Echols said, noting the time Forbes came to a training session with a notebook in hand while home on break.

“It was like a different kid,” Echols said, “with discipline and work ethic.” 

Billy Forbes has recognized a difference as well. One night, while his son was still in Kansas, Billy Forbes asked him during a phone call if he was speaking with the right person. 

Charlie Forbes’ tone, and approach to life, had changed. At the end of last school year, Barton named him its Most Inspirational Male Student-Athlete. 

“It’s just a complete turnaround,” Billy Forbes said. “It’s almost like maturing overnight.”

Charlie Forbes’ newfound wisdom has served him well out West. Although he has battled a couple of injuries, including one that required surgery last summer, he went undefeated in the 60 hurdles this indoor season en route to the national title.

He said he entered the championship meet with confidence. In the final, he clocked a season-best time to win. 

“It was something that was my goal all season,” he said. “To be able to go out there and achieve that, it was just a big relief and a confidence boost.”

Forbes has experienced firsthand that success delayed trumps success denied. In hindsight, he said he is glad the past six years unfolded as they have. Stepping away from the sport allowed him to realize his passion for it, chisel his character and develop his work ethic.

He isn’t done yet.

Next March, Birmingham will host the Division II indoor national championships, at which Forbes will aim to defend his title. 

Billy Forbes and his wife, Janet, will have a front-row seat at the Birmingham CrossPlex.

A win would there would almost certainly mean more than others — if only because of how improbable all of this once seemed. 

 “You’ve got good and bad days,” Charlie Forbes said. “You’ve just got to continue to do the right things, and they will pay off.”