‘Aaliyah… I’m OK’
Jan 16, 2026 | Track & Field, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
The phones didn't work. Aaliyah Foster tried them again. Silence. Another time. More silence. The storms on a path for Jamaica always seemed to veer off course, preserving the beautiful north coast, keeping Doctor's Cave Beach and Walter Fletcher Beach undisturbed along Montego Bay, the capital of Saint James Parish — Aaliyah's home. Yet here she was, a 20-year-old track star, a junior who is regarded as one of the finest long jumpers in the United States, settling into her college home at Kansas State University, eager to make waves again on the college circuit.
And for three excruciating, sleepless days, Foster, one of the finest athletes ever to leave Montego Bay to pursue her track dreams, didn't know if she had a home. Or a family.
Hurricane Melissa slammed into Jamaica at around 7:00 a.m. on October 28. The storm made landfall near New Hope in Westmoreland Parish at its peak intensity of 185 miles-per-hour, and the extremely powerful, erratic, and devastating tropical cyclone became the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, tied with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane.
Aaliyah hit the Internet, she followed the TV coverage, she saw the devastation while wracked with guilt, because she thought that she should be there, helping her family, helping her neighbors who were family without blood relation, and the downtrodden homestead absent of playground equipment, which was perfect for climbing trees and running — yes, running — as Aaliyah did so, so many times, for as long as she could remember, across the close-knit community filled with green grass — and love.
"Montego Bay is like we're a family without being related," Foster says. "The people, the vibe, the beautiful beaches, sunrises and sunsets — we all look out for each other. So, I couldn't focus on anything. My sister? Was she OK?
"I felt like I should've been there."
Day One — Silence.
Day Two — Silence.
Day Three — A voice.
Yes, at about 4:00 p.m. on October 31, three days after Hurricane Melissa made landfall, Aaliyah grabbed her cellphone after K-State track and field practice in Manhattan, Kansas. Two missed calls. She went into panic overdrive. She called the phone number. It was from Sangster International Airport. Whose voice would pick up on the other end?
"Aaliyah… I'm OK."
Imagine the tears, as the unknown became known, as the anxiety and stress of three of her worst days slowly dissolved from her neck and shoulders, and she turned into putty, her spinning mind of mush now overflowing with adrenaline. Yes, Aaliyah had climbed to the top of the podium plenty of times in her life, all alone, and absorbed the adoring cheers, and basked in the adrenaline of great achievement. Now, after three days of being so excruciatingly alone at the top, with all the modern conveniences such as lights and water in Manhattan, in the middle of the United States, some 1,800 miles from her 32-year-old sister, Camille, her everything, her best friend, helped Aaliyah off the podium. She shall carry the burden no more.
Camille and her boyfriend, and Aaliyah's nephew and niece, were all accounted for.
More tears.
"Camille had to go to the airport to call me," Aaliyah says. "There was no service anywhere."
It was Camille's next words to her younger sister that really hit home as well.
"It's really bad over here," Camille said. "Everything is unrecognizable. Our neighbor's houses are all gone. The roads are completely damaged. The trees — it's all unrecognizable."
"Are you OK? Is the house OK?" Aaliyah asked.
"Yes," Camille replied.
"Thanks be to God."
Aaliyah didn't have much growing up. Her mother, Angella, was very athletic, taught her daughter her drive for excellence at an early age, spotted her daughter's athletic potential and abilities before anyone. Angella was Aaliyah's best friend, and she died when Aaliyah was 11.
"Losing my mother, my best friend at the tender age of 11, and learning how to — all those things that a mother will teach, my sister had to help with, and not having that figure around, my No. 1 fan, who always brought me to track meets and cheered me on — my mother, she was my driving force. I always remember her smiling and saying, 'Aaliyah, you got this.' She's always been my driving force."
The dream and drive began with the 60-meter run. Foster was extraordinarily fast for her young age. But her affair with her first love was cut short due to nagging injuries, prompting her to try another event. Little did she know that jumping into a pit of sand would rise her to the top.
Foster won the ISSA/Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Championships long jump competition with her jump of 6.33 meters in 2023. She finished at the top or near the top of every other competition as well.
From adversity, a star was born.
"We had Sports Day at school, and I won the long jump," she says. "My coach said, 'I think you'd be very good in this event, Aaliyah.'"
It was a couple years before any of that that Foster believed track and field could take her places, namely taking her to a college in the United States to earn an athletic scholarship and hone her craft.
"When I won my first gold medal at the Boys and Girls Championship in 2021, I felt a sense of joy, a sense that I had found my event even though I was a successful sprinter," she says. "I had no anxiety or nerves. I just went out and competed. I looked at myself in the mirror and said, 'Yes, I want to do this.'"
College track and field coaches from across the United States caught wind of Aaliyah's gift. She received "a lot" of scholarship offers, ultimately deciding to take her talents to the University of Texas.
As a freshman, she earned Second Team All-America honors at the NCAA Championships in the long jump with a 13th-place finish at 6.25 meters. As a sophomore, she earned First Team All-America honors in the long jump at the NCAA Championships with a seventh-place finish at 6.47 meters. Both indoor and outdoor, it didn't matter — she was All-American.
She was an All-American who didn't believe that she had reached her potential. An All-American who yearned for something more.
Foster entered the transfer portal following the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Two days later, a man by the name of Clive Pullen, a Jamaican, entered her life.
"I think what I'm capable of hasn't yet been shown," Aaliyah says. "That's what prompted the move to K-State. I thought it'd allow me to tap into my full abilities and potential and to be at the top of the podium."
Pullen contacted Aaliyah: "I'll have you on a plane tomorrow if you want to visit."
She came. And she saw. And she noticed big differences under the direction of Travis Geopfert, K-State's Director of Track and Field, and, of course, Pullen.
"Here, all the coaches are so easy going," she says. "Coach Clive, we had such an amazing conversation on my visit. We went to Travis' house on my visit, and it felt so much like home, like nothing I'd ever experienced before. Coach Clive, being Jamaican as well, we meshed together so well. I speak to him every day. I have a coach who I can really talk to.
"I'd never been to Manhattan. I wanted an administration that cared for me as a person on and off the track. It was amazing walking into the indoor facility and going outdoors. I've never had an indoor facility to train in. I always had to go outdoors.
"K-State is different."
Pullen, who has served as assistant coach in charge of jumpers since August 2024, was a triple jump Olympian competing for Jamaica in the 2016 Games in Rio de Jamerio, and he has coached six NCAA champions and 15 First Team All-Americans across Arkansas, Tennessee, Kansas, and now K-State.
Now, Pullen has another All-American to mold in his distinguished career.
"I never want to put limits on anyone by saying numbers, because who knows what Aaliyah could possibly do, but her individual goals are definitely to become a national champion, and then in 2028 hopefully be in contention to compete for an Olympic spot," Geopfert says. "She has the ability, the desire and now she's focusing on the process and continuing to put things together.
"I want to compliment Coach Pullen in helping her come along physically and mentally to get ready for the season. Those two working together is a great duo, and there'll be a lot of success for them moving forward."
As for the biggest change that Aaliyah has noticed since arriving at K-State in early August?
"The program, just being here for a couple months, I've seen drastic change in everything in terms of my technique, speed, strength in just a couple months that I've been here," she says. "That's something I've always longed for. I feel like, 'OK, I've found my place.'"
She hopes her place will be at the top of the podium in a K-State uniform over the next couple years.
"I hold myself to such a standard that, yes, I'm an All-American, but there's more to offer," she says. "Yes, I finish in the top eight in the country, but I could be in the top three. There's never been pressure. I'm going to strive to be an All-American again and be at the top of the podium. I want to improve my personal best constantly and reach a distance where I want to be.
"I want consistency, and I want to consistently be where I know I can be."
One year, and one year soon, she yearns to be at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, following the trail blazed by Kathleen Russell (1948 and 1952), Lacena Golding-Clark (1996 and 2000), Elva Goulbourne (2000), Chanice Porter (2020) and Tissanna Hickling (2020) — women's long jumpers who have represented Jamaica in the Olympics.
"By 2028, I believe I will have mastered the art with Coach Clive and Coach Travis, and I have faith everything will work out," she says. "The pride in representing Jamaica will come from winning for my parents, making my country proud, my sister proud, and just knowing that all the hard work has paid off. If I'm representing my country, I'll be there for a reason.
"I've learned that adversity will come, but it's how you look at it, and how you go about it. A girl who's going to do big things cannot let small things get to her."
In a flash, all that was tested the morning of October 28, the date that Aaliyah, Camille, and Jamaicans across the globe, will never forget. Three days of silence, then a voice 1,800 miles away whispering, "Aaliyah… I'm OK." In that instant, Camille, surrounded by devastation as far as the eye could see, pulled her younger sister from a pit of despair in Manhattan, allowing her to regain that otherworldly spring in her step that one day could land her on the podium, representing her country, her family, her neighbors and the community that still recovers from one of the worst hurricanes on record, and will cheer on one of their favorite daughters, all alone.
The phones didn't work. Aaliyah Foster tried them again. Silence. Another time. More silence. The storms on a path for Jamaica always seemed to veer off course, preserving the beautiful north coast, keeping Doctor's Cave Beach and Walter Fletcher Beach undisturbed along Montego Bay, the capital of Saint James Parish — Aaliyah's home. Yet here she was, a 20-year-old track star, a junior who is regarded as one of the finest long jumpers in the United States, settling into her college home at Kansas State University, eager to make waves again on the college circuit.
And for three excruciating, sleepless days, Foster, one of the finest athletes ever to leave Montego Bay to pursue her track dreams, didn't know if she had a home. Or a family.
Hurricane Melissa slammed into Jamaica at around 7:00 a.m. on October 28. The storm made landfall near New Hope in Westmoreland Parish at its peak intensity of 185 miles-per-hour, and the extremely powerful, erratic, and devastating tropical cyclone became the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, tied with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane.
Aaliyah hit the Internet, she followed the TV coverage, she saw the devastation while wracked with guilt, because she thought that she should be there, helping her family, helping her neighbors who were family without blood relation, and the downtrodden homestead absent of playground equipment, which was perfect for climbing trees and running — yes, running — as Aaliyah did so, so many times, for as long as she could remember, across the close-knit community filled with green grass — and love.
"Montego Bay is like we're a family without being related," Foster says. "The people, the vibe, the beautiful beaches, sunrises and sunsets — we all look out for each other. So, I couldn't focus on anything. My sister? Was she OK?
"I felt like I should've been there."
Day One — Silence.
Day Two — Silence.
Day Three — A voice.
Yes, at about 4:00 p.m. on October 31, three days after Hurricane Melissa made landfall, Aaliyah grabbed her cellphone after K-State track and field practice in Manhattan, Kansas. Two missed calls. She went into panic overdrive. She called the phone number. It was from Sangster International Airport. Whose voice would pick up on the other end?
"Aaliyah… I'm OK."
Imagine the tears, as the unknown became known, as the anxiety and stress of three of her worst days slowly dissolved from her neck and shoulders, and she turned into putty, her spinning mind of mush now overflowing with adrenaline. Yes, Aaliyah had climbed to the top of the podium plenty of times in her life, all alone, and absorbed the adoring cheers, and basked in the adrenaline of great achievement. Now, after three days of being so excruciatingly alone at the top, with all the modern conveniences such as lights and water in Manhattan, in the middle of the United States, some 1,800 miles from her 32-year-old sister, Camille, her everything, her best friend, helped Aaliyah off the podium. She shall carry the burden no more.
Camille and her boyfriend, and Aaliyah's nephew and niece, were all accounted for.
More tears.
"Camille had to go to the airport to call me," Aaliyah says. "There was no service anywhere."
It was Camille's next words to her younger sister that really hit home as well.
"It's really bad over here," Camille said. "Everything is unrecognizable. Our neighbor's houses are all gone. The roads are completely damaged. The trees — it's all unrecognizable."
"Are you OK? Is the house OK?" Aaliyah asked.
"Yes," Camille replied.
"Thanks be to God."
Aaliyah didn't have much growing up. Her mother, Angella, was very athletic, taught her daughter her drive for excellence at an early age, spotted her daughter's athletic potential and abilities before anyone. Angella was Aaliyah's best friend, and she died when Aaliyah was 11.
"Losing my mother, my best friend at the tender age of 11, and learning how to — all those things that a mother will teach, my sister had to help with, and not having that figure around, my No. 1 fan, who always brought me to track meets and cheered me on — my mother, she was my driving force. I always remember her smiling and saying, 'Aaliyah, you got this.' She's always been my driving force."
The dream and drive began with the 60-meter run. Foster was extraordinarily fast for her young age. But her affair with her first love was cut short due to nagging injuries, prompting her to try another event. Little did she know that jumping into a pit of sand would rise her to the top.
Foster won the ISSA/Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Championships long jump competition with her jump of 6.33 meters in 2023. She finished at the top or near the top of every other competition as well.
From adversity, a star was born.
"We had Sports Day at school, and I won the long jump," she says. "My coach said, 'I think you'd be very good in this event, Aaliyah.'"
It was a couple years before any of that that Foster believed track and field could take her places, namely taking her to a college in the United States to earn an athletic scholarship and hone her craft.
"When I won my first gold medal at the Boys and Girls Championship in 2021, I felt a sense of joy, a sense that I had found my event even though I was a successful sprinter," she says. "I had no anxiety or nerves. I just went out and competed. I looked at myself in the mirror and said, 'Yes, I want to do this.'"
College track and field coaches from across the United States caught wind of Aaliyah's gift. She received "a lot" of scholarship offers, ultimately deciding to take her talents to the University of Texas.
As a freshman, she earned Second Team All-America honors at the NCAA Championships in the long jump with a 13th-place finish at 6.25 meters. As a sophomore, she earned First Team All-America honors in the long jump at the NCAA Championships with a seventh-place finish at 6.47 meters. Both indoor and outdoor, it didn't matter — she was All-American.
She was an All-American who didn't believe that she had reached her potential. An All-American who yearned for something more.
Foster entered the transfer portal following the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Two days later, a man by the name of Clive Pullen, a Jamaican, entered her life.
"I think what I'm capable of hasn't yet been shown," Aaliyah says. "That's what prompted the move to K-State. I thought it'd allow me to tap into my full abilities and potential and to be at the top of the podium."
Pullen contacted Aaliyah: "I'll have you on a plane tomorrow if you want to visit."
She came. And she saw. And she noticed big differences under the direction of Travis Geopfert, K-State's Director of Track and Field, and, of course, Pullen.
"Here, all the coaches are so easy going," she says. "Coach Clive, we had such an amazing conversation on my visit. We went to Travis' house on my visit, and it felt so much like home, like nothing I'd ever experienced before. Coach Clive, being Jamaican as well, we meshed together so well. I speak to him every day. I have a coach who I can really talk to.
"I'd never been to Manhattan. I wanted an administration that cared for me as a person on and off the track. It was amazing walking into the indoor facility and going outdoors. I've never had an indoor facility to train in. I always had to go outdoors.
"K-State is different."
Pullen, who has served as assistant coach in charge of jumpers since August 2024, was a triple jump Olympian competing for Jamaica in the 2016 Games in Rio de Jamerio, and he has coached six NCAA champions and 15 First Team All-Americans across Arkansas, Tennessee, Kansas, and now K-State.
Now, Pullen has another All-American to mold in his distinguished career.
"I never want to put limits on anyone by saying numbers, because who knows what Aaliyah could possibly do, but her individual goals are definitely to become a national champion, and then in 2028 hopefully be in contention to compete for an Olympic spot," Geopfert says. "She has the ability, the desire and now she's focusing on the process and continuing to put things together.
"I want to compliment Coach Pullen in helping her come along physically and mentally to get ready for the season. Those two working together is a great duo, and there'll be a lot of success for them moving forward."
As for the biggest change that Aaliyah has noticed since arriving at K-State in early August?
"The program, just being here for a couple months, I've seen drastic change in everything in terms of my technique, speed, strength in just a couple months that I've been here," she says. "That's something I've always longed for. I feel like, 'OK, I've found my place.'"
She hopes her place will be at the top of the podium in a K-State uniform over the next couple years.
"I hold myself to such a standard that, yes, I'm an All-American, but there's more to offer," she says. "Yes, I finish in the top eight in the country, but I could be in the top three. There's never been pressure. I'm going to strive to be an All-American again and be at the top of the podium. I want to improve my personal best constantly and reach a distance where I want to be.
"I want consistency, and I want to consistently be where I know I can be."
One year, and one year soon, she yearns to be at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, following the trail blazed by Kathleen Russell (1948 and 1952), Lacena Golding-Clark (1996 and 2000), Elva Goulbourne (2000), Chanice Porter (2020) and Tissanna Hickling (2020) — women's long jumpers who have represented Jamaica in the Olympics.
"By 2028, I believe I will have mastered the art with Coach Clive and Coach Travis, and I have faith everything will work out," she says. "The pride in representing Jamaica will come from winning for my parents, making my country proud, my sister proud, and just knowing that all the hard work has paid off. If I'm representing my country, I'll be there for a reason.
"I've learned that adversity will come, but it's how you look at it, and how you go about it. A girl who's going to do big things cannot let small things get to her."
In a flash, all that was tested the morning of October 28, the date that Aaliyah, Camille, and Jamaicans across the globe, will never forget. Three days of silence, then a voice 1,800 miles away whispering, "Aaliyah… I'm OK." In that instant, Camille, surrounded by devastation as far as the eye could see, pulled her younger sister from a pit of despair in Manhattan, allowing her to regain that otherworldly spring in her step that one day could land her on the podium, representing her country, her family, her neighbors and the community that still recovers from one of the worst hurricanes on record, and will cheer on one of their favorite daughters, all alone.
Players Mentioned
/ Track & Field
K-State Men's Basketball | Game Replay vs UCF - January 14, 2026
Thursday, January 15
K-State Men's Basketball | Coach Tang Postgame Press Conference (UCF)
Thursday, January 15
K-State Men's Basketball | Game Highlights vs UCF
Thursday, January 15
K-State Baseball | Practice Begins 2026
Tuesday, January 13
