The Huntsville Track Club’s 2007 outstanding Female Cross Country Runner Award

The 2007 HTC Outstanding Female High School Cross Country runner is Alissa Fisher, a junior at Grissom High School in Huntsville. She earned this honor by being the top HTC member to finish in the Metro Cross Country Meet at the Running Park in Huntsville in October, 2007.

Alissa was born here in Huntsville and attended elementary and middle school at Challenger before entering Grissom in 2005, where she has been a two-sport athlete – running and soccer - for the Lady Tigers.

Alissa began playing soccer at age 5 and has continued on both club and high school teams since.

She also began running at an early age, influenced by the example of her mother, Janet. The Fisher family members have belonged to the Huntsville Track Club since 1999.

I first began to notice Alissa’s name in 1998 when she won the girl’s second grade mile race at the HTC and Huntsville Hospital’s Autumn Chase. As a reporter for the Huntsville Times, I typed her name as first or second finisher each subsequent year except 2000. She won four times and was second twice with Stephanie Oliver of Riverton and Khadiji Clay of Whitesburg her usual chief competitors. As an eight grader in 2004, she closed the string with a victory in 5:59, beating Adriana Poole of Sparkman.

It is particularly rewarding tonight to be making this presentation to a young lady who with her family has been an HTC member for a long time.

At the State Cross Country meet on November 10, Alissa was the top finisher for Grissom as she continued to improve from an early season injury.

Alissa is a defensive player on the Grissom soccer team and still finds time during the high school season to compete in spring track for the Lady Tigers.

“I usually run on the 4 by 800 relay team and in the mile and 2-mile,” Alissa said. “I prefer the mile to the longer race.”

Her favorite subject in school is American History but finds math and science to her liking also. She will need the later subjects since he plans to attend Georgia Tech.

“I would like to study meteorology,” Alissa said. “I’m not interested in the television reporting side, but weather related research would be interesting.”

Please welcome our 2007 Outstanding Female Cross Country runner, Miss Alissa Fisher.