The Suburban Newspaper for Mountain Brook, Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Hoover and North Shelby County
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JOU RNAL OTMJ.COM
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2012
VOL. 21 #14 Literacy Council Junior Board Rally for Reading event
DECATHLON
ABOUT TOWN PAGE 6
DREAMS Teen travels to Washington, D.C. to meet with lawmakers to discuss CF. PEOPLE 9
Friends remember volunteer with fundraiser for new track
LIFE PAGE 10
Trey Hardee competes in the menʼs 100 meter dash of the decathlon during day one of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Team Trials at Hayward Field Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images on June 22 in Eugene, Ore. The Vestavia Hills High graduate will go for the gold Aug. 8-9 in London.
Vestavia Hills Graduate Could Become ‘World’s Greatest Athlete’ BY LAURA MCALISTER
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JOURNAL EDITOR
hen Trey Hardee was just a few months old, a fellow church member told his mother Jan DiCesare she’d had a dream about her son. In it, she saw the baby who had been dedicated in church a few days before as an adult holding a big stick. Jan didn’t know what to think of it at the time, but now it all makes perfect sense. Trey will compete in the 2012 Olympics decathlon Aug. 8-9 with Team USA. This will be his second time to compete in the Olympics, and many suspect the 2002 Vestavia Hills High School graduate will take home the gold this year, which would officially make him the World’s Greatest Athlete. “Who would of thunk it?” said Trey, laughing, during a recent phone interview from his home in Texas before heading to
Celebrate the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics at Lakeshore Foundation’s Night of Champions, page 4. Germany for some grueling practices leading up to the London Olympics. “It’s interesting. It’s just the title that comes along with winning (the decathlon gold medal). I don’t really consider myself ... I wouldn’t say I was the best in the world.” The decathlon gold medalist is given the title of World’s Greatest Athlete because of the grueling two-day contest these athletes endure. It’s a combined contest with 10 track
and field events. In addition to the long and high jump, shot put, discus throw and runs, the decathlon also includes pole vaulting, which Jan said has to explain the dream her fellow church member had so many years ago. “She said God gave her a vision of Trey holding a giant stick,” she said. “At the time, I was like, maybe a golf club?” A series of events that started Trey’s junior year at Vestavia Hills High School would eventually lead Jan to recognize the “huge stick” in the woman’s dream as the pole used in pole vaulting. At 16 feet, it’s one of the longest pieces of sporting equipment, if not the longest, used in Olympic contests. The circumstances that led Trey to pole vaulting his junior year in high school and then eventually to the decathlon seemed devastating at the time.
Art sale for Oasis Counseling for Women and Children draws a crowd
SOCIAL PAGE 12
BACK TO SCHOOL
A look at some OTM Shinning Stars PAGE 20
See HARDEE, page 8
SUE MURPHY ON THE SCHOOL LUNCHBOX MEAL P. 2 • YOUNG HOT BIRMINGHAM FASHION SHOW P. 14 • NEW ADMINISTRATORS AT OTM SCHOOLS P. 25