By Bill Sheehan
As a member of Cal State Fullerton's track and field team, Bertha Sola competes in the discus, hammer and other throwing events. But she's also cleared some hurdles.
As a three-sport performer at Morse High School in San Diego, she received recruiting letters from many college track and field coaches but was "too scared to call them back."
"I was a bad speaker back then," said Sola, the daughter of Samoan immigrants. "Nobody in my family had ever gone to college, so I wasn't familiar with what to do."
Chris Witscher, a Cal State Fullerton track and field assistant coach, met Sola at the 2016 state high school track and field preliminaries where she was competing in the discus. In short order, she was offered and accepted a scholarship to Fullerton.
As a freshman, Sola learned to navigate university life. She competed in the weight throw and shot put at indoor meets and the discus, hammer throw and shot put during the outdoor season. She steadily improved her marks and was the only freshman to score in the discus in May 2017 at the Big West Conference Championships. She gained a point with an eighth-place finish.
Two months later, Sola was hanging out with friends in the early-morning hours at San Diego's Mission Beach when she was wounded in a drive-by shooting. A bullet struck behind her left knee, requiring three surgeries, a week of hospitalization, two weeks of inpatient rehabilitation and months of physical therapy. She was also treated for an infection three weeks into her recovery.
"The pain wasn't too bad, but some days my leg would swell up. It was difficult. I broke down once during physical therapy," she said. "I thought, 'Nothing ever is going to be the same.' "
But Sola slowly regained her footing. Taking the fall semester off and living at home, she concentrated on her healing process with the help of her parents, Mariota and Bertha, and her two siblings.
"She really persevered and kept progressing with her therapy," said her mother. "When we would drive home, Bertha would say, 'I want to do this and get better. I started something at Fullerton and I want to finish it.' "
Competing in the discus, Bertha Sola represented San Diego's Morse High School at the 2016 state high school track and field meet.
A return to the classroom and the athletic field
Sola's blood, sweat and tears paid off. She returned to school for the 2018 spring semester and became a public health major. After redshirting her sophomore year, she finished second in the discus at last season's conference championship and helped the Fullerton women capture their first-ever Big West track and field title. And she has become a team leader, working with younger student-athletes.
Now a redshirt junior, she has established indoor career marks in the weight throw and shotput this season and is aiming to score points at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships on Feb. 28-29 in Seattle.
At the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Collegiate Invitational in Albuquerque in January, she posted a personal best 55 feet, 2 inches (16.81 meters) in the weight throw – an indoor equivalent to the hammer throw. This month, she recorded a personal best 37-6 (11.43m) in the shot put at the Colorado Invitational in Boulder.
"It's been going very well this year," she said. "I have learned a lot, and I'm enjoying every moment traveling with the team," said Sola, who is chasing Jameena Hunt's school indoor records of 60-9½ (18.53m) in the weight throw and 45-3½ (13.8m) in the shot put.
Sola has trouble bending her left knee at times because of the gunshot injury. And she has trouble straightening her leg while throwing the discus. But tests show 85% of her strength has returned, she said.
The 21-year-old credits Nathan Longcrier, an athletic trainer in Cal State Fullerton's Physical Therapist and Sport Rehabilitation center, and Collin Maccabe, a graduate assistant on the Titan Strength and Conditioning staff, for speeding her recovery.
Maccabe began working with Sola in August. "We have tried to increase her strength and mobility, which will allow her to produce force and be more powerful," he said. "She really gets after it. And Bertha drives the younger girls in the weight room. They have done a great job together."
First-year Fullerton throws coach Robert Marlow is responsible for much of her success this season, Sola said. He served as a UC Santa Barbara assistant coach the past two years.
"Coach Marlow and I bumped heads in the beginning, but we are on the same page now," said Sola. "He is a very analytical coach who can be funny at times. And he's showing us what discipline means."
Marlow, a Long Beach State graduate who finished 24th at the 2016 NCAA finals in the hammer throw, said Sola is eager to learn. "We started to build a relationship after I arrived last summer. We had to build a trust and a friendly repartee. Since then, it's been great. Bertha is a hard worker and a great listener. It's easy to work with someone who is so coachable," he said.
Coach calls Sola a raw but sports-smart performer
"Technically, she is a very raw athlete. But she is sports-smart and has been making significant progress after buying into my style of coaching. Her main challenge is being in the correct positions during her throws," which helps work around her knee mobility issues.
"Bertha is going to give her best effort to reach 60 feet in the weight throw," Marlow said. "She has switched from being a glider to a spinner in the shot put and has become competitive in that event in a short period of time."
He said the discus is Sola's "bread and butter," and she agrees with that assessment. "That is my favorite event," she said. "Indoors, I'm clicking with the weight throw and learning to like the shot put. I have a love-and-hate relationship with the hammer," said Sola, who prefers competing outdoors because of the longer season and deeper competition.
Marlow asked her to help mentor freshman teammate Kyleigh Wilkerson this season. "There's a lesson in being a leader. They work together in cohesion with one another," said Marlow, adding that Sola is starting to come early to practice and warm up.
"Bertha his very funny and has a lot of energy. She has a good personality and pushes me and the rest of the team," said Wilkerson, who hails from Temecula. "She a great person to work out with in the gym. I'm learning a lot from her."
Track and field was just one of her sports at Morse High School, which is in southeast San Diego. Sola was team MVP in volleyball, playing middle blocker and outside hitter. She joined the school's basketball team as a senior, serving as a 5-foot-7 center She briefly played softball before deciding track and field would be her spring sport.
High school coach was 'a great motivator'
Sola reached the CIF prelims all four years and advanced to the CIF finals her last two seasons. As a senior, she qualified for the state meet. She praised her high school throws coach, Robert Savage, for inspiring her to excel.
"I loved him. He was an awesome coach and was very knowledgeable," she said. Her mother called Savage a great motivator. "He encouraged Bertha so much. I give him a lot of credit for pushing her."
As her high school career wound down, Sola planned to attend Mesa Community College before receiving the offer from Fullerton. "My dad really wanted me to go to a four-year school. I toured the campus and loved it. The team members were very nice and friendly."
Her first year at Fullerton went well. She enjoyed her classes and competing on the indoor and outdoor teams. And then everything came screeching to a halt that night at Mission Beach, where Sola said she was "at the wrong place at the wrong time."
"My group got into a confrontation with some other people. I had asked them to break it up and tried to leave. As we were all walking away, the shooting began as a car sped off. I had never heard a gunshot before and I was unaware of what was going on. Suddenly, I just fell on the parking lot ground. I couldn't feel anything at first – perhaps it was the adrenaline rush."
"It just had to be me. There were 10 of us, and I was the only one who got hit," she said in reflection. No arrests were ever made.
An ambulance transported Sola to a hospital, where she underwent three surgeries. Doctors cut out her medial collateral ligament to reach and remove the bullet. An artificial nerve was added to her damaged popliteal nerve. And nails were inserted into her femur, which was nicked by the bullet.
Playing mini-golf on one leg was part of rehabilitation
She returned home after a week of hospitalization and two weeks of acute rehabilitation. "They wanted me to use my quads and glutes as much as possible. I was taught how to use crutches going up and down stairs. And I played mini-golf on one leg," she recalled.
"My family was there for me with whatever help I needed," said Sola, who has an older sister, Grace, and an older brother, Fialiki.
The recovery was a challenge both physically and mentally. "I was frustrated when I was limping when I was walking, then I was frustrated when I was limping while running," she said.
Sola returned to school for the spring semester. She continued her rehabilitation at Fullerton and practiced with her teammates during her redshirt season. At times, she would stop the training and just concentrate on physical therapy. "My strength percentage will never be 100%, but we got it to where it needs to be."
As a redshirt sophomore the next season, Sola posted a personal-best mark of 50-10.75 (15.51m) in the shot put at the Colorado Invitational. Outdoors, she had a personal-best 161-11 (49.36m) in the discus during the regular season. She placed second in the discus with a 159-1 (48.48m) toss and finished 13th in the hammer with a personal-best 157-6 (48.02m) as the Titan women won their first-ever Big West title.
Her teammates are already talking about repeating as conference champions, Sola said. "Our chances are looking good right now. All of our girls are fighting to get back-to-back titles. I talk to various groups from our team and ask them, 'Are you ready for that ring?' "
Check out Bill Sheehan's feature on Bertha Sola and her incredible story!
— Titans Track & Field (@FullertonTFXC) February 19, 2020
Feature: https://t.co/Baw4UjoPIq#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/K1tsjW82ck
Aiming for a career in health care
Sola will be eligible to compete next year but has yet to decide if she will her athletic career. This fall, she will receive her degree in public health. Sola plans to pursue a career as a registered nurse or a hospital administrator. She has a special interest in the neonatal and nutrition fields.
She played the saxophone and bass guitar in her middle-school band and would like to resume her musical interests in her post-college years.
Her father grew up in Western Samoa as Sola Mariota but flipped his name to Mariota Sola when he and his wife immigrated to the United States. She was born in American Samoa and lived in Hawaii before marrying Mariota. He is a cement truck driver and she is a caregiver for seniors. They now live in Hemet.
"We are Bertha's No. 1 supporters," said her mother. "We attended every match and game when she was in high school. And we get to Fullerton's meets held in Southern California.
"I'm very proud of her for all she has done, and so are her dad and her siblings. When she sets her mind on something, she will get it done."
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