By FELLICIA SMITH, Staff writer
First published: Friday, May 6, 2005

CASTLETON -- In sneakers, jogging pants and her black and white Maple Hill track and field warm-up jacket, Antoinette Fusco blends seamlessly into the hordes of athletes who buzz around the school's track every day for meets and practices.

She sprints down the hill leading to the track, just like her teammates. They chat, laugh and bemoan having to run two laps as a warm up.

On the track, among her teammates, Fusco is just another athlete. "She doesn't stand out at all there," said Fusco's mother, Christine Fremgen. "She shows her ability rather than her disability."

Fusco, an 18-year-old junior, has Down syndrome, but it's a label that doesn't fit on her uniform, so it's left aside.

"Everybody is pretty accepting of everything," said Ryan Morgan, the coach of the girls' track and field team at Maple Hill. "Everybody is different in one way or another. So, all she is is another person on the team. That's all she is. We'll yell at her as much as we encourage her. She's just like everybody else."

"It doesn't really matter if you're different or not," said Krista Barber, who has been Fusco's teammate since seventh grade and considers her a friend. "It's really what's inside. That's what counts."

Inside Fusco beats the heart of a survivor and an optimist. Aside from the Down syndrome, Fusco was born with several holes in her heart, which required surgery to close.

Fremgen and her husband, John Fusco, could have kept their daughter in special-needs programs with other kids with Down syndrome, but they wanted her to learn, grow and play with regular kids.

Since kindergarten Fusco has attended school in the Schodack Central School District. She repeated kindergarten three times, but today she is in mainstream English and history classes, which she supplements with several special-needs classes.

"The one thing we wanted her to do was move on up with the kids in her community, to go to school with her peers," Fremgen said. "She's received all the support from the school district and community she needs." "She does well for us," Morgan said. "She'll work hard sometimes. Other times, she has it in her head she doesn't want to. When she works hard, she is a very dedicated member of our team."

Fusco competes in the 100-meter sprint and the shot put. Toward the end of the season, she also competes on a 400-meter relay team. She has been on the varsity team for three years and has yet to win an event.

Not that it matters. When she competes, Fusco might be the most watched and cheered athlete on the track.

Fremgen cried the first time she heard the crowd rooting for her daughter.

"The community was right behind her saying, 'Go Antoinette, go,' " Fremgen said. "She was trying so hard, running, and they were cheering. She would start smiling, almost laughing. I'd say, 'You have to run your hardest.' The community gives her that encouragement."

Although it can be hard for strangers to understand her when she speaks, Fusco's feeling about track and field comes over loud and clear: "I love it."

Her smile lights you up inside, and dares you not to share the joy of the moment. When you consider that she's a cheerleader in the winter, is on the school's newspaper staff and sells hand-made crafts, in addition to spring days running with the wind, it's easy to understand her boundless enjoyment of life at Maple Hill. In her words, "It rocks."