Biography
By Jim Hague
It pays to have long lasting friendships.
Juan Edney certainly knows that fact well. The veteran Rutgers-Newark head track and field coach always calls upon acquaintances he has made over his lifetime to see if they have an athlete that could help his program.
That’s what took place three years ago, when Edney’s childhood friend Alan Laws, the head coach at Pleasantville High School in southern New Jersey, suggested one of his athletes, namely thrower Ashley Canty.
“Alan and I grew up in Philadelphia together,” Edney said. “I ran with his brother in junior high school, so we’ve known each other since we were like seven years old. Alan called me about Ashley, so I went down to see her. I could see she had a lot of potential.”
At the time, Canty thought she was headed to Rutgers-Camden to play volleyball. But when she met Coach Edney, her thoughts were altered.
“Coach Laws said that he knew Coach Edney and told me that I should go to Rutgers-Newark,” Canty said. “It was a little further away than I expected, but it was close to New York, where my father lives (the Bronx), so it made sense.”
Canty got involved with throwing in high school after becoming intrigued as a junior.
“I decided to give it a try,” Canty said. “I joined the team with an interest in throwing. When I first started, I was pretty consistent. Once I reached 30 feet (in the shot put), I thought that was an achievement.”
While Canty said she enjoyed the shot put, she fell in love with the discus.
“I just feel free throwing the discus,” Canty said. “It’s less restricting. It feels very natural to me compared to the shot put.”
When Canty arrived at R-N, she was given a new challenge to tackle – being a weight and hammer thrower.
“My first reaction was I never saw that before,” Canty said. “I wondered how I would do with it.”
Will Barr, the assistant to the athletic director/weight coach, introduced Canty to the weights. Barr was a weight thrower himself at Penn State, earning All-America status twice.
“It felt weird at first, but in time, I got adjusted to it,” Canty said. “Now, I look forward to it. I feel like I’m getting better at it.”
“Will thought she could learn it,” Edney said. “When a two-time All-American tells you that, you better listen. I think she believes in Will. She listens to him. She has great potential.”
There was only one obstacle early on.
“Ashley was a little lazy,” Edney said. “She struggled a little.”
Canty was so much in a funk that assistant coach/athletic director Mark Griffin benched Canty.
“He told her to sit in the stands and study,” Edney said. “That’s what she did. She wasn’t able to practice. She just had to do her school work.”
“At that point, it was very frustrating,” Canty said. “I could see my grades weren’t doing well, so I couldn’t practice. It got me so fed up that I had to get it together and get my grades up.”
The benching seemed to work.
“She woke up,” Edney said. “It hurt her that she couldn’t practice. You never know when it’s going to click. Now, she’s a junior and it’s starting to click. I think she can be a 43-foot shot putter. I know she loves the discus. She’s learning the weights.”
Edney said that Canty is also learning about handling college life more.
“She has the strangest sense of humor,” Edney said. “She will walk into my office and just stand there without saying anything. I finally have to ask her, ‘What do you need, Ashley?’ If I don’t address here, she’ll just stand there for like a half hour.”
“I do tend to do that,” Canty said. “I do speak up more now. I guess it’s part of my personality. I go some place and then I stand around. It’s just me being patient. I’m getting better at speaking up.”
Canty is an information systems major with a psychology minor – a totally unique pairing.
“They are different, but I think the two can help when connecting with people, doing group projects and such,” Canty said. “You have to figure out an efficient way to deal with something, so it goes hand in hand.”
Canty said that she anticipates a solid outdoor campaign now that she’s found her niche.
“I never imagined throwing the weight or the hammer,” Canty said. “It’s something new for me. I think I have the potential to excel at it, so it’s all pretty exciting.”
