Biography
By Jim Hague
Talk about your weary travelers.
DaQuan Bashir is a native of Trenton, who attended Trenton Central High School and participated in track and field under the tutelage of legendary head coach Al Jennings. While at Trenton Central, Bashir helped his school win two NJSIAA state championships in indoor and outdoor track. He was respected enough as a miler and two-miler to earn a college scholarship.
However, the school that gave Bashir his ticket out was Dakota Wesleyan, a NAIA university located in Mitchell, South Dakota.
Needless to say, the move from the streets of Trenton to the hills of South Dakota represented a major culture change for Bashir.
“It was a chance for me to get a college scholarship, but after I was there for a while, I realized that I liked the city too much,” Bashir said. “There wasn’t much going on in South Dakota. I’m also a real family oriented person and not being able to see my family but twice a year really bothered me.”
So Bashir was thinking about a possible school to transfer to.
“I was looking for a school that was in state,” Bashir said. “I was thinking about Rutgers, but I knew I didn’t want to go to New Brunswick. I was all set to go to Rutgers-Camden.”
Bashir’s high school sweetheart, Deja Jones, was already a part of the track and field and cross country program at Rutgers-Newark.
“She told me that I should check out Rutgers-Newark,” Bashir said. “I didn’t even know that they had a track program. Deja being there played a little factor.”
The other factor was R-N head coach Juan Edney.
“I contacted Coach Edney and he seemed to be very interested in having me,” Bashir said.
Bashir then decided to enroll at Rutgers-Newark in the fall of 2007.
“At first, I thought he was more of a middle distance runner,” Edney said. “When they come here, you never really know what they truly are until you see them perform. I also thought that he was a little intimidated at first. But through time and talking to him, he started to get it a little better.”
Bashir said that he was a little skeptical as to whether he could run the grueling eight-kilometer distance of college cross country.
“I had a few 8Ks under my belt at Dakota Wesleyan, but it really wasn’t my best event,” Bashir said. “But it was different for me to adjust to a new team and a new system, as well as the new distances. I had been running, but nothing competitively.”
Bashir ran cross country at Rutgers-Newark in 2008, but wasn’t much of a factor.
“I really wasn’t too big of a deal,” Bashir said. “My best time was 28:05.”
But over the offseason, Bashir took to a rigorous training regimen with friend and teammate Tauqeer Qazi.
“Tauqeer and I are good friends,” Bashir said. “We talk every day. Whether it’s about track or it’s about life in general, it’s good to have someone like that there for me. We balance each other out when we train together and we try to stay with each other. He’s been very helpful to me. If I didn’t have him, I don’t know what times I would be running.”
The two friends are enjoying highly successful seasons for the Scarlet Raiders this fall and this weekend, both Bashir and Qazi will attempt to run in the 26-minute range at the New Jersey Athletic Conference championships at Richard Stockton in Pomona.
“We’re both trying to go for a school record,” Bashir said. “Coming into the season, I felt pretty good, especially after training all summer. Last year, I had an Achilles problem and that held me up. But running with Tauqeer, Paul (Bahamondes) and Justin (Booker) all summer got me stronger and ready for the season.”
But Edney had no idea that Bashir would be as good as he has become.
“He had his spurts where he showed he had good things, then he had others where he was struggling a little,” Edney said. “He was lacking consistency. But then he started gaining confidence by running with his teammates and the best thing happen. DaQuan and Tauqeer bonded so well and they pushed each other.
Added Edney, “But what DaQuan is doing is almost shocking. It happened without me even thinking of it. I just want him to go out and have fun and let everything just fall where they can. I think he can run mid 26s, which is incredible. I never thought he would get this good this quickly. He’s really shocked me.”
Bashir is happy with the results.
“It feels real good, but as Coach Edney tells me, I can’t be satisfied,” Bashir said. “I have to push myself and try to run faster times each week.”
Edney likes the intangibles that Bashir brings to the team.
“He has a lot of leadership and energy,” Edney said. “He’s the big cheerleader. He’s the one who gets everyone else ready. He gets everyone going.”
Bashir is a computer science major at R-N. He doesn’t consider himself a computer geek, but he loves working with computers.
“It’s something I just like to do,” Bashir said. “I’d love to have a job working with computers, writing progams. I’ve already been messing around, trying to create programs. I did a math program and I did another that tells time, stuff like that.”
Now, if DaQuan Bashir can only create a program that can help his running times, it would be a perfect world.
“Yeah, it would be,” Bashir said.
