Fernando Cabada graduated from Buchanan High School in 2000, a surprise runner who had shot up, literally, from a 5-foot-3, 95-pound freshman to a 6-foot, six-time Valley champ and went to Arkansas on scholarship. He always had an anger in his little body. His father was in and out of prison and he and his mother survived on welfare. Cabada's college career was a little chaotic. He went to Arkansas for two years, but big-time college track was too much like a business. He didn't smile or have fun. He couldn't handle the drastic increase in training. He blamed himself when the team didn't do well. His mother assumed he was homesick when he transferred to Fresno State in 2002. Then Fresno State dropped cross country and indoor track for men and he went back to Arkansas. But he didn't have a scholarship there anymore and he was trying to work full time and run full time and go to school full time. By the summer of 2003, he had dropped out, came back to Fresno and got a job laying tile where his mother worked. He didn't run for eight months. And then one day he was talking about running, how he could have been great, and some guy at work didn't believe him, wanted to fight him right there. Cabada went home that night, talked about it with his mom, got on the Internet and found out which NAIA school had won the track and field championships the year before. He called the coach, Scott Simmons, and then boarded a train with all his stuff,headed for Minot State University in North Dakota. Before he would ever run a race for Minot, Simmons took the job at Virginia Intermont and Cabada and several runners followed. In the two years since, he has won seven national titles for the NAIA school.