Whitney Hooks reaching for the record

Whitney Hooks wanted something special for her 18th birthday, so she asked her grandmother for a goat.

A tattoo of a goat, that is, with the letters "G.O.A.T." inked below it.

"Greatest Of All-Time," Hooks said of the tattoo on her lower back. "That's what it stands for."

It's hard to argue with the senior track-and-field star at Cascade High School in Everett. She is competing for a Class 4A state discus championship and making a bid to be the first person in state history to sweep the shot put four years in a row.

And she wants to break the state record while doing it.

"If I break the state shot record, it would mean the world to me," said Hooks, who has signed to compete at Washington next year. "It would mean that all the hard work I put in finally paid off."

The 35-year-old shot-put record is the state's oldest high-school girls track-and-field record. Lynette Matthews from Shorecrest of Shoreline set the mark of 51 feet, 4 inches in 1971.

Hooks' personal-best of 49 feet, 2 inches helped her finish second at the Golden West Invitational in Sacramento last year, and she owns four of the top 10 marks in state history.

"To break the record, I need to focus on what I call the 4 D's," Hooks said. "That's Dedication, Desire, Discipline and Drive. I need to want it so bad that I will sacrifice my social life and things like that without any hesitation."

Hooks is her own worst critic, and is the first to admit that she can get easily frustrated in the ring.

"If I see someone has thrown farther than me, I will take a deep breath and on my next throw I go after it and say, 'This girl is not going to beat me,' " said Hooks. "I refuse to lose, that's always been my mentality."

Born in Everett, Hooks was named after female pop singer Whitney Houston.

She spent part of her childhood in Santa Monica and San Bernardino, Calif., before moving back to Everett to live with her grandmother.

Judy Hooks has been Whitney's caretaker since second grade. She attends all of Whitney's meets, cheering alongside Whitney's father, Marshall Hooks, who moved back in with the family 3-½ years ago. Her mother is remarried and lives in Mount Vernon.

As a freshman, Whitney took up track and field to stay in shape for volleyball and basketball. Her cousin, Leslie Hooks-Barton, was a thrower at Everett High School, so Whitney decided to give the shot a try.

The first time she picked up the 8.8-pound iron ball, Hooks flung it 33 feet in practice. Three months later, she won the state title with an effort of 41-10 despite tearing a ligament in her right hand 21 days earlier.

Adversity obviously doesn't stop Hooks.

"At times, I just want to sit down and cry," she said. "My dad and grandma are extremely strong people, but whenever I think I have it hard, I look at my grandmother's life as inspiration to keep going, to keep fighting."

Judy, 62, grew up during a period of rampant racism.

At 17, Judy Hooks, who is white, married an African-American man.

"Times were different back then," said Judy Hooks. "Interracial marriage was not acceptable and my parents disowned me for it. I had to run away from my parents and didn't see them for 20 years."

Judy later reconciled with her parents. Judy Hooks' mother, Helena, died during Whitney's freshman year and in remembrance of her great-grandmother, Whitney named her first shot, "Fly High Helena."

"I washed her, put vanilla perfume on her, and slept with her the night before state," said Hooks of the shot she used to win her first state title. "I knew she was watching me from above, and that she would be my good luck charm!"

"Fly High Helena" now sits in a glass display case at Cascade.

This year, Hooks is less superstitious, and is banking on talent and hard work instead of rituals. She already has gone 48-9 ¾ this year, the ninth-best mark in state history. Only one other high-school girl in the state has gone over 40 feet this year.

Ranked No. 3 nationally in the shot put by dyestat.com, Hooks essentially will be competing against herself to break a record that has stood for more than three decades.

The 5-foot-10 Hooks has the size, determination and work ethic to break the state record and she doesn't plan to stop there. Her ultimate goal is to compete in the Olympics in 2008 and win it in 2012.

If Hooks accomplishes all that, she will live up to the words that were Grandma's gift on her 18th birthday.

Six hot shots
Six of the 12 female shot-putters in state prep history are from schools currently in WesCo. A look at the top six, including year of their best and number of times over 48 feet:
No.	Athlete	School	Year	Best	48+
1.	Lynette Matthews	Shorecrest	1971	51-4	5
4.	Whitney Hooks	Cascade	2005	49-2	4
6.	Marcia Mecklenberg	Meadowdale	1975	48-10 ½	1
11.	Mary Etter	Snohomish	1999	48-2 ½	1
13.	Jennifer Ponath	Shorewood	1983	47-9 ½	0
18.	Jackie Henry	Lynnwood	1977	46-9	0
* Carrie Albano of Meadowdale's best of 51-1 used 8-pound shot