Reflections Magazine Issue #78 - Spring 2013 | Page 15

Athletics Feature

By Doug Goodnough

Rising from the Ashes of Personal Tragedy,
Duncan Soars to New Heights

S

OPPORTUNITY
Mission Accomplished Series
This series of articles highlights individual
examples of the Siena Heights brand,
“Opportunity U,” and how the university’s
mission is transforming the lives of our
students as well as the world around us.

he was named after a mythical bird
that arises to new life from the ashes of its predecessor.
An orphan at the age of 16 after watching
both of her parents die from drug- and alcoholrelated liver diseases, Phoenix Duncan had a
decision to make. Was she going to follow the
same self-destructive lives of her parents, or
would she overcome her painful past?
The 19-year-old Siena Heights sophomore
has answered that question empathically. Not
only is she a dean’s list student who is headed for
a career in nursing, Duncan is also rising above
the competition as a high jumper on the women’s track team. In fact, in three NAIA national
championship meets, she has finished runnerup all three times and already is one of the unquestioned leaders on campus.

Dealing with Death
Duncan and her older brothers were in
foster care when they got the word their father
was dying of liver failure due to years of drug
and alcohol abuse. She was just 10 years old.
“We just got a call that he had passed away
during the night,” said Duncan, who knew her
father was dying but was still caught off guard
by the news. “Having this mindset of ‘OK, we’ll
see him again,’ then all of a sudden (he died), it
is just completely changing. That affects you.”

A month later, she and her siblings were
back living with her mother, who was dealing
with her own addiction issues. Family life was
OK for awhile, but when her mother relapsed,
Duncan also changed for the worse.
“It’s almost like, ‘OK, if you’re relapsing,
then I’m also just going to be a rebel,’” Duncan
said of her negative reaction to her mother’s
struggles with addiction. “We were both going
down the path where I was doing stupid things,
she was doing stupid things. We were just neckand-neck.”
During Christmas break more than three
years ago, Duncan’s mother told her she was
dying. Four days after Duncan’s 16th birthday,
her mother passed away. But she said dealing
with her mother’s dying and eventual death
was a transformational experience.
“No more bad Phoenix,” she said of the
180-degree turn she made. “I didn’t have bad
grades, but I didn’t have grades that were up to
my potential. I just didn’t care. I wanted to prove
to (my mother) that I was in control.”
. . . continued on the next page

Reflections Spring ’13

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