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``Once you're confident, you take more chances,'' Duncan said. "It teaches you to have faith in your life, faith in the rock, faith in the rope, faith in yourself."

Forward With Confidence

Story ran on April 13, 1994

When Amy Duncan describes her first rock climbing experience, she could very easily be explaining her first high school track and field competition.

``It's terrifying when you first go out there,'' the Hickman senior said. ``You're trying to cling to the rocks because you're afraid you're going to

fall away from them. You squeeze the rock so hard, it's like you're trying to squeeze water from it.

``But once you stop scrambling around and stop gluing yourself to the rock, once you get confident, you can practice moves and you see the whole rock face instead of just two feet in front of your face.''

Duncan thought about backing out of that first rock climbing expedition two years ago, just like she thought about backing out of the sectional track and field competition her freshman year.

``I was so scared,'' Duncan said of the track meet. ``I thought, `This is the big time, and all these other girls will see that I don't know what I'm

doing.' Each time I went out there, for districts and sectionals, I wanted to do my best but every time I made it I thought, `Here we go again.' ''

Now Duncan is taking her jumping talent -- the high jump, triple jump and long jump -- to another level, and these same feelings occurred while she weighed attending a big school against a small school, where she could've played more

than one sport.

This morning, with tears in her eyes, Duncan signed a letter of intent to compete for the University of Missouri, a school she never thought would want her.

``I didn't think I was Division I material,'' said Duncan, who also played softball and basketball but will stick with track at MU. ``I didn't think I could compete with the quality of athletes in the Big Eight.''

She has those same freshman fears that she'll look like she doesn't know what she's doing at the next level.

``I worry about being the little fish in the big sea, but then I could write a book about that: It doesn't bother me being the smallest fish, blah, blah,

blah,'' Duncan said. ``But the coaches at MU convinced me that I could compete.''

Through three seasons of state qualifying performances, Duncan is confident. Of course, there's always the rush of nerves before every competition, but she knows how to handle it.

``I'm thankful that I went to state that first year,'' Duncan said. ``I'll always have a little case of nerves, but I wouldn't be coming in with the attitude I have now.''

Duncan's best performances came at last year's state meet. She placed eighth in the triple jump, and she finished second in the high jump with a

school-record 5 feet, 7 inches.

The competition lasted an exhausting 21/2 hours. Duncan and Jefferson City senior Heather Fischer were the only competitors to clear 5-7. They both missed at 5-8, the state record, and because they had the same number of misses, in the same order, a jump-off ensued.

The girls were required to start at 5-8 and work their way down until one jumper cleared and one missed. Neither could clear the same jumps they had easily made earlier in the competition.

``It was blazing hot, our muscles were tired,'' Duncan said. Finally, though, both cleared 5-3. So they went back up an inch, where Duncan failed to match Fisher's jump.

``I didn't mind losing that much,'' Duncan said. ``It gives me something to work for this year.''

Duncan also holds the school record in the triple jump, which she set with a 36-41/2 in sectionals last year. She competes in the long jump, but has never taken it past the regular season. Her longest jump is 16-7. Hickman basketball coach Julie Sommer described Duncan as a perfectionist, but five years of jumping and two years of rock climbing have taught her that sometimes you stumble on the way to success.

``Once you're confident, you take more chances,'' Duncan said. ``It teaches you to have faith in your life, faith in the rock, faith in the rope, faith in yourself.

``After you've done it a little while, it's not a big deal if you fall. You're going to fall a few times while you're learning to do more complex things, but you feel so much better about yourself when you use a hard move successfully.''

By MELINDA VIA