BY RICK WRIGHT / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Track and field took Curtis Beach to Spain, Germany, Belgium, Trinidad and Tobago and the Czech Republic. It earned him a scholarship at a prestigious university. It brought him collegiate and professional national titles. It brought him to within eight tantalizing points of the medal stand at the 2016 World Indoor Championships.
And yet, Beach said in a phone interview, his days running, jumping and throwing as an Albuquerque teenager rank as his fondest athletic memory.
“Especially in high school (at Albuquerque Academy),” he said. “Just so much progress all the time, so much intensity with each practice. … Looking back, that was just so much fun. And winning the state championship with some of my best friends, that was so much fun.”