Quinton Forrest has found a new home, new threads but has the same dream

Quinton Forrest is a graduate transfer student from Jacksonville University in Florida. He got his bachelor’s degree in social science and is now pursuing his master’s in public administration here at the University of Idaho.

Forrest may love basketball now, but it wasn’t always like that.

He didn’t start playing basketball until his sophomore year in high school. It wasn’t until the basketball coach invited him to practice one day that Forrest decided to play basketball.

“I was always just the big kid walking around campus and then the basketball coach — I see him in the hallway one day — and he was like, ‘Hey come to practice,’ and I was like OK,” Forrest said. “I came to practice, and it just took off from there. Like I had no aspirations on playing college basketball, it just happened.”

Forrest was born and raised in Philadelphia until his eighth-grade year. After, he moved to Florida with his mom.

Forrest comes from a family that was always athletic. His step-dad played professional baseball, his older step- brother played baseball at the University of Central Florida, and his mother played flag football last year. She is currently taking the year off, but is practicing Zumba and Yoga.

“In our house if you sleep past 9 a.m., you gotta get up,” Forrest said. “Being an athlete just helped you prioritize what you need to do. It just helps you be consistent because everything my dad does is very consistent, and it has worn off on me, my brother, my mom.”

Forrest also ran track during his sophomore year in high school. He did the high jump and made it to state. He ran a 4×100-meter relay and ran the 400-meter race once.

“Playing different sports just makes you appreciate sports, because everybody is going through the same thing as far as stretching and injuries and just like the preparation,” he said. “It taught me a lot.”

For Forrest, growing up along the east coast was a much different story than living here in Moscow. When he went to JU, he was only two hours away from home and would easily be able to go home on weekends, but now that he’s across the country, it isn’t that easy anymore.

While his parents have yet to see him play in Idaho, they have seen him play in an Idaho uniform.

When the team hit the road to play in the Arkansas tournament earlier in the semester, his family went to see him play. Since the team would be playing three games in Arkansas within the timespan of four days, his family thought it would be best to go see him play there instead of coming all the way to Idaho for just one game.

The family has, however, planned to come see him play in Moscow for his senior night game in the spring semester. In the mix with those plans they will make the effort to see him play in many more games, whether it’s at home or on the road.

Forrest may love Moscow, but he said he will always consider Florida his home.

“This is a great place to come to recuperate and just really figure out life,” Forrest said. “I like Idaho because it slows you down and makes you appreciate things.”

It was because of the kind words and constant reaching out over the summer of a good friend of his Steven Madison that Forrest decided to come to the University of Idaho. Madison was a former player for UI and a graduate assistant last year.

“He set the bar really high and I looked up to him too,” Forrest said. “He had a good basketball career. Once he got done with his basketball career, the university that he went to, which was here, opened back up to him with open arms. He got his master’s degree and I was just like, ‘Man like, I just wanna be a part of that program.’”

Before Forrest went to Jacksonville University, he went to school in Daytona Beach, Florida. His first college was Bethune-Cookman University. He was there for his first two years of college before he transferred to JU for his junior and senior years.

Forrest said the coaches got let go and he wanted to stay in Florida because of the easy access to home on the weekends. He also said his former head coach at Bethune had connections through a friend at JU and was told he was wanted on the team. Forrest then decided he would go there.

Since Forrest transferred from a Division I school to another Division I school, he had to sit out for his first year at JU as a redshirted player. However, it wasn’t a pretty start at JU because he had to sit out due to an injury.

He tore his labrum in his arm, and was out for six months. The injuries kept coming for him at JU. It was only his third year playing due to being redshirted.

“I feel like my whole life I’ve been facing obstacles, but like the reward at the end is always worthwhile, you know like the light at the end of the tunnel,” Forrest said. “My freshman year I won a couple accolades, my sophomore year a couple accolades, and then not playing for two years pretty much was tough. So, I felt like coming to Idaho would be a good change, like no distractions.”

Forrest isn’t the only player on the basketball team that is an out-of-state student far from home. Some of the other players are from Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts, Georgia and even Canada. Whether it’s basketball related or not, this team is almost always hanging out and getting along.

“It’s funny because this is my first team that all the guys on the team get along, all the guys hang out,” Forrest said. “So, it’s just a bond, it’s a brotherhood, it’s super dope. And it being my last year, that’s what I wanted, so when I get done with school, I can always reach out to those guys.”

Forrest is the oldest player on the team, and many of the players look up to him. But at the age of 23, he’s still young and has a lot of aspirations in life.

Since this is his final year playing collegiate basketball, he knows eventually it’ll come to an end. Forrest said he would like to pursue becoming a professional basketball player and is determined to see how far he can get, but he has other plans as well.

“The ball is going to stop bouncing one day,” Forrest said. “I really have aspirations to go into politics, that’s why
I did public administration. I wanna learn about local law and stuff like that. I have desires to one day be a mayor. My dreams go beyond the basketball.”

The Big Sky season has yet to start for the basketball team, but that doesn’t mean that nothing has happened yet.

“When you come back, you’re like, never really the same, so like that process was hard,” Forrest said of
his first game back. “Just being here, hearing my name called again, being able to play basketball in front of a live crowd and just being able to put on that Idaho jersey.”

Forrest said he is excited and ready to get the competitive Big Sky season underway. After the long sit-out he’s had, he’s ready to compete once again.

“Conference is big, those are the games I dream about and you dream about hitting the game winning shot,” Forrest said.

Elizabeth Carbajal can be reached at [email protected]