Ford twins share Bonsall's SDHSSA female athlete of the year honor

The San Diego High School Sports Association annually honors one male student-athlete and one female student-athlete from each school. In the case of Bonsall High School, the Ford twins shared this year's award for the honored female senior.

Officially, only one female can receive the Senior Scholar-Athlete award, so Abigayle Ford will be the formal recipient, but Bonsall High School will recognize both Abigayle Ford and Isabella Ford.

"They are a great example of siblings being supportive of each other and alternatively being competitive with each other, continually pushing each other to improve and get better without settling for mediocrity," Eric Hendy, athletic director of BHS, said.

"Being recognized as the SDHSSA female athlete of the year is an honor, and I'm proud to be this year's recipient for Bonsall High School. I'm happy with my accomplishments as a high school athlete, and I feel I share this award with my twin sister, Isabella, who was my running partner throughout these four years," Abigayle Ford said.

"I am very happy to have been nominated to receive this award and be able to share this nomination with my sister Abigayle at a school level," Isabella Ford said. "My twin sister and I have always run together and have been each other's motivation over the past four years, so to share this award with her means a lot to both of us."

Abigayle Ford compiled a 4.28 GPA during her four years at Bonsall High School. Isabella Ford had a GPA of 4.27. Hendy told the Ford sisters that he planned to select Abigayle Ford as the official winner but offered the twins the opportunity to have Isabella selected instead. Both of the Ford sisters were supportive of the decision to make Abigayle Ford the official female Senior Scholar-Athlete.

"I am very proud of my sister, Abigayle, for receiving the award, and I feel that she is very deserving. Earning this award means a lot to both of us as we both competed together over the last four years," Isabella Ford said.

Athletically their positions during their four years of cross-country and three years of track and field – due to rain and the coronavirus shutdown Bonsall practiced in 2020 but had no meets – are not necessarily indicative of which twin performed better. Cross-country and track races utilize team position points, so if teammates obtain consecutive positions it is irrelevant which one finishes ahead of the other if the final qualifying, all-league or all-CIF position is not involved. The Ford sisters ran together in their cross-country and track distance races.

"In every aspect they are very good role models in how to work in class, how to work on a team," Hendy said. "Just positive in every aspect of school."

Hendy was also Bonsall's track and field coach for the canceled 2020 season.

The identical twins were born one minute apart Dec. 14, 2001, with Abigayle Ford being born first. The twins are the youngest of Eric and Carmen Ford's five children and have 31-year-old and 28-year-old sisters and a 26-year-old brother.

The twins attended Vieja Valley Elementary School in Santa Barbara for kindergarten through sixth grade before the Ford family moved from Santa Barbara to Bonsall in summer 2014. They ran track and field in fifth and sixth grade.

"I realized that I wanted to be a runner and continue running through high school," Abigayle Ford said.

Sullivan Middle School did not have its cross-country program when the Ford twins were in seventh grade. They returned to competitive running in 2016 when they were freshmen at Bonsall High School.

The Ford twins ran their first cross-country race Oct. 6, 2016. The Frontier Conference cluster meet was on the 2.85-mile NTC Park at Liberty Station course – the name reflects the site's former use as the Naval Training Center in San Diego. Both Ford sisters had times of 21:24 with Abigayle Ford finishing ninth and Isabella Ford taking 10th place, and they were the fastest Bonsall girls in that race. That year's Frontier Conference championship meet was also at NTC Park and used a 5,000-meter (3.1-mile) course. Both Ford twins finished the race in 23:23 with Isabella Ford placing 15th and Abigayle Ford obtaining 16th. The 2016 CIF section meet had 94 runners in the Division V girls' race; Abigayle Ford finished 38th and Isabella Ford placed 39th.

The first track and field meet for the Ford sisters was a Frontier Conference meet April 7, 2017. The twins ran in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the 4x100 relay and the 3,200-meter run in which Isabella Ford placed third with a time of 14:44.52 and Abigayle Ford finished fourth at 14:44.84.

"My coach put me in the 2-mile race unexpectedly and I had to run it for the first time ever. I ended up finishing third and was pretty happy with how I did," Isabella Ford said.

John Nunn coached Bonsall's cross-country and track and field teams during the twins' freshman year.

During the 2017 Frontier Conference league meet both sisters ran the 200-meter dash in the preliminaries but did not advance to the league finals. The twins both ran in the 4x400 race in the league finals. Isabella Ford was fifth in the 400-meter run. Abigayle Ford was part of the 4x100 relay team which won the league championship and advanced to the CIF section meet preliminaries.

Al Greene took over as head coach for the 2017 cross-country and 2018 track and field seasons. During the 2018 league track and field preliminaries both sisters qualified for the 400-meter finals. Isabella Ford was on the winning 4x400 relay team which ended its season at the CIF section preliminaries.

Greene also coached Bonsall for the 2018 cross-country and 2019 track seasons. Tamara Miller was the Legionnaires' 2019 cross-country coach.

Danny Costa was Miller's co-coach in 2019, and Costa was also the twins' world history teacher during their sophomore year. His class provided both Ford twins with their favorite school memory.

"My favorite overall Bonsall High School memory would have to be my 10th grade world history class with Mr. Costa. Within that one class I made some of my greatest high school memories. For example, being the third annual Rube Goldberg machine champions," Abigayle Ford said.

The machine's purpose was to transport a marble.

"My favorite overall Bonsall High School memory was 10th grade world history. I made so many great memories within that one class including many friends and so many fun group projects," Isabella said.

The Frontier Conference formula for the league cross-country championships utilizes position points for the top four teams. Although runners from all conference leagues compete in the same race team position points are by league so Bonsall was scored against other Summit League schools. Bonsall did not have the necessary five girls to obtain a team score in the first 2019 league cluster meet. The Legionnaires won the next two league clusters. Liberty Charter placed first in the fourth and final league cluster meet while Bonsall was second, and in the conference championship meet in which position points are doubled, Liberty Charter also took first place while Bonsall was second.

"My favorite memory from Bonsall High School sports was from my senior season of cross-country when the varsity girls won first overall in our second and third Frontier cluster meets. Those two meets really motivated us to do our best in the meets to follow, and we were so close to being the 2019 league champions," Isabella Ford said.

Isabella Ford finished 14th and Abigayle Ford took 15th place in the second league cluster meet. In the third league cluster meet, Abigayle Ford placed seventh and Isabella Ford was the eighth finisher.

In their final league cross-country competition, Isabella Ford placed 14th and Abigayle Ford was 15th at the 2019 Frontier Conference championship meet. The 5,000-meter NTC Park course took Isabella Ford 22:48.8 and Abigayle Ford 22:49.9.

The 2019 CIF section meet course was 2.96 miles and had 123 runners. Isabella Ford had a time of 23:11.3 to place 49th while Abigayle Ford was 50th and completed the course in 23:12.3. The Ford twins were Bonsall's first two finishers.

"My favorite memory from the cross-country was my last senior race. I remember feeling such a close bond with all the girls on my team, and it made me realize how amazing the last four years had been," Abigayle Ford said.

"I would like to thank all of my coaches – Coach Greene, Coach Nunn, Coach Miller and Coach Hendy – for pushing me and making me into the runner and competitor I am today. Also thank you to all my team members for making the seasons so much fun and for always being so supportive," Isabella Ford said.

Neither of the Ford twins participated in any winter sport while at Bonsall High School. Both were active in the Bonsall Buddies freshman mentorship program, and outside of school both volunteered with the REINS therapeutic horsemanship program and both were members of the National Charity League.

Both sisters will attend California State Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo, and both will major in wine and viticulture. Both also plan to work for the family winery after college. The Ford family owns both Lionsgate Estate Winery and Ford's Garage Winery.

Although neither sister will be running for the university varsity team, the school has a distance running club and both sisters intend to be active with that club.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].