Silver Anniversary Honoree Profile: Tosh Forde Adams '99CC
3/24/2009 8:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
The 2008-09 year marks the Silver Anniversary of the Columbia-Barnard Athletics Consortium. In a year-long celebration, Columbia Athletics will pay tribute to the administrators, coaches and student-athletes who have brought distinction to Columbia Athletics. During the next few months, gocolumbialions.com will post profiles on the former student-athletes named to the "25 Most Influential" list and the Silver Anniversary honor roll. The next in the series is former women's soccer standout Tosh Forde Adams '99CC.
Kevin McCarthy had a six-year head start. While coaches usually make the acquaintance of their recruits during the prospect's 17th or 18th year, McCarthy met the woman who would become one of his greatest players some six years earlier.
Elizabeth “Tosh” Forde was just 12 when she first met McCarthy. He was a counselor at a soccer camp she attended, run by former Columbia star Todd White '82CC, and he was an assistant coach with the Columbia men's team. Even then, McCarthy could see the possibilities.
By the time Tosh Forde was a top scholastic prospect, Kevin had become head women's soccer coach for the Lions. One of his first recruiting calls went to the talented Massachusetts high school star.
But Forde was perfectly happy living in the Boston area. She had visited New York City for her 13th birthday, but wasn't really thinking of attending Columbia. McCarthy, however, persuaded her to make a recruiting trip during her high school years.
“I was in awe of the energy and vibe in New York,” she recalled recently. “It hooks you.”
Forde decided to exchange her hometown of Needham for Morningside Heights. She's never regretted her decision.
“I loved Columbia,” she said. “The campus is beautiful, the trees blooming by Earl Hall, people sitting on the steps, the sun setting over campus. I matured as a person and as a student.”
McCarthy loved what Forde brought to the soccer program.
“Tosh was a force of will on and off the field,” he said, “and her leadership qualities were a reflection of that. She demanded the best from first, herself, and then from those around her. She uniquely mixed the abilities to forcefully motivate her teammates, and be acutely sensitive to their needs.”
From 1995-98, Tosh Forde was the player most responsible for Columbia's emergence as a viable Eastern power. The most decorated student-athlete in the program's history, she set Columbia records for career goals (30), career assists (26), career points (86), goals in a season (17 in 1996) and points in a season (47 in 1996). During the 1996 season, Forde led the Ivy League in points and goals.
A two-time co-captain, Forde was a senior co-captain on the 1998 team that posted a 12-2-5 record, the best winning percentage ever accumulated by a Columbia women's soccer team. A two-time All-Ivy League selection and an Academic All-Ivy honoree as a senior, Forde received the Connie S. Maniatty Outstanding Senior Student-Athlete Award in 1999.
“On the pitch, Tosh was all about drive, determination and skill,” McCarthy said. “She had a tremendous work rate and was always willing to serve the team wherever she was needed. In 1996, she was a prolific attacking force. In 1998, her senior season, the team required a greater overall presence in terms of service, passing and setting the defensive tone.
“Tosh embraced both eagerly and with heart and grace.”
This, despite the fact that Columbia women's soccer was not a successful program when Forde joined the team.
“I had never played on a team with a record below .500 until I came to Columbia,” she recalled. “It was frustrating at times.”
But being part of a building program had its rewards.
“It was one of my greatest experiences,” she said. “I have a million memories from Columbia Soccer.”
For instance, she remembers McCarthy and his assistant coaches loading the whole team into vans every pre-season and going to Jones Beach — not to bask in the sun, but to train by running in the sand. Each van was also tasked to compose a song that would be the team song for the season.
“We called it Song War,” Tosh said. “Rachel Toomey started singing our song at my wedding.”
Tosh Forde was married to Andrew Adams in January 2007, shortly before she would graduate from NYU's Stern School of Business. She joined Credit Suisse upon graduation, moving with her husband to London in July 2007, when Merrill Lynch transferred him there. While he works in derivative sales for Merrill, she is an investment banker for Credit Suisse, doing a great deal of client work.
Now residing in the Barnsbury section of Islington, in North Central London, Tosh has gained an appreciation for her new city.
“London is more spread out,” she said, “so the buildings don't have to be so tall. There's more green space than New York. The neighborhoods feel like neighborhoods.”
But after living in New York for nearly 10 years, all on the Upper West Side, she misses some of the Big Apple's benefits, among them the 24-hour access you don't find in London. So she's looking forward to returning for this year's celebration of the Silver Anniversary of Women's Athletics at Columbia.
“Any excuse to come back to New York,” she quipped. “Events like these allow alumnae the opportunity to connect. I'm excited about the year-long celebration. It's so nice to see Columbia Women's Athletics much more successful, and so much more supported.”
Tosh owes much to Columbia.
“My experience at Columbia was unique,” she noted. “I still draw upon it. The strength of writing I [acquired] here, learning to deal with different opinions, and how to back up your arguments … Columbia gave me great skill sets you can use in anything you do.”
