The Fosters Place Family First While Under A Microscope

Kristi, Dasia, DaJuan, and Xavier Foster at home in May of 2019.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – We had an opportunity to catch up with the Foster family one evening in the first week of May. We hoped to find out more about the family, what it takes to keep up with all the demands, while learning along the way that Xavier is both ticklish, and he loves to fish and doesn’t like being texted when he is fishing.

Xavier Foster, the 5 Star recruit from Oskaloosa, Iowa, has more Division I offers to play basketball than many kids can dream of. The pressure to perform started before he even stepped onto the court as a freshman.

At home, the busy family does its best to maintain a normal life, having dinner together whenever they can, since they are typically on the go.
The parents are with one of their kids at something most nights. Xavier at one thing, and sister Dasia at another.

Kristi owns and operates the Mahaska Hearing Aid Center.

DaJuan moved to Oskaloosa from Rockford, Illinois in 1999 to attend William Penn University, where he played on the mens basketball team.

DaJuan now works as a vocational rehabilitation counselor.

After his time at William Penn was completed, Foster stayed in the community, coaching at William Penn for 14 seasons.
“He loves basketball,” says Kristi of DaJuan.

DaJuan will tell you basketball is something he’s done since he was 12-years-old.

DaJuan and Kristi met at William Penn University back in 1999. Kristi asked DaJuan how they initially met. “I don’t know,” he responds, with a laugh from Kristi. “It’s so long ago,” DaJuan added.

“I took his shoe and threw it off the porch or something like that,” Kristi says laughing. “Isn’t that terrible.”

When Kristi landed in Oskaloosa, a group of friends introduced her to a church in the beginning, and that helped her feel like it was a good place to be and good people to be around.

“We’ve really been blessed in a lot of ways,” Kristi said. “We haven’t always had the best of things or the nicest things, but we’ve always had enough.”

“It’s a nice pace,” added Kristi of Oskaloosa. “We’ve enjoyed being able to be around the kids and not have to drive hours to work and back.”

“It’s just an easy place to live,” DaJuan added. “Living here is really easy. For a parent, and being from the inner-city, you get to see your kids grow up and actually be kids, to go run around town and not really worry. Well, we still worry about them being dumb kids, but you don’t have to worry about the environment. That was the biggest draw for me.”

As with many from small towns, DaJuan says he can be anywhere and people will tell him that they saw his kids, maybe not acting the way he would like.

DaJuan tells the story of a conversation with a police officer at a traffic stop. “The other day, I was coming back from picking up Dasia from softball, and I’m driving down the road with the animal shelter. I’m doing 35, and it’s a 25. I get pulled over. The police officer takes my stuff, ‘Xavier’s dad, huh?’ I’m like “yeah.” [The officer says,] ‘I just pulled him over too.’” The room erupts in laughter.

“Even at the school. The relationships with the teachers, it means a bunch,” Kristi adds.

The family members are all pretty individual Kristi explains. “We’re really comfortable with having our own downtime. But when we are all together, we’re just pretty laid back 90% of the time.”

Many evenings, when not on the run, include laundry, and “making sure that everybody is moving in the right direction,” says Kristi. “Most times, DaJuan is texting what’s for supper, and who needs to get what from the store.

“We’re on the go so much, when we don’t have anything to do, we really don’t mind just vegging out at home,” adds DaJuan. “We could literally all just sit in the house,” and Kristi finishes the thought with “and be happy as can be.”

“We all kind of give each other that space, because I think we all realize we all kind of get bombarded with a lot in life, that we just kind of like some down time” adds Kristi.

“The kids help out some,” says Kristi, with a laugh from DaJuan. “That would probably be our downfall, is DaJuan and I take on a lot when we could have them do a little bit more.”

Xavier’s senior year, Kristi says that he’s got to learn how to do his own laundry.

We’ve heard about DaJuan’s basketball talent, and obviously Xavier’s got some talent on the floor, but mom Kristi has a hidden basketball love as well.

“I was the leading rebounder in the Walnut Conference,” Kristi says while laughing. A hearty chuckle is heard from DaJuan across the room.

“Oh my goodness,” says Kristi still laughing. “They give me such a hard time.”

“Wow, leading rebounder,” Kristi says parroting DuJuan and Xavier’s comments.

The secret weapon to the Fosters is Daisia. She’s six foot three inches tall and in middle school.

The rumor about Dasia and the Fosters staying in town so Dasia can play Oskaloosa Indians basketball has been making its way around already, and she’s yet to step onto a junior varsity court, let alone a middle school court.

Dasia travels to Des Moines one to two days a week to play ball.

“I just drive all the time,” Kristi says of having her family members at their various practices and events. “That’s all I do. I’m just the bus driver.”

Whispering, Kristi says that DaJuan is a softie on Dasia. “So much of it doesn’t matter. Who cares about 7th or 8th-grade basketball. Sixth-grade basketball it’s irrelevant,” DaJuan adds about Dasia’s learning experience.

When asked if she feels like she’s living in Xavier’s shadow, Dasia says she feels like she’s “kinda” living in his shadow and feels like the expectations are high.

“Xavier was pushed at that age,” says DaJuan. “But at the same time, they are two different people. He needs pushed, and you don’t necessarily have to push her because she won’t coast as much as he will.”

Dasia participates in basketball, volleyball, and softball, and prefers volleyball most of all.

When asked if she feels the pressure to play basketball, Dasia kind of shrugs her shoulders.

“She’s really good at it. Even if she doesn’t love it,” Kristi says.

Those basketball expectations come from the community rumor that Dasia will end up being a better basketball player than Xavier.

Kristi says they can each be good within their respective teams, one as a boy, and one as a girl.

“What is that supposed to mean,” Dasia asks her mom.

“Oh Lord, here we go,” Kristi says. “I’m in trouble now.”

For Xavier, around his freshman year, it seemed like he would grow even more overnight, DaJuan says.

Things like not being able to shoot a free throw because he’d just recently went through a growth spurt, and the angles had changed for him. “We’d come home, and we’d go to our little mark on the wall, and be like, oh wow, he grew another inch,” DaJuan said of that time. “There was a week in March 2017, when he grew about three inches in a week.”

Growth spurts like that made coordination difficult at times. He may or may not have tripped over himself a few times.

Xavier wants to say he’s still growing, but DaJuan says they will see. “I hope I am,” says Xavier.

With that growth comes some pretty wicked charley horses (leg cramps) and sore knees.

DaJuan, Kristi, Xavier, and Dasia all pose for a photo in their living room, where you can see their ability to continue to joke with each other.

We leave the family to enjoy the remainder of their evening, to figure out what is for dinner, and to make plans for their visit to Baylor.

In our next installment, we will be talking about that first dunk and a state title.