1) What sports have you participated in aside from Track and Field?
Before track and field, I participated in baseball, soccer and basketball. Basketball was my favorite sport before track and field, and that was the sport I competed in the longest after track and field.
2) What were your personal records heading into high school?
I don't remember most of my personal records before heading into high school, but I remember that my high jump pr was 5'9" in 8th grade.
3) What were some of your proudest achievements during your first two years in high school?
Some of my proudest achievements in my first two years of high school track and field are getting past 6' as a freshman (6'4" by the end of the year) and 6'7" as a sophomore to break the freshman/sophomore record at my school.
4) When do you feel like you made the biggest jump (pun intended) in your events? What do you feel led to your improvements?
I think I made the biggest jump in my events going from sophomore year to junior year. Even though I had a bigger improvement going from 8th grade to 9th (7" increase), the improvement from 10th to 11th was greater (6" increase) in my opinion because in 8th grade, I had to partially coach myself.
5) What were some of your accomplishments during your junior season? Biggest highlight?
My biggest accomplishment of my junior season was joining the 7 foot club. The highlight of my junior season was making the World Youth team and competing at the World Youth Championships in Cali, Columbia where I placed 3rd in the world with a jump of 7'1".
6) Who are the coaches that have had the biggest impact on your athletic success?
The coaches that have had the biggest impact on my athletic success are Steve Nelson-head coach at my high school, Paul Williams-high jump coach/ assistant coach at my high school, and Brunet Lux, head coach of Umoja Track club (the track team I was on before high school).
7) What does a typical week look like for your training wise? How often do you practice each event? How often do you lift weights and do plyometrics? What are some of your toughest workouts?
We have high jump practice once a week, and triple jump/ long jump once a week. We lift weights twice a week and do plyometrics once a week after the weightlifting on the first day. Our toughest workouts are the ones we do when we are in load phase, which include 250's and plyometrics and other drills with weighted vests. Some other tough workouts are when we do many repetitions of neuromuscular drills with hurdles.
8) How do you manage your three jump events as well as the hurdles during the meets?
Usually, when I do all four events at one meet, it's at a scoring meet (like CCS). Every once in a while in non scoring meets, I manage them by only taking the jumps necessary to either win, pr, score, or place, then move on to the next event. Some days it depends on how I'm feeling, or the order of events. For example, if triple jump and or long jump is before the high jump, I wont take more than three jumps for each one so I can save energy for the high jump. I do this especially for triple since it takes a lot out of you. If high jump is before everything else, then sometimes I will do all of the jumps for the other events. Hurdles before high jump acts as a good warm up.
This was my third and final year competing at Simplot games. I competed from sophomore to senior year there. I didn't know any of my competitors other than a teammate in the hurdles.
10) You will attend the University of Georgia next year. How many other schools did you consider and why did you end up choosing the UGA?
I considered about 5 schools during the recruiting process, but UGA stood out the most. Coach Petros, the head coach at UGA, is known for his many achievements, and his ability to develop athletes to go even further in their track and field careers. This was one of the reasons I ended up choosing UGA, along with me liking the school in general, and the education it provides.
11) What meets are you most looking forward to this coming season? Any post season meets? Any goals you would like to share?
The meets that I am looking most forward to this year are New Balance Indoor Nationals, Arcadia Invitational, State Championships, and World Junior Trials, where I have another chance to possibly make another world team and compete for Team USA again for World Junior Championships.
Thank you very much for your time Darius! AJC (video below is 7'0.25" from June)
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