From Elementary School and through Junior High School and
High School I was always known as one of the fastest runners, one of the most
athletic in various sports, and I could jump so well I was called super-human.
During Elementary School I was always the fastest runner in
the school. I could beat anyone in the 50 yards, 100 yards, and 220 yards runs.
After that I was not able to compete well as I was a short-distance runner not
a long-distance runner.
I was also the fastest runner in Junior High up to 220
yards. I was also an excellent jumper. We had one event called the Standing
Broad Jump where you stand on a line and you have to jump as far as you can on
measurements painted on the concrete in the play yard. I jumped a school record
of 6 feet 11 inches and everyone couldn’t believe what I did. I repeated that
record jump many times.
The other event was a Vertical Jump where you stand next to
the wall with the measurements on the wall. You held a piece of chalk in your
fingers and reached up and made a chalk mark. You would then take a few steps
back, run toward the wall, and leap into the air placing a mark on the wall
where you jumped the highest. The distance between the original mark and your
jump mark was your distance in the Vertical Jump. In several attempts I jumped
over 5 feet high and at one point I gave it all I had and jumped 6 feet 6
inches.
Both the 6 feet 11 inches in the Standing Broad Jump and the
6 feet 6 inches in the Vertical Jump were school records. My name was supposed
to be placed on the Record Board in the school gymnasium but they refused to do
that for me. I was extremely disappointed.
Since I was a little boy I could play baseball well and with
football rarely could anyone catch me when I ran the ball and I could catch
nearly every pass thrown to me.
When in Skyline High School I told the coaches I wanted to
try out for Track events in the long jump and running up to 220 Yards, and to
try out for Baseball and Football. Nobody paid any attention to me. The reason
wasn’t that I didn’t have talent as I was more talented than 9 out of 10 people
on those sports teams at my High School. The reason was that I wasn’t “friends”
with anyone on the Track, Baseball, or Football teams. You got on these teams
for being friends with someone not because you were talented.
That explains why our school teams sucked and rarely got
into playoffs. It also explains why I gave up on sports and took drugs instead.
It broke my heart, and my spirit, to have so much talent in those areas and
nobody cared.
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