The official ushers the athletes to their starting positions at the top of the 110 meter stretch of the Del Norte high school track. Ten rows of hurdles lay ahead, each 3.5 feet tall. In the stadium hundreds of pairs of eyes become fixated on the field.
“On your marks.”
The athletes get into their starting blocks. Some perform jump squats in place to warm up their hamstrings and glutes before settling in; they are about to push their bodies to their physical limits. The official waits patiently as the young men get into their starting blocks, each adorning their respective school uniform, these are students from all over San Diego.
“Get set.”
Simultaneously the athletes rise into place, hunched over the starting line, perfect form. They stay there for three long seconds, not a single muscle moving yet remaining fluid and free. The official raises his arm slowly still eyeing the athletes for false starts, in his hand the starting pistol.
BAM!!!
Student athlete Jordan Lee takes off at the speed of lightning. In a split second he arrives at the first hurdle. He bounds over it effortlessly. Four more strides and he’s at the next hurdle. Ten more seconds and he’s at the finish line. He beats the second place runner by almost an entire second, a light year in time for these tight sprints. After his domination at the 110 hurdles he goes on to smash everybody in the 300 hurdles. He wins the men’s sophomore division at the Dick Wilkins Frosh Soph championship.
Almost a year has passed since that coveted day. Lee, now a junior, is anxious to get back out on the track and start winning again. Initially Lee wasn’t looking at track specifically, just any sport, it was his middle school’s administration that pointed him to his passion
“[When] we moved here in sixth grade, my mom asked [the school] if there are any good sports I should do, they said I should do track,” Lee said.
Lee ran all throughout middle school, however his track career really took off as soon as he hit high school. From the start Lee had plans to run at the highschool level. Track and field coach Danny Kung first met Lee at registration and been teaching him for the past three years.
Track athlete Jordan Lee mid flight in his leap over a hurdle. Lee went on to
win first place.
“[Lee] has been one of the athletes that you don’t see every often… just a raw, natural athlete,” Kung said.
Lee instantly knew that he was destined to be a great track athlete, however he was conflicted on which events he would specialize in. After his first race he knew, he knew he was going to be a hurdler.
“I didn’t know how it was going to go, but I ended up getting first for the hurdles, that was a pretty cool moment,” Lee said.
Lee started winning race after race. Not only was he beating kids his own age as a freshman and sophomore, but kids two, even three years older. Although Lee is renowned for his massive amount of medals and his athletic prowess, you would never hear about it from him.
“He’s not a kid to boast about anything, but more of letting his accomplishments tell the tale of what he’s capable of doing,” Kung said.
Lee isn’t one to beat himself for losing a race, on the rare occasion that Lee doesn’t win, he doesn’t see it as a loss, but a chance to learn. He doesn’t dwell on the past, he learns from it and then moves on.
“[Losing is a] learning experience and you can learn from what you did wrong or go to the practices and train.. for the next [race], you won’t have any flaws,” Lee said.
Lee practices the mentality that mistakes are only failures when he doesn’t learn anything from them. Although on the exterior Lee is a ruthless athlete, he never takes himself too seriously.
“[Lee] works extremely hard, he does joke around and brings that light heartedness [to] the team that’s always a good vibe to have around especially when you have hard workouts to take care of,” Kung said.
To his teammates, Lee is not only the ‘fun guy,’ but also a beacon of inspiration. Megan Mattson, Sage Creek’s first female athlete to make it to state. Mattson specializes in the 300 and 100 hurdles just as Lee does which makes them fierce competitors, albeit they are the same team.
“He inspires me… he’s like competition, he’s good I’m good and I want to beat him accomplishment wise cause I’m not as fast as him,” Mattson said, “I want to beat his accomplishments.”
Whether be providing much needed comic relief during grueling workouts, pushing his teammates to their limits, or getting those dubs for the team. Lee has even inspired his coach to become a better person.
“As a coach it makes me want to work harder for him, so I don’t let him down in any of his goals that he wants to accomplish,” Kung said.
Although Lee is just starting off his third year on the Sage Creek track team, he and his coach already have big plans for the future.
“I hope this year, he’s coming back as one of the top hurdlers in San Diego, I’m hoping that he can make it to state, if not this year than definitely for sure by his senior year and I would love to see him compete at the next level in college,” Kung explained.
Ever since starting the Sage Creek track program, Lee has been an integral part of the team. Lee’s long list of accomplishments prove that dedication and hardwork combined with the acceptance of mistakes as opportunities have shaped him into both an outstanding person and student.