Long jumper Courtney Corrin finds inspiration at her fingertips

Courtney Corrin soared last month to a national-best long-jump mark for high school girls. She also is a perennial choice for national age-group soccer teams.

Her fleet and nimble feet might one day carry her to the Olympics.

But greater insight into the Harvard-Westlake freshman’s drive and personality might be found in her hands.

Corrin’s fingernails are bright and colorful, a personally painted tableau.

For inspiration before jumps, she puts her thumbs together to read “This moment is yours.” Another nail is emblazoned with a white No. 13 — “My lucky number for soccer and I was born on the 13th,” she explains — and others with stars. “Shoot for the stars,” she says, giggling.

Then there’s her left ring finger, its nail painted a bold red with a white 20.

The number signifies the barrier Corrin broke last month with a long jump of 20 feet 21/4 inches to win the Arcadia Invitational. A few weeks later, she leaped a nation-leading 20-11 at the Mt. SAC Relays, setting a state record for freshmen.

Corrin is eager to repaint the nail with a 21, but she won’t until she adds another inch to her personal best.

“Hopefully,” she says, “ I can change it this weekend.”

Corrin, 15, is scheduled to begin competition Friday in the CIF state track and field championships at Clovis. A victory would be the latest milestone on a burgeoning athletic journey that appears filled with opportunity in two sports.

Harvard-Westlake has a history of producing elite athletes — 7-foot basketball playing twins Jason and Jarron Collins among them — but the 5-foot-6 Corrin could be in another class.

“She is rare, even for us,” says Harvard-Westlake Coach Jonas Koolsbergen, “because she is so high-level in both sports.”

While stretching after a track workout this week, Corrin makes it clear that she does not prefer one sport over the other. She enjoys the team aspect of soccer and the individual freedom of track.

Juggling the demands of her academic load with high school and club soccer and high school and club track does not faze her.

Corrin comes from an athletically oriented family. Her father, Michael, won a conference title in the long jump at UC Irvine. Her mother, T.C. Clay, was a multisport standout at Crenshaw High and played tennis at Grambling State.

Corrin’s sister, Kennedy, is a junior soccer player at Harvard-Westlake. Her brother, Mikey, is a seventh-grader who competes in ice hockey, football and track.

The Corrin children got an early start in all things athletic, not surprising consider their mother was a personal trainer and fitness instructor.

They biked, hiked, skated and climbed rope, but mostly they ran: on the beach, over canyon trails, in sand dunes and up and down the popular Santa Monica stairs.

Corrin took dance lessons at age 2, started playing soccer at 4 and was training in gymnastics at 5. As a gymnast, she developed to the point that her father said the family was encouraged to move from Playa Vista to Houston to train with legendary coach Bela Karolyi.

Seeking a more well-rounded lifestyle — “I wanted to attend school … and play every sport,” Corrin says — they remained in the Southland, Corrin moving from AYSO to club soccer.

Richard Simms, her coach at Harvard-Westlake, first saw Corrin play when she was 8.

“She could cover the entire field, probably every blade of grass,” says Simms, who has coached Corrin since she was 11. “It was like nothing I had ever seen.”

Meantime, Michael, an executive for Los Angeles World Airports, had introduced his daughters to track by taking them to an elementary school meet at Mt. San Antonio College. They ran in a 300-meter race and were hooked.

Corrin subsequently trained with a small club run by Sherman and Adia Armstrong, now strength and conditioning coaches at the University of Georgia. When the couple left Los Angeles, Corrin joined the Southern California Running Cougars, headed by Chris Faulknor, a former Olympian from Jamaica.

“She was a tiny little girl — but strong,” Faulknor says. “She’s built for the jump.”

Corrin, who also plays piano, saxophone and the oboe, intends to head off to college in a few years. One of her goals is to compete for a top academic and athletic institution in both sports.

She is not worried about ever having to choose between the two.

“I think it kind of chooses you,” she says.

Meantime, she is focused on winning a state title.

“She loves the big stage,” her father says.

Last week, Corrin won the Southern Section Masters’ meet with a jump of 20 -51/4.

She is looking forward to changing the polish on her nail to 21. And eventually 22, and 23….

“One step at a time,” she says. “And see what happens.”

gary.klein@latimes.com

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