His Athletic Career Is on the Right Track : Preps: Basketball was Mel Moultry’s first love, but he makes his biggest strides as a triple jumper.

Mel Moultry of Beverly Hills High never envisioned himself as a triple jumper when he began his track and field career as a sophomore.

He wanted only to high jump because he thought that the event would complement his basketball skills.

“I just looked at track as an off-season sport,” said Moultry, who averaged 22 points and 12 rebounds for the Normans’ sophomore basketball team. “I went out for the track team only after I had tried volleyball and didn’t like it.”

Two years later, Moultry’s feelings about track have changed.

He has emerged as one of the top triple jumpers in the state with a personal best of 48-feet-7.

Moultry was the top qualifier in the Southern Section Division III preliminaries at Trabuco Hills High with a leap of 47-8 1/4.

Not bad for someone who has competed in the sport for only three seasons.

“I saw the potential in him right away when he was a 10th-grader,” Coach Howard Edelman said. “I brought him down to the high jump pit and he jumped six feet without any technical background at all.”

Because of that early success, Moultry saw himself as a future seven-foot high jumper and not a triple jumper.

“The triple jump was my worst event,” he said. “There would be times when I would be signed up to compete in the event and I wouldn’t show up at all because I was so horrible.”

Moultry improved by season’s end and he led the Normans with a leap of 42-9.

Although he still considered himself a basketball player, Moultry’s outlook toward a track and field career changed dramatically when he was a junior.

That is when Dale Johnson, a triple jumper at Cal State Los Angeles, started to coach the Norman long jumpers and triple jumpers.

Johnson challenged Moultry to take the triple jump seriously.

“He guaranteed me that I would jump 46 feet if I really worked at it,” Moultry said. “But, I was a little skeptical.”

For most of Moultry’s junior season, Johnson’s appraisal appeared to be wrong. But in the final meet of the year, Moultry broke loose to improve his personal best to 45-7 in a Southern Section Divisional preliminary.

That’s when Moultry started to believe in his ability.

“You could see the big breakthrough in his performances,” Edelman said. “I think that he just started to realize how good he can become in the event.”

Moultry’s basketball career has leveled off. He averaged 11 points and six rebounds a game for the Normans last season.

“If I would have a bad game or a bad practice, I would go home and say to myself, ‘I can’t wait until track season,’ ” Moultry said. “It’s easier to blame yourself in track, while basketball is more a team sport.”

Moultry continued to make strides in track. With little time to practice after basketball season, Moultry jumped 46-4 at the Sunkist indoor meet at the Sports Arena in March.

“The Sunkist meet made me realize that I had a future in track,” Moultry said. “It gave me a confidence boost that I can jump with the best triple jumpers in the state.”

Moultry made his next big jump at the Arcadia Invitational with a leap of 47-11.

Moultry’s meteoric rise in the event appears to have him headed to a 50-foot jump.

“The 50-foot barrier is definitely within his reach,” Edelman said. “He is a very mature young man and if he sticks with it, he’ll be a 50-plus jumper in college.”

After already being accepted by Morehouse and Florida A&M;, Moultry’s college plans may be changed because of track.

“He is a late bloomer in a sense because he hasn’t been doing it for a long time,” Edelman said. “But, if anyone has watched him develop, they know that he could be a big-time jumper.”