Making Tracks : After Sitting Out a Year, Jenkins Becomes One of the Area’s Best

Ronney Jenkins had just completed another workout at Hueneme High, churning through a series of chest-splitting 440-yard sprints on the grass around the football field, but now came the hard part.

The fourth-best high school long-jumper in the United States this year and one of the area’s best sprinters had to walk across the school’s track without twisting an ankle.

While neighboring Rio Mesa and Camarillo boast state-of-the-art tracks with all-weather surfaces, the topography of Hueneme’s dirt track resembles a craggy country road.

The heavy winter rains washed away most of the surface, and the more than 50 truckloads of dirt dumped last month remain ungraded, leaving a surface marked by ridges, gullies and rolling hills of sun-baked, cement-hard dirt.

Halftracks and billy goats would have no trouble circling the track. But Jenkins and his teammates risk ankle injuries merely walking across it, much less running a lap.

In Coach Bill Hayes’ 17 years with the program, the track has been a constant problem, but never so much as this year.

“This is the worst it’s been,” he said. “We’ve always been able to use it before but not this year.”

Add it to the list. Obstacles seem to be a way of life for the Hueneme program, which makes Jenkins’ accomplishments all the more noteworthy as he prepares for today’s Ventura County championships at Camarillo.

Because of the track, the tiny program of no more than 40 boys and girls has contested all its meets this season on the road. The Vikings have won two of seven dual meets.

And worse, the asphalt runway to the Hueneme long-jump pit is so hard, Jenkins trains on it no more than once a week. Even so, he has jumped 24 feet 1 inch--the area’s best long jump this year. Not bad for a guy who didn’t even compete last year as a sophomore.

“I get a little bit mad sometimes when I think, ‘Why do (other schools) have a nice track and we don’t,’ ” Jenkins said. “But it’s not going to stop me from doing what I can do. We don’t have all the advantages (others) do, but it motivates me. It helps me work harder.”

The work has paid off for Jenkins, who said he went out for the track team merely to improve his speed for football.

A 5-foot-11, 170-pound running back, he rushed for 1,316 yards last fall, including a school-record 356 yards against Camarillo. But suddenly, he has become better known as a long jumper.

Jenkins jumped 24-1 at the Arcadia Invitational earlier this month to place second to Clarence Scott of L.A. Fremont. A week later, the two met again at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays. This time Jenkins tied Scott at 23-10 1/4 and was awarded first place based on a better second jump.

Jenkins ranks third in the state this year and has set his sights on the Ventura County record of 24-3 1/2 set by Lawrence Nelson of Simi Valley in 1985. Toya Jones of Refugio, Tex., is the national leader at 24-7 1/2.

Jenkins also has a score to settle with Ventura’s Ramsey Jay, one of the top sprinters in the state. Jay was fourth in last year’s State meet in the 400 meters and beat Jenkins in the 100 Spartan Relays last weekend at Rio Mesa, 10.83 to 10.86. Jay also ran down Jenkins on the last leg of the 400 relay.

Jenkins will enter the 100, 200, 400 relay and the long jump at today’s Ventura County meet.

“Next, I got to get Ramsey Jay,” he said.

Jenkins was a relative unknown at the start of the season even though he won the long jump at the Ventura County meet two years ago as a freshman with a leap of 22-7 1/4. But when Hayes resigned after that season because he said he was fed up with administrative headaches that accompanied the job, Jenkins didn’t go out for the team last year.

He regretted that decision, but not because of track. Because he didn’t compete he was “slower than I could have been for football,” he said.

So before this spring he enlisted the help of football Coach Larry Miller, who persuaded Hayes to return as coach by telling him: “If you take care of the kids on the field, I’ll take care of everything off the field.”

Said Hayes: “Larry has made it easy, and it was hard to say no to the kids.”

Even with Hayes back as coach, Jenkins doubted his ability to compete against full-fledged track athletes.

“Going against all these talented guys in track, guys who train all the time, I thought I would be embarrassed,” he said.

Hardly. With each impressive outing, Jenkins has gained confidence and quelled his nervousness, especially at important meets.

He was amazed at the size of the crowd and electric atmosphere at the Arcadia meet, which routinely draws 6,000 fans and is considered the highest quality high school invitational in the country.

Jenkins admitted he was nervous before that meet and felt the same way the next week at Mt. SAC. But victory has a knack of changing perspectives.

“Winning is fun and I’m enjoying track more than I thought,” he said. “At first, I thought that football was my sport and that’s it. But now I’m getting to like track more and more.”

The feeling is contagious. George Jones, quarterback on the football team and Jenkins’ close friend, is a member of the 400 relay team that has a chance to win the county championship. Jones also has learned to appreciate the sport and has relished the attention Jenkins has brought the school.

“I thought I was running for nothing,” Jones said. “But now it’s fun. And it makes me feel happy that we’ve got somebody doing something right.”

Jenkins apparently is carrying quite a load when he circles the track. Coaches have pinned hopes of an athletic renaissance at the school to him, saying Jenkins must be an “example setter.”

They hope he ignites interest in the Hueneme student body to rescue a downtrodden athletic program.

“The biggest problem here is we have too many good athletes on campus not doing anything,” Hayes said.

Miller was an All-American halfback in 1969 at Hueneme and is seen as a Pied Piper on campus after the modest achievement of leading the football team last fall to a 2-8 record. But two victories matched the entire victory total for the previous four seasons.

Jenkins is one of the main reasons Hueneme’s free fall in athletics is about to end, Miller said.

“For the past four or five years, Hueneme has really taken a beating,” Miller said. “But Ronney is the turning point in our whole athletic program.”

Jenkins readily accepts that mantle, shrugging off any hint of pressure. Besides, he said, he faces bigger pressures every day avoiding gang tension at school and in his neighborhood.

Jenkins, who is black, said members of black gangs in his neighborhood have stopped pressuring him to adopt the gang lifestyle, apparently respecting his desire to gain a college scholarship.

Still, he said, members of Hispanic gangs often harass him at school.

“They don’t see me as an athlete, they just see me as another black,” he said.

After school, he maintains a low profile, he said. He avoids parties, is studying for the Scholastic Assessment Test, which he will take for the first time in June, and spends much of his free time with his girlfriend, Kala Bouscrean.

About the only time the shy, soft-spoken 17-year-old breaks character is when he announces his rushing yardage goal for next fall: an outrageous 3,000 yards.

Miller grins broadly when told of Jenkins’ goal, saying, “It’s not impossible.”

Considering the obstacles Jenkins has overcome this track season, don’t bet against him.