Collins Is on the Fast Track to a Super Career

As Ebony Collins walked to her first class at Long Beach Wilson High this week, she discovered how her life had changed.

“People were stopping me and congratulating me and calling me ‘Superstar,’ ” she said. “It’s like a blessing. I’m proud of myself.”

Later in the day, as the 16-year-old sprinter showed off her four gold medals to a television crew, she couldn’t hide her smile.

“It’s exciting,” said Collins, a sophomore. “It feels like there’s a lot of money around my shoulders.”

By winning four gold medals Saturday at the state track and field championships in Sacramento, Collins achieved the kind of star power once reserved for teenage sprinters like Marion Jones and, more recently, Allyson Felix.

Of course, the spotlight of celebrity sometimes uncovers flaws, and some of track and field’s top athletes -- Jones included -- recently have been making headlines for the wrong reasons. Collins’ performance comes when the sport is seeking to polish an image tarnished by doping accusations and suspensions.

One of the sport’s fallen stars is sprinter Torri Edwards, who drew a two-year suspension for testing positive for a banned stimulant and was ruled out of the 2004 Olympics.

Edwards wasn’t a role model, per se, but Collins was following her career closely.

“I thought she was the best female athlete in the world and was going to be better than Flo-Jo [Florence Griffith Joyner],” Collins said.

Now Collins knows there might be young people who will be watching her. “I have to make sure I do what I’m supposed to do in class and in track,” she said.

Shannon Fisher, a Wilson assistant coach, said Collins “introduced herself to the world” last weekend and “gained a lot of fans.”

Collins plans on keeping those fans too -- the right way.

“I don’t feel anyone has to take enhancing drugs just to make them better,” she said. “When you think about it, you can only think about yourself and make sure you don’t do it.”

In a powerful display of speed, endurance and versatility at the state championships, Collins established three national high school bests.

Her winning time in the 300 hurdles was 40.10 seconds, the second fastest ever. Her winning time in the 100 meters was 11.50, best in the nation this season. She ran the second leg on Wilson’s 400 relay team that recorded the nation-leading time of 44.84. And she ran the third leg on the victorious 1,600 relay team that finished in 3:39.27, which is No. 2 on the national list this year.

Only one other female athlete has won four gold medals in a state meet, Gwen Loud of Westchester in 1979.

Collins is a 5-foot-6 ball of fire who was seemingly born to run. Her mother, Joanne Mabry, said she put her on a track team as a 5-year-old because she was always running around the house.

“She used to run everywhere and get lost everywhere,” she said. “I never tried to catch her. She was too quick.”

What separates Collins is her ability to combine speed with endurance. She can run 100 meters to 800 meters.

“I guess I’m un-humanlike,” she said.

Said Wilson track Coach Terry Kennedy: “She’s a special kid. She’s beginning to mature and understand what she’s doing and taking off to another level.”

The 300 hurdles has become her best event. She set national age-group records as a freshman and sophomore. Only former Wilson hurdler Lashinda Demus has run faster. Demus set the national record of 39.98 in 2001.

Collins’ times don’t put her in the class of Felix -- yet. Felix won the 2003 state title in the 100 in 11.29 as a senior at North Hills L.A. Baptist before earning the Olympic silver medal in the 200 one year later.

And Jones’ nine state individual championships earned in the early 1990s when she competed for Oxnard Rio Mesa and Thousand Oaks will be hard to duplicate, but not impossible.

Collins has established herself as someone with a big-time future.

Next month, she will travel to Morocco to represent the United States at the World Youth Championships.

“As long as she stays healthy, we’re in for a show,” Fisher said.

Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.