Rogers long jumper eager to return
Rogers senior Sean Adebayo will always remember the magic day he experienced at the Greater Spokane League district track meet last spring, when he won two events, finished second in another and anchored a winning relay team.
He’ll probably remember the next week, too, when he pulled a hamstring pushing the Pirates from fourth place at the beginning of his relay leg to a regional title that qualified them for the Washington 4A championship meet.
The injury prevented him from competing in the 200-meter race and the triple jump at regionals, and although he finished fourth in the long jump, he was unable to jump at the state meet.
The fact that he ran the relay at state after his injury may have surprised some people, but not Rogers jumps coach Brett Hale, who’d been working with Adebayo for four years and says he didn’t really expect anything different.
“That’s just Sean,” Hale said. “He’s very dedicated to his teammates and to his coaches, not a ‘me’ person at all. Knowing him the way I do, that’s what I expected he’d do.”
Adebayo has continued to struggle with injury issues this year. His foot was broken on the fifth play of the first football game last fall, and the lengthy recovery and rehabilitation time from that injury contributed to the hip flexor problems he’s been experiencing this spring.
“It took so long before I could do any physical activity even after I got out of the boot,” he said, “so I wasn’t able to do my normal off-season workouts. That really slowed me down, and I gained some weight, too. I hurt the flexor during practice several weeks ago – it’ll hurt but I’m still going to compete.”
Adebayo’s favorite event is the long jump. It’s the one in which he’s been competing the longest – since middle school – and in which he’s had the most success. But he also won first-team All Greater Spokane League honors in the triple and 400 relay. His second place at the district meet came in the 200.
Hale isn’t surprised at Adebayo’s success.
“He’s a very coachable kid,” he said. “Anything I tell him, he’ll try his best to do it. He really concentrates on what we talk about and makes a focused effort to improve. There are some kids who you can talk with until you’re blue in the face and nothing changes, but that’s never been an issue with Sean. He’s increased his PR’s in the jumps by a foot every year.”
Adebayo is eager to get healthy, hoping to return to his 2006 form. He hopes to compete at the college level in the jumps, although there’s also some interest in him as a sprinter, Hale said.