Cascade triple jumper Tay’lor Eubanks aims high

Published 11:12 pm Wednesday, March 14, 2012

EVERETT — Don’t tell Tay’lor Eubanks the journey is better than the destination.

Why? Because if the Cascade senior triple jumper reaches his ultimate goal this season it’ll make an already fantastical journey seem mundane.

“I want to go 52 feet,” said Eubanks in a recent interview, referring to the goal he’s shooting for in the triple jump. For comparison, the state record is currently 50-9.

That might seem like a lofty goal for someone who has yet to jump 49 feet, but it isn’t wise to doubt Eubanks, who has come a long way in his short stint as a triple jumper.

In his journey to becoming a state favorite in the triple jump, Eubanks learned under the tutelage of three different coaches in two different states since picking up the sport three years ago.

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As a freshman, Eubanks met former Cascade jumps coach Les Black, who told the lanky kid he had the body of a triple jumper. Eubanks had success right away.

“I was PR’ing (setting personal records) a foot to six inches every week,” Eubanks said of his first season, which he topped out near 40-feet.

But the season ended badly when Eubanks was disqualified at the Wesco Championships for wearing a wristband. Before the meet, Eubanks was told he couldn’t wear the wristband when he jumped, so admittedly a bit superstitious, the freshman would take the wristband on and off between jumps. On his last jump he forgot.

“Toughest thing I ever had to do,” said Cascade coach Chris Crocket on telling Eubanks he’d been disqualified.

Making things worse was the fact Eubanks would have finished third and qualified for state.

“I was devastated,” Eubanks said. “I had a chance to do something great and I felt like I’d found my thing and then all of sudden it just stops. It crushed me.”

Tragedy then struck later that year when the coach that recruited Eubanks and fostered the burgeoning stars talent, Black, died suddenly of complications from a blood clot. In his place stepped Greg Font, who had coached jumps previously at University Prep and Lakeside.

Font, who was a close friend of Black’s, decided to coach jumps at Cascade before Eubanks’ sophomore season. But Font knew about Eubanks before he ever started coaching him.

“I jumped against Tay’lor at an all-comers meet after his freshman season,” Font said. “I was like ‘Oh, who’s this kid?”

Under the tutelage of Font, Eubanks had that eureka moment. It came during a City Championship meet at Everett Memorial Stadium. Eubanks, who said he was dreaming of big jumps in the days leading up to the meet, bettered his previous best of 44-10 by nearly 2 feet, jumping 46-8.75.

“I always felt like I had that in me,” Eubanks said. “Then all of a sudden it just popped off. That feeling was great.”

Eubanks said he owes a big debt to Font and his teaching.

“If coach Font told me that learning how to do a backflip helped me in the triple jump, I’d be trying to backflip right now,” Eubanks joked.

As a sophomore, Eubanks took third place at a cold and blustery 4A state meet, finishing behind Lewis and Clarks’ Levi Taylor and champion Kasen Williams, who currently plays wide receiver at the University of Washington.

“I wanted more. I wanted to beat Kasen and I thought I’d have one more chance,” said Eubanks of Williams, who went on to set the state record in the triple jump a year later when he jumped 50-9.

But Eubanks didn’t get that chance. Sent to live with his dad in Carrolltown, Texas, Eubanks ran track at Hebron High School in his junior year. But more importantly he joined celebrated track and field club team, Texas Express. As part of the team, Eubanks was coached by John Turek, who Eubanks said has coached a number of Olympic athletes.

While in Texas, Eubanks broke his school record with a jump of 48-8, but he finished a disappointing fifth at regionals and missed out on the Texas state meet.

“Everybody was blazing fast and incredibly strong,” Eubanks said of the Texas athletes.

It was the second time in his short career that a state meet had just eluded his grasp.

This past summer, Eubanks competed against even faster and stronger athletes at the Junior Olympics in Wichita, Kansas.

“I’ve never seen athletes like that,” said Eubanks, who took 12th with a slightly disappointing jump of 46 feet. “I was psyched out.”

But what Eubanks really got from his experience over the summer was motivation.

“I felt complacent,” Eubanks said of talking to the other jumpers at the Junior Olympics. “When I heard them talking about their workouts and they were telling me they didn’t stop I realized I can’t stop.”

After living with his mom for a short period this summer, Eubanks was set to head back to Texas for his senior year, but complications arose and he decided to stay in Everett and return to his old school.

“I have the coaches and the support here. Only thing I’m losing is the weather,” Eubanks said with a laugh.

Besides his goal of setting the state triple jump, Eubanks wants to head to college and said that Washington State is currently in the lead with schools like Kansas, Arizona and Arizona State in contention. He also wants to qualify for the World Juniors in Barcelona in mid-July. To do that, he’ll have to jump 51-8 at some point this season.

Whether it’s 52 or 51-8, Eubanks said it’s all a mental game.

“I won’t always be the strongest of fastest, but I’m a really big believer in technique,” Eubanks said. “I have to hold those phases and keep the mindset that I can do it.”