St. Mary's Jumpers Sanjay Kettels & Kali Hatcher Prep for the State Meet

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend practice for St. Mary's jumpers Sanjay Kettels and Kali Hatcher. The top girls triple jumper and boys long jumper from all the section finals meets were joined by teammate Malcolm Clemons, a freshman who finished 2nd in the NCS long jump and advanced to the state meet. Jumps coach Jeff Rogers and head coach Jay Lawson were kind enough to give me full access to their final tune-up prior to leaving for Clovis.

Coach Rogers started the afternoon off by sharing his thoughts on how he wants to prepare his jumpers for this weekend's big meet:

The workout consisted of a series of technique exercises, starting with an extended warm-up and then progressing to take-off and landing drills. With lots of feedback and plenty of rest, I could tell that this was a practice designed to hone the fine details of their technique:

Afterward, both Kali and Sanjay shared how they feel about their preparation and chances this weekend, and they also talked a little bit about how they help each other in practice:

Coach Rogers wrapped things up with his thoughts on how well his two athletes could do at the state meet:

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