Catching up with St. Ignatius senior long jumper, Alex Enos

1)
This past Saturday, St. Ignatius senior Alex Enos jumped 25'0" to win the CCS Top 8 meet at Los Gatos HS. That jump pushes him US #2 trailing only Arian Smith's 25'3.25". Earlier this season, Enos jumped 24'2.5" to put himself on the radar of best jumpers in the nation and with his latest jump, Enos proved that he is definitely not a one jump wonder. Photo above courtesy of Vytas Mazeika.

What was your first reaction when you heard your mark of 25'0" this past Saturday? What were your other jumps? 
My first reaction was disbelief. I didn't think I would be able to go anywhere near 25 this year and it blew my mind when I heard 25' 0". I faulted my first jump (which my coach told me was a little further than 25' 0"), I jumped 24' 6" on my second jump, and I jumped 24' 3" on my fourth jump.

2) What were your goals coming into this season? Did you have to change your goals along the way?
My goal earlier in the season was to jump 23', and when I jumped 24' 2.5" at my first meet I had to reevaluate my goals. My goals now are to win league, section, and state titles as well as PR again.

3) What other sports have you done aside from Track and Field? How and when did you start jumping? When did you first realize you could be really good in the long jump?
I played football freshman year and soccer freshman year through junior year. I decided to come out for track junior year and my coach wanted to see if I would be any good at long jump. In my first meet I jumped 21' which seemed like a lot at the time. I never thought I could jump in college until my coach kept telling me that it was a possibility. But it wasn't until this year when I really internalized that and believed that I could actually go D1.

4) What did you learn from your junior season that you think has helped you this season?
At the end of my junior track season I was a favorite to hit the qualifying mark to go to sections (which was 21' 2"), but I ended up jumping 21' .75" which really upset me. Although at the moment it was really tough, it pushed me to train all offseason, quit Soccer, and focus solely on jumping further. It was really a defining moment for me and my track career.

5) What does a typical week look like for you training wise? How often do you jump a week? What are some of the drills that you feel have really helped you? How often are you in the weight room?
It really depends on the time of year. We did a lot of base strength in the fall that definitely got me a lot stronger. Now that we're in season, there's less time for a bunch of different workouts just because Coach really tries to manage how our bodies are feeling. Generally Monday involves some sort of hard work such as 120 meter sprints or something else that taxes us. We follow the work outside with lifting which is also pretty tough. Tuesday depends if we have a meet Wednesday or not. If not, we might do some type of plyometric workout either at SI or at the beach. Wednesday would then be an active recovery day and Thursday would be our jumps day where we do our technical work followed by accessory lifting. With a meet Saturday, we focus our Fridays on run-throughs or a light premeet depending on the meet. There's definitely other things we do but it varies week to week. I think it's hard to attribute my success to any one drill, and it is more of a combination of all these workouts that have helped me the most.

6) Tell us about your coach and how he has helped you get to your current level?
My coach, Michael Kennedy, is probably the biggest reason I've had such success this year. He has helped create such a great jump culture at SI, which motivates me to show up and give it my all every day. At the end of last year when I didn't make sections he pulled me aside and told me that I could be as good as I wanted at this sport, and that fueled me to train as hard as I could this summer and preseason. It never ceases to amaze me how much he loves the sport and how much he loves coaching us, and that dedication he shows really rubs off on us. The family we have on the jump team is so integral to my success, and my teammates, especially Marcus Sweeney, push me to give 100% every day.

7) How much do you keep track of how the other top long jumpers are doing in the state?
I don't check the leaderboards too often but I definitely keep my eye on how the other elite jumpers in the state are doing.

8) Have you decided where you will compete in college and how much of a factor was your future track experience in college?
I have an idea of where I want to go but I'm still not 100% decided on one college. For me, academics comes before athletics so I definitely want to go to a University that's academically rigorous and matches my goals both as an athlete and as a student.

9) Now that you are a senior, what would your advice be from prospective young jumpers?
Have a goal. It is so important in track to have an objective goal such as jump a certain distance, or run a race in X amount of time. Once you have that goal work as hard as you can to achieve it. I've always loved the Kevin Durant quote "Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard," because I'm not the fastest, and I can't jump insanely high, but I have a work ethic that makes up for those lacking areas. If you want to be good at long jump then work your tail off, because that's what it's gonna take to be great. Hope this works.

Thank you very much for your time Alex!