Erin Brooks (center) was again in a familiar place Saturday, taking top honors in the triple jump at the IAAM outdoor track championships at Calvert Hall College. The multi-event athlete will compete for Wake Forest University next season.
Seton Keough High senior Erin Brooks wrapped up her accomplished scholastic career last weekend, winning her second straight triple jump title at the IAAM track championships at Calvert Hall College. Brooks endured a frustrating spring, battling a meddlesome hamstring injury that sidelined her for the bulk of the outdoor season. She spent more time in the training room than on the track, hoping to emerge healthy at the IAAM meet and compete with her teammates for a shot at one more title.
“I was trying to play it cool and not let the injury get to me, but I was anxious to get healthy again and get back to doing what I do,” said Brooks, who leaped 37-feet, nine inches in the triple jump. “It took longer to heal than anticipated, but I wasn’t really frustrated until this weekend when I couldn’t perform the way I wanted to.”
After winning the triple jump, Brooks aggravated her hamstring during the 100-meter finals. She got a good start out of the blocks, but at the end of her drive phase, just as she stood up straight to push toward the finish line, her quadriceps felt tight.
"My quads felt like they were on fire so I shut it down,” said Brooks, who wasn't able to compete in the 400 relay. It was an anticlimactic ending for her tenure in a Seton Keough uniform, but bigger challenges await.
Next year, Brooks will compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference for Wake Forest. One of the country’s elite triple jumpers and sprinters, Brooks selected Wake Forest over a slew of colleges. When she signed her letter of intent, the event was beamed throughout the region by a local television news crew.
This past winter, she became the first athlete to win four individual titles at IAAM’s indoor championships at the Prince George's Sports Complex, setting meet records in the long jump and triple jump in the process. Before the hamstring trouble, the anticipation of her potential outdoor exploits in her final season reverberated throughout the local track and field community. Brooks became a force to be reckoned from the moment she donned a Seton Keough uniform four years ago.
“My freshman year, I just wanted to run for my school and I wasn’t expecting to do anything great,” said Brooks.
She far exceeded her own expectations by winning conference titles and setting outdoor meet records in the 100, 200 and triple jump. Those outcomes during her freshman season did not magically appear out of nowhere. Brooks’ first foray into competitive running left no indication she would be eventually ranked among the country’s elite.
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Derek and Yolanda Brooks, had grown accustomed to the conversation. Sitting with one of their teachers during a parent teacher conference when Erin was nine years old, they heard that their daughter was studious, bright, attentive and a joy in the classroom. Then, they heard something that made them look at one another with raised eyebrows.
“Have you ever considered putting Erin in a track program?” the teacher asked. “She’s one of the fastest kids in the school, both girls and boys.”
“I didn’t know I was fast,” Brooks said. “I was just running around at recess trying to get rid of some energy.”
Yolanda and Derek, both former athletes, were intrigued, but never forced athletics on their daughter.
“We were hoping for something athletic but didn’t push,” said Yolanda, who was a three-sport standout in high school. “It was totally her idea and we were trying to contain ourselves.”
“We didn’t know Erin could run until we spoke with her teacher,” said Derek, who played football at then-Towson State University. “We asked her if she wanted to try and she said she did.”
They brought Erin to the venerable Ed Waters Track and Field Program, now known as the Baltimore City Track and Field Program, a powerhouse outfit headed by the legendary Ralph Durant. The program was known for molding the area’s top runners.
At her first meet, in her very first 200-meter race, Erin shot out of the starting blocks. She churned her legs and looked up. An expression of disappointment registered on her face as she experienced a feeling that she’d never known before.
“I got smoked,” said Brooks. She slowly walked towards Yolanda, put her head in her lap and tears started flowing.
“My initial reaction was that I’m never doing that again,” said Brooks. Little did she realize, Brooks was running against seasoned youth runners with national reputations like Elan Hilaire, a current senior at track powerhouse Eleanor Roosevelt High School and Devon Williams, who runs for the University of Arkansas.
By the middle of her first season, Brooks began to catch up with her more celebrated and accomplished teammates.
“Erin was very easy to coach and receptive to everything we worked on,” said Vaughn Johnson, track coach at Fairmont Heights High School in Prince George's County, who was in charge of the 11-14 year old for the Ed Waters Program. “We worked on her form and endurance and you could see she was gaining confidence and a belief in herself. She started to develop and, initially, became an integral part of our relay teams.”
By the time she began competing in the 13- and 14-year old age bracket, she began to come into her own.
“There was a very talented core of kids around her that she trained with and, even though she wasn’t at the top of the line at that time, we knew she’d come around because she was battling,” said Johnson. “I could see that she had a wide range of talent, she was disciplined, she would give you 100-percent and do anything that you asked as a coach. She also had a lot of maturity and while I’d have to fuss and fight with some kids to get them to do what was needed, Erin was very relaxed and easy going.”
Brooks was strong in the 100, 200 and 400 meters when she entered high school, but had never competed in a field event.
“She was ready as a runner after competing in AAU when she was 13 and 14 because you could see her moving up and acquiring that confidence,” said Johnson. “But I had no idea about the triple jump.”
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On the first day of her freshman world history class, Brooks' teacher Jim Lancaster, who is also Seton Keough’s track coach, asked his students if any of them ran track. He noticed that the hand of the tall, lanky new student shot into the air immediately.
“She was really tall with those long legs and I thought, because of the way she was built, that she would be good at the triple jump because it is an art form and I thought it suited her ideally,” said Lancaster. Brooks broke the school record the first time she competed in the event with a jump of 33-11.5.
“I was nervous because I just wanted to do it right and didn’t want to foul,” said Brooks. At last year’s Penn Relays, she was the top American scholastic finisher with a jump of 39-5. She established a new personal record (40-11.5), one of the country’s best indoor measurements, at the Nike Indoor Nationals in March.
“She doesn’t want to leave the track until she’s got everything right,” said Lancaster, “whether it’s her jumping technique, coming out of the blocks or whatever.”
Prior to the IAAM indoor championships in January, Brooks, unsatisfied with her start for the 55, spent an extra forty-five minutes working on her start in the school's basement. That work ethic is evident in the classroom, where Brooks, an honor roll student with a 3.75 grade-point average, is Student Body President and member of the National Honor Society.
Brooks will again work with the Baltimore City Track and Field program this summer under Jerry Molyneaux, the accomplished former longtime coach at Western High, who's now athletic director at Northwestern.
“I can picture myself running and jumping at Wake Forest next year,” said Brooks, who personal-bests are 11.94 in the 100, 24.74 (200), 41.74 (300), 18-1 (long jump). “I’ll be working on my speed and getting more power in my legs, staying strong and fit for when the college workouts start in the fall.”
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see her down the road in the Olympics,” said Johnson. “She has that kind of ability. Some people have the talent, but Erin has the mentality to go along with it.”