The Man From Laramie
By Pete Cava,
National Scholastic Sports Foundation
INDIANAPOLIS — For most athletes, the path to success is marked by incremental progress, a steady stroll rather than a sprint. A few pop out of nowhere, like Roy Hobbs, the hard-hitting protagonist in Bernard Malamud's The Natural.
It happened early this indoor season in Laramie, Wyoming, when unheralded Stephen Michael hopped, skipped and jumped to the top of the triple jump list on the national prep charts.
Michael, a senior at Laramie High School, sailed 49-feet, 10 and a half inches on January 11 at the University of Wyoming Fieldhouse. The measurement topped all U.S. preps until Christian Taylor (Sandy Creek, Tyrone, Georgia) sailed 52-0 at a meet in Nashville on February 2.
"I didn't even feel like I was touching the ground when I was going through my phases," said Michael. "When I landed in the pit, I knew it was a big one. I was jumping around like an idiot. I was pretty happy with myself. It wasn't quite 50, but that was still okay."
Amazingly, the breakthrough performance came during Michael's season debut. "That 49-foot jump was pretty phenomenal," said Laramie High athletic director Scott Handley. "That was his first meet. We're looking for great things from him."
Handley could be right, considering the jump wasn't exactly perfect. "It could have been bigger," said Gil Bradfield, Michael's coach. "I was standing down the runway and heard him drag his foot. "And he still had that big jump!"
Michael would like nothing more than to uncork another biggie at the year's premier prep meet — the Nike Indoor Nationals in Landover, Maryland, March 15-16. "I don't know yet if I'm going," he said. "I'll work on my mom to let me go. It would be a lot of fun. It'd be nice to see the East Coast."
Stephen Nicholas Michael, who was born in Laramie on September 9, 1989, didn't start out as a track man — but there were early signs. "Baseball — that's the first thing I started out with," he said. "It was my first love." A left-hander, Michael started out as a first baseman but eventually shifted to the outfield. "I liked that," he said, "because I got to run a lot more."
That's about the time Coach Bradfield first got wind of him. "He went to elementary school with my son," Bradfield said. "Every spring, the school would have a race around the park, one of those fitness runs. My son always came in second. I'd ask who won, and he'd say, 'Stephen!'"
Michael's two older sisters, Jill and Christine, were high school runners. "I grew up watching them," he explained, "and I started doing it when I got to junior high. But once I started track, I decided jumping was a lot more fun."
His first event was the high jump, but that changed one day when the vertical jumps coach couldn't make it to practice. "My coach told us to find something else to do," said Michael. "I tried the triple jump and it really clicked. On the first day I out-jumped everybody else, and they'd been training for a couple of weeks. I thought that was cool."
In 2007 Michael qualified for six events at Wyoming's 4A meet in Casper, but state federation rules limited him to four. He finished second to senior Brendan Ames of Cheyenne Central in the 100, 200 and long jump, but won the triple jump with a best of 48-5 ¼. The mark barely made the wind-aided section on the yearly prep list.
Competing in last summer's Nike Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, North Carolina — "That was the first time I've flown," said Michael — he ran the developmental 100 and finished sixteenth in the triple jump with a 45-9 ¾ effort. "I feel like he really came into his own last year, competing against Brendan Ames," said Bradfield. "They competed in the sprints and jumps and really pushed each other." Ames now competes for the University of Kentucky.
According to Bradfield, the major boost behind Michael's improvement has been "A lot of good training. A good training period with a lot of running, lifting pliometrics, that sort of thing. Stephen's worked very hard."
Despite the sudden success, Michael is still learning his event. "There are still things to be worked on," said Bradfield. "What's happening is that he's still getting faster and stronger."
Michael's favorite performer is triple jump world record holder Jonathan Edwards of Great Britain, the 2000 Olympic triple jump gold medalist and two-time global champ. "Last year my coach made me study a lot of film footage of him," said Michael. "I really patterned my form after him."
Not a bad idea, since Michael is built a lot like the great Brit. During his competitive days, Edwards was 5-foot-11 and weighed 154 pounds. Michael checks in at 5-10, 150.
As good as he's been on the track, Michael is also an academic standout. "He's a great individual," said Scott Handley. "He's a great student, a hard worker. He really takes care of the little things."
According to Gil Bradfield, Michael carried a 4.0 grade point average. ""He's the kind of kid you'd want around all the time," said the coach. "A real leader. The other kids look up to him.
Michael will attend the University of Wyoming this fall, but he hasn't decided on a major. "It's either going to be chemical engineering, electrical engineering or pharmacy," he said.
A glutton for heavy workloads — scholastic or athletic — Michael competed in four events at the Laramie Indoor meet on February 9. He won the triple jump (46-2 1/2), 55 meters (6.54) and 200 (23.18) and finished second to Cheyenne Central's Justin Gebicki in the long jump with a mark of 20-2.
"I try," was Michael's modest assessment of his sprint ability. "Occasionally, I do the high jump when I don't want to bang up my knees too bad."
With that kind of versatility, would he be willing to tackle the decathlon? "Absolutely," said Michael with enthusiasm. "I've always thought about it. It's a bunch of different things I'd definitely be willing to do."
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