MC Jumper Wins Scholarship to Jumpsville USA

MALVERN, St Elizabeth - Munro College's Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Junior triple jump champion Seon Powell left the island late last week for the University of Louisville where he accepted a full athletic scholarship.

Powell, who will join a team that includes two of the top horizontal jumpers in the United States and will be coached by the reigning National Jumps Coach of the Year, Jake Jacoby, made a break from a recent tradition.

In the past 10 years or so, a number of Munro past students have made a bee-line for Baton Rouge to attend Louisiana State University (LSU), but Powell said he "wanted to make a change and start a new tradition".

The soft-spoken 6' 4" 195 lbs athlete who was fourth in the triple jump at the Junior Pan-Am Games held in Brazil last year, said while he got a number of offers, Louisville was more attractive given their strong tradition in his specialties.

He said, "I am feeling OK about the scholarship and I have confidence in the coach because he is a good jumps coach. He has been the number one jumps coach in the US for the past two years so I'm pretty confident in his ability."

Andre Black and Tone Belt were NCAA Indoor triple and long jump champions, respectively, and Powell will have them as teammates this season on a team ranked No 5 in NCAA Division I outdoor track and field this year.

Powell, who also had offers from LSU, Texas-San Antonio, Tennessee and Kansas State, has a SAT score of 1,600 from a maximum 2,400 which qualified him for any Division 1 school in the US, and along with his nine CXC passes and seven CAPE subjects, and a personal best of 15.33m in the triple jump and 7.08m in the long jump made him an attraction for many college coaches.

The former Lacovia Primary valedictorian and top GSAT student told the Sunday Observer he plans to study civil engineering.

Dr Kevin 'Gwyn' Jones, who coached Powell in the jumps at Munro, has high hopes for the athlete who also excelled in the classroom, placing first in his class at Munro every year up to fourth form and was on the Principal's Honour Roll and a regular student of the month.

Jones described Powell as "very determined and focused... very unassuming when you talk to him. He is not the type who gets riled up and makes a lot of noise, but he works hard at his craft and is very dedicated at what he does, which is a good thing".

Jones, also a Munro Old Boy, said he left Powell to make the choice of schools and did not try to lead him in any direction.

Article taken from the Jamaica Observer...