Giving up football wasn’t an easy decision for Merrillville senior Jaylen Ramsey.
But he’s reminded of one benefit when he wakes up every morning.
“My body hurts during track season, but it’s not like it is during football season,” Ramsey said. “That’s a different kind of pain.”
With football behind him, Ramsey is focused on track and field, a sport in which he is among the state’s top competitors in two individual events. His long jump of 23 feet, 7.5 inches during a meet against Crown Point and Valparaiso on April 22 remains the top mark in the state this season. That day, he also finished the 100-meter dash in 10.62 seconds, which is the No. 3 time in the state this season.
Ramsey, who first qualified for the state meet as a freshman on Merrillville’s 400 relay team, began to realize his potential last season when he went to state in three events — the 400 relay, the 100 and the long jump.
“It was more like a wake-up year for me, that now I could see what I can do,” he said. “This year, with me putting in the hard work on top of the talent that I already have, hopefully I can make it downstate for all three events again and win all three.”
Merrillville coach Patrick Coffey said Ramsey, who intends to compete in track and field in college, has been determined to make the most of every practice and every meet this season.
“He’s very serious about getting better,” Coffey said. “In the warmup lines, he’s not goofing around anymore. Like all of these guys, he wants to have his best performance at every meet. So if he doesn’t get it, he’s a little hard on himself. But he’s quick to forget now.”
That change in Ramsey’s approach came after football season ended and he began contemplating his future. He had been a fixture in the defensive backfield for a football team that won back-to-back Class 5A regional titles, and his older brother Justen played football for Ball State and Indiana State after graduating from Merrillville in 2019. So Ramsey struggled to imagine doing anything else in college.
“My brother played football, and my dad played football,” he said. “So I thought that I had to play football too.”
But conversations with his brother and his father, James, made clear to Ramsey that he didn’t have to play football anymore.
“They were telling me that I didn’t really have to do that,” Ramsey said. “They saw my potential in track, and they were pretty happy for me when I made that decision to choose track.”
So Ramsey started to devote more time and effort to every detail of his events. Merrillville senior thrower Adam Camphor, a Southeast Missouri State football commit whose shot put of 56-8 is the ninth-best mark in the state this season, has taken note.
“He’s practicing his block starts anytime he can,” Camphor said. “Before every race, even before his heats, he’s over there going through his mental process.
“He’s really been locked in when it comes to track. It just comes from him wanting to be the best guy everywhere he goes.”
Ramsey said he hopes he can lower his times and lengthen his jumps during the final weeks of the regular season.
“I have to put in even more work to beat those marks because there’s a target on my back now,” he said. “Everybody’s coming for me, so I have to make sure that nobody is able to catch up.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter.
