One-track mind leads to the top
Caleb Jolivette was looking for redemption. • The Manvel senior placed third in the 100 meters last year at the state meet, covering the distance in 10.57 seconds, which is well off his personal record, and he struggled badly in the long jump, finishing a distant ninth. • The Mavericks ended up four points shy of repeating as Class 6A team champions. So, instead of feeling sorry for himself, he redoubled his efforts and returned to lead the Mavericks to their second state championship in three years, winning the 5A 100 and leading the 400 and 800 relays to silver en route to being named the Chronicle’s All-Greater Houston boys track athlete of the year. • “That kid works so hard,” coach Kendrick Crumedy said. “He wants to be great. He’ll do everything you ask him to do. He’s always been told he was too small, or wasn’t quick enough or strong enough to be successful in football, that he was too little to be a true sprinter in track, and things like that, and he just works so hard. He had his mind set on winning a ring.”
Q: How badly did you want to win a gold medal in the 100 this year?
A: “Getting third (last year) really urged me on, to where this year I had to win. I didn’t have a choice.”
Q: What was the key to winning by one-hundredth of a second?
A: “It was about who wanted it more in that race, because anything could have happened. He could have outleaned me, but I out-leaned him. So it came down to who had the heart and wanted it more, and I wanted it more at that moment.”
Q: What’s it like to finish on top in such a marquee track event?
A: “For me, as a sprinter, that’s my race. Guys have their individual races, and that’s my race. … That’s what I look forward to when it comes to track.”
Q: How do you look at the relay results? I’m sure you wanted to win, but those silver medals secured the team title.
A: “Believe it or not, we couldn’t even be mad. We finished behind a state and national record (Port Arthur Memorial’s 800 relay), and that pushed us to run our best times of the year, and post our school records in both relays. And to be completely honest, I wouldn’t have wanted anybody else to win it besides us or Port Arthur. Those are like our second brothers, and for them to do that, and see a 39 (in the 400 relay) in person, was crazy. You don’t even think you’re going that fast until you cross the finish line and look up at the board.”
Q: What did it mean to you to have a great individual performance and help your team win another title?
A: “Last year, we missed it by four points, and they tell me not to blame myself, but I always say if I could have long-jumped like I was supposed to, or just get some good jumps in, then we would have won it, no doubt, and this would be our third state championship in three years. We would have gone
back-to-back-to-back. So to come back this year as a senior, being the head of the team, and lead my team to a state championship, was unreal.”
Q: Was it the perfect ending to your high school career?
A: “It was definitely the perfect ending. Track is one of the last sports to finish, and everybody at the school was like, ‘Hey, try to bring the state championship back home,’ and every time they said that, I was like, ‘Look, we’re going to win. We got this.’”
Q: Several colleges, including Michigan and Alabama, offered you track scholarships. You wanted to run track and play football, so you signed with Sam Houston. Why was it important to do both?
A: “My parents always told me track would be what got me out there, but my love was football, and I discovered that I was good at both, so being able to go to college to do both is an amazing opportunity.”