Four-sport star busy no matter the season
When our schedules are packed to the hilt, we have heard the adage “there just aren’t enough hours in the day.”
When it comes to Cedric Jenkins, that’s probably closer to fact than fiction.
The senior from Miami Beach High School has been busy this fall as the football team’s kicker and punter, helping lead the Hi-Tides to a 6-3 season.
But to say that Jenkins does a whole lot more than that would be drastically understating the issue.
That’s because when he isn’t maintaining a 4.97 weighted GPA that includes honors courses, he runs for the crosscountry team. And when he isn’t running cross-country or at football practice, he hustles over to Flamingo Park for fall baseball practice. Soon, the high school basketball season starts and Jenkins will be one of the team’s starting forwards.
When basketball season is over, it will be full-time baseball as an outfielder and pitcher.
If anybody has a right to say that 24 hours aren’t enough in a day, it’s Cedric Jenkins.
“I guess it’s just a matter of trying to discipline yourself,” Jenkins said. “I wake up early, ride my bike to school because I live close to the school so I don’t really miss out on that much sleep. Since I have so much sports later in the day, I always try and do all of my homework that I have in class and make sure I get everything done because after school there’s either cross-country, football and baseball practice is at five. I go to cross-country before the football team comes out, get my run in, practice and do all my kicking. Baseball? I hurry up and get on my bike, go to the field, throw my stuff on, warm up and just go out and play.”
One can only wonder, with so much going on, how much sleep the young man actually gets.
“A lot of kids, when they’re in class, they don’t do the work so when the teacher assigns the work, I discipline myself to do the work right then and there,” Jenkins said. “Because I know when I get home, I’m just not going to have time. Getting home at 9:30 at night, having to eat and shower and other stuff and then wake up at 5:50 in the morning. So I just make sure every day when I get to school I say to myself, ‘Let me be productive in class, so just do all my assignments, even during lunch.’ ”
What’s really remarkable about what Jenkins does is he has been doing this since the day he walked into the halls of Miami Beach High as a freshman.
“I just enjoy it even though there are obstacles,” Jenkins said. “The only challenge really is dealing with coaches and just explaining everything to the coaches, trying to get to practice on time and make everyone happy. At the end of the day, I just have fun with everything, so I think it’s worth it.”
These aren’t just participation letters Jenkins is earning in each sport.
Even as a freshman, he was the second-fastest runner on the cross-country team and has served as the football team’s kicker and punter all four seasons. He’s averaging nearly 40 yards a punt this season and will be a candidate for the Herald’s All-County football team in a few months.
“I think the motivation for Cedric is just to have fun,” said Cameron Jenkins, his father, who has transported him from sport to sport while also working with him to develop his skills. “In an era where studentathletes are pushed to specialize in one thing at earlier levels, Cedric has found himself in a
AT THE END OF THE DAY, I JUST HAVE FUN WITH EVERYTHING, SO I THINK IT’S WORTH IT. - Cedric Jenkins, on playing four sports
great spot at Beach that he attributes to the coaches of each of these sports and the athletic director [Edgar Botto]. The thing I admire most about him is how friendly he is to everybody. It doesn’t matter who it is, at the park, at the basketball court, whatever group he’s in, he just loves to see people, loves his friends. Anywhere you put him, he just loves to socialize.”
These challenges are timeconsuming,
but this year the family has had to adjust as Cedric’s mother, Julianna, was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
“She was diagnosed last year and it’s been really tough,” Cedric Jenkins said. “Not for necessarily for me but for her. She’s the one that’s sick. I just have to try and be there for her as much as I can because she’s been having a hard time. I just come home and try and make her life easier any way I can, if it’s helping out around the house or getting her to treatment. I just try and find the positives, stick to those, and it helps get me through the day.”
Despite such a strong academic/athletic resume, colleges and universities have barely called. Perhaps he has paid the price for being good at a bunch of things rather than great at one.
Cedric Jenkins has plans of his own. After graduation, he intends to take a least one year off and try and give back to the community — most notably at Miami Northwestern.
“I want to go to college but might want to take next year off from school to see if I can help out the community,” Jenkins said. “I just feel like I’ve been taking so much time for myself to do stuff that I kind of want to help others. I’m hoping I could go work at a school like Northwestern and just help out, kind of like a mini athletic director because I have a lot of knowledge on a lot of this stuff and they might be short-staffed.
“Perhaps I could help with special teams, baseball, all those things. A lot of my teammates and coaches from when I was in Pop Warner pee wee football for the Overtown Rattlers became my best friends and mentors so I still have a strong connection there. I just want to give back to this community before I move on to the next level of my education.”