Jaber’s journey from injury
Senior leads record Shepard contingent to state meet after practicing hurdles at Eisenhower
For a while, Shepard’s Karam Jaber couldn’t catch a break.
After a promising freshman year, he suffered an ACL injury playing soccer as a sophomore. His junior year was wiped out because the boys track season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Then this spring, the track at the Palos Heights school was torn up during athletic field renovations. It made things almost impossible to practice the hurdles.
So he had to get creative. One day, he said he jumped a fence and onto the field at neighboring District 218 rival Eisenhower to see if he could get in some work.
“I took that risk,” he said. “If I got kicked out, I got kicked out. They did have hurdles, but they were locked.”
Eisenhower girls track coach Tony Sosnowski saw Jaber nosing around the hurdles. After the two talked, Sosnowski unlocked the hurdles and let Jaber get down to business.
“That was really big of him,” Jaber said. “I got lucky with that.”
The next time he stopped by the Blue Island campus, the hurdles were unchained again, and Jaber got in some more practice.
Jaber qualified in three events for last Saturday’s Class 3A state meet at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. Despite being without a track for practice, the Astros also qualified in a program-high five events.
Jaber, a St. Xavier recruit, finished 14th in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 42.14 seconds and 17th in the 110 hurdles with a 15.75. He was grateful for the generosity shown by Sosnowski and his coaching staff.
“It was nothing more than leaving a few hurdles unchained for him,” Sosnowski said. “That was pretty much the extent of it. He’s a really nice kid and I coach football at Shepard, so I know a lot of those kids. We all respect each other.
“He’s a 218 kid and getting ready for a state meet, so it would be wrong to tell a kid, ‘No, you can’t use some hurdles.’ ”
Jaber admitted dealing with his injury also was rough.
“I got depressed,” he said. “I was in my bed for months and I couldn’t do anything. I grew up in an athletic family and I was playing soccer since I was 5. Every single day I was doing something athletic.
“I worked so hard and everything got swept away from me.”
Once he got into physical therapy, he said he felt better. He was ready to see how far he could take his athletic career.
He gave up soccer to concentrate on track, posting a few times that piqued the interest of St. Xavier.
Shepard coach Dan Ludwig is happy things are finally working out for Jaber.
“The 300 hurdles is a technical event and it’s a tough event,” Ludwig said. “You have to be a real go-getter to be good at it and embrace the pain that you feel in that event.”
Ludwig said A.J. Porter, an assistant for the Astros who concentrates on the hurdles, had a huge hand in helping turn Jaber into a state qualifier.
Jaber joined Lee Richards, Keenan Brown and Omar Montiel in the 1,600 relay at state. Montiel also ran the 800. The 400 relay of Maurice Woody, Jalen Smith Isiah Wiggins and Kendrick Washington also competed.
Ludwig confirmed part of the reason for Shepard’s state-qualifying success came because the Astros were in a less daunting sectional than in the past.
But given the lack of track facilities and how some remote-learning athletes had a tough time getting to practice, Ludwig was proud of Jaber and Co.
“To qualify in five events exceeded our original expectations, for sure,” he said.