Vaden: ‘I can do things that people don’t think I can do’
INDIANAPOLIS – When it comes to sports, Jila Vaden is as traditional as it gets. She is a Hoosier who used to play basketball, as cousin Robert Vaden did. Now she focuses on the world’s oldest sport, track and field.
“I stick to running and jumping,” she said.
Otherwise, she is a teen in tune with the times.
She has two Instagram accounts — @2validreddd and @the2validredddclothing — and a YouTube channel in which she vlogs about her life. She designs clothing on an iPad and imprints those using a heat press. On Instagram, she created a mock “Sports Illustrated” cover highlighting her achievements, and she could always edit that.
Especially if she can help win a state championship for Warren Central, which has twice finished second by one point during her high school years. “We’re coming for it,” as she put it. Vaden won the 100 meters and long jump, ran a leg on a second-place 4x400 relay and finished third in the 200 Wednesday night in the Marion County girls meet at Pike High School.
As in the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference, that wasn’t enough to overtake North Central, which claimed a fourth county title in five years. The Panthers scored 87 points, Franklin Central 85, Warren Central 79 and Lawrence North 78.
Vaden carried momentum into this spring from two momentous victories — at last August’s AAU Junior Olympics in Des Moines, Iowa, where she jumped 19 feet, 9 inches, and March’s Hoosier State Relays, where she set a meet record of 20-0.5.
Family and friends raised money to send her to Junior Olympics, and she said she “almost shed a tear” when thinking about it afterward.
“I know I can do things that people don’t think I can do,” Vaden said.
At county, she set an outdoor personal best of 19-10, longest in Indiana this year. She won the 100 in 12.22, was third in the 200 in 25.18 and ran a 58.2 leg in the 4x400.
To win a state title would allow Vaden to match her cousin, who was on Pike’s 29-0 Class 4A champions in 2003. Robert Vaden went on to Indiana University and UAB before selection in the second round of the 2009 NBA draft.
Jila Vaden and three Smith sisters — senior Laila, sophomore Samaya, freshman Kira — represent the necessary firepower for a state run. Vaden said coach Le’gretta Smith, mother of the three sisters, treats her as another daughter.
Coach Smith said Vaden has grown from a “squirrely bird” freshman into a team leader. The sprinter/jumper is “doing the hard work,” her coach said.
“I like the energy that it brings, and the chemistry me and my teammates have in the 4x4,” Vaden said of her chosen sport. “The energy is electric, the last event of the meet. It just brings me joy, being able to uplift my teammates and do well for my coaches and my family as well.”
Vaden signed with Purdue, selecting the Boilermakers over Ohio State, Connecticut and Ball State.
Her teammate, Laila Smith, remains uncommitted after coast-to-coast campus visits.
Laila, after last year breaking the 300-meter hurdles county record held by cousin Ashley Spencer, a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, broke the record again with a state-leading time of 43.07. Laila won the 100 hurdles in 14.59, was second in the long jump at 19-0 and ran a 56.2 anchor in the 4x400.
Another senior, Pike’s Gia Clay, won the 200 and 400 and 24.75 and 55.82, respectively.