Leaping to new heights: Sophomore Jontae Ashburn is excelling on the West Forsyth boys track and field team while blazing new path as a sprinter 

Published 12:00 am Thursday, December 26, 2024

Sophomore Jontae Ashburn hasn’t been competing in track and field for that long, but his jumping skills have been on full display the past two seasons for West Forsyth.  

Although he’s fully capable of running and runs some sprints for the indoor and outdoor track-and-field teams for the Titans, Ashburn competes in the long jump, high jump and triple jump.  

In fact, before he came to West Forsyth in August of 2023, Ashburn didn’t even compete in track and field at his middle-school, Meadowlark. He competed in track and field that summer, his first experience with an organized team in the sport, for his AAU team, Tri-City Relays. While with them he competed in the 100-meter run, 200, 400, long jump, high jump, and triple jump, as well as the 4×100 and 4×200 relays.  

“My dad (DeWayne Ashburn) he wanted me to go to Tri-City because I had like a bunch of – he knows all the coaches there,” Ashburn said. “And my mom didn’t have time for me to do track at Meadowlark.” 

Earlier in his middle-school experience, Ashburn transferred from Northwest Middle School, where he attended in sixth and seventh grade, to Meadowlark for his eighth-grade year.  

“For a minute, it’s because I, I didn’t know nobody at all,” he said. “So, I really had to try to find some friends and stuff. And I found a group and I’m still – now we’re all close.” 

Although Ashburn had just started track and field in the summer before his freshman year at West Forsyth, it opened the door to a fresh start when he walked in the doors for the first time as a student.  

“It was wonderful. Like, I knew a bunch of people because I’ve been knowing people from Pop Warner football and they went to Clemmons Middle School,” he said. “I knew way more people at Clemmons Middle School than Meadowlark.  

“But coming in my freshman year I knew a bunch of people. We was all close. And it was good. Like, I’ve been good for West for a long time.” 

Ashburn had intended to compete in indoor and outdoor track and field for the Titans, but by chance, he had Coach Nathan Newsome, the head track-and-field coach, as his art teacher as a freshman.  

“I met him in there and I asked him if he was the track coach because a bunch of people told me that he was the track coach there,” Ashburn said. “And I introduced myself to him.” 

Then, as his freshman school year progressed Ashburn went out for the indoor track-and-field team at West Forsyth.  

“When he first came out for track, you know, I see a lot of kids that come through that have some potential, but you just don’t know if they can put it all together yet,” Newsome said. “You know, just part of maturing and getting older and committing to it – that stuff.” 

And like most-high school boys he’s filled out. According to him, Ashburn said he was 5-foot-6 and 139 pounds as a freshman. Now, he said he’s 5-8 and 145 pounds. 

“He’s grown a good bit since last year,” Newsome said. “You know, he said last year, ‘I want to high jump.’ And I was like, man. I’m not very tall, and he wasn’t nearly as tall as me. And now, I think he’s taller than me. So, I know that helps. So, as far as that goes that’s probably the best way to surmise that.” 

Not only was Ashburn learning a new school, new friends, and competing in a sport full-time, he had to learn what it was like to compete as a high-school athlete at a high level.  

“It was a lot different,” he said. “I just had to – it was a whole different routine, too, like with the workouts. Coming from AAU a bunch of teams do like a team workout. And other coaches we did a lot of stuff that I’ve never did before with Tri-City Relays.” 

The three jumping techniques in track and field obviously have the word “jump” in them, but there are distinct differences in each.  

“I’ve been practicing a lot too on my form because on triple jump, I have to – you’re swinging your arms because of how many times you have to jump,” Ashburn said. “And long jump you’ve got to hop up, so that kind of helps with my high jumps, too – long jump. And high jump helps my knee drive, like long-jump knee drive. Everything is knee drive in jumps.” 

It all comes down to committing to jumping in all three events. 

“I think if you’re a good overall athlete, you know, you’ve got good hand-eye and motor skills,” Newsome said. “You know, you can pick up stuff a little bit better. Some pick it up more naturally than others, and I think it just comes to him, you know, naturally.” 

Whether it’s from natural talent, working hard, or both, the fruits of Ashburn’s labor are paying off, even at the of both the indoor and outdoor track-and-field seasons after his freshman year. That was also the case with sprints and relays. 

“I could tell that I got like way faster, more stronger,” he said. “My strength level has built up a lot.” 

According to Ashburn, he also competed in the 4×100 relay in the Central Piedmont 4-A championship. 

“I only ran in the 4×1, I think,” Ashburn said. “I only ran the 4×1.” 

The only problem – he had never run the event in high school. This time, he said he ran the second leg of the relay. 

“I had to get used to it,” Ashburn said. “I wasn’t really that used to it all for the relays because I haven’t did a relay since eighth-grade for outdoor. And we did that. But I was pretty good with hand-offs and me handing it off to my teammates. It was pretty good. It didn’t feel like anything went wrong.” 

Because Ashburn is so multi-faceted as a track-and-field athlete he can help the Titans in so many ways. 

“You always need someone to triple jump well,” Newsome said. “So, the horizontal jumps are good. The high jump, you know, obviously, is good. The one thing about the jumps if you really can just, you get a good jump in you can be done.  

“You know, so eventually, you know for spring track I’d like to see him get where he’s maybe doing a lit bit more of the sprinting, you know, as far as contributing to that. And maybe a relay one night and just kind of see, you know, how the flow of the meet goes. Because the problem with track is a lot of times your best athletes can do everything, but the things they do all happen at the same time. And, you know, that can become problematic, especially when you’re doing like a high jump or something it takes a long time.” 

That problem isn’t the worst thing that could happen. Ashburn is competing and competing well. Two weeks ago, at the Raider Invitational at JDL Fast Track, Ashburn said he PR’d (personal record) in the high jump at 5-6, 38-3 in the triple jump, and long jump was 18-1. 

“I really think it’s the workouts and stuff,” he said.  

This past Friday at JDL Fast Track, Ashburn and the rest of the West Forsyth track-and-field athletes competed in the Reindeer Classic. Ashburn competed in the long jump (16-10), triple jump (37-5), and high jump (5-3).  

“I didn’t do as good (last Friday),” he said. “I hurt my foot. I was jumping the high jump and I didn’t get to jump pretty because I jumped on my foot. There was so much pressure I was putting on the ball of my foot it feels like all pressure on my whole foot was hurting, the bottom of my foot on my heel.” 

Ashburn thinks the shorter distances in the Reindeer Classic might be from learning a new technique on his jumps. Newsome thinks it might be from something else.  

“He’s not jumping in his high-jump shoes, so he’s jumping like sprint shoes, which really don’t have as much cushion on the heel,” Newsome said. “And when you take for high jump, you know, having that heel cushion is pretty critical. So, he seemed that may have impeded him some.  

“He triple-jumped pretty decent, I think. I think he long-jumped decent.” 

One thing that might work in Ashburn’s favor is Christmas break. Newsome said they will have some optional workouts, but school doesn’t return until Mon, Jan. 6.  

“Distance kids need a little bit more of that regular training, but the sprint and jumpers, really that 10 days or so off sometimes is good because you start back with a clean slate, at least a full tank of gas,” Newsome said. 

The season is more than halfway through. So, once Christmas break is over it is a full sprint to the NCHSAA state championships, scheduled for Feb. 14-15 at JDL Fast Track. Then, outdoor track and field will start shortly thereafter.  

“I hesitate to even guess (how Ashburn projects before he graduates),” Newsome said. “I would certainly expect improvement, but how much? You know, I’ve learned, you know, when the kid really wants to get good at it, when the kid really wants to improve that seems to be the primary factor. So, if he decides that’s really what he wants to do I think he could do quite well.” 

Even after spring track and field is over Ashburn still has two more years of school at West Forsyth.  

“I want to focus on like PR,” he said. “And I want to see like every year I want to see like a big step into my progression, so I could see like, ‘Man, I was really jumping this my sophomore year. Now, look where I’m at my senior year.’”