5 Questions with Vanguard High School athlete Ja’Varien Salter
WHO: Ja’Varien Salter
SCHOOL: Vanguard
YEAR: Junior
SPORTS: Track, Football, Basketball, Weightlifting
EVENTS: 100m, 200m, 400m, 4x100m, 4x400m
POSITIONS: Running back, Guard
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Q: You recently won the 400 meters at the Class 3A, Region 2 track meet and set the Vanguard school record with a time of 48.98. How much does it mean to you to not only win that event for yourself and your team, but to represent Vanguard in the record books?
A: It actually meant a lot to me because coming into the regional race, the other guy (Lake Minneola’s Kyeaure Magloire), he was like a tenth of a second behind me. Like I barely beat him out at districts. So to beat him at regionals by a good margin was amazing. And then, to have that record — the record I’ve been aiming for since my freshman year — that was amazing.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?
A: My grandpa, he always told me I got to motivate myself. I gotta get things done by myself. There won’t always be people that help me. At the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to motivate yourself and put in the work.
Q: How big of an impact do you think that running track has had on your success in football and your other sports, and vice versa?
A: Track has definitely been a big plus for me. The conditioning, by far, has helped me a lot. There have been moments where I like to pride myself on staying in [football] games or asking the coach for another play. I do basketball and do the same thing for basketball. Basketball has helped me with football. That’s helped me a lot in becoming more coordinated between my freshman and junior year.
Q: Your teammate, Trinity Harris, also placed first at regionals in her event, the triple jump. What can you say about her, both as a teammate and a competitor?
A: Trinity, she’s an athlete. She’s gonna put in work. I’ve known her for a long time. She’s always been known as a girl that you look at and go, ‘oh yeah, she’s one of the best.’ We were both happy that we each came in first.
Q: You competed at the Junior Olympics last summer in Houston, Texas? What event did you compete in and what was that experience like?
A: I competed in the 400 and that experience, it exposed me to a lot of talent. It’s actually kind of humbling, in a respect. You get out there and you know you’re great, but you go out there and you’re gonna see a lot of other guys that are great. You see a lot of guys that are already nationally ranked, future Olympians and everything. So it’s just a humbling experience and it motivated me to work harder too. One day I can be one of those guys. One of my top goals was to not only break the record at Vanguard, but my top, top goal is to be All-American.
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: 5 questions with Vanguard High athlete Ja’Varien Salter
