SAN DIEGO — When Jared Pickering's parents informed him that the family was moving across the country from Virginia to California as part of a Navy deployment, the then junior-to-be rebelled.
"I really didn't have a choice," he recalls. "I thought about staying with my uncle or friends or on the street. I didn't want to move. I know now I was being stubborn but I was tired of moving every three years."
But move he did and when he arrived at
Rancho Bernardo (San Diego), he felt like every other transfer student. He was alone.
"I thought, ‘Oh man, I have to make new friends again, I have to start over,' and that's not easy. I looked around and didn't know anybody."
What Pickering let people know quickly was that he had run some track in Chesapeake, and that opened doors as members of the RB track team introduced themselves and made certain he was welcome.
Track is a sport that attracts all sizes and skill levels and when there are more than 200 athletes on the team, as there are at Rancho Bernardo, it's pretty easy to use that as a way of making friends.
"One of the kids on the team said to me someone had moved in down the street and that he'd run some track in Virginia," said veteran RB head coach Don Jones, who often hears about athletes whose reputations far exceed their abilities. "Jared came to the quad to meet me and by then I knew he'd run 10.86 and 22.91 (as a sophomore). But he'd done that at one meet in April and never really improved."
That quickly changed as Pickering adapted to the California lifestyle in every way but being laid back.
Jones suggested he enter an all-comers meet in March and when Pickering cranked a 22.20 on a cold afternoon — cold for California, that is — the coach knew this athlete had something special going for him.
He also discovered that while running the 100-meter dash was just fine, as was the 400-meter relay, 400 meters was the equivalent of a marathon, something Pickering fought almost as much as moving west.
By year's end, Pickering blossomed into a 21.35 furlong runner, capturing the San Diego Section championship and advancing to the California State Championship meet where he not only ran like "a deer in the headlights" but made the finals where he placed eighth.
He also lowered his best in the 100 to 10.80 and even tossed in a 49.2 for 400 meters.
But Pickering was still pretty much a local sensation until he settled into the blocks for the 200-meter dash at this year's prestigious Arcadia Invitational held on a cold night the first week in April.
Running from lane No. 3, he came off the turn in fourth place and appeared destined to finish around there since runners like defending California state champion Remontay McClain of Covina High and sub-21 runner Demetrius Lindo of Calvin Coolidge High in Washington D.C. were up front battling for the lead.
With 70 meters to go, veteran track experts were astonished when Pickering "found another gear" and zoomed past everyone to win the event in 21.13 seconds, beating Lindo by two-tenths.
The soft-spoken Pickering quietly congratulated his rivals and played down any talk that he was now one of the best in the nation and the early frontrunner to challenge McClain for this year's state championship.
"I don't know about that," he said. "It's way too early. I just want to break 21 seconds, I want a high 20.7. I'd rather run 20.7 and finish fourth than win the state at 21 seconds."
Jones says Pickering, who still is undecided where he will attend college in the fall, has all the tools to run much faster than 21.0. Think in the 20.7 or 20.8 range.
"He's always had that burst at the end of his race," said Jones. "But this time he just kept going. He finally got it in his mind to just go. He ran the turn great and I knew he could run down the others. To get to the next level all he has to do is add a start."
Pickering usually trails early in the race, any race, because his start in no way resembles his explosive finish. But he's working on that. While he knows most runners prefer to be out front, himself included, he also likes running from behind.
"When I was a sophomore, I remember getting run down from behind," said the 5-7¾, 150-pounder. "I didn't like it. I decided then if I get the lead, I'm going to do my best to stay there. But I do like chasing people down, I get a lot of joy out of that."
The former baseball and soccer player who dabbled a little in football last fall (think bad hands) won't put limits on himself and is looking forward to when the weather gets a little warmer and the competition heats up in the section and state meets.
And, although Jones has asked Pickering to run the 400 only on the tail end of the 4x400 relay this season, he still thinks that could be his best distance if he just trained for it.
"He's run 47.6 on the relay and on that day he started fast and just kept going," said Jones. "He ran down a 49.9 quarter-miler who had the lead. He can hold his speed and Jared absolutely hates to lose at anything."
So far, he hasn't had to worry about that.
