Spotlight: Klyvens DeLaunay reluctantly continues family tradition

When Klyvens Delaunay entered the ninth grade at Claremont (Calif.), 30 miles east of Los Angeles, his focus was 100 percent on football. Although his brother and five sisters excelled in track, Delaunay wasn't interested.

At the start of his sophomore year, his mother Jessy gave him an ultimatum: Find another sport to keep yourself busy. There didn't have to be an "or else," Delaunay knew there were no other options.

Volleyball didn't appeal to him. Basketball? Michael Jordan's records were safe. Since everyone else in his family competed in track and he enjoyed watching his sisters at meets, he talked to track coach Veronica Amarasekara, perhaps better known competitively by her maiden name — Veronica Bell.

"He came from a family of athletes, all of whom were horizontal jumpers," said Amarasekara. "I didn't know what to expect except he was a Delaunay and that was good enough for me. I discovered Klyvens had a passion for track, he was such a competitor."

Not that he embraced the non-contact sport at the start.

"It was forced on me because my mom wanted to keep me busy," Delaunay said with a chuckle. "I wanted to be different than my brother and sisters."

So, he had fun. He became a 100-200 dasher. Need a hurdler? Sure, short or long? He even put the shot longer than 40 feet one meet, not bad for a 5-foot-10, 167-pounder. But what he really liked was any event that had the word "jump" in it. High jump, long jump and especially the triple jump.

"It's new every single time you do it," said Delaunay, who hop-step-and-jumped 49 feet, 11 inches at the California Relays at Cerritos College in late March. "It combines speed, strength and technique. I didn't start out being a triple jumper but one meet our triple jumper went down and coach asked me if I could try it.

"I'd never triple jumped but I'd seen my sister (Pascale, who is hoping to make the 2012 Olympic team in June) do it, so I said sure, I'd try. I won my first meet and I became fascinated. I won it on my third jump, the first two seemed like warmups. I'd had 15 minutes to practice it."

Winning late in the competition became his trademark, as he recently captured both the long and triple jumps at the prestigious Arcadia Invitational on his final attempts.

"I was never intimidated by the triple or the other events, I just did whatever the team needed me to do," said Delaunay, who will be jumping for the University of Iowa next spring. He may also try out for the football team, as he was a two-way starter at running back, wide receiver and cornerback.

He had 24 catches for 434 yards and four touchdowns, carried twice for 37 yards and on defense contributed 50 tackles. Delaunay added a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown for the 6-4 Wolfpack.

While Delaunay may pop up in almost any event in a dual meet, he knows tapering his schedule is just around the corner and he figures his focus almost certainly will be on the triple, where he is No. 4 in the United States and No. 1 in California with the 49-11, and the long jump, where he is No. 3 in the state and No. 6 in the nation at 23-11.

For motivation he will harken back to last year when he won the CIF Southern Section Masters meet but could only finish fifth in the state meet in Clovis with a jump of 46-6½, on his final jump, of course. It was more than 2 feet behind his best of 48-10.

It was the attempt before that Delaunay said should have won the event.

"I could have won, I got the big one (on his fifth attempt), but I had a slight foul at 49-10," he recalled painfully. "No excuses but it had just rained and I just didn't feel right."

He has put that experience in his memory bank for this year and promises it won't happen again. His coach agrees — at least the part about not fouling again.

"He seldom fouls now because his run is so consistent," said Amarasekara. "He attacks the board and if he does foul, say because of the wind, he makes whatever adjustment is necessary. That's his strength. Not just his speed, not just his form, not just his strength, but his coachability.

"His execution is outstanding and he possesses great athletic ability. He enters each meet with the frame of mind that rankings mean nothing, that you have to prove yourself. He respects his competition."

As for that 49-11, it's just one of numerous 49-footers this season and since it came, surprisingly, on his first attempt on a day when he didn't feel all that great, in his mind that 50-foot barrier just had to fall. Since it didn't, he looks at a string of high-quality meets on the horizon and just smiles.

Delaunay, remember, is a competitor and he really hopes the best for his rivals because if they put the challenge at 24 and 50, he's ready to answer.

In case you think he is all school and sports, the senior finds time tutor elementary school kids and help coach a youth track team. And oh, what about that first name?

"That's easy, my parents couldn't agree on a first name so it's a combination of Kyle and Vincent," said Delaunay matter-of-factly.

So, which sport does he prefer now, his first love football or track and field?

"Track is way more fun because if you do well or bad, it's all on yourself," he said. "You don't have to rely on anyone else and you have no one to blame but yourself. I love pressure, it makes me compete better."