By Jay Spivey

Tyson Adams is a state champion again.
Last Saturday, despite an injury, he won the NCHSAA Class 4-A state indoor long jump championship at JDL Fast Track. And counting last year’s NCHSAA Class 4-A outdoor championship at N.C. A&T, Adams has won the last three state long jump championships.
Jumping on an injured heel last weekend, Adams won the state championship with a jump of 22 feet-9 1/2 inches.
“I only took two jumps because on the first jump my foot started to hurt again. It’s been hurting for a while now, like the bottom of my heel,” he said. “After the first jump it felt really bad. It felt like somebody was hitting a sledgehammer on my foot.
“So, I took one more jump to see because, the first jump I had I didn’t have this insert that I put in my shoe because my heel was hurting. I didn’t have it because when I normally put it in to jump with, I don’t do so well.
“So, I tried to put it in for the second jump and it still hurt really bad,” he said. “So, I just scratched my last jumps because my foot was hurting so bad.”
In the high school long jump, even though Adams scratched his final preliminary jump, and he didn’t compete in the finals, he still was awarded the state championship because he had the longest jump of the day.
“I’m watching 4×800 meter kids and the long jump, which was going on at the same time,” Coach Nathan Newsome said. “It’s a busy place…I had the live results popped up, and I thought, ‘I’ll look to see how Tyson’s doing so far.’ and I saw he jumped two 22-foot jumps.
“And then he passed on his third one. And I thought, ‘That’s odd.’ I thought, ‘You’d think he’d want to get in a good one before the 55(-meter, which Adams was also entered). I didn’t really know what all was going on there. And you know, I kind of scratched my head.”
Newsome went to find Adams for an update.
“I found his parents, and I saw his mom, and I said, ‘How’s it going?,’ and she said, ‘Well, he walked up and said I think my foot’s broken, my heel’s broken. He’s not a complainer. And then I thought, ‘Well, that all makes sense.’ So, he was in the lead, though.”
At 22-9 1/2, Adams defeated junior Andrew Steele of Reagan, who jumped 22-6.
“I didn’t think it was going to be enough to win,” Adams said of his first jump. “So, I was kind of disappointed because I didn’t think I was going to be able to get another jump in that would be further than that because of the heel issue.”
Adams will attempt to win his fourth state long-jump championship with the NCHSAA Class 4-A outdoor championship in May.
“I’d have to go through the record books at West Forsyth, which we’ve never had anybody, I think win that many successive — the potential to win four like that is pretty extreme,” Newsome said. “So, I think legacy-wise, it would probably be unprecedented.”
Over the past year or so, there isn’t very much that Adams hasn’t done well.
“I told my wife (Sunday), aside from the Outdoor Nationals last year he never lost the long jump,” Newsome said. “You know, that’s an odd position to be in. So winning isn’t necessarily, at least is my take on it — he’s done it so much I think he’s more concerned with, ‘Did he have a really good performance?’ and I don’t think it went the way he wanted it to go.”
Despite winning the state championship yet again, Adams downplayed winning his final NCHSAA Class 4-A indoor state championship before going to college. Assuming, he’s healthy, he has his eyes set on the Nike Indoor Nationals on March 10 in New York.
“I’m kind of more interested winning a national championship,” said Adams, who has signed to compete in track and field at N.C. State. “That’s my goal. But having won state championships, it’s a great goal to have, to win a state championship. And winning it is nice. I’m setting my goals higher than a state championship and try to go for a national championship.”