Friday morning, 7:45 a.m. A tall, mustached student pushes two glass doors, exiting Sutherland Hall. His blue jeans meet gray New Balance sneakers and a multi-colored bracelet catches my eye.
The gray skies implied the imminence of rain, but Eric Jones can’t miss this recitation. It’s workshop day for his societies class and he expects some guidance for his final essay – a paper on the impact of demographic changes on the environment.
“It’s hard getting up for this class, man,” Eric said, smiling. “I don’t really have a solid routine for it. I just get up.”
Wesley W. Posvar Hall – the venue for Eric’s class – contains countless small conference rooms adjacent to department offices, lecture halls and computer kiosks. Eric enters his recitation’s room of choice – an airy, white-walled room with light gray chairs and a quietly waiting instructor named Marvin Corbett positioned to the left of the teacher’s desk.
Class starts and four students hardly fill the spacious room. Eric exposes his maroon binder, neat and organized, and begins taking notes.
His penciled words cross a blank white computer sheet. His leg shakes, jostling the silver-beaded necklace dangling over his gray University of Pittsburgh T-shirt.
“We are here today to discuss the essays due next week,” Corbett said, still seated in the off-white plastic chair off the left end of the massive instructor’s desk. “You can talk about rural Pennsylvania and land-clearing, which causes land alteration and the loss of air cleanliness.”
Eric pulls his chin off his folded fist and reaches for the air, extending into a classic I-just-woke-up kind of stretch. He slides back into a casual form and starts scribbling important notes that will assist him over the weekend when he writes his paper – after the meet, of course.
Eric Jones isn’t just a freshman. He’s a Monroeville, Pa., native, a product of Gateway High School. He’s a communications major. He’s a 6-foot-something chock full of athletic prowess. He’s a Division I triple jumper at the University of Pittsburgh, one of the best track programs in the Northeast.
“I really like it here, man,” Eric said. “I can’t believe I’m almost done with freshman year. This is the real world now. It’s crazy.”
He came to the University of Pittsburgh because his mom wanted him close to family. The national university is located just 20 minutes from his immediate family, right where his mom wants him.
“You can’t get much better than this, man,” Eric said. “Coach [Michelle] Tripon kept recruiting me even after I got hurt [in his senior year of high school]. So I can stay close to home, get a great education, solid coaching and be a part of a great program.”
The athlete in Eric wanted to compete at the highest level possible. The student in Eric wanted to study at a good school and get a quality degree. The kid in Eric wanted to test out real life.
So when he got to the University of Pittsburgh, Eric found himself experiencing – learning new things, meeting new people, reaching new heights as a track star.
“Can you believe there are only six corporations in the world that control the media?” Eric said. “I was just clueless about it all man – about college, the city, life – just clueless.”
We arrived at the bus stop on the corner of Bigelow and Fifth after recitation let out early. The campus shuttle rolled up and collected a handful of students as rain pelted the beige-colored sidewalk.
It was 8:33 a.m., and the day was just beginning for Eric Jones – the student, the athlete, the kid.
“Man, I have to go over to the [Fitzgerald] Field House and do a workout to warm up for tomorrow’s meet,” Eric said. “After that, I’m heading over to the tutoring center so I can plan out all my essays and work I’ve got to finish this weekend.”
We stepped off the bus after a short ride through North Oakland and onto the curb in front of Sutherland Hall, entered the dormitory and headed toward the laundry room. Eric pulls a gray T-shirt, a pair of shorts and some warm-up pants out of the dryer and drapes them over his shoulder.
“I guess I’ll get the rest later,” Eric said, explaining his reasoning behind leaving a machine full of clothes behind.
The elevator bell rings and a green arrow illuminates the black square next to the massive gray doors of the aluminum transporter. The lift stops at the 7th floor, opens its doors and we head out, down the hallway to Eric’s room.
White walls lead to Eric’s door. On his room’s industrial blue carpet lies nothing – clean and immaculate – just the way Eric likes it.
“I like having things in order,” Eric said, studying his walls lined with fitted caps from an assortment of teams. “I just want things to be neat and look nice, you know?”
I stepped out into the hallway and peered around the edge of his suitemates’ open door. The pair of soccer players sharing the suite with Eric and his roommate hold different beliefs toward cleanliness. Both beds covered in dirty clothes and the floor littered with trash, their room represents the polar opposite of Eric’s – unkempt and dirty.
“I just don’t understand how they live like that, man,” Eric said. “I always wonder if they live like that at home. There’s no way they do. No mom would ever put up with that, so I tell them to just keep things clean. Nobody likes a dirty suite.”
The hallway leading to the suite’s bathroom is covered by printed out copies of Eric’s suite philosophy:
“Yes – the bathroom was cleaned today. Keep it that way.”
But his suitemates don’t listen. Toilet paper wrappings and used tissues cover the tiled floor. Liquid soap left its mark on the side of the sink, traveling down the blue panel toward the floor. On the floor lay a single red cup, standing upright next to someone’s name written in ketchup on the burnt orange tile.
“I guess this is how some people live,” Eric said, trying to figure out his suitemates’ lifestyle. “This is college. This is what it’s all about – learning from other people and living with it.”
The student Eric closes the door to his room to don his practice outfit. He needs to get in some stretching and pre-meet exercise before he heads over to tutoring.
The athlete Eric emerges several minutes later, sporting a new gray University of Pittsburgh T-shirt and blue warm-up pants – the same outfit he pulled from the dryer. We exited Sutherland Hall and headed toward Fitzgerald Field House.
At 9:05 a.m., Eric Jones the track star began jogging as the deafening buzz of the air control unit overhead consumed the Field House air. He returned after four laps, sat on the blue carpet surrounding the glazed wooden volleyball floor and reached for his toes.
Over his shoulder, 16 Big East conference banners dangled from the rafters. Across the Field House a pair of golden Panther eyes peered out over the track. To Eric’s left were scores of empty seats ascending toward the cement walls separating the track from the volleyball court.
Eric rose from his seated stretching and headed toward the blue running surface while Jay-Z and Eminem’s “Renegade” blasted into the air from the weight room upstairs. He settled on a spot and finalized his stretches. Standing up, it was time to begin his workout.
He hopped from across my periphery on one leg for a quarter of the track. He stopped, shook it out, walked it off and headed back in the opposite direction on the other leg. His warming up today meant a more loosened body tomorrow.
“Coach [Tripon] told me to do something today so I’m ready for the meet,” Eric said, stressing the importance of his being loose for the Pitt track team’s trip to the Slippery Rock Invitational in Slippery Rock, Pa. “I always want to be ready to compete and perform.”
Athletes take pride in their abilities. Even at 18 years old, Eric understands the responsibility and expectations placed on a collegiate athlete. The university brought him here to compete and that’s just what he intended to do.
“Track is one of the hardest sports,” Eric said, explaining his situation from the athlete’s perspective. “There’s no team so it’s all on you. If you mess up or do badly, it’s your fault.”
The sound of the metal starting block slapping the track echoed off the walls of the Field House. Eric practiced starting off blocks, a new idea that Tripon thought would expand his range of motion and help prepare him for his main event – the triple jump.
“At first I was just like, ‘Man, I’m not a sprinter,’” Eric said. “But now I realize how much it helps my muscles stay loose and ready.”
The imaginary pop of the starting gun springs Eric into motion. His body rises slowly from a crouched position, head down and knees pumping, he explodes into a sprint. Maintaining a low center of gravity helps him develop his pace.
He goes back to warm-up exercises, extending high knees to his chest while balancing on the balls of his feet. While Nas raps from the weight room, Eric finishes his workout. In 20 hours, he will be on the bus headed to Slippery Rock University, ready to compete.
Saturday morning, 6:23 a.m. A white coach bus with green and purple zigzagging stripes down the side waits in front of the Field House for Pitt track and field athletes to arrive. One by one, the tired athletes climb aboard the coach in their Pitt track suits.
The bus ride is 72 minutes in full, broken in half by a stop in Cranberry for a team breakfast. Each athlete is given $30 to spend for the day – some for breakfast on the ride to the meet, some for dinner on the way back home.
Money in hand, Eric heads for a simple building behind the parking lot in which the bus remained. He turns the corner of the cement building and heads toward the entrance.
At the edge of the front parking lot, a sign rises out of the green grass, inviting customers to try a morning coffee. The purple and orange block letters contrast the white background of the sign that reads, “Dunkin’ Donuts.”
Fox News anchors report the daily news from televisions placed in every corner of the doughnut shop as a handful of track athletes wait in line. Eric orders a multigrain bagel with strawberry cream cheese then waits for his friend James to receive his food. Once collected, they head back to the bus – I wondered how they could do this all so early.
“Man, if you can do this for something, you really must love it,” Eric said, toting his Dunkin’ Donuts bag in his left hand. “If you love track or any sport you play, you can do it. It’s easy.”
The bus driver starts the engine and the chatter clamors to a heightened roar – the athletes, the kids, the students, have awakened. It’s another 36 minutes on the bus until Slippery Rock appears – enough time to slide back to sleep after eating.
As the bus reaches Slippery Rock’s campus, nobody sees the green lawns, the brick buildings, the empty parking lots or the football stadium off in the distance. They are all asleep. It’s 7:56 a.m., and the meet doesn’t start until 10. Track is a sport reliant on hurrying up and waiting.
The bus stops. The engine turns off. The kids still sleep. Dozens of athletes sporting red jackets, green sweatshirts, orange warm-up pants, black sweatpants, gold T-shirts and blue headbands sleepwalked through the gated entrance to the left of the stadium seating.
Athletes swarm the football field, sitting, stretching, sauntering, sprinting, sporting jackets ranging from Bethany College to Carnegie Mellon to Youngstown State. Others meander into the bleachers next to the track to relax as many of them will not compete for another six to eight hours.
Eric dons his grey Adidas sneakers and begins jogging. After four laps he stops, reaches for his toes and begins his pre-meet routine – he hasn’t smiled since Dunkin’ Donuts. On meet day, it’s all business.
It was a sunny day at N. Kerr Thompson Stadium in Slippery Rock, Pa. – a nice day to hop a personal-best triple jump distance and take first place in the Slippery Rock Invitational. For Eric, finding success wasn’t new.
He took first place at the Liberty Asics Collegiate Invitational. He finished second at the Raleigh Relays. He qualified for the Big East championships. He survived his first year of college and passed every class with flying colors. He learned the streets of Pittsburgh and the complexities of the world.
Eric Jones – the student, the teenager, the athlete – landed on his feet at the University of Pittsburgh.
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