On Tuesday, May 29, 2018, Harry S Truman senior Sayyid Saunders was recognized for committing to continue his track career at South Plains College in Texas. Check back for a gallery of photos of the event..
Sayyid Saunders – South Plains College (Football)
Final list of colleges: South Plains, Wesley College
Reasons for choosing South Plains: “This came about when my coach was talking to Carl Lewis. I had to go to a junior college, and Carl put it together. South Plains is in Texas, so I’ll do one or two years there, and after that I’ll run at the University of Houston.
“In the beginning, when they told me about Carl Lewis, I didn’t know who he was, and I looked him up and found out who he was, and I was like, ‘Oh, this could be exciting.’”
What was the progression that led you to competing in track at the collegiate level? “I started thinking about running in college last year because I started dropping fast times, and being one of the top people that everyone else had to beat. That’s what made me really want to run in the college.
“At first I didn’t think I was going to go to college for track. I was going to just go for football, but everything just came together at the right time. It was just perfect.”
Coach Micah Wright says: “It took a lot of planning, and I was very deliberate with all of our planning and our prep and our recovery in between each round. Before we headed into the postseason, he and I had a conversation. He knew that he had to run 20 races within a span of eight days. On the Saturdays, every hour he has a race, and each race is run almost like a finals fast, so he knew just not from a physical standpoint, there’s an emotional toll that it takes as well. I was there, the other coaches were there, and everyone knew the plan to be sure that he just maintained the same level of focus. To his credit, he stayed focused. That’s really what it was about – him maintaining the same level of focus, having the end goal in mind to win four (golds). We came one short because the other relay didn’t qualify due to injury, and we couldn’t win the overall team title, but it wasn’t short of his effort. He was impressive.
“There’s still more to accomplish. I had this talk with the team back in January. I said, ‘If you never had expectations before, you didn’t know where you could reach. Now that there are expectations, we expect you to reach for those expectations,’ so we put those in place, albeit high. We fall short from time to time, but we know that students – especially within structure – they rise to the occasion if the expectation is there. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t set the expectations.”
Coach Jon Candy says: “To leave states with three gold medals – two individual events and a relay, that’s phenomenal. For Truman, I don’t think that’s ever been done before. This is the first time in history that we’re being noticed now. It’s good for him to get the exposure, and it’s good for the community as well. I’m more proud than him – I just don’t show it. I’m proud of what he did and what he left behind that all the younger kids can continue on and work for.
“It’s his will and wanting to be great that sets him apart. His sophomore year he qualified for states and he medaled in the 100. He told me the next two years he wanted to be one of the top in the state, and he did it.”
About Sayyid:
Favorite food: Cheese Steaks
Favorite movie: The Lost Boys
Favorite music: Hip-Hop
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