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Track & field: For the good of the team
USC thrower Jason Cook has sacrificed a lot to help his track teammates
Jason Cook, University of South Carolina shot put thrower, won the SEC shot put title and qualified for the upcoming NCAA regional. Cook is the first USC athlete to win the shot in 11 years.
Erik Campos/ecampos@thestate.com /The State
CommentsJason Cook has run up $160,000 in student loan debt in five years at USC, which the Gamecocks’ shot putter refers to as the “beast waiting for me at the end of the tunnel.”
Cook comes from a middle-class background in Virginia and worked part-time in high school while his father was dealing with a health issue.
But Cook turned down additional scholarship money last year so Gamecocks coach Curtis Frye could use it to sign a highly touted pole vaulter. The sacrifice paid off when Cook and the aforementioned vaulter, Elliott Haynie, placed at the SEC Outdoor Championship, where USC’s men’s team matched its best showing with a fourth-place finish.
Cook, who won the shot put at the SEC meet and is ranked fifth nationally in the event, will compete in this weekend’s NCAA East Regional in Greensboro, N.C.
And though that student-loan beast grew a little bigger and uglier, Cook does not regret his decision to give up a half-scholarship (his current grant covers about 20 percent of his tuition costs) so Frye could bring in another athlete.
“I made the right choice. I won’t second-guess it. We finished fourth in the SEC ... that’s a win-win situation,” he said. “It’s just money. I’m going to make more than that later. I’ve got the rest of my life to pay that off.”
Cook understands and appreciates sacrifice. One of his heroes is Pat Tillman, the Arizona Cardinals safety who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004 after he gave up NFL millions to become an Army Ranger.
“That says a lot about the character of a person,” Cook said. “That they’re going to sacrifice not only the money but their own life because they felt it was something that needed to be done after 9/11.”
Cook learned to throw the shot and discus from his father, Jerry, a former high school thrower who drew a chalk circle on his back deck and taught his son the proper footwork. Jason Cook went on to become a two-time state champion in the shot and disc at Brentsville District High, where he broke the school records held by USC throws coach Mike Sergent.
When Jerry Cook, a meat cutter for 41 years with Giant Food, had a health issue crop up in 2003, his son took a part-time job at a vitamin and supplement store so he would not have to ask his parents for spending money.
After initially committing to East Carolina, Cook changed his mind after Sergent offered him an academic scholarship.
Cook had little trouble academically in high school. He scored a 1250 on the SAT despite being on painkillers after dislocating his thumb in a football game the night before.
But the National Honor Society member had a rude awakening his first year at USC, when doing “the whole freshman thing” did not include attending all of his classes. He posted a 1.98 grade point average, lost his scholarship and changed his major from engineering and physics to sociology.
“I think the liberal arts was the only school that would take my application,” said Cook.
His parents paid $3,000 for Cook to attend summer school and get back on track academically. Cook has had at least a 3.0 every semester since, pulling a 3.7 in his first year in the graduate program for criminology.
“I think he learned he needed to make some changes, and he did,” Sergent said. “I think he’s pretty focused now on what he wants.”
Interested in a career in law enforcement, Cook passed on two job offers with police departments in the Washington, D.C., area to return to USC for a fifth year. After he finishes graduate school, Cook is considering enlisting in the Army’s world class athlete program, which would allow him to pay down his debt while training for the 2012 Olympic Trials.
Frye said Cook’s agreeing to spread the scholarship money around is indicative of the selfless attitude shared by the team’s throwers, almost all of whom arrived at USC as walk-ons.
“They didn’t come for money. They came for the track team and the university, and they’re diehards,” Frye said. “They’re not looking to transfer when things go wrong. They’re Carolina garnet deep inside. ... And if you say anything that’ll make Carolina better, they’ll sacrifice.”
Having co-signed for the student loans, Jerry Cook’s initial reaction was to question the decision. But he said he trusts his son’s judgment.
“He’s adult enough, mature enough, that when he did something like that, it was basically for the team,” he said. “If he did this, he had a good reason.”
“I just wanted to see the team do well,” Jason Cook added. “I just wanted to see us finish the highest we could.”
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