Local standout getting early start for South Carolina track and field program
Jayla Jamison has been ahead of the field for most of her high school track career.
The Airport High School junior will get a jump on the competition in her college career by passing up her senior year in high school to enroll at South Carolina and run for the Gamecocks’ track and field program. Jamison signed with the Gamecocks in February and held a ceremony at the school on Thursday to commemorate the occasion.
“I wanted to get a head start and start my journey earlier,” Jamison said. “It means a lot to me to have the opportunity to go there and do big things and get coached by one of the best coaches in the country. That is where I wanted to go since I was a kid. That is somewhere I always wanted to go. That never changed my mind.”
College athletes enrolling early is common with football players, who usually enroll a semester earlier to participate in spring practice. It isn’t as common in other sports. Jamison’s parents, Patrick and Felicia Jamison, said their daughter began thinking about the process of enrolling a year early to USC last year. She was able to get ahead of things academically, and they had no reservations about her starting college a year earlier.
“She is mature and has a good foundation,” Patrick Jamison said. “She is ready to get out there and explore, do what she needs to do.”
Jamison, who started running when she was 7 years old, said she is looking forward to competing against some of the best athletes in college, but her goals don’t end there. She already has aspirations of trying to qualify for the Olympics one day.
Thirteen former Gamecock female track and field athletes have qualified for the Olympics under Gamecocks coach Curtis Frye.
“I want to go professional. I want to run against the best of the best,” Jamison said. “You have to run against the best to be the best so that is what I am going to do.”
Airport athletic director Kirk Burnett said Jamison is the most decorated athlete in the 56-year history of the high school and is one of the best in state history. She qualified for the state track and field championships in four events as a seventh-grader.
Jamison didn’t win a state championship that first year but has since won eight times since then in the 100, 200, 400 and long jump. She would probably would have added to that last season if it wasn’t cut short because of COVID-19.
Jamsion is a two-time Gatorade SC Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year and two-time SC Coaches Association of Women’s Sports Track Athlete of the Year. She also earned all-state basketball honors and was picked for the SC Coaches North-South All-Star game.
Jamison also earned all-American honors at New Balance Nationals.
Jamison’s final season is off to a strong start as she qualified for four events for this month’s Bob Jenkins Coaches’ Elite Classic. She said her goals this season are to improve her times and get better in the four events in which she competes.
The junior is dedicating her season to her longtime personal coach Benny Issac, who died in February. Issac coached at Dreher High and started Jumpstart Athletics, where he trained numerous athletes.
“He was a big motivation for me,” Jamison said of Isaac. “He always told me and believed in me and told me to do my best in everything.”
