SPOTLIGHT In the Spotlight: Nathan “Josh” Rollins All-American, Big East Champion By John-Paul Hezel Hoya Staff Writer

Tim Llewellyn/The Hoya

Josh Rollins was ranked second entering the IC4A Indoor Championship in the fall of 1999. He had been jumping for only three years, had steadily improved every season and had high expectations for himself at the meet.

But when it came time to compete, Josh didn’t even make the finals. He failed to place.

“It was the lowest moment in my career,” he said.

Curiously, however, it wasn’t the moment that changed his career. That distinction came during selection for the NCAA National Championship his sophomore year. Josh was ranked No. 22 in the nation on the triple jump, and the selection committee, required to take 16 athletes for the event, took 20. Josh missed the meet by two spots.

“Getting that close to the NCAA without making it made me work really hard that summer,” he said. “I lifted five days a week, I ran every single day and I came back 10 pounds heavier, much stronger and in better shape. I never really looked back.”

Over the next two years, Josh developed into an All-American and Big East Champion in the triple jump. He won the 2000 Big East Indoor Championship by setting a meet record of 51′ 7″. He won the 2000 IC4A Indoor Championship with a jump of 52′ 5-1/2″. He set a Georgetown record and personal best of 54′ 4-3/4″ on his way to winning the 2001 IC4A Outdoor Championship and qualifying automatically for the 2001 NCAA Championship. He earned All-American honors by placing sixth at that championship.

But the peak of his career to this point came at the Big East Outdoor Track & Field Championship last spring. Josh made Big East history by becoming the first athlete by winning the triple jump, long jump and high jump at the same meet. More importantly, he earned 30 points – 20 on the first of two days – and propelled the Georgetown team to victory.

“There’s a sense of pride in setting a goal and meeting it,” he said. “When you see progress you’re proud of it. It’s fun when you work hard to see results. Since I won long jump and the high jump on the first day, we had momentum going into the second.”

Josh began jumping his junior year in high school. He had played basketball for two years, but hurt his back and could no longer compete on the court. A friend suggested that he run track. After testing his ability in the sprint events – the 100m, 200m, 400m – the coach needed a body to participate in a triple jump relay. He performed well and became a jumper.

“The triple jump is my favorite because it’s a very technical event,” Josh said. “The only way you are going to be any good is to be precise. It’s like playing hopscotch at full speed and ending up in the sand.”

Josh won the Maryland state championship in the triple jump and was selected to the All-County and All-Metro team his senior year of high school. He walked on to the Georgetown track team a year later, and immediately faced a number of challenges.

“You have to earn the respect of your teammates,” Josh said. “When you are walking on, they don’t really expect too much from you, so you don’t really get a lot of attention. You have to carve your own space and make a name for yourself.”

Josh also had to learn to take care of himself. He had been wracked with cramps and injuries before discovering the importance of eating right, drinking lots of water, lifting weights and “cycling” his 11.5-month season.

“You can’t be at your best all year. It’s just not possible,” he said. “You have to pick where you want to do well and cycle your training. You train hard before those meets you don’t need to do that great in, and when you want to do really, really well, you lighten your load running and lifting.”

Josh redshirted the indoor season as a junior and the outdoor season as a senior so that he could compete this year as a graduate student in the liberal studies program at Georgetown. He and his coaches had decided that since he was improving so steadily, and that because the team as a whole would be better during the 2001-2000 season, his talents would go to better use during his fifth year of eligibility.

That strategy has paid off thus far, as Josh placed eighth in the triple jump at the 2001 NCAA Indoor National Championship. He just qualified last week for the NCAA Outdoor Championship this spring.

Josh is definitely not looking back.

Quick Facts

Age: 22

Occupation: Graduate student in Georgetown’s liberal studies program

College/Year: Georegetown 2001

Major: Marketing

Minor: Sociology

Siblings: Seth, 21; Meagan, 20; Shane, 15.

Jump Around

Sport: Track & Field

Events: Triple jump, long jump, high jump and 400m carry

Personal Records: Triple Jump: 54′ 4-3/4″; Long Jump: 25′ 4″; High Jump: 7′ 1/4″; 400m Carry: 48.4 sec

Favorite Track: Hayward Field at the University of Oregon

Q & A

Why do people call you Josh rather than Nathan? To avoid confusion. My father’s name is also Nathan, so my mother called me Josh when I was young.

Who has had the most influence on you in track? My three coaches. Gags [Coach Gagliano, who moved to Stanford after last season], made me love the sport. Coach Valmon [a two-time Olympic gold medalist] is giving us real world experience. We’re learning from someone who has been there. And Coach Bradley [my jumping coach] is so enthusiastic that you want to do well for him.

Who has influenced you the most outside of track? My mom. She’s sacrificed more than anyone should ever have to sacrifice to give me and my siblings an opportunity in life that she didn’t have. She would do anything for us. My parents are divorced, so she raised us all by herself. Things that we want she gets for us before things she wants for herself, the thing that great parents do.

Word your coach would use to describe you: Dependable

Word your mother would use to describe you: Responsible

Word you would use to describe yourself: Determined

Favorite class at Georgetown: Fr. Kemp’s Struggle and Transcendence. I liked it because it used theological readings to tell us what happens in our daily lives. He made theology relate to our experiences that we go through every day. It wasn’t so abstract as some of my other classes.

Favorite musician: Glen Lewis. He’s a new R & B performer.

If you did not run track, would you ever go to a track meet? If I did go, I wouldn’t stay long. Track is not a spectator sport, there’s too much down time. You can wait six hours to see someone perform for a minute. If I didn’t run track, I probably wouldn’t, ’cause I didn’t go before I started running. So, no, I wouldn’t go.

If you could invite three people, dead or alive, to dinner, who would you invite and what would you serve? MLK Jr., my grandfather who died before I was old enough to know him and my mom. We would have seafood.

First car you drove: A 1988 Toyota Camry when I was 10. I grew up in the house that my grandmother used to live in, in Odenton, d. There’s no one around for miles. And there’s this windy road that my dad let me drive the car on 20 miles an hour for about a mile then back again.

Issue you feel most strongly about: I feel very strongly about being loyal and being trustworthy. And that’s in all facets of my life. I don’t have friends who I can’t trust, and the girlfriends that I couldn’t trust have been long since dumped.

Favorite actor: Denzel Washington

Three books on your ideal book shelf: To Kill a Mockingbird, Silence of the Lambs and the autobiography of Malcom X.

What is under your bed right now? Nothing. I have a queen-sized bed with no space underneath. Sorry, I have no better answer for you.