Deon Griffin '13 Recruiting Profile

       Hello Coaches and Colleges, my name is Deon. I am 16 years old, standing at about 5'8 and weighing around 156 lbs. I attend Polytechnic Highschool in Long Beach, California. My friends and team mates describe me as: Determined, Hardworking, very Ambitious, and an all around Outgoing type of guy. I attend Track practice every day and every time I step on the feild, I am determined to do better than the day before. My favorite events are the 300m hurdles, the 100m and 200m, and I just recently found out that I'm not too bad in the 400m.

       I started running track my freshman year after football. I wasn't really good until the middle of the season, when I finally started putting REAL effort into Track. At the beginning of my sophmore year before track season, I grew tired of being unnotticed by the coaches. I wanted to get better so the coaches would recognize me instead of the "stars" in my grade. By then I was totally committed to getting better in my Running form, Strength, and Speed. I started staying after practice with Varsity to challenge myself and adjust to the different type of Competition and Skill.

       As I progressed, I took interest in watching the Hurdlers' practice. I used to watch them everyday and I thought the whole Hurdleing idea would be a cool race to be in, so I started Hurdleing and practicing with them. It turned out that their coach was welcome to have me and he said that if I were to join the team, I would have to do ridiculously hard workouts. Ovcourse I agreed, thinking,  "What could be harder than running a couple laps and jumping over a couple of hurdles?".

       The first workout my coach, Sharaud Moore, former Poly alumni and Hurdler, did not hesitate to show that he was not kidding about his workouts being ridiculous. I felt like throwing in the towel the first week, but I realized that this was just what I needed to become a better athlete, so I stayed. I did all of the workouts, never missed any practices, and gave it my all. I really sucked at hurdleing and was mad that I couldn't do it as easy as the experienced hurdles. He told me, "Don't worry, just do the best you can. It'll take you a while to perfect the correct Hurdleing form and we have time to work on it." So I followed and watched everyone continuously, comparing them to myself. I started getting better and better, but far from perfect still. We went to the weight room almost everyday along with the vigorous workouts.

       As the weeks passed, I was getting stronger, faster, and more defined. I aslo grew a bond with what I call, "My Hurdle Family" being that I was with them most of my week including weekends. When pre-season started, I started competing in hurdle races in "All Comers Meets" and I found out that my strongest hurdle race was the 300m hurdles. It always put butterflies in my bellies when I ran it, but I was good. Thats when the 300mh became my favorite race. We continued training until the season start. By that time I had gotten faster, stronger, and had a better winning mind set. My coach always told us, "I know it hurts, but it hurts more to loose.", that always kept us striving for victory. I started winning races and got a taste of victory that tasted so sweet. The events I shined the most in throughout my sophmore year were the 300m hurdles, 200m, and the 4x400m relay. I made it to Moore League Finals and earned 1st place in the 4x400m, 2nd place in the 100m, and 3rd in the 300m hurdles.

       I recently competed this summer in the California State Games in San Diego. I won two medals in both the 4x400 relay and the 4x100. I also made it to finals and placed 4th in the 100m. 

      I die in practice too take your soul out of the blocks!