When athletes start doing track and field, they have dreams of being great! One senior had the same dream that everyone else has had, but he is making his dream come true. Jeffery Spence is a sprinter/jumper from Spruce Creek High School. He is making his dreams come true one jump at a time.

The Beginning

Spence walked out onto the track his freshman year like all beginners. He wanted to be a sprinter. Spence had no intentions on doing long jump. But one day, he saw it and thought it looked pretty fun, so he started, and what a great idea that was.

Spence’s first meet that he long jumped in was at the Spruce Creek Development meet back in 2012. For his first time officially long jumping, Spence jumped 18 feet and 7.75 inches! He won his first meet freshman year at the Deland Quad Meet. The first time Spence jumped over 20 was that same year!

“When I first jumped 20ft I felt super excited and I felt like I just flew,” states Spence in an interview. It is a pretty big accomplishment jumping over 20 feet as a freshman. Unfortunately, the competition was pretty tough in his district that year, so he couldn’t make it out of districts. But he did compete in the state meet the following year for long jump and placed 3^rd place! What an achievement!

Spence even has an athlete that he looks up to. “For being a long jumper, I have always looked up to Mike Powell.”

The Fast Side of Spence

Fortunately, most decent long jumpers tend to be fast. Spence has some serious speed as well. Spence runs the 100 and 200-meter dashes. He is pretty impressive in both, but dabbles a little more in the 200-meter dash. Spence has run 22 seconds in the 200 multiple times.

“I felt like my hard work at practice was finally paying off!” That is what Spence felt like when he first ran in the 22 seconds range. Spence did not let it get to his head though. He knew he still had a lot of work he can do to become faster. He made it to the regional meet his sophomore year and placed 8^th place in finals.

Training Tactics

Nobody just becomes fast, and nobody just jumps far distances. There is a lot of training involved. Spence has a schedule set for his season in which he follows for training. In the beginning of the season, Spence’s coach has him working on endurance. Towards the middle and end of the season, he works more on speed endurance and speed training.

After Spence gets done with his sprinting workout, he immediately goes over to the long jump pit and trains even more. When Spence is training for Long Jump, he starts on working on his form.

“Once I am done, I practice on perfecting my pop-up,” States Spence. There is a lot of training in Spence’s day at Practice. That’s what it takes to be a State Long Jumper. “Knowing that I am one of the best jumpers in the state makes me determined to practice hard to get better and stay on top.”

Moving Forward

We all must continue to move on with our lives day after day. Some choose to go the average way but Spence has plans for himself. This track season is full of events for Spence. He plans on helping his teammates get better while also helping himself. He hopes to make it to the State Championship meet this season and he currently has a pretty great chance of winning the State Championship meet for long jump. He is currently the number 1 long jumper in the state (click here to see the 4A long jump ranking). He has already jumped 24 feet this season.

After high school, Spence has planned to go to Wingate University in North Carolina to run track. Spence will be leaving an amazing legacy behind for Spruce Creek High School. He has accomplished so much in his high school T&F career. This has definitely been A Journey Remembered for Jeffrey Spence.

To Follow Jeffrey Spence on Instagram: andrewspence19

To Follow Jeffrey Spence on Twitter: jspence622