Scott Sellers

I am a high school coach, primarily track & field, and came across this article, which may partly explain why there are not more outstanding white t & f athletes. Thank goodness, Scott Sellers got lucky and did not end up a victim of stereotyping.


"When Katy, TX Cinco Ranch High School track and field coach Gary Derks first laid eyes on Scott Sellers, he pictured the six-foot-one, 160-pound freshman as a distance runner. But Sellers, inspired by a cousin's success, wanted to high jump. Both were basketball players, and Scott could out jump him on the court.


"I knew I could go six feet," he says, eluding (sic) to his cousin's PR.


After two months of persuasion, Derks pulled out the high jump equipment and set the bar at six feet. Sellers cleared it on his first try and his high jumping career took off from there.


His freshman and sophomore personal bests wer 6-10 and 7-2, both class national records. As a junior he set his PR and Olympic Trials qualifier of 7-5 1/4 at the Nike Indoor Championships in Landover, MD last March."


Scott was also a 23-11 long jumper in high school.


Somehow I doubt that the coach would have pictured a 6-1, 160 lb. black boy as a distance runner. I think that he would have been pictured as a sprinter or jumper. It's a good thing that Scott Sellers had faith in himself and spent 2 months persuading the coach to give him an opportunity.

Good story highschoolcoach, and welcome to Caste Football! I hope to see you around here a lot more.

wow! that's a long way off the ground!


i agree with the fine Colonel. welcome aboard coach, and keep up the informative posts!

highschoolcoach said:

I am a high school coach, primarily track & field, and came across this article, which may partly explain why there are not more outstanding white t & f athletes. Thank goodness, Scott Sellers got lucky and did not end up a victim of stereotyping.


"When Katy, TX Cinco Ranch High School track and field coach Gary Derks first laid eyes on Scott Sellers, he pictured the six-foot-one, 160-pound freshman as a distance runner. But Sellers, inspired by a cousin's success, wanted to high jump. Both were basketball players, and Scott could out jump him on the court.


"I knew I could go six feet," he says, eluding (sic) to his cousin's PR.


After two months of persuasion, Derks pulled out the high jump equipment and set the bar at six feet. Sellers cleared it on his first try and his high jumping career took off from there.


His freshman and sophomore personal bests wer 6-10 and 7-2, both class national records. As a junior he set his PR and Olympic Trials qualifier of 7-5 1/4 at the Nike Indoor Championships in Landover, MD last March."


Scott was also a 23-11 long jumper in high school.


Somehow I doubt that the coach would have pictured a 6-1, 160 lb. black boy as a distance runner. I think that he would have been pictured as a sprinter or jumper. It's a good thing that Scott Sellers had faith in himself and spent 2 months persuading the coach to give him an opportunity.

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I revived this Scott Sellers thread for 2 reasons:


1. White men can jump--and really high, too.


2. Stereotyping is foolish (reread part about how Scott was initialloy slotted as a distance runner).


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<?:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">LINCOLN[/B]</st1:City><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">, <st1:State w:st="on">Neb.</st1:State> -[/B] <st1lace w:st="on"><st1laceName w:st="on">Kansas</st1laceName> <st1lace w:st="on">State</st1lace></st1lace>'s Scott Sellers leaped to new heights on the final day of the 2007 Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship at Bob Weir Stadium on Sunday afternoon. <?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />

Sellers cleared a height of 7-07.75 on his third and final attempt to win his first career Big 12 title. The sophomore from <st1:City w:st="on">Katy</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Texas</st1:State>, broke the school record held by teammate Kyle Lancaster of 7-07.00, broke the Big 12 meet record, set the Bob Weir Stadium record, registered the fourth-best effort in NCAA history and the 15<SUP>th</SUP> highest clearance in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">United States</st1lace></st1:country-region> history. This was the first Big 12 high jump crown for the Wildcats, since Nathan Leeper's win at the 1998 Big 12 Championship in Columbia, Mo.

"Coming into this weekend I was feeling really good," said Sellers about his mindset. "I could not have asked for better competition. This conference has a number of the best high jumpers in the nation. Everyone really just pushed me to go higher."

Sellers entered the competition at 6-08.75 and cleared his first five heights on the first attempt. Sellers missed his first bar at 7-05.25, but cleared on his second attempt. The same scenario played out at 7-06.50, as he and <st1:State w:st="on">Texas</st1:State>' Andra Manson tied the previous meet record held by Mark Boswell of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Texas</st1lace></st1:State> in 1999. Sellers cleared the winning height and was awarded the title after Manson knocked off the bar on his final attempt.


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Very good posts.

Sark6354201 said:

Very good posts.

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Thanks. I am frequently dismayed by the sometimes haphazard way that young athletes get into track &amp; field events. Oftentimes it is just based upon stereotypes (blacks are sprinters and whites are distance runners) or what the athletes older sibling(s) or a friend does, rather than upon what the person has the talent to do. Therefore, the athlete spends a lot of time doing an event at which he or she is only adequate instead of of what he or she can excell at.

My track team was fair, and all the athletes were able to choose their own events, and were also encouraged to try other events if the coaches thought they might be good. The team was about half white and half black.

I can imagine how bad other teams could get, but ours was not too bad. The only bad thing was that about a third of the blacks were stereotypical trouble making blacks who had a small but real negative effect on team dynamics and morale. I had no problem with half of the blacks though, and enjoyed running and jumping with them as teammates.

nevada said:

My track team was fair, and all the athletes were able to choose their own events, and were also encouraged to try other events if the coaches thought they might be good. The team was about half white and half black.

I can imagine how bad other teams could get, but ours was not too bad. The only bad thing was that about a third of the blacks were stereotypical trouble making blacks who had a small but real negative effect on team dynamics and morale. I had no problem with half of the blacks though, and enjoyed running and jumping with them as teammates.

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Sounds like your team was well run.I especially agree that athletes should be encouraged to try other events that they may be good at, such as sprinters also trying the hurdles and jumps. Sometimes it even truns out that good middle distance runners are good hurdlers or jumpers.


Since your team was about 50-50 racially, i'm guessing that you did have some good white sprinters, hurdlers, and/or jumpers, and probably some good black middle distance runners.

<?:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><ST1:CITY w:st="on"><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">SACRAMENTO[/B]</ST1:CITY><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">, <ST1:STATE w:st="on">Calif.</ST1:STATE> -[/B] Scott Sellers won <ST1LACE w:st="on"><ST1LACENAME w:st="on">Kansas</ST1LACENAME> <ST1LACE w:st="on">State</ST1LACE></ST1LACE>'s first outdoor national title since 1998 on Friday evening during the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Alex G. Spanos Track Complex.
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The sophomore from <ST1:CITY w:st="on">Katy</ST1:CITY>, <ST1:STATE w:st="on">Texas</ST1:STATE> captured the title with a clearance 7-07.25, defeating Andra Manson of <ST1:STATE w:st="on">Texas</ST1:STATE>, the heavily favored Donald Thomas of <ST1:CITY w:st="on"><ST1LACE w:st="on">Auburn</ST1LACE></ST1:CITY> and teammate Kyle Lancaster. The crown is the first by a Wildcat since Nathan Leeper won the 1998 high jump title in <ST1LACE w:st="on"><ST1:CITY w:st="on">Buffalo</ST1:CITY>, <ST1:STATE w:st="on">N.Y.</ST1:STATE></ST1LACE> Sellers entered the competition ranked second in the nation and 32<SUP>nd</SUP> in the world by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
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Sellers cleared his first six heights on the initial attempts, at heights of 6-10.75 to 7-05.00. Meanwhile, Manson was forced to clear the bar on his second attempt at both 7-03.75 and 7-05.00 and Thomas missed on his first attempts at 7-02.50 and 7-05.00.
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Sellers made things interesting by clipping the bar on his first attempt at 7-06.00, while Manson cleared on his first and Thomas on his third. Sellers sealed the victory on his second attempt at 7-07.25, while Manson and Thomas were unable to clear. Sellers then made three efforts at the Hornet Stadium record of 7-08.50, which ironically is held by Leeper while competing for Nike in May of 2000.

Congratulations Scott. And I want to inform or remind everyone that Scott was originally "slotted" as a distance runner. I can only imagine why. Maybe his complexion.Edited by: highschoolcoach