PAGE 10 April 2022
Runner Puts Team First while battling ailment that stumped doctors
The Alabama High School Athletic Association has approved winter sports alignments for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 classification period. Alignments for the sports of bowling, indoor track and field, wrestling and boys’ and girls’ basketball were approved. The only change from previous classification periods came in wrestling. Bowling, basketball class area alignments and indoor track division alignments remained the same. In wrestling, to create balance based on number of schools participating, the Central Board approved reorganizing the current three divisions into four divisions for championship play – from 1A-4A, 5A- 6A, and 7A to Class 1A- 4A, Class 5A, Class 6A and Class 7A. The changes in wrestling were established due to more schools competing overall and to also help balance the number of teams competing in each division, said AHSAA Executive Director Alvin Briggs. Wrestling has seen significant growth among member schools in the last four years. Basketball alignments will remain 16 areas in Classes 1A through 6A and eight areas in Class 7A. The Competitive Balance factor, which was instituted for member private schools in 2018- 19, did affect three private school teams. Decatur Heritage, currently in 1A, earned enough points to move to Class 2A; Prattville Christian, currently in 3A, earned enough points to move to 4A; and Madison Academy’s teams, that were participating under competitive balance in 6A, will move down one classification to Class 5A. Divisions will remain the same for Indoor Track with Competitive Balance affecting six private schools. Mobile Christian, Montgomery Catholic, Providence Christian and Westminster-Oak Mountain will move from 1A/3A to 4A/5A. Bayside Academy and UMS-Wright move from 4A/5A to Class 6A. In bowling, American Christian moves from Class 1A/5A to Class 6A/7A. No teams were affected by the competitive balance factor in wrestling. AHSAA Approves Winter Sports Alignments
Courtesy of Josh Bean AHSAA GADSDEN – High school runners – in cross country and track – enter every race with a simple plan: Run as fast as possible. Except for Westbrook Christian senior Jackson Martin, who spent years suffering from mysterious “episodes” near the end of races that robbed him of finishes and put his running career in jeopardy. For years, Martin became the runner who couldn’t run full-out. “I was really upset I couldn’t perform at my best,” he said. For the last two years, though, he found ways to overcome his physical challenges and compete fully on the track. Jackson’s perseverance and tenacity are major reasons he’s a 2022 Regional winner in the Bryant-Jordan Scholarship Program’s Achievement category, which honors senior student-athletes in the AHSAA who have overcome personal adversity to excel. All 52 regional winners in theAchievement category and 52 scholar-athlete winners receive a $3,000 scholarship and could win more when statewide winners are announced at the statewide banquet. As Martin explains: “It’s been a long journey.” It all started during the sectional outdoor track meet during the spring of his seventh-grade year at Westbrook Christian. Not long after he started his kick – a strategic sprint at the end of the race designed to insure the highest possible finish – something unexpected happened. “All of a sudden, I had a funny feeling in my legs,” he remembered. The lack of muscle control in Martin’s lower body prevented him from running his preferred line around the track and he eventually fell. Officials and trainers rushed to him before he got up and finished the race. He chalked it up to failing to properly hydrate or get enough sleep before the race. Then, he suffered a similar episode the following fall during cross country season. And then another. And another. Martin, his family and the Westbrook coaching staff asked one simple question: Why is this happening? There was no convenient or easy answer. Avisit to his pediatrician led to a referral to a neurologist at Children’s of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham. Initial tests proved inconclusive, so visits to a cardiologist, pulmonologist, ophthamologist, orthopedist and geneticist followed. Doctors checked him for degenerative nerve disorders. All the while, Martin’s episodes became more servere and more frequent. It seemed as he got bigger and stronger, which allowed him to run faster and exert more energy, the episodes happened more. In the most severe episodes, he lost feeling in his arms and his speech became slurred. There were more questions than answers. “When they were like, ‘You’re above-average, a
Sardis Rolls Past Crossville Hannah Hill celebrates with her Sardis teammates during the Lions recent softball game at Crossville. Sardis scored early and often to pick up a 27-0 victory over Crossville. Photo by Brandon K. Pierce | The Sports Ledger
Westbrook Christian's Jackson Martin Photo Courtesy of AHSAA
head-on and do what he could for the betterment of the team,” Curp wrote in a letter to support Martin’s Bryant-Jordan candidacy. “As his coach, it was hard to hold him back from his potential, but it was necessary for his overall health and well- being. Jackson never let that frustration or obstacle deter him from being a great teammate.” It worked. Westbrook Christian finished third at the state meet in Classes 1A-2A, thanks in part to his pacing skills. His parents, though, soon delivered a grim decision – the 3,200-meter race during indoor and outdoor track was now off- limits. Moderating his pace at the 1,600-meter distance made running it futile. Martin again improvised. He abandoned long-distance running and concentrated on the 400- and 800-meter runs. Now, he could run full-out again with no restrictions as a middle- distance runner. “It was so freeing. I felt like a little kid again,” he said with a smile. “It was like running in the yard. You don’t have a care in the world. You’re just having fun. I had so much fun doing it. I didn’t have worry or stress about those other things.” “It’s hard to convey the relief that was it’s been amazing. Having to move to the mid-distances after we throttled him back, we were concerned about him being able to compete. He shattered those expectations. We enjoy seeing him enjoy being out there," added his dad, Jason Dean. This spring during the outdoor track season, Martin is competing in five events – 400 meters, 800 meters, 4x400-meter relay, 4x800-meter relay and 300-meter hurdles. He’s finally running with no restrictions like virtually every other high school runner. “No episodes,” his dad said. Martin plans to attend the University of South Alabama in the fall. He’s undecided on a major, although he’s considering business, and he understands his competitive running career ends with this year’s outdoor season. But he still plans to run for fun.
really healthy kid,’ it really was frustrating,” he said of his many medical tests. “What I would do is I would use that frustration as motivation for the next race. And that didn’t really help me, because I’d have another episode. “I was really getting upset because I was working really hard in practice – I never had an episode in practice – and I couldn’t feel like I could show off my efforts in a race and show off how much I had worked and how much I had improved.” Doctors eventually diagnosed Jackson with “episodic ataxia,” which is described as “a neurological condition that impairs movement” and affects 0.001% of the population, according to healthline.com. For Martin, extended and intense physical exertion caused this mysterious reaction. His father explained that coaches and family instructed Jackson to “throttle it back” during races to avoid experiencing another episode. While doctors couldn’t pin-point a precise cause and believed the episodes were not causing permanent or long- term damage, it seemed prudent to avoid them. Like most teenagers, though, Jackson admits he didn’t take the advice to heart. “At first, my parents were like, ‘We think this would be a great pace and we talked to Coach about it,’” Jackson said. “I’d start and I wouldn’t listen at all. I’d go run all the way out, and I’d have an episode. After two or three races of that, I thought, ‘OK, I have to actually start listening.’” Then, former Westbrook Christian coach Brian Curp suggested an elegant solution: Instead of Jackson sprinting away from the starting line at a cross country meet, he would stay with his younger, mostly middle-school age teammates and pace them. The concept called for the younger runners to keep up with Martin, allowing them to run a faster pace than they likely would by running on their own. It also gave Martin the chance to compete and help the team score better. It seemed like win-win. “In true Jackson form, he chose to face this obstacle
Aggie Baseball Albertville's Paul Halen Painter (#32) makes a throw for the Aggies earlier this season. Photo by Brandon K. Pierce, The Sports Ledger
Batter-up! Asbury's Owen Hopper gets ready to hit the ball during 11-12 youth baseball action on Saturday, April 9, 2022 in Guntersville. Photo by Brandon K. Pierce, The Sports Ledger
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