Gavin Tinsley has played basketball his whole life. Since he is 6’7”, that makes a lot of sense. It wasn’t until last year that someone directed Tinsley toward high jumping. PCHS Track & Field Coach, Drew Martucci, encouraged Tinsley to try it out. “At first I didn’t want to do it, but eventually after basketball season, I tried it,” Tinsley said. “I jumped with basketball shoes on, and I went over 6 feet that first day. After that, I just stuck to it.” Tinsley struck gold at the Junior Olympics by clearing 6’8”. However, his personal best in practice is 7’0”. Developing excellent form will increase the height high jumpers can clear, and these athletes work for years perfecting their form. “It took some time like anything else,” Coach Martucci commented. “More than anything, it was his approach that needed to change and adapt to the height he was beginning to jump toward the end of the season. He got that fixed in AAU, and we won’t be looking back!” The fact that Tinsley is doing so well, so quickly, makes him a great prospect for colleges, so the sky is the limit.
One difference between basketball and high jumping Tinsley likes is that it is an individual sport, so success is up to him. A second thing he enjoys is the high jump community, “We all have each other’s backs,” he said. “It is really positive. When you clear a height, people from other teams will come over to congratulate you.”
“I feel like one thing is, I’m taller, so that helps a little bit,” Tinsley commented his success. “But the reason I jump higher than my height is I’m just a natural athlete.” In addition to practicing high jumping itself, Coach Martucci has him train with plyometrics. These are exercises that use different movements to train muscles to contract and extend rapidly to increase muscle power. Examples are things like side jumps, hops, and jumping rope to strengthen fast-twitch muscle fibers and improve agility. Other than practicing jumping, Tinsley’s regimen also includes a lot of stretching. He does squats only for basketball practice. You can’t teach height, and innate ability will carry an athlete only so far, but Tinsley has had to put in the work, too.
Enter Jamin Andrews, also a senior and high jumper at PCHS. Andrews won seventh place at the Junior Olympics National Championships by clearing 6’3”—which is how tall he is. Andrews has been high jumping since the eighth grade. His personal best in a meet is 6’6”. “I’ve got to work for it. It’s not easy, but I joke that I’m a competitor so, when we are practicing and I see Gavin going 6’6” or 6’8” I hate it,” Andrews commented. After the other athletes would leave practice, many times he and Tinsley would still be at it high jumping, “…Going back and forth, and at each other’s throats,” Andrews added. They have pushed each other to succeed. In addition to high jumping, Andrews long jumps, and triple jumps. His personal best in the long jump is just over 20 feet, and his best in triple jump is 42’7”. “I feel like high jumping is the easiest thing to do in track. It’s a really great feeling to jump over the bar…how you know you have gotten over it with perfect form. I like the look on your team’s faces when you go really high—like when you beat your personal record.”
After graduation, Andrews plans to attend Keiser University in Florida to major in Greek mythology and history so he can teach.
Tinsley wants to go to college to major in Architectural Engineering to build homes and apartment buildings. Grambling already offered him an athletic scholarship. He is also looking at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the University of South Florida.
“We are looking forward to what this spring holds for both Gavin and Jamin—state championship type expectations are now coming off an AAU national championship,” Coach Martucci added. “Their work ethic is there, now it’s time to turn it up a notch and win the big-time meets.”