Right on track: Anderson excels in all seasons
To watch Jeshua Anderson on a football field, shedding a defender with a subtle hitch and a burst, running underneath an arcing pass and into the end zone with the panicked cornerback in pursuit, is to think he was born to do just that.
Yet to watch Anderson on a 400-meter track, gliding over a 36-inch hurdle in a whisper, swallowing up a two-turn stagger on a helpless rival, is to think, well, he was born to do that, too.
So it is. Born for both.
And to meet Jeshua Anderson is to come away with the feeling that Washington State’s extraordinary freshman doesn’t just desire to excel at both, but regards it as a happy and honored obligation.
The Cougars have had any number of time-share athletes over the years – but not since seasonal sports became bloated year-round monsters have they had one remotely this special.
WSU concludes spring football Saturday with a routine practice instead of a scrimmage, the players available to new coach Paul Wulff already at an ebb. Among the unavailable is Anderson, who in time will be a marquee name in Wullf’s program – which could use another one of those sooner rather than later.
But at the moment, there is a more pressing aspiration: the Olympic Games.
A long shot, yes, but less so with each lap of the track. Last week at the Texas Relays, Anderson won the 400-meter hurdles in 49.68 seconds – breaking the WSU freshman record in his third collegiate race. The school record in obvious jeopardy – 49.27 – carried its owner, Boyd Gittins, onto the Olympic team 40 years ago.
Anderson must run faster – 49.00 – to meet the Olympic Trials “A” standard, and obviously faster still to make the team. Seven American men broke 48.50 a year ago. And there will be heats and semis to survive.
“When I was watching football games on TV,” said WSU track assistant Mark Macdonald, “and they were talking about his making the Olympics, I was thinking, ‘Don’t get ahead of yourselves.’ In the 400 hurdles, what he’s trying to do has probably never been done – but I didn’t want to put limits on him.
“If the goal is to make the Olympic team, let’s do that.”
It is a brazen ambition for an otherwise completely understated young man. But is it realistic?
“I don’t know,” Anderson admitted. “But I know through the season I’ll get a lot stronger and run the race a lot smarter. We’ll see what happens. I’ve been praying on it a whole lot.”
He isn’t the only one, though the prayers have been conflicting.
Track purists who thrilled to the news of Anderson’s national high school record of 35.28 in the 300 hurdles last year at the California state meet – he’s from Woodland Hills – winced when they learned he’d be playing college football. His impact for WSU was immediate – eight of his 12 receptions went for 28 yards or more – but Cougars fans already wonder if rapid progress on the track won’t tempt him to turn pro.
“I love them both the same,” Anderson said. “I want to have a great football career. But if I make the Olympic team, I’ll be real happy about it – and hopefully the school is happy about it, too.”
The Cougs are already huge fans. Former football coach Bill Doba’s favorite story of 2007 was how Anderson’s mother, Leslie, shooed off Oregon when the Ducks wanted him to back off his WSU commitment.
“She got kind of got on them,” Anderson confirmed. “She said, ‘We gave our word,’ and hung up.”
And in his dual endeavor, Anderson is seeing the best side of Wazzu. This was the deal the Cougars cut, and receivers coach Mike Levenseller has no misgivings about living up to it. Anderson has no current football commitments; even his gear was moved to the track locker room.
“I hate saying this about a young player, but he has a chance to play on Sundays,” Levenseller said. “But this is something that can’t wait. I’m his biggest cheerleader. I enjoy picking up the paper to see how Jeshua did. It’s the first thing that comes up in staff meetings after the weekend.”
Some of that is because he knows Anderson is as driven on the track as he is on the field. He is not simply a prodigy. Cougars distance coach Jason Drake watched Anderson complete a drill in a hailstorm after his own runners had scattered and noted, “That kid is different.” Macdonald and Anderson have already talked about the possibility of running 12 strides between backstretch hurdles – a technique that took Kevin Young to a world record and gold medal.
But mostly, Macdonald marvels at Anderson’s determination, no matter where it shows up.
“I’ve been here a long time,” Macdonald said. “I’m a Cougar fan and when I’m watching him in the Apple Cup beat the Huskies, not one part of me was thinking, ‘Dammit, I wish he was just doing track.’ “
A good thing. Because Jeshua Anderson was born to do more.