College Signing Ceremony for Aya Jackson and Colin Troan!

Given by Jose R. San Miguel on April 12, 2024 at Pole Vault Carolina

When you have a college signing, it’s a super important moment. You can accomplish the next level. But what we seldom understand is the journey that the athletes had to go through to get there. Today we’re going to celebrate that journey. There are a lot of similarities here. Colin and Aya went to middle school together and then they reunited at Pole Vault Carolina. They started at very different levels of pole vaulting, and they arrived at the same destination.

I first met Colin Troan when he used to come here with his older brother, Loren. He was in seventh grade and he didn’t look anything like he does now, neither physically nor emotionally. Pole vaulting became an outlet for Colin, and he went from being a kid that was afraid of failure at pole vaulting to a kid who made it. Colin’s PR is 14’7”.

Through the years, Colin put in the time; the time to become better, the time to be faster, to be stronger and to better understand the pole vault. Colin also became a member of the group instead of a stranger showing up to practice. He was fully vested. And for the last two years, actually, since last May, because he took a semester off to go to a global studies overnight school in D.C, and, he came back and was fully committed to make it into college to vault.

But Colin’s goal was also to be the highest jumping member of his family and that was a big motivation. His older brother competed for the University of Chicago.

He chased Loren’s personal best, and then he chased the next thing and the next thing. Several schools were interested in talking to Colin because they saw what he was doing. For me, the culmination of his success was when I saw his maturity at Nike Nationals in in March. I saw a kid that I recall, and I don’t mean this to make fun, but I recall being demoralized whenever things didn’t go well. At Nike Nationals Colin was on fire. He owned the place. He cleared heights on the first attempt.  Every height he was dancing. He was on the jumbotron showing off. I mean, this kid found his moment.

But that moment didn’t happen without teammates who supported him, and his high school team. Conrad Hall is a fantastic coach, and a fantastic supporter of Colin going out of his way to train here. His school coach Sofia helped him out greatly. Nice job. (Applause for Sofia)

Colin had the support of his family and we congratulate you all.  In New York, when he was going at it on a clean scorecard, attempting a new PR on a clean scorecard, his mother, his dad and his brothers were in the stands cheering him on and Colin was absorbed in the moment. That, for me, was the highlight of his maturity as an athlete and also as a person. Colin took the opportunity and ran with it, and when he missed at a new PR, he was not banging on the mat. He was like, this is fantastic!

We tend to forget those moments because we live with so many days in the misses and what we didn’t accomplish that day. You captured it, Colin.

Now we’re going to start talking about Ayana, but I’m going to come back to Colin, because there are some parallels here that we need to talk about.

Ayana was on a different path. She came in and was like, hey, I own the place. I’m gonna outjump anybody that I have to. And Ayana had the mind for pole vault, but her body was falling apart. Ayana spent half of her high school career injured. She’s doing walking drills over the hurdles, trips, and gets a concussion. She’s out for six months.

Then she sprained her ankle, and hurt her shins. But she never quit. She stayed in the game when she couldn’t jump. She didn’t stay home. She showed up to practice and hung around. When you’re in the environment, you stay in the game. When we go away, it’s really hard to continuing believing that you can do this.

Ayana had a list of schools she was considering, and she reached out to Coach Johnson at NC A&T.  He didn’t respond right away, so I reached out as well and the coach showed up.

And practice was over and they are still talking an hour afterward. I mean, it’s 9:00 and I’m like, practice ended at 8:00 pm. So I say, ‘take your time’ and sit in my car. They finally come out hugging, Ayana, Coach Johnson, and Ayana’s parents. And I’m like, ‘hmm I think I know where this is going’.

Ayana also had the support of her school coach. I joke about Omar Beasley all the time (because Ayana has more photos with Omar than she does with us). But Omar Beasley supported Ayana by giving her the time and the space to develop in an event where he is not an expert. He doesn’t know pole vaulting, but he told Aya to come to Pole Vault Carolina to train. He didn’t put restrictions on her time and she was able to excel. Ayana’s PR is now 12’6.

That is a fantastic accomplishment for someone who spent half of her high school career injured. But just like Colin had his family’s support, Ayanna has her mom and her dad, her grandmothers and her sister.

This journey did not happen from one day to the next. It is the result of consistency over time because if we count the days of struggle, there were more for Colin and Ayanna than the days of happiness and success. The key, and this is for all of you sitting out here who have not committed to go to college yet, or are in doubt of whether or not you’re good enough. You’re good enough. Commit and see how good you are.

You have the option to determine whether you want to pursue this or not. Okay. You will never know unless you do the work to create the option to decide. One thing that they both did is they committed to jump three days a week and to train three days a week. Be consistent. Ayana and Colin improved exponentially not only as athletes, but as teammates and individuals without worrying about the name on their singlets.  They became a team. You should have seen them when they all went to nationals. They helped each other and supported each other. This is the message to all of you: pole vaulting or no pole vaulting, you have to give it the best you got. You have to put the time. The only way to succeed at anything is to dedicate yourself. Colin and Ayana are great students, so they’re going to be a great asset to any school. They are great athletes. They’re going to be a great asset to any team. But there are better people.

Many of you have seen my mom last year sitting here at practice, struggling with her oxygen tank and depression. Well, Ayana used to sit and talk to her. She sat in the car and spent time with her before practice. That is the kind of person she is.

And when there were kids at Cary Academy who were just starting, Colin gave them his attention and shared the knowledge that he had learned. He encouraged them. He went to meets to see his school teammates jump seven feet and there’s Colin cheering them on. Then he would leave school practice to come here and jump. That is called dedication.

I saw you both grow up and I’m so thrilled for the opportunity to be part of your life, and your journey. I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do because it’s going to be awesome.

So right now we have 45 kids on The Wall who have become collegiate athletes. And once you’re that, nobody takes that away from you.  I remember going to job interviews and what everybody wanted to talk about was the sport I used to do. These are skills that are going to serve you for a lifetime. It doesn’t matter if you finish four years of athleticism at your college. You have to get your degree and you will be a better person when you come out. We’re here to support you. We thank the parents for their support and their families, and I’m going to challenge all of you to seek to be the greatest you can be. Ayana is the highest jumping senior that we have had. Colin is on the bubble to be one of the top five seniors of all time.  Congratulations!

The important thing is that they found a place where they fit here, and a place that they fit where they’re going to school, and it’s going to be awesome. Thank you very much for being here. Now, as you guys know, we will remember you by putting your photo on The Wall.

I would like to invite the families or friends to take some pictures. In two weeks, we’ll celebrate at least one more athlete who has already committed. And after the next one, 100% of our seniors who committed to jumping three days a week, will have been recruited.

Let’s get up and clap long and hard for Ayana and Colin!