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By Christopher Hunt
Janice Jackson didn’t need to agonize over which college to go to. Sometimes you go to the store already knowing what you’re going to buy. All you need to do is try it on.
The Medgar Evers senior, and the national leader in the 55 hurdles, chose the University of Clemson. She knew before she even went to visit. She signed a National Letter of Intent Friday.
“It was kind of obviously but I had to go see it at least,” Jackson said.
The director of track and field at Clemson, Lawrence Johnson, is known as one of the best hurdles coaches in the country. Johnson is in his first season at Clemson. He was named National Assistant Coach of the Year last year while at Virginia Tech where he coached Queen Harrison onto the Olympic team in the 400 hurdles and Kristi Castlin to a runner-up finish in the 60-meter hurdles last year at the NCAA Championships as a sophomore.
“I think it’s one of the best choices she could have made,” Jackson’s hurdles coach James Phipps said, nothing Johnson’s history of developing great hurdlers.
Jackson’s decision came down to Clemson and Villanova but Clemson already had some familiarity. Fatmata Fofanah is a volunteer assistant coach at Clemson. She also trained with Phipps as an all-American hurdler at Bronx Science, who went on to be an all-American at Georgia Tech. Plus, Jackson said she wanted to make sure she could train in warm weather so going to school and training in South Carolina sounded like a perfect fit.
“When we got off the plane (two weeks ago), when it was snowing here, it was 64 degrees there,” Phipps said. “She was like, ‘that’s it.’”
Jackson really made a name for herself last year when she won the state championship in the 55 hurdles and continued the year as one of the best hurdlers in the country. At the NJ Varsity Classic Monday she set the fastest time in the country this season in the 55 hurdles, clocking 7.6 in the semi-finals.
“Last year everybody thought that I was a fluke,” Jackson said. “Like where did I come from? … The process, it was another one of those things that you have to do. You don’t want to wait until the last minute so I’m happy it’s done. Now I have that out of the way and I can just focus on the hurdles.”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrak.com.