JSerra's Steed soars to impressive heights

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO-- It's weird, he says, rising backward, 7 feet over the ground we walk on.

Launched by yourself.

"When I start I'm thinking about my technique," Harrison Steed said. "But when I'm up there I'm not thinking about anything. I'm taking a peek at the bar while I'm going over it, and then when I land I'm looking up at that bar and saying, please, stay up there."

Sometimes it doesn't. At the Trinity League championships last weekend, Steed ran toward a bar hanging at 7 feet, ¼ inch. The fans at Mission Viejo ignored everything else for a moment. They inhaled hard when Steed sailed over, and then they bellowed.

And moaned.

The bar fell on Steed, a second or two after he surpassed it, not by the wind but because the edge of the jumping pit jostled the standard.

It was not a shattering experience.

Harrison Steed is 16.

"He's a high jumping savant," said Marty Dugard, the track and field coach at JSerra. "I'm glad he's got his own high jump coach. I wouldn't want to screw him up."

Steed is a 6-foot-3, 150-pound sophomore who can chin a basketball rim. "But it's pretty challenging physically to play Trinity League basketball," said Bill Steed, Harrison's father, so they've shelved the hoops for now.

Had Steed cleared 7-0 ¼, only seven high schoolers in the U.S. would lead him today.

As it is, his 7-0 jump at San Clemente tied him for high Californian, with Nick Ross of Vista Murrieta and Tynan Murray of Poway.

Ricky Robertson of Hernando, Miss., is No. 1 outdoors, with a 7-3.

Only two county jumpers are out there for Steed: Elliott Parks of El Toro (7-2 in 1997) and Kevin Carlson of Katella (7-1 in 1991).

At a recent practice, high jump coach Ron Lee jacked up the bar to 7-1 when Steed wasn't looking. Steed thought it was 6-10 and took a run. Then Lee raised it to 7-4 and showed Steed. It didn't seem like Pluto.

"I have some goals," Steed said. "I want to get to 7-8 before I get out of high school."

The national high school record is 7-7, by Andra Manson of Brenham, Texas, six years ago.

"And I'm looking at the Olympic trials," Steed said.

Presumably he meant 2012. But you never know with these kids.

"We want to go to the trials in Eugene (Ore.) this summer so he can get an idea what it's like," Bill Steed said.

First comes a four-weekend grind of playoffs, beginning today and building toward the state meet at Cerritos College May 30-31.

Steed went 6-4 last year when he became the first JSerra athlete to win a CIF title. He gritted his way to 6-6 at the state meet despite a bad hip flexor.

More injuries ruined this April, but he catches up quickly, with long strides.

"When he was hurt this year we talked a lot about technique," Lee said. "He was holding his hands up and knocking off the bar with his foot after the rest of his body had cleared. We talked about bringing the arms down and keeping them inside. Suddenly he was going 6-9."

Lee was the top high school jumper in Oregon and went to Cal State L.A., eventually clearing 7-2. He wins Masters meets and has a son, Sean, who jumps 4-3 even though he's only 4-6.

Lee has a pit in his backyard and lots of videos. He was aligned perfectly to greet a floppy-haired guy with braces, to soar into his life.

"Harrison was out here wanting to jump before we even had a pit set up," Dugard said. "We'd give him something else to do, and he'd always come back. Then Ron Lee just showed up. The fact that both of them found each other is uncanny. That's why I say Harrison was born to do this."

Steed and Lee have a dialog based on shared experience, full of "I think that was 6-6, wasn't it?" and "No, that was 6-8." They both are quite aware of what's happening here, where it might lead.

"I was always jumping around," Steed said. "Everybody said I had pretty good hops, and then one day they had a high jump competition at Los Flores (in the eighth grade) and I won it. When I got here I realized there might be something to this."

Bill Steed handled IPO's and the like in his first career, and his wife, Carol, got into avocado farming. Now they run a ranch, east of Fallbrook, that produces the most blueberries in Southern California. Harrison is the fourth of four boys, born 30 minutes after his twin brother Gavin.

"It's a great thing, track, and I never knew it," Bill said. "It's like swimming, because it requires a lot of discipline. I just like the people, the atmosphere."

Even way up there.

Contact the writer: mwhicker@ocregister.com