It’s like he never left.
There he was, as always, at the long-jump pit during the Rocky View Sports Association Divisional high school track-and-field meet at Foothills Athletic Park in Calgary.
But he wasn’t clad in the blue Bow Valley High School Bobcats track singlet he wore four seasons at the Cochrane school. Rather, clinging to a tape measure and a clipboard, he was supervising the triple- and long-jump events he competed in throughout high school.
Cole Lethebe is now leaping at the next level with the University of Calgary Dinos track team.
The lanky Bow Valley Class of ’14 grad with the “mad hops” has wrapped up his inaugural Canada West University Athletic Association indoor season and is training for the summer outdoor club campaign. He capped his indoor season with a fourth-place finish in triple jump (13.97 metres) at the Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CWUAA) indoor championships at University of Manitoba in February. He also competes in long jump and high jump.
“I miss high school basketball,” he cracks, taking a break from marshalling high-school Divisional long-jump events held in sunny, breezy conditions May 20 at the athletic park on the southern outer edge of U of C’s main campus.
Count U of C Dinos track head coach Doug Lamont as grateful for having Lethebe aboard.
“I am really excited for what Cole did this year and the prospects of what he will contribute in the upcoming years,” Lamont enthuses. “He is an outstanding addition to our program as an athlete, a student and a human being.”
For Lethebe, it’s an explosive sprint down the runway of long- and triple-jumping’s next level.
“We’re training all summer,” Lethebe says. “Better athletes. It took a while to get used to training five days a week. And all the weight-training and stuff. It was a lot of stuff I wasn’t used to.
“I had a bad year long-jumping.”
Triple jump went much better for the Cochranite.
“Triple, I went up to just over 14 metres,” he relays. “That’s 40 centimetres more than I jumped in high school.”
At 19 years old, the 6-foot-2 leaper is not getting any slower or any lower
“Love it so far,” he says of his collegiate freshman track season. “I like my training group a lot. I like my coach a lot. I had a good first year, actually.”
He’s now training for a summer outdoor track season that includes junior nationals in July and Western Canada Summer Games in Fort McMurray in August.
