University Southern California Trojans
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Getting to Know Jalyn Jackson
January 30, 2020 | Track & Field
Jalyn Jackson is a sophomore long and triple jumper for the Trojans. The 2020 season is his first season at USC after transferring from Cal. He is from San Diego, Calif. and attended Eastlake HS in Chula Vista, Calif. Jackson is currently studying communications.
Q: Why did you choose the USC track and field team?
JJ: Originally, for my first year, I was actually at Cal Berkeley and I then I ended up transferring to USC due to coaching changes. I also changed my major so it was a better fit to attend USC for my second year, and for the rest of my years.
Q: What do you enjoy about USC?
JJ: I love how it's both academically and athletically driven. It's one of the only schools in the nation that has a really good balance of both, and so ultimately that's why I thought it was the best decision for me to come here.
Q: What's your favorite part about being a student athlete at USC?
JJ: The athletic dining hall. The food, especially the breakfast, it's amazing and I don't take it for granted!
Q: Why track and field as your sport?
JJ: My dad put me in pretty much every sport growing up, but track and field was the one sport that I decided to stick with. I told him I wanted to run, and so ever since around the fifth or sixth grade it kind of just took off from there. I stuck with track.
Q: What is the biggest adjustment for you going from high school to Cal and now being at USC?
JJ: Definitely the high school to college transition was a little tough but I found it easier transitioning from Berkeley to USC just because it's similar in academic rigor and very similar athletically. Transferring colleges was a smoother transition than from high school to college because my priorities were different. I think I've developed a lot since then.
Q: How do you balance being a student and an athlete?
JJ: It is hard, but making sure I am organized and writing everything down because I have so much going on that I forget about things. Using my Google calendars and physically writing things down helps me make sure that I'm doing everything I need to do every week, it helps balance my time. I've gotten to the swing of things now.
Q: What are your goals for this season?
JJ: My goal for this season is definitely to place at indoor and outdoor nationals. I feel like qualifying at this point is attainable, just to get there and now it's all about scoring points and helping our team win a national title.
Q: Do you have any pre-race rituals?
JJ: No, not really. I just make sure I get in the right mindset. I don't have any rituals or anything that I go over other than making sure that I'm wearing the same socks. For some reason, if I'm wearing two different mismatched socks, I feel off and it's just going to be bad.
Q: What is one thing people do not know about you?
JJ: I'm a huge music consumer and I try to branch out from the usual genres like Hip Hop & Rap. I try to discover new artists and just expand my music taste with good undiscovered artists. There's a lot of great music out in the world that people don't know about. Music is just one of those things that can't be replicated and it plays a huge role in my life.
Q: Who is an artist you would recommend your friends to listen too?
JJ: Tyler the Creator. He is one of those artists that is known but isn't mainstream, so that's someone that I would tell people to listen to just because he's such a great artist.
Q: Do you have any role models?
JJ: Definitely Tyler the Creator. He's just such a down to earth person, obviously I don't know him personally, but I just relate to his music a lot and I look up to him. He's the one person that inspires me to not stick to any stereotypes, branch out and discover other things people wouldn't typically do. He is just a huge inspiration to me.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish outside of track?
JJ: Obviously graduate. I think it's very important to graduate so I can be successful in life even if track doesn't work out in the future. I just want to be successful and do what I'm supposed to do by getting my degree.
Q: What is a fun fact about you?
JJ: I am a lefty and I am half Black and half Belizean with a tiny bit of Mexican too.
Q: Why did you choose the USC track and field team?
JJ: Originally, for my first year, I was actually at Cal Berkeley and I then I ended up transferring to USC due to coaching changes. I also changed my major so it was a better fit to attend USC for my second year, and for the rest of my years.
Q: What do you enjoy about USC?
JJ: I love how it's both academically and athletically driven. It's one of the only schools in the nation that has a really good balance of both, and so ultimately that's why I thought it was the best decision for me to come here.
Q: What's your favorite part about being a student athlete at USC?
JJ: The athletic dining hall. The food, especially the breakfast, it's amazing and I don't take it for granted!
Q: Why track and field as your sport?
JJ: My dad put me in pretty much every sport growing up, but track and field was the one sport that I decided to stick with. I told him I wanted to run, and so ever since around the fifth or sixth grade it kind of just took off from there. I stuck with track.
Q: What is the biggest adjustment for you going from high school to Cal and now being at USC?
JJ: Definitely the high school to college transition was a little tough but I found it easier transitioning from Berkeley to USC just because it's similar in academic rigor and very similar athletically. Transferring colleges was a smoother transition than from high school to college because my priorities were different. I think I've developed a lot since then.
Q: How do you balance being a student and an athlete?
JJ: It is hard, but making sure I am organized and writing everything down because I have so much going on that I forget about things. Using my Google calendars and physically writing things down helps me make sure that I'm doing everything I need to do every week, it helps balance my time. I've gotten to the swing of things now.
Q: What are your goals for this season?
JJ: My goal for this season is definitely to place at indoor and outdoor nationals. I feel like qualifying at this point is attainable, just to get there and now it's all about scoring points and helping our team win a national title.
Q: Do you have any pre-race rituals?
JJ: No, not really. I just make sure I get in the right mindset. I don't have any rituals or anything that I go over other than making sure that I'm wearing the same socks. For some reason, if I'm wearing two different mismatched socks, I feel off and it's just going to be bad.
Q: What is one thing people do not know about you?
JJ: I'm a huge music consumer and I try to branch out from the usual genres like Hip Hop & Rap. I try to discover new artists and just expand my music taste with good undiscovered artists. There's a lot of great music out in the world that people don't know about. Music is just one of those things that can't be replicated and it plays a huge role in my life.
Q: Who is an artist you would recommend your friends to listen too?
JJ: Tyler the Creator. He is one of those artists that is known but isn't mainstream, so that's someone that I would tell people to listen to just because he's such a great artist.
Q: Do you have any role models?
JJ: Definitely Tyler the Creator. He's just such a down to earth person, obviously I don't know him personally, but I just relate to his music a lot and I look up to him. He's the one person that inspires me to not stick to any stereotypes, branch out and discover other things people wouldn't typically do. He is just a huge inspiration to me.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish outside of track?
JJ: Obviously graduate. I think it's very important to graduate so I can be successful in life even if track doesn't work out in the future. I just want to be successful and do what I'm supposed to do by getting my degree.
Q: What is a fun fact about you?
JJ: I am a lefty and I am half Black and half Belizean with a tiny bit of Mexican too.
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