Track & Field | November 21, 2017

Redshirt senior jumper Eric Sloan is looking forward to the 2018 season. Despite being hampered by injuries throughout his superb career, he has accomplished some amazing things.  Last year he won the Pac-12 triple jump title and set the NCAA West Regional triple jump record with a leap of 55-6.25.  He also placed 6^th nationally in the men's outdoor long jump and 16^th nationally in the men's outdoor triple jump. This year he plans to compete in both the indoor and outdoor seasons, and is hoping to help lead his team to the Pac-12 title and a shot at a national championship.  This is what he has to say prior to the start of his final season as a Trojan:
 
Q: What made you choose USC?
 
ES: I chose USC because it was my dream school. I'd wanted to go here since I was about five. I didn't really know what college was, but I just knew I wanted to come here.
 
Q: What has been your greatest experience at USC, on the track or off?
 
ES: I don't think I can really say it's one thing. Just being here overall is awesome. I love the atmosphere. Whether it's out on the track or in the classroom, everybody just wants to be excellent, everybody wants to be great. The Trojan Family is another great aspect of USC. In the classroom everybody wants to help you succeed. On the track, the team is always supporting you. Whether it be at practice or at a meet, they're always cheering you on and making sure that you're doing everything that you can do to be the best. The alumni are awesome, too. There are always opportunities to further your career plan or whatever you're trying to do. We have dinners where people come in and talk about their careers and how they got there. USC track alums come in too and talk about the work they had to put in to become professionals. Everyone here just wants you to succeed and be the best.
 
Q: How have your coaches helped you grow as an athlete and person?
 
ES: As far as being a better person, our head coach (Caryl Smith Gilbert) really hones in on that. She has people come in and talk to us all the time. She also puts on career fairs for us. She teaches us things that we are going to use later on in life. Out on the track, it's the same. She tells us how it's going to be at the next level, and definitely gets us prepared for it. She also works hard to prepare us to win the national championship. Everything we do is focused first on being excellent, and second on trying to win the national championship and being the best we can be.
 
Q: What are your goals for this season?
 
ES: This season, really I just want to stay healthy and I want to win nationals, indoor and outdoor. As far as specific marks I want to go 57 feet in the triple jump and 27 feet in the long jump.
 
Q: What have you done to combat the injuries you've gotten at USC?
 
ES: The trainers are excellent, first off. I've been working with our trainer Dunford (Rodill). He's been working on flexibility with me, because that was causing me a lot of injuries. We've been focusing on that a lot. We have massage therapists that come in. We have soft-tissue specialists that come in to get the people with injuries prepared. I've mainly just been focused on flexibility because that's been the major issue for me.
 
Q: What do you like to do when you're not training or doing schoolwork?
 
ES: I like to hang out with my roommates Dom (Smallwood) and Randall (Cunningham). They're a big reason why I ended up coming here. They were super welcoming when I met them on my visit. Like I said, the team makes you feel at home and those two in particular made me feel like I was at home for sure. I felt like I wasn't even on a visit. It was awesome, clicking with them like that. I would consider them family. Those are like my brothers now. We hang out a lot, we play video games together, and we're all into shoes so we collect shoes.
 
Q: What video games do you guys play?
 
ES: Madden, NBA 2K. We play Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. We just play a whole bunch of different stuff. We've got a foosball table at our house, so we play that. We're all competitive so it gets fun, it gets interesting.
 
Q: What are you planning to do after you graduate from USC?
 
ES: I want to go pro and hopefully do that for a little bit. While I'm doing that I want to go to graduate school and get my master's in clinical psychology and then eventually get my Ph.D. and become a clinical psychologist.