Nashua North's Delicema reaching next level of boys track with help of Project Triple Jump

Like many people across the world, Triston Delicema has the Olympics on his mind.

But while most of those folks are preparing for the start of the 2018 Winter Olympics on Friday, the Nashua High School North junior is thinking of the summer games.

Perhaps the ones in Paris in 2024, or maybe, if everything goes right, in 2020 in Tokyo.

A year ago, it might have seemed like a distant dream for Delicema, but a lot has changed in that time. Since then, he's set a state outdoor track record and a New England championship among his list of accomplishments.

It wasn't too long after that, Delicema received a phone call that could potentially put those dreams on a faster track.

In need of an event

When he first started running track, Delicema had visions of being a sprinter, but not long after joining the North track program, reality struck.

"I thought I was a sprinter at first," he said. "I thought I was going to be the fastest kid alive, and then I got to high school. I was not the fastest kid alive."

The coaching staff worked with him, trying to find an event for someone who was clearly a talented athlete. With sprints out of the question, Delicema tried the long jump, and was good enough at the event, but then someone suggested he try the triple jump.

"We tried him a little bit in sprinting, he was OK at it, but he doesn’t have that top-end speed that the top guys have," North principal and assistant coach Nate Burns said. "We were bouncing him around, we tried the 200, we tried some relays, and then all of sudden, we said let’s give triple jump a go-round. He was a natural. I think his first meet he jumped 43 or 44 feet. We said all right, he’s something special."

From the first attempted jump, it felt like a perfect fit.

"I noticed the first phase is just something I do a lot, just jumping from one foot to the same foot," Delicema said. "That came easy. I picked up the pattern quickly. My first jump was far. That was freshman year. It was kind of a quarter through the season and I just picked it up."

After turning in some successful jumps during the outdoor season as a freshman, Delicema had to wait until the following spring to compete in the triple jump again. New Hampshire's indoor track season only features the long jump, and as a sophomore, he placed fourth at the Division I meet with a jump of 20-feet, 3-inches.

As the 2017 spring season came to end, things really took off.

"He’s clearly got some talent," Burns said. "He jumped well as a freshman and came back as a sophomore, and ended up winning the state meet, broke the state record, went to New Englands, broke his own record there, and then also won there."

Delicema did well in the long jump, finishing second in Division I, but in the triple jump, he not only won the event, but finished with a jump of 48-1.25, breaking a 35-year old state record. Two weeks later, after finishing first at the Meet of Champions in the triple jump, he broke his own record at the New England Regional Championship, taking first with a jump of 48-1.5.

"Last year was a good year," Delicema said. "Every year I’ve been doing it has been a good year. I tried football freshman year. I didn’t like it that much. When triple jump started going well, (football) was like more of a liability."

From an athlete with no events, to a New England champion and state recorder-holder, Delicema was about to have another door open wide for him.

Project Triple Jump

Not long after the school year ended, while preparing offseason workout plans for members of the track team, Burns received an email about something called Project Triple Jump.

"I had never heard anything about it." Burns said. "I did a quick Google search and it looked legit. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just somebody trying to get some money (from Delicema)."

A program sponsored by the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation, the stated goal of Project Triple Jump is to "identify emerging elite youth and junior triple jump talent and provide them with the best technical and training methods available, and to maximize their development to international level jumpers in order (to) represent the United States in Olympic/World Championship events."

It's one of a handful of such programs, which also includes Project Javelin, designed to help U.S. Track and Field improve in events that it's struggled in at times on an international state.

The triple jump program is run by a handful of coaches, including Peter Pratt, a former triple jumper from the Bahamas; Macka L. Jones, a former all-conference triple jumper at UTEP; Willie Banks, a member of the U.S. National Track and Field Hall of Fame and three-time Olympian in the 1980s; and Dr. Margaret Ottley.

After talking to coaches involved with the program, Burns passed along Delicema's contact information, and 10 days later, he was on his way to South Dakota to take part in his first Project Triple Jump workout.

"When I read the paper, I realized it was an Olympic project that they’re willing to train you if you work hard and I was like ‘whoa,'" Delicema said. "It was cool just being around these other athletes. It makes you feel cool to be around. Even when we play a game of pickup Frisbee before practice, it’s like ‘dang, these kids are all athletic.’ It’s an intense game."

Delicema also participated in workouts at Stanford University and in the Bahamas last year. In January, the program brought him to San Diego, where he not only got to work with Banks, but former Olympians Chris Bernard and Mike Powell.

"I feel like I’ve learned a lot, especially after the Olympians came to talk to us," Delicema said. "They unlocked some hidden secrets that we didn’t really know. They talked about physics and force and how to use it. They were getting pretty deep. It was kind of funny, you could see how it was useful."

Wealth of Knowledge

After training with some of the best athletes and coaches in the country, Delicema has tried to pass along what he's learned not just to his teammates, but also Burns and assistant coach Samson Horne.

"Our goal is to have him come back and teach the younger kids some of the stuff he’s been learning," Burns said.

It wouldn't be the first time Burns has seen it happen with a Nashua athlete.

"Laura (Gerraughty) did some of the same thing," he said.

Gerraughty, who graduated from Nashua High School in 2001 and competed in the shot put at the 2004 Athens Olympics, still holds the state record in the shot put for both indoor and outdoor seasons, and at one time held the national high school record and NCAA Division I record.

As she continued to develop throughout high school, former Nashua assistant coach Bill Stumpf went with her, learning the best techniques and workouts for someone who had reached the level that Gerraughty had.

"She sort of outgrew him and he started going to the clinics and he became one of the best throwers coaches we’ve ever seen in New Hampshire, at least at the high school level," Burns said. "Hopefully the same thing will happen with Samson."

What's next

Whether the same will happen for Delicema is still a ways off, as the next big event for him and his North teammates will be Sunday's Division I indoor championship meet at Dartmouth College. Delicema enters as the top seed in the long jump, having recorded a jump of 21-10 this season, almost a foot-and-a-half further than the next jumper.

"I’m looking to hit 23 (feet) to be honest," he said. "I definitely should be able to get there."

Workouts with Project Triple Jump have come to an end until after the school year, which means he's now on his own in terms of following the regimen he was given.

"I have to make it happen," Delicema said. "Seeing how I’ve made out so far, I think I should be OK to train on my own. I’m going to train throughout the summer and I think things are just going to go up for me."

Burns has already started to see interest from colleges increase, including some strong track programs like Stanford and LSU.

"That’s unbelievable," he said. "He’s got a good head on his shoulders and he’s been a pleasure to work with. I’m excited to see where this takes him. I’m hoping I get a phone call and he says 'hey, coach, I’m going to the Olympics.'"