By Mitch Abramson
At Randall's Island Sunday, the Forest Hills senior easily won the event with a height of 13 feet, 6 inches in front of a group of delighted athletes and coaches. The only person in attendance who wasn't relaxed was his coach William Lopez, the person who knew him the best.”I was real worried (before the event),” Lopez said. “After he won the indoor city championships, he's been kind of up and down. There were a couple of meets where he no-heighted because he was having problems with his technique. This is a rhythm event and if you don't have that you can run into trouble.”Makatsi, who is originally from Zimbabwe, Africa failed to clear a starting height of 10 feet, 6 inches a week before the city championships at a DeWitt Clinton meet, a startling situation for someone like Makotsi.Lopez was concerned that Makotsi was over-thinking his attempts and was unraveling emotionally. Makotsi failed to clear his starting height three times since he won the Indoor City Championships in February, which means that he had fallen short on all of his initial attempts. Because Makatsi is only 5-foot-6 and 145 pounds, his technique must be flawless in order for him to be successful. Any misstep or lapse in concentration can corrupt his efforts.To deal with this crisis, Lopez sent him back to DeWitt Clinton to practice pole-vaulting with coaches from Taft HS, who were conducting a mini-clinic May 23. Makotsi not only got back his confidence, he also found a new pole that he used Sunday to surpass his previous best of 12 feet and three inches.”I was using a poll that was 13 feet and six inches, and I started using a 14-foot poll,” Makotsi said. “I could see the difference immediately. I was getting higher in the air. The feeling was great.”He cleared 13 feet at Clinton and spent the rest of the week practicing at Forest Hills. With his confidence and rhythm up to par, Makatsi will compete at the New York State Outdoor Championships Thursday in Syracuse.”I was scared before today,” Makatsi said. “I wasn't sure what was going to happen. Fortunately, everything worked out for the best.”For superior athletes like Makotsi and August Martin's James Blocker – who won the high-jump competition Sunday with a leap of six feet and eleven inches, one inch off his personal best and two inches off the meet record- being stuck in a slump so close to a big competition can be terrifying. After Blocker won the Indoor City Championships with a jump of seven feet, his jumps declined to such a worrisome degree that at one point he was having trouble clearing six feet and four inches.”It was all mental,” the senior said. “I wasn't getting enough vertical and psychologically, I wasn't all there. I was experiencing a lot of pain and anger from the loss of my grandparents and from other stuff, and you put it together and it was affecting me in competitions.”Blocker, who was voted the “Outstanding Senior” for the indoor season, lost his grandfather in 2002 and his grandmother in 2004. On Sunday, he cleared his mind and let his mechanics and athleticism take over. He credits his grandfather for inspiring him to begin high-jumping.”I can say that I'm officially out of my slump now,” said Blocker, who will attend Essex Community College in New Jersey and plans on transferring to Morgan State University.August Martin's Dean Brown took second in the high-jump with a personal best of six feet and five inches. Unlike his first ever experience in the long-jump, Brown was dressed in shorts instead of blue jeans.Last October, Brown was watching Blocker spring over a six-foot bar in the basement of August Martin, and on a whim – while he was wearing his school clothes – he soared over the bar on his first try.”My coach told me that based on that attempt, I was already the third best high-jumper in the city,” he said. “That was the first time I ever tried that event. People were going crazy.”Brown, an honor student who wants to study chemical engineering in college, says he often succeeds in performing difficult chores on the very first try. He proved his point by telling a story of the time he built a cable satellite out of an umbrella and copper wiring as a kid. His mother was thrilled with the prospects of having cable television until the wiring caught fire and exploded.”If I watch someone do something, then after a while I can kind of pick it up,” said Brown, who will attend City College on an academic scholarship.Reach reporter Mitch Abramson by E-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300 Ext. 130.
