Inside Recruiting: For Cheltenham's Brissett, Olympic trials first, then college
Even before she drifts off to sleep each night, Cheltenham High junior track star Chanel Brissett is never too far from her dreams.
Even before she drifts off to sleep each night, Cheltenham High junior track star Chanel Brissett is never too far from her dreams.
Just above her bed, written on hot-pink poster board, Brissett has scrawled personal records since she was 11 that simultaneously show where she's been and where she's going.
Where the 16-year-old is headed is likely to a major Division I track program. In July, however, she may also be headed to the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Oregon.
"It feels great," said Brissett, who is currently qualified to compete in the 100-meter hurdles. "It really shows me that anything is possible. I would never have thought this. I wasn't even thinking about the Olympic trials. I just wanted to go to college. That's it!"
For now, Brissett's time of 13.09 seconds at the Penn Relays last month made her a provisional qualifier, which means she is one of the top 32 hurdlers in the country. It is possible, however, that an opponent could still run a faster time and bump her out of position.
Cheltenham track coach Kelly Jensen, however, said he is confident that Brissett will run an even faster time and ensure herself a spot at the trials.
"To put this in context," Jensen said, "if this was professional basketball, this would be like Kobe Bryant jumping to the pros."
Though they can't make official scholarship offers until after July 1, top college track programs hope to be Brissett's intermediate step.
Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Oregon and others have expressed interest.
Her older brother Christian, a former Cheltenham High star, is a freshman sprinter at the University of Iowa.
Brissett comes from a family of sprinters. Her father, Delroy, and her mother, Sheryl, were sprinters in Jamaica.
"This 16-year-old is focused," Delroy Brissett said. "This 16-year-old is driven. She has goals that she has set for herself, and I've watched her work hard to achieve those goals."
Ironically, hurdles weren't even part of her plan. As a freshman, Jensen urged her to compete, and Brissett did it reluctantly.
"I did it one time," she said, smiling, "I fell and I didn't want to do it again."
Typically, each hurdler takes just three steps between hurdles. When Brissett first started, nerves and inexperience made her take five. Nervous energy remains, but for now it appears to fuel determination and drive.
"Hurdles is such a risky event," Brissett said. "You could hit one and fall. You could have a bad start. You could fall and not get up, or you could just completely lose. It's really just a scary event because anything can happen. But that's what I like about it. It's anybody's race. No matter how good you are, you can still lose."
Winning, to Brissett, isn't necessarily tied to her performance at the Olympic trials. The experience and the fact that she qualified, she said, is enough.
True victory, Brissett added, begins with college.
"She understands that eventually she will have to hang the spikes up," Delroy Brissett said. "So what do you do when you're not on the track anymore?"
If all goes according to her plan, Brissett will likely become one of the fastest doctors in the country.
To that end, the ability to study biomedicine is important to her college decision, despite how difficult balancing school, track and life could become.
"I've gotten used to it, because I've been running track since I was 11," Brissett said. "And the sacrifice is worth it when you're going places."
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