College has been an up-and-down ride for Jeremy Hicks for multiple reasons.The senior long jumper from Houston began his career at LSU with promise, earning All-Southeastern Conference honors as a freshman with a 25-foot, 10 3/4-inch jump to take second place at the SEC Outdoor Championships.But Hicks’ performances leveled off the next two seasons. He earned another outdoor all-conference nod in the long jump in 2008 despite dealing with groin and abdominal injuries, but missed all-conference honors in 2007 — all while failing to surpass the personal-best mark he set in 2006.And while Hicks is one of the nation’s leading long jumpers heading into the NCAA Outdoor Championships beginning Wednesday in Fayetteville, Ark., the former Elsik High School standout almost didn’t make it this far.”It was very, very, very frustrating. I almost felt like I wanted to quit track,” Hicks said. “But I told myself that my next year I would do something about it. So here I am now.”Hicks has one of the best chances of any athlete for the No. 5 Tigers or the No. 3 Lady Tigers going into this week’s championships to win his or her respective event. He is No. 3 in the nation with a 26-foot, 3-inch long jump performance at the prestigious Penn Relays in April.Hicks didn’t exactly win the Penn Relays title running away. He won the event on his sixth and final jump of the competition.That situation was all too familiar for Hicks. He beat Nicholas Gordon of Nebraska that event, who came back to beat him at the NCAA Indoor Championships back in March on his final attempt of the competition.”[Coach Dennis Shaver] told me ‘good job’ [after the NCAA Indoors] and that I would eventually get [Gordon] somewhere in the outdoor season,” Hicks said. “He told me to try not to let it beat me at outdoor nationals.”Shaver said Hicks has had success this season by telling the coaches more about how he’s felt physically during the season in order to avoid injuries.Hicks may be communicating more with Shaver this season, but there was somebody else he wasn’t talking to as much after his injuries.He didn’t say much to Sean Washington, his high school coach, about the rough times he was going through and not because the two didn’t have any kind of bond — Washington, who was also one of Hicks’ high school football coaches, said the two have had a strong relationship since Hicks was a freshman at Elsik.”He did disappear there, cut off the communication there for a while,” Washington said. “I knew something was going on. I didn’t have to call anyone at LSU. I could just read the results over the Internet, just view it online.”The two still talk. Washington said the last time he talked to Hicks was at the Texas Relays in Austin, a little more than three hours from Houston, in April.Washington has had a simple message for Hicks during his tough times at LSU: keep his head up, don’t give up and remember to finish his education.”The rest of it will come,” Washington said.Now after battling injuries, setbacks and communication issues, Hicks is one of LSU’s main scoring threats heading into the NCAA championships.The Tigers have qualified 12 individual athletes in nine events and two relay teams for the championships, while the Lady Tigers have 14 athletes in eight events and two relay teams competing in Fayetteville.”Realistically I think a top-five finish with the men’s team certainly I would feel would be very good,” Shaver said. “We could be a team that everything fell just right for us and we got a little bit of help, then certainly our men could win.”But Hicks won’t be satisfied with only a top-five finish. He’s in it for the long haul.”I have a lot of faith in myself,” Hicks said. “I just keep on telling myself that I’m in it to win it.”—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]