Each sport in its own right is unique. Athletes train their bodies to fit the style of their sport, how it’s played and their position. Pitchers work on stamina and lower body strength, basketball player’s work on lateral quickness and explosiveness and hockey players work on balance and agility. However, very few sports are able to coexist and overlap with the demands each sport requires as football and track and field do.
“In our history in track and field, we have had some outstanding football/track and field athletes,” track and field coach Rollie Geiger said. “It is an absolute good marriage for the two sports.”
And junior sprinter TJ Graham is a first-hand example. In his first three seasons in Raleigh, Graham has been known as a speedster wide receiver who can, at any time, take a kickoff or punt to the house.
But before arriving at State, the people who knew about Graham knew him for his sprinting ability. This ability helped the Raleigh native win the 4-A state championships in both the 100 and 200-meter sprints his senior year in high school.
“I have been around TJ [Graham] for a long time as he was on our track when he was young. If you go back to his senior year in high school, he was one of the top-5 sprinters in the country,” Geiger said. “Track and field was a sport were he was at the national level.”
But it was Graham’s love for football that led him to the Pack.
“The reason why I came here was because a lot of other schools that recruited me tried through mostly the track program,” Graham said. “But here I wanted to be a football player first and if I had a chance to run track I would. They understood that and they approached me and said that ‘we want you to play football here and we will discuss track in the future, it’s a possibility.'”
After being unable to run track his first two seasons in Raleigh due to his football commitment, academics and injury, Graham has finally been able to return to his first passion.
“I have wanted to run the past two years but my first year I didn’t do so well in the classroom. Balancing, starting as a freshman and playing and school, I just didn’t’ balance the two well,” Graham said. “So we chose not to let me run that year, to focus on schoolwork. And last year, I was recovering from injury so I couldn’t run last year.
“So this is the year where everything fell into place and I could do both.”
It seems that even after a two-year hiatus, Graham has not missed a beat as he has already begun to break N.C. State records. So far this season, Graham has already moved into second place all-time for the 60-meter dash.
But Graham has lofty expectations for himself this season, and second place in the record books isn’t one of them.
“I plan on trying to finish up this year as one of the best sprinters at N.C. State,” Graham said.
Graham isn’t the only one who believes he has the capabilities to do that. His coach shares that opinion. Geiger believes Graham can be one of the best sprinters in State history once he reacquaints himself with track.
“TJ is a little rusty in track and field,” Geiger said. “But he will be a plus. The goal is to have him be an impact player in the ACC and then get him to the national championships.”
That rust is understandable as Graham admits being in football shape is extremely different from being in sprinting shape.
“Track practice will test your endurance a lot more than football. Football practice at the very beginning of the year is pretty tough because you are getting back in shape,” Graham said. “But transitioning from being in good football shape to being out of shape for track is the biggest difference.”
Part of that difference starts with the level of sprinting each sport requires. In track, it’s full throttle 100 percent of the time, while football requires a bit of pacing.
“Say I run a post route. I get up to top speed at the end of the route. In track, I am at top speed within six, seven steps and its full speed the whole time,” Graham said. “In football I can’t run an out-route or slant at full speed. I have to idle it down a little bit.”
Ultimately, the goal for both Geiger and Graham is to help further advance the sprinters abilities to not only help him earn points for the track team, but to help him become a better football player.
“The idea is to have him not only help us in track and field but that we possibly can help him become faster as an athlete, enabling him to run back more kick returns,” Geiger said.
Even though the head coach has to share Graham, with football coming first once spring practice begins, the coach doesn’t mind, saying he enjoys having football players on his team because of the attitudes that they bring.
“I have always enjoyed having football players on the track and field teams because they bring this team aspect. They are so different,” Geiger said. “Track and field is such an individualized sport and they come in and its about the team. I really enjoy that.”
