Sterling Scott Is On The Fast Track To Becoming Missouri's Next Great Jumper
1/31/2024
The life of Sterling Scott changed with an unintentional, but impactful moment at the Mississippi North State Meet during his junior year of high school.
In his penultimate high school season, Scott’s long jump progressed to where he wanted it to be, hitting around 23 feet. But his triple jump lagged with a personal best of just 44 feet, far from where he wanted it to be heading into a pivotal time for his high school career.
At the meet right before the Mississippi State Championships, he went for a leap on the triple jump as he had done countless times in practice and competition. But on this jump, he mistakenly hit the board with his right foot instead of his left, which was the natural way he jumped for as long as he could remember.
“Since both of my parents were triple jumpers, and I had known what that was for a long time, I made the decision very early on, like six or seven years old, to jump off my left,” Scott said. “I just stuck with it even though seven-year-olds don’t know what’s best for training.”
The blessing in disguise resulted in the best jump of Scott’s career up to that point by a wide margin. The 44-foot PR was relegated to a distant second place after a 49-foot triple jump result, improving his mark by a full five feet in one go.
Less than two years after that fateful jump, Scott’s trajectory has skyrocketed as he enters his freshman year at Missouri with a laundry list of accolades. He’s a three-time Mississippi high school state champion in the triple jump who holds the state’s record in the event. He won the 2022-23 Gatorade Mississippi Boys Track and Field Player of the Year. He topped the podium in national and international events, earning triple jump gold at the 2023 New Balance Nationals and the U-20 Pan American Championships.
After a momentous summer with several major victories and podium placements, Scott joins Iliyan Chamov’s jumpers unit which has been among the most consistent in the country with conference champions and All-Americans to back up that status. Scott is primed to be the next in line among the top jumpers not just on the Tigers’ roster, but in the entire country.
“One of my goals is to let people know that Mizzou is here," Scott said. “I feel like it’s my service to Mizzou fans to put on a show for our university.”
Scott’s path to where he is started later than most jumpers. He didn’t compete at the high school level until his sophomore year because he focused on his soccer career. While not starting his career on the track gave him a slight disadvantage compared to his peers, the reckless abandon with which he played the sport translated well into his transition.
“Ironically, putting myself in really bad positions in soccer had to help me for track because I think it helped me come out of really bad positions,” Scott said. “In the triple jump, it made me used to being really off balance at times.”
The transition into jumping was also made easier by the pedigree of his family as the son of two triple jumpers. His father, Andre, and his mother, Colleen, met as teammates at Auburn and went on to individually succeed at levels similar to their son. Andre is a seven-time All-American while Colleen competed at the international level for the Jamaican national team.
During his high school career, both of Scott's parents coached him up to a state-champion level. Andre, who is the current associate head coach of the Ole Miss track and field program, would write up workouts and weight training for Scott to complete, while Colleen would help him navigate those drills during practice.
While Scott received a lot of support from his family, the competition over who is the best jumper in the family is just as important as winning event titles and placing on the podium.
“We have our huge rivalry in our house because you want to be the top jumper,” Scott said. “That's just what happens when both of your parents are jumpers.”
During Scott’s breakout meet at North State, his personal best was two feet behind his mom’s. After his PR-shattering jump, he moved three feet ahead of her, much to the amusement of his mom who was there coaching him.
“When I finally beat her by three feet, she's like, ‘What have we been doing this whole time? We should have done this two years ago. You would have been way farther ahead,’” Scott said. “But you know, she was just really happy that I ended up figuring it out.”
After a monumental junior year, Scott made his decision to commit to Missouri, joining a team that had seen jumpers such as Arianna Fisher and Roberto Vilches, among many others, develop into multi-time All-Americans in the Black and Gold. For the son of two Auburn grads who are currently employed by Ole Miss and Mississippi State, the decision to go to Missouri might have seemed out of the box, but that’s exactly what Scott wanted.
“I felt comfortable in Mississippi and I wanted to explore something for myself and be on my own,” Scott said. “My parents did the same thing going to Auburn because they both went very far away from home, and I wanted to just do the same thing.”
Scott saw in Chamov’s jumpers a sense of maturity and a recognizable poise about them. Additionally, Scott’s dad and Chamov knew each other from when Andre coached at SIUE and Chamov coached at Lindenwood. In Chamov, Andre Scott knew his son would be set up in the best position to succeed and grow into a world-class jumper.
By many standards, Scott has already reached a world-class jumping level with his success at New Balance Nationals and the U-20 Pan American Championships, in addition to podium finishes at the Nike Indoor National Track Meet and U-20 USA Track and Field Championships. With three major meets over the summer, New Balance Nationals was an afterthought in a sense for Scott as he prepared to compete at even higher levels.
“I trained through New Balance because I wanted to go there, but my dad wanted to focus on Nationals and Pan-Ams,” Scott said. “I don't want to say I didn't care about New Balance — that was a fun meet to go to — but in terms of training, we focused on U-20s.”
Even though Scott won a pair of important meets this past summer, it was the family rivalry that helped him stay grounded and keep his motivation high for more. While Scott cleared the mark to be one of the top triple jumpers in the nation, his dad’s PR of 53 feet — two feet further than his — kept him hungry.
“I understand it's bigger than New Balance and bigger than Pan-Ams,” Scott said. “My goal was not just to be the number one triple jumper but also to beat my dad’s PR and I didn’t beat his PR. It’s a goal I'm still working towards like it's like okay, I did well. But you know, let's focus again because it's not finished.”
“One of my goals is to let people know that Mizzou is here. I feel like it’s my service to Mizzou fans to put on a show for our university.”Sterling Scott
Scott has put the track world on notice with more than just his performances in the triple jump. With his Instagram (@sterlingscott23tf) following at almost 25,000 followers and his TikTok (@sterlingscott23) following nearly 65,000, Scott’s track and field content has made the rounds in track circles.
He started creating relatable track posts after the North State Meet on a separate content page and found a lot of positive feedback from people who came across his videos. Since then, he has seen his traction rise on the track social landscape, and he knew he started making waves when he’d sit down next to other competitors at meets and see his content on their phones.
“When random people come up to you like, ‘I know you from somewhere,’ that's when I knew,” Scott said. Track and field is a very tight-knit community, and I don't think most people realize it's a very large community, but we all are familiar with the same people.”
With his content, Scott hopes to reach not just track and field athletes, but also entertain those who are new or unfamiliar with the sport.
“I think that's just the beauty of posting content for track and field,” Scott said. “It's catered towards people who do track, but I also want football players to understand. I try to make my videos that are broad so that everyone can understand, whether this is bad or this is good. They can catch what’s going on and relate to it still.”
With all of the virality of his content and his performance over the past two years, Scott has a long time to continue developing into a premier collegiate jumper. After one meet for the Tigers, he’s already well on his way. After the Vanderbilt Invitational on January 19, Scott holds a program all-time top-10 mark in the triple jump as he tied for 10th place with a 15.17m (49-9.25) leap at the Vanderbilt Invitational.
And in Scott’s own words, he’s just getting started.
“You've seen nothing yet,” Scott said. “Everything that's happened up until this point has been really good, and I'm grateful for it, but I feel like I have a lot more left in me not just track-wise, but life-wise.”
