Sophomore Reed Gasser had just finished his chemistry final and had come to meet his interviewer. He had planned his time out for the test – “I enjoy chemistry. It’s something I like”– so that he wrote (paper and pencil, not electronic), then had time to go back over his exam and refine it.
Contrast that with his first year of track this spring: trying, in succession, different events – discus, then 300-meter hurdles. Later, 110-meter hurdles and high jump. More recently, long jump, then triple jump. Dabbling, seeing if he liked the event, discarding the ones he didn’t, and continuing in the ones he did.
“I didn’t do track my freshman year,” the green/blue-eyed young man says. So, even with his apparent skill in the jumps and shorter hurdles, this is all new to Reed this year, and he’s eating it all up.
He describes his process at the Dick Wilkins Frosh-Soph meet on April 27: “With the high jump being my first event, I warm up by doing some lunges, stretches, and toe touches. Then (at the jump pit) five to 10 jumps without the bar in place. I practice my run-ups. (He approaches the bar from the left). I practice my form.”
Lucas Heldman, an LJCD senior, has been a helpful resource to bounce technique off. But this being an underclassman event, Gasser was on the infield at Del Norte High on his own. “Coach Hayden (Stone) told me I did pretty well adjusting on my own,” Reed said. He jumped 5 feet 5 inches in the high jump for fifth among 10 sophomore competitors, and 18 feet 1 inch in the long jump. His PRs are 5 feet 8 inches in the high jump, 19 feet 9.75 inches in the long jump, and 18.65 in the 110-meter hurdles.
If the 110-meter hurdles are the earlier event, say at a Coastal League meet that the Torreys compete in, the young athlete would reverse his preparation and warm up first for that event.
With his enthusiasm for science, Gasser relates that he shadowed a veterinarian last summer in Del Mar as the vet went about his practice. “I got to watch surgeries on pets,” though these were positive, he said. “I took notes. I came in with scrubs,” just like the doctor.
It was a real-life experience that only fueled his career goals, which at this early stage point to being either an exotic animal vet (treating snakes and sugar gliders, or flying squirrels, get a mention), a pharmacist, or a psychologist. His family’s beloved dogs, Clouseau (named after the quirky inspector from “The Pink Panther”) and Grace, were favorites. They have passed on. Now, Artemis (nicknamed “Artie”), “named after the goddess of the hunt”, gets center stage.
Reed looks forward to August when he will concentrate on the defensive line on the Torreys’ highly successful football team. Jaden Mangini, LJCD’s All-CIF quarterback last fall, walked by during the interview and the two shared a greeting. Previously, Gasser has played both ways, offensive and defensive line.
