Juan Scott – the Central State senior out of Dunbar High School who already was a six-time All American and a two-time national hurdles champion – had qualified for the 60-meter hurdles at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships in Birmingham two weeks ago.
Denisha Cartwright – the Marauders freshman from Nassau, Bahamas – had the fastest time in the nation in the women’s 60-meter hurdles, was being honored in Birmingham as the South Region’s Women’s Track Athlete of the Year and had qualified to compete in both the 60-meter hurdles and 60-meter dash.
It would be the first time since Central State jumped from an NAIA school to NCAA Division II status 16 years ago that it was going to be represented by two athletes at the national championships.
While Scott was known by everyone there after winning the 110-meter hurdles title at the Division II outdoor championships in 2017, the indoor 60-meter hurdles crown in 2018 and finishing second in the event by just 1/100th of a second last year, Cartwright was turning heads for the first time.
And boy was she turning them!
If it wasn’t for her times – which not only were tops in the nation, but were making her a contender for a spot on the Bahamian Olympic team – it was for her bright red hair.
“Right now her red hair still probably draws attention to her first, but once we fix some things with her hurdling that will change,” said CSU coach James Rollins, himself a top college hurdler once. “She’s still very raw. But oh my goodness, she’s going to be something special!”
But then, just days before the Division II championships, one hurdle began to appear that no athlete would be able to clear:
The coronavirus Covid-19 was just settling itself into the blocks in America and soon it would burst out with a vengeance.
Just a day before Rollins and his two athletes were to fly to Birmingham, Central State officials – wisely so, in hindsight – decided against any coaches or athletes sitting shoulder to shoulder in an airplane.
With the flights cancelled, Rollins decided to drive Scott and Cartwright to Alabama.
“I had two athletes who really deserved to be competing at that national level,” he explained. “And with Juan being a senior and not getting another chance, I never considered not going.”
“I rode shotgun so I could be Coach Rollins second set of eyes and ears…and make sure he stayed awake,” Scott said of their 8 ½ hour trip.
Once the trio got to Birmingham they first readied for the awards banquet, only to be informed the affair was being called off. Then the evening before competition was to begin, the entire meet was cancelled.
The CSU athletes were crushed.
“It was just so abrupt,” Cartwright said. “It was shocking.”
Scott agreed: “It was devastating really. After all we’d gone through, it was heartbreaking and I almost broke down.”
He said Rollins took them to dinner and they talked about it as best they could. The ride home the next day was quiet at first and eventually the coach tried to use the disappointment as a teachable moment.
“Coach Rollins gave us a different look at it,” Scott said. “He said you never know what life is going to bring. When something like this happens in your sports career, you need to have a back-up plan.”
‘She’s like my little sister’
“The red hair?” Cartwright said with a laugh as she spoke by phone from Nassau. “It just kind of came into my mind. I wanted to try something different. And my mommy now says it looks nice on me.”
Cartwright returned to the Bahamas a few days after she returned from Alabama and Central State closed down the campus.
Although CSU students are completing their schoolwork online now, she said she’s spending the rest of her time in Nassau “just chllin’.”
“We’re on lockdown here right now,” she said.
Although she said she initially was recruited by schools like Purdue and Texas Tech, she admitted. “My GPA from high school wasn’t so good. I had nine college offers, but most of the schools didn’t want to help me with my academics and the offers went away.
“But Coach Rollins was committed to getting me and helping me. He didn’t give up on me and I liked that.”
She came to CSU and redshirted a year, in part, to work on her books.
Her fraternal twin sister, Deniqua, is on the CSU volleyball team.
Once she could run, Cartwright made an immediate impact, winning four 60-meter hurdle events and three 60-meter dashes in the indoor season. Along with having the top 60-meter hurdles time in Division II – 8.49 seconds – she was ranked sixth nationally in the 60-meter dash.
As the season progressed, she developed a special kinship with Scott, both on the track and off, where they both are ardent video gamers.
“She’s like my little sister,” Scott said. “I’ve tried to take her under my wing.”
His path to CSU was similar to hers.
Coming out of Dunbar – where he was part of three state championship teams and was the Wolverines’ MVP as a senior – he said a low ACT score limited his options. CSU gave him a chance, although he had to redshirt his first year, as well.
Although he couldn’t compete that first season, he was expected to come to practice and when he skipped some workouts he and Rollins locked horns.
In the past, Scott admitted he developed a bad attitude and Rollins briefly booted him from the team.
That was the wake-up call Scott needed and he ended up being one of the school’s most accomplished athletes and a pillar of the program.
“He’s one of the kids who really lifted the program to the next level,” Rollins said. “He’s our first athlete that stood out and he’s helped us continue to recruit better athletes. He’s really been good for this program.”
Another year at CSU?
Scott is now at his Gettysburg Ave home in West Dayton.
He said his mother is a nurse at an area nursing home and she has hammered into him the seriousness of the Covid 19 situation.
Like everyone else, he said the pandemic has thrown his life for a loop.
After the indoor championships, he was gearing himself up for the outdoor season, taking part in the Penn Relays and hoping to make it to the U.S. Olympic Trials June 19-28 at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.
Now all that has been cancelled or postponed. So has Scott’s chance to march in the CSU graduation ceremony.
His longshot dream was to compete in the Tokyo Summer Games, which were to begin July 24, but now have been put off until next year.
Actually that postponement might be a good thing for him should the NCAA follow through on the push to give athletes in spring sports this year another season of eligibility.
Rollins, who was representing the entire Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC), was part of an NCAA Coaches’ Committee conference call this week and restoring eligibility because of the Covid-19 interruption was the lone topic of discussion.
Scott – who also has aspirations of running professionally – said he’s open to the idea of returning to CSU.
Rollins said he thinks an extra year would help Scott: “And my gut says he would come back.”
As for the 20-year-old Cartwright, there’s no debate. She’ll be back at CSU in August she said.
And her hair?
“I think I’ll keep it red,” she laughed.
That made Rollins laugh, too:
“Back when I was in high school, we would try to wear headbands and glasses and our coach would say, ‘If you’re going to wear all that stuff, you better be able to back it up. If not, take it all off.’
“But Denisha, she can have red hair or whatever color she wants. For sure, she’s earned that right.”
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