Scott prepares to end SE career at NCAA track championship

Shelton Scott figures qualifying for the NCAA Track and Field Championships will at least partly make up for the loss of his new car.

Scott, a Southeast Missouri State University senior, was selected as an at-large entry in both the long jump and triple jump based on his top seasonal performances of 25-6 1/2 and 52-2, respectively. The meet will be held Wednesday through Saturday in Sacramento, Calif.

"I'm fired up," he said. "It was always a goal of mine to make nationals, and to make it my senior year, it's pretty nice the way it's worked out."

Not so nice was the wreck he recently had with his 1992 Toyota Seleca GT, which he had purchased just 10 days before the accident. Scott is thankful that neither he nor his girlfriend were hurt seriously -- although she had to be hospitalized briefly -- but that doesn't completely ease the sting because the car was totaled.

"I think qualifying for nationals makes up for it somewhat, but I'm still kind of sad about the whole situation," he said. "I'm glad my girlfriend's okay and I'm all right pretty much, but I only had liability insurance so it's a total loss for me. And the old car I thought I was going to get rid of, now I'll have to keep it for a while longer.

"But it could have been a lot worse. I'm thankful that nobody was really hurt."

Scott said the accident, which took place in Jackson, was technically his fault. He was preparing to make a right-hand turn at a red light and said he was motioned to go ahead by a driver that had the green light, but he then got hit by another car.

"It was legally my fault," he said.

Heel injured in wreck

While Scott wasn't seriously injured, he did come away with several bruises, including a painful one to his heel that prevented him from reaching peak form during the NCAA Mideast Regional held May 30-31 in Columbus, Ohio.

Scott fouled on all three of his long jump attempts and placed 23rd in the triple jump.

"My heel bothered me in the regional," Scott said. "It really didn't affect me in the long jump but I have trouble getting on the board sometimes. In the triple jump, it really hurt me bad. But it's been feeling better and hopefully I'll be fine for the nationals."

If Scott is feeling 100 percent in California, then he and Southeast coach Joey Haines both believe the former state triple jump champion at Fulton (Mo.) High School has a solid chance to finish in the top eight and earn All-American honors.

"Shelton is good enough to make All-American," Haines said. "Now, he's got to go out and do it. But that's the good thing about track. It's all head to head. There's no voting, no politics. If he finishes in the top eight, he's an All-American."

Said Scott, "That's my goal and I think it's realistic. For the long jump, it can be more than realistic, but I have to get on the board. That's a problem. My run is inconsistent. If I get on the board, I've got a good chance. My triple jump is more consistent. I'd say I have a better chance because I'm more consistent."

Scott has had quite a career at Southeast, winning eight Ohio Valley Conference titles -- including six in the triple jump, with three outdoor and three indoor -- while holding the school record in the long jump and ranking fourth on the all-time list in the triple jump. He's the only OVC athlete to qualify for this year's national meet.

"I'm happy the way it's worked out for me here," Scott said. "I've had a very good career, with a lot of good memories, and making nationals is the main one."

And, according to Haines, the introspective Scott -- who is majoring in psychology and has one more year to go before he graduates, during which time he plans to continue training with an eye on the Olympic Trials -- has done it all in his own unique way.

"Shelton is a different kind of person, let's put it that way. He kind of marches to his own beat," Haines said, laughing. "But he's a super young man and I've never had anybody in the 21 years I've been here who works harder than him. He works his butt off."

Scott acknowledges with a chuckle that he does have a unique outlook on life, which is primarily what led him to major in psychology.

"To tell you the truth, I was always a person that was curious about how people thought, their thought processes, why they come to certain conclusions," he said. "I want to go into counseling with kids. I want to have a strong influence on their life. Of course it won't be their strongest, their family is the strongest, but I want to have an influence.

"And I've also recently thought about going into coaching."

Haines has no doubt Scott would make a good coach and will be a success no matter what career path he chooses. But before Scott begins to think about the future, he wants to make his mark on a national level this week. He'll compete in the preliminaries Wednesday (long jump) and Thursday (triple jump), with the finals set for Friday and Saturday.

"I didn't really get a chance to show what I could do in the regionals and that sucks," he said. "Hopefully I can show everybody what I can do at nationals."

Even if he has to keep driving around in his old car.