Once homeless, UCLA’s Zaylon Thomas makes his mark on the track

The identical query haunted Zaylon Thomas when he was a teen making an attempt to get to highschool as a senior getting ready for commencement and a promising athlete on the lookout for his subsequent choice.

What’s subsequent?

The UCLA sprinter and excessive jumper continues to be asking himself that when he has seemingly every thing he may need. The sophomore attends his dream faculty. It’s surreal to sit down within the stands at Drake Stadium and marvel at a postcard-worthy view of UCLA’s campus. But he stays consumed about envisioning his subsequent steps.

Specializing in what’s subsequent will maintain him away from what as soon as was.

Thomas battled homelessness beginning in eighth grade, crisscrossing the nation with mom Wanda McKinney. Dwelling in three states in 5 years, Thomas doubted whether or not he would graduate from highschool. Now he’s dreaming of leaving his mark at UCLA.

Regardless of nearly no formal coaching in highschool, Thomas now competes within the 200-meter and 400-meter races, 400-meter relay, excessive leap and lengthy leap. In January, he helped UCLA’s 1,600-meter relay crew produce the fourth-fastest time at school historical past with a time of 3 minutes, 9.65 seconds on the New Mexico Workforce Open.

Thomas opened the outside season on March 26, working the 200 on the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational. McKinney, flanked by her father William, Thomas’ older brother Xarius and his cousin Sheaun, threw her arms within the air when Thomas crossed the end line with a heat-winning time of twenty-two.32 seconds. It was the primary time she acquired to observe him compete in faculty.

“It was fairly the journey,” McKinney stated.

The relocations began when McKinney misplaced her job. The payments piled up. The electrical energy acquired reduce off. They couldn’t keep of their Sacramento house anymore. McKinney tried to start out over in Maryland, the place she hoped to start out a enterprise with buddies.

When that didn’t take off, McKinney despatched her son again to California to stay together with his grandparents for a 12 months. However he missed his mom and requested to be together with her.

Thomas is a mama’s boy, McKinney stated. They discovered refuge in homeless shelters, inns and buddies’ homes. They sometimes lived out of their automobile, braving chilly Maryland nights, showering in public gyms and promoting nearly each merchandise that they had. Typically, they nonetheless didn’t manage to pay for to purchase a gallon of gasoline.

Via each day challenges, the bond between mom and son was constant. Once they had little else, having one another was sufficient.

His mother is “one of the best individual on the earth to me,” Thomas stated.

“[She] was simply at all times making an attempt to determine the subsequent step, though we didn’t know what the subsequent step could be,” Thomas stated. “[She] would at all times attempt to determine in little increments: that is the way you’re going to get to high school after which after faculty, that is how we’re going to do it, that is how we plan issues. It was similar to discovering out minor steps to make main impression on one thing.”

Wanda McKinney retains a watch out for son Zaylon Thomas competing within the 200-meter race on the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Occasions)

Thomas’ uncooked athletic capacity helped him excel in any sport he tried, however with out construction he lacked confidence, stated McKinney, who’s on monitor to open a counseling facility this 12 months. He dabbled in basketball and soccer, Thomas’ old flame, however didn’t begin monitor till his senior 12 months of highschool when he and his mom relocated to Nevada.

Observe coaches at Las Vegas Centennial Excessive knew Thomas was a gifted athlete and tried to get the basketball prospect to present working a attempt. He didn’t hear till he realized youngsters on the monitor crew had been getting faculty scholarship provides. It could possibly be his approach out.

Two months after ranging from scratch, Thomas received the Nevada Class 4A state championship within the excessive leap, clearing 6 toes, 5 inches within the state closing. He was an explosive sprinter — although he gave up the 100-meter sprint after he slipped out of the blocks throughout his first meet — and had a private better of 48.77 seconds at 400 meters.

Thomas’ performances within the quarter-mile race caught the attention of UCLA assistant Curtis Allen. He was recruiting at a meet in New Mexico when he watched Thomas go from sitting on the sideline on a chilly day to working the 400 lower than quarter-hour later, an almost unheard-of feat for a race that normally requires ample warmup time.

Allen knew the child had expertise however he wasn’t positive if he had the grades.

When Thomas launched himself and despatched Allen his transcripts, the UCLA coach famous passing grades in courses like biology with failing marks in gymnasium. He requested in regards to the disconnect.

Every year at school was like a restart, Thomas instructed Allen, assembly new individuals in a brand new faculty with new lecturers as he and his mother moved from state to state. Getting to high school proved difficult some days. He had 4 outfits and three pairs of footwear for a complete faculty 12 months, making an attempt to combine and match combos as finest he may so his classmates wouldn’t catch on.

“It was onerous to get to high school generally after which after I was at college, it was onerous to focus as a result of I didn’t have a lot,” Thomas stated. “It was simply onerous making an attempt to behave pure at college and be a standard scholar.”

UCLA sophomore Zaylon Thomas chats with brother Xarius McKinney and cousin Sheaun McKinney on the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational at Drake Stadium.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Occasions)

Following recommendation from Allen, Thomas went to junior faculty. Allen instructed him that if Thomas acquired his teachers in line, they might begin the recruiting course of for him to switch to UCLA.

Going through one more new faculty in a brand new state, Thomas enrolled at Faculty of the Sequoias in Visalia, Calif. However he was near getting kicked out, he stated, till athletic director Brent Davis and college president Brent Calvin intervened to get him a second probability.

In Thomas, Davis noticed child who was put in a foul state of affairs. He was “extraordinarily clever,” however guarded. As a substitute of dashing Thomas onto the monitor, Davis knew step one was simply to get Thomas to start out trusting the college college, coaches and directors. Davis and monitor coach Kenny Jackson thought it was finest to not have Thomas compete in his first 12 months as he targeted on teachers.

As a substitute, he joined a piece research program, cleansing up stadiums and arenas after sporting occasions.

Homelessness pressured Thomas to develop up shortly, he stated, however the specter of squandering an opportunity to go to UCLA by not following via at junior faculty pressured him to mature.

“If I mess up this chance, no one’s going to need me,” Thomas stated of his ideas on the time. “It positively was one other wake-up name for me to get my head on straight and keep targeted if I actually needed to return to UCLA.”

Allen had laid out related paths for different promising prospects in his teaching profession, however many by no means adopted via. He hoped Thomas was completely different. In a 12 months, as promised, Thomas despatched Allen his transcripts and it had all A’s and B’s.

“As soon as he acquired it completed, I may see that he wasn’t simply a mean child,” Allen stated. “He was a extremely motivated child that needed to achieve success, needed to be nice, needed to do one thing constructive on this world.”

Thomas’ junior faculty monitor profession was restricted to simply two meets after the pandemic struck in 2020. He excessive jumped 6-8 3/4 in his faculty debut whereas he stayed on monitor to switch to UCLA.

UCLA’s Zaylon Thomas embraces his mother, Wanda McKinney, after competing within the 200-meter race on the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Occasions)

Advertisement

Now a sophomore at UCLA, Thomas has had just one full monitor season in his profession. His pure athleticism oozes off his lean, muscular, 6-foot-5 body as he rounds the nook of the monitor or leaps over the bar within the excessive leap. Thomas comes early to follow a number of occasions every week to advantageous tune method that may take him larger and make him sooner.

Thomas has decathlete athleticism, Allen stated, however the place he may also help the Bruins essentially the most is within the excessive leap and 400.

The quarter-mile race is without doubt one of the hardest, Allen stated. That’s why Thomas is ideal for it as a result of he’s at all times pushing towards what’s subsequent.

“You must have a beast mentality,” Allen stated of working the 400. “A few of the completely different turmoils and issues he went via in his life, I feel it makes you relentless and it makes you by no means need to quit.”