Redshirt sophomore jumper Joey Bryant began his journey in his home state of Hawaii before landing at ASU. But there were many twists and turns before coming to the Valley.
Bryant’s first stop outside of Hawaii was Mt. San Antonio Community College, commonly known as "Mt. Sac," in Walnut, Calif. He said he followed his friends to Mt. Sac to search for a way to get into sports, but said that leaving Hawaii was no easy task.
“Leaving Hawaii was hard,” Bryant said. “Leaving my family and stuff like that, but I just did what I had to do to get where I am now.”
When Bryant started out playing collegiate sports, it wasn't on the track.
Bryant’s former coach and head coach for Mt. Sac’s track and field program Ron Kamaka, said he saw Bryant athletic ability on the football field and convinced him to join track.
“It was great, Joey was just almost like a blank canvas with a lot of attitude,” Kamaka said. “He has so much athletic ability and very little track and field experience.”
Every day was an adventure and an opportunity to teach Bryant something new about the sport of track and field.
Even though Bryant had just begun his track and field career, Kamaka was very confident in his ability to succeed in the long term.
“I honestly think that Joey has the potential to be an eight-meter-long jumper,” Kamaka said. “To get out over that 26-foot range, I believe that fully.”
But despite his coach's welcoming attitude, Bryant said he still felt homesick.
“(People) wouldn’t think that Joey at times was homesick,” Kamaka said. “Joey at times struggled to fit in and moving to Southern California where culturally some things were different.”
Kamaka said that Bryant didn't tell many about how he felt, and Kamaka was one of the few who knew because he too was from Hawaii.
“I was fortunate enough to know those things about Joey and be able to give him support during those times where he struggled the most," Kamaka said.
Bryant said he took a few gap years between finishing high school and his first year of college at Mt. Sac, which made the adjustment all the more difficult for him.
“I came from working at the restaurant just bussing tables,” Bryant said. “I had to get used to school over there, I had to get used to tests, it was just difficult.”
Eventually, Bryant said he got used to the student athlete lifestyle and began to improve on and off the track.
About a year ago, Kamaka started having a conversation with ASU track and field head coach Greg Kraft about the possibility of Bryant transferring from Mt. Sac to ASU.
“I brought Joey out with my team to the Sun Angel Classic,” Kamaka said “Coach Kraft had a chance to look at him and we began discussions shortly after Sun Angel a year ago.”
Bryant started receiving multiple scholarship offers from different schools, not just ASU.
However, at the end of the spring 2016 semester, Bryant was one course short of being able to transfer over to a Division I program.
He remembered that when schools found out about the one remaining course, many pulled their scholarship offers.
“A lot of schools backed off, because a lot of junior college players, they don’t pass that last class to transfer,” Bryant said. “But ASU stood by my side and believed I was going to get the ‘B’ or ‘A’ that I needed to bring my GPA up and transfer into Division I.”
Bryant credits ASU track and field assistant coach Ronnie Williams for standing by his side and talking to him throughout the summer course.
“Whenever I was feeling stressed, I talked to coach Ronnie,” Bryant said. “He made me feel good about the situation.”
The struggle wasn't over once Bryant got to ASU — he still had to work on applying his athleticism to jumping.
“We’ve spent the bulk of our time with him just learning the basics of how to train — about movement and how to jump,"
Kraft said.Kraft said the key with Bryant is getting him repetitions in practice without risking injury.
“It’s not like where you can take 100 golf swings,” Kraft said. “You can’t take 100 run throughs, physically you just can’t do it.”
Even though he is still working on some of the basics with jumping, Bryant said he has big expectations for the last month and a half of the season.
“I still just really want to be All-American,” Bryant said. “I feel like I owe it to coach Kraft and coach Ronnie to be the best athlete I can be and make it to Nationals.”
.@Flightt808 leapin' to another win in the high jump! #Pac12vsBigTen pic.twitter.com/Bl5HDUzYGF
— SunDevilTFXC (@SunDevilTFXC) March 26, 2017
Kraft echoed Bryant’s hopes for the next few weeks of the season.
“When it’s all said and done at the Pac-12 Championships, he will score for our team in the high jump, long jump and triple jump for our team this year,” Kraft said. “Even though he hasn’t tripled jumped for us this year yet.”
Looking into the fall, both Bryant and Kraft spoke about the possibility of Bryant returning to the gridiron for the ASU football team.
Bryant said he was excited to get a chance to compete and earn a spot on the team at his old position of safety.
Kraft also said that Bryant could follow in the steps of Sun Devil athlete Tim White who both split his time between track and football as a jumper and a wide receiver.
“So, I’m very curious in his athletic future — track and field wise, obviously — and I’m curious on the football, too,” Kraft said. “It wouldn’t stun me if he’s out there playing next fall.”
Reach the reporter at jzaklis@gmail.com and follow @JoshZaklis on Twitter.
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