'07 WI ATH Victor Reynolds
Scout Profile
Oak Creek (WI)
Oak Creek
Height: 6-foot-0
Weight: 195 pounds
40-yard dash: 4.4 seconds
GPA: 3.8
Link
5/22
Oak Creek star takes future a step at a time
Reynolds' focus now on track, not football
By DAN MANOYAN
dmanoyan@journalsentinel.com
Posted: May 21, 2006
One of these days, Oak Creek junior Victor Reynolds will have to sit down and sift through the half-dozen or so football scholarship offers already on his kitchen table.
<!--Begin Sidebar--><!--End Sidebar--> And sooner, rather than later, he will have to decide which running events he will compete in at the upcoming state track meet. The triple jump, of which he is the defending state champion, and long jump are already firmly booked.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. But at least Reynolds has already put one major decision behind him and it has taken a huge load off his broad shoulders.
For some time, Reynolds had wanted to transfer from Bradley Tech in Milwaukee to Oak Creek. He wasn't able to do it before the school year started, but on Dec. 15, with the blessings of his mother and father, he made the switch.
Reynolds is glad he made the decision, but perhaps not half as glad as the coaches at Oak Creek. With Reynolds leading the way in the two jumping events, the Knights figure to be a major player in the upcoming state meet.
And Reynolds, who plans to play running back and free safety for the Knights next fall, gives the perennially powerful Oak Creek football program a huge shot in the arm. Reynolds, who earned all-conference and all-area honors last fall, already has firm scholarship offers from Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota and Northwestern
and he expects offers soon from Ohio State and Arkansas.
Reynolds seems to be leaning toward Wisconsin over Nebraska at this point, but he won't be making any decisions soon. One major life-altering decision a year is plenty for anyone.
"My mom wanted me to be better prepared for college, so that's why I transferred to Oak Creek," Reynolds said. "I hate to say it, but Tech's standards aren't as high as they are here."
Reynolds' father was already living in Oak Creek and apparently his mother has now moved there, too.
Oak Creek got more than it bargained for when Reynolds, a chiseled 6-foot, 220-pound athlete, found his way to that school's front door. Far from being a prima donna, despite showing up with an already extensive résumé, Reynolds has been a pleasure for the staff to work.
"Obviously, I was pleasantly surprised to hear an athlete of Victor's caliber was transferring to Oak Creek, but we really didn't know what we were getting," said Oak Creek's first-year coach, Rick Stack. "Victor is not only coachable, he's knowledgeable about track. It's like having another coach on the staff.
"He has been teaching the other kids how to finish out their jumps and how to do phase 2 in the triple jump, all those sorts of things. He's been extremely cooperative and polite . . . just a gentleman to have on the team."
Added Oak Creek athletic director Jim Andrus: "Victor is a happy-go-lucky kid and seems to get along with all the coaches. It's quite a bit different here than at Bradley Tech, but he seems to like it."
Off the track, Reynolds unfailingly addresses his elders as "Sir" and "Ma'am." On the track, he is focused in on breaking his own state record in the triple jump of 48 feet 11 inches, which he set as a sophomore last year at the state meet.
Reynolds popped a 48-10 at a recent Southeast Conference Quadrangular meet and poised to go longer as the season and weather heats up.
"After last year everybody expects me to do good and so far, I'm living up to my expectations," Reynolds said. "I'm on it.
"My first goal is to win the state title as a team. Then I want to win the triple jump, long jump and the 100."
Reynolds will certainly be the heavy favorite to repeat in the triple jump and appears to be among the state's best in the long jump, an event in which he has gone 22-9 in the past and 22-7¾ already this season.
"Right now, we don't know for sure what running events we'll enter Victor in," Stack said. "Certainly the 100, and then probably either the 4-by-100 or 4-by-200 relay.
"We don't want to burn him out. We're already asking quite a bit of him."
