MSN_071316

malibusurfsidenews.com Sports
Malibu surfside news | July 13, 2016 | 27
MHS jumper almost quit track team
Alex Vejar, Assistant Editor
Coming into her senior
year, Malibu High School
graduate Joie Cosentino
was done with track and
field. After three years of
pole vaulting on the girls
team, she’d lost interest
and was only attending
practices to hang out with
her friends.
But at last year’s track
banquet, MHS jump coach
Mike Halualani walked up
to Cosentino and attempted
to convince her to return to
the team as a jumper rather
than a pole vaulter. Halualani,
who was also undecided
about returning to the
track team, cut a deal with
Cosentino that night.
“If I came back, she
would come back and she
would just long jump and
triple jump, [and] scratch
out of the pole vault,”
Halualani said.
The agreement worked.
Once Cosentino experienced
her first long jump
in practice, she was hooked
on the “exhilarating” feeling
alone.
“You don’t even think
about anything around
you,” Cosentino said.
“You’re just straight sprinting
down the runway. You
don’t see anything, you
don’t hear anything. You’re
feeling the air in your face.
Then you jump and it kind
of just feels like you’re flying
for a few seconds.”
Feeling encouraged by
her early progress and
with the help of Halualani,
Cosentino quickly took a
re-liking to track and ended
the season as one of the
Sharks’ best jumpers. Her
personal-best long jump
was 15 feet, 7 inches, while
“Whatever
college coach
gets her is
going to be the
luckiest college
coach in the
world. She is a
diamond in the
rough that will
just get better
and better.”
Mike Halualani —
MHS jump coach on
Joie Cosentino’s potential
in college.
MHS graduate Joie Cosentino will join the track and field team at Santa Monica College in the fall. Alex Vejar/22nd
Century Media
her best triple jump was 32-
9.
Cosentino decided she
loved jumping so much that
she will join the track and
field team at Santa Monica
College in the fall. That
decision was the product
of overcoming three prior
years with a lack of selfconfidence
in her abilities.
Cosentino joined the
track and field team as a
pole vaulter her freshman
year at MHS to satisfy the
school’s physical education
requirement. But she constantly
dreaded competing
in meets.
“I’d be so terrified to do
meets with pole vaulting,”
said Cosentino, adding that
the anxiety possibly came
from her perfectionist nature
likely developed after
nine years of ballet dancing.
“I would always automatically
assumed I was
going to lose.”
Even after she satisfied
her P.E. requirement, Consentino
still continued to
compete on the team, but
only so we can have an
after-school activity.
“I think I did it because
I felt like I should,” Cosentino
said.
But after a successful senior
year, Cosentino said she
was glad she decided to try
jumping on the MHS team.
“It was probably one
of my best decisions this
year,” Cosentino said.
Halualani, who calls
himself the president of the
Joie Cosentino fan club,
was also happy she decided
to jump in her senior year.
While the coach only started
working with Cosentino
in January, Halualani said
she continues to improve
“exponentially.”
“In that short amount of
time, she ended up going
from someone who had
never triple jumped or really
long jumped to one of
the best long jumpers and
triple jumpers in the area,”
Halualani said.
Cosentino attributes her
newfound confidence to her
coach, who she said also
helped her get in shape.
Halualani said taking her
out of her comfort zone by
forcing her to compete at
weekend invitational track
meets in March and April
also helped Cosentino’s
confidence.
Halualani gushed about
Cosentino’s potential as a
collegiate athlete.
“Whatever college coach
gets her is going to be the
luckiest college coach in
the world,” Halualani said.
“She is a diamond in the
rough that will just get better
and better.”
Cosentino expects to
study English and art in
college in hopes to become
an author and an artist. During
her senior year at MHS,
Cosentino’s AP art teacher,
Thor Evanson, helped grow
her confidence in that area
as well, she said.
After two years at SMC,
Cosentino wants to transfer
to a four-year university
somewhere in Southern
California, she said.
In addition to her athletic
and academic prowess,
Halualani said Cosentino
is also a quality all-around
person.
“She’s the kind of kid
you want your kid to grow
up to be,” Halualani said.