Not your ordinary Days

It was another typical day for the Day sisters while at a prestigious track and field event this year, shop before doing the whole bar-hopping thing.

Sharon and her younger sister Jasmin were in Eugene, Ore., trying on jewelry the day before the NCAA West Regional Outdoor Championships two weeks ago.

They bought bracelets, necklaces, anything shiny to display before their big meet. The following day they knew they would have to take them off before taking off the ground.

No bling allowed during their high jump event.

Only afterward and they both longed to show off one of those top five medals allowing them to advance to the NCAA Championships.

Both made it to Sacramento’s four-day event starting today. Sharon claimed the top prize as a junior for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Jasmin fourth as a freshman for the University of Arizona.

The marks, 6 feet, 1/2 inch for Sharon, 5-9 1/4 for Jasmin, were solid, nothing to make them jump out of their shoes for.

Their mother, Yolanda, took care of that.

Out of nowhere, Yolanda jumped out and surprised the former Costa Mesa High standouts the day before they competed at Hayward Field. She showed up at the place she figured they’d be: the mall.

Playing dumb, mom phoned Sharon.

“What are you guys doing?” Yolanda asked.

“Shopping,” Sharon responded.

“You guys are?” Yolanda asked. “What store are you guys at?”

The same one mom ambled toward before blowing her own cover.

“It was cool to have her there,” Sharon said, “because both our sister and I were trying to get to Sacramento so my mom could watch us in person.”

Their father Eugene said he and his wife will be there at Sacramento State. They wouldn’t miss it for anything.

“We’re a jumping family,” said Eugene, who coached Sharon and Jasmin at Costa Mesa.

The Days never needed an inflatable jumper to bounce around.

All five family members competed in the high jump. Starting with dad at the City of College of New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s, then mom, who went by Yolanda Gibson, around the same time at Brooklyn College, their son Louis before graduating from Costa Mesa in 2001, and Sharon and Jasmin are the last two Days still leaping.

Sharon said there isn’t a day she takes her ability for granted.

After what she endured to reach her third outdoors finals after claiming the national outdoor crown in 2005 with a personal-best 6-4, it makes sense. The jubilation of winning ended after jumping coach Sheldon Blockburger left for a coaching job at Arizona after Sharon’s sophomore year. He recruited her to come to San Luis Obispo.

Then Sharon broke her left foot in December of that same year. While walking through her San Luis Obispo neighborhood, Sharon said she tripped over a curb, not knowing she fractured her fifth metatarsal.

“It hurt for two blocks,” she said, believing she’d be back in to no time. That’s what she said her trainer told her.

“Jogging within a month,” Sharon remembers hearing. “I didn’t jog again until September.”

Devastated is how Sharon said she felt about missing an entire year of not only jumping but playing soccer. The injured foot was her plant foot. She said the first surgery, taking place a week after her injury, didn’t improve things.

“They tried to put a pin down the middle of the bone and that didn’t work,” said Sharon, who redshirted. “They just put a plate on the outside and they just screwed it on there. After six to eight weeks, it wasn’t healing. I wasn’t really getting any better. I had to be on crutches. I got off crutches and into a walking boot. It wasn’t healing.”

By then the thought of regaining her dominating form seemed silly. How could she elevate to the top again like she did so early in her college career after winning back-to-back CIF State championships?

She couldn’t even take off before trying to fling herself above the bar using the head-first Fosbury Flop. To her the only flop was her first surgery. A second surgery was needed.

The surgery took place in May, while Jasmin in her senior year at Costa Mesa prepared to make the CIF State meet. Jasmin’s goals, get to state, win it for the first time and join her sister in the record books. Feats accomplished.

Sharon just wanted to jump again, even if meant struggling to clear the routine jumps of 5-6 and 5-8. She can thank Amol Saxena, a highly-regarded podiatrist in Palo Alto, for allowing her the opportunity.

“I was just hoping this second doctor could help me,” said Sharon of Saxena, who works for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s Sports Medicine Department and serves as a member of the U.S. Track and Field Sports Medicine medical staff. “He just had more experience and really worked hard to get the pin in there correctly and help my foot heal.

“He gave me the normal timeline, up to six weeks. This time I believed the doctor when it happened.”

It did. So she tossed the crutches, slowly built herself up, and started running again. What came to her in November was natural.

“It felt good to get over the bar again,” she said despite going on to miss the NCAA National Indoor Championships for the first time. “I was still going through the motions, but now I’m not. I’m ready.”

Her dad thinks first place is attainable even though Texas sophomore Destinee Hooker is the favorite after she matched her own top NCAA mark, a 6-4 at the Midwest Regional.

Sharon’s sister and former coach, Blockburger, who’s now working with Jasmin at Arizona, have seen Sharon clear 6-4 before. Blockburger is a big reason Jasmin said she chose Arizona.

“One day hopefully Jasmin can get where Sharon’s at,” said Blockburger, who’s from Costa Mesa and graduated from Newport Harbor High in 1983 before attending and competing in the decathlon at Orange Coast College and Louisiana State University. “It was definitely hard to leave Sharon. Probably the toughest competitor I have ever met.

“Right now Sharon’s more what I call a lioness and Jasmin’s more of a cheetah. One is really powerful, the other is sleek and building her power. You can’t go wrong with either one. Plus, they’re both from Costa Mesa.”

The mention of Costa Mesa and the first thing popping into the mind of Sharon and Jasmin is shopping.

Yes, South Coast Plaza, the famous mall. The sisters plan to do some shopping in Sacramento, just like they did in Eugene, Ore., and at the Texas Relays in Austin, Texas, where they finished second and seventh, respectively.

As for the surprise at this meet, a one-two Day finish would make the Day family’s day. Jasmin has something up her sleeve.

“I’m going to give her an extra lift, because it’s her 22nd birthday on June 9,” said Jasmin, 19. “I’m going to take her out to dinner Saturday, and by then it will all be over with. We won’t be stressed about hopping over any bar.”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].