By: Justin Feil
Albert McCullan has been up before, but for most of this spring season he’s been down. Way down.
Maybe it’s because the West Windsor-Plainsboro North senior has had such highs that his lows this year make it so hard to watch. It’d be easy to overlook McCullan’s fate. He’s a quiet kid, not a braggart, though he had plenty to talk about last spring.
Last year, McCullan was the top points-earner as the Knight boys’ track and field team finished a program-best second place at the Mercer County Championships. He walked away with four medals. He ended his junior campaign by reaching the Meet of Champions in the triple jump, and afterward predicted, "I’ll be the Pilgrim," a reference to multi-event MOC qualifier Mike Pilgrim, now a freshman for the Heptagonal champion Cornell University men’s team.
Saturday, in his senior Mercer County Championships that will be held at Steinert High, McCullan is expected to run just one event, the last event the 4×400 relay. It will be his only chance to medal.
He’ll have to sit and watch boys he knows he could beat circle the track in the open 400, in which he was a 48-second runner last year. He’ll also watch the triple and the long jump, the latter in which he won’t be able to defend his county crown.
Not even halfway through the fall football season, McCullan severely injured his knee. Surgery repaired his torn MCL and ACL, but he hasn’t fully recovered.
"It was a battle to keep him plugging along," said North head coach Mike Jackson. "He was almost teary-eyed after every race in the beginning. It was a real sad thing to see this kid struggle through that."
McCullan had been through a tougher battle. He acted like a nurturing caregiver right up to his stepfather’s death last spring during track season. He’s come through that and battled back from knee surgery.
Last Saturday, McCullan found a glimmer of his old self as he ran a season-best 52.7 for the 400. It was a huge step for someone who had started in the 56-second range early in the year.
Tuesday, he ran 52.4 to finish second in a lean. He ran 23.7 in the 200, an event he can do because he’s not allowed to triple jump or long jump anymore due to his knee.
"He’s actually asked me if he could long jump," Jackson said. "He sees guys jumping and winning with 19 feet. He’s asked me if he could just jump off his left foot. He knows he could do that."
Jackson doesn’t want him to risk it. He won’t let him after finally seeing McCullan this week start to look a little like his old self.
"There were definitely moments it was going to be a frustrating year right through to the end," said Jackson, who’s coached McCullan since he was a freshman. "I was just hoping he would make it to the end. There were signs that midway through that he was giving in and accepting that we would keep running crappy races. It was a matter of the cart pulling the horse. He’s got all his confidence back. He’s working hard."
Saturday, he’ll put it all the line for one race, and he’ll be able to help the Knights in the sectionals as well. He’s running fast enough to help.
"Most importantly, he’s running without his knee brace," Jackson said. "That thing is like a ball and chain. Now you can see his stride opening up."
Before his injury, McCullan ran with the sort of ease that made other athletes jealous and college coaches drool.
"He was getting offers from everywhere," Jackson said. "He was going to be big-time. It was difficult to talk to these college recruiters when they called this year to ask about him."
McCullan will still try to compete collegiately when he attends St. Joseph’s, where he has a partial scholarship, an academic scholarship. Not only was McCullan gifted on the track, but also he can do the work in the classroom.
He still has some business left at the high school level, namely taking as many steps toward coming all the way back as he can. It’s a slow and not-so-pretty process.
"It still swells up," Jackson said. "It’s kind of grotesque. He makes light of it. But some people look at it and cringe. It fills up with fluid. He just had to take pain medication. His knee swelled up and his foot actually became numb. This kid is going through a whole bunch of stuff with that and handling it in stride."
In beautiful stride, just the way he used to run routinely.
The form is coming back now. Saturday, he’ll show it off, but you’ll have to pay close attention. He’ll only do it once, and it won’t last long. Just one lap around the track for his one chance to medal.
"Albert is as strong as ever now," Jackson said. "He’s had a real hard climb. He’s quite an inspiration."
Good luck, Albert.
