In 2007, Jarvis Mansfield joined the track and field team as a walk-on hurdler. Since then he has faced many challenges on and off the track, but he never gave up.
Now he is in his senior year competing to become indoor conference champion in the 60-meter hurdles for the last time. “I haven’t been focusing on anything else but to win, just go out and put it all on the line,” Mansfield said. Last season, Mansfield had an injured heel, which forced him to redshirt the indoor season. His last shot to become champion will be at the Sun Belt Conference indoor
track & field championships on Feb. 25 in Murfreesboro, Tenn. He will need to beat his personal best time of 7.5 seconds to do so. Head coach J.D. Malone said, “He has come a long way, and we would like to see him finish in the top three. He may have a chance to be conference champion.”
Mansfield said, “If I finish dead last, or first, it is a victory. Considering where I’ve come from, regardless of what happens, I’ve won.”
Mansfield grew up in Northeast Louisiana and he didn’t always have a smooth path to follow. Running hurdles on the track isn’t the only obstacles he’s had to go over in life. He’s had to overcome personal issues as well.
“I don’t stop. Sometimes I run through hurdles and it may slow me down, but I don’t stop,” Mansfield said. “When I have a problem, I never gave up or looked to quit, especially when my mom died.”
In 2009 his mother died, leaving the responsibility to care for three young children on Mansfield’s hands. Mansfield said his family insisted for him to quit track to take care of his siblings, but he said no. Mansfield said, “I’m going to take care of my brothers by finishing school, because in the long run who is going to benefit more.” Malone said, “He’s worked very hard to overcome the personal issues, and he is probably the most driven hurdler I’ve ever coached in terms of getting better on the track.”
Mansfield never was afraid of hard work. He said to take care of his siblings he would work about 25 hours per week, while being an athlete. He said, “It doesn’t seem like it is work when you are thinking about the outcome. It is for them.”
Mansfield said he gets encouragement from his fraternity. In the fall of 2011, he joined Iota Phi Theta fraternity and he said the support he gets from it is “real.”
Mansfield said, “I don’t consider it as a brotherhood. They are my real brothers because that’s how they act towards me.”