There are two instances in South Dakota high school history where an individual won a team state track championship all by himself. The first to do it was 'Smokey Joe' Mendel of Onida in 1926. Smokey Joe won the 100m dash, 220m dash, 440m run, and the broad jump to single-handedly beat Sioux Falls (Washington) high school. It didn't happen again until Justin Horn of Tripp-Delmont came around nearly 80-years later.
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Today we're talking to the most recent individual to win the team state track title as the lone individual on the team, it's Justin Horn. Justin, hard to believe it's been 18 years since that fateful day...
Yeah, no kidding. It's been a long time.
We'll talk about that day and how things evolved or the planets all aligned, the stars all aligned in what you needed to do to win a state title all by , here you guys went to the dome. You were in the state football championship. And this was, again, November of 2002, and you beat Dell Rapids' St. Mary 43-13. And you happen to be the Joe Robbie MVP of that game.
Yes, sir. That's correct.
What did you do? What did you do to warrant the MVP? Remind me what you did.
It was actually one of my worst games for rushing, but it was a good scoring game. I think I rushed like 138 yards, four touchdowns and a two point conversion. One catch, I think, that I scored as well. Three rushing touchdowns, one passing touchdown.
So, already as a senior, you had seen success. As a junior, did you see any success in football or in track and field at the time?
Yeah. So, when I was a junior in football, I had one game where I ran 292 yards in a game. That was my personal best yardage in a game. A different game where I ran 260. We did pretty well. I think we were 9-2 that year. We lost to Corsica in the playoffs. And we had a pretty decent season. We had our senior leader go down... I think two senior leaders, actually our two best athletes at the time, Brooks Frederick and Chad Beats. Chad Beats had a knee injury that didn't allow him to play, and then Brooks Frederick got a staph infection that took him out for quite a bit of the season. So, it was mostly us juniors that were able to be in the backfield. We had some seniors on the offensive line that were really good.Yeah. It was kind of a rocky season that way, but we came out of it pretty well.
And then my junior year in track, I had a pretty good season. I placed third in the long jump. I qualified for state in the 200, didn't make finals. Qualify for state and the 100 meter dash and placed second. And then in triple jump, I qualified for state, and I placed seventh in state my junior year.
So, at that point in time, you weren't already thinking after your junior season in track that, "You know what? If I do a better, I get a chance to score more points." What was going through your mind once that track season ended when you were a junior?
So, the biggest thing that happened my junior season was I went away from regions with some really good times, going into the state. And my dad said to me, "All right, you really need to dedicate yourself. You've only been doing track practices, so you're just doing what your coach says. Let's go the extra mile and you run on your own in preparation." So, I would do track practice, and then I would go and I'd run on a track. I'd drive to parks in South Dakota because, we didn't have a track in our town. Then I'd run a track meet there, so I'd do long jumps, triple jumps, 100s, 200s.
In my times, in those two weeks, even though I'd been running all year, drastically improved. I went from running 11.4 on average in the 100, down to like 11.2. And that's a monstrous jump, and I did it in two weeks. And I had no idea I had that ability. And so, after that two weeks, and then all of a sudden I go to being excessively fast versus what I was before, I thought, "I got to do this. I got to go harder than what I'm doing today."
And this is the summer. This is the summer before your senior year now.
Absolutely. Yeah. I would run, I think, in the mornings, and then I would go to a program called Acceleration later in the day. So, I'd run about twice a day during the summer, all summer long. Not seven days a week, it was four days a week. But that was me preparing for the senior season. And I went to a track camp and I went to a different camp. Actually ended up getting hurt at a track camp, which I think if it wasn't for me getting hurt, I would have had a lot better season my senior year, even though it was pretty good.
This wasn't just for you to play football, right? This wasn't in the back of the mind that this was going to make you better in football. You were thinking more in the back of your mind that this was going to make you better at track and field.
Absolutely. I was thinking about every sport. I was thinking I knew we were really good at football. Ever since we were in the first grade, second grade, we were thinking about winning a state title, all of us kids. We would play football on the sidelines. I think we were one of the only schools that would actually, we'd play tackle football every single home football game as little kids. It was probably the most physical football games I played in my life. All of us were super into trying to be the best athletes, trying to be the best we could for each other on the field. And so, I knew it was for everything. We were really good at basketball, too. And I knew that if I was a better athlete, I was going to be better for my team at football, better at basketball.
And then I was always thinking about those guys who were the best track athletes. I had idolized, Justin Noteboom, idolized Oakley Haynes, Jesse Haynes, Oakley's older brother, is actually a trainer at Acceleration that I went to, and I would always look up to him. He'd walk into Acceleration having not worked out for years, and his calves looked like he could go up and bite the rim if you wanted to jump on a basketball court. He was just a phenomenal athlete. And then, seeing people like Chad Greenway do what he did when I was a sophomore, I always... I told Chad Greenway when I was a sophomore that I was going to beat his records. We were always competing against each other and whatever, and I was pretty decent at long and triple jump, and so I was always competing against him because those were two events he did. And I talked to him once, and I said, "Yeah, I think when I get to be a senior, I want to break your triple jump record," in state, which ended up never happening. Because it was so special, what he did.
That probably didn't score you any free Vikings tickets later on, did it?
Well, he looked at me and goes, "Well, good luck," in a kind way. I think he was thinking, "You got a chance if you work at it," but I didn't do enough.
So, all that work during the summer before your senior year, you're working out four days a week and doing a lot of running. Was there a lot of weightlifting involved in this?
In the Acceleration program there was weightlifting involved. Not enough weightlifting, looking back on it. I did some. I thought it was a lot at the time. Once I got to college, I realized what a lot was. So, I should have done more, I could have been better. So, that's what happened with weightlifting. I did a little bit of weightlifting on my own, but mostly focused on running.
Well, you have a very successful football season. You win a state title, you beat Dell Rapids St. Mary 43-13. You're the Joe Robbie MVP. You're getting through the basketball season. Are you still working on track and field during the basketball season?
No, I wasn't. Not at the time. How I approach sports, my senior season in particular, was I gave everything 100%. Every single play I was in, say I was playing football and we had to run 24 blasts on the right side, you're going through the four hole on the right side of the line, I would sprint as hard as I could, even though we're just going through the motions. I never took a play off. We would run sprints at the end of practice, and I would sprint the first sprint as hard as I could possibly go, and I'd sprint the last sprint as hard as I could possibly go. I would win the sprints right away in the beginning of practice, and then by the end, I was just with the group. So, I was killing myself in my mind running as hard as I could, and I'd do that on the basketball court, too. Whenever I would do anything, it was as hard as I could possibly go. If I was not exhausted at any point in time, I was not doing enough, is what was in my head.
So, basketball season is done and now it's track, and you have spent a year preparing for the track and field season. Triple jump, long jump, the 200 meter dash, the 100 meter dash. Those were your four events. And we will go through each one individually on that special day of the state track meet back in 2003. It was in Rapid City. But you were the only qualifier for a Tripp-Delmont. You're the only Tripp-Delmont track member. With that football team that was so good and so many great athletes, how come you were the only one that qualified for state track?
Well, our guys on the football team, and we had six all-staters. I played in nine man, so six out of the nine first team guys were from my team. Our quarterback, he didn't go out for track. Our fullback, he did. One of our linemen on the right side, Mike [Shellski 00:11:36], he did. And Brett [Mogg 00:11:38] did too, Who was an all-state defensive lineman. We were just really strong. The main reason we were so good at football, we were good athletes, good, not great. And we came to practice with a great work ethic. I've never been a team in my entire life, including my professional career, that had more focus on a goal. Our coach early in the season said, "Nobody says a bad thing about anybody else on the team."
So, we never ever talked bad about each other, we always lifted each other up, and we always focused on what we had to do to win the play, to win the game, to win the quarter. And so, our guys are good athletes, but none of them were that caliber where they could qualify for state. Our school, when we focused on track, we didn't really take it serious like we took football or basketball serious. It was like this social sport where you get out of school, you go get to meet other people from other schools, and that was the attraction of track. Running is something you just did to get out of school kind of deal.
A member of the Tripp-Delmont track squad for the boys. And going into state, there's always people out there who say, "Well, this team is the favorite. This team is going to fight to be a favorite to win the team title." Was anybody mentioning Tripp-Delmont? I don't think they were mentioning Tripp-Delmont for possibly winning a state B boys track championship.
Yeah, absolutely not. My entire high school career... I started running track in high school when I was an eighth grader. We never had won one track meet as a team, not once. So, to call us, Tripp-Delmont, a favorite to win a state title was just, nobody was thinking about that at all.
But the stars all aligned that day. Triple jump, long jump, 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, those were your four events. You scored 38 points in those four events, and it was enough to win the state track championship. You beat James Valley Christian. But let's go to each event because it is interesting how each event turned out. Let's start with the triple jump. You went 41.11. Were you the favorite in the triple jump?
I was not. So, I came in right at second, second best jump state at the time. Colt Haynes was number one in state, and he had won, I think, his junior year as well and he placed really high sophomore year in triple jump. And his brothers, he's got a family history of amazing jumpers, and so he was always the favorite. He was jumping like 44 feet something consistently. And I was jumping high 41s, low 42s. On the day, Colt Haynes, he actually scratched his first three jumps in prelims so he couldn't make finals. So, when he scratched his third jump in prelims, I knew that I had it won, so all I had to do is show up to the finals and earn a good jump.
I came in wanting to beat him. The triple jump was always my... I would consider it my worst event. And so, I wasn't expecting a first place, but I was hoping for a first place. It kind of got a gift with a Colt scratching those three times.
So, you win the triple jump, and then the long jump, you went 21.6.5. Were you the favorite in the long jump?
I can't remember. I think I was. I came in with, I think, the longest jumping state, or Colt might've jumped once further than that. But I came in, my best jump was 21 foot, five and a half. So, that one, I had to show up because I'd only jumped over 21 feet, I think, once, and I was typically high 20 foots, 20 foot 11, 20 foot eight. And so, I had to get something more out of myself if I wanted to win that day. I wanted to do something great. I wanted to go like 22 feet. Ended up doing my personal best, which is at 21.6.5 and getting that first place.
So, you win the long jump, and then besides those two field events, you have to qualify in the 100 meter and the 200 meter dashes. Let's start with a 100 meter dash. What was qualifying like for you that day?
So, in the 100 meter dash, I remember you had to do prelims and semi-finals. So, in prelims, it was early in the morning and I had ran like 11.5 in regions, which I think we were running against the wind, which for me was one of my worst times of the year. So, the previous track meet that I ran, I was not satisfied with my time and I was always looking at the state qualified leaderboards throughout the season to see where I ranked amongst everybody. I would always gauged like, were those guys running on a windy day and that's why they ran an 11.1, or not?
And so I remember Matt Angin from Castlewood being a person that would always have a really good time, and I was running against him. Came out of the blocks, and he was blowing my doors off. And I remember in my head saying, "I can't let this happen. I can't lose." And I hit another gear, and I blew by him and I ran my fastest time in the 100 meter dash that time and won my heat in prelims. And then the same thing, I kept that form in semi-finals and I ran, I think, a little bit better time in the semi-finals, where I ran my best time of the year. I think it was hand timed to 10.91, And that got me to qualify for the 100 meter finals. But I was still second place to a friend of mine, Troy Whip, who I had beat in every single race I ever raced against him, but for some reason he was doing very well.
He was on fire that week.
Yes. We was on fire. So, I was going into finals in second place.
Okay. So, you're in the finals in the 100 meter dash. And then you have to qualify in the 200 meter dash. What was the qualifying like for the 200 meter dash? Were you the favorite that year?
I can't really remember if I was the favorite. I know that I had never lost the 200 meter dash race that year to any B school kids. So, I know I had ran like a 22.7 or something. Yeah, 22.7 was my best time going into that, and I think qualifying was like 23.6 or something. And I think I was a favorite, actually, now that I'm thinking about it. And I-
So, you breeze through it to get to the finals, is that what you're saying?
Yeah. Yeah. I actually ran a really good time, and I came into the finals 200 ranked first, lane four, ready to try to win the state title the next time I run.
So, this is stuff that's happening on Friday and Saturday. So, you're doing the prelims the first day. Were you also doing the triple or the long jump that day? And what was the physical toll it took on your body knowing that you had to compete at a high level and do all these four events in two days?
It was a lot. So, I know my coach had told me that, "Do not go in the hot tub the night before." So, all I did was I stayed in my room and just thought about the next day what I was going to do, getting myself ready, trying to get sleep, trying to get good sleep. I was thinking about winning every one of those events. So, prelims, the first day, that was when triple jump finals actually were, they were on Friday. And it takes quite a bit out of you. I know I showed up on Saturday sore, really sore. And at the end of the day, I don't think I was more sore after a track meet ever. And you're sore after every single track meet. It was quite a bit.
Bring me to the... Since you're the only member of the track team of Tripp-Delmont, what are you doing with the blocks in the 100 and 200 meter dash? I mean, you have to have somebody to hold your blocks. I mean, you're the only member of the team. I mean, did you have anybody to hold the blocks for you?
Oh, that's a good question. So, Tripp-Delmont, we were close to the school of Armour, and there was a friend of ours that he was the quarterback for the Armour football team and a really good athlete. I think he started since he was a freshmen in high school as quarterback. But he made state his senior year. He was my age. Same to Eric [Deward 00:20:36]. I didn't know who was going to hold my blocks. So, Thursday I saw him, and I said, "Hey, tomorrow, if I'm running prelims, can you hold my blocks?" And he was happy to do it. And so, that was how I got somebody. Because the coaches couldn't come down and my parents couldn't come down to hold my blocks for me, so I had to find somebody kind of randomly.
I know for the 200 meter dash finals, Mike Stephan was... He's from Mount Vernon. He was a [faster 00:21:08] for Mount Vernon. I competed against him for a long time. And I had no idea who could hold my blocks for the 200 meter dash finals. It was later in the day on Saturday and Eric, I think, he was done already competing, and so I didn't have somebody. So, I just saw him, I talked to him maybe once in my life, I ran up to him, "Hey man, can you hold my blocks?"
You're talking to Mike Stephan? Mike Stephan?
Right. We competed all the time. When we played basketball, they never beat us when I was playing basketball. So, Mike Stephan, he was always two years younger than me, so he wasn't at his peak physical performances, and so I never lost to him. I played college football with him later and he's phenomenally fast, phenomenally athletic, dunk the ball like nobody's business. So, I ran up to him, I said, "Hey man, can you hold my blocks?" And he said, "Sure." And they called final call for 200 meter dash, and I'm sitting by my blocks and he's not coming. I don't know where he's at. And he shows up like probably a minute, one minute prior to the gun going off and hold them for me.
So, you're having to think about that and preparing yourself for the finals of the 200 meter dash.
Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. It was a good time.
So, you win the triple jump, you win the long jump, you win the 200 meter dash, and then it comes down to the 100 meter dash. You're, again, the lone member of Tripp-Delmont. Tell me about the 100 meter dash and how that went for the finals.
Yeah. So, like I said earlier, I was coming in second in the finals, lane five. Troy Whip was in lane four. And I actually had talked to him quite a bit earlier in the season. He actually became my college roommate. Me and him became good friends. So, we went to college together. Him and actually the guy who placed third, Adam Fritz, was also my college roommate. So, me and Adam and Troy, we all stayed together in the same house for like three or four years in college. But Troy told me later that he knew he was going to win the 100 meter dash when he was going into it, and that bothered me because-
Yeah, but you said you were confident you were going to win the 100 meter dash.
Exactly, exactly. And so, I'm going into it, I'm thinking I'm going to win this. I know I have to do. I need to have a good start. Obviously, give everything I got. And gun went off and Troy was just better at that time. I was with the pack the entire time, and I closed on Troy probably for the last maybe 15 meters, but it wasn't enough for me to get past him. He ran, I think, it was electronic time, so electronic time's always a little slower than the handheld time. He ran like an 11.08 and I ran like an 11.2 or something like that. So, he won, good for him, but I got second.
But you scored 38 points in those four events, and it was enough for you, the lone member of the Tripp-Delmont boys track team, to win the team title. What were you thinking during the track meet when the points were being scored and you saw Tripp-Delmont right there near the top for those two days?
So, I actually, I thought, "Okay, first day I scored 10 points in the long jump. That's great. I put Tripp-Delmont up there high on the board," because there's not many events that end on the first day. And the second day I wasn't really thinking about it at all. After the last event, I had finished and I had my total of 38, there were kids that were coming up to me saying, "I think you're going to win." And I had no idea. I had no idea the team totals because that's how little I was thinking about the team goal. And people were coming up to me, "You're going to win state." And it was just like, it was one of the happiest times in my life. I could not get a smile off my face.
You said that what's it like to physically go through all that stuff? That was challenging, but the thing that hurt the most was my cheeks because I was smiling so much. I couldn't stop. It was just a moment that... Unexpected. And I had people like... The fastest guy in South Dakota state history, he was coming up to me telling me, "Great job, and you deserve all that you're getting here. This is amazing." So, I'm being told by the fastest guy in South Dakota state history at the time, "Great job," and was earning his respect. It was so surreal to have that. Me and the other guys that won the finals in the 100 and the 200, we just hung out, and that's where really our friendship started, was from that day, me and Troy and Adam. And it was just a start to a lot of good things in my life.
What was going through your mind when you took that celebratory lap around the track, which typically teams that win state track titles, they run around the track for a lap to celebrate their accomplishment? What did you do and what were you feeling?
Well, yeah, I ran one of those myself.
Nobody with you?
Right. No one with me. So, I remember Rapid City Stevens, they were the dominant class AA, I think, track team, and they had like 70 people that ran around. And I watched them do it, I said, "Hey, I should probably do something like that." And I took the trophy with me, which is this pretty big thing, like 20 pounds, 15 pounds, and I was carrying that thing. And the main thing I'm thinking is, "Don't drop this because it's all you." So, I'm thinking, "This is great. I get to celebrate. I wish some of my teammates were here. I wish I had more people to share it with." But I felt awesome that I was able to do it.
Don Luton your coach? What did Don tell you? Even before the track meet in Rapid City in 2003, what did he tell you? What was his expectations for you?
He was mostly a supportive person. So, he just, "Just be yourself. Just do what you got to do." He told me, "You need to make sure you get rust so that you're prepared for the next day." Didn't really talk about too much like strategy or anything. Just go out there and do your stuff. I had always during track in high school, or in my senior year, I worked excessively hard to get to that moment. I'd go to track practice, run the whole hour and a half track practice of exercising, and then I would go and lift weights. He came up with weightlifting program, nobody else in the weight room. And then I would drive to parks in South Dakota, run on their track, and I'd run two track meets every day.
And I did that seven days a week. So, I never took a day off. And so, coming into the track, he said, "It'd be really good for you to get at least one day or two days of rest." And I think that's why I hit my personal best, is because I finally actually gave my muscle some rest time. I didn't try to improve prior to the state meet there. And that wasn't a big deal, I think, for me, was getting those couple of days of rest.
Do you have a nickname for being one of the only guy's that has won a state track team title all by himself? I was trying to think of one. I couldn't come up with one.
No. It's fun when people bring it up at work or something. I don't talk about it often, or ever, unless somebody else brings it up. And somebody will bring it up... Yeah, I don't really have a nickname, but they always say, "We got a famous guy in the room." And nobody has any idea.. It's always fun to see people that I've been working with for like three years, "What? I had no idea." Or I had an interview like two years ago where it was about the same topic and my in-laws had zero clue that I had been this great track athlete, even though I played college football, even though I played... I could do pretty well in just about any sport I played. If I'd play softball, I do really well. If I'd play basketball...
But I didn't talk about it at all. And my parents don't bring it up. We're just happy to be together when we're together. And I'm nobody special is the way I think about things. And so, when they heard about it, it was so nice to have people that I respect so much realize, "Wow, you did something great." And it was fun to see like my mother-in-law react to that. She was an athlete when she was in high school, and I think she really liked the fact that I did all this stuff.
How come it's never been done since? I can see it happening maybe in class B. Pretty tough to do it in class A and AA. But how come it hasn't been done since?
I think it's just you got to have the stars line. I mean, Jesse Haynes, I know when he was a senior, he scored 40 points. He wasn't the only person to go from his school. But the fact that to get only one person to qualify, I think that's rare. Right? To have only one person from your school qualify. And then when teams go, you got relays that you can score points on, you got good individual guys you can score points with. So, to get more than 38 points for a good track team, it's not that hard. I mean, Troy Whip, actually, his school only brought two people and he got second my senior year. So, he actually scored like 30 some points. Placed in first in the 100, he got first in the 400, I think, and then he got a second in the 200 to me.
James Valley Christian only had two athletes that year, and they scored 33 points that year.
Right. So, it's rare for there to be that little of... like that distributed of talent, I guess, across the events, to have one person be able to claim the team title. So, I think the events must've been spread across for a lot of teams. I think it was Freeman. Either Freeman or Marian would have beat me as the team title if they had not false started on the 4x4 relay. They were going to win the four by four relay, they were coming in number one, and if they would have just ran, just been able to start the race, they would have scored 10 points and they would have overtaken me, I believe. And they ended up false starting, and I was able to get the points.
And then, also, Plankington White Lake, those guys that year, the previous year, they had Tyler Cook, Colt Haynes, one other guy that was extremely fast, and they just wiped the floor with everybody. Colt Haynes won the long jump and triple jump. Tyler Cook, I think, won the 400 and 200. And then they also won the 4x1, the 4x2, and the 4x4. They just crushed everybody. And Tyler Cook, was always thinking about him when I was training throughout the year. I was thinking, "I'm going to be racing against him in the finals." And he was the person I was thinking about beating, trying to beat. And he pulled his hamstring in the first, I think, first or second track meet of the year, and he just never was the same sense.
And Colt, he had jumped some amazing jumps, he actually beat Chad Greenway when he was a sophomore in high school and Chad Greenway was a senior, at the state meet to win state. I think Colt jumped over 22 feet. So, for him to jump like under 21.6, that's a rare thing. But he had done that all year. I think it was just an off year for him. He went on to college, and I think he was jumping 23s, 24s. Amazing things, amazing jumps.
And yeah, so with Plankinton White Lake, having those two guys not... I mean, Colt got second in the long jump. It was just like there was all these things that had to happen for me to have this performance where I worked hard for that thing. So, I did this great work, and these guys faltered. We had injuries, we had people false start, and I was like, "Thank you, God. I appreciate this amazing thing that I was able to do. I think that's a very rare circumstance. That's why it's not done in the way that I did it, I guess.
A very successful senior year. You're the Joe Robbie MVP as Tripp-Delmont beat Dell Rapids St Mary's in football, and then he wins the 2003 state track team title all by himself, the lone member of Tripp-Delmont. We're talking with Justin Horn. I think you're an engineer now, you work for 3M, you live in Minnesota. What did your preparation in sports in high school, what did that do for you in preparing yourself... I know you went to college and played football at SDSU, but at least on the high school level, what did that do to prepare you when it came to getting a job later on in life?
Yeah. That is a phenomenal question. That actually. That track season has shaped me for the rest of my life. So, the dedication I put in and what I was able to do, to me, has shown me what a person can do, what I could do. I was always a smaller person my whole life. I was always one of the fastest, I could always jump the best. Never the strongest. But I always had the idea that I was going to be the hardest worker. And maybe not the most mentally tough guy, but I was trying to be the most mentally tough. But any punishment you'd put in front of me, I was going to get it done. I was going to do it to the best of my ability.
With track at my senior season, I wanted to have zero regrets going out of that thing. If I want this, I'm going to go after it. And I went after it from a plan from the day basketball was over, I started running. We went to the state tournament to watch the other guys who made it to state tournament. We lost to Mitchell Christian in regions, who ended up winning the state title. And we were watching state basketball in Aberdeen. And I was running the streets in the morning before the rest of the guys I went there with woke up. I also didn't do anything when it came to drinking alcohol or smoking or chewing or anything like that. I knew that that would get in my way for the things I wanted to accomplish.
And I was going to school, I come home, I'd get home probably at like 7:00 o'clock, 8:00 o'clock at night after three or four hours of working out, and then I do homework from 7:00 to 10:00. And I did that every single day. And I was getting these results, these amazing results of every single track meet I went to I didn't lose anything. I was the MVP of each track meet that I went to. I would get a plaque or whatever.
And it showed me what I'm capable of. And I took that focus going into college, because engineering school is really, really hard. You got to go to class for six to eight hours a day, and then you got six to eight hours of studying after that every day. And that kind of grind is really hard, and it's nonstop for four to six years, whatever, however long it takes you to get through it. At the same time, you have to separate yourself from your peers to show that you're the person that that business wants to hire. So, it's not only that you got to do good in class, you also have to show that all-star out of the group to be hired at the job you want to be hired at. They're not just going to take anybody that has an engineering degree, and so that's the thing that I thought about.
I was smart. I'm smart, I guess, but it was more of my hard work that got me to that point where I could consider intelligent. I was never the smartest in my class. I would do well on tests, but I was never the best. And there were other guys, it was an amazement to me how they could just pay attention, be calm, hardly do the homework, it looked like they weren't putting in any effort. I would put in triple the amount of time, and they would come out with a better grade on the test. So, what I thought for myself is, "What do I have to do to separate myself from these guys?" So, the only thing that I know how to do is work harder.
And I would find jobs to do that would show not only am I decent in school, I can perform in the workplace. And so, I would get jobs from working for Daktronics in the summer, working for a professor of mine, as often as I could during the school year. What I would try to do to show that it was good enough. And then when it came to that time to get that a job interview where you're going to try and get that job, I prepared, just like I did for track.
I sat down three, four days before my interview and I went onto YouTube, I watched like what are types of questions you're going to get on the interview? And I would write down what the example was, and then I'd write down my potential answer to this thing. And then I'd correct my answer. And I'd rehearse, then, my answers prior to going into the interview. And so, when I went into the interview, it was like I'd done it before, and that's what allowed me to get a job. I had 10 interviews prior to the one interview that landed me a job, and it felt like I was failing they didn't feel good. I didn't prepare like I should have.
So, all of this helped me get that job. And then, then, it's just like here's more evidence of the stuff you did when you were in high school and how it works, and I've taken that kind of same approach when it comes to approaching my job. Having that high school team, the state championship team that we were on, we'd never say anything bad about each other, we always lifted each other up, and are always looking for the other person to work hard. And if that other person doesn't work hard, in a polite way, you communicate, "Hey, we can do better." And that kind of attitude has really helped me succeed in my job. We've had some teams where we were not cohesive, and it's been great to see the teams that I'm a part of are succeeding in such ways that like our high school football team did. And it's been that track season, that high school football team is what shaped me and my way of thinking about the world that has allowed me to have what I would consider a pretty successful life so far.
Last one here for you, Justin. Your most prized piece of memorabilia you have from 2003. You couldn't take the trophy with you even though you won it all by yourself.
Yeah. There's a few that I can think of that I really enjoy. I mean, I probably have a few that I would like to mention. The number one would be the outstanding track man for state track. You get awarded that. I really enjoyed the all-star football game that I attended, meeting the best college football players in the state.
I have a plaque from that thing, and that's a memory I'll always enjoy, seeing those guys, being a part of that group, and doing well with that. I really like my high school football jersey. It was always a trophy of ours to see if we could rip our shoulders up. With the harder hits you can get, you can rip your jersey. Like Brett Mogg was one of the all-state defensive ends, and he could hit anybody so hard so he had the best rips on his jersey.
Well, this time in life, you just want to get into your jersey now. That would be great.
Yeah. Yeah. If you could only keep that athletic ability, man, it'd be awesome.