By Jim Hague
After a successful track and field career as a sprinter at Irvington High School, Kimoy Connell initially wanted to continue her running ways at Rutgers-Newark.
“Rutgers-Newark was my first choice,” said Connell, who said her unique first name is fairly common in Jamaica, but she never realized the origin of her name and why she has it. “I wanted to run in college and wanted to go to Rutgers.”
But the academic gods weren’t kind to Connell. She was not accepted by the school, so she had to choose an alternate route.
“I was very disappointed,” Connell said. “In fact, I was pretty devastated. I knew I wanted to run track and I wanted to go to Rutgers-Newark.”
R-N head track and field coach Juan Edney recruited Connell out of high school.
“But she couldn’t get in,” Edney said.
Michael Agyei, a standout middle distance runner for the Scarlet Raiders, was one of Connell’s teammates at Irvington High. Agyei suggested to Connell that she could attend another school, get good grades there, and then transfer to R-N, provided her credits would transfer.
“I just had to stay focused and on top of my grades,” said Connell, who enrolled in nearby Bloomfield College for a semester in order to gain acceptance into Rutgers-Newark.
“She told some people on the team that she was coming back,” Edney said. “A lot of them don’t come back to us once they go somewhere else. I’m used to it by now. I don’t get bent out of shape over it. She said she was coming back, so when she came back, we were very happy to have her. She did things the right way.”
Connell remembers the phone call she made to her mother when she received the Rutgers-Newark acceptance letter.
“The minute I got the letter, I called my mom,” Connell said. “I started crying on the phone. That’s how happy I was.”
Edney was just as happy having Connell on the Scarlet Raiders’ roster.
“We’re trying to build the women’s team up and every year, we keep getting a little better,” Edney said. “The (participation) numbers have gone up. Kimoy came to us and became one of our top sprinters.”
During the indoor season, Connell will compete in the 60-meter dash, the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter run.
“She’s more of a 200 and 400 runner,” Edney said. “We have her compete in the 60 to help with her foot speed and getting out of the blocks, which seems to be her problem. Once she gets going, she’s pretty good.”
With every one of his runners, Edney has them compete in cross country during the fall months to help with their stamina and endurance. If a runner can handle the rigors of running five miles regularly, then a 200-meter sprint should be a walk in the park.
“As it turned out, she was one of our better cross country runners,” Edney said. “She was either our No. 2 or No. 3 all year. At the NJAC championships, she had a bad asthma attack, but she just kept running. She now has an inhaler that helps her to breathe when she runs.”
Edney said that Connell kept the inhaler with her at all times during cross country jaunts, but it’s going to be a little harder for a sprinter to have the inhaler in her possession when running.
“Running cross country helped me a whole lot,” Connell said. “It helped me with my endurance. I feel like I’m a better runner now.”
Edney believes that Connell is a star waiting to blossom.
“I think Kimoy has the potential, but she’s just inconsistent,” Edney said. “I think she thinks too much. She focuses on other things at meets, when she should do what we work on in practice. She second guesses things and over-thinks things. Instead of doing what she does in training, she does something else. It all depends on which Kimoy is going to show up for the meets.”
Connell agrees with her coach’s assessment.
“He does yell at me a lot, but I don’t take it to heart,” Connell said. “I know he wants what’s best for me. I know he’s right. Sometimes, I have my good days and then I have my bad ones. I’m not consistent. I know that. I know he’s looking out for me.”
Connell is happy to be where she belongs.
“I really like it here,” Connell said. “I like the people and I like the environment. It’s like a big, happy family.”
Edney likes Connell’s personality.
“She’s basically a quiet kid,” Edney said. “She can act silly and have fun. But I told her that she has the ability to lead by example. We have a lot of young girls on the team who will look to her. I’ve put her in the position where she can talk to the younger ones. She doesn’t have to coach them. Just talk. I think if I nudge her, she can do it.”
Edney said Connell’s biggest foe right now isn’t the clock or any other runner in the NJAC.
“Right now, everything is about her confidence,” Edney said. “If she has confidence, then who knows how fast she can run or how far she can go.”
The Scarlet Raiders open the indoor season Dec. 5 at the New Ocean Breeze facility on Staten Island.
“Hopefully, we can get her to quality for nationals in the sprints and some relays,” Edney said. “She has been putting in the work in the weight room and running. She can be one of the top sprinters around.”
Now a junior, Connell is majoring in criminal justice at R-N.
“I’d actually like to work someday helping juveniles,” Connell said. “To me, kids are the easiest to deal with. They tend to listen more.”
Connell is excited about the coming indoor season.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Connell said. “It should be a great season.”
