Jonathan Almonte to join former track coach

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

With his former coach already at Webber International University, the decision to accept a track grant to the Babson Park institution was an easy one, Osceola High’s Jonathan Almonte said.

Webber assistant track coach David Andrews led the Osceola program for several season before moving to Webber last year.

“It does make it a more comfortable situation to have your coach there,” Almonte, a hurdler, said during a signing ceremony at the Kowboys gym last week.

Andrews sees potential in the athlete that he trained while he was at OHS.

“We’ve got a good group of 15-second guys (in the 110-meter high hurdles) coming in. That will help him, and he’s going to be a lot better in the 400 when we get him up there,” Andrews said.

Almonte never ran the hurdles before arriving at OHS as a freshman, but it didn’t take Andrews, then the OHS boys coach, long to determine where he would compete.

“I told him he was a hurdler,” Andrews said. “He was one of those typical guys who wanted to try everything, but I said, ‘No. You’re a hurdler.’”

Andrews knew what he was doing. Almonte took to the sport quickly.

“It’s a hard sport. It is the hardest event in track,” he said. “But, even the first time I ran it, I never fell.”

Almonte said he almost always comes out of the blocks first.

“My best feature is my start. It’s explosive. I had the perfect start at one meet (the Kowboys Invitational), but I got flagged for a false start,” Almonte said. “The guy in the lane next to me looked at me and said, ‘What was that about?’ It was good.’”

Osceola assistant coach Ron Austin, who works with the hurdlers, agrees that Almonte has a knack for timing the start right.

“He does. He has the perfect start. He somehow knows how to time it just right,” Austin said. “He was already over the first hurdle and getting ready to go over the second one when they stopped him.”

Now, Almonte’s task will be to maintain the lead as he goes down the course. His high school best times of 16 seconds at 110 meters and 43 seconds at 400 meters are good, but not competitive with elite hurdlers.

Almonte said his love of the sport will inspire him to improve.

“I’ve never been intimidated about running the hurdles. I’ve always attacked them. I dominate them,” he said. “There is a feeling that you have at the start of the race, when you are standing there, looking out over every obstacle, that is exciting. There is an intensity, a passion I have for the sport. I love it.”

His mother, Zenida Hernandez; his aunt, Liz Martinez; his uncle Ralph Martinez and cousins Marcos Muniz and Ashton Bell joined the celebration.

Almonte said he will study business at Webber, with the goal of starting his own company.