Cerritos College athletes find themselves in a battle of sorts. Trying to find the balance between team practices and regular school work is no easy feat.
Sophomore Ricky Carrigan Jr. has not only found a balance, he has found a way to stand out from the rest.
The versatile Carrigan plays wide receiver on the football team and participates in the long jump and triple jump events for the track and field team. Carrigan is a weapon on the football field and garners praise from his head coach, Frank Mazzotta.
“He could be special,” Mazzotta said of Carrigan. “He has the potential to be the best we ever had.”
Sophomore quarterback Cody Clements feels that Carrigan is a good teammate. “He’s a good guy. He plays his role well,” Clements said.
Most of his teammates share that same mentality and all sound praise when speaking about him.
Carrigan suffered a slight ankle injury during a football game against Pasadena City College earlier this month. He claimed that although he is not able to put 100 percent of his weight on it yet, he is strong enough to work through it.
Although football was his sport of choice, he decided to give track a chance at the urging of his high school coach. Even though he did not want to run, Carrigan participated in the long jump event at the Cal State relays.
Carrigan claimed he did OK on the long jump, but he decided on the spot to try out for the triple jump.
“I didn’t know what it was at first,” Carrigan said, “but I decided to give it a try. My teammates quickly explained what it was to me and I looked up videos on Youtube.”
After failing to jump correctly on his first two attempts, he was able to clear it on the third. It wasn’t until he was back at school the next week that he found out he had placed second in the state and set Cerritos College’s triple jump distance record.
Carrigan continues to work hard to help his teams (the football team and track and field team) win and his athletic ability has drawn the attention of multiple Division One football programs such as Iowa State University.
Carrigan said he has an idea of where he wants to transfer, but remains set that his goals are to win a state championship with both the football and the track team for Cerritos College.
