Belleville West’s TJ Cason makes record jump fueled by memory of his mother

He is the new Belleville West school record-holder in the long jump.

His basketball skills are good enough that he’s already received two Division I offers, and he’s still just a junior.

Life is good right now for TJ Cason, but the pain of his mother’s death from cancer last year is a stark reminder that the things that matter most have nothing to do with records and accolades.

“What really drives me and keeps me going every day is my mom. She always fought for me and wanted to be there for me,” said Cason, 17. Tryphena Cason died last summer of cancer at 46, leaving behind her husband, Edward, and two other children, along with T.J.

Whenever he has a tough day — which any teenager has, regardless of family situation — T.J. thinks of his mother and what she would say if she were still here.

“She would just say to do the very best I could do, no matter what, so I want to always do that,” Cason said.

At a recent track meet at O’Fallon High School, Cason set the Belleville West school record with a long jump of 23 feet, 9 inches.

At 6-foot-3 with a wiry build and blazing speed, Cason has the kind of body perfect for the long jump. He is still a ways from challenging the IHSA state record of 25.25 feet, set by Ja’Mari Ward for Cahokia in 2015, and much further still from the world record of 29 feet, 4.25 inches set by Mike Powell in 1991.

Cason wants that state record, though, and not only does his coach, Alonzo Nelson, think it’s possible, but so does Nelson’s wife — six-time IHSA state champion and 2008 Olympic 100-meter hurdles gold medalist Dawn Harper-Nelson.

“I told T.J. this yesterday; I said the only problem he’s going to have is the ceiling that he puts on himself,” said Harper-Nelson, who starred at East St. Louis before finding world acclaim in Beijing in 2008. “Because, me and (Alonzo) absolutely do not have one on him.

“The athletes that we have, that I truly believe are like a different type of gifted, and he’s one of those. What we really want to pour into him is, it’s really going to be up to him. But I just can’t wait, because we believe in him.”

Alonzo Nelson said he and his wife soon will be contacting their friend and mentor, three-time Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee, about Cason, along with two of Nelson’s friends — Olympic gold medalists Willie Clay and Dwight Phillips — to help mentor Cason.

Here’s the thing: Cason may not even pursue a career in the long jump. He was a strong contributor to Belleville West’s 21-10 basketball team, averaging 9.5 points a game — with projections he could double that, at least, his senior year. With a tremendous vertical leap already, Cason was known to throw down windmill dunks for the Maroons, and he said he has received offers from Missouri State and the Southern Illinois University.

When asked what he thinks he’ll be doing athletically in college, Cason says, “I’m going to have to think on that a while.”

To have such prominent track and field mentors believing in him, though, Cason might be better served pursuing the long jump in his future. He also is a top performer for Belleville West’s relay teams.

More than anything, Alonzo Nelson says Cason already has shown he can leap over some serious hurdles thrown at him.

“I call TJ, ‘nephew.’ I’m extremely close to his dad. I ran track with him at East St. Louis. We’re all coaching him and guiding him together,” Nelson said. “I think it’s super impressive that, you know, TJ has experienced this kind of heartache and tragedy, and he’s thriving. Most kids who experience tragedy like that, that’s the end of them. I couldn’t imagine being a sophomore in high school and losing my mom. I don’t think I bounce back from that. But TJ has done the exact opposite of that. That’s a testament to how well his parents raised him.”

Cason transferred to Belleville West from O’Fallon after his sophomore year, explaining thusly: “It was really because of basketball and track. The coaches at O’Fallon really don‘t care about track. They don’t coach, for real, they just let us do what we want, basically. There wasn’t no training for me, so I wanted to go some place where I could actually improve. I was already jumping real good as a freshman, and if I actually got proper training, I knew I’d be real good at it. So, I came to West for that.”

While Cason said his father is a strong role model in his life, the biggest of all, he has come to think of Alonzo Nelson and his wife as another set of surrogate parents, in a way.

But memories of his mother are always there.

“She always wanted the best for me, and to go as far as possible,” Cason said. “So, that’s what I will do.”